Heroes - unevilling the science zombies to rehappy the world
So here we have our heroes. "Where there are Nazi evil zombies so heroes shall arise and smite them mightily" as it might say in the Bible if you move the letters around.
Here in Reichbusters when there is something strange in the neighbour-hood - who you gonna call? These chaps and chapesses apparently. Straight from the pages of Victor, Battle and Warlord comics - staples for Baby Boomers and probably partly responsible for Brexit xenophobia!
There are two lots of heroes in RB, the core set and the stretch box heroes. Core box heroes are the 6 below.
Leading the charge is Brick, presumably sur-named sh@@house as he is a big boy. Big enough to fire Vickers machine guns one handed. This would be a tricky operation at the best of times but these Vickers appear to be firing what look like 20mm cannon shells rather than standard ammunition. Still as only has enough for about a 3 second burst from each gun he might just pull it off!
Next is Claudine who is short only of a bicycle and some onions to show how French she is. She is equipped with a Sten and a massive silencer for quieter sub machine gunning and has a massive back pack full of Gitanes I presume...
Quentin is the next guy and I assume he is some sort of sneaky back stabbing silent death assassin and Tory. He is equipped with a bow some knives and a length of rope for silent work and a couple of grenades for when the silent stuff goes wrong. I suppose he could be French as Quentin is a French name as well as a Tory name.
From the USA we have Sarge, which coincidentally seems to be his rank. Sarge is loaded for bear with shotgun and Thompson sub machine gun. None of these are quiet so I'm guessing he isn't paired with Quentin or Claudine.
Lastly we have our Soviet friend who apparently as one of the numberless Soviet masses doesn't get a name just Red Hawk. This is an interesting figure as although you cant see in the photo her face is scarred like the baddy in the Judge Dredd movie and the scarring is paintable with washes.
Though here you can see once enlarged horribly...
Finally in the core there is what looks like a revived autopsy called O'Reilly. Looks like there is some back story here as has a vril thing on his back and has definitely been dead recently but has got better and is doing a Thor impersonation.
Stretch goal minis
First of the stretch box heroes is Hans, very much the token good German, a bit like James Mason in many post war films. Hans is armed with a Panzerschreck anti tank rocket launcher which was a ferocious weapon feared by Allied tankers for its penetrative power. It was famously though a weapon which required two men to use as the firer could not physically load it without setting it down, inserting the rocket at the back, attaching the electrical wires needed for firing, picking it up without accidentally setting it off , then aim and fire. Simples.
In addition being a rocket device the back blast made it less than ideal for interior use unless you wanted burned skin! Apart from that though ideal for skulking around in spooky castles.
Another Germanic looking character doing a John Woo 2 handed action shoot is Remmy. Not sure what the back story is here as name sounds French like Remy, but clearly in German uniform. Is Remmy an inside job working undercover? Is he the barman from Allo Allo? Or is he just rubbish at balancing on things?
Tane is an ancient Polynesian God according to Google and in RB is a shirtless Haka guy with a big knife. Straightforward mini with the opportunity to paint lots of tattoos should you wish. I just stuck to some nice face tats as that's where your eye is naturally drawn so most impact there.
Bochka looks like a Soviet Tanker and is a nice pose chilling on a barrel. Looks like he has some augmentation to his arms and I assume he is the getaway driver if the getaway is a T-34... Like all the heroes he has a mix of Allied and German equipment such as canteens and gas mask cases which must be a design decision as part of the background I assume.
Flamin Joe is bringing the arsonist to the party. This again is a design decision I think but from the Game design as having seen the horde type enemy the party will face I imagine a flamethrower is really useful a lot of the time.
So no prizes for guessing which one in the picture is the Nordic berserker....yep Bjorn. Complete with axe and pistol. In game terms I reckon he is probably a fire and forget close combat monster. All he lacks is shield to gnaw on then throw away classic viking Bersark style.
At the opposite extreme we have the cool and lovely Irina from the Polish Army. she is an elegant figure and presumably deadly with pistols as she is in the process of giving something a 'no look' death shot like Xavi making a killer pass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yuEt7GzbiU&t=238s
The brains of the outfit and the inevitable boffin is Prof. A female figure with an enormous backpack full of techie stuff I imagine. Or shoes if she is like my wife.
Joking aside its good to see lots of games nowadays giving female characters roles which don't require bikini armour and long legs.
I wonder if this is because improved manufacturing techniques allow female faces to be cast so that it is no longer necessary to show a figure is female by sculpting an enormous bikini/bust. Infinity figures are particularly good at faces but even here the face is clearly female as with all the RB females.
Kulbir is a sort of Indian Army/ Gurkha/ British Paratroop amalgam. A good figure but not really stand out. I assume he is a bit of a n all rounder in game terms.
Another USA figure here is Brad, another close combat guy I suspect as he has knife, grenades and pistol. Also a sergeant like the eponymously named Sarge.
Last of our heroic heroes is Doc. Every party needs some healing I imagine although to be honest a French Foreign Legion doctor with a bone saw and a pistol probably lacks a bit of bedside manner. Unless its actually your death bed.
That's the lot that I've found/painted so far. In the art book there is a sort of slightly daft looking girl mini in shorts and USMC gear but i'm yet to find her so maybe she was dropped from the final production after the art work was done.
More RB to come soon with the rest of the evildom.