I thought I would pick up the first issue of Mortal Realms to see what it was like.
At £2.99 it is undeniably good value for what you get and what you get is:
3 push fit Sequitors in pre-coloured plastic
Three 40.0mm diorama style pre-coloured bases
10 push fit Chainrasps in pre-coloured plastic
Ten 25.0mm plain black slotta bases
A 12” decorated range rule
Six white dice
A 28.5cm X 22.0cm battle mat
A poster
A twenty two page magazine
A 59.0cm X 28.5cm map of Shyish that has information about Nagash & Sigmar on its reverse side
I started this by saying ‘it is undeniably good value’, but thinking about it that is only true if I take into account the cost of the sprues when bought separately. This cost would not be a consideration if I were one of the novices that GW is trying to attract.
Personally, without considering the cost of the individual sprues I still consider this issue to be good value just based on the amount of stuff that is included. I do not need to know anything about GW to realise that the items included are worth more than £2.99.
On Warhammer Community it says:
Whether you’re a seasoned veteran looking for a new challenge, or a complete novice who wants to start playing the world’s best fantasy miniatures game, look out for issue 1 in your local Warhammer store or newsagents –
By selling Mortal Realms in newsagents I imagine that GW is trying to entice new customers to buy into Warhammer, but I am not sure that Mortal Realms does enough to make this happen.
By supplying models on sprues I believe that they have limited the type of person that will buy this type of release. That is, because the models have to be removed from a sprue, and because cutters aren’t included unless you subscribe, I believe it limits its customer base to people that already have a modelling background.
I would much prefer that cutters had been included in this first issue to widen the customer base.
Failing that and as the models are push fit I think they should have considered supplying the models in the first issue pre-assembled or loose and including a voucher for a free pair of cutters from your local GW.
This approach would have had the added benefit of getting the ‘new’ starts into a GW store.
I think that the bases in my issue 1 would also stop a complete novice from enjoying this release. As you can see from the picture below the quality of the bases is poor and they would need a little work before a model could be fixed to them. From looking at another site I know that this problem isn’t a one off.
Also I am not happy that my magazine has fallen apart at its first opening. The pages of the magazine come pre-punched to suit a binder and as such the pages are designed to be easily removed from the magazine. Until I have binder I would rather that my magazine stayed in one piece.
I like the small battle mat and I like the models. I also like the three detailed bases.
