Search
Review of Freebooter's Fate 2019 miniature releases: Quetcholli, Plague Doctor, Tripolo, Tossica, Fonogra, Arquebusiere #1, Callado, Fury
Blurb from the publisher: 'The flamingo is her totem. Quetcholli has learned a lot from it - with powerful wing beats it almost looks as if she would run over the water surface and thus rushes to the unsuspecting opponent. Quetcholli is an Amazon specialist.
Actually, he's a healer. Always has been. However, whether unintentionally or deliberately, he brings serious illnesses to the people he wants to helps and remains unharmed himself. How is that possible? What twisted powers does he posses? The Plague Doctor is a Brotherhood specialist.
'I don't give a damn / I will smite you in two / do not flee at three!' A truly fateful number runs through his whole being. Tripolo is a Brotherhood specialist.
Tossica is a merciless hunter, who is often hired by money lenders to politely remind offending debtors that there is still a certain amount left. The task gives her special pleasure. Tossica is a Brotherhood specialist.
This fairing is as simple as it is effective; Fonogra simply painted an old bag with purple paint and pulled it over her legs. The effect is enormous; all the goblins are even more enthusiastic when she sings. Only the hairy ones seem a little... undecided? Fonogra is a Goblin specialist.
Reinforcements arrived. A bit demoralized, but soon they will be ready to stand against the enemies. Arquebusiers are deckhands for the Imperial Armada.
Callado stands out with his well-fitting hairstyle, light tan and his top fashionable clothing style. A MWP like out of a picture book. If he then throws himself into the hustle and bustle of the Ironball with loud screams, then even the first impression passes away and one could almost pay him respect. Callado is a specialist for the Imperial Armada.
Never call her little! Even though her 'cotton swab' looks very soft and fluffy, Fury is very skillful in handling it and it really hurts you! Fury is a Pirate specialist.'
What you get: The present review examines a selection of the new releases that came out for the seven crews of Freebooter's Fate between the end of 2018 and the end of 2019 (or almost).
This is thus an 'artificial' review in that these products are not thematically linked to one another. The sets are sold separately and there is no prerequisite in buying one before buying the other. The only thing that unites them is that they were not released by the time the previous Freebotter's Fate review was out. It is reminded that the game currently transitions from its first to its second edition. The latter has been already published in German, and is expected to come out in English within 2020.
After each product's code and name, I indicate the miniatures, their crew(s), their in-game cost in doubloons, how many parts each package includes, and its actual cost in real life.
ΑΜΑ025 Quetcholli - Amazons - Specialist - 70 - 3 parts - EUR 11,90
ASS027 Plague Doctor - Brotherhood - Specialist - 60 - 3 parts - EUR 11,90
ASS029 Tripolo - Brotherhood - Specialist - 80 - 4 parts - EUR 11,90
ASS030 Tossica - Brotherhood - Specialist - 75 - 3 parts - EUR 11,90
GOB032 Fonogra - Goblin Pirates - Specialist - 45 - 3 parts - EUR 15,50
IMP001 Arquebusiere #1 - Imperial Armada - Deckhands - 50 each - 2 minis, 7 parts - EUR 15,50
IMP030 Callado - Imperial Armada - Specialist - 65 - 3 parts - EUR 11,90
PIR034 Fury - Pirates - Specialist - 50 - 3 parts - EUR 11,90
As usual, there is no shadow reviewing here; Freebooter Miniatures graciously provided all the aforementioned products for me to playtest.
In addition to the metal parts and plastic bases, each product contains also the unit's or units' card(s) for fast reference. Just like the cards in the previous products of Freebooter's Fate, the cards describing the statistics of each unit come at a standard 63 x 91 size and can be easily sleeved. All miniatures are metal and come unassembled and unpainted.
Quecholli's garments are ceremonial and to our eyes they might even look like a carnival costume. Her two heavy daggers mean business however, seeing how she is practically amphibian. She is a Ranger and ignores all difficult terrain. She can carry a charge up to three times her movement, ignoring difficult terrain while doing so. The more she travels, the more her bonuses increase. Even more so, she can do this above water. She can swim without penalties, she cannot sink, and does not incur penalties when fighting in 'deep' terrain.
The Plague Doctor only has a sabre to defend himself in close combat. Yet everybody who touches base with him, his allies included, become infected and must pay one blood immediately. An infected mini will keep bleeding at the end of its active phase, when it heals however the infection will disappear. If that was not enough, the Plague Doctor regenerates one life, while he also has the Indestructible trait. Good luck throwing him out of the game.
Tripolo looks statuesque and he is a mighty mini indeed. For every three vitality that he loses however, he also starts losing his traits. His heightened awareness will go first, then his attractiveness, and finally his fearsomeness. The character is not large, he has however three values per attribute. Upon the third critical hit Tripolo can be taken out, irrespective of where each hit landed.
Tossica looks like a performance artist in the middle of an endearing dance. That's exactly what's dangerous about her, if you don't pay attention to her poison-coated claws. She fights in melee only, dealing an extra three damage with her poison. She is immune to poison herself, she is a loner, and she does not allow her opponents to react to her actions. Her raking blow ability grants her attack bonuses, provided her arms have not suffered any critical hits.
Fonogra is ...a siren with a phonograph's loudspeaker in the place of her tale? She looks cute yet devious, and the serving suggestion of painting her pink makes her even more dangerous. She increases the morale of her comrades, while her opponents within the rather enormous 20 cm radius pick up the 'loner' trait, meaning they can no longer use his leader's morale value, cannot be given an order, and cannot be rallied with a rallying cry. Fonogra is a Coward however, and can use either her leader's morale or rely on her comrades that are near her. Do not expect her to fight in ranged combat. If it comes to worst, she will fight whoever comes in front of her with her knife and her, ahem, loudspeaker.
The Arquebusiere #1 are the new design when it comes to Imperial deckhands. This is a socially responsible game, thus one is a man while the other is a woman. Each is depicted in a different pose and both of them seem relaxed, this however does not mean that they are not deadly. Both of them can fight in either ranged combat or melee; the arquebus works wonders as a club. Just don't expect anything fancy from them. They do not have any special abilities at all.
Callado is an angry, angry man. In some ways it is hard to believe that he belongs to the Armada and not another faction. The concept behind him is based on mobility, thus he fights in melee battles only. He is an Entrenador, and can either gain a serious movement bonus for the entire game, or hand it to every single deckhand of the same type in his crew. He is also a catcher, and can intercept a cannonball with his full movement instead of a fate card. He also has dodge, that however was to be expected.
Fury's name and appearance do not match, seeing how she is simultaneously one of the cutest, most athletic, and overall sexiest minis in the line. A young girl, she holds a ramrod that looks conspicuously like an earbud while playfully stepping upon an ironball. She is a gunner, and can thus fire artillery pieces. She likes to frontally brutalize her opponents, seeing how she can hit them all simultaneously with her whirlwind attack. She may or may not carry a gunner's quadrant, an item that allows her to alter either the direction of the volley or its deviation.
The strong points: Freebooter's Fate is no Warhammer, and I mean that in a very positive sense: its miniatures don't become outdated just because the edition changed. Thus, the angry Callado and the the Plague Doctor, both first edition miniatures, can play happily with all the second edition miniatures that were playtested in this review. The recipe behind the swelling of the ranks is well-understood by now: gameplay must remain cohesive and the faction should be predominantly good in the thing it is known for. However, there will be nominal adjustments in what certain miniatures can do, and how a miniature can add value when combined with other ones. I liked a lot of the new characters. Callado is a runner, especially if you play Ironball. The Plague Doctor is the guy that you want running and touching all your opponents, and especially those who cannot fire from range. Expect him to be targeted like there is no tomorrow. Tosica's poison is deadly in the short term, not the long one. She should also be used in hit and run tactics. I like Tripolo as a sculpt, even though it takes some time to get used to how he plays and how his strengths diminish over time. Fonogra is clearly a support character. Protect her well, and you will find yourself outperforming your opponent in everything that is related to morale. I saved however the best for last: if you field the Amazons, Quecholli is Commando, Terminator and Predator fused in one. She is straightforward, she doesn't care about terrain, she charges where others can barely walk. If you play on busy maps, you want to consider having her in your crew.
Once again, both the ideas behind the sculpts as well as the sculpts themselves are fantastic. There are three different sculptors and one can distinguish the styles. For the quirkiness factor alone, I would choose Fonogra as my favourite sculpt. She looks great great, and will work wonders in other whimsical and surreal games. If you are into pin-up girl aesthetics on the other hand, Fury and her earbud-like ramrod could easily win the best pop art character award.
I haven't finished treating all the miniatures, but up to now they behaved very well to my clumsy cleaning, cutting, priming, partial gluing and partial painting (with all the intermediary steps). As much as there is still work to do in a few of them, there is zero flash on the figures. I simply washed them and they were good to go. Interlocking pieces also worked without issues; filing has been minimal.
The weak points: The obvious thing first: Freebooter's Fate is a miniatures wargame, not a ready-to-play boardgame. Each miniature needs assembly (often requiring just a bit of work for components to better fit), priming, painting and what have you. All these miniatures are sold separately, so there might be the inconsequential disappointment if your vendor sells a few but not all of them and you wanted to build you crew in one go.
There are typos and omissions in the cards, and I do find this disappointing. Even if the random typo and silly omission (like the emblem of battle missing from a mini's stats) don't matter, the fact that in the game's second edition the cards do not distinguish between Special Actions and Traits is an issue. Every Special Action and Trait a miniature has is dumped in the same space in alphabetical order. That wouldn't have been a problem if the effects of each were reproduced on the back side of the card. Yet, they are not. In other words, not all the Special Actions and Traits are explained on the card itself. Even worse, a beginning player has to search for the missing ones in two different places in the current bare bones rulebook. This is dreadful card engineering. Putting all special aspects on the card seriously reduces both the learning curve as well as page-flipping. Here, page flipping is increased because one doesn't even know which chapter to look at. Setting aside the number of Special Actions and Traits the cards bother to explain, the reason behind what gets omitted is not a gaming consideration but sheer lack of space.
At some point in the game the reference cards have changed format and no longer have rounded corners. Probably nobody on his right mind cares about this, I admit however that I liked them more when they were rounded. It helps them look new for a much longer time, no matter how much they are used. Sleeving them all obviously mitigates the problem.
The English edition of the full rulebook has not been published yet. Thus, if you are interested in the background of these particular characters you will be left scratching your head. Patience; the second edition rulebook should be out shortly.
Conclusion: I am very happy to see Freebooter's Fate market new miniatures even during the transition between the two rulesets. All minis can be used with any ruleset anyway. Their character and style ensure that they can found their place in your battles or dioramas.
To find out more about the 2019 releases of Freebooter's Fate, visit its website at http://www.freebooterminiatures.de.
Shameless plug: for more gaming news and content (including, for example, pictures of the 2019 releases of Freebooter's Fate that I am unfortunately not able to upload on RPG.net for the time being), and to better keep track of my reviews, subscribe to my Antonios S facebook and twitter page.
