I’ve always been a fan of Reaper’s vast line of excellent fantasy miniatures, having bought several to represent my PC in various D&D campaigns I’ve been dragged into involved with over the years. So when in the course of scouting undead minis for my upcoming zompocalypse campaign I discovered that they also produced an interesting line of Egyptian-themed minis for their Warlord game, I decided I had to get my hands on some.

Fortunately for me, Warlord never really caught on in Louisville, so I was able to score an army box for the Nefsokar (Ancient Egyptian) faction at my FLGS at a hefty discount. Thanks, Colin!

Inside the box I found nine Awakened (generic mummies) with a total of three different poses, fetching female mystic Netikerti with her odd tiny demon spellbook caddy, and the awesome warlord Kufu. It’s an impressive amount of metal, which makes sense since it was intended to form the core of a wargaming army. The sizable number of figs offers a lot of options to RPG GMs, who can now unleash an entire team of ancient revenants on their adventurers instead of just one or two.

The nine “grunts” are just what you’d expect from classic “monster movie” style mummies. They’re wrapped head-to-toe in bandages that have unraveled just enough to expose their eyes, mouths, and a bit of embalmed flesh here and there. The sculpting on the bandages is impressively detailed and looks terrific with just a minimum inking job on top of a basic coat of off-white.

The perfectionist in me wishes that there were more than three poses, since with fewer minis on the RPG tabletop duplicates tend to stand out more than they do with a wargame. Also, in an ideal world I wouldn’t have wanted nine of these guys anyway, since that’s an awful lot of mummies. None of this griping is directed at Reaper, since the set was assembled for wargaming and not RPG usage, but as an RPG-centric writer I thought it worth mentioning.

Next we have the (once) lovely sorceress Netikerti. She is adorned with jewels and an elaborate headdress, and her torso wrappings have come away to reveal that those clever ancient Egyptians invented the bikini some thousands of years before Jacques Heim. Her anatomy is impressive, suggesting great beauty now withered by centuries in the tomb. I especially like the pose, which suggests that she has just removed her deathmask to reveal the ruins of her true face, still mostly hidden behind her wrappings. It’s an interesting and dynamic pose, which can be hard to come up with for a figure that doesn’t have a weapon or other prop to be gesturing with.

Netikerti is accompanied by her strange little demonic-looking familiar whose job is evidently to just to tote her spellbook. If you’re ever looking for an easy way to identify evil spellcaster, using demons as menial servants is a dead giveaway. Demon and book are both smallish, but the same level of attention to detail is very evident in his horns and arms wrappings, and on the cover and pages of the book.

Finally we have our star, the warlord Kufu. Resplendent in his intricate scorpion helmet and jeweled neckpiece, he wields two massive weapons with an expression of utter rage on his face. I would NOT want to be an adventurer on this cat’s bad side. His weapons are perhaps a bit oversized, but I suppose you have to give him credit for the overwhelming strength commonly attributed to mummies. There is an unfortunate mold line running right across his face that required some delicate file work to clean up, but that was virtually the only filing I had to do on the whole set, which is fairly impressive.

Kufu fulfills his major role. He looks like a serious badass on the tabletop, and you can out him in a crowd of allies and flunkies and nobody will wonder who the Big Bad is. You don’t have to tell your players he’s a big wheel and a battlefield leader, they’ll know just by looking. I really like that.

After acquiring the set I discovered quite by accident that each of the character models has a pretty impressive chunk of backstory associated with them from Warlord, which is available from Reaper’s website. This makes them almost pre-written NPCs that can be dropped into most any campaign as quickly as the GM can draft some game stats. This can be both a time-saver and a rich font of inspiration for story ideas. I actually rewrote the whole third act of my campaign plan based in part on these minis. [Note to my players: ignore that last sentence]

This is an impressive set of minis. They evoke the faded glory of an ancient culture while not being cartoony or cliché. Their anatomy and poses are right on, which I’ve come to expect from Reaper. The cost is a little more than I’m used to paying ($50 if you buy the minis in separate blisters now that this army box is OOP), but it’s not greatly out of line considering the quality of the figs. The biggest problem may be finding them at retail, given the sadly limited market penetration of Warlord. They’re readily available online, but as always you should try your FLGS first.

Pros: Impressive detail, Good action poses, Very characterful, Detailed backstories

Cons: Somewhat Expensive, Can be hard to find, Nine mummies is a lot if you don’t play Warlord

Final Verdict: 4/5

MSRP: $39.95 (cover price, but now OOP), Now $39.95 for nine “grunts,” $4.95 for Netikerti and Kufu

Maker: Reaper

Popularity: 22% [?]

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