The Old World: Ellyrian Reavers – The Goonhammer Review

While the release of Warhammer: The Old World happened a little over a year ago the one thing we haven’t really had a lot of from Games Workshop is new plastic kits. All the Arcane Journals have been accompanied by a handful of new models alongside a bucket load of old plastic, metal and Forgeworld Resin kits, but outside of the Bretonnian Lord/BsB, Foot Knights of the Realm and the Tomb King Bone Dragon, we haven’t had any new plastic kits. The High Elf Realm release does shake this up a little bit with what is effectively a new plastic kit in the form of the Ellyrian Reavers. 

Thank you to Games Workshop for sending out this kit so we could give you a firsthand review of what they’re like to put together and what notes they’re trying to hit with this newest plastic kit release for Warhammer: The Old World.

This kit looks to hit the sweet spot of staying faithful to the old design of the Reavers which were last seen in the Island of Blood kit at the start of 8th edition and some new Games Workshop technology which has been developed in the 15 years since that box came out. The good news is that if that was their goal they’ve certainly achieved that target. 

Spread over a large double sprue and a single smaller one you find all the parts needed to build five Ellyrian Reavers armed with a mixture of bows and spears, along with all the parts you need to equip them with all the normal command options. These sprues are then doubled up into the box giving you the option to build up to 10 of these fine warriors. 

Please see the pictures below of the sprues, and once I’d built five warriors (including Command) what was left on the sprues and what that looks like parts-wise.      

I think the main bits here to take away are that the kit gives you what you need, but not a a lot more than that. Each of those parts replaces the command specific parts and allows you to end up with 8 unique models out of a box of 10, which is pretty decent in my view, especially for something which looks perfect alongside the old Island of Blood Kit. On which, I imagine that people will want to know how alike they actually look?

The new one is on the left and the old on the right. As you can see the new one is slightly more defined, has some additional detail like arrows, quivers and more delicate tassels and gems handing from the horse. The tail is also stronger when built and hopefully they’ll be far more sturdy compared to the old ones which had a habit of snapping (just like ever other horse tail) where it meets the body. Despite all of that, from 3ft away on the gaming table they’ll fit in really well if you’ve already got painted units you want to add a few more models to. 

The other thing to pay real attention to is that the way the models go together feels like old Warhammer models. They’re not fully mono pose in the same way a lot of the new kits are but they do have spaces for things to go and as long as you build around those limitations then you’ll be able to mix this kit with the Spearmen, Archers, Sisters/Shadow Warriors kits and even the plastic Mage and Commander sets. They’re all the same scale and all have the joins in the right places. 

Of course the last thing to really show is what they look like painted by someone who’s an average painter at best. So below is my finished unit of five with full command. They might be seeing the tabletop soon once I can get that book to the FLGS and get these new models to the gaming night. 

In summary I did enjoy the kit, they felt like a little bit of a throwback compared to the more complicated kits of the modern day Games Workshop but at the same time still really hold true to the engineering principals Games Workshop pride themselves on with the sprues and the kits themselves. If you wanted a nice little hobby project they’d be a perfect little pick up and something you could knock out over a few evenings if you want to.

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