Alternate Games Workshop Models: Avatars of War

Today my shipment from Slaves to Painting of Avatars of War products arrived. With the upcoming release of a new Dwarf army book (march, or so the rumors say) i thought it would be a good idea to start a dwarf army that has been at the concept stage for quite some time. And what with my recent boycott of all Game Workshop models, i decided it would be a good idea to try out the Avatars of War Dwarf range.

Now this Dwarf army is a themed one, the theme being Unbreakable, sorry, Slayers. Yes i have wanted to do a Dwarf slayer army ever since i learned about the slayers, and the AOW Dwarf Bezerker range is a excellent substitute for the dull GW metal slayers. Now a quick note before i go on, this post will be comparing GW products to AOW products to give you a better idea of what both companies offer (not that regular readers will need to be reminded of what GW offers).


The first thing that i noticed about the AOW Dwarf Bezerker box set was that the box itself was smaller, even though it contained more models than its GW equivalent.

Box size, a small but important detail

The AOW Dwarf slayer box contains components to make 20 Dwarf slayers, and costs $60 where as the Empire state trooper box contains components to make 10 State troopers and costs $45.90 (all prices taken from Slave to Painting webstore).  Sprue wise the AOW sprue has far, far more customization options, allowing the molder to assemble the slayers in a variety of different ways. The models are slightly limited in terms of legs and waists, these components only come in one pose.

The Basic Sprue

Command Sprue

All the sprues together. Perhaps upside down

The Components for a slayer off the sprue,and upside down. Just turn you head

On the GW side of the field customization is non existent . You cannot pose the empire state troops in any meaningful way. The legs and arms are all set in the same way and the only way to get different poses is to get the modeling knife and green stuff out.

Command Sprue

Basic Sprue

The Components for a state trooper off the sprue,and upside down. Its GWs fault really

Below are images of the completed models and side by side comparisons.

So in review the AOW Dwarf Bezerker box set has more models, has better quality models in terms in customisation and is cheaper per model than GW's box set. The only thing holding AOW back is their limited model range, they currently only have unit boxes for Chaos and Dwarfs but have a large range of hero models for almost every warhammer fantasy race.
 
Now i have stated several times, in various comment sections of many blogs, that i want AOW to take off and become as big as GW, i want them to become a real competitor and challenge GW. So i would ask anyone that wants to buy fantasy models to take a look at them. I linked their website at the start of the post and i will do so again here. So take a look, give em a go, their prices are very reasonable and the models are good quality. Until next time.
Rex