So Battletome: Sons of Behemat is incoming: prices have been leaked, and we’re starting to see rules over on the Community page. I will say a few words about pricing at the end, but that’s not the main thrust of this article; what we’re looking at today is what alternatives are out there.

As always, I want to point out that this website is entirely non-commercial. I don’t get any kickbacks, and I’ve received no free product, discounts or incentives for showcasing these minis.

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Why Bother?

Look at him. He’s epic! Why wouldn’t you just buy the GW model? Well you certainly can, and a lot of people will. But there are a lot of reasons why you might want to explore what else is out there:

Budget

The Mega Gargants are pushing new frontiers in pricing for individual models. You may or may not thinnk they are worth it, but either way, most of the options that I will explore here today are cheaper – and often substantially cheaper. So for gamers on a budget, it’s worth exploring alternatives.

Better Sculpts

Wait, didn’t you just say the Mega Gargants were epic? Well yeah, but they’re only half the army. Based on the GH20 Pitched Battle profiles, at least half the models you include will be Mancrushers (the current Aleguzzler kit), which is about 15 years old and at best divisive. I actually quite like the kit, but I recognise that I’m in a small minority, and there are plenty of other Giants out there that are at least as good, and probably better.

We Don’t Need To Go Nuclear

This isn’t all or nothing. You don’t need to lurch from one extreme (nothing but nothing but Citadel) to the other (an entire army of 3rd-party models). In the real world, people will mix and match.

You might buy one Mega Gargant kit, and after assembling it, use some of the bling and bits in the kit to decorate the other two 3rd-party models.

You might already own a couple of Aleguzzlers, and rather than buying another bundle of two (and ending up with a spare), you buy a 3rd party Giant to make up minimum Battleline.

One thing I would caution against here is muddying the waters: you definitely want clear daylight between your Megas and your babies. I wouldn’t be mixing short Megas and tall babies to end up with grey areas. But if you avoid that pitfall, you can engineer yourself an army that looks epic on the tabletop, in all its eclectic glory.

A Word on Scaling

I’m going to assume we all know how big an Aleguzzler is now. There are quite a few photos of Mega Gargants up against other models out there, and they seem to be on a 130mm base (not the full 160mm pie plate), and stand around 18cm to 20cm tall (he actually looks like he’ll come in shorter than a Bonegrinder). This isn’t precise, but it should give you some context for what’s to follow.

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Mierce Miniatures

Let’s start off with a bang, by looking at perhaps the greatest resin specialists in the game. Mierce provides a fantastic range of miniatures: I’ve bought a few myself over the years, and have always been delighted with the quality. The resin is crisp, clean and a delight to work with: if your sole experience of resin is the train wreck that is Finecast, I would advise against letting that put you off superior resin, which this is.

Safe to say that Mierce’s price points are premium, but if you sign up for their email list, they have regular, heavy discounts. And get this: currently, they have a whole section of their website devoted to Giants and Giant-adjacent models, all at half price until midnight GMT on Monday. This offer is also limited to 10 of each model, so if you’re interested you might want to act on that.

All of these models can be found at the link below:

Mierce Giants Offer

Release the Kraaken!

Would you take a look at that! This cheeky sausage fills up his 120mm base, so I’d be happy to run him as a Kraken-eater on an official base. He could even serve a sneaky dual-purpose as an alternative Idoneth Turtle if you wanted to go down that path too.

GBP 59.99 on promotion, so exactly half of a Mega Gargant. I think I’m in love.

Big, Big Toys for Big, Big Boys

There are a whole range of XXL giants on here, all based on the same frame; above we see Old Bill and Gomagg, and on the link above you can also find Papworth and Borruk.

The latter is a giant orc variant, and I actually bought his head to stick on a Bonegrinder:

Standing around 180mm tall to the top of their weapons, these boys are suitable chonky and fit the aesthetic very well indeed.

Again, at GBP 59.99 they are half the price of the Mega Gargants; and better still, Australian customers don’t get charged a special premium.

Mierce will charge you actual price at the actual exchange rate plus the actual postage, which comes in around one-third of the anticipated price GW will charge in the Australian market ($108 for the Mierce Giants versus $320 for the GW model).

Verdict: Fantastic, premium-quality Big Boys at a competitive price

Mierce have nailed it. Their models are sensational, and their current promo is bang on the money.

I’m not gonna lie, I’m tempted.

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Mantic Miniatures

Mantic, publishers of Kings of War, have a really sweet plastic Giant in their range:

Thanks to Hobby Heroes for this size comparison: they’ve done a full review of this kit, which you can check out on their blog:

http://thehobbyheroes.blogspot.com/2018/11/mantic-games-giant-review.html

As you can see above, there’s clear daylight between him and the Mancrusher. Given that the Mega Gargants look like they’ll also come in smaller than a Bonergrinder, I’d be more than happy to put this guy on the table – he looks like he’ll compare very nicely to the GW Mega Gargant model for scale.

You can pick this rude boy up for USD $39.99 over at Mantic’s website, which is a bargain for such an imposing figure. Worth noting that the kit comes with two heads, of which I much prefer the bearded version as modelled by Hobby Heroes above.

Mantic also have a resin Frost Giant which, according to their website, stands almost 18cm tall:

This one comes in at a very reasonable USD 59.99, and of course you wouldn’t have to paint him blue. He could just as easily be flesh-coloured in any tone that suits your army.

Verdict: Solid, substitute Megas at a real bargain price

Both of these models look excellent, and I’m particularly keen on the plastic Giant. I could definitely see myself taking a huge chunk out of the total cost of the army by picking up one of these guys to put in the mix – and by using some of the spare bits from a Mega kit, you could quite easily make these fit any of the three roles.

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Reaper Minis

Reaper have a whole host of Giants in their range. As you can see from this photo by Decker, they tend to scale pretty well with the Mancrusher:

https://www.reapermini.com/search/Giant

Bearing in mind that these guys are standing barefoot on the ground, by the time you put them up on a base they will fit just fine. Coming in at or just below the size of a Mancrusher is just the right place to be; you don’t actually want them to be taller, because then their height profile would start encroaching on the Mega’s turf, especially if your 3rd-party Big Boys are slightly smaller than GW’s.

Best of all, they come in below USD $20, which is seriously good value.

Verdict: Decent, budget stand-ins for the Baby Giants

You could run a heap of these if you wanted, but where they work for me personally is that I already own two Aleguzzlers. I don’t particularly want four, so rather than buying a double-pack and being left with a spare to offload, I could see myself grabbing one of these to make up minimum 3x Battleline at a real bargain price.

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Gale Force Nine

GF9 produces a range of minis for Dungeons and Dragons, including some cool Giants. BOLS have done a write-up on the Frost Giant Reaver; it’s a cool model, but that quoted height of 5.5″ is potentially a problem. That translates to around 14cm, which falls betwixt and between the two GW scales, potentially breaking the clear delineation between your Megas and your Mancrushers:

You can pick this guy up for just AUD $59 at Mighty Ape, which is truly a snip, but I wouldn’t personally want to commit without seeing them side by side with the GW range first.

One more thing to note in the GF9 space is that they have a very old-school Hill Giant:

You can pick this one up for AUD $49 at Mighty Ape. I don’t think the aesthetic matches AOS at all, but if you have a couple of old school Giants that you are wanting to expand into an army and get back on the tabletop, then this could fit the bill.

Verdict: Good models in their own way, but probably not what we’re looking for here

These models are good sculpts at good prices (I actually really like the Hill Giant for what he is); but between the scaling and the aesthetic, they might not be my first choice for a Sons of Behemat army.

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Food for Thought: 3D Printing

I’m certainly not going to pretend to be the expert on this subject – because I’m not – but Ranzani in the SOB WhatsApp group has put me onto a very cool stl file that is worth a second look:

https://www.cometlordminiatures.ca/collections/huge-miniatures/products/krom-the-crusher

A high-quality 3D printer is certainly a big investment, but when we’re talking AUD $320 per model for the new Megas, the payback could start to stack up – and then you own the asset.

You would need to do your own research on before jumping in – but if it’s something you’ve been considering for a while, now could be the time.

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A Word on the Pricing

As mentioned at the start of the article, the price point for these models breaks new ground – the strong rumours are that we’re looking at AUD $320 for a Mega (GBP 120), and AUD $210 for a bundle of two Mancrushers. I’m not actually that shocked about the pricing for the Megas – it is a little higher than I thought it would be, which is a blow, but not a deal-breaker for me personally.

In the context of the overall price point of buying an army, it comes out OK but not great. You would hope an elite army would be an affordable buy-in, which Stonehorns for example certainly are, but even at this price point the total cost is broadly in line with other recent releases – more than OBR, less than LRL.

What I find harder to justify is the pricing on the Mancrushers. For starters, I don’t like being forced to buy them in bundles of two. That feels like you’re being actively screwed in an army-building context where lots of people will want to run 3 as minimum Battleline (and which the Pitched Battle profile encourages). Instead, you’re compelled to buy at least 4 in order to run the army legally, and that’s just grubby.

Furthermore, the sticker price on these Walletcrushers is a bitter pill to swallow. I can handle paying top dollar on a brand-new, cutting-edge kit like the Mega Gargant; but the Walletcrushers are around 15 years old, and that’s why it feels like a blatant cash grab.

In Australian terms, we’re currently paying $83 RRP for one Gargant, but based on leaked pricing we’re looking at $210 for a bundle of two. That’s over 2.5 times the cost of buying them individually, which quite frankly feels like a piss take.

Other countries seem to be getting a very slim discount for being forced to buy them in double packs: but even then, when Aleguzzlers were sold in an Allies twin pack 3 years ago, they were GBP 45 for two. Jamming the price up to GBP 75 in such a short timescale, for an old kit, leaves a sour taste.

As a GW fan, the pricing decisions on the Mancrushers are the part I’m struggling to justify. Is it the end of the world? No, but it does feel sordid and exploitative.

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So there you have it! Quite a few options there for anyone who wants to get on board with an army of Giants but either likes the eclectic look on the tabletop (a proper rabble can actually be more thematic for Destruction than bland coherency), or just wants to save themselves a few bucks.

I’m personally very keen on the Mierce models and that’s where I’m looking to invest. If I’ve missed any beauties, please let me know either in the comments here or on Twitter, and until next time: May Gork bring you strength, may Mork bring you wisdom.