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Could someone please list all Fantasy Battle starter sets that were released in the past? I'm particularly interested in those that came with actual miniatures in the box.

4e I believe was High Elves vs. Goblins.
Afaik, it had High Elf Spearmen and Archers vs. Goblin Spearmen and Archers, all plastic monopose.

5e was Brets vs. Lizardmen. (I started with this one)
Plastic Saurus and Skinks and Bret Knights and Peasant Archers

6e was Empire vs. Orcs.
Orcs with 2 hand weapons, orc archers and an orc chariot vs. Empire Handgunners, Swordsmen and knights? And a cannon?

7e was Goblins vs. Dwarves.
Goblin Spearmen, Goblin Archers (All Night Goblins) a Shaman, a Warlord, Spider Riders and a Common Troll.

Dwarf Warriors, Dwarf Miners, Handgunners, a Cannon, an Engineer and a Lord.

Also came with a shaman's tent, a mine cart with pony and some walls for scenery. And cool objective markers. (This is the core of my Dwarf and Goblin armies!)

8e was High Elves vs. Skaven.
Skaven Clanrats with spears and without, a warpfire thrower, a plague mortar, a warlord, 2 rat ogres with a handler, a warlock engineer. High Elf Swordmasters, Seaguard, Elyrian Reavers, a hero on a Griffon and a Mage.

I've bought all of these since 5th edition at least once

 Da Boss wrote:
4e I believe was High Elves vs. Goblins.
Afaik, it had High Elf Spearmen and Archers vs. Goblin Spearmen and Archers, all plastic monopose.

And cardboard cutouts for a rock lobba, grom the paunch, eltharion and a repeater bolt thrower

The 6e definitely had a cannon. I've managed to keep the thing in one piece somehow, in spite of everything. I think it might have had halberdiers instead of swordsmen, though? Or maybe it was an option.

I'm fairly sure 6th ed had spearmen.

That makes sense, I've got some old spearmen lying around, and they're pretty simple boxed set style models.

Man, I still remember how sharp those goblin spears were back in 4e.

 argonak wrote:
Man, I still remember how sharp those goblin spears were back in 4e.

I agree... had a buddy reach across the table, yelled and lifted up his arm..
He had a nice pattern of red marks on the bottom of his arm and about three goblins were still stuck..

I remember trying to file off the chainmail on one of the high elf archers, sculpting a terrible hood from milliput, and gluing pistols into his hands in an attempt to convert a redemptionist for necromunda. Ruined so many good models back then (looking at you valhallans...)

Thanks guys, that's very helpful. Looks like I have a bunch of lizardmen and skinks from the 5th ed set, they are all monopose and to be frank, quite ugly. Also got some of the Bretonnian horsemen, which aren't too bad actually. I had a bunch of the Orcs from the 6th ed set, which I promptly converted to 40k with sluggas and shootas.

Looking at the starters, you can really see that Battle For Skull Pass was the peak of GW starter sets. Such an awesome set, I bought two and got the guts of two full armies for bargain prices.

It's nice to see photos of all the boxes in one place. Yes, the Skull Pass set looks delicious indeed. You get a really nice composition of armies as well I think, for example out of two boxes the Goblins get 4 regiments of spearmen, with 2 regiments of archers and "cavalry" each. Makes for a very nice, traditional battle line. Plus a couple of heavies thrown in.

Man that 6th Edition Starter set. I built my Empire army on that set...

Also explains why I have 60 Handgunners lying around...

Stll have those cardboard buildings from the Bretonian set somewhere

 Da Boss wrote:
Looking at the starters, you can really see that Battle For Skull Pass was the peak of GW starter sets. Such an awesome set, I bought two and got the guts of two full armies for bargain prices.

Back then a lot of people complained on the new dwarf aesthetic (smaller weapons, slightly more proportioned overall) and the smaller gobbos (the previous multipart plastic kit looks huge next to the tiny BfSP gobbos) but I agree it probably was the sweet spot.

IoB had some amazing sculpts, the elf stuff was just awesome despite being single pose, the problem was the unit choice. Only ellyrian reavers saw some play during 8th (though both seaguard and swordmasters are great to play in 9th age).

I picked it up for a KoW Elf army, so I'm happy enough. I just wish the units were a little bit bigger or something- 10 of each kind of elf seems a bit small! Lovely sculpts though.

I love the smaller sculpts for BFSP. they paint up really nicely too.

Yeah when 8th edition dropped my Local game store put up their remaining BFSP set for 50 bucks. I mostly grabbed it for the extra goblins but man does it have some nice extras.

I can even use the silly mining cart for AoS!

 Commodus Leitdorf wrote:


I can even use the silly mining cart for AoS!

Both the cart and the gobbo tent make for very decent unit fillers for big units.

Holy dang, I just found... a part of the building that came with the 6e set on the garage floor.

It's... probably not salvagable.

I wish I had been into the game when the bret one was around. Always loved those colorful knights.

My High Elves army at the moment consists of the guys from the 4th edition box (Well, I replaced the card standees with actual models for Eltharion and the bolt thrower ) and the Island of Blood box. Those twenty-year-old spearmen and archers are still vastly superior to the ones that have just been discontinued.

Even with 3/5 featuring greenskins and 2/5 featuring high elves, the sets still managed decent army variety on the whole. The 5th edition set is a bit of an oddball as far as classical matchups go but for some reason I have a soft spot for those particular saurus warriors.

I'll also always have some love for the Empire. There's just something about them that really works for me, you know? It's simply right and proper that you can march them out against orcs and dwarves and other such things. One of my favourite little fluff pieces is the part in the 6th edition rule book where an Imperial historian shares the tale of how the high elves came invading one day but had their dragons blasted out of the sky by cannon batteries. That kind of thing isn't too common in fantasy.

5th edition had those armies because they were both brand-new miniatures ranges (neither Bretonnians nor Slann/Lizardmen had an army book in 4th edition).

I have 16 of those Bretonnian knights and I think they still look pretty darn good. The Saurus Warriors and Skins on the other hand, I don't like at all, they look pretty ridiculous. I can't motivate myself to paint even one of them. :-)

I still would recommend any of these over the AOS starter set for an actual beginner mainly because they could assist them in learning the ropes instead of making them feel inept because the AOS models over complicatednesss is too advanced for a 'starter' come on GW the clue is literally in the name 'STARTER set'

Hands up who bought every one of these sets (and multiples of some thereof). Some great memories, I loved the set with the Brettonnians as it led to the release of so many great miniatures.

Rosebuddy wrote:
Even with 3/5 featuring greenskins and 2/5 featuring high elves, the sets still managed decent army variety on the whole. The 5th edition set is a bit of an oddball as far as classical matchups go but for some reason I have a soft spot for those particular saurus warriors.

I'll also always have some love for the Empire. There's just something about them that really works for me, you know? It's simply right and proper that you can march them out against orcs and dwarves and other such things. One of my favourite little fluff pieces is the part in the 6th edition rule book where an Imperial historian shares the tale of how the high elves came invading one day but had their dragons blasted out of the sky by cannon batteries. That kind of thing isn't too common in fantasy.

Agreed, the Empire is one of the best "standard humans" factions in fantasy as a whole IMO, there was so much mileage in that fusion of HRE history and European folklore with a wee sprinkle of steampunk and magic on top.

I didn't get all of them, the first was before my time, but I've bought and split all the subsequent ones except IoB which I ebayed loads of Skaven from. Those Bretonnians were my first proper army, and I still have a couple of the Empire & Dwarf sprues lying about - I do wish I'd got more while they were still reasonably priced though, I'd love to be able to do whole regiments of those 6th Ed Handgunners and Spearmen, and the BFSP gobbos were incredible value for money and had some really fun character sculpts.

If you wanty any of these sets look on German ebay. A lot of localised sets were made, and a lot unused. They get listed from time to time and at prices far lower than seen in english language auctions.

 Orlanth wrote:
If you wanty any of these sets look on German ebay. A lot of localised sets were made, and a lot unused. They get listed from time to time and at prices far lower than seen in english language auctions.

Ohh, thanks for the tip. What were the names of the boxes in German, are they a google translate job or more like a Dreadnoughts > Cybots affair?

Warhammer.

The game name itself isnt translated. Just look for the main boxsets. I picked up three 6th edition boxsets for a very low price, to make an O&G army this was about three years ago.

I do expect prices to have gone up as the entire range is discontinued, unavoidable, but I still expect it to be lower than UK prices for same. As with anything on eBay when they price is wrong wrong wait around until it is not.