Unboxing ‘The Praetorian’ – DreadBall Season 3 MvP

I have played DreadBall for a solid year now. With a steady supply of new toys coming from the DreadBall Kickstarter, I had no need to actually buy any DreadBall miniatures the old-fashioned way (as far as ordering from an online-store can be considered “old-fashioned”).

With Christmas closing in, I treated myself to a new MvP (complete with a professional Mini Brush Studio paint job): DreadBall’s Season 3 Asterian MvP – the Praetorian.

Reason enough to take a brief look at what you get from Mantic Games, should you shop with them outside of Kickstarter….

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#1 – The DreadBall Praetorian Unboxed

First impression: A plastic blister (which seems fairly large for this particular miniature, though Mantic Games obviously has larger miniatures in their DreadBall range) with a picture on the front (and the Praetorian’s role as a Striker), as well as a gazillion of flyers for the various games from Mantic (see the very top picture).

Opening the blister, I received my first-ever Mantic Point… Hurray!… and the miniature itself, along with a clear hex base (which is not in the picture above).

The miniature itself is sprueless plastic. Given that this is a Season 3 MvP, it was made from the (IMO nicer) slightly darker Restic used for many of the DreadBall Season 3 miniatures.

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#2 – The Praetorian MvP on the DreadBall Pitch

To be honest, I never managed to get DreadBall’s MvP system working in a “balanced” fashion. Most MvPs are stupendously good for their base point-cost,  and I have yet to see the recommended auction system work, at least not without lots of heavy-handed moderation.

Mostly, I only play MvPs during “MvP vs. MvP one-off matches”, and ignore MvPs in leagues.

That said, even among the many wicked MvPs, the Praetorian is a beast.

• A Striker with Movement 6 and Skill 3+, he’ll be scoring (and scoring, and scoring) as long as your opponent doesn’t shut him down.

• The latter is just a bit harder, as the Praetorian comes with Can’t Feel A Thing, a skill usually reserved for Guards (though I believe Speed 3+ Strikers are tougher still, but I haven’t done the math).

• Furthermore, he has A Safe Pair of Hands, allowing him to catch those inaccurate passes without a problem (Skill 3+ too, remember!). It’s a godsend skill for an MvP working with teams such as Marauders, who lack good passing players.

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#3 – The Praetorian Painted

Finally, here is the Praetorian MvP fully assembled and painted for me by Tom from Mini Brush Studio over in Warwick. I love what he’s done for this miniature!

I can’t wait to get this Praetorian on the table!

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#4 – Thoughts?

I haven’t been writing a lot about DreadBall recently, mostly because I had less time to play it than I would’ve wanted over the past month or two.

I definitely plan to give my teams a bit more action again in 2014!

• Have you picked up any DreadBall MvPs recently (Season 3 or not)?
• How do you use the DreadBall MvPs, if at all?
• Which DreadBall MvP is your current favourite?

Leave a comment!

Z.