Strategies Games Lab - Close Quarter Battle assortment review Close Quarter Battle is a game of modern, cinematic combat, with operatives heading off around the world on secret missions to take down drug cartels and other criminals. Such a game calls for action movie-inspired, larger-than-life miniatures, and Strategies Games Lab are proving they’ve got the resin casts for the job with their third wave of releases. It’s a varied bunch of characters and ‘grunts’ but what connects them (besides the game world they reside in) is that they are all cast in thermoplastic resin. This increasingly common production method remains somewhat divisive, making for detailed but slightly bendy figures that can be more difficult to clean than standard resin casts but, on the upside, are more likely to bounce (rather than snap/shatter) if dropped. Happily, these are good-quality casts, and the material shows off the sculpts well, as you can see in the raw resin photos here. The scale’s a bit of an unusual one, with figures measuring approximately 30mm to their eyeline. This may be a tactical decision on the part of Strategies Games Lab, to have their range somewhere between the more common 28mm and 32mm scales, thus working in both. What’s a couple of millimetres between friends (or sworn Operative and Cartel member enemies)? With the varied poses, the scale didn’t strike us as problematic when mixing ranges. Echo and Foxtrot The Operatives are known by their codenames and are perhaps the most interesting element of the range. Each Operative pack includes three figures of the same character, in varied poses, which fits the ‘cinematic’ goal of the game brilliantly and gives gamers and painters plenty of options. Echo looks something like a James Bond-type agent, confident and rather suave, with minimal military ‘flash’ present and practical poses. The prone figure observing Cartel goings-on is our favourite here. Foxtrot is rather more like a nimble videogame character, and she looks equally capable with ranged or close-quarters takedowns. If you want cinematic, one version of Foxtrot even has the Marvel movies’ ‘just landed like Black Widow’ pose! These are quite the bargain too at £13 for a set (£4.33 each) of well-sculpted and good-quality character figures. Military and Rebels While the Operatives have some parts to be glued on, they don’t come with build options, unlike the Military and Rebels sets, which can have variation aplenty. You’ll be able to build three figures from each pack but thanks to extra options in each, and the fact that bits can be used across the sets, there’s far more variety available here. Armed with assault rifles and confidence, these grunt-level fighters still have a good bit of detail and character
