In August of 2000, Wizards of the Coast revived the popular table-top role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons. The game was reintroduced to the world with a new, third edition that made the game easier to play, easier to understand, and more flexible then previous editions.

One major difference between third edition Dungeons and Dragons and prior editions was the near-requirement of tokens or miniatures to represent characters and monsters during battle simulations. These were helpful in prior editions, but with the new rules, they became a necessity for most gamers.

For many, many years, metal miniatures have been developed by different companies for use in strategic table top war-games through fantasy table-top games. Not only are metal miniatures great for game-play they have become a hobby unto themselves. The downside to metal miniatures, though, is that many require assembly and almost all require painting. Plus, with a steep price, not every gamer could have a large collection.

Wizards of the Coast decided to enter the miniatures market with a brand of official Dungeons and Dragons metal miniatures created for a game called Chainmail. Chainmail suffered, though, from not being enough like Dungeons and Dragons as a game. Combine that with strong competition in the metal miniatures market and Chainmail became defunct.

WizKids then created a game using plastic, pre-painted miniatures with randomized packaging, called MageKnight. MageKnight was a fun table-top battle simulation between monsters and men, and had attractive figures. Many Dungeons and Dragons players, who weren’t into the metal miniatures, began buying MageKnight figures not only for MageKnight, but also to use with Dungeons and Dragons. While the figures weren’t the exact right size for the game, they made a good substitution for metal miniatures and were much cheaper.

By 2003, Wizards of the Coast had joined the MageKnight mentality: pre-painted, randomly distributed plastic miniatures. Harbinger, the first set of official Wizards of the Coast licensed Dungeons and Dragons miniatures, was released in October of 2003. The miniatures were size between 40mm and 65mm, perfect for Dungeons and Dragons. They were released in a starter set and then in booster packs. Harbinger introduced not just miniatures, but a game similar to Dungeons and Dragons designed for quick, table-top battles between two opposing warbands. This game was called the Skirmish game.

Skirmish

Like many miniatures games, skirmish is played by building a “warband” of several creatures or characters (represented by minis) and using them to defeat your opponent’s warband. Each mini is worth a certain point-value based on the abilities and powers of that mini. During each round a player activates two minis that can move, attack, or use their special abilities during their turn round. Attacks and effects are calculated using the 20-sided dice and the rules in the rulebook and listed on each character’s card.

The Starter Set (or entry pack) included:
1 Checklist for the Harbinger Set
1 Basic “Skirmish Rules” Rulebook
1 set of Damage Counters
1 twenty-sided die.
1 Terrain map (fold-out) battle-grid
8 Terrain tiles (2 assembly tiles, 6 feature tiles)
16 Randomized miniatures with black and white statistic cards.
(1 rare, 5 uncommon and 10 common minis)

The checklist is a nice way to see the entire set, listed by game faction with checkboxes and some nice art on the backside.

The Rulebook provides the basic rules for the new game. While there are some parts that are confusing, a few readings and sample games will help the new player get going. Errata and updates can be found at the Wizards.com website.

The Damage Counters are a nice touch and it is worth buying several sets to get extras. These are used to easily keep track of damage on your minis so that you don’t have to write everything down.

The twenty sided die (D20) was a nice touch of the game, tying everything to the D20 system. Third edition Dungeons and Dragons is created with what is called the D20 system and ties most of the system to the D20. By simplifying this game with just the one die, it makes for a more streamlined system that is still logically consistent (if not equal to) the core Dungeons and Dragons game.

The terrain map is a boring, gray, utilitarian 1-inch grid required for skirmish play. This can also be used a battlemat for Dungeons and Dragons. I recommend laminating the map, which can then be used with dry-erase markers while playing Dungeons and Dragons.. On the backside of the map are spell templates which can be copied and cut out to quickly see the affected area of specific spells. This is a nice touch.

The terrain tiles are an interesting part of the game. They allow you to lay out different types of terrain that would either be beneficial for your warband, or detrimental for your opponent’s war band.

The miniatures. There are 80 miniatures in Harbinger: 27 rare minis, 33 uncommon minis and 20 common minis. The initial set was a mixed blessing. While the desire for this type of product was there, the execution wasn’t the greatest. The paint jobs were dark and unexciting on most figures, and the sculpting went from really good on a few minis, to many that were horrible. The release of 80 figures also made collecting the entire set very tough, as there are several rarity levels of figures: Rare, Uncommon, and Common. With only one rare in a pack, and all packaging random, it would take the purchase of many, many starter packs or Harbinger Booster Pack to be able to collect them all.

Each pre-painted plastic miniature comes with a two-sided statistics card, printed in black and white. One side shows the stats for playing the character or monster in Dungeons and Dragons, and the other side shows the stats for Skirmish play.

Figure highlights of this set include:

Some really nice classic monsters
A large variety of characters and monsters
Includes many commons characters and monsters found in typical D&D games.

The Entry Pack for Harbinger cost: $19.95. This is a good value for the product. I would recommend only purchasing one or two of any entry pack and purchasing more of the booster products. This way, more of your money is spent on miniatures, instead of game maps and dice that you already have.

The Harbinger entry pack is currently out of print, with no known plans to reprint any of the set, although several figures have been re-sculpted in later sets. This set was replaced with the Aberrations Entry Pack, which was then replaced by the War Drums entry pack.

Sources for miniatures in Harbinger include:

Player's Handbook
Dungeon Master's Guide
Monster Manual

Expansions include:

Dragoneye
Archfiends
Giants of Legend
Aberrations
Deathknell
Angelfire
Underdark
War Drums

Recommended: Yes