OK, I have a starter set now. I haven't played yet, and I'm not sure if I'll have time this weekend.

Here's the quick look.

Map: Slightly heavier than poster stock. Nice, if somewhat monotone, art. Difficult to see the hex markings for various terrain. It won't do well in play without markers on the board. The colored lines to denote terrain types are just too thin and among muddled artwork.
Grade: C+

Dice: The dice are actual impressed dice, not just inked. This is a good thing. They are fairly rounded at the edges. These have blank faces that have paint smears on them, kind of not clean. The numbers and icons aren't 'crisp', but they'll do. They are of average quality at best.
Grade: B-

Rule book: Nice and easy to read, good stock.
Grade: B+

Cards: Pretty linen finish. Rounded corners, high quality print, easy to read.
Grade: A

Components: (Tiles, counters) Very thick, linen finish, clear graphics.
Grade: A-

Minis: They're nice and chunky. The poses are kind of OK. The detail is OK. None of it is "very good" or better. The paint ranges from moments of "very good" to "what the hell is this crap", even on a single figure. Spots like the teeth and horns of the EzoGhoul are impressive. The "shading" done by painting a line on the inner crook of an elbow, for example, are embarassing. The shade colors are absurd (human flesh shaded with burnt umber, no transition), painted with no skill, a brush that's too big, and simply thick paint, no effort to wash or shade. The inner arm of the technomancer is grey, with basically a huge, poorly painted dark green plus sign painted bisecting the arm (the crook of the elbow, and the indent between bi/tricep and the forearm muscles), thick and clumsy. It ruins the look of the figure, since the arm is extended and pretty much a focal point.

Now, once these guys are on the table, they look OK. But they don't stand up to scrutiny in the slightest. They show casting lines, and some of the color schemes are just muddy and painted in such a way that if my 9 year old son had done it, I would make him redo it. As game pieces, they're OK. As display pieces... They need work. The colors are fairly mute, which is OK for warriors on the field, but looks like random drippings at some points. The EzoGhoul is almost gaudy. I really wish they kept the original purple for the upcoming Brotherhood release, at least it would show that humans haven't somehow lost the technology for colorful textiles. If a Star Wars or D&D mini were blown up, that's the quality, complete with the little specks that are mispainted a bit, but now blown up. It's similar to the larger HeroScape minis, which have that glaze wash at least to fake shading. Nothing remotely near the quality of AT-43 or Confrontation. AT-43 looks Golden Demon quality in comparison. If you're making a mini this big, for one, I would expect the sculpts to show detail that you can't in smaller minis. This would require a harder plastic to hold the detail. For two, I would expect a paint job that was scaled to the larger figure beyond the drybrushed teeth. These are kid toy quality. Not even good kid toy quality.
Grade: C+

I have been looking forward to this game for years. To hold the Algeroth team in your hand and call it $20 if it were a warband is a travesty. That makes a regular dude about $5 ($10 for a large), and the quality is not there. When they were $4/$8 due to the more figs in a random booster, it may have been reasonable. Or if they didn't appear to be painted by a third grader with his dad helping him on a few tight spots it might be reasonable. The 20% price increase and problems with putting specific teams together with a crippled trading and secondary market is painful.

If it plays like the greatest thing since the D20, then it might still be reasonable. I'll get a review up as soon as I get 5 games under my belt. Great play may make this game, because the minis certainly do not. Of course, the errors in the rulebook don't make me hugely confident, but we'll see.