I just purchased the new Fortification Set (#1) from Architects of War - I think I'm the first US customer! My initial reaction upon opening the box is extremely positive - the set comes with six sections of fortifications, a blister of metal siege tools, a pipette and a nicely detailed manual on painting / game use. The scale is 28mm. My game table is 4' wide so the you get about 44" of defensive works. Sorry for the 15mm WWII stuff in the background, I was a bit too lazy to clear of the table for a few photo's. The six sections consist of 2 straights (each unique), an artillery emplacement, an end redoubt, a 45 degree turn and a "under-construction" piece. The blister of metal siege tools is intended to enhance the "under-construction" piece.
Here is a close up of the artillery section and the siege tool blister. There are a lot of hidden details molded into the resin pieces that include powder barrels, a single shot pistol and a whole bunch of others. I was reminded of playing "Where's Waldo?" with my son the first time I looked at each piece. The casting is great - no bubbles and very limited flashing.
My favorite piece is the end section or redoubt. There's enough room for a the 60x40mm 6 figure troop stands I use for my Napoleonics to line the entire interior. I expect to have many desperate defenses of this piece in the future.
This picture is a close up of the under-construction section. It's a nice touch to the overall set and the instructions come with some creative rules for using this piece in a siege type game. The metal siege tool blister has a bunch of pieces designed to enhance the look including stakes to show a gabion in the process of being built.
The final picture is a side view of the set - the under construction piece is out of the frame on the lower left. Like the redoubt, all the pieces are designed to both look good but facilitate the placement of gaming figures as there is plenty of room behind the defenses to place troops. All-in-all its a really great terrain set and I look forward to both painting and playing with once I finish my current 6mm ACW project. I should point out that I am friends with the owners of Architects of War (which is how I was able to purchase this product before their website was completed). I have tried to keep my comments unbiased and truthful more for Ernies benefit than anything else. Starting a business is a tough endeavor, but doing show in today's environment makes that task even harder and false praise would be both untruthful and unfair to a friend. I really like the products and hope you check out Architects of War if your into 28mm gaming.
6 comments:
Great rewiew, thanks for sharing!
Cheers.
Sweet buy ..... good looking no matter which theme of 28mm your using it for
That is a nice set-up. I wondered why I hadn't heard of them before. Good luck to your friend and his new company. Dean
Dean - you haven't heard of AofW as they've just started a few weeks ago. They'll have a booth at this year's Historicon
Miles
This stuff has piqued my interest as I just recently picked up a copy of Osprey's superbly illustrated (by Peter Dennis - the guy who did the Black Powder rules cover) 'American Civil War Fortifications (2)'. The enormous amount of field works used in ACW don't often translate to the wargaming table but I think with the stuff produced by your friends, hopefully that will change. Its the first I've seen of such extensive gabions etc - and they look great. I hope they do well at Historicon. Any plans for them to export or is it still too early? If they do I may have someone here in Aussie who could be interested, depending on pricing etc.
Cheers,
Doc
The terrain pieces look very nice. I hope that the company will also do some ACW entrenchments without gabions (sort of like hasty works). These seem more appropriate for permanent defensive or siege works.
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