Vauban Fort from More Terrain

When it comes to pirate settings Vauban Forts are greatly iconic "buildings". I have been wanting to add such a mighty fortification to my collection of terrain pieces for years. In this post I take a closer look at my recent acquisition: the Vauban Fort from More Terrain.

Review: Merchant Shop from Tabletop World

The Merchant Shop is the latest addition to Tabletop World's range of medieval/fantasy buildings. In this blog post I take a closer look at the model and explain why I believe that it is their best building yet.

In November last year, Tabletop World (TW) released the Merchant Shop. I own nearly all of the many buildings that were released over the years and I have to say that this one stands out. Literally. TW already said it in their announcement on Facebook:

The Merchant Shop from
Tabletop World

We proudly present you our new Merchant Shop in heroic scale! This is the first in the line of models that will take your gaming experience to the next level! Apart from highest attention to detail we had game-play in mind when creating the model. You can easily use it with miniatures that are in 28-32mm scale. The whole building has plenty of space to move your miniatures around, with several floors connected with stairs. All doors, window shutters and hatches are hinged and fully operational so you can open and close them to your liking.

Résine Miniatures

Résine Miniatures is a French manufacturer of 28mm scale terrain and scenery for historical and medieval fantasy games.

I stumbled across their beautiful buildings on Pinterest where photos of their great work kept on appearing in my stream. It is rare that I find manufacturers that I hadn't heard of before. The photos show the Résine Miniatures logo but I couldn't find a website for them. Thanks to the messaging function of Pinterest I got into contact with Christophe Samuel, the man behind the company. While there is no website you can purchase Résine Miniatures products on Etsy and eBay.




To get an impression of the products, my first order contained the Medieval Buildings #3 and #7, the tomb and door #4.

Walls from Games of War

A few months ago, Games of War released some Spanish-style walls as the latest addition to their pirate buildings range. I finished painting my lot this weekend to show them off just in time as my last painting project for the year.

I have been loving the products from Games of War for years now - not only their nice pirate buildings, but more so the fantastic ships and boats, such as the British cutter, the longboats and small ships. With the release of these walls they have expanded their buildings range which should be interesting not only for pirate games such as Blood & Plunder but for a variety of other settings as well.

Battery by Slug Industries

In this post I take a look at the battery terrain piece which was produced by Slug Industries as part of a kickstarter project for their Spanish Fort.

In my recent review of the 28mm Spanish Fort I already mentioned that I also got the battery piece that was funded via the kickstarter project. The battery is a solid piece of resin. Aside from the main piece there is a planking piece, similar to the one that was provided with the Spanish Fort, and an MDF kit for a ladder - again, same as with the fort. So, beside filing off a few sharp edges and assembling the ladder, there is no further assembly required.

The battery, the planking (right) and the ladder kit (bottom right)

Spanish Fort by Slug Industries

The Spanish Fort by Slug Industries is a terrain piece modeled after the actual Fort Matanzas and successfully funded via a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year. In this article I take a closer look at the model and present my painted version as well as some gaming ideas for the fort.

Longboats from Games of War and Firelock Games

In this blog post I take a look at the longboats from Games of War and Firelock Games.

Longboats from Games of War

As I had already bought some of the other boats (tenders and jolly boats) from Games of War as well as their bigger ships (such as the Cutter) I knew what to expect in terms of quality and detail. To my mind, their boats and ships are unmatched when it comes to the lightweight resin and the high level of detail and textures. Painting up the three longboats was easy and straightforward.

Three longboats from Games of War

British Unrated Cutter from Games of War

The British Unrated Cutter "Fly" 1763 from Games of War is the latest addition to my shipyard. In this blog post I describe the painting and building process of the vessel, its sails and other accessories.

Gangs of Rome: Blood on the Aventine

One of the new games that I have been following with keen interest recently is Gangs of Rome by War Banner. Since I prefer small scale skirmish gaming with a focus on the individual fighter and great terrain, Gangs of Rome appears to be just right. As a member of the Gangs of Rome Facebook community I was super lucky to win a copy of the newly released starter box set "Blood on the Aventine". So now is the time to take a closer look at the game and boxed set.

Ever since the first photos of Gangs of Rome surfaced on the web, I got increasingly interested in the game. Granted, ancient Rome hasn't been one of my preferred eras for wargaming (yet), but the photos of small groups of fighters roaming the streets of an ancient Roman city look so cool that it's hard to not want to try this out.

Gangs fighting it out in the streets of Rome

Roman fighters in front of a mighty temple

The new box set "Blood on the Aventine" is the perfect way to get into the game. For only £35 you get a lot of stuff: 7 miniatures, an MDF temple under construction terrain piece, a rulebook for Gangs of Rome, dice and lots of other accessories. Check out the full list of contents in the product description in their online store.

The "Blood on the Aventine" starter box set (front)

The "Blood on the Aventine" starter box set (back)

Photo of the box's contents

Close-up of the miniatures

One really has to point out how much value this is: the temple set by Sarissa Precision alone would be worth the price. Speaking of Sarissa, I am very impressed by the terrain range they created for Gangs of Rome. In general, I am not a fan of MDF terrain. I prefer the higher detail of resin models. However, the Streets of Rome range features a huge variety of nice buildings and other terrain pieces: different buildings, walls, cranes, a temple, a fountain, a bridge and a giant amphitheatre. I especially like the many "under construction" buildings - something you rarely see in other terrain ranges and a nice "trick" to create accessible terrain pieces without going the usual "ruined building" route.

The impressive amphitheatre (source)

The raw amphitheatre with miniatures for reference
(photo taken from the Gangs of Rome Facebook group)

So far I had only had a quick look at the rules when the game was first released (the rulebook is available as a free PDF download from their website!). Now, with a printed copy of the rules and everything else at hand, I can't wait to run my first game of Gangs of Rome.

Spanish Style Church from Empress Miniatures

No village is complete without a church. To complement my Caribbean pirate buildings I got the Spanish style church from Empress Miniatures.



I had been tempted to buy the Church from Empress Miniatures for quite some time. Then, while I was painting the pirate buildings from Games of War, I decided that those few houses would not be enough to form the nice little pirate settlement that I had in mind. The church would be the perfect addition to the lot.

Spanish Pirate Buildings from Games of War

A pirate gaming table for the Caribbean is made up of more than jungle and a beach. Interesting games require buildings so I got me some Spanish-style pirate buildings for my Caribbean pirate table.

Captain Blackbeard raids a Caribbean town

Aquarium Decoration Plants for Jungle Terrain

Aquarium decoration is a great source for all sorts of wargaming jungle terrain. I recently showed off some very nice ruins, today I want to share some useful plastic plants.

Plants form the core of any jungle-themed gaming board. The occasional palm tree is nice but what you really want is dense vegetation made up of many many plants. The best source of affordable and nicely sized plants is aquarium decoration supplies. I used a few aquarium plants for the jungle terrain sections that I finished recently. Now I found some very nice products on Amazon: Plant Mats from the "Hobby" range by Dohse Aquaristik. They come in four different versions:

Dead Man's Hand - German Edition from Stronghold-Terrain

Stronghold-Terrain have released the German edition of the Wild West skirmish game Dead Man's Hand and I take a look at the rulebook.



The Wild West skirmish game Dead Man's Hand was originally released by Great Escape Games and later on translated into French by Studio Tomahawk. Now Stronghold-Terrain have released a German version of the rulebook which includes the latest updates and optional rules introduced by Studio Tomahawk.

Cobblestone Gaming Mat from Kraken Wargames

At the end of 2015 I backed the Kraken Mats kickstarter thanks to a convincing unboxing video over at Beast of War. Today the mat has arrived - does it hold up to my expectations?

The Kraken Wargaming mats are now available from FantasyWelt and today I received my version of the 4 x 4 Cobblestone City mat. First off, some images of the design:

The Cobblestone City mat image from the Kraken Mat kickstarter

Ocean and Cobblestone Gaming Mat from Deep-Cut Studio

Two new gaming mats have arrived for my collection: The ocean mat and cobblestone mat from Deep-Cut Studio.

After my great experience with the cobblestone gaming mat from UrbanMatZ I was looking for an appropriate sea mat for playing piratey ship battles. I found a suitable mat design from Deep-Cut Studio. At that time their mats were available only in two versions: PVC and cloth. I hadn't really seen any good feedback on those materials and I was very happy with the "mousepad material" which I got to know from UrbanMatZ. Just recently Deep-Cut Studio (DCS) made their mats available again in that version as well so I gave them a try. While I was ordering the Ocean mat I thought why not save on the shipping costs and try their cobblestone mat as well?

Unlike the UrbanMatZ mats, DCS mats do not come with a free carrying bag. If you already have one this is no big deal as you rarely need to carry many mats around. For storing the original package is sufficient enough, if not nearly as nice as a proper bag, of course.

The first thing I noticed is that the DCS mats have sharp corners where UrbanMatZ has rounded corners (true mousepad style!). I think I do prefer sharp corners although it doesn't matter much to me.

Another thing I noticed later on is the smell: The DCS mat smell a bit of rubber. It didn't last long, though - after a few days it was gone. But I didn't notice this with the UrbanMatZ mat.

The Ocean Mat

Detail image of the Ocean mat from
the Deep-Cut Studio website

I chose the large 6' x 4' version because - well - ships! If you plan on running 28mm ship battles you better go with the largest option.

Surprisingly, the design of the actual mat appears somewhat different to what you expect from the pictures on their website. The pictures show an uneven curly surface. Of course, I am not talking about the physical surface here - I mean the graphic design. The actual mat is more like a flat blue surface with the occasional white foam. The curly design is just missing (as if you had hidden a layer in Photoshop). Here is a photo to show the difference:

Detail of the Ocean mat from Deep-Cut Studio

I have to say that the design looks a bit better on photos than in reality, yet is still nice enough.

The different design aside, the mat is quite nice. The production quality is high and I look forward to playing my first ship battles on the mat. I believe gaming mats like these are the perfect solution for representing water surface. The material is perfect for moving ships about as the models slide smoothly across the board.

The Cobblestone Mat

I ordered this 4' x 4' cobblestone mat as a kind of bonus. I was already quite pleased with the UrbanMatZ mat but I wanted to have a comparison (and I was too impatient to wait for the Kraken Mat that would come sometime in May).
When I rolled out the cobblestone mat I was quite pleasantly suprised. The design is very nice. The details are sharper than those of the UrbanMatZ mat. The cobblestones are nicely small, very well fitting for 28mm scale. I also like the colours: The UrbanMatZ mat is kind of blueish while the DCS mat has a more "normal" brownish grey tone and fits my buildings much better.

A scenic shot with some buildings and highwaymen

A comparison between the UrbanMatZ cobblestone city mat and
the cobblestone mat from Deep-Cut Studio

The mats from UrbanMatZ and Deep-Cut Studio and their backs

All in all, I can definately recommend the mousepad version mats from Deep-Cut Studio. Of course, the different design vary a lot and it is very subjective whether you like them or not. At least the cobblestone mat I find absolutely excellent.

Cobblestone Gaming Mat from UrbanMatZ

UrbanMatZ produces gaming mats for the tabletop. When I saw the cobblestone mat I immediately ordered one.

Until quite recently I had never even considered using gaming mats. I am quite picky when it comes to terrain and building a gaming board. My personal gaming board project, the Port of Gierburg, has been going on for many years and I am willing to take the time, effort and costs that are neccessary to make it as perfect as I possibly can - with little to no tolerance for making compromises. A flat illustrated mat for a surface definately does not fit into this concept.

The Cobblestone City design
from Kraken Mat (4' x 4')

This was until November last year, when I saw the Kraken Mat kickstarter which, among many different designs, featured a cobblestone pattern. Before that I had never seen a cobblestone mat and even though I wasn't particularly interested in getting one I did find it surprising that there weren't any around. From fantasy settings such as Mordheim or Frostgrave to World War II settings you would think there is enough demand to justify such products. The story and photos of the Kraken Mat had me curious enough to give it a try. That's when I first overcame my inhibitions.

As of today, I am exictedly waiting for the Kraken Mat to arrive (which is currently planned for May I believe*). However, although the Kraken Mat looks absolutely beautiful from what I can see I still had one concern: With all the streets and pavements printed on the mat you are quite restricted when it comes to placing terrain features such as buildings, barricades, etc. To allow for all kinds of scenarios with different terrain setups it makes a lot of sense to have a "general purpose" mat - a full cobblestone pattern with no other features that restrict the placement of terrain.

So I was pleasantly suprised to see exactly this in a comment in the Mordheim Facebook group: the Cobblestone Battlefield mat from UrbanMatZ. I thought "I already got one, might as well try this one too", and ordered the 4' x 4' version.

The Cobblestone Battlefield mat from UrbanMatZ

Close-up on the details

The design consists of very nice irregular cobblestones. There is dirt, grass, blood stains and what I believe are manhole covers, all of which make the design more interesting. I would have actually preferred that there was no blood since I find that to be better suited for fantasy settings whereas my games are more on the historical side. Funny enough, such a blood-less version is available since yesterday.  So a bit of bad timing for me but very cool overall for all other potential customers.

I do not want to go too far into detail with reviewing this. There are a lot of (obviously positive) video reviews on the UrbanMatZ website and I will simply say that I concur: This is a really great product. I was a bit worried that the surface may be a bit problematic since this is mousepad material and I could see the fibre texture in the close-ups in some of the video reviews. But during normal usage you don't notice this - you have to get very close to the mat to see the fibre surface so I don't find this to be a problem at all.

We actually ran a game on the new mat just yesterday and it was great. The surface is soft and smooth (if you know mousepads, then you know this). This is perfect for moving miniatures and placing buildings. Before, the models regularly caused little scratches on my IKEA table. Moving figures across these mats feels a lot safer. Also rolling dice on the mat is a pleasure as the mat deadens the sound.

A little setup to give an impression of the gaming mat in action:
Highwaymen and Thief-catchers fight it out in the city

So all in all, does this gaming mat replace a properly modelled 3D gaming table? Of course not! But as my "proper" gaming table will turn out similarly restrictive in terms of terrain placement as the Kraken Mat I am super happy to add this piece to my gaming inventory. While my scratch-built table will be the obvious pick for "flagship" scenarios and photo-taking this gaming mat will be the choice when variety is needed. And because of its flexible design I believe it will actually see more play than my "main" gaming board. For only 45 EUR and a super nice carrying bag included I think this is not too bad a deal.


*Update May 28th, 2016: The Kraken Mat arrived today. Read more.

Tavern from Stronghold Terrain

The Tavern by Stronghold-Terrain is the latest addition to my collection of 28mm houses. Let's take a look!

The contents of the Tavern kit

I already painted up a couple of buildings from Stronghold-Terrain's range of medieval terrain: the Townhouse, the Guild House and the now out of production Facades. The Tavern now is the last building from their range (except for the Stables, which I am not interested in for now).

Like their other houses the majority of the pieces is made from hard plaster, except for the roof, the base and a few extra bits, which are all cast from resin.

Broom Binder House from Thomarillion

At this year's Hamburger Tactica show I bought the newly released Broom Binder House from Thomarillion.



Usually the buildings and terrain I collect for wargaming are made from resin. The buildings from Thomarillion (produced by Ziterdes), however, use a very different, unique material: a light-weight, dense hard foam. Ever since I first saw their products I have been both intrigued and sceptical, but never found a good reason to buy any of these products. That was until I saw the new release the Broom Binder House, at the Thomarillion booth at the Tactica. It is a bit bigger than what I have seen from them and I immediately thought it would fit perfectly with the Stronghold Terrain buildings, such as the Town house.

Town Houses and Mansion from Tabletop World

Tabletop World released some very nice timber-framed fantasy houses over the last couple of months. After their latest release - an impressive mansion - it was time for my yearly order. As always this means another review of these new products on the blog.

There are few things in the hobby these days that excite me as much as when Tabletop World release a new building. And although I was quite critical with their Coaching Inn (specifically its size) that piece too is an absolutely beautiful eye-catcher on the battlefield once it is painted. So naturally I was very excited when Tabletop World showed a preview image on their website for their upcoming release. Between the announced release date and its final release date I was checking out their website daily to see if it was out already. Once the full gallery for the Mansion was up it were minutes until I placed my order, catching up on their latest products since the release of the Coaching Inn: Townhouse II, Townhouse III and the new Mansion. Let's take a closer look!

Townhouse III, II and the new Mansion next to each other

Review: More Wargame Terrain by Tony Harwood

Recently my copy of "More Wargame Terrain" arrived in the post. Let's take a look!

After the excellent first volume "Building Wargame Terrain" Tony Harwood has released the follow-up book: "More Wargame Terrain" with more articles on how to create top quality terrain for the tabletop.

From the Outside: Production Value

This perfect bound, full colour soft-cover book has a total of 118 pages from front to back. The layout and production is pretty much the same as the first book so nothing new to explain here.