For many people, one of the challenges with gaming is not the miniatures but the terrain: making the board feel right, filling it with enough to feel busy and evoke a sense of time and place; and, for those who are not fans of painting, this is only compounded further.
For many people, one of the challenges with gaming is not the miniatures but the terrain: making the board feel right, filling it with enough to feel busy and evoke a sense of time and place; and, for those who are not fans of painting, this is only compounded further.
Luckily, Battle Systems produce a superb array of different scenics for a range of different settings and eras, all fully detailed and accessible inside and out. Their Fantasy Village set bundles together a selection of their most popular buildings for any medieval/fantasy game, so we’re going to take a look at each in turn. From a tabletop perspective, I’m thinking of games such as AoS, Moonstone, Burrows & Badgers, D&D, London 1(666)… so large and small scale, rural and urban, tabletop and RPG.
All of the instructions are in video form, and can be found on their YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@BattleSystems
I am old, and I would therefore generally prefer printed instructions, though I understand this is the way of the world now. Rather than being presented as a single giant (albeit bookmarked) video like their Fantasy Dungeon, each has their own on the channel, which is very easy to navigate and find. However, some of the actual assembly is sped up on the videos, and you’ll find yourself slowing down and rewinding repeatedly. That being said, assembly is generally pretty intuitive, using a system of L, T and + shaped clips (mostly) in greyish-brown that doesn’t distract the eye. If, like me, you’re familiar with buildings in Core Space, you’ll breeze through.
The buildings are printed on extremely heavy-duty card, printed in glorious, glossy, durable detail. Not only do they look great, they sit well on a table with other, painted scenery. Most pop readily from the frames without recourse to a craft knife, though you can of course do so. Floors and rooves are not attached, plus everything is double-sided, meaning you have fully detailed interiors, with windows and doors that can be opened in either direction. All of the sheets are also littered with scatter and extras, from books to buckets, so you can populate your village accordingly. Some of these will need a little dab of glue, and if I have a criticism, it’s that curves are not always rendered that well: I dislike the barrels, particularly, between their tendency to split along their seams and not actually stay intact.
The set includes:
· 1 Thatched Cottage
· 1 Outbuilding
· 1 Town House
· 1 Storage Barn
· 1 Lake House
· 1 Tavern
· Assorted Scatter including
· 1 Winch
· 1 Storage Chest
· 3 Raised Walkways
· 15 Stilt Supports and Steps
· 15 Fence Sections totalling almost 48″ / 120cm
· 1 Double-sided Lake/Large Bog
· 2 Double-sided Ponds/Small Bogs
· 3 Staircases
· 6 Ladders
· 1 Well
· 1 Baggage Cart
· 1 Hand Cart
· 2 Rowing Boats
· 51 Assorted Furniture Pieces
· 85 Assorted Scatter Components and Accessories
THATCHED COTTAGE
This is a delightful and extremely straightforward build. The oven is a bit fiddly, and I would have preferred to have a plain hearth printed on the reverse so that it’s less fantasy/steampunk, but other than that it goes together well. It’s quaint and would look great on any board, regardless. The fact that it comes with a range of décor also means that you can populate a board with a few and have them feel sufficiently different: as with all of the elements of this set, they can be purchased separately.
