Theme
One of the things I have been working towards for my upcoming GT – The Boise Cup! A two day 40 person Grand Tournament located at ABU Games in Boise, Idaho! – is the desire to have a) top notch tournament terrain and b) more themed terrain to boot. I want the people walking in to see the tables we have put together and not only be impressed with the amount of terrain on each table that has both line of sight blocking terrain and area type terrain, but is also aesthetically pleasing and has a theme to it that matches the mat it is on.
I really want people to be excited to get to play on certain tables as there is just something about having two nicely painted armies playing on a cool themed table. We will have a Fenrisian Snow Table, Robot City, Imperial Knight Repair Depot, Infested Alien, Catachan Jungle Fighters, and hopefully more!
Having recently gotten into finding such themed terrain I can attest this has been quite a task. I’ve been buying up lots of kits but finding specific themed pieces can be very hard to do unless all you want is grey ruins and green bastions all over with some trees mixed in. BORING!
Enter Nec…er Egyptian Space Skeletons…er ROBOT CITY!
I liked the first round of the FLG Mats, but having just purchased a TO amount in the flash sale, it was hard to push myself to buy any more. That was until I saw the Robot City bundle sale FLG was doing. For $165 you get the Robot City mat and the full line of Robot City Terrain which comprises of:
- Large Obelisk
- Medium Obelisk
- Small Obelisk
- 2 Power Generators
- Reliquary – Small Building
- Mausoleum – Small Building
- Sanctum – One Floor Large Building
- Pantheon – Two Floor Large Building
- Barricades
That is a pretty impressive list of buildings that will give you a good amount of terrain on the mat. You also get to choose from 5 different colored mats to liken it to your robot tastes. I went with classic green as my Necron force has that with their rods.
Favorite Pieces – Large and Medium Obelisks
These were very cleverly designed as they had two layers on each side that went together very easily and have a nice large presence on the battlefield. There is also room in the bottom to insert lights – more on that later. They look cool, offer some nice line of sight blocking terrain, and break up the visual of the rest of the more city like terrain. These were my favorite pieces of the set.
Least Favorite Pieces – Robot Generator 1 and Reliquary
These have two different things I didn’t like about them. For the Robot Generator, I worry about the fins breaking off in storage or on the table. MDF isn’t really sturdy and I see these breaking soon. The Reliquary was frustrating in the build as there wasn’t a lot of support in the initial wall sets and you had to hold it as it dried or had to hope it dried at the right angle and didn’t fall apart. It was the most fiddly of the kits for sure. Now that it is together it is fine, but it was a pain in assembly.
(This isn’t the Generator I’m talking about, its the other one.)
Biggest Critique – No Area Terrain
My biggest critique of this set is the lack of “area” type terrain such as a woodset. Yes, I know area terrain isn’t a “thing” anymore, but just about every tournament game me and my opponent will say that this and that piece of wood works like area. It is a very common thing in tournament play at least in my experience.
So there isn’t a lot with this set that would give units terrain to hug in for their deployment zones as the larger Pantheon and Sanctum (probably classified as ruins) will most likely be more towards the center of the board. This only leaves the smaller structures to populate the outskirts and deployment zones.
I set about creating a set of area style terrain that would fit the theme and think I found something. I took MDF board and cut it into nice circleish shapes, then painted them black with a green in the center. After that I flocked them with black aquarium sand and blasted it with a gloss coat. They will later get some green crystals to match and work like trees. I think my area terrain took the set up a notch and will add more flavor to the terrain as a whole.
Painting
One nice thing is that this set was pretty easy to paint. I used Filler Primer, then multiple coats of black spray (just cheap Krylon stuff). Then did the rest with my cheap Harbor Freight airbrush. I followed the pattern on the FLG sight and did a grey on the corners and edges and multiple greens on the symbols. Lastly I put on a thick gloss coat. I could go back and do a matte coat after to dull the sheen, but I actually like the gloss look to this set.
Design
Overall I liked the design of the set. It really fits with my other…robots…that I play with and gives you the feeling that you are on a fully exposed robot tomb. Having all the terrain painted on the mat gives it a very nice look and is something that people want to play on. I really liked the dual layer design with a larger hole/pattern over a smaller hole/pattern to give depth and texture. It was quite creative.
Assembly
Again these kits assembled quite easily as the design for them seemed to be built on layers and adding more detail and support/strength as you go. The Reliquary was the outlier here, but in total, I was satisfied with how quickly it went together.
Bright Robot City, Bright Robot Lights!
One thing that got me thinking is that this set could use some lighting. I went on eBay and found some cheap greed led’s, 9 volt battery packs, and threw some of them into the buildings. Viola! Instant lighted table. This will add just another layer of coolness to my Robot City table and didn’t break the bank. All told about $10.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a nice set for your event or to have in your home kit I’d highly recommend this set to you. It look very nice all assembled and is very different from what is out there today, and trust me, I’ve looked. I really liked the unique feel to the terrain and for only $165 all out, you get a lot of bang for your buck. You can expect to pay twice that for some terrain alone, and not even the mat itself.
Shameless Plug
If you want to see a set in action get on over to The Boise Cup! Boise first big GT held at ABU Games. $45 for two days of play in a luxurious spacious setting. We have a lot of wonderful things planned and think you won’t be disappointed. We are already over half full so don’t wait!
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
