As so many people have been posting, the Terrain Crate 3 kickstarter has shipped. Mine shipped on the very last day, and even though it went via FedEx, it still took a week to get here.
So what did I get? Well I'm not running sci-fi games right now, but I figure the trees could be used for some fantasy boards - I have one that is elf (ok, mars) themed already, so it would work there. Plus I got the fantasy mat and templates.
The kickstarter had three sets of templates - forest, difficult terrain and building, with two of each template. Apparently for retail they will all be packaged together with one of each.
I only got one set of these, because I didn't think they would be that useful. And it doesn't seem to me like people really need templates for blocking terrain, as models can't move into it anyway. There are some pieces that would benefit from a defined base, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
However looking at them I got an idea. Listening to the Mantic Universe Podcast where we were actually talking about neoprene terrain, one thing that would be very helpful would be small templates for obstacles. Like forests, the actual obstacle would be removable when a unit was on it, but the template would remain flat.
It occurred to me that these square blocks would work for obstacles very well. Each long row of squares is just the right size for an obstacle.
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| Mantic hedge, fence and wall on square building template. |
So all I needed to do was cut these up along the lines, round off the edges and voila - obstacle templates!
Forests are a great thing for templates. What matters here is the area, not the physical trees. You need to be able to move the trees out of the way to make game play easier (though as a TO I get slightly frustrated when I see players take the trees off before they even start the game).
So of course this now means I want 2 more sets of these - and I can't get them in these sets - so I'll have to get 4 more sets of ALL the templates (of course I already have 3 of both the other sets).
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Now what better trees to use for these forest than the excellent ones that Mantic already makes?
Each of these boxes has 4 trees, two mushrooms, two tree stumps, and two faces that can be added to the trees. (Personally I don't care much for the mushrooms, stumps or faces when I want these in bulk, but they are there).
When I do tables, I like to have a large and a small forest - the large forest has three trees on the template, the small one has two. So you can see the templates with some mantic trees.
People have already talked about these being a bit small. After Adepticon 2022, I received some indirect feedback that the forests I was using were too small. I value all feedback I get (though I don't always act on everything) because I can't fix what I don't know is broken. So I updated all my forests, removing the small ones, using my large ones as small ones, and making new, larger templates for the large forests. (I had all sorts of pictures I took of these for a blog post that I never got off my lazy butt and wrote up).
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| Adepticon 2022 small/large forests |
Essentially I cut up a jungle mat to make forest templates.
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| Adepticon 2023 small/large forests |
Unfortunately the new mantic ones are a bit on the small side, as you can see compared to mine. Now because they are Mantic, I will be using them, but probably as small forests, keeping my larger ones. (By the way, does anyone need a BUNCH of small forest templates?)
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| New mantic templates vs my current templates |
The last pack was the difficult terrain
This has been one that I have been looking for more. I have some old difficult terrain I made back in my WFB days that has bushes and rocks and looks pretty good, until you want to move a unit over it, and then it doesn't fit on it well. So flat templates are good here. I have picked up several from different places, and have a lot of fields I made for Confrontation back in the day. However I do plan to use these on a lot of my tables as well.
Sorting them out, there are six different bags. The box had 17 bags (an odd number, in numerous ways). Three each of bag 1, 2, 3. Four of bag 4. And two of 5 and 6. The OCD part of my brain is really going nuts on that - wanting to just have 3 of each for a total of 18.
Regardless, what is in each bag?
One of the things they did was to make all the pieces interchangeable. They did this by making the base concave, and then the bottom of the topper / middle piece convex. So any middle / topper can be used with any base.
In addition, there is a 5mm x 2mm hole in each lined up for neodymium magnets. Many, many years ago (again back in my WFB days), I was ordering magnets online - but now they are easily available at your FLGS. This way you don't have to commit to how you build your trees if you don't want to - simply glue magnets in the holes (making sure to watch the polarity) and you can interchange you plants as you want.
In addition, there is a 5mm x 2mm hole in each lined up for neodymium magnets. Many, many years ago (again back in my WFB days), I was ordering magnets online - but now they are easily available at your FLGS. This way you don't have to commit to how you build your trees if you don't want to - simply glue magnets in the holes (making sure to watch the polarity) and you can interchange you plants as you want.
What did surprise me was the base - it was identical to the base in bag 1 except the tree stump was taller. This seemed strange to me - if you were going to make a different one, make it completely different. Otherwise just reuse the previous. But no one asked me
One thing is the small topper pieces DO NOT have holes for magnets in them. I'm not sure why not, but just assume that it was going to be a significantly higher cost to put them on the small pieces.
The third bag is pretty much shelf fungus (or similar to it). This set feels like it can easily fit a fantasy setting (and doesn't look like it want to eat you).
This only has one base, but you can make a pretty tall piece of vegetation with it.
The one 'middle' piece is, unfortunately, very unbalanced - and if you put a large top on it, you will need a much larger base than what comes with it to keep it from tipping over since it expands way pass the balance points. Works ok with the little one however.
With the fifth bag, we go back to carnivorous plants. It has two of the same base as bag 4 and a third, different one. Plus three large toppers (but no middle pieces)
Bag six is similar, having again three bases (one of the ones from bag 4, two of the others from bag 5)
Again, no middle pieces (and no tiny ones either);
The whole idea is to be able to mix and match everything. So to help out with that, I thought I'd show the pieces across the range by type.
First there are five different bases (though the two fern type bases could have just been one in my opinion)
There are then four 'middle' sections
Finally there are five total small toppers (again, these don't have holes for magnets)
Mixing these you can make as weird plants as you like!
Finally I got a 6'x4' fantasy game mat.
The colors are great, and it comes with a bag for storage, transport. Yes, it arrives folded up, but I figure after being rolled for a while the creases will work themselves out.
I did notice however, that it felt light. I compared it to the last FLG mat I bought, and the FLG mat was 3.4 kg, while the Mantic mat was 2.4 kg. When putting it in the bag you can really tell the difference - it feels like you could easily fit two of these in a bag (I do put 2 4x4 mats in a single bag, but it is a little tight).
So I pulled out my digital micrometer calipers and measured them. The Mantic mat is 1.2mm thick (now I'm not an expert, and being a soft surface, it is easy to compress the material. So I set it so that the material would just slide out of the calipers, and rounded to the nearest .1 mm). The FLG mat is 2.2mm.
I actually noticed this with my Armada mats. The first three I got were from the original batch when it first came out. I bought a fourth one last year during the Adepticon special, and noticed it was thinner. Measuring them, the originals are 1.5mm, and the later one is again 1.2mm. I checked my original Deadzone mat - it again was 1.5mm. The walking dead mats however were 2mm thick. I didn't really notice those smaller mats because I rarely used them.
I notice the Armada mat when I put out all four of mine for events, and I will notice the Mantic one just due to the difference in weight. (Now thinking about it, if I could knock off a kilo for each of the mats I currently have - that would be a savings of 25 kilos - or 55 lbs for us on the left side of the Atlantic puddle).
The question is will players notice the difference? For that, I don't know.
The price on the Mantic mats is comparable (6x4 FLG mats are $79.95, while the same, thinner mantic mat is $80). However FLG does put all their new designs on sale when they first come out for 20% off (so you can get one for $64 instead). They also have a Christmas sale, which is when I tend to buy new mats for next years Adepticon. However as a pathfinder I can earn credits toward Mantic product . . .
What I want to see is for Mantic to finally do a Battlefield in a Box Terrain Crate Full Battlefield - for fantasy that would be a mat, a set of templates, a gothic grounds set of trees, battlefield fences & hedges OR battlefield walls, plus two hills and two buildings (that would fit on the building templates). They don't have building (they do have the ruined village set of ruined walls, but no complete buildings) (though the graveyard set could be one blocking piece, and they have the brick buildings from Mars Attacks - which aren't quite fantasy but in a pinch) or hills yet. And make the entire bundle at a great price (it is kind of intimidating to me when I price these all out separately). However I'm not the customer for that product anyway - as while I will be using these new products, it is to add to may fairly large collection I already have (and with 3D printers (both FDM and Resin) I have a huge amount of terrain to pick from).
Because it is all fun and games . . .
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