The Ruins at Riverside Farm

Print & build terrain from Microtactix http://www.microtactix.com.
Webstore here
Art by Gary M. Williams

Total Download 32MB

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As someone with no discrenible talent for art or DIY the building of terrain for wargames is somewhat beyond me. It was with delight when I discovered, a few years ago, the idea of printable buildings with which to set the scene for Wild West shootouts or the forces of the White Hand assaulting Helm's Deep. My latest acquisition has been much more bucolic but is again pressed into service as the scene of bloody warfare.

There are three sets for Riverside Farm, the farm and farm buildings, statues ruins, and the third set is scenic additions.

One thing I have always liked about the buildings is the simplicity of the art. They don't drain the ink from your printer nor do they distract from the actual piece being built with all sorts of two-dimensional fripperies pretending to be 3-D objects. This set has more colours and detailed textures than the last set I made but still manages to retain the essential simplicity of design that makes previous sets so attractive. The only drawback is that you can sometimes lose the light grey fold-lines once you've cut your pieces out but thankfully the fold points are usually self-evident so it isn't really a problem .

The actual build is reasonably quick, even given my general clumsiness and my use of light cardstock and watery stick glue, and effectiveness and it is possible to build a good amount of the set in an evening or two. The glue is a bit of an issue. Bases are supplied but they curl up after the glue is applied and the building stuck down, so perhaps you can find a better way of sticking them than the Pritt-stick I used, or you can stick the base to a thicker bit of card that won't curl.

The bridge had a tendency to bend inwards so that the bottom of the bridge side was wider than the top so I made some bracing from scrap card and glued it under the brige where it couldn't be seen. This has kept the bridge pretty straight and strengthened the build.

The ruins are slightly tricky, the walls are folded over so that you have an inside and outside and so take a lot of care, and then you have to cut out the windows and doors, but even me, ham-fisted as I am, managed it by the sneaky trick of paying attention to what I was doing and it works well. However not one for someone who doesn't like working with sharp pointy things.

All in all, apart from my traditional complaint about Microtactix sets that they should label each sheet with what that sheet is, which they don't and is a problem if you print off a load at once, the only thing this set lacked is curved section for the river. Given that tiny niggle I am happy as happy can be with these. I quickly assembled more than enough terrain to provide dress the field of battle and provide maneuver problems for the troops. Huzzah!