Thursday 23 May 2013

[Review] Terraclips Scenery - Buildings of Malifaux

Terraclips Scenery - Buildings of Malifaux - Review




So as you can tell from my recent posts that I have been running the Iron Kingdoms RPG by Privateer Press. And so far that game has been a blast. The first session I ran without miniatures. But for the second session we used them. And guess what. Combat is damned quick with minis. It's a lot easier and fortunately, the IKRPG rules are fast and furious - no surprise given the wargames Hordes and Warmachine are also fast paced games.

Now for some time I have also been aware of the Malifaux game, and the scenery for it. And I had spotted some of the sets in the FLGS. Well I took the plunge and got a set. The Buildings of Malifaux.

The Terraclips system, which this is set is from, consists of the Buildings of Malifaux, Streets of Malifaux, Sewers of Malifaux, and 3 more sets not for Malifaux but market for more general rpgs and wargames. The buildings are popped out from A3 card that is of a good thick stock. The images on the cards are excellent and the card is varnished in a matt varnish, that gives a good tactile feel. Doors are popped out and can stand on their own, and there are also ladders and steps to put together. All pieces are double sided, meaning you can represent different floor and roof types, and walls are decorated to represent the inside and outside of a building. There are different wall lengths, floor sizes (3 inch square, 6 inch square), and various other pieces to create complete buildings that have complex interlocking of roofs. There are also pieces for walkways/balconies.

The floors themselves also have a subtle grid system marked upon them, and this means that it should not really influence how you use these buildings in games where premeasuring is not allowed. The walls are tall enough for a 32 mm figure to stand inside.

The buidlings use a system of clips - bought separately. You get flat pieces (I), corner pieces (L) and t shaped pieces (T). So with these you can clip the walls and  floors together. The result - with clever use of the clips - is a sturdy building. Different stories of a building are not clipped together. But the clips do have grooves that mean that they sit on top of walls and so prevent a story sliding away. Everything easily unclips again. It is impossible to use everything in the box though since the extra pieces are so you can change the layout and accommodate it properly. The makers really have thought well about this set.

With one set of scenery, and one set of clips, a good amount of buildings can be made. I would say you can put together 6 buildings of different sizes. Maybe more. Compared to other card based scenery, it is far easier to put together than the stuff that came with the Mordheim boxed game, and more sturdy than the Necromunda card scenery from 16 years back. Or you can easily make one big building. I would highly recommend these sets for those of you that want good rpg scenery, or for wargames, that flat packs. It's not cheap mind you. £60 for a set and the clips. But then the clips you can use as you see fit. I would eventually like to have 2 sets of the buildings and 1 of the Streets of Malifaux set, as then I think I would have the perfect set to represent the streets of the city of Corvis in Iron Kingdoms.

































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