Recently we announced some incredible Gondor terrain kits: Ruins, a Mansion, and a Tower, which together will be among the most modular terrain kits ever made for the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game. These hotly awaited stunning new plastic sets will be available to pre-order imminently. With this in mind, we caught up with Ray, the design genius behind them for some insider tips and tricks on how to maximise their incredible versatility.
Ray: One of the most interesting features of the Gondor scenery is the way the fittings between the wall panels work. They have been designed both for constructing straight walls, and to allow inside and outside corners, as well as T-junctions. This means your buildings can take multiple shapes, and you may even construct internal walls in your buildings, should you wish.
The fittings on the panels work both ways, and each wall panel is reversible. This gives you three distinct styles of wall to make with the kits – though you can of course mix and match these styles, as demonstrated.
You’ll also note that because the archways share the same fittings as the walls, you can build them into the main structures of your buildings. The archways have been designed so that a 25mm base will fit through them, allowing for most standard infantry models to pass through easily.
When it comes to the ruined floors in the Gondor Ruins kit, all the small pieces tessellate and fit together with the large parts of ruined floor, allowing you to create square floor tiles with holes and damage in them for further variety.
The double arch piece has been specifically designed without any pillars reaching down to the floor, so you can use two of them together from multiple kits, along with the floor tiles and balustrades, to create bridges between buildings.
This tiny piece may not look that impressive, but it has a very important function. It fits just under the balustrade on the stairs and, along with its twin, allows you to have right or left handed stairs depending on which one you use – or internal stairs if you leave it out completely. As shown in the third picture, by using multiple Gondor Mansions kits, it’s even possible to build multi-storied staircases!
The roof comes with special joiners and ridge pieces to make inside and outside corners. This allows you to build L-shaped and T-shaped buildings, as well as pyramid shaped roofs.
There is also a little joining piece which makes up the difference between the normal wall and the gable end wall from the roofs. This enables you to add roofs to the sides of your buildings. You can also use the inner and outer corner roof joiners to wrap around multiple sides of your buildings.
The new Gondor scenery really is incredibly versatile. Hopefully these tips will inspire people to let their imaginations loose and create some incredible, unique buildings. I cannot wait to see what you come up with!
Cheers, Ray! We’ve actually seen what one ambitious architect could do with 100 Gondor sprues. What are you planning to create with yours? The Gondor scenery kits will be available for pre-order tomorrow – and we’re expecting big things!