Citadel Realm of Battle- Finished!

Here's some shots of my finished Citadel Realm of Battle, modular table. If you recall the announcement of this late last summer created quite a bit of controversy as it's news went from excitement to disdain to outrage over the inept marketing and pricing of this item by GW.
All of various forum monkeys out there throwing crap at the walls over this thing is what inspired my first blog rant , you'll also might note along the way I claimed I could finish this thing in 6 hours...well I was smoking something on that one. (which I will explain in a moment)

Now that I have done one, I could probably do another in 6 hours IF I stuck to the GW example and just flocked the whole thing. That's not my style, So I felt compelled to stay up into the wee hours of the night painting and then painstakingly drybrushing the thing. Start to finish time on this all the way thru is about 20 hours...that doesn't include the carpentry to build the table base its sitting on..I will add some nice side rails to keep the pieces tight and keep dice from rolling off but I've had some warping issues with my lumber delaying that, but it will get done soon.

Hobbywise- I washed it down with soap and water, primed it black, sprayed with an airbrush the brown paint that comes with the scenery kit, then went to work on two layers of drybrushing (ochre, then graveyard earth)...then painted all the little details (skulls and skull pits drybrushed the rocks (codex grey, fortress grey) , Finally I flocked it using GW scorched grass mixed with two different woodland scenics flocks (burnt grass and havest gold). the married flocks created two nice different tones of Scorched Grass that compliment the badlands theme I was going for. As you can imagine it took some time...I only worked on it 2 hours or so at time so about 10 days in January start to finish. (oh I also sprayed it down with a full can of matte, this is necessary to protect it during play) I still probably put even more detail time into to come, but that's a luxury..its playable now.


I assume the big question is after owning it couple months and spending alot of time on it -what do I think about it? Initially I was a big supporter of the product but was of course put off by the price like everyone else (which didn't keep me from buying it). In the end- my enthusiasum has dimmed a bit while I surely will enjoy this table. It wont be my main table, (that'd be my plain 4x8 that I can set up my horde of individual terrain on.) but the RoB is certainly great for a change of scenery or numerous unique scenarios..it will also be great for the variety of different games I play, covering up the skull pits with other pieces of terrain is easy to and with its modularity a huge combination of looks can be had easily. For me it's great..I even got a huge price break because I got $125.00 worth of free product the day I bought it at my local shop so my net cost on the thing with the scenery kit and tax was "only" (cough cough)
$265.00

I do have several issues with this thou and while the pros are pretty obvious...well made, rock solid, modular..(I'm told they are releasing at least 1 expansion tile for it ( a River). Its definitely got some cons. One...the clip together system for this, is a joke. it doesn't stay clipped, you need two people to clip it together, and even clipped together its nowhere near as tight as its needs to be to minimize the unholy freaking ugly SEAMS. The seams really irk me and while I am going to do some more painting myself to try to minimize them myself and they are less noticeable if you model it the "GW Way". If you want to use it painted or partially flocked you are looking at some serious seemage distracting you from the overall look. While the seams are definitely visible in some of the ads. If you notice in many of GW shots released in White Dwarf they either photoshopped the seams out or glued the table together as a set piece and covered up the seams. You can minimize them by fitting them tight with an outside frame, (like I plan to do.) but unfortunately as a "stock" product its never going to look as good as it could the way the current clip system works.

The next problem I have is once you get it all built and looking pretty its really not that Portable. If I was packing this thing up and taking somewhere in the carry-bag they provide..it would be scratched to hell and destroyed in no time. not to mention you be surpised how much weight the paint and flock add to it...the thing is heavy. While I have no problem with it, (I'm 6'5" 280lbs) what about the normal sized person or worse the kids dragging it along behind them in the bag as the flock they put on it the day before grinds itself off as its stuffed in the bag.?

I guess that's my biggest problem with it, Its that the RoB is not what really what its claims to be Its not "really" the portable game solution for the average gamer with out alot of space..can it be that? sure, but its a royal pain in ass...you're not going to want to take it apart and set it up on your kitchen table trying to clip it together to play your game then pack it all up and stick it back in the closet. I'm sure some uber motivated folks will, but I just don't see it happening for the average person. - its way easier to just go down to the store and wait for a table, or just play on the kitchen table using the GW grass matt (now that was a smart product)

Marketing pushed this as "now every gamer has the option to get their own table", "no more waiting for table space..just buy this set it at home and go!" well the reality is it more complicated than it. It's unwieldly, expensive and takes considerable hobby experience to get to look good enough to justify the price. It's really geared toward people like me, who are hardcore hobbyists who want it as a set piece and have multiple tables, and there aren't enough people like me to keep an expensive product like this around for that long.

I also have to mention that at the Chicago GT last year they previewed the RoB in a new product slide show at the of the day, claiming that eventually everytable at the GT's would be one of these!..In retrospect that claim is so warped I have to mention it, one, while it's cross configurable the huge hills are way too limiting terrain wise for anything resembling a tournament with all its uber anal meta-game terrain parsing. secondly, what GT's???. while there are now two this year..Baltimore and Vegas...when they announced the 2009 circuit there where ZERO. big change from just a few months earlier.

In conclusion, I love my Realm of Battle and will get lots of use out of it but its product for diehards only, you know the kind of people that buy two Baneblades, even thou they rarely if ever play Apocalypse and yet go into the store and a red shirt asks them if they want to "smell" the next one they're still thinking of buying. Or if you've got 13 unfinished armies that your working up to 3K and are still wandering around the shop pondering what army to start up next? If that's you and you got the dough,want to put the time into making it look good and have a place to put it where you can leave it set up..then this is the product for you.!!
I still think you'll want another table as committing to this as your only table will leave you lacking if you are a serious 40K or WFB player. If you're looking for a portable easy gaming solution, buy the GW grass mat, throw it on the kitchen table with a couple modular hills and a bag of the wire trees and you'll be good to go for a fraction of the price.


(14 more photo's in the Realm of Battle Gallery)