Great Breakdown of the new terrain kits by Westrider

[pretre]

https://cascadiangrimdark.blogspot.com/2018/07/sector-imperialis-breakdown.html

 

Now that clear pics are up for the sprues of the new Sector Imperialis kits, I decided to give them a look, see which ones look like they have the most potential, and which of the kits makes the best deal. Between the various kits, there are six different sprues referred to, some of which have two pictures on the website, but are apparently one sprue.

First off, we have the Ruins sprue. This is one of the two-parters, and is included in all the kits. The Sector Imperialis Ruins kit consists of only this sprue, but unless you're really desperate for more of them, it seems like a bad deal at US$35 for just the one sprue.

Pretty standard stuff, fairly similar to the previous Ruin kits. These can stand on their own, or be added on top of the intact wall sections to make ruined upper levels. Looks like there's a reason they're in every kit.

Next up, we have the Wall Sprue. Another common one, part of every kit other than the Ruins, and two of them are in the Sanctum and Basilicanum kits. These are where the scale differences from the previous GW Ruins really start to be noticeable, being far taller, and making use of that for some fairly impressive arched windows.

It is nice that half of them should be solidly LoS blocking for anything up to the height of a Rhino or so, but you might still want to "board up" some of the larger windows for better LoS blocking, since none of them are completely solid. Also, note that the two round vents in the sections on the left are the right size and heights to match the various pipeline fittings from the Sector Mechanicus range.

The last common sprue is the Floor Sprue. Or rather, the Ruins and Floor Sprue, since half of it is made up of partial wall sections and various fittings. The Administratum and Sanctum each come with one of these, while the Basilicanum has two.

The detail is great, but only getting 4 1/2 floor tiles feels a bit underwhelming. I kind of wish it were just the lower part doubled or something. I'll see how my opinion on that changes once I actually get my hands on them and can get a better feel for the size. I also like that the partial floor tiles are designed to fit together to make a damaged, but functionally intact tile.

The first of the more specific sprues is the Columns/Flying Buttresses/Small Statues Sprue. Available only in the Sanctum, there's some cool stuff on here, and the presence of this along with the extra Wall Sprue makes a good argument for shelling out the extra US$25 over the Administratum's US$50.

As I said, to me, this makes a pretty compelling upgrade over the smaller kit. There are tons of places where flying buttresses make sense to add on, and the statues have all kinds of potential uses. I also really like that the statue on the lower right is cast in two pieces, very cleverly so that they can fit together to build it intact, or look nicely shattered if the two parts are left separate.

The remaining sprues are unique to the Basilicanum kit so far. At least among the individual kits. The first of them, the Columns and Arches Sprue, is also included in the Kill Team starter set. It looks like this is mostly used for finishing off walls that would otherwise end with one of the open portions of the wall sections, and the large arched entryway.

Looks like one that's good to have around, but you probably wouldn't want a bunch of for most projects, so it makes sense to only have it in the one kit. Especially since it is in the starter set as well, which should make it relatively common on the secondary market.

Rounding out both the Basilicanum and the collection of sprues, we have another two-parter, the Large Statue Sprue. These guys look to be about on the same scale as the Space Marine statue from the Honoured Imperium. Or in other words, [big bad swear word]ing huge. Definitely another that I don't mind being restricted to just one kit, tho I kind of wonder if they're going to get released on their own at some point.

 

Tossing in one of the painted pics here as well, since the sprue pic doesn't show the front of them. They look pretty cool, and also like they can improve the LoS blocking of the wall sections significantly, which is very nice.

Breaking it down differently, these are available as four individual kits, plus the Kill Team starter. In increasing order of cost, we have:

• At US$35, the Ruins set, which as far as I can tell, consists of just one of the Ruins Sprue. Doesn't seem like a very good deal compared to option #2.
• The Administratum set. US$50, only $15 more than the Ruins, and it also comes with one each of the Wall and Floor Sprues.
• Stepping up to US$75, we have the Sanctum, adding another Wall Sprue and the Flying Buttress/Small Statue Sprue. Seems like a pretty reasonable upgrade price for the extra content. Basically a 50% price bump for a 67% content bump, and it's the only place to get the Small Statue Sprue.
• The Basilicanum, the last and largest of the stand-alone sets, swaps the Flying Buttress/Small Statue Sprue for the Columns and Archways Sprue, and adds a second Floor Sprue and the Large Statue Sprue. At US$100, that's another $25 to jump from 5 to 7 (almost 8, because the statues are huge) sprues. Again, seems like a reasonable differential, but it's clearly one you're only going to get if you want the big statues.
• Finally, at US$130, the KT starter doesn't quite come with an exact match for any particular combination of kits, but is roughly equivalent to one each of the Ruins, Administratum, and Sanctum sets (just with the different Column Sprue), which would be US$160 to pick up separately. Add in the two Units (whether using them or selling them), and that's a pretty good bundle deal.

From what I see, the best way to go for general purposes is a mix of the Administratum and Sanctum sets. I do hope the Archway Sprue gets released as part of another kit at some point here, just to have it available without buying one of the US$100+ options. I don't feel like it's worth getting the Basilicanum for that sprue, that one's only worth the cash if you want the statues.

They did add a couple of different combos of the base sprues to the Sector Mechanicus line a while after the original release (the Promethium Forge and, IIRC, the Ferratonic Incinerator), so I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple more sets show up using just these sprues, and we'll probably also see some completely new add-ons as well, like the Galvanic Servo-Haulers and Promethium Regulators were for Sector Mechanicus.

Until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

[WestRider]

Whoa. Someone actually reads my blog! ;)

[SPaceORK]

1 hour ago, WestRider said:

Whoa. Someone actually reads my blog! 😉

I've read it like twice! Three times today!

[pretre]

1 hour ago, WestRider said:

Whoa. Someone actually reads my blog! 😉

I have you on my RSS feed. :)

You answered the most important question that no other blog has answered at the end too: What's the terrain value in the KT box set? I feel much better about pre-ordering it after reading your review. This was a great review.

[VonVilkee]

2 hours ago, WestRider said:

Whoa. Someone actually reads my blog! 😉

I liked this so you get credit for writing it even tho pretre posted it... I keep the internet trawling to a minimum. 

[WestRider]

2 hours ago, pretre said:

I have you on my RSS feed. :)

You answered the most important question that no other blog has answered at the end too: What's the terrain value in the KT box set? I feel much better about pre-ordering it after reading your review. This was a great review.

Thanks! I hadn't really seen much in the way of reviews, so I didn't actually even know I was covering a missed spot, but that was something I saw in some of the breakdowns of the Sector Mechanicus kits when they first came out that I really appreciated.

[Torg]

2 hours ago, pretre said:

I have you on my RSS feed. 🙂

You answered the most important question that no other blog has answered at the end too: What's the terrain value in the KT box set? I feel much better about pre-ordering it after reading your review. This was a great review.

I preordered KT as well partially based on my this blog post - great info ...  thanks

 

-d

[WestRider]

Some more notes, now that I've actually messed around with the kit some. I am a huge fan of the Sector Mechanicus line, and I have to say, I think that, at least from a purely technical standpoint, these kits are actually significantly better.

But with that comes some different issues. The tolerances on these parts are incredibly tight. Especially for something with this much modularity. If you want to take full advantage of that modularity, you need to be really careful when building each chunk that everything lines up just right. Specifically:

• Have a plan. I'm good at winging it, and I have quite a bit of experience with the Sector Mechanicus line, which has a number of similarities. Putting together that first two-level Ruin without planning it all out was terrifying. The scrabble to find a bit I hadn't realized I needed before the glue completely set was a nightmare. Little bits of sloppiness in placement start multiplying in magnitude almost immediately.
• Clear your workspace. You absolutely want a good flat surface to work on. See above about small errors multiplying.
• Get all the bits for your plan (You did make a plan, right? It's rule #1), and have them organized so you'll be able to grab what you need, right when you need it.
• Be absolutely certain you've got the mold lines and sprue contact points cleared up 100% anywhere that things are getting glued together.
• Plastic cement is very much recommended, since it takes up less space in between pieces than super glue when applied correctly.
• Double check and triple check all your angles. Even being slightly off from 90 degrees will, again, quickly start to spiral out of control.

I know there are at least a couple more that I'm blanking on right now. It isn't actually all that difficult if you take it slowly and carefully, and pay attention and follow the plan. But it's easy for it to slip away from you if you rush or don't pay attention.

Also, if you're just planning on building it all in one go and having it completely glued together in one configuration, you can get away with a lot more. But if you want to take advantage of stuff like the way different structures can be stacked on each other and hold without glue, to be rearranged at whim, you're going to need to keep it tight.

Ray Dranfield, the lead designer, has been putting tips and tricks up on his Twitter, like he did for the Sector Mechanicus line. Some very handy stuff. I'll copy the individual bits over into that thread once it looks like he's done.