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When I "finished" my Ronin board, Frostgrave was brand new and I was pretty excited about it. So naturally I started planning on making a demo board for it out of the same kinds of materials. This did not go very well because I never really developed a clear picture of what the final product should look like. After getting pretty discouraged, I started looking online for modular terrain board options and decided that the Forgotten City set from Secret Weapon's Tablescapes line was perfect - however sticker shock stopped me dead in my tracks. But Miniature Market recently put Tablescapes sets on sale for about 40% off retail. It was a no-brainer! (They were sold out in a day or so.) It arrived a few days ago and I had some time to paint up a test tile last night.

I have seen lots of great boards set up for FG over the last year but most seemed to be missing something - a sense of biting cold. Sure they have snow-laden pines and all but I realized that the the terrain itself could not be the issue. After looking at concept art of wintry fantasy scenes, my brain finally made the connection between bits of information I learned long ago. Use cool colors! Specifically blue - duh, like how FG itself is branded! By choosing more "naturalistic" colors, gamers had been setting up boards that looked almost cheery to my eyes. I wanted frostbitten desolation exaggerated to fantastical proportions. This approach seemed like it would marry well with Secret Weapon's dramatic design for the Forgotten City tiles.

So I reasoned that I needed to work up from a dark blue primer and/or base. Then I did a mid-shade gray overspray and sealed the tile before applying a Phthalo Blue oil wash:



By the time it dried, I knew I was on the right track. I then set about to drybrushing up from heavy bluegrey to pale blue. I used a mixture of flat earth and necrotic flesh to bring out the soil and then blended the board with skeleton bone:



I'm really happy with the result and look forward to moving on to the next tile as time permits!

Nice! Are you going to add any snow to the board at all?

At this point, I don't think it is necessary and that "snow" stuff has kind of a flat appearance that looks more toy-like than in-scale to me.

Painted these a while back but just never got around to posting a pic - this will give you a better idea of how the table will look overall and what kind of room you have to play with given the amount of integrated terrain on these Secret Weapon boards..

Looks cool. How do you plan on storing these things?

I just read the rules myself and have been noodling on my thoughts for a review.

The tiles come in a sturdy cardboard box. I am currently separating them with the bubble wrap Miniature Market used to package my order. My box has sixteen tiles and there is plenty of room to store them separated by thin sheets of bubble wrap.

I bought one of the gothic ruin kits from Pegasus and painted it up to match the tiles. I think it looks pretty suitable.

Side-by-side comparison with #5045 Tower Building 2, which is pre-painted:

I so want to get one of those towers. But I can't seem to find one. I tried emailing Pegasus Hobbies with the email on their site and it bounced.

Not sure what you mean ... just order from Pegasus like I did.

 Manchu wrote:
Not sure what you mean ... just order from Pegasus like I did.

Well I was going to order directly from them, but I wanted to inquire of the dimensions of it first. I didn't want to get burned buying something that was too small. When my email to the address on their website bounced back, I then assumed that the website was no longer active. And my local shop has said numerous times that the Gothic stuff is all he can get from his distributor from Pegasus Hobbies.

How big are these on the board you built? They look like they are pretty big and would create a lot of "dead space".

Also, potentially note ruined enough.

I'd like to know more about that tower as well. Does it have separate floors and an interior?

What are the measurements? Is the picture above how it comes or did you touch it up?

I've got plenty of medieval buildings, but for that price, I might have to grab one.

The chapel footprint, not including the flying butresses, is about 4x8 - but I wouldn't call that dead space, as it is intended for Frostgrave foremost and it has a (cramped) interior.

The tower is like 6x6x10 roughly - it is all one piece, there are no interiors or any moving/removable parts. It's 28mm fish tank furniture, basically. That's how it looks straight out of the box, and it had indeed just come straight out of the box. The corner roofing looks very familiar - could be another case of Pegasus using existing sculpts (like how their previous castle ruins pieces were based on the Scotia Grendal set) but I haven't positively IDed it yet.

I emailed Pegasus inquiring whether there was a Tower Building 1 ... no response as of yet.

 Easy E wrote:
Also, potentially note ruined enough.

The great thing about fantasy is ... magic! Who knows how the cataclysm effected Felstad? On one block all the buildings are pristine - on the next there is not a stone bigger than a pebble.

Thanks for that. Slightly less interested since it has no interior, but it still seems like a good deal for a nice pre-painted piece of terrain.

Are you going to make a roof for the church?

I am in the process of building the Renedra Tower for my own games of Frostgrave. Liking it so far. I am tempted to add some blue to the black wash I am using on my other buildings, but that would mean re-washing them... Hmmm...

Pegasus got back to me, the prepainted building comes in one-story and three-story versions, as well (although they are not listed on the site).

 Eilif wrote:
Are you going to make a roof for the church?

I thought about and decided not, not for now at least, although it would probably be pretty simple.


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 Fifty wrote:
I am tempted to add some blue to the black wash I am using on my other buildings

I am really pleased with my results so far. Not sure how a blue/black mix would fare. Please post some pics if you try it!