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I think it would be better as two buildings.

For a start its an excuse to get rid of the stone death sculpture. It should be easy enough to cover the hole to appear as bedrock.

Overhanging foundations is cool, but not suspended on a couple of planks, even for a wizards tower.

I wonder if oneday GW will call this age the 'skull period' as they now look back at the early-mid nineties with no small amount of embarassment as the 'red period' because idots like John Blanche nearly always painted orc metal baldes a bright crimson.

speaking of other GW terrain kits that they could have done more with,,, Was I the only one waiting patiently for other chapter versions of the fortress of redemption thing? It was odviously sooo Dark Angels that it almost made me cry, a new centre section and a few new plates and it could have been any of the five or six main chapters?

Space Wolf, Blood Angels, Ultra Marine, Templars, Yeah I can't remember the other two either??? there are more than five chapters arn't there? Ohhh wait Crimson fists and those yellow guys..... Ummm Imperial fisting or something?

Yeah, I always say Space Marines don't get enough as it is. I'd like to see GW pay a little more attention to them with new models and chapter-specific terrain.

...or how about no.

Alright but would you say no to a fortress of redemption add on kit with a Imperial guard theme to it, most if not all the chapter specific iconography is on pannels that can be changed and I'm sure it wouldn't be impossible for the guys at forgeworld to knock up pannels and a central tower section fo several of the recognised and marketable Imperial guard regiments?

I'd rather they focus on updating armies and replacing outdated kits than putting out more god-damned Imperial terrain. Especially if these giant, obnoxious skulls are literally going to be on every damn kit from now on.

I better go buy the landing pad, bastions, etc. while I still can, before GW decides to re-release them with huge skulls that can't be left off.

Also, I'm not sure I see what makes the Fortress specific to just the Dark Angels chapter. It's covered in skulls, but so is everything else. Oh, no, there may be one or two panels with DA-specific iconography, which IIRC is optional, so any chapter could make use of it.

Converting it into something more like the Warhammer Online version wouldn't be impossible?

yeah I'd rather see a new eldar codex then more imperial buildings that I will never buy (A because, well I play chaos for one and B, I find them ugly, but its mostly A-I simply have no uses for them, my secondary army is orks, which, yeah way too much converting there, when I could make my own terrain and have fun with it!)
if they're gonna come out with terrain, it shouldn't leave half the armies with nothing
i know they have a hard on for space marines, i don't see why they don't just make the game marines vs marines (maybe guard) and quit trying to pretend they give a gak about anything else

Am i the only one who loves the Fortress of Redemption? That tower is great, and the Space Marine Statue fits right on top of it perfectly. Makes a great centerpiece.

And what they should have done for this (and they may still have - we won't know until we see the sprues) is the same thing they did for the Arcane Ruins kit. That fit is covered in skulls... but only if you want it to be. All the skulls and daemonic faces are completely optional and are not required at all. You can leave the stone blank if you want, or put some skulls on, or put every skull on. That should happen more often. I love the Arcane Ruins kit.

I'm not GW fanboy, but I still kinda geek out over all their terrain.

The Fortress isn't really that bad, I've just never felt like spending the money on it.

I'd build and paint it if I got it as a prize but would never buy it

Fortress of Redemption is fine, its a fortress made for SM anyways, its ok for it to reek of SM

Astromancer manse though, no its almost as if the original artist created a nice little sculpt. Then the GW HQ looks at it and screams MOAR SKULLZ.

I bet the same department that made Chaos more chaos by MOAR SKULLS AND SPIKES.

They obviously dont know what should be subtle, and when going "full this word is not welcome in Dakka" wont work.

Luna... Strike that word from your Dakka vocabulary. You have been warned about this before, stop playing with fire

Skullvane Manse almost looks like it should be covered in spikes...

On the subject of Chaos though I would prefer less spikes and more Geiger Alien mutations/biomechanical stuff. Sort of like the possessed models but without the goofy, cartoonish faces, like the armor that looks like it's warped and become more like bone or muscle. You know, stuff that looks more sinister, demonic or otherworldly. But no, nobody in the studio working on Chaos models can get any more creative than "Durr, Spehss Mahreens with spikes and skullz x2!"

It's a great building, other than the skulls all over it.

I wish they'd make those bits reversible so those of us who don't want our terrain to look like an 80s toy fort.

I may well look into buying it an converting it but... wouldn't it be easier to have all that skull gak as add ons on a sprue rather than integral parts of the kit?

That tower is ******* unreal. I know what I'm getting for Christmas.

Knitted socks from grandma?

George Spiggott wrote:I hope it will be a giant skull shaped tower made entirely from human skulls on a base of skulls. GW scenery has always been lacking in the Skull department IMO.

Huzzah.

Actually, the biggest skull of the model is on the backside of the rock, not shown on the pic above.
Also note that instead of the observatory, you have the option for a normal tower (see small pic upper left). While the radius is a bit larger, it might be a basis for non-skull conversions.

The WD contains some more or less obvious rules suggestions for including the terrain in normal and "Storm of Magic" games.

Does it make me too much of a fanboy to say that I really, really dig the GW terrain? I like a lot of the other-party stuff too, but even with all the skulls I really like the look of the new observatory.

No. It doesn’t make you a fanboy. I despise GW (especially the way they mistreat Rest-of-World gamers and the bs surrounding Failcost), but I can’t help love their terrain. Of course, I don’t love all their terrain, and I dislike this wizard’s tower thingy for the same reason I dislike this (the one on the right). It’s the almost-comical and utterly needless skull carvings in the base. It takes it from ‘too many skuls’ to, as someone said before, 80’s action figure play-set land.

I think that it looks pretty cool, better if it didn't have skulls on it, although I do have once question, if it is the lair of an astromancer why does it have a metal wizard outside the front door?

GW, you just keep releasing those buildings and one day I WILL build the most awesome Mordheim table ever.

Krellnus wrote:I do have once question, if it is the lair of an astromancer why does it have a metal wizard outside the front door?

Probably visiting his old pal the astomancer, notice how he is about to leave, probably after discussing some important signs in the winds of magic. I bet they have a grumpy/friendly relationship always arguing about best ways to cast magic and such, smoking lustrian tobacko and drinking tea every Hexentag. Its usually the metal magus visiting the astromancer, because he enjoy long walks.
Atleast that is what I suppose GW intended.

I really like the tower. I like a lot of their terrain. I'd like it a little more if... well, that's been adequately covered here, I think.

I don't think $75 is out of line, depending on how large the kit is. No one blinks at paying $66 or whatever for a Derp Raven, and those are actually smaller, and less complex, right?

The comments on this thread in general have been top shelf, btw.

Im so glad they expanded on the name.. I wasn't quite sure if I wanted it when it was JUST called Skullvane Manse.. But now that its the Skullvane Manse - Lair of the Astromancer.. Sign me up!

Kroothawk wrote:The WD contains some more or less obvious rules suggestions for including the terrain in normal and "Storm of Magic" games.

"Obvious" rules suggestions being "You could have the skulls shoot magical lasers out of their eyes that kill entire units on a roll of 3+ on 2d6!"

Which would be just like the normal magic phase in WHF 8th, I hear, with the combined firepower of each skull wiping out over half an army in a single turn.



...so anyway, has anyone else thought that maybe the kit is actually fine and we're all just getting too old for this stupid game? :\

Well, I guess you guys would be, luckily I dodged the WHF bullet when 8th came out and put my DE army on hold indefinitely, lol...but it could apply to 40k or WHF, really.

Someone posted this to the gallery:



On terrain, the DA Fortress is another good example of wasted potential.

IF the tower was compatible with the bastion kit so you could replace it...

IF they had generic Imperial Icons...

IF it was modular so it could be assembled several ways...

I would have bought it.

But GW basically said here's you Space Marine Dream House, build it one way, and like it.

So I said no.

I really like the manse kit, and seen as i never really spend anything on terrain, I'd be more than happy to fork out for this one

Fayric wrote:

Krellnus wrote:I do have once question, if it is the lair of an astromancer why does it have a metal wizard outside the front door?

Probably visiting his old pal the astomancer, notice how he is about to leave, probably after discussing some important signs in the winds of magic. I bet they have a grumpy/friendly relationship always arguing about best ways to cast magic and such, smoking lustrian tobacko and drinking tea every Hexentag. Its usually the metal magus visiting the astromancer, because he enjoy long walks.
Atleast that is what I suppose GW intended.

Aaaah now that explains it!
Oh wait this is GW, no it doesn't, we best move along before our minds explode.

Sidstyler wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:The WD contains some more or less obvious rules suggestions for including the terrain in normal and "Storm of Magic" games.

"Obvious" rules suggestions being "You could have the skulls shoot magical lasers out of their eyes that kill entire units on a roll of 3+ on 2d6!"

Which would be just like the normal magic phase in WHF 8th, I hear, with the combined firepower of each skull wiping out over half an army in a single turn.



...so anyway, has anyone else thought that maybe the kit is actually fine and we're all just getting too old for this stupid game? :\

Well, I guess you guys would be, luckily I dodged the WHF bullet when 8th came out and put my DE army on hold indefinitely, lol...but it could apply to 40k or WHF, really.

8th Edition is fine and Dark Elves are still good.

The only locals that have problems with 8th are "those guys" that needed to win to validate themselves.

They're not missed.