Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I wonder if a few applications of soapy water with a soft sponge would help? I was thinking about doing that in the driveway if I got one of these. Thanks for sharing, Ouze.

(Sorry for the off-topic.)

kronk wrote:I wonder if a few applications of soapy water with a soft sponge would help? I was thinking about doing that in the driveway if I got one of these. Thanks for sharing, Ouze.

(Sorry for the off-topic.)

I did not, in fact do that, and now am disinclined to as it's partially painted. Definitely worth a try though.

Have you tried washing your Zuzzy mat? Or possibly soaking it in a bathtub with soapy water for a few days? And then letting it air out in the sun for a few days?

As for tables, I bought a folding regulation size ping-pong table. It is 5'x9'. Very nice for Apoc games, although it is difficult to find anything with specific configurations to cover the whole thing. One of the reasons I was considering Zuzzy is that it has lots of different size options, plus, presumably, I could cut it if necessary.

So, back on topic, has anyone gotten on of these Ex Illus boards? Cause I sure would like to see a review.

yeah,
This is No good for 40k. You need to buy two ExIllis gameboard sets and you still fall short of the recommended 40k table size...
Plus I don't like the pre measuring grid set up from having 40x 9" tiles. some of the tiles even look like they have 1" grids within!


ALso it's completely flat! what varied setups are you planning when you move these 40 tiles around?

I love how everytime a new board comes out people start the ROBB bashing.
ROBB's got hills - I really don't know how people complain about this, if you want a perfectly flat board just buy a battle mat!
ROBB's got skulls - grim dark! if you don't like the grim dark, your in the wrong hobby!

If GW had of released this GameBoard I can imagine the cries from the GW haters "plain empty tiles, no features, no hills!"
"GW only wants your $$$ for this plain flat mess of tiles" etc.

If your after a plastic tiled battle board IMO the GW board is better, It's the correct size, and wont take for ever to setup.
(plus it has hills and skulls... I like both.)

Panic...

Ouze wrote:

sourclams wrote:What, in your opinion, gives GW a competitive advantage in making 4x6' plastic sheet? For approximately 200% price of comparable substitutes...

Claiming the Realm of Battle board costs 200% of the Ex Illis board is being intentionally disingenuous. There are plenty of faults to find with the Realm of Battle board without making stuff up. It is, in fact, approx 26% more expensive then the Ex Illis board when deployed in similar configurations.

If you need 2 of those Ex Illis boards to get the 4'x6' table, that's $180. Compared to the ~$200 pricetag of a Realm of Battle, that's only around 10% cheaper. When you take in account that 2 Ex Illis boards are 3240 square inch comparde to the 3456 square inch of the Realm of Battle, you get 18 square inch/dollar for the Ex Illis board, and 17.28 square inch/dollar for the Realm of Battle. So basically, the Ex Illis board is only 4% cheaper for the same size. When you take in account the nice carrying bag you get with the Realm of Battle, I'd say the price difference is non-existant.

Now for the board it self, I guess that depends how much you like/hate the skull pits and hills of the Realm of Battle. Personally I don't mind em, and I like the general look of the Realm of Battle better than the Ex Illis board. Also I'm not sure how well those clasps work, but trying to keep 40 tiles in allignment during a game would probably bug the hell out of me. Not to mention that the 9" grid would pretty much eliminate having to guess a range. The Realm of Battle also has this problem, but at a 24" grid, it's not as bad.

Panic wrote:ROBB's got hills - I really don't know how people complain about this, if you want a perfectly flat board just buy a battle mat!

And if I want hills, I'll just buy a battle mat and a hill. The reason I'd want modular terrain is because there are some things a battle mat can't do, like represent trenches or waterways.

ROBB's got skulls - grim dark! if you don't like the grim dark, your in the wrong hobby!

There's a difference between grimdark and farce. If I wanted skulls, I'd add them myself in a way that actually makes sense, not as a rich vein of cranium.

If GW had of released this GameBoard I can imagine the cries from the GW haters "plain empty tiles, no features, no hills!"

The Ex Illis Gameboard has no features. The Realm of Battle has the wrong features.

Redemption wrote:...If you need 2 of those Ex Illis boards to get the 4'x6' table, that's $180. Compared to the ~$200 pricetag of a Realm of Battle, that's only around 10% cheaper...

It's 38% cheaper ($110 less)...ROBB is $290 in the states...

I like both boards...but this one is defnitely less expensive.

To the OP - thanks, always good to get advised of alternate products. I'm seriously considering one of these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgV6KntOQ5A from back2base-ix (the battle frame 5000 if my link doesn't work)

Gotta love a modular board held together with rare earth magnets

yeah,
that back to basix board looks good, i take it that those tiles are wooden?

also found this photo of the exillis board on BoardGameGeek.
doesn't look very good in these photos.



Panic...

Panic wrote:yeah,
ROBB's got skulls - grim dark! if you don't like the grim dark, your in the wrong hobby!
Panic...

You and me have very diferent definition of hobby then

Panic wrote:I love how everytime a new board comes out people start the ROBB bashing.
ROBB's got hills - I really don't know how people complain about this, if you want a perfectly flat board just buy a battle mat!
ROBB's got skulls - grim dark! if you don't like the grim dark, your in the wrong hobby!

The skulls are dopey, but they aren't really a problem. The hills are, because they're always there. You always have to have the hills. You cannot move or remove them, and the best you can do is shuffle them around a little. They're always there, and they limit the configurations you can use. A flat board is the best type of board because it is a blank slate - you can do whatever you want with it. The ROB you can do whatever you want with it as well... as long as 'whatever you want' = 'whatever you want + immovable hills'.

As I said above, a flat board which is as thick as the RoBB would be great - it allows you to sink things into the board such as rivers, pools, trenches etc.

Sheck2 wrote:

Redemption wrote:...If you need 2 of those Ex Illis boards to get the 4'x6' table, that's $180. Compared to the ~$200 pricetag of a Realm of Battle, that's only around 10% cheaper...

It's 38% cheaper ($110 less)...ROBB is $290 in the states...

I like both boards...but this one is defnitely less expensive.

http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/Games-Workshop/Hobby-items/Scenic-Supplies/CITADEL-REALM-OF-BATTLE-GAMEBOARD/prod_2482.html
That's where I got mine; $200 + shipping. Not sure what they'd ask for shipping a 10KG parcel to the states, but I'm assuming it's a less than $90, as it was about $15 to ship it here.

Biggest problem I see with the ex-illis board is that the tiles are pretty small - it'll need to be fully supported by the table underneath.

The RoB can be setup on a table smaller than 3x5.

It's decent value, even for the two that you'd need to get it to a decent size but if you've got to have a board to put it on as well then what's the point?

AlexHolker wrote:There's a difference between grimdark and farce. If I wanted skulls, I'd add them myself in a way that actually makes sense, not as a rich vein of cranium.

It's a little sad that it's only 2pm, and I already know I've read the best post I'll read today.

I agree in that for me, the hills are not a big deal (though I'd prefer no hills, they aren't a dealbreaker), but the human skull bedrock is ridiculous, and I'm disinclined to spend that much money on a board period, let alone one I'm going to have to resin\epoxy to fill in the gaps where the skulls are.

hey... I could use translucent resin, tinted red, and it could be like a pool of blood with skulls at the bottom. That doesn't sound too bad.

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Panic wrote:I love how everytime a new board comes out people start the ROBB bashing.
ROBB's got hills - I really don't know how people complain about this, if you want a perfectly flat board just buy a battle mat!
ROBB's got skulls - grim dark! if you don't like the grim dark, your in the wrong hobby!

The skulls are dopey, but they aren't really a problem. The hills are, because they're always there. You always have to have the hills. You cannot move or remove them, and the best you can do is shuffle them around a little. They're always there, and they limit the configurations you can use. A flat board is the best type of board because it is a blank slate - you can do whatever you want with it. The ROB you can do whatever you want with it as well... as long as 'whatever you want' = 'whatever you want + immovable hills'.

The hills are sizable though. How can this be a good thing? Because you can put terrain on top of them, making your board far more interesting to play on. Me, I love my one, and wouldn't without it.

The ROBB hills are indeed an excellent feature. Many a battle I've enjoyed fighting for the high ground when the hills are configured into the plateau.

Yes but you never have the choice to not have those hills. They’re always there. They can’t be removed. Once you’ve finished playing with a eith the hills on either side, and then with a hill in the middle, and then half a hill either side... you’ve still got hills and no other configs.

A flat board where you can put down your own hills (or not) will always be superior because you have a choice. There’s no standing terrain features, so you are free to put whatever you want wherever you want. You want hills? Put hills. Don’t want hills. Don’t put hills. With the RoB you have hills, and you’ll always have hills and cannot do anything about them. That’s why I call it ‘anti-imagination’, because it’s the old “any colour you like as long as it’s black”, except this time it’s “Whatever terrain want as long as you want HILLS!”.

I wouldn’t buy an Ex Illis board for a variety of reasons, but the closest it has got to immovable pre-set terrain are a few areas with what appear to be broken tiles. But they’re still flat, and I can put a building/hill/forest/jumping castle over them. What can I do to cover up a RoBB’s super-expensive pre-moulded hills? Umm... nothing.

At the risk of sounding like I'm just out to pick a fight (I'm not), why wouldn't you want Hills on your battlefield? I cannot think of anything blander than planet bowling green, flat and featureless.

If I had a flat board, I'd bung hills on it. But those hills likely wouldn't be big enough to stick further terrain upon.

Devil's Advocate:
You do have a choice with those hills. Don't buy the "complete" set, just buy the "expansion" parts.

You'll have the skull pits in that case though, and may end up paying a bit more...

But hey, no hills! Woo!

The hills never bothered me that much, if we want a flatter board we just put the hills in the corners were we don't come very often anyway. Although that might be because my usual opponent has had a fear of deploying within 12" of the sides ever since the Genestealer Indicent of '09.

Kan...you have an even better choice. Just go and make your own board.

Seriously, the way people whinge about things on the Interwebs, you'd think they were discussing compulsory purchases.

I've actually got my own board, and am planning out a second one

As for people moaning about not being able to put scenery on top of the hills, that's a load of cack.

When the hill sections are put together so that you have one big hill it is plenty large enough to put something on. Something like the Imperial Bastion goes on no problem at all.

This is just another typical case of people moaning about everything just for the sake of it.

And i'm also pretty sure that the skulls don't represent a 'layer', but more a crevice or chasm which has filled with skulls over time due to the inordinate amount of fighting and death which has supposedly taken place in the Warhammer World or on the various different worlds in the 40K universe. Moaning about it is pretty damn ridiculous.

*Edited for spelling*

Mr Mystery wrote:At the risk of sounding like I'm just out to pick a fight (I'm not), why wouldn't you want Hills on your battlefield? I cannot think of anything blander than planet bowling green, flat and featureless.

+ =

Am I just talking to myself here or are you just wilfully reading what you want, rather than what I wrote? When I say the best type of board is a flat board with no existing terrain because it is a blank slate where you can put anything not that I want a flat featureless plain.

My problem with the RoB isn’t the presence of hills, it’s the presence of hills that cannot be moved. Firstly, of course its good to have hills, but isn’t it better to have hills that you can put wherever you want in whatever configuration you want, as opposed to the 5-6 or so the RoB allows?

The Decapitator wrote:As for people moaning about not being able to put scenery on top of the hills, that's a load of cack.

You too appear to be having some comprehension problems. I don’t think anyone has said you can’t put things on top of the hills. Once again, my problem is that you cannot remove/move the hills at all.

The Decapitator wrote:And i'm also pretty sure that the skulls don't represent a 'layer'...

I was right. You are having trouble reading what's been written. Helpful Hint: Get your sarcasm detector upgraded. No one was actually suggesting with any level of seriousness that there's a skull 'layer'. Really...

Kan wrote:... Devil’s Advocate...

Is that the new buzzword for ‘defending a GW product’ hey?

But in all seriousness to your suggestion – one of those ‘expansion’ sets costs as much as the Ex Illis board. You need 3 such expansion sets to do a hill-less RoB... and only two Ex Illis to do a full board.

Panic wrote:yeah,
that back to basix board looks good, i take it that those tiles are wooden?
Panic...

Hi Panic - good question - I looked it up, and note that its MDF - so fine wood fibres held together by a resin product. I imagine it would cut and sand much like wood (the B2B-ix blog site states these are laser cut http://back2base-ix.blogspot.com/ ). 3mm isnt exceptionally thick... but I suspect it is on par with the ROBB so far as durability goes.

The ROBB isnt a bad product, I like the skulls and the hills, the quality is great and the one I have seen looks very sturdy. But it is a fixed product, and is also expensive. If having hills 'fixed' in a set shape are not your thing, or you dont like the skulls - avoid it, its not for you.

3mm MDF? Strong as a RoBB? I shouldn't think so skip. Seriously wouldn't think so.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Several years back, GW did a plain, green painted MDF board which was around (if memory serves) 5-6mm. Was alright for a bit, but soon warped out of shape (might have been how my brother stored his though!).

MDF simply isn't as tough as plastic.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

The Decapitator wrote:As for people moaning about not being able to put scenery on top of the hills, that's a load of cack.

When the hill sections are put together so that you have one big hill it is plenty large enough to put something on. Something like the Imperial Bastion goes on no problem at all.

This is just another typical case of people moaning about everything just for the sake of it.

And i'm also pretty sure that the skulls don't represent a 'layer', but more a crevice or chasm which has filled with skulls over time due to the inordinate amount of fighting and death which has supposedly taken place in the Warhammer World or on the various different worlds in the 40K universe. Moaning about it is pretty damn ridiculous.

*Edited for spelling*

The big central hill configuration is big enough to bung the Fortress of Redemption on. You know, it's almost as if they planned for the board to work exceptionally well with their own scenery range!

Panic wrote:yeah,
This is No good for 40k. You need to buy two ExIllis gameboard sets and you still fall short of the recommended 40k table size...
Plus I don't like the pre measuring grid set up from having 40x 9" tiles. some of the tiles even look like they have 1" grids within!

Yeah, this is a good point for 40k. On other systems like Fantasy and LotR this is actually a bonus, since you can already premeasure, and helps for scenarios which require you to be a certain distance from one another (pitched battle, blood and glory etc) and they use 9" increments. Do they come with any sort of transport?

H.B.M.C. wrote:[

Kan wrote:... Devil’s Advocate...

Is that the new buzzword for ‘defending a GW product’ hey?

I have a Drop Bear, and am not afraid to use it HB. Be warned!

But in all seriousness to your suggestion – one of those ‘expansion’ sets costs as much as the Ex Illis board. You need 3 such expansion sets to do a hill-less RoB... and only two Ex Illis to do a full board.

I didn't say it was a cheaper alternative. I said it was an alternative!