Fort on the Frontier

A Warmaster/Battle of Five Armies Battle

     The Master of Bows peered towards the western sky, watching the light fade behind the last foothill across the river. Clouds had been approaching from the north all day, a dark pall, low and thick, rolling over the mountain peaks in a way that made his neck prickle. Even the youngest of the men had noticed, and muttered about what it meant. But the archer knew. And the Warden of the Wild Reaches knew as well, setting the men and elves on the wall in full array, and the small cavalry detachment to saddling up in the courtyard below. But mysterious as the powers of their wizard commander were, the sign the Master of Bows set most store by had come when he found the garrison’s weapon’s master sharpening his axe in the armory.
     “So, there’s to be a battle, then?” the bowman had asked his taciturn dwarven friend.
     “Aye,” was the only answer, and it hadn’t been needed.

     

     The sound of a horn, high and sharp cracked through the cold air, and hope sprang in the archer’s heart.

     “Our brethren approach,” said his elven lieutenant, pointing south of the river’s ford, “and with them I see horsemen, bearing the banner of the royal house— and there are more of Durin’s folk as well, alas.”
     “Don’t look down upon our relief, woodland brother,” the bowman laughed, clapping his fair comrade on the shoulder.
     “How can I help but do so,” replied the elf, “if only because of their height?” But he smiled when he said it, for he, too, shared the gladness to see a sign of strength approaching.

     But then another horn broke through the darkening day, and it was harsh and rough and cold, like the crackle of dry bones, and behind it came the howls of wolves, a din beyond counting.

     “See now why the stars hide,” whispered the elf, and the Master of Bows stared northward in horror. The mountain slopes boiled with misshapen creatures and glittered with equally mis-made spearpoints, while down in the western valley wolves raced forward, all too many also bearing as riders the same creatures as the mountainsides.

     “Our brethren...” breathed the elf.

     “Had best not tarry,” finished the archer, “for I fear there is little we can do to help them.” And perhaps not even ourselves, he did not say aloud.

***

Yesterday I trotted out some of my 10mm fantasy collection and set up a little battle scenario. As I had yet to test out my fortress from Sally 4th (read about it here), I opted for a castle assault scenario, but to make it more than just a static pounding, I added the element of a relief force marching to supplement an under-manned garrison. As I also wanted to field my growing cavalry force, this gave an ideal setting for the two.

The Rules and Special Rules

Rules are the Battle of Five Armies (Warmaster) rules from Games Workshop (OOP, sadly). The castle assault rules are from the Warmaster rule book, but otherwise I stuck with the army lists, magic rules, and wording from the Bo5A rules, as these reflect corrections and additions to the core set.

A few special rules which might or might not be reflected in either rule book (but probably should be):

Archer units located in a fortress tower (but not a wall) can see and shoot in any direction. All stands are considered able to see and shoot, regardless of the unit’s physical orientation in the tower. Nor does anything at ground level (or any other level) block line of sight except for elements of the fortress itself (you can’t shoot through another tower, or at enemies obscured by the walls). So this means that a three-stand unit of elf archers will always roll three dice when shooting at a target in LOS of the tower. Range is unaffected, and is measure horizontally, not vertically.

Although wolf riders are technically shooting units, they can’t effectively attack units fortified behind castle walls (or in towers, of course). This reflects these units’ nature as skirmishing harassment troops. Cavalry also cannot charge units on fortress walls. (I’m pretty certain that’s in the Warmaster rules anyway, but if not, well, it is on my tabletop!)

The fortress has one small sally port located on the south edge of the westernmost tower. Friendly units may enter or exit from this sally port, provided no enemy units are assaulting the southwestern wall or the tower at that time (that is, engaged in combat with the wall’s defenders). As per standard rules, friendly units may enter or exit the main gate without penalty (but must accept an order to do so). Again, if the gate wall is under assault, the gate cannot be opened for either exit or entry (doing so would be immediately treated as a breach).

Any undefended wall can be immediately scaled by the enemy (note that the initial garrison is unable to man all of the walls and the towers as well). However, undefended towers are still unassailable (the scaling ladders aren’t long enough).

In this scenario, I decided that the hill slopes are “difficult” terrain— not dense or steep enough to offer defended status, and still passable to cavalry, but causing any troop upon them to move at half-pace. This is a bit of departure from the standard rules (and was probably a mistake on my part, but I wanted something to slow the initial onslaught of the goblin horde).
Troops on the top level of the hill can reach the lower levels by descending the two sloping passages sculpted into the hills.

The Forces

The Warden of the Wild Reaches is a wizard equipped with a Staff of Power (and, apparently, a pet bird and halfling manservant).

The Master of Bows has the same shooting bonus ability as Bard from Bo5A. The dwarven Weapons Master is a dwarf hero (+2 attack bonus), as is the dwarf captain in the relief column.

All others as per Bo5A rules, except the Orc Trebuchet, which uses the Warmaster Orc Rock Lobber stats.

I didn’t bother to calculate points, as I had no idea how to cost out the fortress itself (which, by the way, really made a big difference). But for comparison, the Goblin Horde had 113 units, including characters, and the Army of the Wild Reaches had only 55 units total— which I suspect on the points match up is grossly in favor of the goblins!

Good Guys

The Garrison of the Wild Reaches
Elf Spearmen (2 units)
Elf Archers (2 units)
Men Spearmen (1 unit)
Men Archers (2 units)
Horse Tribe Cavalry (1 unit): Attack 3 Hits 3 Armor 5+
Horse Tribes Archer Cavalry (1 unit): Attack 2/1, Hits 3, Armor 0. Can shoot 360°, 15cm

Heroes:
Master of Bows (Bard stats)
Dwarf Weapons Master (dwarf hero)
The Warden of the Wild Reaches (wizard general)

The Relief Column
Elf Spearmen (2 units)
Elf Archers (2 units)
Dwarf warriors (2 units)
Horse Tribe Cavalry (1 unit) “The Riders of the Westfold” (Red cloaks)
Horse Tribe Royal Cavalry (1 unit): Attacks 4 Hits 3 Armor 5+

Heroes:
The Lord of the Woodland Realm (Elf hero)
The Dwarf Captain (Dwarf hero)

All infantry from GW's Battle of Five Armies boxed sets.
Cavalry from Copplestone Casting's Horse Tribe line.

Bad Guys

The Goblin Horde
Goblins (16 units)
Wolf Riders (16 units)
Wargs (16 units)
Goblin Guard (1 unit)
Hill Trolls (1 unit)
Gigantic Bats (1 unit, flying monster)
Storm Giant (1 unit, monster)
Rock Lobber (1 unit, artillery)

Heroes:
The Goblin King (general)
Orc Chieftain (4)
Goblin Shaman (1)

For the record, the Horde forces consisted of two entire goblin armies (with wargs and riders) from two Battle of Five Armies sets, plus a unit of GW Bo5A Goblin Guard, a GW WM giant, a unit of GW Bo5A Hill Trolls, a Rock Lobber (Kallistra Orc Trebuchet) and a unit of Gigantic Bats (Splintered Light’s “Bat Swarm”).

The Set Up

Defender sets up first. The Garrison deployed in the fort, with the spearmen on the walls and the archers in the towers. The southernmost wall was left unmanned, as the threat was to the north, and assuming a detachment from the relief column reached the fort, manning it would not be an issue, In a pinch, however, a tower could be abandoned to protect the wall.

The Relief Column set up west of the river, on the southern edge of the map (for game purposes, “North” is at the top of the wide photos, along a long edge of the battlefield).
To make things move quicker, the column deployed into two temporary brigades— the elves all in one and the cavalry and dwarves in the other.

The Goblin Horde then set up on the northern edge of the battlefield. The evil cavalry and six infantry had to deploy west of the river. North of the river, the forces had to deploy either on the hill or immediately abutting the edge of the table.

Scenario Design
I conceived of this scenario as having two parts— the attempt by the relief column to reach the garrison, and the subsequent assault. It did play out that way, but not entirely as I expected (or planned).

The Goblin Horde appears to the north— can the tiny garrison
of the Wild Reaches survive?

And Now, The Battle!

The First Hour— The Race for the Ford

The dwarves and the riders of the Mark claim the Ford, but the elves tarry.

The Warden sends out the garrison cavalry to aid the relief column.

The Warden casts a spell, and throws the evil bats into disarray.

The Horde advances on the fort, but fails to press the column.

The forlorn hope— the goblins try to take the eastern wall!

The elves hold— the goblins are repulsed!

The Second Hour— Barbs, Blunders, Bats and Blood

The relief column advances, and connects with the garrison cavalry, but fails
to reach the fortress; the elves prepare to receive the charge of the vile wargs.

The elven archers and the bowmen unleash their barbed shafts, decimating the
 goblin forlorn hope...

Oops— "someone" has blundered.

Missed 'em by that much— the wargs' impetuous charge fails!
(Oh, I supposed I could have fudged in the dogs' favor. But this was funnier.)

The bats bite while the Giant and the Goblin Guard batter the relief column. 

On the right, the hill trolls withdraw from the archers in the towers.

The orc trebuchet (upper left center, by the river) and goblin arrows drive

the men of the Westfold and the elves from the ford in confusion (center).

The bats and dwarves fall back, but the Royal Guard of the Mark is lost!

Meanwhile, the giant slaughters the horse archers of the garrison.

The heavy cavalry takes casualties, but rebuffs the Goblin Guard.

(Cavalry retreats 1cm, but infantry cannot pursue, and loses a stand as well.)

The Third Hour— Monster Bashing, and an Orc Too Far

More death from above for the goblin forlorn hope.

The elves attack the wargs, the dwarves strike the center— and the giant is
confused (well, more than usual) by a hail of arrows from the tower!

Dwarves On a Roll, or Bye-Bye, Bat-birds!

The Horde Recoils (for now...)

On the left, the elves drive back the wargs and the warg riders with heavy losses.

In the center, the bats, the Goblin Guard and goblin infantry are destroyed.

The giant is forced to retreat in front of the garrison gate, and remains confused.

The garrison cavalry tries for the infantry near the Goblin King in hopes of an

early victory, but falls back when the goblins hold (combat draw— lucky devils!)

The Hour of the Wolves

The wargs and warg riders charge the elves, the goblins charge in the center,

and the Goblin King wisely retreats onto the mountain slopes.

The forlorn hope hopes forlornly. (Not a chance, bub.)

 The Last Stand of the Elves

The charge of the wargs.

The elves are overwhelmed.

The ford falls.

The End of the Third Hour

The ford is lost, the center is scattered, and there's a giant at the gates— time

to attack, obviously! (Oh, and the forlorn hope is down to one stand...)

 The Fourth Hour— Bold Action

When hard pressed— attack!

The Riders of the Westfold take a chance and charge the giant, and the dwarves

charge the goblins, aided by the garrison cavalry.

(The other dwarves were confused by the trebuchet on the previous turn.)

The Giant Falls!

 The spearmen of the garrison sally to aid the cavalry of the Westfold 

(and the dwarf captain lends his skill). Driven back against the tower,

the giant dies.

The spearmen withdraw back to the garrison, but the riders press on...

And utterly destroy the hill trolls!
(And the lone orc chieftain with nowhere to run...)

Meanwhile, the dwarves and cavalry slay the goblin front.

... and the cavalry charges into the reserves, threatening the Goblin King again!

The Goblin King survives, and the garrison cavalry falls back. On the far right,

the goblin forlorn hope assault has been driven back yet again. 

 ... and the Goblin King responds.

The Wargs Cross the River

The dwarves are in danger, and the goblin center charges the garrison cavalry,

aided by chieftain.

A lone warg tries for the central dwarves, but the orders fail. The Goblin King

scurries to the center left.

Oh, and the forlorn hope (unseen) tries for the wall. Again. (Guess who dies?)

 

The Fifth Hour— The Center Cannot Hold

With the dwarf left lost, the dwarf center falls back south to protect its flank

from the approaching wargs and warg riders. To the north, the combined

cavalry charges the remaining goblin center.

The warden sends archers to the southern tower, but fails to man the

southwestern wall.

The skirmish is won...

The lone wargs in the center are shot down by the Master of Bows and elves.

To the north, the riders destroy the goblins and fall back towards the garrison.

But the Horde is undaunted...

The wargs charge, eliminate garrison cavalry, but trade one for one with the

men of the Westfold.

The next wave of the Horde advances in the center and the left, reaching the ford.

Warg riders approach the dwarves in center south, but fail the order to charge.

The Warden surveys his losses, and realizes his army is hanging on by a thread—

a two unit thread! (26 units lost towards a breaking point of 28 units.)

 The Sixth Hour— Back to the Garrison!

Give them a volley!

The archers in the western and southern towers turn the warg riders into

porcupines, driving them back to the ford. The archers in the north tower drive

the lone wargs back.

With the way cleared, the dwarves and the Westfold cavalry advance to the

safety of the garrison—  the relief column (or what's left of it) has finally

arrived... just in time to fully man the walls!

Now useless, the horde cavalry moves out of the way as the infantry
closes for the grand assault.

The Seventh Hour— The Last Sortie

The Final Sally

The Warden takes a risk, seeing an opportunity to perhaps crack the Horde's resolve.

He orders the dwarves to sortie from the gate, striking the goblin assault before it

can reach the wall...

The dwarves hew their enemies down, advance, pursue and hew again!

But the Weapons Master fears to press further...

... and pulls his dwarves back to the garrison, sealing the gates a final time.

This battle will be won or lost on the walls.

Approaching the walls...

Having watched the deadliness of the archers, the Goblin King orders the
warg riders to screen the assault force from the towers.

 The Final Hour— The Grand Assault!

The Warden is content to man his walls and wait—

But first the archers send the warg riders into confusion.

The great assault begins.

The goblins pour across the ford, raising ladders against the gate wall and

the western wall— will they overwhelm the men and elves?

Hail the Valar— the assault is repulsed!

The Goblin King is seized with dismay— his army is broken!
(61 units lost, with a breaking point of 57)

The clouds break, and the horde flees in panic.

The Garrison Triumphant!

Closing Thoughts

 This battle turned out to be a lot of fun. I think a few things became clear to me—
one is that the goblin infantry really have little or chance of taking the walls. They never even managed to inflict a single hit.
The Goblin King (okay, me) erred in not sending the giant against the gate, and in pulling back the Hill Trolls. Both could have either taken a wall or (in the case of the giant) breached the gate early on. By the time the trebuchet was in range of the fortress, there was no time left in the battle (I always use the eight turn limit, and holding the garrison meant victory for the good guys, regardless of anything else.) Losing the bats early hurt, too.

On the other hand, the Warden (also me) nearly blew it by mucking around across the ford. The elves could inflict damage, yes, but there was no way they could stand against the wargs and goblin cavalry. Staying there was death— the elves should have crossed the ford and blocked it up rather than forming long lines that could be assaulted en masse. Also, not simply rushing the relief column into the garrison was another mistake— if the relief column had made it safely inside, the wargs and warg riders would have been able do nothing to anyone in the fortress! So fighting them in the open was silly, and almost cost the Warden the battle. (I had only been casually keeping track of casualties, and then I tallied up what was going on and realized the garrison was but a handful of stands from the breaking point! Yikes!)

But all in all, as a solo game this turned out to be quite satisfying. I look forward to trying a scenario like this one again, maybe against an opponent more worthy than myself!

--- Howard

A Home for Warriors: Building the Laser Cut Fortress from Sally 4th

A late wind rises above the fields, carrying with it the sounds of leather slapping against metal, the clop of hooves on stone, and high upon the breeze the sound of one lone horn calling out in greeting, “Open the gates! The lords have returned from battle!”

Forth, Eolingas!

THE PROJECT

Every army needs a home, a place to muster, to train, and to occasionally defend in a desperate fight against overwhelming odds (or to try and assault with the same). While I have praised (and still do) the excellent paper Kragenvale Keep (review here), I also wanted something a bit more generic (and potentially more imposing). So when Sally 4th, a new manufacture based in the United Kingdom, announced a line of laser cut MDF fortresses, I was intrigued. In fact, I suggested on The Miniatures Page that they consider a 10mm line scaled for Warmaster’s 20mm x 40mm bases... and lo and behold, they did just that. When they also tacked on a sale, I couldn’t resist. Carefully leading my lovely spouse to the computer, I pointed at the screen, said “This is my birthday present from you. Click the button.” And she was more than happy to comply.

As I’d promised myself that I would complete other projects before tackling a new one, I set my present aside and waited. Finally, this weekend I put on my construction hat, opened the package, and went to work.

THE FORTRESS

I had opted to create a small fortress consisting of four towers, three wall sections, and a gateway. (Let me take a moment to praise the company. When I first received the shipment, my examination of the contents revealed a few pieces that were damaged in shipping. I sent an e-mail to Sally 4th, and promptly received all the necessary replacement parts and a bonus of 5 little siege ladders.) Not certain how long the process would take, I noted that the towers looked the least complicated, as well as the most versatile (a lone tower is a viable scenario piece, whereas a lone wall or gateway just looks odd). So I decided to begin with this piece.

THE TOWERS

The parts of the tower.
At the bottom of the picture are two broken battlement sections
 as well as the siege ladders Sally 4th sent as a bonus.

Shown in the picture are the tower parts (and the extra siege ladders— these do not come with the product). These consist of three walls with arrow slits, one wall with door archways, four interior battlement facades, four exterior battlement facades, an interior tower floor (etched to look like wood), a roof/battlement floor (etched to look like assorted stone), four “battlement support” pieces (etched to appear like stone) that hold the battlement section in place, four interior floor supports (unetched), two arched doors (slightly different) and two trap doors (identical). There is also a guide piece used to align the floor supports.

The set does come with instructions, but I will say these are a bit sparse. Still, it’s not hard to determine from the pictures what to do.

Painting the Tower

Although the instructions don’t call for it, since the upper interior of the tower forms a room that is visible when the battlement is removed, I decided to paint the interior parts before assembly. Since I have four towers to build, I primed all four tower sets at the same time. As the floor and doors would also be permanent once installed, I painted them as well, using a slightly thinned acrylic craft paint (Delta Ceramcoat Burnt Umber). Although Burnt Umber is a very dark brown pigment, the paint absorbed partially into the MDF, which ended up producing a “stained wood” effect that I quite liked.

Assembling the Tower

If you look closely at the photo, you might notice that the battlement floor (or tower roof) has a series of small square holes around the edges. These are not construction elements, so I gather they represent drain holes as a real fortress might use for boiling oil! (Or, in more mundane times, rain gutters.) You may notice that one of these is not punched. I had several such elements in my various parts, but found that slight pressure with a small pointed tool popped them out with no fuss (I used a golf tee I had handy).

Walls

The tower walls were quite simple to assemble. I put a bit of white glue (PVA or Elmer’s) on the inside of the notches, and then fit the four walls together. The order of the walls doesn’t matter; they’re essentially interchangeable, and the orientation is obvious; if you find that the walls aren’t meeting equally at the top and bottom, simply turn the wall vertically 180°. Voila— perfect fit.

Note that I used one of the floor pieces as a guide to make certain the walls fit square. This is recommended in the instructions. What isn’t mentioned, and I found helpful, is to wrap the tower in rubber bands (two should do) to act as a “clamp” while the glue dries.

Floor Supports

The problem: A tight fit.

The solution: Rubber bands.

Next I installed the interior floor supports as the instructions stated. This proved trickier than I expected; the fit is very tight on these, and my first effort resulted in the tower springing apart... that’s when I discovered how useful rubber bands could be.

Battlements

Battlements "clamped" for gluing.

Lower support sections added underneath

With the floor supports in place, I proceeded to the battlement and roof assembly. This seems like it might be tricky, but it’s actually fairly simple. The four interior battlements (no notches) all have slots on the bottom that slip onto tabs along the edges of the battlement floor. Note that the stonework side on these faces inward— that’s important. The exterior sides have notches that fit into each other just like the tower walls. These are glued back-to-back to the interior battlements, with the exterior stonework facing out, matching the crenellations to the crenellations on the interior battlement. Line ‘em up, wrap with a rubber band as a clamp, and let dry.

While this is drying, you can also install the under supports. Flip the battlement over. The supports have tabs that fit into slots in the roof. The stonework faces out. Glue and set the whole thing aside to dry. Easy peasy.

The Tower Doors

Before installing the doors or anything else, I recommend painting or priming the exterior of the tower; this protects your “wood” pieces from inadvertently becoming “stone” pieces. (I forgot to remove the interior floor on one of my towers and wound up with “clouds” of gray paint on my new hardwood tower flooring! Man, was I peeved at that contractor... But I sanded it out and repainted the burnt umber. Lesson learned!)

The doors and trap doors are nicely detailed with “bands” intended to be iron straps. So before installing the doors, I also gave these little “studded” strips a quick dab of black acrylic craft paint.

Two different doors: Upper and lower.

This step is where an eye for detail becomes important. The instructions don’t mention this, but there are two types of arched doors— one where the door is etched inside a rectangle of wood with clear wood “margins” all around, and another where the bottom edge of the door is flush with the edge of the wood. This is important, because the latter doors (flush with the edge) are for the upper room of the tower; the flush edge allows the door to sit against the upper room floor. The “margin” doors are for the bottom of the tower. So pay attention when installing these!

Trap doors (What, no elevator?)

The trapdoors can be glued anywhere you like. One goes on the interior floor, the other on the battlement floor. I chose the center for the roof door and the side or corner for the room floor door, but the placement is up to the builder.

Once the doors are on, the battlement simply sits in place atop the tower. Nothing to it!



Below are some pictures of a tower "in action." (These also are better photos of some of my critters from the last post, as promised.)

A lonely tower on the moors, and the beasties that want to claim it!

Smile for your beauty shot, Dain!

Ugly Brutes! (Battle of Five Armies Hill Trolls)

Little Ugly Brutes! (Battle of Five Armies Goblin Guard)

A poor man's Orthanc!
(Even stacked this high, the towers remain very stable.)

THE FORTRESS WALLS

The Wall Parts. Not as complicated as it looks.

Though the walls look complicated, and have some different bits, I found them even easier to build than the towers. The base acts to hold the assembly square (it’s basically a big rectangular box with a facade on one side). This set also didn’t need to be primed before assembly; it’s all stone, and has no exposed interior, so I could glue it completely before painting.

The walls consist of a base (with a cobblestone edge), a short interior wall (no crenellations), a stone roof/battlement walkway, an interior battlement wall (with etched stone crenellations and the rest blank), two side walls, the exterior facade (fully etched, with crenellations), and two “buttresses.” There’s also a long narrow “trim” piece that fits into the exterior facade. I’m not certain what this is intended to be except for a bit of three dimensional detailing. Looks good, anyway.

Assembling the Walls

Walls Assemble! (Basically, add glue, fit, clamp, done.)

As I said, assembly is simple. I glued the two side walls (notches down) to the interior battlement wall (stonework facing inwards) and the interior stone wall (stone work facing away from the battlement wall). Then I glued this to the base, with the cobblestone on the interior side of the wall (it’s the courtyard floor, or at least some of it). As there are specific notches in the base for the various pieces, there’s no other way to assemble it, so you really aren’t likely to make a mistake. Just be certain the side wall has the notch side down.

Once this is in place, glue the exterior facade to the battlement wall, matching the crenellations. Stick on the buttresses, add the trim bit, and wrap with a bunch of rubber bands to dry. Prime later, and you’re done with your castle walls.

THE GATEWAY

The Gatehouse components. Notice the block of hinge parts.

This proved to be the trickiest piece to assemble, and alas, nowhere near as easy as the others. I’ll preface this part by saying that I’m no modeler. I don’t like finicky bits, and I’m not a deft hand at trimming. Unfortunately, this would become an issue.

The Gatehouse Doors

The problem arises with the doors. Sally 4th opted to create a very realistic door design for their gateway, including working full pin hinges and gate bar brackets. I suspect this is a translation from their 28mm scale forces, and at first it seems like a neat feature. In practice, at least for me, it became a headache.

Painting the Doors

The back of the doors.

The front of the doors.

I had painted the doors with brown umber for the “wood” and flat black for the bands and the various parts. Though recessed into the gatehouse, the back of the door is visible from the interior, and has no detailing (I gather laser-etching is a one-sided deal, or at least double-sided etching is cost prohibitive). I experimented on an extra guide piece from the tower build to see if I could create straight lines, but abandoned this attempt, and opted to just paint the door burnt umber and hand-painted two black bands to match the etched bands on the front. But that was just painting, and not a source of any difficulty— that would be the “bits.”

The Difficult “Bits”

The brackets clamped for repairs and repainting. :-(
I also chose to paint the two front wall halves near the
arches, as I was concerned the bare wood might show later.

The problem lies in the nature of laser-etched MDF. As the pieces for the hinges and the  bar brackets are small, Sally 4th left them intact within a small square of MDF, with instructions to punch them out for assembly. Unfortunately, these pieces didn’t “punch.” I had painted both sides first because it seemed like an easier step than trying to paint each individually. It’s possible that the paint added to my woes, but in any case the hinge parts and the brackets weren’t cut all the way through; I tried trimming with an X-acto blade, but the pieces still split along the plane of the MDF when I tried to remove them from the MDF piece. I had to glue the pieces together, which produced less than stellar results.

It Hinges on the Hinges

The hinges with the pins in place.
Note that they can't be glue into
the walls already pinned.
(I found that out the hard way.)
But you can see how they fit.
(Click on the image to enlarge.)

Later, when it came time to add the hinge pieces to the door, I found that the pieces were thicker than the gaps between the pieces; this meant I had to sand down the hinge parts (ruining my “quick and easy” paint job). Rather than hunt out some sandpaper, I just used a handy fingernail file. Fortunately, the area sanded was the interior of the hinge, which will mostly hidden from view.

The "arch" hinges glued to the wall.
(Click on the image to enlarge.)

The size of the hinges at 10mm scale also proved tricky. Although the set came with four black straight pins (two extra) to act as the hinge pins, lining up the hinge parts for the pin was no easy task. First I had to use the smallest bit of my pin vice to clear the holes intended for the pin (these too had not been cut all the way through). After that, it was trial and error to line up the parts, especially once the arch hinge parts were glued to the gateway wall piece.

(The instructions, by the way, are incorrect about the number of hinge parts. There are 3 “d” hinge parts for each door half, and 4 “arch” hinge parts for each door half.)

Hanging the Doors

The doors "hung" in place.

The doors inside the "archway".
Note how they actually hang back
from the walls. (Click to enlarge.)

I was a little thrown by how the door fits into the gate arch. I had assumed that it would be flush with at least one gate wall, but from what I can tell, it’s meant to hang somewhat suspended in the middle of the gate. That seems a bit odd, and the instructions don’t say one way or the other, but this position is the only way I could see the design working due to the design of the hinges. At least, it’s how I wound up installing the doors. On the tabletop it looks fine— the doors appear to be set back inside the gatehouse, though if you pick up the gatehouse and peer closely, you can see the gap between the wall and the door.

I suspect that part of the problem is that, if you follow the instructions and the photos, you wind up with the hinge pins on the exterior side of the door— that is, the side that would face the enemy! It’s possible that I might have installed these parts incorrectly, though I tried to follow the image included with the instructions.

A Pain in the Brackets

Lastly, I found the bar brackets to be equally as difficult to work with. Like the hinge parts, these also split when removed from the MDF square. I glued and clamped them back together, but then discovered that they’re too large to fit into the intended holes on the door halves. I finally resorted to whittling off the posts to fit and painting them black.

To Beam or Not To Beam

The doors opened as fully as they will go.
Note the bar brackets in place (whew!).
View is from the inside of the gateway.

The set includes a beam to bar the door, which I only realized when I had installed the bar brackets. At first I thought this small piece of wood was merely an extra bit of scrap. But as it is, whether due to the design or the fact that I had to trim the bar brackets to fit them into the doors, and the beam was too wide to slip in the space. I filed and filed away at the fit, certain at any moment I would snap the beam. That didn’t happen, but then I also gave up on creating a strip slim enough to fit the brackets (and still be removed). I might just substitute a flat toothpick instead, if I want to bother with the bar.

Fling the Gates, Uhm, Narrow

After all this work, it turns out that the doors won’t open fully perpendicular to the wall; they strike the inner archway at about 45°. As a result, the gap between the open doors is smaller than the narrow edge of a Warmaster base. Of course, this is not a factor in play (one simply rules that a stand can fit either way in the arch), and not really a big deal in appearance— just don’t expect to “fling the gates wide.”

Assembling the Gatehouse

The rest of the gatehouse assembled very much similar to the walls. Note that the doors need to be built in before the final assembly, and plan accordingly. This means you should paint or prime the interior walls before installing the doors, or you’ll face some interesting painting headaches. Although I had taken this step, I discovered I had failed to paint the long exterior trim piece, and had sprayed the incorrect side of one wall edge after I assembled the piece. But since these were exterior surfaces, I simply masked off the doors and sprayed away.

FINAL THOUGHTS

A fortress, manned (or elved) and ready!
You will see that each tower easily holds an entire Warmaster unit, as do the walls.
Bring on the orc hordes!

The towers and walls are versatile pieces, and very easy to build. The gateway probably has more detail than is really needed with the hinge assembly and the bar brackets, especially given the effort I had to trim, paint and install them. But once it’s all together, the set makes for a great fortress, suitable for fantasy, medieval or even some ancients settings. Historical purists may not like the significant overhang created by the tower battlements, or the small buttress pieces on the walls and gates, but this is not intended to be a replica of any specific building. Rather it is a playable fortress which can support the base width and depth of Warmaster units (as well as other basing systems). For that purpose, I think it is an excellent choice. I would recommend to casual modelers that you consider skipping the intricate hinge work and opt for just gluing the gates in place, or glueing them to a simple base stand (perhaps the guide pieces from the tower) so they can be removed when “opened” or “battered down” during play. I will say, that despite the problems I had with the hingers and brackets, I still very much appreciate the quality of this product. Whatever headaches these caused, it’s still a terrific looking piece, and I’m quite happy with my purchase.

Sally 4th has also just announced a 10mm Norman Keep that will work with this set; it’s on my list (hint, hint).

WHERE TO FIND THE FORTRESS

Sally 4th sells a wide range of laser cut MDF products for 10mm, 15mm and 28mm scales. They can be ordered direct from the UK, but they now have a US distributor through Scale Creep Miniatures. I’ve purchased products from Mark, the owner of Scale Creep, both in person and on line, so I’ll vouch for his excellent service and prompt delivery. Plus, he’s just a great guy. Order with confidence!

Sally 4th's website

Scale Creep Miniatures website

--- Parzival