Warcry First Edition Starter Set Terrain

Let's look at the terrain pieces that originally got me into Warcry First Edition

Preface

After showing you both the starter warbands (here and here), it is time to look at the reason why I originally purchased the starter set: Terrain.

The entire ensemble is probably my second favorite terrain set I own (nr1 being another Warcry set). It has a nice mix of line of sight blocking, cover, and height difference. I regularly use it for all sorts of games, from fantasy to science fiction. Ruins work for pretty much any setting.

The Terrain

The bell tower is my favorite. It instantly draws the eye and makes a perfect centerpiece for smaller skirmish games.

My only complaint is with the hanging skeletons on either side. You don't see them in my pictures because they snapped during the painting process. I didn't touch them, but they were so poorly balanced that even just handling the tower itself had them shaking so much that they ultimately broke at their weak point (the chain).

Overall, not a big deal because the tower still looks great without them and I put the skeletons in my bits box for future projects.

I'm not going to show you every single piece (there are a lot of them), but should get the overall feel since most of them are quite similar.

The painting process was really fun and I did the entire set at once (May 2020). Most of it was drybrushing so it didn't take all that long.

I spray primed everything with GW Zandri Dust and drybrushed all the sandstone with GW Ushabti Bone. A messy wash with GW Agrax Earthshade was followed with a final drybrush of GW Screaming Skull.

The wood planks got a base coat of GW Mournfang Brown and the older wood got GW Dryad Bark. They also got a wash of GW Agrax Earthshade and then a drybrush highlight of GW Skrag Brown (planks) or GW Baneblade Brown (old).

The skeletons and skulls got a shade of GW Seraphim Sepia and a layer/highlight of GW Ushabti Bone.

The ropes got a base coat of GW XV-88, followed by a wash of GW Agrax Earthshade, and a layer/highlight of GW XV-88.

As you can see on the picture above, I went the lazy route and didn't paint the wooden spikes in a lighter color. It didn't bother me at the time, but looking at these pictures now, it definitely lacks a bit of contrast.

The two broken wells got a thin layer of water effect resin and the cloudy and dirty end results matches the entire theme.

I don't have a good camera or a good lighting setup, but even with this mediocre picture, you can still get a good idea of how it looks on the table.

Closing Thoughts

With terrain, it is always difficult to get the balance right between looking good and not distracting from the actual minis on the table. With this set, I feel like I've accomplished that, and I'm quite happy with how it blends in the background, while still providing a fantastic backdrop for the battle.

Sure, the wood planks are probably too bright, and the wooden spikes could use another round of paint, but that's not a priority for me right now. You can always find faults in your work, but it's very important to just call things done at some point.