Morning everyone,
So this weekend I was feeling a little down and decided I needed some retail therapy. So I headed down to GG and just started browsing. Now normally I am not a browser. I figure out what I want to buy after hours of research and consideration. So just heading into a store with no idea of what I want to get is not something I normally do. I found myself in the 40K section looking around and my eyes descended onto the Command Edition terrain expansion. A good amount of terrain and a battle board for $90. Considering some of the terrain prices I see from GW..this looked fairly decent. Plus, I'd be supporting my local game store. So what the heck, I picked it up and bought it.
Now I get home and immediately stuff it in my Terrain area (don't judge me). That said, my curiosity was nagging away at me so a few hours later I pulled it out and opened that puppy up (it went to the terrain area because I'm not planning on playing 40K any time soon with Covid roaming about). First off, the terrain is all snap to fit! Sweet. Any time I can avoid glue, the better. So clippers in hand and an exacto knife for clean up, I began building. Took maybe 20min of time and the whole set was assembled. There is maybe one piece that I will go back and use glue on, but the rest...no reason. It is all stable as is. I then popped out the battle board. Time will tell how durable it is. The cardboard itself is fairly thick, I'm a bit worried about the joints lasting. But at least so far, looks okay. The two sides are a nice urban dark grey, or a mars red. Both useful for 40K. The terrain pretty much covers the board too. All in all, pretty sweet.
Then it hit me, wait a minute...I need two of these boards. Some quick research and I figured out why GW put out this box...it is for people who bought one of the new starters. Those all come with a battle board. Add in the contents of this box, and you have a minimum size play area and a good deal of terrain to go on it. But I didn't buy one of those. I got the indomitus set...which didn't come with a battle board. No worries, I can just buy battleboards...in a two pack...which still leaves me with an odd board. Dang it.
So I immediately went to ebay...surely I could find a battle board there. And I did..for the tune of $27. Screw that nonsense...GW asks 2 for $50. Hmmmm, a few more google searches later and I come up empty. I mull over it for a while and eventually come back to the computer to research some more. I start looking at the terrain again and the boards and look at GW's pricing. What I discover is that this is a really sweet set. For the money, it is definitely one of the best buys from GW. Assuming $25 for the board, that leaves all that terrain for $65...which is more terrain than you get for GW's $60 set. So now I go back to ebay to see what kind of pricing I can get for this set there. $76 with free shipping was the best I found so far. Again...really good. However, my search also brought up GW's Command Set starter. Same terrain, plus necrons and marines. Ebay you can find it for $133. I nearly jumped on that. The one thing that stopped me...the terrain board. Apparently one side of the terrain board has markers in it, A thru E. I'm sure its for some scenarios in the starter...but for me..I didn't want a board with markers on it..plus, I didn't need the models. That said, if those don't bother you..that is an excellent set for the money.
So instead I grabbed another terrain expansion. This way I'll have more terrain and another battleboard. And that is about the best thing I can say about it...so good I bought it twice. The terrain is excellent. Each piece seems to be pretty durable, and still look really good. Easy to put together too. And the battle board means this is pretty much a must-buy if you already own one of the new starter sets.
By the way, GW has another terrain set on pre-order called Vertigus. It is $150. It comes with two battle boards and a bit more terrain. I would also put this as a good buy and might pick it up myself. That would give me a full sized board with four mats and a few different pieces to add. I would recommend this to anyone who got indomitus. Had I done my research, I probably would have skipped the Command edition and just waited for that. That being said, I don't regret my purchase at all. It was still a good buy. It is nice that GW is tossing out good options for people no matter how you got into 9th edition.
Up next, a review of Wizkids Manitcore set. Until then....
