Review of Big Pack W

Blurb from the publisher: 'Felix Scenery is the brainchild of Giuseppe Ghiara, an avid boardgamer. With this project he brings together his board game love and his professional experience in print and graphic design. The aim is to create scenic elements for war games, made of printed cardboard, already cut and ready to put together without using glue. Every piece will be ready in just a few simple steps. You will be able to assemble and disassemble these elements whenever you want, thanks to the way they are made. Just like all beautiful things, Felix Scenery is born to be enjoyed.

Our backdrops are particularly appreciated by everybody that doesn’t have a lot of time or space to dedicate on gaming scenery.

Our products are unique because:

-you can change the elements’ appearance;

-you can take apart every single piece; in this way you reduce their space and you can transport them wherever you like;

–the cardboard can’t be broken, thanks to its thickness and high quality.

Felix Scenery gives you the possibility to create your own backdrops, which will always be different from one another.

Felix Scenery: One Brand, a Million Combinations!

The Big PacK W contains all three products from our Sci-Fi W series: the Short Wall 1, the Long Wall 2 and the Long Wall 3. The W series does not provide predefined elements, but only WALLS , in this case 4 inches long, to be combined as you prefer to create the structures that you desire. The elements are combinable in a multitude of combinations. In the W series doors and windows slide inside guides and can be closed or open as you want.

Big Pack W is made of laminated cardboard with a thickness of 1,4 mm and a weight of 1050 g/m2. The elements are already printed on both sides and do not need to be painted. They feature an interlocking assembly and do not need glue. Even though they are designed for permanent assembly, the parts can be dismounted for significant space savings.'

What you get: Your EUR 65 or equivalent will buy you Big PacK W, a package that contains all three different products in the W Sci-Fi Series for 28 mm miniatures from Felix Scenery. The included products are the Short Wall (Sci-Fi SW1), the Long Wall 2 (Sci-Fi LW2) and the Long Wall 3 (Sci-Fi LW3). Seeing how the three different products purchased separately cost EUR 80, this is a serious discount of just under 20%.

When opening the set you will be greeted by eight pieces of laminated cardboard; all the elements are die-cut. The only thing you have to do is detach them from the cardboard and bend where needed. Instructions are provided on different sheets of paper about how to use the interlocking mechanisms and assemble the elements.

The elements included is the totality of elements of the three aforementioned products: that would be 4 short walls with small window, 4 long walls with door, one long wall with 2 big windows, 1 long wall with one big and one small window, one long wall with one big window, one long wall with 3 small windows, 4 long walls with door, 24 window guides, 4 small windows, 4 big windows, 16 door guides, 8 doors, 8 reductors for doors, 8 parapets, 2 floors (24 x 24 cm), 10 plugs for long walls, 12 wallstops and 4 lock-pins. The most obvious configuration is the one with two major and two smaller square buildings. What is more interesting however is the creation of buildings with different chambers and ante chambers, rectangular buildings with weird edges, even smaller buildings or elements of buildings etc.

The strong points: This is must-own scenery. Gorgeous as the cathedral and bunkers from the Big PacK K are, Big Pack W provides the building blocks that one is bound to use the most. Be them utilitarian research stations, abandoned outposts, living quarters or what have you, this is the set to use. It can be rethemed as a dozen things, depending on the other landscape elements that you might be using, without ever degenerating into generic. The sci-fi moniker is almost off target, taking into account the design of the buildings and how accommodating they can be. The set can adorn an enormous amount of battlefields, especially urban ones, create the scenery for staging indoor battles in small or big enclosed spaces, or provide the single structure in an otherwise desolate landscape. The possibilities are endless.

This scenery is thick, thicker and heavier than its Big Pack K brother (1,4 mm instead of 1,2 mm). Forget resin or plastic, these buildings can withstand handfuls of metal miniatures on top of them. You don’t need to be dexterous or crafty in order to assemble them; just take them out of their cardboards, bend them at the right places and you are good to go. The fact that they can be disassembled and stored in two dimensions is extremely convenient. If you are afraid that your clumsiness will prevent you from properly assembling the scenery or if you simply wish to look before you buy, the company’s website has videos for every single one of the structures that I just described.

The buildings are not simple fronts. They have walkways and already painted interiors. They can be used from either side in dozens of configurations. You can create clusters of many small buildings, combine them for substantially bigger ones, or even use them vertically to represent different floors. Your miniatures can peek through the windows, walk out those doors, barricade themselves inside the buildings, use the rooftops etc. Things like line of sight, elevation etc will be meaningful seeing how the scenery will be an active part of the gaming experience and not a simple canvas.

If you are a bit attentive when taking out the die-cut windows, you can actually refit them back on if needed to simulate real battle conditions. Your army can’t see inside that building, until bang - a flare reveals the boggies inside. Cool stuff.

While playtesting and writing this review, I was informed from the publisher that the product now contains additional walkstops that lock the walls on the floors when used in a multi-level configuration. There is no slipping or other sort of instability, and I can confirm that myself, seeing how I was sent the extra wall stops separately. For those buying an older version, no worries. That additional product will be also sold separately for a measly 5 euros. That’s what I call strong support.

Art-wise expect a Spartan, utilitarian look, with brownish colours and a lot of metal. These are the sort of structures you will use to play Mutant Chronicles Warzone Resurrection, Judge Dredd and even Dust Tactics if you stretch it a bit. Their RPGs would also benefit if you intend to use terrain, namely Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition and Dust Adventures. The designer is a big fan of Infinity himself, which sort of explains why the Big Pack W will fit anything from modern to sci-fi, science fantasy or even space westerns. As long as it's even partially futuristic, the set will fit in.

The weak points: I have no complaints whatsoever about the Big Pack W of cardboard sci-fi scenery, and, by extension, any product of the W series (seeing how they are all included in this product). If you are skeptical about cardboard scenery, I’d recommend looking before you buy in order to take the most informed opinion possible. On the other hand, if you are outright negative about it and have either the wallet for wooden or plastic terrain, or the time and the creativity for your own DIY landscapes, this might not be the product for you.

The product comes in shrink wrap, something that does not aid in storage. If it came in zip-lock bags it would have been outright perfect, seeing how you would never need to worry about damage or losing a component after use.

Every single product in the W series has exactly the same cover with the contents ticked off in a visual contents list. Just pay attention to what you are getting and you will have no problem whatsoever.

Conclusion: If you could afford only one Big Pack from Felix Scenery, this would be it. Far likely to see systematic, continuous usage, sturdy, easy to assemble, disassemble and store, it is also the most affordable terrain of its type on the market. Totally recommended.

For more info on Felix Scenery visit its website at http://www.felixscenery.com/en.

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