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Review of City of Longfall: Cabaņa Berreta, Cabaņa Palomar, Ruined Cabaņa Derumbar
Blurb from the publisher: 'Cabaņa Palomar, Cabaņa Berreta and the Ruined Cabaņa Derumbar are 28-30mm scale scenery with multiple playable levels. The scenery has dimensions of 13cm / 5,1 inch (height) and 12cm / 4,7 inch (width).
Each of the three cabaņas can be combined with additional copies of itself or with the other two. The levels of these buildings are compatible to one another and can be stacked to any height.
Each Cabaņa is delivered as a pack, unassembled and unpainted. The parts of each model are designed to slot together in a way that enables a quick and easy assembly. It may be necessary to glue some parts of the model - use PVA (white) glue. Every model is lasercut from one or more panels of HDF (high-density fiberboard) of 3mm and/or 1,5mm thickness.
All Cabaņas are designed and manufactured by Micro Art Studio in cooperation with Freebooter Miniatures.'
What you get: The present review examines three out of the five distinct buildings in the City of Longfall line of buildings for the pirate world of Freebooter's Fate.
- COL 002 Cabaņa Berreta, EUR 18
- COL 003 Cabaņa Palomar, EUR 18
- COL 004 Ruined Cabaņa Delumbar, EUR 18
All cabaņas follow the style one would have expected to see in the Caribbean in the golden age of piracy, with strong elements of Spanish architecture. All buildings have two floors, namely the ground floor and the first floor, even though nothing prohibits one from placing miniatures also on their rooftops. The third cabaņa is a ruined building, bordering a wooden shack. Both its upper floor as well as its rooftop can be visited by staircases. All internal rooms have one centimeter long squares engraved on their floors. The buildings can (and should) be painted, yet many elements are already engraved on the materials. This includes tiles, stones, bricks, cracks etc. As expected in most types of scenery of this kind, the interiors of the rooms are rather minimal in nature. Don't expect kitchens or toilets or what have you. They probably weren't even part of the building back in the day.
The strong points: There are many companies which product buildings suitable for Freebooter's Fate, admittedly however the pirate setting needed buildings to call its own. The present three City of Longfall buildings are impressive not only because they are pretty, but because they are fully functional and let you run a cool game.
To start with, they are extremely easy to assemble. Assembly should follow painting, even though one must be careful not to paint the places where glue will be placed. There are many interesting effects like the illusion of dilapidated walls through the superimposition of two different layers of wood upon one another. The serving suggestion on the sets is brilliant in that it shows moisture, different shades of paint here and there etc. That's the kind of detail that make a building come to life.
The sets' modularity makes them extremely easy to combine. If one bought a couple or three of each, along with the other two buildings of the line that we do not currently examine in the present review, he would have ten different modules to create an impressive array of different-looking buildings. With the right colour schemes, even observant gamers wouldn't be able to easily spot the same element being used more than once.
The buildings are true to scale. Doors are 35 mm high, and your 28 to 32 mm miniatures will feel right at ease in front of them. One can definitely host battles inside the rooms. Taking the poses of the miniatures into account, these might or might not feel quite cramped. This is thematically very fitting for a game that includes as many swordfights.
Aesthetics-wise, all three buildings are gorgeous. They exude both majesty as well as a feeling of being rundown, with exposed bricks here and there, visible cracks, missing tiles and other small details. Ruined Cabaņa Delumbar is the one that will probably attract the most attention due to its diverse nature. Place your favourite sniper on any of its higher levels, give him adequate line of sight, and see him wreak havoc upon your enemy's crew.
The weak points: These are obviously not plug-and-play buildings. You will need to devote time on them before you bring them to your game. They are not hard to paint and assemble, on the contrary. I am just stating the obvious here for the newest entrants into the wargaming hobby.
The material from which the buildings are made of is rather flexible and bendy. Make sure that your follow all the instructions while cutting it, lest you destroy a vital joint or two and find yourself swimming in glue.
I don't need to warn you about how you need to protect the buildings after they have been completed. The sets occupy the least possible space inside their shirnkwraps when you purchase them. After you build them however there is no turning back; you need a dedicated storage space that will adequately protect them. Taking into account the material's thickness (3 or 1,5 mm depending on the actual component), you'd better not be clumsy around it. You can drop plastic dice on them (not metal!), be overall attentive however when you handle the buildings.
The buildings are true to scale, in reality however I wish they were slightly larger. Miniature bases are disproportionately large in relation to the minis themselves. If you intend to use furniture inside the rooms things might look more claustrophobic than you intended. I have to point out however that this is an issue that all scenery faces when it comes to the reconstruction of interior locations.
Conclusion: Cabaņa Palomar, Cabaņa Berreta and the Ruined Cabaņa Derumbar have brought the City of Longfall to life. Well-designed, with respect to the game whose name they bear, they are excellent battlefields for many of your Freebooter's Fate skirmishes. I am looking forward to reviewing Cabaņa Maduro and the Ruined Cabaņa Caduco, the remaining two buildings of the set.
For more info on the City of Longfall buildings as well as Freebooter's Fate overall, visit Freebooter's website at www.freebooterminiatures.de and Micro Art Studio at https://shop.microartstudio.com
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