Review of Battlefield in a Box - Forgotten City: Lost Temple, Pharaoh's Gate, Silent Sphinx, Fallen Colossus

Blurb from the publisher: 'Scenery plays a vital part in any miniature wargame whether you are playing Historical, Science Fiction or Fantasy Battles. The Battlefield in a Box range of tabletop-ready scenery is a quick and easy way to create a wargaming table straight out of the box, suitable for any scale miniature troops to fight over.

The Fallen Colossus contains one fully painted fallen colossus and one fully painted fallen obelisk.'

What you get: This is a thematic review of four out of the eight products of the Forgotten City gameline, a sub-gameline of Gale Force Nine's Battlefield in a Box.

The four scenery sets are the following. They are sold separately. No set is a prerequisite for the other.

BB901 - Lost Temple EUR 30 or USD 30 or GBP 25

BB903 - Pharaoh's Gate EUR 30 or USD 30 or GBP 25

BB905 - Silent Sphinx EUR 22 or USD 22 or GBP 18

BB906 - Fallen Colossus EUR 22 or USD 22 or GBP 18

I will not repeat the publisher's blurb about what each product contains. I note however that the aesthetics of the buildings are reminiscent of ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, and Assyrian monuments. Size-wise, and to give an example, the Pharaoh's Gate is 240 mm in diameter and 145 mm in height. Seeing how all pieces depict ancient structures, the shades range from beige to light brown, with earthen undertones here and there. The only exception is the Fallen Colossus, the colossal skull of a jackal (?) in pharaonic headgear. The fallen head still wears its golden crown, adorned with skulls and the royal scarab. Many of the monuments are partially (and purposefully) submerged in their bases, like the aforementioned colossus, the fallen pillars, and the fallen obelisk. The upper part of the Pharaoh's Gate is extractable, in order for the players to place and freely move miniatures no wider than 50 mm under it.

The strong points: Egypt and the whole of the middle-East in one single range? I have been dreaming about scenery like this for years, and finally, Gale Force Nine published it! Marvel at the grandeur of the ancients; appreciate history, as the colossal relics dominate the horizon... or lie crumbled in only a shadow of their former glory. The sculptors have done an incredible job in bringing these beauties to life. Surfaces are grainy and feel rough to the touch, the way stone would have felt like when exposed to the desert sands for thousand of years. There are (purposeful) cracks, and some of the stones appears to have taken damage (again, pursposefully). The sculptors have done their research; the pillars are partially hollow, to allow for the metal rods that the ancients put in place in order to keep the edifices straight. The heads of the pillars could have truly been Egyptian, with the leaves of desert trees adorning their perimeter, while the golden scarab on the colossus' crown knocks gives an unexpected regal aura to a monument that should have been long looted. That's a game objective right there: obtain that golden crown at any cost!

Historical considerations aside, the design also felt free to take a few liberties. Observe the skulls on the top of the Pharaoh's Gate, the Lost Temple, and the Colossus' crown. The headless sphinx is glorious, and follows on the jackal skull theme with its head lying on the ground... or is this gigantic skull the remnant of an unknown horror that perished ages ago? In such a case, where is the sphinx's real head? As for the Lost Temple, and even though at 70 mm it is not a particularly tall piece of scenery, its sheer footprint will dominate your battlefield, It looks stunning on its exposed side, while from the other, flatter side it can be used as a platform for your troops to gain higher ground and rain death from above. On the other hand, watch out! Stealthy enemies might deviously hide under it.

If you don't know what games to play with this scenery, any game of WWII (or spiked WWII like Dust 1947) will work wonders here, as will historical games of ancients, and roaming hoards of Arabs, Mongols, crusaders, and everybody else who came near the Middle East. Idem for science fiction and pulp games with guest appearances of ancient Egyptian or ancient Babylonian elements. Having used all the materials together, I confirm that one copy of each is adequate for tight 90 x 90 cm maps. The larger 122 x 122 cm maps will be easier both on the eyes as well as the way they play, while a 183 x 122 cm map would also need the other four items of the line in order to be adequately fitted.

An enormous plus of this scenery, and of the whole Forgotten City line overall, is that they work wonders with the Galactic Warzones: Desert Tower, Desert Buildings, Desert Walls sets. The colour schemes are close, and the tradition between ancient and less ancient takes place smoothly. What is more normal than a simple, contemporary village right next to the monuments of the glorious past? I wrote in that previous review that the publisher might have partially undermined these items by attaching the Galactic Battlefields stamp on them, seeing how well they work in other, historical desert settings, and here we are. If you want a solid middle Eastern setting, Battlefield in a Box provides all kinds of solutions: just ignore the Galactic Battlefields tag on those other products.

No painting or assembly is required. Just take these beauties out of their boxes and use them. All the items are pleasantly heavy, including the smaller fallen pillars. Dice rolling or clumsy movement will not topple this scenery, and that's the way it should be.

The packaging is very sturdy. The boxes are made of thick cardboard, while each piece of scenery is wrapped with layer upon layer of bubblewrap. If you don't mind the boxes' initial size and you keep all the bubble wrap, you won't need dedicated solutions for scenery storage.

The weak points: I wish the sculpts had opted for a different, more historically accurate ornament than skulls on the Pharaoh's Gate and the Lost temple. I loved the skull head of the Colossus, and the cut off skull head of the Sphinx. Yet the skulls as ornaments are too much of a fantasy touch for my subjective tastes. Their design is not bad, mind you. Yet, compared to the work that has been put on the headless sphinx with its hieroglyphic-like engravings and the floral patterns on the heads of the pillars, it doesn't fit well. Reworked elements from Egyptian, Babylonian and Assyrian Lore, potentially with a hint of the fantastic, would have worked a lot better.

Conclusion: The Forgotten City line, or at least these four items, is a dream come true for everybody who fields armies in archaeological areas in Egypt and the Middle East. It adds content to your game, it has character, it has class. Strongly, very strongly recommended!

To find out more about Battlefield in a Box - Forgotten City: Lost Temple, Battlefield in a Box - Forgotten City: Pharaoh's Gate, Battlefield in a Box - Forgotten City: Silent Sphinx, and Battlefield in a Box - Forgotten City: Fallen Colossus, visit GF9's website at http://www.gf9.com.

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