Game Product Review: Battle Systems

My Battle Systems terrain came in, and I had the chance to play a game of Necromunda with three friends the other night. Let’s take a look at the terrain!

The Battle Systems terrain is a nice, medium-thickness cardstock. The pieces all pop out of the punchboard fairly easily, though there are points where you’ll want to make sure to hold onto the piece on both sides as you punch it out to keep from cracking the cardboard. I didn’t lose any pieces, but I could feel the strain. I also had an exacto knife on-hand so that I could cut the places where the terrain was held particularly firmly by the punchboard.

Your basic walls are very simple. Every inch has a notch on the top and bottom, and there’s a notch on each end as well. Small grey plastic clips can be placed there to hold it to other pieces. The clips have a lot more variety than, say, the old World Works Games Terraclips, in that there are not only 45 degree angles, t-pieces, and x-pieces, but 45 degree angle pieces as well, allowing you to create things at an angle.

There are a TON of accessories. Once I opened the Galactic terrain box, I mixed it up with all the extras I received as well, so I can’t remember what exactly comes with what, but there are elevators, multiple stairs, ladders, tons of cargo crates, wall-mounted computers, computer desks, beds, and more. The gantries and walkways make for more varied and interesting terrain as well.

The details on the pieces are really fantastic. They’re highly detailed. There are little details hidden throughout that are pretty amusing. Some items that are double-sided but will only ever show one side have both intact and battle-damaged sides.

Setup is fairly quick. I spent a few days with my terrain getting it set up, but I had to punch a bunch of stuff out. The setup is pretty straight forward, allowing you to improvise as you build. The cardboard is flexible enough that if you realize you need an x-junction piece at a corner and you already installed a t-junction piece, you can easily pull the stuff apart a little and replace it.

If I had a minor quibble, it would be that the 2×2 battle mat was shipped folded up in the box, leading to a bit of pinching on the places where the horizontal and vertical folds met. I left it out for a few days and tried ironing it, but it remained crinkled. Luckily, the Battle Systems folks were super helpful, and are sending out a replacement. Other than that, the mat has really great details, a nice feeling to it, and is just the right thickness.

I’m really excited to receive the fantasy terrain from them come spring.

The terrain is great for Necromunda, but I’ll be using it for my Iron Dawn game, and am going to try to use it for anything I can in the future.

I’m really pleased with my Battle Systems purchase. The big Black Friday sale I mentioned before is still going on until the end of December. I liked the terrain so much, I ended up ordering a whole new set, the Cyberpunk set, so we can run two different games side-by-side. I’ll let you know when that arrives!