Forge World Strongpoint review

My first ever mail order from Forge World arrived today - the colossal Realm Of Battle Imperial Strongpoint!

First things first - it IS 3mm too small on the important edges, which means it can only really work on the edge of the board, not in the centre. It would be impossible to pad it out (at least with my meagre skills). I'm going to complain, but I doubt there's much they can do - it's a fundamental issue.

On the plus side though, the detailing is great.

It arrived in a big empty box, with no padding. The board itself is surprisingly sturdy, and although it doesn't feel fragile, you just know that stepping on it will lead to tears. It was covered in dust that I had to brush off (a bit too much like housework for me), and it was cast out of black resin (which I haven't seen before).

They've thought about the design quite a bit. There is an emplacement that neatly fits a large base, so you can have a Dreadnought blast away at anything that moves.

And a nice touch is a round slot for the gun from the Bastion or the Comms Array from the Aegis Battle Line to sit. And it fits nicely.

All in all, I really like it. It's disappointing about the 3mm shortfall, but the rest of the construction quality bodes extremely well for future boards.

Arbitrary score: 8/10

Army colour themes

I'm collecting a few armies simultaneously, some deliberately as viable forces (like Tyranids, Imperial Guard, Space Marines and Necrons) and some just because I like the models (Tau and Orks), and I think it would be great if each army had its own "colour", so that they would look distinct both on the shelf and on the battlefield.

The first few are easy:

Tyranids = Kraken Red
Necrons = Silver/Black
Imperial Guard = Cadian Green

I'm not quite decided on the others yet. If I model my Space Marines as Ultramarines, then blue is the obvious choice, but I am leaning towards making my own Chapter, and am very tempted to go purple (not Hawk Lords, but something similar). Orks, I think I can get away with a mix of salvaged bits, rust and dirt. That should go well with their green skin. Tau, on the other hand, should look clean and striking - heavy weathering and battle damage just doesn't suit them. A maroon or burgundy, perhaps. There's a beautiful burgundy in the Tau Codex, but I can't find a guide on how to paint it. Then again, if I'm not doing Ultramarines, blue becomes free all of a sudden.

Of course, as a Lazy Painter, I would prefer to just use an unmixed GW paint, but I think that if I'm using enough paint, it's working cooking up a unique batch.

So for the rest of my armies:

Space Marines - Purple?
Orks - Rusty Dirty Brown?
Tau - Burgundy? Or Blue?

This will be a work in progress - I plan to finish my Tyranids first, then hopefully there will be a new Necron Codex, and I can work on them for a while. In the meantime, someone may come up with a good scheme that can inspire me, or maybe I'll have a brainspasm of original thought, you never know.