Back in November I had an awful lot of fun reviewing a selection of models for the Governance of Technology game created by Jed, the man behind the awesome Antenociti’s Workshop, a fine up standing gentleman and top #warmonger.
Aside from producing the fantastic Governance of Technology range, AW also produces a raft of different scenery types to go with it, as well as items for generic sci-fi and fantasy games.
What makes Antenociti’s Workshop such a special company is that they understand what makes a fantastic looking board. It’s not just the buildings – be they plastic multipart, resin, laser etched wood or made from whatever you have knocking around the house. It’s the details that are the difference between a good-looking board and an awesome looking board. But more than that, it’s the stuff that makes the board like it really is a bustling sector of a future city or the bombed out remains of a warzone.
It’s for that reason that AW aside from producing consoles and weapons racks, they produce beds, bogs and fridges to0.
I shit thee not fellow wargamers, you can outfit your bombed out buildings or besieged space station with beds. Or a row of toilets, or a kitchen complete with fridge. Rather intelligently AW has recognised that these features add so much to the board by being there at all that they themselves don’t need to set the world alight with their detail, which keeps the cost down for us. But the important thing is that they look the part, the casting quality is good and they’re good value for money. In fact the fridges, because of their design could be used as cogitators in 40k or as part of a construct. At £3 for 4 items like these are worth every penny. Granted, they’re not going to fit on every board or every game type as AW’s style of choice is much more fitting of Infinity than 40k.
Where things get sexy is the wide range of peripherals that go towards making your board look every bit the futurescape it should be. Futuristic wheelie bins, advertising screens, medical scanners and intercoms are all up for the taking – and that’s to name but a few. There is plenty more to choose from and if you’re looking to build a complex or kit out something the Zone Mortalis board from Forge World then you really need look no further. It’s all high-sci-fi, gorgeous and beautifully cast.
However, the stuff that, strangely, got my mind buzzing is the some of the range of doors and windows available that you can use in your own constructions. By keeping the design simple but very cool looking AW has allowed gamers to use them for almost any game that isn’t pure fantasy.
These doors for example: again, very well cast – nice and crisp with lots of simple subtle details. Painted one way they’re ideal for Infinity. Another they’re be quite passable for 40k. But, grunge em up and slap them on the side of a piece of foam painted white and you’ve got an entrance into a Covenant of Antarctica port.
Equally the shuttered windows look brilliant – and you get bloody loads for the money.
Aside from serving their purpose and would be suitable for just about any sci-fi game, they can also serve very well as vents and other industrial style detailing. However, they could also, again, double has hanger bay doors for Dystopian Wars or – and this is where my mind went first – hanger bays in a space installation for frigate and corvette sized ships for the likes of Battlefleet Gothic and Firestorm Armada. And any other spaceship based game out there. And it could be the Jaffa cakes I’ve eaten this morning but it’s entirely possible you could get away with using some of the smaller ones for thrusters is you’re doing your own customer or converted space craft. For £7.50 you get all the bits shown in the pictures so it’s not bad value and again, the casting quality is very good. My pack didn’t have a wisp of flash in sight. But this doesn’t surprise me having met Jed; he takes quality control very seriously.
All these things not only go a long way to making a Governance of Technology board look as rich as the game will be – based on what I’ve been told – but any gaming board. It’s a needed return to DIY scenery. I think it’s too easy for gamers – and I’m more guilty of this than anyone – to just buy a kit, glue it together and play on, but with the bits available from people like Antenociti’s Workshop – and they sell all the other odds and sods you’ll need as well – with a little time and effort we can return to making our own limited by little more than our imagination and how brave we are with a mains powered hot wire cutter.
The lines I’ve talked about here are the tip of the iceberg both for the breadth of range offered by AW but also for us as gamers. Get stuck in.
