Architects of War

I buy a lot of wargaming "stuff", so I thought I would start a new feature on my blog related to service and quality. I will make this an ongoing effort, but will not make it retrospective, so any company that has screwed up in the past is forgiven. The label will be "plugs", bad or good. I will give one of 4 ratings: Recommend without reservation; Recommend; Recommend with reservation; Do not recommend. 


I should note that I am not interested in rating the price as I find it has no association with value. Value is a very personal thing and just can not be rated. I will say though that this company sells Perry plastics at quite a good discount. I will also discuss price if there is a big difference between different sellers.


Well I just received a package from Architects of War, a new company in Maryland that makes their own terrain items but also sell other wargaming supplies, including Perry Plastics. I heard about them from Miles  in the blogspot Lair of the Ubergeek. 


I ordered their latest terrain item, some tree bases. I placed the order in the morning of Oct 22, got a confirmation of shipping in the afternoon of the same day and received the order on Oct 25. Please note that the 22nd was a Friday. There was no charge for shipping, so I really can only be quite pleased with this.


I bought the 4 base with trees set, and as you can see it was nicely packaged. I always feel it is important for a new company to give some thought to personalising their packaging and no complaint here.

The contents included 4 unpainted bases and a bunch of trees. I was shocked to see that the Woodland Scenic trees were already assembled. I was very pleased with this, as I find glueing these trees together quite a challenge, so all I really have to do is paint the bases and tree trunks. Fantastique!

As you can see the bases are quite detailed and are quite solid. A little pipette is included to help apply the scenic cement, a nice touch. One great thing about their website is their "How Do Guides", here is a link to the instructions for the Woods Set. This is quite well written in an easily understood style in a well presented PDF. I would also refer you to their road making PDF, which looks quite interesting, but not yet attempted by myself.

Well I believe I have solved my tree terrain problem, one base will suffice for a clump of trees while multiple bases placed together will make very nice forests. Placed together, the 4 bases make a approximately 12"x 12" quadrangle. 


Rating: Recommend without reservation


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