Kickstarter- Urban WW3 terrain

Today Mark looks at the a new Kickstarter that has launched that may interest those into Team Yankee.

The Kickstarter

As I often do I love looking around finding new and interesting things to enhance my hobby. Kickstarter can often be a source for these, as it allows smaller designers a chance to start production on their ‘pet ‘ projects.

Last week I noticed a new Kickstarter for WW3 urban scenery perfect for Team Yankee.  After messaging the designer it turns out he is a nice chap called Warren Barnard.

Basically the idea is you buy modular tiles that have modern roads and buildings allowing you to build anything from small industrial areas to a whole city block.  The part that really caught my eye was the flyover which is something I really want for my table (as they look really cool) but haven’t got the time or enthusiasm to make myself.  What also struck me is that it could make an amazing project to paint and ‘spruce’ up.  As you can see in the pics just adding posters and graffiti could really bring it to life.

I’ll have to ask warren to put a link up to his 80’s posters they are rather nice.

Kickstarters can be a very personnel thing and it was was evident to me after chatting with Warren that he had a passion for the project and like us, gaming in general. So rather than just writing about the product I asked that he tell us a little about himself and his Kickstarter.

Warren Barnard – WW3 Cold War Kickstarter Designer

40 plus years ago I used to wargame with my mates in New Zealand. At the time we fought battles with predominantly Airfix plastic kits and figures as that was what was available. I cannot remember what rules we used but it was mainly set in North Africa, Tunisia and Italy because that had been where our Grandfathers and relatives had fought during the war. I remember that I collected and fought Africa Korps, some of the others had bigger British and Commonwealth forces. I remember particularly the 88 Gun and Sd Kfz7 Tractor kit. It was a great kit and you got a lot for your money, numerous house moves and trips overseas and I’m not sure where any of it is any more.

27 years ago I moved to Australia and between work and mental health issues I ended up in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. As my health got better I decided I’d like to look at getting back into wargaming.  Almost a year ago I found a local group at Hall of Hero’s in Penrith, they were very welcoming and I started playing Flames of War, starting with borrowing other peoples troops. I then started building up a 2nd New Zealand Division, starting with the Divisional Cavalry. No one else in the group was doing North Africa but one guy was interested in doing Africa Korps. I then got excited when Battlefront announced V4 and that they were going back to the desert. Long story short;  I waited, it came out, I was disappointed and put it away for a couple of years to see where it goes.

By now some of the others had got more serious about Team Yankee and then also started also rewriting  rules from Battlegroup to suit WW3 Cold War. I liked the concept of modern armies and the types of forces involved and I have started collecting a British force. But what I felt was missing was a modern table to play on,  Yes, you can play and use the same landscape terrain from playing WW2 games, and that is Okay; but I thought a bigger town would be really cool and could really change the dynamics of the game.

My Kickstarter is the end of that thought process, I went through various ideas and configurations to find what I finally settled on. I got the guys around to play some games to figure if it worked as a battleground and what worked or didn’t. Overall it played really well, although I did need to change how the building interlocked so it made it easier to put troops at any level in a building.

Those pesky Soviets are about to get a big cat surprise!

At our next monthly get together I overheard one of the testers say to another member that it was the best table he’d played on, which was heartening to hear. I am a professional model maker who works, when health permits, in the film industry. I have a workshop at home, where I now work from, and have done props for a couple of feature films and countless TV shows here. The table is nowhere near finished, as I keep coming up with new ideas for new structures as well as the many I’ve already created but not yet added to the campaign.

Getting the project ready for Kickstarter has been really interesting. Designing the system was easy by comparison. The biggest problem is postage; for those of us on this side of the world we are already used to expensive postage and determining if our budget and interest will stretch to paying sometimes more in postage than the item we want. I could have just made it available within Australia, priced accordingly and sold a few sets with postage about $35 around Australia for a set, but felt the table was much better than that and deserved to be available around the world for gamers to play on.

Straight away I thought people in the UK or USA would turn off at the thought of $200 in postage, so then came a whole lot of juggling of prices to find a balance between item prices and a subsidised postal rates to different regions. I have been creating the 1/48 Architectural kits that I have supplied around the world over the last few years. A constant complaint or reason to not buy from me has been high postal rates that are, to be honest, outside my control. I did a test one time on sales to the USA; I had a ‘price + postage’ and, in a separate deal, did a ‘postage included’ for the total same price, the response was price plus postage too expensive, price with free postage was a good buy. Go figure!

Where do I go from here? As I said earlier, new buildings, war damaged road sections, road and pedestrian bridges, river tiles and a bit more industrial settings. Some of these may come up in the current campaign.
After further thinking, I’ve been playing with ideas for WW2 buildings to create a bombed out Berlin or Stalingrad within the same road tile layout. The options are endless. I have also got hooked on Test of Honour and building up a very different gaming table for 28mm Feudal Japan. Maybe it will end up on Kickstarter one day or I’ll just keep it for myself and my mates! I was also asked to come up with a Batman Miniatures Game table and after coming up with tiles and a couple of building, the shop that wanted it closed it’s local doors, which is a shame, but life and Kickstarter goes on.

Warren is still painting the board but once fully done and flocked I think it will look great.

Looking ahead

At the time of writing this the Kickstarter is  over 500% funded and the first stretch goal (A gas station) has been unlocked.  The 6×4 full set up being the most popular backing.  Warren is sending me a couple of titles to take a look at and to help fill out the terrain at the UK GT in September so once I am back from the ETC, standby for a review and some more pictures.

If you want to know more about Warren’s Kickstarter head over here.

As a parting shot if you have an interesting Kickstarter or similar for Team Yankee or Flames of War and want to tell us about it just drop us a message on our Facebook page.