It's Finally here!?! Games and Gear Battle Board.

I said some where on this blog that in dec 24th 2013 I backed a Kickstarter project from Games and Gears for a modular battle board which would come with adds ons of dice trays and army trays that clip on the side as well as some hell world style terrain.
At the time I wanted something that I could store away easily and also not to expensive with a design that would fit a multitude of games. Therefore I chose the Hellscape board.

This board had some strange daemon like markings that would fit my chaos army (when I was playing 40k a lot) and was generic enough for other games to.

It was all going well with positive news completing and adding to stretch goals. An enthusiastic vibe was set from the company and the 982 backers from around the world with promises of possible storage boxes/case for the boards. What was also god but I believe was part of the undoing was the fact it was free shipping also...

On Christmas Eve 2013 all 5 designs were  successfully  funded. one was a 10mm Dropzone Commander city boards as well as a 28mm version. A sci-fi space ship design a cobbles street style board and Hellscape.

So what happened...

It should have taken only 6 months to get these boards out as we were led to believe that all moulds were made and ready to go but during a 2 year period we had news of a flood in china that destroyed all of the boards. We then were told there would be delays on remaking them all.

We got conflicting updates witch were seen to make no sense as well as promised delivery dates that were missed. Also there were photos of the products being made even to this day we have seen maybe one or two and that's for 5 boards.

This lead to a backlash on there Kickstarter page with it now holding over 5000 comments which G and G do not replay to anymore.

I heard of news that people were complaining on there Facebook page and Comments being deleted but I found the best place was PMing the company via the Kickstarter messenger section.

To be fair I seemed to always get a response. I was supposed to get my hell world terrain but they missed me. I sent a PM And they were sent out very quickly after I pointed it out. I know other people have not been lucky.

So all this goes on and  over 2 years roll by some people got their boards which had mixed reactions. Most thought the boards would be painted to a decent standard which was advertised as the next stage in the future of battle boards with some having only basic washes applied and the colours of roads and streets not being painted at all only  colour used was the colour of the plastic itself. This angered some as the painting was the main mission and advertisement of the kickstarter.

Still we got trickles of updates here and there and as my board was the last to be sent out I was starting to wonder if I will ever get my board.

Then I got the news in January 2016 if I don't get my board by the end of feb I would get a full refund and they would quote "send back and destroy the boards" lets just say the comment section of the kickstarter went alight.

I then just decided to make my own board in the end thinking well as we have moved on to battle mats I would get one of them.
I did fell disappointed as you wait that long and nothing to come from it especially when they say they have made it and just going to throw it out.

One night I  was reading the comments section for reactions of the news and one of the backers said they asked for another board design instead of the Hellscape and he got it pretty quickly. I PMed the guys at G and G and said well if Hellscape is not happening can I have the anima board (cobbled street style) but only if it's NOT happening to the February date you self imposed. 10mins later I was told one is being shipped from Germany? So I guess Hellscapes not going ahead then...

So after 2 years of updates, no photos, no real clue on what was the real reason for delays and mishaps low and behold to my surprise with out any warning of delivery I  have a battle board.....

















An example of one of the possible lay outs.

So here is the anima board. It was my 2nd choice of board during the Kickstarter and it funnily enough as it's been so long waiting for this board my games have changes so this would work well for the games I am mostly playing now like Warmachine and Frostgrave etc...

There are some issues with some of the washes as they do match each board and if you look at the board which is just the plan street each half looks different in quality. Also there are some mold lines that are visible.

I have seen worse examples of other boards such as recently the DZC boards a lot of backers were let down as the road markings did not match up and had paint smudged like it was a rush job. Remember  all boards were supposed to been made over 2 years ago with at least 2 quality checks with next gen paint work...

At the end of the day for £60 they are worth the money considering in 2013 you could either make your own board or by a GW battle board for £250. It has taken far to long with to many stories which you did not know what to believe and also now the fashion is roll out mats you feel G and G missed the boat on this one.
After I got the boards I did ask for a refund on the dice trays and side trays as I thought I did not need them and glad I did as backers still don't have them...

I am just glad I got my board in the end as well as my refund. I just hope all the other backers get the boards they want and be finished with this Kickstarter project.