My new toys came today 😁😁😁
I decided a while ago that when I sold a bit more of my unused and unloved ‘stuff’ I would purchase the Grapeshotte Shilling pack.
This is my review of what I think.
Firstly it was well packed, it had extra packing in to keep stuff from moving around in the box. The Bier and Bones pack had the figures in a small box. This had them in bags but sellotaped down to stop damage occurring.
So what do you get in the set….
The two sided Shilling sheet and the 96 page book.
This book is an expansion and you will need one of the other 3rd edition books to play a game.
I had an artillery piece and crew so wanted this book to allow me to use it. However this book is a whole lot more than 96 pages of artillery rules. The actual rules for artillery take up about 12 pages…and the rest.
Extra rules to enhance your Flintloque games. Foul Weather, night fighting, engineers and demolitions. There are some new troop types, obviously gunners and engineers/sappers, not to mention Guard and mounted infantry as well as cavalry on foot.
Chapter 3 looks at more generic weapons for most nations.
The rest of the book looks at both unique weapons for the various races as well as some different troop types or in some case updated ones.
The final chapter covers vehicles, exploring Officers and Faith. Not to mention singers and attaching characters to a section.
Finally you get the various artillery templates to pull out.
The artwork is similar to the other books.
A cartoon style which I really like 👍. Some are ‘cartoony’ and others are more gritty.
Now onto the figures.
The set comes with two artillery pieces (a mortar and a grasshopper gun) as well as 8 crew.
The mortar is made out of resin and the crew white metal.
This is a nice little set, it also comes with a pile of mortar shells and a cartridge holder.
The second lot is the grasshopper gun, or should I say guns…
Apologies for the blurry photograph.
As can be seen this has two guns and crew. The carried gun is separate to the dogs carrying it. I actually have the same sized barrel from an earlier artillery purchase so technically I can have two operational guns.
The white metal figures have very little flash on them and look the part.
The crews can be painted up as Ostarian or as the forces allied to the Ferach.
Now as with the Bier and Bones review I totted up individual costs of everything in the set.
The Shilling pack cost £32.50. To buy everything separately would have cost £44.50. With my blinding mathematical skills I make that a £12 saving.
Even better was I managed to get the order in on the last day of the March to war offer, therefore saving myself postage and gaining another pile of carrots for free.
The scary thing is I have three of them which means three orders in April…luckily I sold a lot off stuff and one order was for my mates birthday present….
Anyway is it worth it…. once again financially…most definitely.
If you are wanting to get into Flintloque then no – go for one of the other Shilling packs instead as they are awesome value too.
If you are wanting to add artillery into your games then most definitely.
There is a bonus for me in that I have purchased various sapper packs as well as religious figures more because I liked the figures than actually had any rules in mind for them. This book has now given me the rules.
Strangely enough, I ordered the undead engineers at the same time as the Shilling pack without realising the book they were coming with had rules for their use.
The one caveat I would give is that the artillery is great, but can be a bit powerful in a skirmish game. However with plenty of terrain it can be a very expensive target. The designer’s notes in the book explain this really well.
To end I will share one of my favourite pictures in the book… as I said at the start I love this style of illustration.
Once I sell a bit more stuff I may just have to get the death in the snow pack. I actually have the rule book as an electronic copy. To be honest I much prefer the hard copy version of things, it will have the added advantage of boosting my undead forces.
Bogenwald 