Great War Trenchline System (BB182) - Review

Hello All

This week I finally got my hands on the Trenchline System (BB182). I have been waiting for this for a while as I didn't want to start playing until we had the trenches. Yes I know you can play without them, but to me playing the first game without trenches would been like a Soviet army without a load of red banners or a German army without any Panzer IV/70's, just wrong! Anyway lets have a look at what you get inside the box!

The trench set gives you a four foot long trench with two foot long communication trenches. It is featured in the Great War rule book and is designed to be perfect for the two missions that use trenches (Through the Mud and Blood & Big Push). It comes fully painted and like all the Battlefield in the Box range can be used straight from the box.

The first impression is the box is big and heavy! I got quite a surprise from the postman when he handed it to me. Anyway lets see whats in the box.

I was struck by the packaging, it's brilliant! A nice tight fit and the packaging is strong, I bring this up as I can see storing these could be a problem, well problem solved!

You get two of each type of section giving you around about 6 foot of trenches in total. Or in other words enough for the missions in the Great War book.

The sections are painted to the standard you'd expect from the Battlefield in a Box range. You could put them straight down on the table without too much trouble, saying that I do want to go over them and just enhance them a little bit, nothing too time consuming, just looking to add or bring out a bit of the detail.

Usefullness - Very! Two thirds of the normal missions are based around this set and one of the extra PDF missions also need two of them (the converted Trench raid mission), so for any Great War player it's an essential piece of kit. I also think it also wouldn't be too hard to make a few missions for Great War, WW2 or even the Six Days War based around this piece of kit.

Quality - The quality is what you'd expect from the Battlefield in a Box range. Painted to a good table top standard, tough and it looks the part. This feels like it's made from a different material from the buildings and the forest bases. It has slight flexibility but also feels like it would take a lot to break one of these sections, which is an improvement on the series of houses they did a few years ago.

Value for money? - The set has a RRP of £42, I think you'll struggle to find any other trenches on the market for the a similar price that are this quality and painted. Also when combined with the army deals you are getting everything you need to play the game for £170 (that's two armies and the trenches). In that context I think this is very close to being a bargain.

Overall I think this is a brilliant set and a definite buy if you are collecting FoW Great War. Even if your not, I think you could use this for normal Flames of War without too much difficulty. In fact I'm thinking of getting a second set for that reason. I will be honest I was a little worried to fork over my cash without seeing it but now I have it I could not be happier with it.

Thanks for looking and until next time

Ben