I have just received my 25mm Vauban Fortress from the Guardroom http://www,guardroom.co.uk/products/battleground/bg010ind.htm These are very nicely done models in a lightweight very dense foam. More dense that OG uses for their buildings. I have been looking for a good Fortress for many months, and this was the only one I could find. When I tried to buy it a year or so ago, the store was changing hands and these weren't back in production - now they are. One thing that impressed me about the service from The Guardroom, is that they did not charge me the VAT (like some VAT registered retailers in the UK do who then pocket the tax) and I was also charged shipping at cost. There are three basic pieces to the system, a Bastion, Ravelin and Walls. The walls come in several varieties. Straight wall, gated wall, breached wall and wall with artillery ramp. The walls are about 14" long and a little under 3" high. They have nice deep relief in the brickwork and look like they will take dry brushing well. The Ravelin and Bastion's are quite huge at 12" wide at their widest point. This setup becomes quite a table edge dominator. The set up I got consists of 2 Bastions, 1 Ravelin and 6 wall pieces. The gated wall is not a Vauban style gateway, but a secondary "back-door" gate. Assembling it in an arc across the table edge, I have: Wall - bastion - wall - wall bastion - wall, with the ravelin placed out between the 2 bastions. This gives me an arc of walls that stretches across 58" of table edge, the tips of the bastions extend 21 " into the table, and the tip of the Ravelin extends 30" in from the table edge. This gives a scale size of a city that would be about 2 miles across (at 50 yards/inch) The city wall could be enlarged from this easily with the addition at each end of another wall and half a bastion ( a single bastion band sawed in half will accomplish this) and 2 more ravelins. I may well do this in the future. There is ample room between the wall and table edge to place buildings and trees to show the city. The firing platforms behind the wall accept standard "Age-of-Reason" infantry bases just perfectly, but for my slightly deeper basses (that I use to show the deeper formations of the French volley fire units), the ledges are a little narrow - but still support the stand - it just overhangs slightly. This for me is a perfect set-up for gaming the siege craft supplement from Age-of-Reason or as a wall to fight outside of, such as at Almanza or for example Prince Eugene's Coup-de-main at Cremona, and the Irish brigade's defense of the Po Gates. The models are still coated in their mold releasing agent and need a good wash to remove this before painting. What didn't I like? Not much really, I thought the walls could have been a little higher, but that would have significantly increased their weight, the amount of material needed to make it and therefore their cost. I am toying with mounting the whole system up on styrene sheeting so that I can have a nice deep trench before the wall. This will also allow me touse the sheeting for the covered way and glasis. I was a little disappointed that the modeler didn't make an ornamental Vauban Gateway section to mount between two wall sections. These were highly ornate gateways and would look quite spectacular. I seem to remember one of the early Wargames Illustrated has plans for making one-around number 10, so I'll probably have ago at making it. The bastions and ravelin cost about $14.00 and the walls are about $10.00 (depending version). The shipping was pricey at $40.00 but they arrived in less than a week. The service from the Guardroom was fast and Maurice answered all my quereies immediately before I purchased. Great service! As soon as its painted - I'll post some pictures on the website under the Marlborough section. An excellent deal for anyone looking for a 25mm fortress. Back to Dispatch December 2001 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com