TheAuldGrump's page

Of my three favorite World Works sets this one is the most versatile - I have used it and its expansion for Dungeons and Dragons (and the old Diablo setting), for Call of Cthulhu, for Mordheim and Warhammer Fantasy Battle, for Warhammer 40,000, for Vampire: the Masquerade, and for a steampunk game with Gargoyle PCs.

Cathedrals fit in so many settings and time periods.

Between the two sets you are well prepared for both an intact version, with a gloomy interior, or a ruined version - sun shining on both the inside and the outside.

It is intended for horror - a corrupted church that has become a bastion of evil, but the expansion adds details that bring it more into line with being holy ground.

For the Gargoyles campaign I took advantage of this - starting with a completely corrupted version, then slowly exchanging parts over the course of the campaign as the heroes pressed their attentions against those corruptive forces, eventually sealing the Hellmouth that festered in the vault.

Cathedrae Noctis is my second favorite of the PDF terrain by World Works - and used more often than the other two of my three favorites put together.

I have had this set for years, and it has seen much use - mostly in Mordheim and Warhammer Fantasy Battle (sieges).

Most recently I have used it for a siege using the Kings of War rules.

It does the job and does it well.

You have a choice as to whether to have interiors for the buildings or not - I have gone with interiors since I do use them for RPGs on occasion as well.

A friend of mine used his set to create a Gormenghast - a bloody huge thing, no interiors, standing about five feet tall, built in layers, with Christmas presents for the cliffs below.

I have never built anything that... massive. Typically my builds will fit, more or less, into a three or four foot space for the outer walls. (The fellow also used a World Work's ship model to make a ship to wear as a hat on St. Patrick's Day.... Adding a shamrock to the sails. The man is daft....)

The builds are somewhat complex, though several of the more involved bits also have simplified versions. It can be built and used in a modular fashion - each tower, bastion, wall, building, and gate a separate piece. If you do so then I recommend putting it on a fairly solid base - I have tried having them just sit on the table, and they can get chewed up around the bottom.

For most games the castle will dominate the table in a nicely impressive fashion, as a castle should. Properly based the set up is very stable, I have never had a tower or wall fall over.

They are also surprisingly solid - I had a line of metal GW ogres manning the walls and the held up with no troubles.

The gatehouse is the best and most impressive piece.

All told, this is my third favorite World Works set - behind Maiden of the High Seas (my all time favorite piece of PDF terrain) and Cathedrae Noctis (which has seen regular use in Mordheim).

It is not a part of the TLX system - so the pieces do not fit into small neat boxes, but it looks better so... it all depends on your needs.

This is the best ship model for gaming that I have ever found, and is quite possibly the best model ever released by World Works. (If I had to choose one WWG model, this would be it.)

The ship is huge, dominating a table - more than 25" long, and maybe a foot and a half tall. She is also surprisingly sturdy, surviving several years of active and energetic play, sometimes by enthusiastic young people.

I have used mine in D&D, Mordheim, Legends of the High Seas, Chaos in Carpathia, 7th Sea, and Changeling the Dreaming. (I used the ship rather a lot....)

Just plain an incredible model for using in games. She can be a bit of a tricky build, but so very much worth the effort.

Arena Works is definitely a niche product - but it fills that niche amazingly well.

For me the main use has been for Pit Fights in Games Workshop's Mordheim, while a friend uses his for Blood Bowl by the same company.

In any game where there is gladiatorial combat this is the best accessory that I have ever seen.

Recently I discovered a new use for the set, on the World Works forum, where Sir Didymous had pressed it into service as a paint rack - a use that I have since emulated, the thing is the perfect size for storing Valejo and Reaper paints.