Way back in March of 2020 (you know, back when I made Wargaming Weekly and we could meet people for wargames shows) I mentioned that Sarissa Precision was releasing a version of the Alamo (snore)… and then they showed us this.
And I suddenly realised just how useful a board full of small corridors and huts just waiting to be fought through, especially in small scale skirmish games. I haven’t yet managed to paint mine (although it is now assembled) but honestly, the main thing I thought while assembling is that “man this is great for the Alamo but I need more bits to make a proper compound setup”.
Well in good news, Sarissa is now releasing the Alamo and (even better) it has produced several packs designed for Modern Wargamers. There are currently three packs available. However, before we take a look at them, there is one thing to mention. All these buildings rely on Sarissa’s terrain tile system – the buildings actually clip directly into them. I was pleasantly surprised to find the tiles fit together rather well, snug enough to hold together without being impossible to remove and tidy away. However, the tiles do make it harder to assemble on boards that don’t use them… or have things such as “elevation changes”. Just a warning, your mileage may vary.
Skirmish Compound Alpha gives you two l-shaped buildings that can be fit together in several ways. These buildings are the core of the full Alamo kit and make for some really cool setup. For example, take a look at the image above – that dog leg between the buildings just screams for an ambush or a squirter making a break for it from an assault elsewhere.
Skirmish Compound Bravo comes with two buildings and a wall section, with an example layout above. The wall is taller than most characters and, I noticed, is not one of the destructible walls included in the main set. I can definitely see it being useful when assembling a compound by offering a larger area to play around in.
Finally, if you want both packs together, Skirmish Compound Charlie packs both in giving you the ability to set up a nice dense urban area to fight through. In fact, with a few of these, you could really make a great 4′ x 4′ urban maze, filled with chokepoints, ambush sites, small buildings to hide bad guys in and everything else required to make your players take one look at the board and curse the lines in the scenario saying “Rules of Engagement” and “No Fire Support Available”.
As well as the Modern themed sets, you can also pick up the rest of the Alamo sets if you want to be more historical. There are three options – the two compound packs I picked up (giving you most of the important buildings) or go the fully monty and also get the various gun positions and defences needed to build the actual fort (for the low cost of £235).
I’m already looking at the skirmish compounds as a way of extending my existing set, getting it ready to make an impressive CQB maze. The kits are the usual high Sarissa standards, well worth the asking price. I would definitely recommend giving them a look.