Well, It’s finally here.
When I covered BPRE 28mm back in November 2021, I said to myself that I wouldn’t pick up the big game box until the OPFOR side had figures. Well, jump forward to May and the bad guys have now have some figures, more money has gone to support BPRE, HMRC/Parcelforce got their required pound of flesh and I’m sat here with a hole in my wallet and an ominous black box with an Operator on the front. Now lets crack this thing open and see what’s inside.
Disclosure: I was offered a discount on my order after releasing the original impressions piece to assist with getting hold of the game for coverage.
If you’re rather watch something, then an accompanying video is up on YouTube! It’s not a 1:1 recreation (for example I get the figures out to take a look at and cover some more of the background) but you might find it a handy thing to watch in addition to this post. Plus, it saves you having to do all this reading.
After cutting my way through the external postal box and lifting the black operator-decorated lid I was presented with this literal PILE of goodies. Because of this, I decided to shift to a slightly larger table as my usual painting desk couldn’t handle the entire pile of operator inside.
Packing is reasonable – no giant piles of foam, with most of the material around it coming from sheets of packing paper. At first I was concerned about how exposed things like the cards and tokens were, but a quick inspection showed nothing damaged or warped. A custom tray with cut-outs for each of the elements would have been a nice addition but it’s not a deal breaker.
Downstairs, I cleared the surface (mostly – just ignore the tree that gets wiped out in the video) and got out everything from inside the box. I quite liked how the rule book was properly wrapped up at the bottom, making sure that it arrived without any sharp corners gently rubbing on anything underneath.
Checking the handy included list of “Mission Critical Assets” (and then adding extra elements), this is what is included in my box:
- Tokens
- 27 Act Tokens
- 13 Frag Tokens
- 2 Objective markers
- 40 Door Terrain tokens
- 6 Air Conditioner terrain tokens
- 6 Planter terrain tokens
- 6 Structure boards in varying size and layout
- Turn counter and marker
- Clear Radial Effect Template
- Cards
- 8 Warfighter Cards (one for each of the classes)
- 3 Fires Cards (drones)
- 5 Battlespace Cards
- 12 Atmospherics Cards
- 11 Tasking Cards
- 24 Intervention Cards
- 10 Special Intervention Cards
- Rulebook (printed in the US)
- Scorch Miniatures
- 1 Advisor
- 1 Machine Gunner
- 4 Recce
- 4 Assaulter
- Hongbin Miniatures
- 1 Hongbin Enabler
- 4 Hongbin Mercenaries
- Aayari Guard
- 4 Muhtasib
- 12 Shurta (4 copies of each of the 3 poses)
- Handy box sticker
- In-world Cold Harbour pelican case stickers (in case you want to store your game in something suitably tactical)
Overall that’s quite a list, giving you pretty much everything you might need to play the game. I’ll go into more details below but as a general rule, I’m really impressed with the quality of everything that comes with the game.
First up, these two boxes, the stars of the show – the models. As I ordered pretty quickly, it was obviously before the Hongbin Mercenaries + Aayari Guard box was quite ready for retail. However, you can see the nice quality packaging that the retail items are coming in, taking full advantage of Black Powder Red Earth’s incredibly striking artwork and iconography – there is no way that you’re not knowing where this product is from. I’ll be covering the figures in another post but initial impressions after starting to assemble them is pretty damn good.
The Radial Effect Template in is another item that came in it’s retail packaging, with a Hongbin and Scorch operator facing off on the cover. Inside, you’ll find clear slightly flexible 3″ radius circle with the unique facing indicator and scatter system.
The cards are personally my favourite part of the package. Making them physical cards on nice materials improves the mission generation, preparing interventions and even as quick references for double checking dice rolls for each of the character stats. I’m actually leaning towards saying that a rulebook + deck of cards are the best way to play the game, if you can’t get your hands on the full thing. Accoding to the creators, these cards are actually pretty damn tough – being water and tear resistant, you’ll probably not even have to sleeve them. As you can see in the video, I spend a lot of time rubbing them against each other as they have that wonderful property that makes them easily come away from the table rather than sticking together.
In two bags, you find the components. When I first spotted them, I was slightly worried as it looked like they had been printed on cardboard, which would have long term concerns for how they would last with repeated play. I can confirm they are much harder wearing than simple carboard, with a nice thickness to them to prevent any risk of bending them or warping. I did have to pull some apart after shipment but it wasn’t too much of a problem
The only blip on the quality indicator is that some of the ACT chits seem slightly misprinted, with some of black edges visible on the top side. Nothing to ruin the game, but it’s still a minor misprint for the perfectionists. As for the rest of the printing, colours are vibrant, detail solid and they are easy to read from tabletop height
And then we have the pieces that I was perhaps most intrigued by.
Unlike most wargames, Black Powder Red Earth is designed for some specific layouts. This is something that the creators have listed as being inspired by video game levels, allowing for a greater deal of balance that many other wargames don’t have when dealing with laying out the map as well as players excited about (or dreading) the random draw of particular maps. As someone who works in video games, I am 100% on board with this concept.
However, these boards are obviously large items that you can’t really get anywhere else (without designing/breaking out a 3d printer with a larger print bed than I have). And after our trial games, having interiors to fight through definitely fits the feel of the game more. So getting my hands on the boards was something I was very excited.
Having got the boards out, I am even more excited. They are made out of a nice thick material, so you aren’t going to see them curling any time soon – it’s going take a pretty direct hit to snap them in half. The surface material also seems to be pretty hard wearing, so I’m looking forward to plenty of gaming on them.
As you can also see from the Spectre figures I dropped down for scales, these buildings are 100% designed for models on 25mm bases to move through and combat in. They are also big and chunky, feeling like actual buildings rather than just a single room shack with an inflated sense of importance. You’re going to have some proper battles through the interiors on these guys.
And then there is the rulebook. I already have a copy of the BPRE 28mm rules, but I am a big fan of having a second around, especially if this is a game only I purchased that doesn’t use a GM or arbiter as it makes it easier to check rules. In this case, it also lets me compare and contrast the Amazon UK printed edition I already had and the version printed in the US.
After looking through I have found only a single difference between the two copies I have.
So, with the box opened and the clippers out, the next step is assembling the models. I’ll have some more information on them as I go along (as well as giving you a better look) although my video has some good first impressions when I pulled them out the pack.