I should apologise beforehands I had three teeth extracted today and I feel awful… so be kind towards my grammar errors, they are probably worse than normally today…
Even before Games Workshop released their Garden of Morr set, I’ve been fancying thoughts about creating some kind of cemetery, either for Mordheim or for Warhammer 40.000 (well, in the end probably both… I like my Science Fiction to lean heavily towards fantasy…). Of course for a fine gothic cemetery, you need a lot of tombstones – far more than you would have found on a historical cemetery of the Middle Ages, actually… I even set out to create my own, but with as little time as I have at my disposal nowadays, I guess I will have to rely on some acquisitions… so what choices do I have?
The actual Garden of Morr is a bit of a loser as far as standing single tombstones are concerned. I mean, if you put aside the sculpted bases, there are only four tombstones and a slab in this set and all of those actually have their fixed place on the bases…well, you get a load of other stuff with this set, so it’s hard to actually tell how expensive those five little parts would be for you… the whole set is running at 32,50 €.
Games Workshop currently offers a set of tombstones and accessories called Fantasy Graveyard. Apart from the spare parts, it offers you 5 tombstones for 23,50 € – at least I guess it’s that way, because they say they give you ten parts, but only 8-9 are shown in the picture, depending on whether you count the base or not… anyway, at ten parts each tombstone would come down to 2,32 €, but of course you have to take the other stuff too, so it’s quite expensive in the end… of course the design would be thoroughly GW Fantasy, but still, it’s pretty hefty…
Funny enough many years ago I bought a different graveyard set from Games Workshop – no skull columns and no rising skeleton, but cheaper and having 8-10 graves or tombstones… well, those were different times, I guess.
Talking about expensive things, german terrain makers Ziterdes and Thomarillion each have a load of different sets with tombstones – not to talk about mausolea and other graveyard-related stuff – that is nice to look at but usually comes down to 3 € per standing stone or more:
Ziterdes even has a whole graveyard in their set – two used tombs and a tomb-to be – for 19,99 €. But that is no option – as is their burial vault…
Gravestone “Celtic Cross” 2pcs.
Those sets all come from the same price segment – two tombstones for 6.19 €, that’s 3,95 per tombstone… even though some of those are beautiful, that’s just a tad too expensive…
Those two sets have a slightly better ratio – at 6.19 € and three tombstones per set, it’s a little more than 2.06 € prt stone… still, even with good design that’s quite expensive if you want to fill up a larger piece of terrain…
And of course there’s the “luxury” Sarcophagus with 4 Gargoyles running at a whopping 13.49 €… but then such a thing is better kept inside a ruin than on a graveyard, I think.
I can’t say Thomarillion is much cheaper – no surprise, though, as far as a I know the two companies are working pretty closely with each other. Well, but here’s the cunning thing – all of the resin or metal sets that Ziterdes sells actually come from Thomarillion – and they are cheaper there – just look at this “A heros´ grave“:
Yeah, it’s the same basic arcophagus that Ziterdes sells at 13.49 €. Here it’s just 4.50 €, but don’t be fooled – Ziterdes bundles the grave with four Thomarillion Gargoyles which cost 4.50 € per two, getting the same kit from Thomarillion costs exactly 1 cent more… as I dislike the gargoyles, Thomarillion would be my choice anyway…
Thomarillion also has this nice “Dwarf King´s Grave” which Ziterdes, as far as I can see, doesn’t sell… anyone thinking about “Dwarf King’s Hold“?
Gravestone and tomb slab (Unknown)
Gravestone and tomb slab (The Bat)
So at 4.99 €, those two-tombstone-sets break down to roughly 2.49 € per stone or slab…
While those two sets with three slabs each brings you a stone per (roughly) 1.66 €. I won’t say that’s expensive (after all, Tabletop is an expensive hobby – no doubt about that…), especially when you compare it to GW’s Fantasy Graveyard, but it’s not cheap either. If you would say you need at least 10-20 nice tombstones to create a graveyard that actually looks like if it’s been used for a while, well, then it’s a lot of money you’ll have to spend with those sets…
Fortunately for all of us there are two cheaper – yet good – possibilities. And I am not talking about buying those Tomb Kings Skeleton Warriors from GW who come with a load of nice old plastic tombstones (I know most people dislike the Tomb King Skeletons for the fact that they still use this old GW skeleton sprue – but personally I have a load of fond memories with that one, so I feel fine… still remember the time they were new, funky and in bone coloured plastic…).
Of course the obvious choice is Renedras Gravestone Set. For 8 £ (at most shops here that’s 10 €) you get 2 x 22 slabs and 2 ravens – that’s just 22 cent per piece. Well, as those are designed to fit with historical settings, too, there are a lot of crosses… but still…
Tabletop World is a small, but great pair of terrainmakers from Croatia. I love the stuff they create, but they usually are far too expensive for my wallet… when they recently brought out a terrific graveyard, I was impressed – but no chance I’d pay 94 € if I can get a Garden of Morr for 32.50 € – especially as I don’t mind skulls and skullwork…
But then they released the mausoleum of that set separately at an affordable 23 € – and now the tombstones as well. 37 pieces for 20 € – including 23 different tombstones – that’s just 54 cent per piece and a lot less crosses to fill up or file away to make those more fantasy or s/f-like. Even if you’d count in the postage for having those delivered from Croatia, it’s a reasonably priced option indeed.
So, what’s my conclusion? First, of course, I need a better plan of what my graveyard shall look like – and how many pieces I’ll need. The Renedra tombstones would be a good place to start (and a nice pretence for a review here), but those from Tabletop World… ah, those would be best…
And, yes, for someone not playing Vampire Counts I am pretty obsessed with graveyards and stuff… can’t help that…
