Warhammer Age of Sigmar – Sigmarite Dais

Terrain is an important part of any game, and I am always keen to see, what interesting pieces can be added to a gamers collection. The Dominion of Sigmar was introduced earlier this year, as fantasy counterpart to the very well done Sectors already available for Warhammer 40,000. Among those temples and shrines in the name of Sigmar is a round plateau, the Sigmarite Dais, which we are going to take a closer look upon today.

This kit belongs to the Dominion of Sigmar, that covers multiple sets of a similar theme, among them a larger set, the Enduring Stormvault, and an "entry level" piece, the Shattered Temple. Along with the Ravaged Lands for Warcry, we see the Shattered Stormvault as well, a terrain set, that will hopefully be covered in a couple of days here as well.

The round temple is set at 55 EUR and made entire from hard plastic. It is larger box, covering 4 frames along with two half-round temple bases and an instruction manual, that covers a Warscroll as well.

The sprues cover the pillars, that are shared pieces with the Shattered Temple. The statue of Sigmar and the smaller fire cauldrons are parts of the Timeworn Ruins, but lack the destroyed pillars and other broken pieces. The two halves of the dais itself are identical. A very stable piece, with supporting beams underneath. Casting is properly done, with a few mould lines but solid set of details.

These larger parts are unusual with Games Workshop kits, and I had my doubts that this part would properly fit. Large parts like these are usually prone to a little of warpage, but these are a snug fit, as you could possibly wish for. And look at the size of that thing. It's a whooping 28,5 cm in diameter. Yes, both halves have the same design, but due to the round form that works very well and looks as if the comets and stars are orbiting the center piece.

A centre on top the dais is the statue of Sigmar. He comes with multiple individual bits, very plastic, very present statue. You don't need to glue him on top of the pedestal, you can simply put it ontop. If you keep those parts apart, you can switch for a different topper or idol on it. If you own the Timeworn Ruins you can build a destroyed variant of the statue as well.

The statue comes with two fire cauldrons. I didn't glue the fire into the pits, that way I can swap them for a pile of skulls or something similar. Just to keep it modular and flexible for different scenarios.

There are a total of 8 pillars in the two sprues, four intact one and four different damaged ones in different sizes. These come on top of pillar bases that are stepped on the back, to fit the steps of the temple and dais alike. You can position these freely, there are no guides or fixed positions. But the star / wind rose in the middle along with a ruler is a good guide to align them in the right angles / distances from eachother.

The instructions suggest to assemble them aligned with the bottom. But I added the pillar bases one step higher, because I liked it better that way. And I went with 7 pillars out of the 8 in 45° angles, with an opening towards the front. Don't glue the pillars on top of this, because it will make it harder to store and to transport, and in case you play a scenario where you need to destroy parts, or simply want to replace the pillars in some scenarios with other items (like statues of warriors or so, just an idea).

The pillars have optional further detailling. You may add torches to them, these are in four different designs and can be glued on any side or height onto the pillars.

To give you a proper impression of the size of this terrain piece, a mock up of the intended parts, a scale comparison with a Khorne warband and framed with the trees from the Awakened Wyldwood.

For comparison, back in the day, there were Arcane Ruins, just a brief comparison on how the "scale creep" got not only the miniatures but the terrain as well. And we've come a long way, very impressive size. The set on the right had a twenty-ish price tag, so that gives the Sigmarite Dais' tag of 55 EUR a reasonable range. The pillars of the arcane ruins set are compatible with the new set of ruins.

As mentioned further above, the Dais could be used for non-sigmarite scenarios as well. Without the Sigmar statue topper, the pedestral could be used with a chaos icon, as a sacrificial site for the dark gods, or in combination with some pieces from the Shattered Dominion objectives as a shrine to chaos itself.

I even had the time to give the base of the dais a bit of attention and I am very pleased with the current result. You already get such an amazing finish with a bit of dry brushing and only a few coats of paint.

Conclusion
I had fun building and painting this piece of terrain. It has a certain size, so it is not just a line-of-sight blocker or something that you move round, but integrate into your turns, moving units into and over it, having them interact with a terrain piece that big. The design is well planed, especially if you take a look how it combines and can be extended with the further items from the Dominion of Sigmar range. But what appeals to me the most, this is incredible versatile. Even with minimal work you can use it for factions or scenarios, with little to no connection to Age of Sigmar or the old world. It can be used for Frostgrave, for roleplaying miniature games. As it is plastic and not solid resin or similar, it can be modified with a cutter. Something that I will try to do with one of the Shattered temples in the future.

It goes well with different sets of colour. The box picture shows a limestone theme, I went with classic medium gray, but I have seen blue-ish or green-ish tinted stones, that give a great result and move it afar from the regular stone structures. In the White Dwarf issue from may 2019 you'll see several example on how to paint these kits.

I am aware, that the Shattered Temple is just 35 EUR compared to the 55 EUR of the Dais, and with such a good value on the smaller kit, the larger Dais will have its hard time on the shelf, or probably will be bought more often as part of the full-in pledge, the Stormvault along with more temples and even further scatter terrain.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar is a brand by Games Workshop

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.