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This'd cost us mortals a good £60 to make. Does anyone other than GW staff and event organisers use them to make maps?

I'm strongly considering making something similar to the ME/PE stuff by sculpting tiles and pressing duplicates in GS. Anyone done anything similar?

Personally I just make the maps in a computer imaging program

The planetary empire stuff looks cool but the problem has always been storing a fully built campaign map.. You cant really hang it on a wall easily unless you glue everything down

If youre doing it at home you need significant space

I use Mighty Empires. I bought it before the 40K one came out and decided it would just have to be an unsettled world for 40k. Quite nifty actually, especially if you got the two free tiles in the WD that announced its arrival. Ah, the good old days when useful stuff came with WD...

I have both sets with the intentin of doing that but have yet to find the time to follow through with it.

The GW tiles are quite big (2-3" across) if you were intending to attempt a interchangable set of custom tiles. So I would guess that might put it beyond the structural capabilities of GS and press moulding.

I have both sets from a couple of years ago when they were a lot cheaper than now. (I hate to keep sounding biased against GW but it's true.)

They are nice sets though the rules are very limited.

It's true for a long campaign there is a storage issue, however the physicality of the miniature terrains is very pleasing.

You could easily make your own sets using hexagonal tiles from Litko Aero, and press mould terrain features on to them. You could embed a rare earth magnet in each one and attach them to a steel sign board or your fridge door. That's actually a brilliant idea now I have just thought of it.

A pack of 50 x 3mm plywood 2.5 inch hexes is only $17.99 plus postage.

Kilkrazy wrote:
They are nice sets though the rules are very limited.

I will say that the guys at GW have waxed lyrical about how the rules in set are just a 'jumping off point' i.e. they provide a basic framework, then you and your gaming buddies' collective imaginations run riot on other things (you could use the basic ruleset, or you could go as complex as a whole civilisation videogame in table form).


Personally I REALLY like the idea of the mighty/planetary empires sets, it's great, it's modular, it's extensible, it's better than a hand-drawn pencil-scribble.

But I have no use for them, currently I have almost zero hobby time & budget (and didn't have much more when they came out), and little or no like-minded gamers (I don't have an opponent, let alone a gaming club to attend). So for me the purchase of these tiles is a bit of a wasted purchase.

However, If I ran a gaming club, I wouldn't think twice about using terrain budget/getting other members to chip in to get a bunch of the tiles and run an amazing map-based campaign. Personally I think this is the reason why they released these (they are definately not aimed at the average individual gamer, but a group with money to burn), and this is where they shine at their purpose.

I have a copy of the original ME along with the rulebook which basically has enough to turn it into a reasonable boardgame. It was available on the GW site.

My group just doesn't seem to keep momentum long enough to really do a decent campaign. For groups that do, however, it seems like it could be a lot of fun.

There are others I've played with who just lose all interest in the game once they feel that they're losing the campaign - and drop out.

So you really need the right kind of group to play this.

My suggestion - make everybody pitch in to buy the tiles and make everyone pitch in to paint them. This way, everyone is invested and you'll likely get one good campaign out of it. And who knows? Maybe more.

Kilkrazy wrote:I have both sets from a couple of years ago when they were a lot cheaper than now. (I hate to keep sounding biased against GW but it's true.)

They are nice sets though the rules are very limited.

It's true for a long campaign there is a storage issue, however the physicality of the miniature terrains is very pleasing.

You could easily make your own sets using hexagonal tiles from Litko Aero, and press mould terrain features on to them. You could embed a rare earth magnet in each one and attach them to a steel sign board or your fridge door. That's actually a brilliant idea now I have just thought of it.

A pack of 50 x 3mm plywood 2.5 inch hexes is only $17.99 plus postage.

I had this idea a few years ago, but then realised no-one in my club cared much about map campaigns so never got around to it. I'm pretty sure the GW hexes are 2" corner-to-corner (1" per side). Gale Force 9 also sells plywood hexes, but by volume rather than by number.

There are all types of game players.

I will say that people who don't play campaigns are missing out on a fantastic experience.

From a narrative viewpoint you get a much more exciting development of characters and situations by playing linked battles.

From a command viewpoint, the challenges of strategy and the need to conserve your forces (and possibly deal with supply conditions too) add three new factors to the challenge.

Of course that depends on the rules.

The disappointment of the Planetary Empires rules is that they pretty much read like this:

1. Play a game of 40K.
2. The winner chooses a hex and rolls a D6 to capture it. (There are some modifiers.)
3. Repeat steps 1-2 until one player has reached the winning number of hexes owned.

Kilkrazy wrote:The disappointment of the Planetary Empires rules is that they pretty much read like this:

1. Play a game of 40K.
2. The winner chooses a hex and rolls a D6 to capture it. (There are some modifiers.)
3. Repeat steps 1-2 until one player has reached the winning number of hexes owned.

That really is too bad. It sounds as if not a lot of thought went into developing the rules. Not that it has to be complicated. But if we're not doing complicated anyway, one can just draw a map on hex paper, tape it to the wall for the summer, and use that.

I could see this being a fine acquisition for a gaming club, though. Where you are much more likely (one would hope) to have regulars who show up every week. Or for anyone who could see a return on the investment. I really like the IDEA of Planetary Empires. But realistically, our group would just not use it. Heck, I'm still trying to figure out when we can play some WOTR (which I bought 2 years ago and have yet to play a game with even though all my friends have armies and rules, too).

I must be cynical today. Apologies. If only there were 6 or 7 of me then I could play all the different stuff I wanted and still have time to paint.

The tiles are great. The rules are not. They probably tooka bout 10 minutes to write.

There is plenty of scope for cribbing campaign rules from elsewhere or for writing your own at whatever level of complexity you like.

We've used it for a campaign, and we've used it for the 40K RPG to show areas that the players can move around to. I've even got 6 of the Hive City tiles, and they're great.

Funnily enough, the miniatures that come with FFG's Horus Heresy game can work quite well with the Planetary/Mighty Empire tiles. The 6 (or so) Defence Laser Silos are also the right size for the tiles.

Kirasu wrote:You cant really hang it on a wall easily unless you glue everything down.

Cork board + coloured pins.

That's what we do.

Kilkrazy wrote:(I hate to keep sounding biased against GW but it's true.)

LIAR!!! We all love sounding biased against GW. At least I know I do. And yet I still play WFB...

lindsay40k wrote:

This'd cost us mortals a good £60 to make. Does anyone other than GW staff and event organisers use them to make maps?

I'm strongly considering making something similar to the ME/PE stuff by sculpting tiles and pressing duplicates in GS. Anyone done anything similar?

A long time ago, we played Warhammer Fantasy with the old Mighty Empires game.

You mapped out the game, you come across a opponent, or a special encounter, youd pull out the Warhammer Quest, Warhammer fantasy battles, and do the large scale fighting.
We had the old school Fantasy game from Hogshead, that incorperated the fantasy RPG with your Warhammer fantasy army.

Good times, those were. REAL good times.

Was ending up with the skermish thing, using the basic 3d edition rules with a few handfuls of guys as well. Was awsomesauce in a can of whoopazz.


These days? Nah. These guys gave you a great idea with the pins and corkboard, with a photocopied map. Or you can get the small scale looking miniatures by using Epic stuff for 40K, or some same scaled fantasy guys from 15mm games.

It's not really worth the buy anymore. The new game is a batch of wasted opportunity that someone needs thier face kicked in over.

Want a tip? Dig up that old hogshead game book and you will see what GW either intentionally lost or forgotten.

I have two sets combined---we're getting ready to roll out a WM campaign on it next month.

I'm considering magnetizing the markers though. Don't know if the ability to hang it on a wall is worth the magnets/effort.

AgeOfEgos wrote:I have two sets combined---we're getting ready to roll out a WM campaign on it next month.

I'm considering magnetizing the markers though. Don't know if the ability to hang it on a wall is worth the magnets/effort.

Really? I would so love to see how it's REALLY done. Any chance for play-by-play pics of this campaign? That would be so awesome. Perhaps it will inspire the rest of us lot!

I like the idea of it being a real life RTS where you can build and create units in an rts manner. Its a great idea that me and my brother thought of. Where you start out in an area of the map and you start out with 1,000 points then you start to build higher 'tech' units such as Predators, Land Raiders, Dreadnoughts, Libys, Forgemasters, and other more expensive equipment.

Making an rts transition to a board game is tough but it is freaking brilliant once you finish the rules. Too bad the rules I had have been lost due to a computer virus...

I always struggled with RTS/resource management elements in 40K. I think the toning-down of Space Marines from their godlike fluff incarnations to being slightly tougher humans with reasonably good armour (for entirely valid ludological reasons) makes it very difficult to come up with a unit generation/replacement system that reconciles their decades-long training to use irreplaceable ancient wargear with the Guard's mass conscription of instant meatshields & the Tyranids' constant spawning of cannon fodder. When you've got captured tank factories spewing out Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts and neophyte Scouts being trained overnight by a barracks or farm and fed into a meat grinder to capture an arms dump that makes your already master-crafted energy weapons even more powerful, the feeling of being elite space monks armed with holy relics just gets more diluted.

AC, look at the original ME rules, they do pretty much everything you might want.

No tech tree as you suggest (no loss as it sounds like too much bother), but the basic elements are there for resource gathering (gold peices per town/city) plus espionage/spying, starvation, winter etc.

I used hexes from my Mighty Empires and Planetary Empires sets to make 3-D Settlers of Catan hexes.

Great idea!

wittzo wrote:I used hexes from my Mighty Empires and Planetary Empires sets to make 3-D Settlers of Catan hexes.

Aye that works very well.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

lindsay40k wrote:I always struggled with RTS/resource management elements in 40K. I think the toning-down of Space Marines from their godlike fluff incarnations to being slightly tougher humans with reasonably good armour (for entirely valid ludological reasons) makes it very difficult to come up with a unit generation/replacement system that reconciles their decades-long training to use irreplaceable ancient wargear with the Guard's mass conscription of instant meatshields & the Tyranids' constant spawning of cannon fodder. When you've got captured tank factories spewing out Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts and neophyte Scouts being trained overnight by a barracks or farm and fed into a meat grinder to capture an arms dump that makes your already master-crafted energy weapons even more powerful, the feeling of being elite space monks armed with holy relics just gets more diluted.

For Space Marines it doesn't make sense. (or they could be from different chapters coming down to help aid with it.)

Solorg wrote:

AgeOfEgos wrote:I have two sets combined---we're getting ready to roll out a WM campaign on it next month.

I'm considering magnetizing the markers though. Don't know if the ability to hang it on a wall is worth the magnets/effort.

Really? I would so love to see how it's REALLY done. Any chance for play-by-play pics of this campaign? That would be so awesome. Perhaps it will inspire the rest of us lot!

Campaign coming in August!

What prompted me to do it was when I saw the 10th anniversary set of Catan in resin going for $300-$600. One of my friends got one from his in-laws a couple of years ago. I've had both Empires sets for a year and I got the idea. I made tiny green stuff ovoids and painted them white with a black dot on one end to represent sheep, but the rest of the tiles needed no tweaks.

A company is going to come out with six different sets of pewter road segments and towns and city pieces, each in a different culture's architecture. There's going to be a set based on Vikings, Japanese feudal, Bavarian, Egyptian and a few more. I'm going to mod them so they'll work with my 3-D tiles when they come out.

I don't know if the other Bunkers have done this, but at the Memphis Bunker, they have three large maps (8X10, at least) for campaigns made of painted Empired hexes. They cut and modded some of the tiles to make natural looking lakes, oceans, and shores.