Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Via a friend of mine who shall remain anonymous.

Unknown timeframe, hinted that it's a while stocks last type of deal, although stock was said to be low.

That's all I've got, although has proven reliable to me in the past.

UPDATE 1: Appartently the AU website has approximately 10 total combined then its gone.

Frankly I'm shocked!

I'd assumed they both died a death years ago.

Oh the horror!

It is fine imo, some branches of the tree should be cut for the wellfare of the whole tree.

Truly an end of an era

I actually rather liked the sets. They were pretty good for campaign maps and had just enough variety to be worthwhile. Plus, the pieces were surprisingly well-made with each piece fitting into one another without the need for glue.

I may pick up another Mighty Empires and Hive City set before they're gone forever.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know of any other campaign-building options, or software/apps etc. that fulfil the same function?

I've normally just used things like sticking pins into printed out maps, but wondered if there was any official efforts out there from the fanbase or from other companies?

Quick question, did anyone really ever use these? It was £30 for a set of plastic tiles and flags, while a map can be made in Microsoft Paint on someones computer in around 30 mins.

I bought them both, cut them out, never used either. This is one discontinued product I can't really blame GW for doing.

I played with both fairly regularly at my FLGS. We're generally very tournament minded so it was cool to play a system that was near opposite that. Felt like playing a board game and Warhammer at the same time. Sad to see them go, but I already have both my copies.

 Pacific wrote:
Out of curiosity, does anyone know of any other campaign-building options, or software/apps etc. that fulfil the same function?

I've normally just used things like sticking pins into printed out maps, but wondered if there was any official efforts out there from the fanbase or from other companies?

Heroscape! It's an OOP product of Wizards of the Coast where they use hexagonal tiles to create terrain. You can buy it cheap on Ebay, plus you get minis. The minis are lackluster but you can always use them for practice or conversions. The hexagonal tiles are mostly flat but that's easy to remedy with a bit of foliage, sand and rocks. They come in different colors and textures, depending on the type of terrain. You can also stack them if you want to create higher ground.

Some product photos:

Our FLGS uses three sets for a campaign that should be kicking off soon again. The tiles are amazing, just throw out the extra booklet that comes with it.

Yeah, I have both of these as well as the original (somewhere! ).

They are a very fine set of tiles though in all honesty I haven't yet had cause to use them.

Honestly, I like the Mighty Empire tiles, the price just doesn't make sense. If GW dropped the price (it's been out 7 years), it'd be a great project to get people enthusiastic to play more actual warhammer.

The pamphlet of rules that came with the box set is terrible, but they're nice for either the old rules if you have lots of sets, or for any map campaign.

 Imposter101 wrote:
Quick question, did anyone really ever use these? It was £30 for a set of plastic tiles and flags, while a map can be made in Microsoft Paint on someones computer in around 30 mins.

I am using my Mighty Empires set. You are right that it's probably not the most time efficient way of doing something like this, but the set looks much nicer than anything I could produce on my computer. Also, it's a very "physical" hobby for me and the guys in my group, so we much prefer to huddle over the pseudo-3D map than a printed map.

We used one (two?) sets for our campaign maps some years back after struggling with styrofoam maps for a couple of seasons. That was really good fun and the tiles worked great. For the online version, I took a photo of the map and then wrote code to draw territories and things on top of the image.

The rules were fairly decent as well - only needing slight modifications to make them playable. Don't listen to the people who think that overly complicated = better and keep wondering why they never finish their campaigns.

Sad to see it go. I always meant to get a set for myself, but after moving there was never a large enough group to get any use out of it.

Planetary empires didnt even have rules in the set and the empire rules were a ancient pdf you had to hunt down because thows arent in the box either.

Both boxes have the rules in them, albeit rather simple streamlined ones.

I think the PDF you refer to was the original Mighty Empires boxed game rulebook from the 90's that was on the GW site.

I used them as areas of influence for my D&D game

I got both sets when the Planetary Empire first came out and was a lot cheaper than now. I also got two sets of the add-on Hive City tiles.

The tiles are very well done and paint up nicely.

The rules are almost worthless as a campaign system, though you can of course get or write other rules, which I did.

The main drawback of the tiles is that a good size layout uses up a fair bit of table space. It is a nuisance if you want to run a long lasting campaign, though I suppose you could put them on a more portable tray.

TBH I have never used them, and they currently sit in my attic.

Mapping software is easily available for all platforms. Here is an example... http://www.hexographer.com/

Mapping software is easily available for all platforms.

I agree. It is so easy nowadays to create and print out a sweet-looking hex map to fight campaigns over.

 notprop wrote:
Both boxes have the rules in them, albeit rather simple streamlined ones.

I think the PDF you refer to was the original Mighty Empires boxed game rulebook from the 90's that was on the GW site.

I'd hardly call that booklet with the box a rule book. In the end your group bassicly is expected to come up with your own campaign rules. It's kinda pathetic.

As for the PDF, I was refering to a OOP rule from a few editions back that I can't recall the name for ATM. It had the rules for building fortresses and making siege armies. It also had a sort of resource system going on also.


Luckily for my old gaming group we had a member who still owned a copy of it.

The rules were fine, IMHO. Simple, sure, but in the campaigns we played the KISS factor was a pro to get more people playing. 40k has enough rules going on.

He is referring to the PDF that GW posted online a little while after the plastic set came out. The rules in the box were indeed horrendous, but then in what was probably the coolest thing GW has done in the last 10 years, they scanned the original Mighty Armies rules and released it, for free, on the website.

I played the original a few times years ago when some of the the "veterans" brought it in to my game shop and played it like a board game using the rulebooks optional tables for rolling off absent player battles. Fantastic fun, I didn't even realize that it was supposed to be the WHFB campaign system until some years later.

Clarence wrote:
The rules were fine, IMHO. Simple, sure, but in the campaigns we played the KISS factor was a pro to get more people playing. 40k has enough rules going on.

Thing is that their terrible for that purpose. A esculation league is better for thows purposes allowing new players time to build their armies up.

I've got a set of each, and 6 of the Hive City tiles. I really like them.

 Lockark wrote:

Clarence wrote:
The rules were fine, IMHO. Simple, sure, but in the campaigns we played the KISS factor was a pro to get more people playing. 40k has enough rules going on.

Thing is that their terrible for that purpose. A esculation league is better for thows purposes allowing new players time to build their armies up.

Nah, I think the pamphlet in the box was a good start, certainly better than the original Mighty Empires rules, which were written before they invented game balance ("Here, have an additional army as a random event, just because you play Undead!"). Sure, they needed some tweaking, but a lot less than most sets you come across.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I've got a set of each, and 6 of the Hive City tiles. I really like them.

I agree with this statement. At the same time, I can understand why GW would trim them from the catalog; it's not something that every player needs nor could you even say every gaming group needs them. They are neat for what they are, but they're a very niche product and retail shelf space is at a premium.

Still a shame though. Might pick up another ME set at the FLGS if they have one.

I have loads of those Hives as well - that was actually my only disappointment with PE; that it came with no Hive tiles. Quite a mystery to me as to why they would do that.

The other mystery to me was why I also have 6 of the things now, did they come in 2s?

Now then the thing about this rumour is that really it isn't a problem for GW to keep it going, even just as a Direct only product. It's a plastic kit made in house with minimal printing involved. As direct product it would also not need specific packaging so could go out bagged or in one of those white boxes they do.

So the more I think on this and the more we stroll along memory lane the more I think this rumour isn't true.

 notprop wrote:
Quite a mystery to me as to why they would do that.

Planetary Empires DLC.

 notprop wrote:
The other mystery to me was why I also have 6 of the things now, did they come in 2s?

They did.

 Imposter101 wrote:
Quick question, did anyone really ever use these? It was £30 for a set of plastic tiles and flags, while a map can be made in Microsoft Paint on someones computer in around 30 mins.

We used them once. Hated it.

The Badab War Campaign Rules (IA 9) are MUCH better and easy to customize.