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Hive cities are one of the most evocative parts of the 40K setting. I grew up reading 2000AD and Mega City One is ingrained in my imagination, and I think it's clear that it and the nightmare cities from Nemesis the Warlock are a big part of the inspiration for the Hive City idea.

If you look at the fiction though, they can be portrayed fairly inconsistently. In the Armageddon War for example, sometimes the Hives are like just big cities, with tower blocks and streets and so on. That is also how the Hives are represented in battle reports from the 3e era - the famous battle for Tempestora Hive report is a futuristic city, but nothing like the entirely enclosed "caves of steel" of Necromunda. Similarly, Verunhive seems to mostly be a ground level battle and the "hive" is mostly just a big walled city.

Obviously, there are practical reasons for this - 40K 3rd edition is heavily influenced by WW2 wargames, and therefore works well in the kind of environments that were fought across in WW2. Huge, highly vertical, enclosed cities are not really part of that paradigm! Imagining how a battle would play out in such terrain and what tactics could be used is pretty challenging.

But if we want to do Hives justice as they are portrayed in fiction like the Necromunda materials or some of the Dark Heresy books, how would we do it on the tabletop? And how would it play in game?

To my mind, you need at least 3 levels of verticality to give the impression of the complex structures inside the hive. I think normal city layouts should be avoided, and actually also think that brick and mortar construction should be pretty rare. These are caves of steel and so as much as possible the bones of it should be metal.

Using walkway systems is a good start, but I think you also need significant amounts of raised platforms creating miniature battlezones above the "ground" level, and might even suggest that objectives should generally be in this "layer" to encourage engagement with the vertical nature of the structure. A ground level, with a level of raised platforms connected by walkways and then a final layer of walkways above that, perhaps with a few more raised platforms in the "top layer" would give a pretty convincing 3D aspect. Walkways and smaller platforms allow for us to see in and also move our hands in and out to move miniatures.

But the final question is, how good is all this verticality for gameplay? How do you represent it? I'd say you need fairly streamlined movement rules. Penalising vertical movement too much will put off players from using the higher levels. But you also need to reward jump troops in some way to make them attractive, because being able to jump from platform to platform is really evocative. I'd also give some sort of bonus for being on the high ground (as in the old Cityfight supplements) to encourage getting up there and using it.

I'm interested in other points of view here - do you prefer the more standard "city ruins" representation of a hive city? Do you think the caves of steel style is not that common in universe and a lot of hives really are just very big cities (in which case some cities on Earth are approaching being hives atm)? And how do you find gameplay on these boards?

And of course, if you have cool hive terrain please post it!

Things like this:

https://lasercraftworkshop.com/wood-lasered-products/wood-lasered-buildings/promethium-forge/deluxe-bulkhead-terrain-set/

And this:

https://www.wargamestournaments.com/product/city-fast-32-ruined-buildings-set-28mm-terrain/

And this:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/miniatures-and-terrain--532691462151633921/

Conversely, dungeon/space hulk type scenery also work for me

The first two MDF kits look like how I imagine hives, the middle one is lovely ruined city terrain but I dunno that it fits what I imagine when I imagine a Hive City. Though, I do struggle with what the habs should look like - I imagine something pre-fab and standardised, and made of metal for the constructed habs which I imagine the richer gang leaders would live in or would be popular homes in the upper levels, but then with lots of shanty town like hovels everywhere in the lower reaches where most people live.

I guess it depends on the scale.

A hive city is meant to be a man-made mountain somewhat resembling a pyramid, with the spires of the nobility at the top and the stygian slum of the underhive below. I think the Necromunda Hive for instance is 5 miles high - so not far off Everest (5.5).

But its a massive structure in terms of volume too. So it seems reasonable most fighting would be inside it - and therefore enclosed - even if the space could be more than big enough to drive tanks etc around in. Although there's no real reason you couldn't be fighting on the surface - although how that would look would vary from level to level.

I think all the verticality/gangways etc is good for visually simulating this. But arguably as you flag up, its not great for gameplay given the relatively limited movement ability of infantry (whereas bikes and vehicles etc may just be stuck).

With that said, In "real life" (if such a phrase can apply to 40k) I'm not sure there would be much verticality. I mean I'm posting this from an office several floors up - and while I can wave out the window, I can't see into the floor immediately below or above me. After all, why would we want that? I'm thinking there would just be floor after floor of 40k-concrete. You'd move between them via stairs, or lifts. Presumably there's some sort of mass transport system to get people from living quarters to work stations etc - but that's probably just a system of train stations in tunnels, where space is kept to a minimum.

Look at video games such as Underhive Wars for how conflict areas in hive cilties have been protrayed in them:
https://www.focus-entmt.com/en/games/necromunda-underhive-wars
That game's terrain is supposed to match tabletop, but bits of it are specially made, such as the big vats.

For tabletop scenery though, which bits of the vast hive are you wantling to depict? There are the areas the various gangs control, the more general areas where trade and industry happen, then suposedly habitation. Not everyone lives in the slums, or lives in gang hideouts.
Of GW's releases for Necromunda (just to keep to that theme) the metal girders of the Sector Mechanicus seem pretty ubiquitus. With that and Zone Mortalis for the bits inbetween, there is a fair amount of variety in construction methods.
You can expand them into the transport tunnels, wide open storage areas, recreation spaces, etc.

Vehicles are a problem, for sure. I'd say each raised platform should have a ramp that a vehicle can drive up to allow them to get at least to the middle layer, and the walkways would hopefully be big enough to let some vehicles drive along them as well.

And yeah, I think you're not wrong that a hive city is not a very realistic structure. I think it might make more sense (the huge domes that are then "filled in" with structures) on planets that are not terraformed, so the domes are protecting from hostile outer environments.

One solution could be to have connections into the raised sections in each deployment zone, and have objectives on each layer. That way you are incentivised to spread out your deployment and use all the vertical space. You could have different teams on different levels pushing for each objective, it feels like it could be very dynamic. I dunno, I just think there's something so cool about this sort of multi-level battlefield.

This is my set up:


And I'd say it's about a third of the way there. I have the stuff for some extra raised platforms that are a lot bigger, and will be making ramps for those as well as the stairs seen here. And then I really need some hab-blocks which I'm also working on. I've decided after a lot of thought to steer away from concrete in my structures, barring a few walls here and there.

But even in this rudimentary set up, my walkways are 75mm across, so you can drive a fair few of the smaller vehicles down these. It's one of the reasons I've not upscaled bases on any of my minis - this is designed to take three 25mm minis walking abreast, and if you upscale to 32mm bases it's a lot less usable, which is likely to be another challenge with this sort of terrain nowadays - making space for all the bases makes it look weird and out of scale.
Skinnereal: My aim is to make a very modular set up of mostly infrastructure, which you can then plop various things on to represent the different hive zones. Stack scrap and shanty buildings on your walkways and platforms - Underhive. Stack it with hab blocks and manufactorum, mid hive. Stack it with artificial parks and statues, upper hive. That's the plan, to be able to represent the entire hive without having to make bespoke structures for each area, but just set dressing on top of the stage of the modular walkways and platforms.

What I IMAGINE is pretty much as depicted in Judge Dredd (the Karl Urban version).

That seems to me ungame-able, which is why dungeons work for me - one level of the hive for the game.

The other links give some sense of height on the edges of buildings while staying industrial - maybe throw in many armoured containers as residences?

Hah, my version is something like the version of Mega City One from the black and white comics, but even more enclosed. Overpasses and walkways everywhere, with towers looming up between them.

I'm doing roughly 6"x6" electrical gang boxes as hab units, and adding some bits to make them stackable into towers. I've seen some cool shipping container habs but I decided the gang box approach would be more useful to me because I could use them as installations and stuff for other set ups.

For gaming, dungeon tile like set ups are probably the most practical. Much like a boarding action on a space ship. The most you want there is one level of elevation. But I think the more complex 3D boards just look cool enough that the spectacle is worth the hassle...

This sort of thread always needs the definitive GW reference:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/02/10/building-the-underhive-creating-warhammer-worlds-necromunda-diorama/



Not that far off from what was in the newer Dredd movie.. just different layout..

I agree this is primarily a constraint placed by the practicalities of wargaming. The need to actually see and reach our models limits how many layers we can add. It is something I've pondered about for years, although I've not had opportunity to start on anything yet. That is all likely to change once I've finished renovating my new house.

Firstly, I think it is important to note that there are a lot of different types of hives, and not all hives are found on hive worlds. For example, Valhalla has subterranean hives carved out of the rock and ice, but is typically described as a civilised world. Presumably the population is not big enough overall to warrant classification as a hive world, but is highly concentrated into a handful of hives due to the adverse conditions on an ice world. The Dead Men Walking book describes a hive constituted as a series of distinct high rises connected by bridges at various levels. The hives on Meridian seem to have few spires and be fairly flat across the top of the structures, with deep chasms reaching down into the lower hives. Forge worlds also occasionally have hives for their indentured workers (if that is how they procure labour). Having said that, the typical hive seems to be a giant enclosed structure of one or more major spires surrounded by minor spires and some degree of suburbs, which all sits atop some kind of underhive wilderness.

Secondly, I think the warren of tunnels is only going to represent a portion of most hives, even the typical enclosed ones. If we take the best described hive in 40k- Hive Primus on Necromunda:

It is supposedly based upon a mound of domes upon domes. This is quite a clever bit of world building IMO. Each individual dome can essentially contain a city analogous to something on a surface level, with its own little patch of artificially-lit sky beneath its adamantium firmament. It allows your battlefield to be built based upon a single level whilst still representing a discrete chunk of the hive. The areas between domes and in some of the more built-up domes would be tunnel warrens, but a given dome may be fairly open. This is going to become increasingly true as you go up the levels. In the noble areas, wide boulevards and airy spaces are going to be common despite being within the iron skin of the hive.
In addition, despite older images showing a smooth-ish exterior, it does appear Hive Primus is a craggy mass of external structures:

This is consistent with other newer hive images, like on Armageddon:
Even outside of the dome concept, I think open spaces like parks and boulevards are going to be relatively common in the mid and especially upper hives. Not so much as public amenities, but as public reminders of Imperial power. This is from the hives on Valhalla, and is clearly meant to be a reminder of such as the troops exit the hive to battle:

GW's own hive city model suggests hives are often wider and flatter around the spires:

Meridian features a lot of open areas on the upper surfaces of the hive, which are readily taken advantage of by the Blood Ravens in drop pod assaults:
Regarding suburbs- I think this probably depends heavily on the planet. The hives on Necromunda and Armageddon seem to have little in the way of suburbs, but it appears they used to have extensive ones given the huge numbers of ruins lost in the ash wastes surrounding the hives. Meanwhile the very modest Vervunhive has a lot of city outside the main walls. My suspicion is that early hives develop extensive suburbs, but these are gradually abandoned as the atmosphere becomes more toxic and inhospitable, with only the most hardy and/or useful communities surviving outside of the thick hive skins.

So I think the typical, surface-level city board is entirely consistent with a fight in a hive city, if it represents combat in the suburbs, on the surface of the skin, or through some of the more airy parts of the hive levels. Given that GW has generally only released kits for fancy Imperial government buildings or shrines, or for manufacturing districts (which are likely to be fairly spacious just to accommodate the size of Imperial gear being constructed), this works. We now have GW kits for the warrens of tunnels too- Zones Mortalis and Boarding Assault/Gallowdark kits. What has always been missing is dense blocks of basic habs, but then these may be the most difficult to actually play through.

Regarding ideas for adding more multi-level play:
The (conceptually) easiest is to have a second level raised quite high over the first with enough room to reach beneath it, and essentially have two urban zones with only a few points of connection. This doesn't provide a lot of interactivity though, but could be very cool for a force to attack upwards from the hive base.
Similar to this is the space hulk method, where you have two separate boards with designated connection points.
I've also thought of an idea where there is a spine of sorts down the centre, with floors coming off towards either long edge. These would need to be carefully crafted to avoid anywhere being unreachable, but being open from the edges will help a lot. The spine will heavily limit long-ranged firepower and be a bit awkward to manoeuvre troops across.

Great visual references here, thanks! I'd never seen that new Armageddon hive image. Awesome stuff.

I agree about the idea of a "spine" level - I'd think of it as the second layer of the battle field stretching from one long edge to the other with at least three paths you could take to get from one side to the other, and probably a central hub area around the middle of the table. This would mean the second level is in both player's deployment zone, so a part of their force can be deployed up there and fight across it.

A third layer I imagine for practical reasons needs to be more sparse, but I would still want at least a connection from the deployment zones to the centre above the second layer's centre. That way you could at least have some small teams having their own battle up there.

I mean it's all for spectacle and to feed the imagination during the battle.

As for access, I make my levels about 4.5' high, and that's enough for large models to move under and for me to reach my hands under. But I don't play with models much bigger than a Land Raider generally so I don't have to plan for tall superheavies, and I think if you're going to take those sorts of things you really need to design the layout to accomodate them.

When I say a spine, I more mean a central support for the floors, to minimise obstructions. Something a bit like this old GW board, but a city instead of a space ship with more through-connection:


Essentially, rather than building two walls with floors between, you build one central wall with floors on either side. With lots of doors and gates.

It all depends on how dense you want your terrain to be really.

I think you can build a table that accommodates larger models, but they will be heavily restricted in mobility. As they should be.

-------

I also really like this image from the 4th edition Cities of Death book. Very much a city similar to the hives on Meridian, and something you could do a bit of on the tabletop. The high-level gantries and bridges give another way to add verticality to a board. Maybe you could use lift shafts with simple rules to connect areas without giving too much advantage to jump troops? This and the armoured train in the battle report for Cold Steel Ridge in Apocalypse 1st edition have given me a long-running desire to build a 40k train....

I always just head to the way Hive cities were described in Old school Necromunda. Basically towers and other large structures connected at various levels by walkways. My ideal is 2-3 stories where the second story has enough walkways to get around almost the entire table. It'd be fun if the 3rd story was to, but generally it serves as less connected scattered high points for objectives and locations for sniping.

For game purposes, this generally works best with skirmish games or infantry-only games. It'd be a big commitment to build the number of bridges and ramps needed for vehicles on multiple levels .

These links show some of the setups. I often use an elevated train line to create even more walkways. Most of my pedestrian walkways are broken Lionel Gondola bodies with the ends cut off. They provide nice cover, are a good length and have lots of rivets.


https://www.chicagoskirmishwargames.com/blog/2015/07/necromunda-campaign-lower-wacker-hive-2/


This picture from a Shadow War Armageddon game shows the Idea pretty well.


A good top down here:
https://www.chicagoskirmishwargames.com/blog/2017/06/aar-video-first-try-at-shadow-war-armageddon/

Those set ups look great. I didn't put barriers on my walkways, except as clip ons, and it's the worst part of set up clipping them all on. But it increases modularity by being able to have the walkways interlock at any point along their length. But you do need some cover up there. I house rule that anyone in an elevated position always has cover, because they can drop down and have a much smaller silhouette than someone on the ground.

I also like that your board has plenty of colour. I think it looks nicer with some weathered colours than all in tones of rust and steel.

Haighus: That is a cool picture, though if those buildings go down to the ground, I'd say then some modern cities qualify as Hives.

Another inspiration for me is Midgar from Final Fantasy 7, with it's big "plates" with the slums underneath and a central spire. A sort of mini-hive, even with ash wastes all around it.

Eilif, that board set up looks great. I like how it feels like an actual place. One of my problems with a lot of terrain set ups is they don't look like they have a purpose, just a collection of stuff which might be aesthetically cohesive but lacks functionality as a place. It is also why I liked the starter set terrain from the last edition, that had a strong functional theme to it.

 Da Boss wrote:
Haighus: That is a cool picture, though if those buildings go down to the ground, I'd say then some modern cities qualify as Hives.

Well, Vervunhive has a population of "just" 40 million, with Ferrozoica hive at about 1/3rd of that. The greater Tokyo metropolitan area has a population of about 40 million people. I'd absolutely say the largest cities on Earth today would be considered small hives in 40k. I think hive is a pretty loose term that just means large city in its most basic form. Frankly, I don't think Verghast would be considered a hive world by most of the Imperium, it has a population that seems unlikely to top 1 billion or so given it had three and a half* puny hives at the beginning of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. But the population seems to be mainly concentrated into those hives, so that would explain why people viewed it as such.

Having said that, the image of Dheneb Capitalis is much more interconnected than high-rises on modern day Earth, even if you assume the ground is not far below what we can see. But it may be much lower, we don't actually have any indication of where surface is in that image. It could be a mile below what we can see. The only real inferences we can make is that the atmosphere is not so polluted that the governor ("Hierocrat") has pushed their palace up into a spire above the clouds yet. I'd say this is probably a relatively early hive. It has a lot of similarities to how Meridian is depicted in the Dawn of War series with fairly under-developed spires surrounded by a mass of dense city.


*I say half because the Northern Collectives were apparently well on their way to becoming a hive proper.

I think if you imagine that a lot of planets in the Imperium are relatively hostile to human life, densely populated and enclosed urban settlements make a lot of sense.

Overall, the interior needn’t be overly standardised, as a Hive’s construction is layer upon layer added over millennia, seemingly according to immediate need.

You may have high vaulted ceilings for thoroughfares or former manufcatorums. You may have MC-1 style floors for high density domiciles. Some sectors may be largely only traversible on foot. Others might have vac-tubes, monorails, powered walkways, roads etc.

They’re a proper mish-mash of usable space.

We also have Domes described in Necromunda, which appear to be akin to self contained towns. And like any town, may have a variety of architecture and usage.

One thing I'd make - assuming I had unlimited time, money, and storage space - is table top topper i.e. some "spires" that hold up a basically battlefield sized surface to represent just the one layer with spires and layers going up and down from there.

Just don't put too much thought into it - How many Hive world invaders care if they storm the top level of the citadel before or after they bomb the bottom support pilings? But that would make a far shorter black library book.

 Da Boss wrote:
Those set ups look great.. .

...I also like that your board has plenty of colour. I think it looks nicer with some weathered colours than all in tones of rust and steel.

Thanks!
I agree that cover is very necessary. It's the one thing that's missing in sufficient qualities in the original 90s Necromunda sets. Your rule giving cover to higher models is a very good idea.

As for color, I'm so glad that stands out. I'm a big fan of color in terrain layouts. I'm not particularly careful in the application or detailing (usually just dusted spray cans or dry brushing), but it just seems more fun to me, even in the grim darkness of the far future.

 Haighus wrote:
Eilif, that board set up looks great. I like how it feels like an actual place. One of my problems with a lot of terrain set ups is they don't look like they have a purpose, just a collection of stuff which might be aesthetically cohesive but lacks functionality as a place. It is also why I liked the starter set terrain from the last edition, that had a strong functional theme to it.

Thanks! Trying to have the terrain make sense (almost to tell a story on it's own) is something I've always tried for but has definitely improved over the years.

Here's last week's Grimdark game at TMX. Might be one of my most sensible boards yet, with fairly obvious port, industry and settlement.

A majority of the Darktide game takes place in a hive city, and across varying districts.

Them range from the criss-crossed shanty slums to the more upscale cathedral districts and everything in between. Though the best part is definitely that the ‘sky’ is always more city; a vast expanse of metal above you which turns you into the foundation for the next level up.

Oh, a fun idea I forgot to mention before: if you have an enclosed area that feels like it should be accessible but just cannot easily be reached for placing models (like a structure on the bottom layer), then you can model it with LEDs suggesting the section contains a fire and is impassable. Totally unnecessary but cool. Can also use rules for garrisoned buildings.


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 Eilif wrote:

 Haighus wrote:
Eilif, that board set up looks great. I like how it feels like an actual place. One of my problems with a lot of terrain set ups is they don't look like they have a purpose, just a collection of stuff which might be aesthetically cohesive but lacks functionality as a place. It is also why I liked the starter set terrain from the last edition, that had a strong functional theme to it.

Thanks! Trying to have the terrain make sense (almost to tell a story on it's own) is something I've always tried for but has definitely improved over the years.

Here's last week's Grimdark game at TMX. Might be one of my most sensible boards yet, with fairly obvious port, industry and settlement.

Yup, looks awesome 👍 We are definitely on the same page on this one

I love this discussion - Gameplay aside, you could easily model this with some 2x4 boards - set next to each other, but with foam insulation (or books) below each one to raise it up anywhere from 4-8 inches. so you have what looks like a stepped board, each layer representing a different chunk of hive. With buildings, walkways, ramps, etc. It gives you narrative opportunities to either 'fight up' the hive with chokepoints or other issues, or fight across the hive. More challenging would be to represent this chaotic environment with the attacker and defender dividing their forces into three groups and randomly rolling to see which starts on which layer.

Currently I’m fiddlin’ with my Zone Mortalis and Sector Mechanicus backlog, with the intent of it being used for Necromunda.

What I think needs to be seen on such terrain is a suggestion of functionality. Or at least, a one time function, even if bits have since been destroyed, cannibalised or otherwise removed.

The hanging cables for the underside of Sector Mechanicus, control panels, bells whistles and doohickeys all help with that.

I’ve a fair road to go, but this is what I cobbled together last night. Nothing too fancy, as I’ve only limited support legs on hand. But I’ve got verticality, a ladder for in-game access, and at least a small platform for models to occupy, with some cover to boot. And the dangling cables for set dressing. And I’ll be adding a control panel or two as well.

In the fiction some authors (Abbnett et al) don't seem to like the necromunda hive. Indeed they constrain writing a fair bit. As you say the description of hives in stuff like helsreach is more like a MC1 city. External walls, tall buildings, roads etc. That sort of environment allows you a lot more writing freedom.

Hives now seem to formally encompass the gothic cities and the Necro multi age look.

I have been building up a stock of Mantic and GW terrain for some time and when I get to have somewhere to live can start trying to build an ancient bit of hive where you have the pre imperial remnants merging into the newer building on top.

It doesn't help that some of the classic images of Hive Primus are wrong. In the images I posted upthread, the first one is inaccurate, because Hive Primus is described as ten miles wide as well as tall.

 Haighus wrote:

This image is as wide as it is tall. In this depiction, with the craggy exterior formed of a multitude of structures, you could well have a classic surface cityfight over much of the hive exterior without even touching on the interior segments.

It is basically a bunch of interconnected highrises built onto an increasingly-steep artificial mountain.

I suspect that most hives do have a wide base that is much more gently sloping before reaching the steep spire(s).

For a size comparison, the M60 around Manchester has roughly a 10 mile diametre. So Hive Primus has the footprint of Manchester but extends upwards to ~twice the height of Everest. Greater Manchester has a population of roughly a million and the current tallest building is 201m or about 1/8th of a mile. Hive Primus probably has a population at least comparable to the entire present-day Earth, if not greater.


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I've recently found some interesting stuff relating to the hives on Armageddon, will share when I'm home from work and can take the relevant photos.

Mad Dok: Looks cool, those GW kits are very atmospheric if you're going for the full on techno gothic look. A board done with all of that stuff always looks really good.

Blockade: Yeah, that "layered board" idea would work especially well for a battle on the hive skin, which is probably the start of a lot of hive wars - orks or whoever swarming all over the skin looking for weakpoints to force entry.

Haighus: Yeah, you can see that sort of more traditional "tower blocks and streets" forming the edge of even really big and ancient hives. I do think the in world logic of the hive being sealed because the outer environment is too inhospitable is pretty strong though - the hive as a sealed environ makes a lot of sense if you consider that loads of planets in the Imperium are gonna be pretty unfriendly to human life in ways that might be impossible to terraform - like just having no magnetosphere and an active star nearby would mean that radiation from the star would make living outside long-term untenable. You could still go out, but living outside the shielded Hive would eventually and inevitably mean mutation and cancers. The idea that these hab domes would merge and stack on top of each other makes a lot of sense.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Currently I’m fiddlin’ with my Zone Mortalis and Sector Mechanicus backlog, with the intent of it being used for Necromunda.

What I think needs to be seen on such terrain is a suggestion of functionality. Or at least, a one time function, even if bits have since been destroyed, cannibalised or otherwise removed.

The hanging cables for the underside of Sector Mechanicus, control panels, bells whistles and doohickeys all help with that.

I’ve a fair road to go, but this is what I cobbled together last night. Nothing too fancy, as I’ve only limited support legs on hand. But I’ve got verticality, a ladder for in-game access, and at least a small platform for models to occupy, with some cover to boot. And the dangling cables for set dressing. And I’ll be adding a control panel or two as well.

You're off to a good start. I think the key to hive terrain (at least in the classic Necromunda sense) is elevated walkways. Being able to move around much of the board on a second (or third) level is key. A piece with a platform or elevation is nice, but it's when you start connecting the upper floors with walkways that it becomes a Hive. A simple set of loose walkways/bridges that you can arrange to connect the various terrain pieces is essential.

Another neat thing about walkways is that it can make even non-hive terrain, more hive-ey.

Definitely. Verticality is an important feature of Hive architecture, though the tunnel fight nature of Zone Mortalis also suits, as it’s replicating fighting within buildings. Add in some scatter terrain and general obstacles, and you get a suitably claustrophobic environment, where positioning and cautious movement is the order of the day.

Each also favours certain weapons.

A Heavy Stubber, Heavy Bolter or Autocannon are all well and good when you can make use of their range with a decent vantage point. But in ZM games, you may find Flamers, Frag Grenades/Missiles and Plasma Cannons, with those lovely templates paying dividends instead. Same with Basic Weapons and Pistols respectively.

I’ve also ordered a selection of the Habs for Ash Wastes from my friend’s FLGS, which I’m paying for on Friday. Idea there is to use them to properly flesh out the intended settlement for a forthcoming campaign, as well as being used for general engagements, adding further vertical looks and hidey holes.

 Da Boss wrote:


Haighus: Yeah, you can see that sort of more traditional "tower blocks and streets" forming the edge of even really big and ancient hives. I do think the in world logic of the hive being sealed because the outer environment is too inhospitable is pretty strong though - the hive as a sealed environ makes a lot of sense if you consider that loads of planets in the Imperium are gonna be pretty unfriendly to human life in ways that might be impossible to terraform - like just having no magnetosphere and an active star nearby would mean that radiation from the star would make living outside long-term untenable. You could still go out, but living outside the shielded Hive would eventually and inevitably mean mutation and cancers. The idea that these hab domes would merge and stack on top of each other makes a lot of sense.

I agree, but I can also see why humans would be constantly expanding beyond the armoured shell for various reasons, like space/aircraft facilities or shanty towns.

I've found these images of hives on Armageddon. The first is Helsreach:


This is Tartarus (I suspect this is too narrow and the actual hive would be broader at the base):


On both the exteriors look like cities in their own right.

I also found this very interesting example from an in-universe pamphlet on how to set booby traps. It refers to a typical 12-floor hab unit. I presume this is common inside the hab zones on the interior of Armageddon's hives. The basic structure is very reminiscent of Eastern bloc social housing, with several flats per floor off a central stairwell. Whether these reach the ceiling or not for a given zone probably varies on the specific circumstances.


Based on the size of the stairwell, those flats are not big. Very fitting for the Imperium.