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I plan my next steps in hobby, and wanna buy terrain pieces and... There a lot. I don't like current L-ruined tables. But ol' good wall of Martyrs is amazing, new(at least for me) kt terrain also very cool. And I have question. What you owe and use on your tables.

I usually don't like big centerpiece terrain bits, as I feel they can look a bit contrived. (imagine always fighting over the same statue, for example). I prefer to have a lot more flexible and generic pieces to scatter around.

the biggest piece of terrain I own is the landing pad they released a decade or so ago. It's actually a kind of awkward piece because of its size and LOS characteristics. But it's also generic enough that is can decorate any sort of "outpost" type of table setup, so that's nice.

I have a radar building that I like a lot. It's not very big, it's not a ruin, and it can be plopped into a natural or built-up setting and not look too out of place because it looks like something that might be fought over.

Nice table, I wanna buy this landing pad now) also where this trees from?

I've got all kinds of generic stuff - hills, trees, wrecked vehicles, ruins, modular rivers, roads, trenches...

For 40k specific?
2 skyshield landing pads
2 bastions
3 bunkers
Tectonic Fragdrill
Void shield generator
2 Plasma Oblterator
Mek Shop
Vortex missle silo
Tau gun rig
Tau shield wall
Assorted gun emplacements

 kabaakaba wrote:
Nice table, I wanna buy this landing pad now) also where this trees from?

Thanks! The trees were made from wire and model foliage (that crumbly foam stuff). I did a big ol batch of them a few years ago.



I did a thread covering the trees along with other elements of the table here, with lots of pics:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/805664.page

For a detailed list i started a terrain topic here ages ago-some of the companies are gone now sadly but most are still around.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/782226.page

I wont flood this topic with pictures since most of them are in that topic,

For 40K specifically most of my terrain either comes from war scenery as they have STLs for all the dawn of war video game terrain and have recently gone into contract with GF9 for some of the sets.

The other place found on my mini factory is sacrusmundus who makes fantastic original 40K themed terrain sets for every faction. he has at least 2 or more for each.

My sets for 40K include-
.necron ruins
.ancient eldar maiden world ruins
.imperial city
.guard outpost
.tau city
.space marine outpost
.mechanicus manufactorum


For more modern stuff i am a fan of corvus games terrain for buildings and district 12/forbidden prints for industrial sets.

For battle tech steel warrior studios hex tech line was sold to a new company who is also continuing the line as well as partnering with GF9 for fully painted sets.

GW terrain, not much any more. I have the old cardboard ruins from 2e, some plastic ruins from the 3e starter and one set of the old sector imperialis ruins. But I prefer stuff that's a bit more generic so I mostly make my own out of cardboard and so on these days. Making my own terrain out of junk is very satisfying for me.

The exception is trees, I tend to buy trees from model railway shops because the bang to buck of crafting them by hand isn't there for me.

If I was gonna get 40K themed terrain I'd probably go for the Dawn of War sets that I think Gale Force 9 are doing.

My wh40k tables have always been dominated by scratch-built scenery. I also use plastic sets for Kill Team now, but that's because the cost of covering the board with terrain is that much smaller.

I got 1 box of almost every GW terrain they have made for 40K, and 2 Realm Of Battle boards (the plain one and the Imperial Sector one). Both gaming hill kits, so I can make 2 small hills and one XL one if I put that 2-part hill on the compatible RoB hill tiles. I use woodland scenics trees mounted on round shallow GW bases they used to sell around 2000s-2010s (well, everything's still WIP but yeh). And a crapton of scatter terrain from the various kits.

I try to make a table look like a "real" environment instead of a gaming table with L-shaped ruins on them. In my experience, the more variety in your terrain & scatter terrain collection, the easier it is to lay out a board which looks like an actual setting.

I am also collecting a suitable terrain set for LI's new "Epic scale", but its not a satisfactory collection by any means. GW needs to come up with more variety on the Epic Scale terrain dept..

Here's a few picts from my recent Kill Team games

 tauist wrote:
I got 1 box of almost every GW terrain they have made for 40K, and 2 Realm Of Battle boards (the plain one and the Imperial Sector one). Both gaming hill kits, so I can make 2 small hills and one XL one if I put that 2-part hill on the compatible RoB hill tiles. I use woodland scenics trees mounted on round shallow GW bases they used to sell around 2000s-2010s (well, everything's still WIP but yeh). And a crapton of scatter terrain from the various kits.

I try to make a table look like a "real" environment instead of a gaming table with L-shaped ruins on them. In my experience, the more variety in your terrain & scatter terrain collection, the easier it is to lay out a board which looks like an actual setting.

I am also collecting a suitable terrain set for LI's new "Epic scale", but its not a satisfactory collection by any means. GW needs to come up with more variety on the Epic Scale terrain dept..

Here's a few picts from my recent Kill Team games

On first board what used for floor? Some casted tiles?

 kabaakaba wrote:

 tauist wrote:
I got 1 box of almost every GW terrain they have made for 40K, and 2 Realm Of Battle boards (the plain one and the Imperial Sector one). Both gaming hill kits, so I can make 2 small hills and one XL one if I put that 2-part hill on the compatible RoB hill tiles. I use woodland scenics trees mounted on round shallow GW bases they used to sell around 2000s-2010s (well, everything's still WIP but yeh). And a crapton of scatter terrain from the various kits.

I try to make a table look like a "real" environment instead of a gaming table with L-shaped ruins on them. In my experience, the more variety in your terrain & scatter terrain collection, the easier it is to lay out a board which looks like an actual setting.

I am also collecting a suitable terrain set for LI's new "Epic scale", but its not a satisfactory collection by any means. GW needs to come up with more variety on the Epic Scale terrain dept..

Here's a few picts from my recent Kill Team games

On first board what used for floor? Some casted tiles?

All the boards use the Imperial Sector Realm Of Battle board sections. I bought one at the last minute when they became OOP. I often also use the Zone Mortalis floor tiles on top, when I want to add ZM elements to a board, often in the form of a fence/wall of sorts

Almost all of my terrain is non-GW. I used to have a bunch of the cardboard buildings and loaned them to a friend who gave them away. :(

The thing about terrain is form has to follow function. GW has changed terrain rules quite a bit, and so the design has to keep in mind its actual purpose. It is about LOS obstruction, or does it provide cover from incoming fire?

I have two 'carpets' one green and flocked, the other gray. On the green carpet, it's all nature and woodland, with hills, rock outcroppings, some ruins and of course trees and shrubs, which are purely decorative as the actual boundaries are marked with felt. I also have some fighting positions dug into a green landscape.

The gray table has lots of multi-story buildings, all of which have a sturdy base, and I can configure them as needed at variable densities, so we can fight in the suburbs or downtown. While 'true LOS' is kind of cool, the house rule is that any wall is presumed to have holes cut for firing, and that models wishing to hide are either marked, or move at least an inch into the interior. Building are also "pre ruined" so your Basilisk can't just knock them down.

I'm now on my third iteration of terrain, with previous cycles being given away to impoverished friends or junked. The cycle was basically foam without a cutter, foam with a cutter, and hobby board (foam core) as well as sprue-based structures (i.e. only the beams and supports remaining).

My most important piece of terrain is the head for a VOID 1.1 walker that I use as a magic dingus or McGuffin - it's the object to be captured or defended.

I'm looking forward to this month's White Dwarf- apparently it's a "Terrain Special"

I build a fair bit of my own.

In this day and age there seems to be so many affordable plastic kits other than GWs offerings. And besides that 3d printed stuff on etsy etc. I myself have just filament printed whatever took my fancy for free on thingiverse etc.

See here - filament prints, MDF bases cut out with a cheap jigsaw, some green foam turned into rocks. (These aren't the largest pieces I've done by far but I haven't got any large ruins or larger buildings printed purely because I'm on solar power so don't print overnight. If I really wanted to I'd borrow a friends shed or something I suppose.)

Too much.

Urban & lava.skull citadel boards, 3 homemade boards (green/sand/grey urban rubble) and a home made for 15/20mm WW2.

2 50L boxes of 40k mostly from combat patrol etc. 10 curver boxes 2/3 40k mostly homebrew rest fantasy.

Any one use vechicles as terrain? like Valkyrie or Baneblade or any other which fits current table theme?

I have several vehicles bought for mostly terrain use. i've got a Valkyrie, Arvus, an FW Repressor with all the bells & whistles, and that mechanicum Transport that came with the mechanicum launch box. Nothing built up fully yet, the Valkyrie is about 75% there.

And oh yeah, I do have one British WWII model kit armoured car I like to use on my tables (see picts earlier in the thread, Board #3). I added an Aquila symbol to the front and a storm bolter will go on the top hatch when I finish it, ATM it's been in use as a "busted" vehicle.. Forgot which model brand the kit was, the plastic on the kit was hella porous, almost felt like resin..

I have the crashed lander from Battle from Macragge, tractors & trailers from Combat Patrol magazine, a wrecked rhino from ... somewhere... ocassionally take a turret off a tank, add cotton wool and put it back on again skew wiff

 kabaakaba wrote:
Any one use vechicles as terrain? like Valkyrie or Baneblade or any other which fits current table theme?

I've used an old baneblade with the turret off from time to time, and more recently a chronos ironcrawler with a termite angled off the back deck.

Anything chunky and LoS blocking. It was one of the weaknesses of the old wall of martyrs set that you had a lot of cover but not much concealment, and it could really gum up movement compared to blocky buildings with spaces between them.

Darn, i love Wall of Martyr. I wanna one once i have free hobby budget.

I build almost everything myself around certain themes with an aim to fill at least a 6x4 table.

Examples of some of my terrain sets:

-Urban harbor, industry and elevated train system

-2-3 story City buildings and roads

-Old style Necromunda tower-and-gantry terrain. Currently enough for 4x6, looking to double that for convention setups.

-Fantasy ruins and Forest

-White stucco village

- Dessert cliffs, rocks and plants.

-Half a table of GW-style half-ruins. I'm actually planning to finish up a whole table's worth and I've probably got enough kits and parts to do so. I'm told it's very much overdone in current play, but the ruined gothic city is a grimdark classic and I'd like to have access to that from time to time. Plus, I wouldn't always be setting it up in annoyingly mirrored setups.

Most of these can be seen at they blog linked in my sig.

Whatever you decide, I recommend picking a theme and sticking with it until you have a full table's worth and make more then you need for variety and so you can have a dense tabletop when you want it..

Also, avoid very small and very large terrain pieces. You want pieces that are big enough to offer substantial cover, but not so large that it limits their usefulness.

While very much in the "L-Shaped Ruins" category, the Snotgoblin stuff is REALLY nice and can be configured all sorts of interesting ways. Finally got my set painted up just in time for the prepaints to come out >.<

That apparently not GW ruins, at least it's look like actual buildings.