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I find myself in a pleasant situation, but am getting frustrated by my woeful Google skills.

1. I have scored a steal on a bunch of the plastic necromunda zone mortalis tiles (9 - 12, depending on whether I buy all of them, and whether I leave some for Armies on Parade or other projects)

2. The missus is getting more and more interested in board games, DnD, and has expressed an interest in Necromunda.

3. I have all the bits for Necromunda: Underhive (except the board), as well as the Dark Uprising boxset (and soon to be shedloads of tiles). I had thought that Underhive might be an easier start than Dark Uprising (as you are dealing with 2.5D rather than full 3D, so the translation from board gamey games (like Zombicide, Walking Dead, which we are used to) to get into Necromunda, particularly given I too will be rusty as I haven't had a game in a year.

To that end, whilst I had some background youtube on, a (perhaps) fortuitous video appeared in the playlist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QD8gMAOb6Q&ab_channel=TabletopMinions), which seems to reinforce this thinking.

A. First question - does this assumption that Underhive is the 'easy way in' seem correct?

B. Second question - can one build the board for Underhive using the Necromunda Zone Mortalis Tiles, or do they not have a common set-out? I don't mind cannibalising the Dark Uprising scenery (as I could leave it modular) or scratch-building some walls to slot onto the boards (either modular or stuck down).

C. Third question - can anyone link to a plan for the Underhive board? It would be good to see what I need to put together, or what I am missing

Thanks in advance

A. Probably. When I demo it I start in the box lid - 1 ganger v. 1 ganger, add a few more gangers then move onto the tiles.

B. Yes. There isn't a standard layout, and there's been a few different tile packs released (like Badzone Delta 7).

C. There's this from Yaktribe -

In case it helps you, I'll explain the differences between the three types of Zone Mortalis.

First came Forgeworld's resin set. It's OoP now, but it's 'full scale' in that the tiles are 12" square. The tiles were premolded in various shapes (eg this tile has an L shaped wall, this one has a four-way intersection, etc).

Then came the Underhive tiles. The wall layouts are essentially copied from the Forgeworld set above (see point C below for a link to this layout).
However, the tiles are only 11.5" square so they fit the box.

Then came the plastic ZM set. Now, the pillars and walls are entirely modular. They can still be used to make a replica of the Underhive tiles (which would actually be close a replica of the Forgeworld tiles). However, the components provided in the box don't fit very well, as you get far more columns you need for the amount of walls you get (or vice versa), so buying enough ZM to fit the Underhive set would give you loads of spare columns.

However, the exact layout of the walls isn't that important. Really it's no different from setting up a normal table, it's just that there's no third dimension on the underhive tiles.

A - I wouldn't say losing the small amount of 3D makes Necromunda significantly easier. Certainly no harder though.

B - You can do. It's designed to create effectively the same shapes.
However, the Underhive tiles are 11.5" across (so they fit inside the box) whereas the plastic stuff is 12" across, this means if you wanted to exactly replicate the Underhive stuff your plastic stuff is slightly oversized.

C. https://yaktribe.games/community/threads/underhive-tiles-help.10105/
scroll down a short ways and there's an image. Left two rows are the tiles supplied in the Underhive box set, right two rows are the tiles supplied in the Badzone Delta expansion set. In each case the front and back of each tile is shown.

Thank you very much, both. Very helpful replies, and all questions answered!

How unhelpful that they don't translate perfectly, but reassuring to know that this won't be a problem.

If you already have Dark Uprising terrain, it might be a bit late to say but several companies such as TTCombat and JustLasered sell walls compatible with the Underhive tiles.
These will also be mostly compatible with the plastic tiles as well. They can also be stacked like the Dark Uprising terrain.

Although tbh I don't like the stacking element. I envisage Zone Mortalis as tunnels (meaning there's a roof above you). Being being able to climb a ladder and see over the walls shatters that forth wall, ruining that claustrophobic feeling and making it feel like a random hedge maze in the middle of a field, except metal.

If you go the TTCombat route, there are some good points to know:
1) The different parts of the Industrial Hive product line are designed to work with each other.
2) The "Iron Labyrinth" sets duplicate the Zone Mortalis columns and walls, and will fit on Underhive's 300mm tiles. The columns are keyed on top and bottom so that they can be stacked. The Ultima Complex includes all of the pieces in the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma sets plus additional walls and columns. It provides enough walls and columns to make any combination of of the 9 tiles in Underhive or to duplicate all 8 of the FW basic ZM tile set. Two Ultima sets will make any combination of 18 tiles of Underhive + Badzones, or duplicate the 16 tiles of the FW ZM 4x4 set. The "Doors" set adds 2 each of 2 styles of double-wide doors. The "Death Quadrant" set is an expansion with additional walls, doors, and columns; and new stairs and platforms to add the 3rd dimension. These stairs and platforms are compatible/interchangeable with the stairs, platforms, ladders, and walkways in the "Sector 1", "Sector 3", "Sector 4", and new "Sector 2" sets. The "Stairs" pack has two double-width walls each with stairs built into both sides. The "High Walls" set has 5 double-height double-wide walls, 3 double-height columns, and some little "vent" pieces that allow the walls to attach to the platforms and walkways from the "Sector" sets.
3) The "Sector 1" sets are platforms, walkways, ramps, etc. in the style of the original Necromunda, with Alpha Complex having hexagonal platforms and Beta Complex having square platforms. All the platforms can stack so you can have any number of levels that you want. Also a couple of structures that used to be in Sector 2
4) The "Sector 3" sets are round platforms, spiral stairs, and cylindrical or spherical vats/silos/tanks. They are all keyed on top and bottom to stack on each other. Also included are platforms and walkways with a concave edge to transition between the straight edges in Sector 1 and the circular edges in Sector 3.
5) The "Sector 4" sets are various pieces of equipment/installations, as well as pipes, ducts, plasma conduits, etc. The pipes & etc. also connect to the grating details on the Iron Labyrinth walls and sets from the various Sectors. The Power Station and Power Generator also match the style of the "Generators" from the "Sci-Fi Utopia" product line.
6) The new "Sector 2" sets are styled on the classic 1990's Necromunda modular bulkheads, with square and triangular platforms.
7) The levels and platforms/walkways of the various sectors correspond to the height of the Iron Labyrinth walls/columns (multiples of 6cm) and width of the squares on the Underhive tiles (multiples of ~5cm), so they can be mixed freely.
8) The entire Hive line (not just the labyrinth sets) also works really well for Heresy ZM games, and in smaller amounts as terrain for non-ZM games.

For the cost of a small 2'x2' amount of GW plastic terrain, you can drown a 4x4 or 4x6 table in TTCombat MDF.

If you’re going down the GW kit route, know ye these things.


1. They are all designed to work together. Heights, widths, connections are all more or less universal (some require very moderate kit bashing skills)

2. Unless you’re building for height, you don’t need to glue the chunks together. Doors, walls, columns etc all sit together quite nicely on the floor tiles.

3. Whilst the individual kits are pretty reasonable value (you get a lot in them), beware that this is a rabbit hole of potential spending. I’d recommend sourcing them through stores that offer a discount.

4. If building for height, take your time and really play around with the kits you’ve got, taking photographs of setups you like. This is because whilst they do stack pretty well, it’s not suited to game play, so you’ll want to glue them together at that stage. If you’ve played around with them, familiarising yourself with what does or doesn’t work, then you’re less likely to glue yourself into a corner, potentially wasting a kit or two.

Thanks all for the further responses

1. I have the GW Necromunda plastic kits, as well as the platform thing from Shadow War Armageddon;

2. I have some Deadzone terrain from a Terrain Crate I picked up for a steal, which I plan on using also, but I am not a great fan of mixing with further elements (nor a fan of MDF kits in general); and

3. I can see that this could be an expensive bit of the hobby to get into!

Thanks for your responses