Recently I have been heading back into the Warhammer 40,000 universe to play the awesome new (updated) release of Kill Team!
Whilst assembling the new modular imperial sector terrain kit, it became apparent to me that it wasn't designed to work the the Realm of Battle board. To make it work would take a ton of work that I really can't be bothered with. So I have started on the road to planning my own modular city board. If this proves to be a popular article then I will show more of my planning stages and stage by stage assembly, if not then I will show you when I am finished. This article is to show you why I feel the board is not fit for purpose and also to show some of my inspiration so far.
Here is what the Kill Team board looks like with some assembled buildings:
As you can see, footpaths are everywhere and you would have to plan your buildings around the idea that the boards would be static and never changing for it to work. A bit like the awesome work that Peachy from Warhammer TV has done here:
This is further evidenced on the boards at Warhammer World where the buildings are created to be static situ, which is no good for a modular board:
My other criticism for the Imperial Sector is the textures. Who is coming along and hoovering out the footpath? There is no debris or anything! Just take a walk down your local shopping centre and you will see every gap in the pavement is full of some crap! Guiding a pushchair on the Imperial Sector footpath would be an absolute nightmare! You would dread popping to Tesco!
So I would like to go for something more like the Forge World design:
The examples above are a mix of Forge World and custom and I think exactly what I would be looking for. Again, the Forge World boards are not designed with the new terrain kit in mind and also the road system sucks balls.
I would love to see/hear about some inspirational boards that you know of and I am keen for any feedback. I would also like to hear from anybody with a lazer cutting machine that can do plasticard, foam board and MDF.
Thanks for reading my post. If I get a few comments I will keep you informed. If not I will see you at the end lol
Stay fluffy
Kaelo
Would be good to see some thought and planning behind how you can make the boards work. With Kill Team you get some great scenery sets but the one complaint I hear (and do agree with to an extent) is that there is little point to cover without some line of sight blocking scenery. Now whilst the new Sector imperialis is beautiful terrain I only ever see square buildings (despite the availability of 45 degree joins) and there are few bits that block LoS. I have some of the Barbed venomegorse and was looking at putting some up the out side of ruins with leafy canopies blocking some upper story windows as well.
ReplyDeleteLook forwards to your versions :D
Aye, the lack of real LoS blocking stuff has been a complaint of my group as well (while the sector munitorum, despite it being initially viewed as mundane and a little bit bland, has got some major converts due to its big blocky sections and piles of drums and boxes).
DeleteI like the venomgorse idea, personally I was wondering how much it would take to reall get that effect given how big those blasted windows are. I've been kinda mulling over just using 'boarding' on the inside of some ruined sections and maybe cracked black obsidian glass (gloss black on plasticard) as window panes to blot out the ground floor on some buildings.
I don't think you need to do much to cover the windows to block LoS. After all you only need to go up above the head of miniatures rather than cover the entire window. Having just a patch of foliage big enough to block the lower windows works just as well as a door or fan.
DeleteThanks for the comments mate!
DeleteVery nice overview. I have been thinking about something similar made on Ikea "LACK" side boards as a base. If the road system/joining points are well defined one could make a static scene on each board that could then be shuffled around, turned or changed to build different boards. I think it is hard to make a board to look good with out fixed places for the buildings, and it will be difficult to have modulearity on a individual building basis if you don't make all buildings the same size, and then they could as well be static as the will all be very similar.
ReplyDeleteHope you will publish the process and not only the finished product.
Thanks Agis, I will check out the Lack range!.
Deletecheck my instagram to see some of the new buildings on FW tiles. I made some large structures out of the new stuff and it lines up excellent. @heresy_era
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely stunning work mate. Have I ask how you painted the buildings please? Love the dark scheme you have gone for!
DeleteAye, I'm usually one of those types who likes to make their own 'modular' semi modular tiled boards and the new Sector Imperialis has me at a crossroads between static and fully modular. Likewise, I always like hearing what people think of terrain built for Kill team vs. full 40K in the planning and implementation phase.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of having larger modular sections, but I tend to get a bit jumpy because of needing to match the colouration and textures between segments. Like Agis mentioned, those roadways are a real potential key there, and it is hard to make the buildings look great without the fixed basing (although it is almost liberating with how those buildings can be joined to make larger complexes and macro-buildings). In other words, I'm really curious.
I'm definitely curious to see!
As long as the building footprints are all the same size or multiples of the same size it should theoretically work. It seems to be a popular topic so I will definitely make a series out of it.
DeleteI am currently working on a whole city block with just the new terrain pieces and six of the forgeworld titles.
ReplyDeleteAs you said the titles are designed for the old terrain kits but I’m very confident that this will also work with the new kits.
If you are interested I can send a few pics of the current progress.
Marcus
Hey buddy, thanks for the comment. Send some pics to kaelorylanus@gmail.com
DeleteThanks. I will take some pictures of the current progress over the weekend.
Delete