Warhammer 40K: The Best Terrain Sets To Combine
Warhammer 40,000 has a lot of terrain options. But if you’re building a table which sets should you get? Let’s chat.
I’ve recently gotten into a bit of a terrain kick. I blame Kill Team: Into the Dark and their really great terrain set. It’s tight, it’s cramped, it’s a Space Hulk theme — it’s fantastic for that particular look. However, it’s currently the only set of it’s kind in that style. Again, I’m hoping that Games Workshop expands their Gallowdark terrain but that train of thought got me thinking about the various sets and which ones combined the best.
Today, I wanted to have a quick chat about which sets work the best together. One good thing about all the terrain GW has been cranking out lately is that most of it is compatible with the other recent sets. That’s a great thing for any one who’s looking to build a tabletop’s worth or expand an existing collection. But if I had to pick two sets which two work together the best? That really depends on what you’re going for.
Let’s break this up into the different styles of board you want to build. I’ll give you three examples: Typical 40k Game, City Fight, and Necromundian Hive.
“A Typical 40k Game” Terrain
I’m not going to get into all the ins and outs about “how much terrain” or “board size” or “terrain density” here — that’s all in the core rules with recommendations anyways. I’m talking about which sets I would recommend if you wanted to actually build those out. And if I had to pick two sets I’d go with these: Battlezone: Fronteris and Sector Imperialis
Battlezone: Fronteris – Nachmund
Let’s start with the Fronteris set. Why this one? Well, you get two pieces of “objective” type terrain with the radar dish and the radio tower. You also get the bunker-type building that you can use for various terrain based on the keywords you assign to it. And you get some walls and a couple other “boxes” for buildings that work great as just board filler. When you combine these pieces with the Sector Imperialis options you can really get a cohesive set of terrain.
There have been lots of Sector Imperialis terrain sets out there — you can absolutely go nuts with this stuff. What I think works well with the Fronteris set is that most of these buildings are ruins or only partial buildings. You get the sense that these tall buildings got wrecked due to the fighting and the Fronteris terrain mixed in helps to create a good mix of height and LoS blocking terrain. The Fronteris set is lower and maybe explains why it’s still intact vs the bombed out Imperalis terrain. Turns out bunkers are good for surviving bombardments. Go figure.
City Fight Terrain
This next batch should be pretty obvious as we’re going to be thinking about an Imperial City. Personally, I’d go with these two sets: Battlezone: Manufactorum and Battlezone: Mechanicus.
The Manufactorum sets are typically one or two story buildings that have been bombed out. They are akin to the Sector Imperialis sets and frankly work extremely well with those two. Like I mentioned earlier GW has been doing a great job making all these sets super compatible anyhow — but we’re sticking with two for these imaginary boards.
When you combine the blown-up buildings of the Manufactorum set with the Mechanicus set you get a TON of options. Both sets have pipes which are great for causing lots of obstructions. But you can use those same pipes vertically and attach them to buildings to help break-up their boxy look. The catwalks and platforms of the Mechanicus set also add nice, flat raised surfaces for vantage points for your units. They function like “hills” — only more see-thru and provide less cover.
You can really get a dense as you want with this style of City Fight board. Do you want it too cramped for vehicles? You can do that. Do you want it a bit more open so your Knights can stomp around? That’s also doable. And you can still have loads of cover with various nooks and crannies for your Infantry to scoot around.
Necromundian Hive Terrain
And finally get to the densest and most claustrophobic of all terrain types – the Necomundian Hive! You probably already know which two sets I’m going with here: Zone Mortalis and Battlezone: Mechanicus.
Zone Mortalis Terrain is basically THE Necromunda terrain already. You don’t need the tiles but they can help your walls and columns from shifting. You can really go quite nuts with this set already as it’s very modular and stackable. Want to build a 4 foot tall structure that you can play on? Yep. You can do that with these walls and columns (and stairs). The only limits are your imagination …and budget!
This set pairs extremely well with the Sector Mechanicus sets. All those extra catwalks and railing really help to elevate your game space and add a lot of verticality to your games. It’s perfect for Necromunda games as well as Kill Team games — really any skirmish you want! The density is up to you. While this combo could run you a pretty penny but you might not need a TON of it because of the physical limits on the board/tabletop you need in a typical Kill Team or Necromunda game.
Essentially, you don’t need enough to cover an old school 6′ x 4′ tabletop with 3 layers of terrain…although you 100% can with these two sets. That’s a lot of terrain though! If you had enough to fill a 2′ x 2’x space or maybe even a 30″ x 30″ space that was more vertical you’d have one hell of a terrain set to play on.
Is it cheating to include some of the Crates and Shipping Containers? Those are basically good for EVERY collection.
And just to be clear I’m not saying you only need these two sets — a “set” is just the category that GW labeled them as. You’d want the various kits from with that “set” to fill out the terrain for the board type you wanted to play on. Also, don’t feel like you have to only use these two sets per table type – I’m not the terrain police. You do you. I’ve been known to cut a foam hill or two in my day.
What would be your dream tabletop terrain set?
