Imperial Sector terrain - quo vadis?

[Kenzaburo]

Hello all,

 

as many of you will have noticed, the Imperial Sector terrain line GW introduced with the last gen Kill Team has been unavailable for quite some time. At first I thought this was due to the pandemic, as of mid 2020 it was listed as "no longer available" in the webstore. I attributed that to the decreased manufacturing capacity and the weird inconsistencies of GW's webstore of labeling item availability (out of stock and no longer available seem to be interchangeable there, meaning the same most of the time).

 

Then the terrain disappeared completely from the store. Again, I thought this might be due to the pandemic and maybe shipping problems with China (I think terrain used to be manufactured there partially, or at least the boxes were). Meanwhile, prices skyrocketed on eBay for the terrain kits.

 

But by now they have rereleased several Sector Mechanicus kits (which have been part of all kinds of bundles before) while the quite recent Sector Imperialis kits haven't shown up again at all. It isn't mentioned anywhere, it is barely used for promo shots. So by now I wonder, what's the deal here? Was there some problem with it? Is my original Kill Team terrain (still mint on sprue) going to increase in worth while I'd rather have a bunch more of it?

 

After 1.5 years of it not being in production I have actually given up hope that there will be more Imperial Sector terrain - which seems incredibly weird to me, given the fact, that it should be the number one terrain with 40k's imperial focus. Does anybody here know more about the whole thing? What happened?

P.S.: Don't get me wrong, getting Ork terrain, for example, is great. But not having the imperial stuff in production just boggles my mind...

[excelite]

Iirc there is a rumor that the next killteam wave will include „existing imperial terrain“, not sure which one exactly, but it sounded like it might be the imperial sector.

 

Not going to go into speculative stuff though ;-)

[Hfran Morkai]

I really hope we get Imperial Non-Mechanicus terrain back.

 

I picked up a Sector Imperialis Realm of Battle Board this year and currently can't buy the terrain for it.

 

I fell in love with the supplement Cities of Death and since then have wanted an urban board.

 

I am grateful for other terrain but really hope Imperial urban terrain returns and is modular like it has been.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Hfran Morkai

[Karhedron]

I don't have any info, just speculation. We have had a disrupted year and also an unexpected rerun of Indomitus. It is possible that terrain was viewed as a low priority item and got bumped off the production schedule in favour of new units. If this is the case, we should see it back in stock eventually once production stabilises.

 

On the other hand, there may be more to it. I remember when the AdMech terrain was introduced, GW made a big thing about how it was modular and would fit in with the existing Imperial terrain. That would be an odd thing to advertise if they weren't planning to keep the Imperial terrain in production.

 

As to whether you should keep your existing Sector Imperialis terrain, it is a gamble.

 

Option 1. You hang on to it until more comes out and you can build the ruined Gothic cityscape of your dreams/nightmares.

Option 2. You sell while prices are high. If it comes back into production, you buy more than you started with. If it does not, you buy Sector Mechanicus terrain. It is not quite what you wanted but at least it matches.

[Bryan Blaire]

Sector Mechanicus terrain came first and has been out the longest.  It’s been reboxed recently from what I’ve seen (and they finally did a walkways only set, yay!).

 

Then the Sector Imperialis - not sure why it’s gone, but I’ve resigned myself to my single terrain piece living solo until I sell it off/I die.

 

The more current Sector Manufactorum stuff is compatible with both sets, and combines some elements of both.

[Kenzaburo]

I'm in the same boat as you, Hfran. I painted my SI board over the christmas break. I also love the whole cityfight theme, that's why I was waiting for the terrain to return. 

 

It's good to know that there might be a chance with more "imperial terrain" with Kill Team.

 

@Karhedron: Yeah, I thought about the interrupted production. But why then drown people in Sector Mechanicus. To be honest, I'm quite sick of it, considering how often it has been repackaged. 

 

But selling my terrain was never an option. I don't care if I basically own plastic gold here. I like the terrain and will build it. I'd just like to know if I can customize it with more kits or if I have to build it as a stand-alone element.

 

EDIT: @Bryan Yeah, I built and painted 2 Sector Manufactorum ruins early this year. It looks nice, but i kinda hate it. Painting it was no fun (those windows are a nightmare to paint). And it's not the right stuff to fill a board with, I feel. It's also not modular, it only has 2 stories, at least the brighter ruins do. And I love for an imperial city to be a little bit higher than your standard suburb.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Kenzaburo

[Noserenda]

Most of the terrain kits were produced in China afaik so it seems likely they have either fallen afoul of the international logistics problems or are otherwise being more troublesome to move production to the uk for some reason right now.

Id be really surprised if we dont see it return at some point, either in boxed sets or a relaunched range once whatever problems get ironed out. It always sold well over predictions as i understand it, especially in the OG kill team box which was an insanely good deal! So i expect if they could sell it they would.

[Brother Captain Alberic]

I bought the Imperial Sector set a while back and have also been disappointed to see it disappear.  I have other urban terrain but would love to have a full city board with fully matching terrain.  I bought some other terrain but it seems brittle in some areas. I've found some good terrain online that I am considering that seems be made from a stronger resin but like Forge World stuff seems more expensive.  GW bringing back their own stuff would be great but then again would it be any cheaper given their prices these days.

[The Spitehorde]

Id be really surprised if we dont see it return at some point, either in boxed sets or a relaunched range once whatever problems get ironed out.

 

 

Agreed. It would be easy money for GW if they choose to rerelease it (assuming the moulds are OK. Die sinking moulds is a hellishly expensive business). Heck, they punted out the Ryza pattern stuff again in the Killzone: Sector Fronteris box set not that long ago and that scenery is far less popular than Sector Imperialis, if what it's making when it appears on fleabay are anything to go by. 

[Bryan Blaire]

I am firmly in the camp of hoping the Sector Imperialis material comes back around to production - I very much prefer it over the more blended style Manufactorum stuff.  I like my Mechanicus terrain, and I like having the factory stuff with it, but unless I’m building a blended board, I don’t really like to use the three different types together.

[Karhedron]

Most of the terrain kits were produced in China afaik so it seems likely they have either fallen afoul of the international logistics problems or are otherwise being more troublesome to move production to the uk for some reason right now.

I thought GW did all their injection moulding in-house. There is no real difference between a scenery sprue and a vehicle sprue at the end of the day. I thought it was only printing and paint that GW out-sourced.

[RWJP]

 

Most of the terrain kits were produced in China afaik so it seems likely they have either fallen afoul of the international logistics problems or are otherwise being more troublesome to move production to the uk for some reason right now.

I thought GW did all their injection moulding in-house. There is no real difference between a scenery sprue and a vehicle sprue at the end of the day. I thought it was only printing and paint that GW out-sourced.

 

Terrain is still produced in China. Even the new Big'ead Boss Bunka release is from China according to the Country of Origin notes in the most recent pricelist.

 

Paint is actually manufactured in the UK.

[Noserenda]

Yup, everything terrain is made in China though i had heard they want to change that due to the costs/mayhem these days, surprised the bunker was done over there in fact :) 

Not sure on the reasons why they started doing it originally but i assume it needs a different type/bigger machine for that type of sprue for reasons? That or it was just a cheaper method for arguably simpler casts? 

[The Spitehorde]

Same reason so many companies outsource to China: lower cost. Significantly lower cost (even with shipping taken into account). 

[Arkhanist]

GW definitely outsource printed materials, paints, brushes (and tools/glue presumably), packaging and scenery/moulded bases. The scenery and bases are coarser detail than the models, so presumably are done on cheaper injection moulding machines than GW use. Plus they're working to build up yet more local production capacity to cope with increased demand for models, so outsourcing what you can makes sense.

 

And yeah, up until about 12 months ago, doing pretty much any bulk manufacturing was significantly cheaper and easier in China. Now container shipping is 7 times the price (or higher) and getting it delivered in a given timeframe is a lot harder with the whole global shipping crisis, so it's not as much a no brainer as it used to be.

[Valkyrion]

 

And yeah, up until about 12 months ago, doing pretty much any bulk manufacturing was significantly cheaper and easier in China. Now container shipping is 7 times the price (or higher) and getting it delivered in a given timeframe is a lot harder with the whole global shipping crisis, so it's not as much a no brainer as it used to be.

 

Yep, a 40 foot container of fridges or cookers or washers etc in February 2020 cost £1800 to ship from China to the UK, now it's £17,000. 

 

GW could actually do themselves a big PR favour by doing everything in the UK - precious little is manufactured here any more that a successful company doing everything in britain should be lauded, regardless of the industry they're in. 

[phoenix01]

Yeah, I miss the Sector Imperialis stuff, including the Realm of Battle game board. I tried to get one from GW, and they refused to sell it to me since I'm in the US and the ones they had were on the Rest of the World website. So, instead I went to my FLGS and convinced them to sell Frontline Gaming's game mats. Got one for free out of it due to their referral program, so I've no need now to spend $360 for a hunk of plastic. As far as the building kits go; sure, I'd love to build more, but after building and painting my centerpiece building, which consists of the Battle Sanctum and three of the Administratum kits, I'm good for awhile.

Edited September 3, 2021 by phoenix01

[Kenzaburo]

I had hoped to complete a lot of scenery during the various lockdowns, especially sector imperialis. I did finish the realm of battle board, some manufactorum buildings and some scatter terrain. I'll also need to tear of the terrain bases off my old imperial sector terrain (the old cities of death stuff), because those won't lie flat on the ROB board. But man, hopefully, kill teams next bundles bring back the good old proper gothic terrain.