What's going on with the Warhammer 40k terrain line?

[Helias_Tancred]

... because the line sorta sucks right now. Not only is it missing building ruins that have multiple floors, but also pipes are gone, etc. If you were new getting into 40k, you really couldn't rely on the company that makes the miniatures and rules to also provide terrain for your games. It never used to be like this.

 

Enough time has passed since they retired the latest Sector Imperialis line over the last few years (thankfully I have a ton of it) and they haven't come out with anything similar. The STC Hab bunker and stockade stuff is ... not comparable.

 

It's been like this long enough that I wonder if its a sign GW is getting out of, or seriously scaling back the terrain they make for 40k?

 

 

[Halandaar]

I think it's probably just another consequence of production bottleneck, to be honest. They are still actively producing terrain, it just seems they only want to dedicate enough production to launch/maintain the newest styles at any given time. Recently (ie in just the last year) we've had the Gallowdark space hulk terrain (for both Kill Team and Boarding Actions for 40k), the Ghur trees and platforms for Warcry/AoS, and the Gondor terrain for Middle Earth. Warcry has even just gotten new scatter terrain announced for its starter set in the last couple of weeks, and I suppose that will probably tie in to bigger terrain in Warcry's next campaign arc.

 

Prior to all these (and still quite recently) we had the Octarius Ork terrain, Rohan buildings for Middle Earth and Zone Mortalis for Necromunda, not to mention new building and pipe styles for 40K in the 9th Edition Starter set, and Kill Team made a selection of the Sector Imperialis and Sector Mechanicus terrain available again for a while too. I'm sure all of these things will come back around at some point in addition to new stuff.

 

 

[gideon stargreave]

When I started playing they had flocked hills and some railway type trees and a book how to make it yourself. GW terrain nowadays is insanely good in comparison 

[Stitch5000]

2 hours ago, Eilio Tiberius said:

It never used to be like this.

You sweet, innocent child. :D 

[Orion]

Cardboard.

[Xenith]

Yea, they've been churning out Gallowdark/Boarding actions terrain for the past year or so. I do think it's eiter production or warehousing issues, as Halandaar says - probably a low seller outside the boxed sets and takes up a lot of space. 

 

We also had the random sector stuff that came with the 9th ed starter kits, and the factorums and cloister things that were released then and available in WH: Imperium. 

[OttoVonAwesome]

I found a solution to this problem. I bought a 3-d printer.

[Halandaar]

3 minutes ago, OttoVonAwesome said:

I found a solution to this problem. I bought a 3-d printer.

 

It might be an alternative source of alternative terrain in an alternative material, but It's not a "solution" if what someone actually wants is plastic terrain made by GW.

[Firedrake Cordova]

I don't know if it's still the case, but the terrain used to be out-sourced - it could be that their chosen company doesn't have slots in their schedule, have upped their prices, or shipping costs have become an issue given the terrain kits are heavy? (obviously, assuming they're still produced overseas)

 

Either way, it's not great - whilst it there are plenty of non-GW options out there (including DIY), there are some great kits which are no longer available (basically, anything designed by Ray Dranfield).  

Edited July 26, 2023 by Firedrake Cordova

[OttoVonAwesome]

1 minute ago, Halandaar said:

 

It might be an alternative source of alternative terrain in an alternative material, but It's not a "solution" if what someone actually wants is plastic terrain made by GW.

Well given what a joke GW's ability to actually produce anything and keep it in stock it's pretty damn good solution for obtaining high quality terrain in the same style and theme as 40k. I checked thier site today looking to replace the units they just banished to legends for my tournment list and 90% of the Space Marine line is currently unavailable.  The terrain is an even worse situation beacuase it's constantly out of production like OP was saying you can't even buy multi level ruins and so you can't even make a tournement standard table with the few kits that are left so what else are you supposed to do get ripped off on ebay? Get some crappy zero detail mdf terrain from a 3-d party? Since we are back to making it ourselves rather than scratchbuilding it from cardboard 3-d printing is a pretty damn good solution. Not trying to be rude but what else can you do when you can't actually buy anything.

[Redcomet]

44 minutes ago, OttoVonAwesome said:

I found a solution to this problem. I bought a 3-d printer.

Good for you. Isn’t a solution for everyone 

[Helias_Tancred]

7 hours ago, JayJapanB said:

Cardboard.

 

I love their DIY guides! I've got a couple very old codexes with some of this in them. 

[Tyriks]

6 hours ago, OttoVonAwesome said:

Well given what a joke GW's ability to actually produce anything and keep it in stock it's pretty damn good solution for obtaining high quality terrain in the same style and theme as 40k. I checked thier site today looking to replace the units they just banished to legends for my tournment list and 90% of the Space Marine line is currently unavailable.  The terrain is an even worse situation beacuase it's constantly out of production like OP was saying you can't even buy multi level ruins and so you can't even make a tournement standard table with the few kits that are left so what else are you supposed to do get ripped off on ebay? Get some crappy zero detail mdf terrain from a 3-d party? Since we are back to making it ourselves rather than scratchbuilding it from cardboard 3-d printing is a pretty damn good solution. Not trying to be rude but what else can you do when you can't actually buy anything.

I have multiple 3d printers and I still buy third party terrain. Plenty of amazing stuff out there beyond mdf.

[Noserenda]

They had problems with the third party making the terrain in China afaik and moved it in house? Not heard any updates on that in a while though, i assumed its just caught in the same production issues as everything else, but explains why so much went oop.

[Toxichobbit]

Probably as Halandaar said, logistics issues. I'd lean towards warehouse space rather than production issues, because I think most terrain is produced in China, unless GW have now moved it in house? However, having terrain outsourced brings it's own issues, so that might also be the reason. Possibly they just do so many runs of the terrain and then it's no longer financially viable because the amount that sells vs the size of production runs they need to order would result in them having large amounts of stock hanging around, effectively "loosing" money.

 

Also, allow me to express my disappointment at certain Fraters in this topic mentioning DIY terrain without extoling the many virtues of Goblin Green & Blood Red alien cacti. A staple of every scratch built terrain collection. Prostrate yourselves in supplication and bask in their glory! I am saddened that I have none of these in my own collection.

 

 

In penance, I'm now going to go and order some polystyrene balls, Polyfilla & cocktail sticks to make amends.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

15 hours ago, Eilio Tiberius said:

... because the line sorta sucks right now. Not only is it missing building ruins that have multiple floors, but also pipes are gone, etc. If you were new getting into 40k, you really couldn't rely on the company that makes the miniatures and rules to also provide terrain for your games. It never used to be like this.

 

Enough time has passed since they retired the latest Sector Imperialis line over the last few years (thankfully I have a ton of it) and they haven't come out with anything similar. The STC Hab bunker and stockade stuff is ... not comparable.

 

It's been like this long enough that I wonder if its a sign GW is getting out of, or seriously scaling back the terrain they make for 40k?

 

 

‘It never used to be like this’ you’re right it used to be 3 single floor corner ruins, and some printed cardboard is all you could get from GW for terrain you had to make everything else yourself.

[phandaal]

5 hours ago, Toxichobbit said:

Also, allow me to express my disappointment at certain Fraters in this topic mentioning DIY terrain without extoling the many virtues of Goblin Green & Blood Red alien cacti. A staple of every scratch built terrain collection. Prostrate yourselves in supplication and bask in their glory! I am saddened that I have none of these in my own collection.

 

 

Right up there with Battlefleet Gothic's "burnt styrofoam ball" asteroids and "colorful styrofoam ball" planets. The tried and true workhorse for a generation of hobbyists around the globe (also represented by a styrofoam ball).

[Helias_Tancred]

For the record I got into 40k during 6th, so from my experience there has always been a product line of all the terrain you'd need.

 

I do think building your own from the old codex guides are cool, but man not sure I have time for that? Or necessarily the skillset to make it look good?

 

Edited July 26, 2023 by Eilio Tiberius

[Emperor Ming]

Nothing beats the old terrain made from random crap

 

Those were good times

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

54 minutes ago, Eilio Tiberius said:

For the record I got into 40k during 6th, so from my experience there has always been a product line of all the terrain you'd need.

 

I do think building your own from the old codex guides are cool, but man not sure I have time for that? Or necessarily the skillset to make it look good?

 

Practice makes perfect ;)

 

eric’s hobby workshop on YT has some great videos explaining how he makes terrain.

Edited July 26, 2023 by Inquisitor_Lensoven

[OttoVonAwesome]

2 hours ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

‘It never used to be like this’ you’re right it used to be 3 single floor corner ruins, and some printed cardboard is all you could get from GW for terrain you had to make everything else yourself.

They actually had alot of releases that were very awesome but never stuck around for long do to limited 1 time production runs. Pre-flocked high detail hardfoam terrain that had better details then most of the plastic at the time. If your talking about like 30 years ago yeah it was pretty sparse but they also didn't have rules for these types of terrain they have now either and all of that changed just a few years later with the introduction of City Fight and the fortifications.

 

Terrain has become a much bigger part of the game as well back in the old days you had the ruins from your starter a couple of hills and maybe some woods and barricades. Scratch building was never easy or cheap either I know I certainly didn't save anything building multi level ruins from foamcore or insulation foam rocky deserts and then that lord of the rings phase with the realistic rolling rolls and grassmats. You got a certain sense of satisfaction making these types of things but man is it so nice to just print up a highly detailed ruin or tyranid chitin tower etc. The best terrain is made when you combine these things together.

 

8 hours ago, Tyriks said:

I have multiple 3d printers and I still buy third party terrain. Plenty of amazing stuff out there beyond mdf.

True especially fantasy terrain. Really feels like were living in a golden age when it comes to all the options available printing just dialed everything up to 11. 

[MegaVolt87]

GW's terrain line has been sparse for a while now. Newer kits are inferior to what they replaced, retired kits are iconic like the craters, grass mats etc.

[Helias_Tancred]

1 hour ago, MegaVolt87 said:

GW's terrain line has been sparse for a while now. Newer kits are inferior to what they replaced, retired kits are iconic like the craters, grass mats etc.

 

I just found my two GW craters too! They're in my project box to get painted up!

[Orion]

Yeah I kinda wish GW terrain was less busy looking and generally more varied. Like bunkers and stuff.

I also kinda wish it wasn't plastic. They're busy designs, but ultimately less detailed than FW and Unrealwargaming etc. 

GW plastic terrain is paper thin at times.

 

(For the record I own a lot of plastic GW terrain)

 

Edit: Examples of non plastic terrain. (Expanded foam, resin etc)

Edited July 27, 2023 by JayJapanB

[Firedrake Cordova]

8 hours ago, Eilio Tiberius said:

I do think building your own from the old codex guides are cool, but man not sure I have time for that? Or necessarily the skillset to make it look good?

It's true that scratch-building terrain does take more time than building a pre-made kit, and I fully understand time being an absolute barrier - this hobby is enough of a time sink as it is! As with everything, there are some projects that are really simple, and there are some which require more skills. Games Workshop used to have a "making scenery" section on their site, which had a variety of projects on it - on the 40K side, it ranged from simple things like minefields, razorwire, and tank traps, to more advanced projects like bunkers, outposts, and mycetic spores. Sadly, it appears mostly lost to time - whilst the Wayback Machine has a capture of it, it's largely missing the images in the articles.  

 

As @Inquisitor_Lensoven said, Eric's Hobby Workshop on YouTube is worth a look if you decide to do any DIY terrain, as it follows in that vein. I'd also add The Terrain Tutor, Black Magic Craft and Miscast to the list. 

 

I suppose that doesn't really answer your question, but hopefully it's interesting!  

Edited July 27, 2023 by Firedrake Cordova