And if you're going the sheet styrene route, might as well use the textured stuff that looks like sidewalk or diamond plate.
Necromunda GW's late 1990s scratchbuilt Necromunda terrain
- Thread starter Raven Morpheus
- Start date
I love the old necromunda and even still have a good portion of my original scenery still functional and mixed in with newer terain pieces I play with my crew. However terrain has come a long way since then and there is literally tons available in all sorts of sizes and flavors so I have to wonder why the obsession on going all the way back when so much more exists to buy/use nowadays? also with 3d printing if you have it you can almost do literally anything yourself. just wondering.
The same reason that many of us still play Necromunda 1995, Epic 40k and 2nd Ed 40k when newer, "better" versions exist.
Nostalgia.
We are GROGNARDS!!!!
(And proud of it)
(And proud of it)
Newer yes. Better is highly questionable. (I wouldn't play epic 40k though, the original space marine or later epic Armageddon rules were better).
The big advantage of building your own terrain, whether of your owndesign or inspired by classic versions, is that it will be unique. Whereas anything you buy will look the same as everyone else's.
I'm just cheap and balk at the prices of plastic terrain, and can't be faffed with printing.
Hence my use of quotation marks.
Agree to disagree.
3rd ed was IMO the best ed (aside from so many units being missing from the game), even if only because it was super easy to pick up and allowed for much larger forces. Plus it allowed for mixed detachments of troops. A standard 3rd ed force is at least 2-3 times the size of a 4th ed force for the same game length.
2nd ed was great, but clunky as hell and games took ages. 4th was admittedly a better set of rules but added a lot of superfluous detail that slowed the game down.
As @Tiny mentioned, nostalgia definitely plays a part. Besides that, however, the old N95 terrain hit a sweet spot in terms of (1) fast to get on the table, (2) easy to store, and (3) looks decent. I looked to the original terrain for inspiration when building my own terrain from scratch (and adjusted the trifecta so that it looks great, but is not at all easy to store). They're an excellent study for efficient & effective terrain design for people who want to scratch build (and maybe don't have a 3D printer). I'll admit that many of the newer commercially produced terrain kits or 3D printed options look fantastic. I still think they're more effort to get playable and looking good than the old N95 terrain. And copying the N95 terrain using styrene sheet, chipboard, foamboard, or papercraft is a very cost-effective way to get some great looking terrain (compared to the price of plastic or resin kits... maybe 3D printing could be similarly cost effective depending on what else you use your printer for).
@grimshawl As others have said, fast to get on the table, easy to store, and can look reasonable, plus it's inexpensive. Given that it can be made to flat pack it's also easier to transport, if like me, you don't have access to a car.
IF I had a 3d printer, and I have considered getting one, I'd be printing N95 bulkheads, but that's probably all I'd print at this point in time, so I've shelved that idea.
Mostly I was looking for inspiration, footprint of buildings, how many levels tall GW made their terrain, arrangement of buildings etc.
Our board (shown below in 2020, yes it's been that long ago) was rather bare, not particularly tall apart from "the tower" and open last time we played a game of 'cromunda), despite 1 extra N95 building and walkway, and some new (to us) scatter terrain -
My holy grail of a Necromunda board would be one like the vertical tower made from cork (see below), but again the idea fails when it comes to making it modular/flat pack for easy transportation on public transport. I have considered one of these "trolley carts" though, but being on crutches I can't see that working well if at all...
IF I had a 3d printer, and I have considered getting one, I'd be printing N95 bulkheads, but that's probably all I'd print at this point in time, so I've shelved that idea.
Mostly I was looking for inspiration, footprint of buildings, how many levels tall GW made their terrain, arrangement of buildings etc.
Our board (shown below in 2020, yes it's been that long ago) was rather bare, not particularly tall apart from "the tower" and open last time we played a game of 'cromunda), despite 1 extra N95 building and walkway, and some new (to us) scatter terrain -
My holy grail of a Necromunda board would be one like the vertical tower made from cork (see below), but again the idea fails when it comes to making it modular/flat pack for easy transportation on public transport. I have considered one of these "trolley carts" though, but being on crutches I can't see that working well if at all...
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@ClockworkOrange Have you tried this? Or did you buy all the bulkheads before you got into 3d printing?
I’ve often wondered how the game is supposed to be played on those. It seems like if you can shoot over the open gap it just becomes a shooting gallery.
If you can’t then you seemingly have endless open firing lines to traverse.
Surely if you get hit and go down you’re always so close to the exposed edge that the chances of falling off is extremely high and if you do anything over the third level from the ground is probably instant death.
It really does feel like it needs a custom set rules to compensate for the scenery. If they made them they should’ve released them!
Don’t think he has because of the six squillion originals tucked away in his private collection.
What he did do though was design some MDF versions cut by @Fat Charlie at Wargames Tournaments to fix magnets into and that’s the basis of the towers in Trollholme.
Much like the originals this means they can flat pack down. Plus they have ladders on.
Weirdly all the 3D printed ones seemingly don’t have ladders on which was the whole point of the original plastic ones!!
Personally I'd build in barriers/railings to mitigate the falling off, or just stipulate at game start that they exist, and also that line of sight is obscured by "the darkness of the poorly lit corridors", or "the brightness of the electro-flambeaux", or fog/dust, etc. meaning you can't see far, if at all, over to the other side, so either limit range to pistol range, half that, or zero, across the open area. Otherwise yeah you end up with a scene like in Dredd (2012) with the "miniguns"...
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Indeed. I think almost everyone who has seen that classic build fancies making one but never considers how it actually plays.
Probably worth prototyping one out of corrugated cardboard and playing a few test games using paper fighters to work out kinks in the build and rules before spending I would imagine, a considerable amount of time, making the actual one only to discover it’s a disappointing gaming experience.
I mean, if you’re actively having to bypass the main rules of the base game to even get it to work then perhaps the scenery is becoming the problem?
I have a feeling there’s a very good reason the 1995 game came in the form it did rather than a tall stacked version of Space Crusade.
Just as a side note, we did do a “climb a massive tower” style game at TribeMeet several years ago and you just spend 90% of your time “runnning” because otherwise you’d never actually achieve anything.
Not exactly the same “+” design as above but similar principle.
Anything over 12” just becomes a slog to climb if you start on the ground. Particularly in 95 game where moves are usually 4” (8” run”).
We had @Kiblams vertical board at one of the TribeMeets, that played OK as it had lots of handrails (we ruled handrails prevent the falling initiative test) and was flat, so no firing onto the walkways from opposite walkways.
I’ve seen a few “flat wall” builds, think MiniWarGaming have got one in their new big Necromunda campaign (fighting across several tables around a room… which gives me an idea about a future TribeMeet theme…).
It certainly removes a few of the issues with the classic tower build but I can’t help but wonder if a hybrid Space Hulk/Necromunda (Hulkromunda? NecroHulk?) system would work better for these types of tables as essentially you are just using a series of corridors, albeit stacked. So you’d be using SH moving and shooting rules (square - inch conversion) and then the Necro campaign stuff.
Possible… yes! Fun… with the right people also yes!! If we ever do such a thing it needs to be archived here in The Vault.
It certainly removes a few of the issues with the classic tower build but I can’t help but wonder if a hybrid Space Hulk/Necromunda (Hulkromunda? NecroHulk?) system would work better for these types of tables as essentially you are just using a series of corridors, albeit stacked. So you’d be using SH moving and shooting rules (square - inch conversion) and then the Necro campaign stuff.
Possible… yes! Fun… with the right people also yes!! If we ever do such a thing it needs to be archived here in The Vault.
TTCombat just saves everyone’s time by releasing printed MDF platforms.
Damn… I’ve still got a bunch of plain MDF to paint!
Damn… I’ve still got a bunch of plain MDF to paint!
