Following up from last year’s article I recently had the privilege to receive and use the second wave of Mundus Imperialis terrain from Thunderhead Studio and Gale Force 9. A direct tie in with Wave 1, Wave 2 features ruined versions of the previously in-tact buildings that provide additional variety to your table. Additionally, the range of products now includes a Road System that adds another layer to depth and detail to your tables. We would like to thank GF9 for sending a complete set of the Mundus Imperialis range to demo. Like in Wave 1, I was joined by Andrew for a demo LI game to give the terrain a try (his Solar Aux look alot better than mine) and I’ve brought him into Goonhammer to also share his thoughts (italicized).
Thanks to realSnice for bringing me in to Goonhammer – we have both been very involved with Legions Imperialis since it’s release, and are always excited by new releases that can be used with it! I hope to contribute more articles about the game, as well as for Horus Heresy, in the future.
Mundus Imperialis is a range of pre-painted, cast resin buildings that are designed in the classic Gothic style with which any fan of Warhammer would be familiar. With the addition of roads, they are truly offering a great solution to quickly getting a high quality Legions Imperialis or Adeptus Titanicus table right out of the box. That being said, the range lacks any “Warhammer” specific iconography making it great for any “Epic” scale game set in a futuristic, sci-fi setting.
I remember Gale Force Nine terrain from my early days in the Wargaming hobby, and even twenty years ago, I thought their terrain was cool. The Mundus Imperialis sets, both Waves 1 and 2, are no exception. Both sets impressed me with the quality of both the casting and painting. Keeping it “generic gothic sci-fi” also helps if you plan on using these buildings for other games in this scale (Battletech comes to mind).
The cast details on these buildings is very crisp, with sharp edges and good texture on both intact walls and rubble. And the painting is also of very good quality – I’m impressed in particular by the red lining on the window panels on the buildings, and the striping on the road tiles.
A stand out feature of this range is that if I am playing a system with destroyed building rules, I can bring both sets of buildings from Wave 1 and 2 and swap out structures as they are damaged through the course of the game.
Oh absolutely. Having matched sets of each would make taking advantage of Legions Imperialis’ building rules super easy. Just swap the building out for its ruined equivalent after your or your opponent blow it up!
Echoing my past article for Wave 1, the buildings are well made, look great right out of the box, and are packaged incredibly well. Sure, you could add a wash or two or add a few more details but for the price these are excellent, especially if time is a larger constraint to your hobby than your budget. There is always a sweet spot in the value proposition curve here and I think the Mundus Imperialis terrain really hits that point of intersection. These boxes cost roughly $20 – $60 depending on which product we are talking about.
As someone who has had to build and paint multiple tables’ worth of terrain for events, having good looking prepainted alternatives can really help with getting an entire table (or tables) of terrain game ready. And the terrain is rather cost-effective as well – the sets are priced similarly to other 8mm scale terrain sets, but with the added advantage of being already built and painted!
The addition of the roads to the Mundus Imperialis range is huge and was all that was missing to have a “full” table out of the box. I love the quality, but if I had one gripe I wish the connections from one road segment to another locked in a bit more firm so that shifting one piece wouldn’t disturb the entire interconnected roadway. This wasn’t a huge issue during my demo game but I could see it being frustrating for players and EO’s using this system will likely need to reset the roads after each game.
From Wave 2, the new road tileset is really exciting. Having a set of roads of various widths is great for putting together Urban or Industrial tables, either for one off games or for events. As an EO, I love the idea of standardized road tiles to be able to easily put together road layouts for multiple tables. Not having a way to lock the pieces together could be an issue in terms of keeping the terrain together during a game, but not a dealbreaker in any way.
In no way do I think this is a deal breaker though and the roads are sturdy which is something I would value highly as an EO. Overall I would say that the entire range comes together well as a complete set and will be a get out of jail free card for me this year at Nova (or any other local event) if and when I need to quickly add a table to the LI or AT events. I look forward to future additions to this range and hope that a variety of scatter terrain, hills, and foliage are released that match this style and bring further variety to the product line. I will certainly continue to use these in the future.
Overall, I am very excited with the Mundus Imperialis terrain set. They seem like a very cost-effective way to get a game-ready table, something especially lucrative when you consider how much work goes into building and painting a table’s worth of terrain. I hope Gale Force Nine makes more terrain for use in 8mm games in the future!
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