Dated Review - Speartip Studio Imperium Series Terrain

Terrain.

It's a pretty important part of 40k. Arguably, even in the bad old days, having somewhere to hide from your opponent's oppressive shooting could make or break a matchup.

As the game has gotten more violent, the importance of terrain has increased - and so has the range of high quality options competing for your hobby dollar.

But terrain shouldn't just be a place to hide and to block line of sight. Good terrain, presented and painted well, aids immersion, and makes the game come to life. Which is where my gripe with some of the simpler MDF sets gets in the way.

Enter the subject of today's article, Speartip Studio.

Run by a local wargaming enthusiast, Speartip Studio's promise is to create terrain that looks nice, doesn't break the bank, and can be quickly and neatly packed away when not required.

It's a big ask, especially when you consider that a WTC terrain layout looks like this:

and a GW layout looks like this:

Now, this article reviews the "Imperium" series terrain - this set is for GW layouts, and so includes a number ruins that are lower than 2" in height, allowing you to "stage" (the fancy word for planning your move a turn ahead) vehicles behind them.

I prefer GW layouts to WTC layouts, which are generally unkind to vehicles. Which makes sense, as the army I've been playing for the last six months uses two Land Raider Redeemers.

The set comes in three sub variants and with an option for floors. I opted for the middle of the road set, which has textured outer walls, and solid MDF floors. The cheaper variation has blank walls, whilst the more expensive variation has acrylic (read: transparent) bases. Floors are extra.

At $190, it came in about $60 cheaper than the pair of UKTC bundles I bought from TTCombat - which correspondents note I was pretty happy with.

As with any MDF terrain, it'll come to you in a big set of flat cut-outs, and you build it yourself. I did have some trouble with the corner joins, which are very precise, and as such fit very snugly when assembled, but can be difficult to get in place.

I was pleasantly surprised with how little glue I used, and how sturdy the corner pieces were.

From start to finish, with my daughter charging about, took about an hour - compared to the six hours it took for me to assemble the TTCombat Terrain (which does, admittedly, have a bit more flavour), it's a win for me.

In addition, the 4x6 and 5x10 ruins pack up into the cavities made by the 6x12 ruins, so the entire thing takes up about half the space of my previous setup, for more terrain coverage. Exactly the sort of thing you'd want when taking it to a mate's house, or your local game store.

Now of course, after assembling the terrain, I had to lay it all out to see what it'd look like all set up:

The end result is a very pretty table, that's up to the terrain layout standard. It'll look better when I get around to painting it in July 2036, but for now, it's a competitively priced, fit-for-purpose set of terrain, that is supremely portable.

It's a win for me, get yours here. (Not a sponsored link.)

Catch you next time,
Vulkan

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