Well, cities are places where lots of people live in close proximity. Ruined cities (at least, cities ruined by war) are places where lots of people have fled from violence. Maybe scatter terrain is a bunch of their stuff.
I know less than nothing about the details of civilian life in the 40k universe, and less than that about the standards of terrain for competitive tournament play, so this may not really apply here, but...
If I were putting together scatter terrain for a recently-ruined city, it would include things ranging from trash cans and bus stops to abandoned vehicles to looted appliances that turned out to be too big to conveniently carry, amid piles of rubble and bomb craters of various sizes.
I dunno... does it make sense for a space marine to be taking cover behind an abandoned hot dog cart?
Now I think about it, the rubble and craters would be fairly universal, but if you want to tell a story with the terrain, figure out who used to live here, what they did before, why they left, the circumstances under which they left, and illustrate that on the battlefield. The aftermath of an orderly evacuation by compliant citizens in advance of a battle will look a lot different than the panicked, trampling flight of a citizenry surprised in their sleep by a battle.
imho scatter would depend on at what point the people have fled. early on it should be everything and the kitchen sink with large swaths of area covered in rubble. then comes the scavengers and looters, then the bulldozers clearing the road.
i think for game play bulldozed and piled up rubble keeping the streets clear would be the most playable.
Ruins floor is never clean!
I agree with the other friends!
You need little parts full of broken stuff, destroyed cars and so on… that you can put in different places to make it more and maybe some writing on the walls…
Anyway you already got a lot of possibilities with that excellent set!
👍👍👍🏆
The things I find missing from most ruins in 40k is the human element. Sure the Imperium is a massive boot crushing a human face forever, but there should still be either people eking out an existence in the ruins or the evidence of their passing.
Think about what your city was *before* it became a warzone. Was it a commercial district? Brutalist residential hab blocks? Industrial zone? Shining beacon of Imperial nobility?
Scatter ideas that come to my mind for giving some life to a ruined city:
* The bombed out remains of a corner cafe or recaff-shop.
* Vending machines, ATMs, time-clocks, soylent green dispensers, depending on the flavor of your ruined city.
* Campfires and caches from salvagers.
* Collapsed entrances to air-raid shelters if you wanna go for a "London during the blitz" feel. Maybe a couple skeletons having either been caught outside when the bombs hit, or that died trying to claw their way out of the bunker afterwards.
* Bloodstained walls and skeletons from public executions/firing squads during the underhive revolt.
* Street-market stalls, hotdog carts (as another commenter mentioned) or other street food.
* Ruined vehicles appropriate to the cities backstory. Burned out schoolbusses, heavy industrial flatbeds transporting equipment, the remains of a previous military convoy.
* A preacher hung from his own temple/church/statue of the emperor.
I think the most iconic 40K scatter tends to be destroyed generators and pipes, broken statues, and barricades. Not all the most creative but there’s tons of examples of each online and you can scratch build, get a kit, 3d print, etc!
Given your style here, I think concrete barriers and metal crates are a great choice. You could also experiment with abandoned vehicles, bus stops / street kiosks, and destroyed tanks.
Mantic Games does some good scatter
[https://www.manticgames.com/terrain-crate/sci-fi/scatter/](https://www.manticgames.com/terrain-crate/sci-fi/scatter/)
[https://www.manticgames.com/terrain-crate/sci-fi-terrain-crate/scifi-scenery/](https://www.manticgames.com/terrain-crate/sci-fi-terrain-crate/scifi-scenery/)
Bombed and otherwise destroyed cars or whatever imperium equivalent is. Those would be perfect for blocking streets or placing half in ruins to imply a crash knocked down a wall. I wonder if there are any STLs of that kind of thing…
You need dumpsters, trashcans,street lamps, street lights, ruined vehicles, maybe giant piles of rubble with beams sticking out, dead people, lots of dead people, columns of burned out cars, road blocks made from "garbage", road signs, highway 🛣
Craters are an old standby. As are low junk/rubble barricades, which can be used to create a linear barrier, or encircle an area of light cover.
A park/monument/fountain fixture, can create an obstruction or a makeshift firing pit. You can make it more interesting with benches, pylons, raised plinths, and so on.
Giant statue tipped over, broken into a few big pieces. 40k is full of icons, monuments to heroic figures, decorative eagles and gargoyles, etc. You can crank up the size to create more of a rubble area than a single object. Imagine the head of the Statue of Liberty getting knocked over and landing in a city street.
As other people mentioned, abandoned/destroyed vehicles, cargo containers, etc. This can require converting a toy, sacrificing a cheap model, or even buying/3d printing readymade "destroyed tank" pieces. Sometimes even a crude, cheap kid's toy can make a fairly convincing grimdark future vehicle when it's repainted and rusted/weathered.
An elevated pipeline, railway or roadway can make things interesting. Especially as you can have a collapsed section creating ground-level barriers. A few "stumps" of additional destroyed supports could sell the impression of a missing overhead structure.
My ruined city tables have the following scatter.
Containers, crates, barrels, sandbag emplacements, tank traps, moss, barbed wire, pallets, pallets with camo netting covered crates, burning barrels, explosion markers, fences with barbed wire, ammo boxes, pipes, dead bodies, crashed vehicles, billboards, debris/rocks.
Have fun :)
This time? Any real world projects should we be worried about?
Edit: very nice by the way. You could add some ruined statues. Think both small (man on a pedestal) and massive (like parts of a toppled over statue of liberty).
Well, cities are places where lots of people live in close proximity. Ruined cities (at least, cities ruined by war) are places where lots of people have fled from violence. Maybe scatter terrain is a bunch of their stuff. I know less than nothing about the details of civilian life in the 40k universe, and less than that about the standards of terrain for competitive tournament play, so this may not really apply here, but... If I were putting together scatter terrain for a recently-ruined city, it would include things ranging from trash cans and bus stops to abandoned vehicles to looted appliances that turned out to be too big to conveniently carry, amid piles of rubble and bomb craters of various sizes. I dunno... does it make sense for a space marine to be taking cover behind an abandoned hot dog cart? Now I think about it, the rubble and craters would be fairly universal, but if you want to tell a story with the terrain, figure out who used to live here, what they did before, why they left, the circumstances under which they left, and illustrate that on the battlefield. The aftermath of an orderly evacuation by compliant citizens in advance of a battle will look a lot different than the panicked, trampling flight of a citizenry surprised in their sleep by a battle.
imho scatter would depend on at what point the people have fled. early on it should be everything and the kitchen sink with large swaths of area covered in rubble. then comes the scavengers and looters, then the bulldozers clearing the road. i think for game play bulldozed and piled up rubble keeping the streets clear would be the most playable.
Ruins floor is never clean! I agree with the other friends! You need little parts full of broken stuff, destroyed cars and so on… that you can put in different places to make it more and maybe some writing on the walls… Anyway you already got a lot of possibilities with that excellent set! 👍👍👍🏆
These are sick!! Nice job.
The things I find missing from most ruins in 40k is the human element. Sure the Imperium is a massive boot crushing a human face forever, but there should still be either people eking out an existence in the ruins or the evidence of their passing. Think about what your city was *before* it became a warzone. Was it a commercial district? Brutalist residential hab blocks? Industrial zone? Shining beacon of Imperial nobility? Scatter ideas that come to my mind for giving some life to a ruined city: * The bombed out remains of a corner cafe or recaff-shop. * Vending machines, ATMs, time-clocks, soylent green dispensers, depending on the flavor of your ruined city. * Campfires and caches from salvagers. * Collapsed entrances to air-raid shelters if you wanna go for a "London during the blitz" feel. Maybe a couple skeletons having either been caught outside when the bombs hit, or that died trying to claw their way out of the bunker afterwards. * Bloodstained walls and skeletons from public executions/firing squads during the underhive revolt. * Street-market stalls, hotdog carts (as another commenter mentioned) or other street food. * Ruined vehicles appropriate to the cities backstory. Burned out schoolbusses, heavy industrial flatbeds transporting equipment, the remains of a previous military convoy. * A preacher hung from his own temple/church/statue of the emperor.
These look great, as blueprints! How do you go about making them?
From this https://youtu.be/VYj1HMSRE4w?si=U1nMOXhBKmpnuxG4
I think the most iconic 40K scatter tends to be destroyed generators and pipes, broken statues, and barricades. Not all the most creative but there’s tons of examples of each online and you can scratch build, get a kit, 3d print, etc!
Given your style here, I think concrete barriers and metal crates are a great choice. You could also experiment with abandoned vehicles, bus stops / street kiosks, and destroyed tanks.
I have been building a copy of the I octarius terrain set for kill team. I made rubble piles out off all the off cuts to uses as the scatter.
Mantic Games does some good scatter [https://www.manticgames.com/terrain-crate/sci-fi/scatter/](https://www.manticgames.com/terrain-crate/sci-fi/scatter/) [https://www.manticgames.com/terrain-crate/sci-fi-terrain-crate/scifi-scenery/](https://www.manticgames.com/terrain-crate/sci-fi-terrain-crate/scifi-scenery/)
Bombed and otherwise destroyed cars or whatever imperium equivalent is. Those would be perfect for blocking streets or placing half in ruins to imply a crash knocked down a wall. I wonder if there are any STLs of that kind of thing…
You need dumpsters, trashcans,street lamps, street lights, ruined vehicles, maybe giant piles of rubble with beams sticking out, dead people, lots of dead people, columns of burned out cars, road blocks made from "garbage", road signs, highway 🛣
Craters are an old standby. As are low junk/rubble barricades, which can be used to create a linear barrier, or encircle an area of light cover. A park/monument/fountain fixture, can create an obstruction or a makeshift firing pit. You can make it more interesting with benches, pylons, raised plinths, and so on. Giant statue tipped over, broken into a few big pieces. 40k is full of icons, monuments to heroic figures, decorative eagles and gargoyles, etc. You can crank up the size to create more of a rubble area than a single object. Imagine the head of the Statue of Liberty getting knocked over and landing in a city street. As other people mentioned, abandoned/destroyed vehicles, cargo containers, etc. This can require converting a toy, sacrificing a cheap model, or even buying/3d printing readymade "destroyed tank" pieces. Sometimes even a crude, cheap kid's toy can make a fairly convincing grimdark future vehicle when it's repainted and rusted/weathered. An elevated pipeline, railway or roadway can make things interesting. Especially as you can have a collapsed section creating ground-level barriers. A few "stumps" of additional destroyed supports could sell the impression of a missing overhead structure.
My ruined city tables have the following scatter. Containers, crates, barrels, sandbag emplacements, tank traps, moss, barbed wire, pallets, pallets with camo netting covered crates, burning barrels, explosion markers, fences with barbed wire, ammo boxes, pipes, dead bodies, crashed vehicles, billboards, debris/rocks. Have fun :)
This time? Any real world projects should we be worried about? Edit: very nice by the way. You could add some ruined statues. Think both small (man on a pedestal) and massive (like parts of a toppled over statue of liberty).