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There tend to be three things that draw people into the world of Warhammer 40,000.
The game, which is a great way to spend time escaping the pressures of the real world while rolling dice with friends. The miniatures, which are almost universally of excellent quality and the setting, grim and dark with all the dials turned up to 11.
It’s hugely important to the game, it’s generally made to their usual high standards of quality and detail, and, most importantly, a table full of painted terrain hugely improves the cinematic experience of playing 40K.
Great terrain turns the game from just pushing around plastic soldiers and hoping not to roll ones, into a desperate struggle for survival in the grim darkness of the far future. Which is why, when the postie huffed up the stairs to my house and dropped Battlezone: Fronteris Nachmund onto my doorstep with a satisfyingly heavy thud, I was pretty damn excited.
Now that I’ve had a chance to get my grubby mitts on the contents of the box, this review will be breaking down what you get inside Battlezone: Fronteris Nachmund. Also how easy it is to fit together, how it fits into the slew of games offered by Games Workshop and how it represents an interesting and exciting departure from their usual aesthetic.
Battlezone: Fronteris Nachmund - What’s In The Box?
While Battlezone: Fronteris Nachmund certainly isn’t cheap, clocking in at £135 directly from GW, or a much more affordable £104.29 from Zatu, you certainly get a lot of bang for your buck.
Inside the formidably large box you’ll find:
- 2 STC Hab-bunkers
- 6 Stockades
- 1 Landing Pad
- 2 Stockades with Doors
- 1 Vox-Antenna
- 1 Auspex Shrine
There are also two double-sided folding gaming boards measuring 30" x 22.4". Each one of these double-sided boards is the right size for a Kill Team game and you can combine them for a Combat Patrol or Incursion scale game of 40K, which means anything up to 1000 points.
Is It Easy To Assemble?
Despite the sheer amount of terrain you get in this chunky box, it’s all relatively quick and easy to assemble.
The individual pieces are chunky and geometric and well made enough to fit together easily without any significant gaps. The instructions are straightforward and easy to follow and the top of the landing pad actually comes as a single separate piece with no attached sprues.
With a good pair of nippers, a hobby knife and some plastic glue, I was able to assemble the whole thing in around 2 hours. That’s even accounting for my somewhat needless desire to eliminate every single mould line or piece of flashing. The fiddliest part is the Vox-Antenna, and that’s only because you have the choice of vertical or horizontal for the position of the dish.
What’s The Quality Like?
Excellent, although I’ve come to expect that from GW. Not everyone is a fan of their games or their design aesthetic, but it’s hard to argue that they don’t make good quality minis and terrain.
With one or two notable exceptions *cough fine cast cough* the Workshop can usually be relied on to produce high-quality, highly detailed kits, and Battlezone: Fronteris Nachmund is no exception.
Every part of the kits felt solid and well-made and the level of detail leaves other alternatives, like MDF kits, in the dust.
Is It Easy To Paint?
How easy something is to paint is a little subjective, but the blocky geometry and slightly less over the top ornamentation of these kits means you can get great results from them with just a few passes with different coloured spray cans and perhaps a wash to bring out the details.
For those more interested in the painting process, there’s still a lot of fine detail to be picked out and the rugged frontier look of this terrain is just crying out for some aggressive weathering.
How Do I Use It In My Games?
The amount of utility you’re going to get from the Battlezone: Fronteris Nachmund set is going to depend on which games you play. If you bought this for use in Kill Team or Necromunda, it’s an excellent addition to your collection.
The design of the kit steps away from the usual skullz and ruinz design of most 40K terrain and introduces a more rugged and functional look that adds a nice level of variety to your battlefield.
The majority of the buildings are also fully intact, which is actually rather novel when it comes to 40K terrain and provide a lot of line of sight blocking terrain, which is hugely important in the smaller skirmish games.
The addition of the two double-sided boards means you can have two Kill Team games running at once on a standard-sized dining table, and then combine them for a smaller 40K game, which is ideal.
For 40K purposes, the utility of this box is going to depend on how much terrain you already have.
As you can see from the image above, a lot of the buildings are only going to provide line of sight blocking for infantry models, leaving your tanks, walkers, and everything else you’ll desperately want to hide in the 9th edition, uncomfortably exposed.
If you’ve already got some larger chunks of terrain to add to the mix, then you’re all set. However, if you’re looking for a terrain box set that provides all you need for a 40K game, then you might be better off with Kill zone: Chalnath or Kill Zone: Octarius, both of which had more of that all-important verticality.
That being said, in the smaller Combat Patrol and Incursion games, most of the bigger stuff usually has enough wounds and a good enough save for constant cover not to be so important.
If you’re moving above 1000 points and onto the suggested 44” x 60” table, then there just isn’t enough terrain in this one box to really work, which isn’t really surprising as that’s not what it’s designed for.
Should I Buy Battlezone: Fronteris Nachmund?
Personally, I was all over this box like green on gretchin. However, putting aside my love for thematic terrain, it’s a more qualified yes.
If you’re looking for well-made, high-quality terrain for your Kill Team or Necromunda games, this box is a solid win and I would strongly suggest you invest in it. It’s got everything you need in one box and its different take on how the buildings on the edge of the Imperium look is a refreshing change.
If you toned down some of the grimdark elements by shaving off some of the skulls, you could even make use of this set with other skirmish and roleplay systems.
If you want terrain for a smaller 40K game, this box is still a win, but you might want to invest in some taller terrain down the line. That being said, for anything up to 1000 points, you’ve still got the right sized board and all the buildings you need in one neat package.
If you’re looking to furnish a full sized 44” x 60” table with this one box, then you’re going to be disappointed. There just isn’t enough terrain in here to do that and that’s not what it’s being sold as.
However, if you want to add some different looking buildings that will add some variety to your terrain collection, or something that will work for both 40k and the smaller skirmish games, Battlezone: Fronteris Nachmund is still a good buy.
Overall, I’m very happy to recommend Battlezone: Fronteris Nachmund, every part of this kit, including the surprisingly sturdy box, lives up to the usual high quality standards GW is renowned for and I love that it look distinctly different from the other terrain while still having the same continuity of design.
I’m already designing an ice world outpost, a la The Thing, around this kit for Kill Team and I can see it being a foundational part of my terrain sets for the foreseeable future.
