The long-awaited reveal of Warhammer 40k 11th edition came with a surprising amount of detail on upcoming rules changes - much of it seemingly a direct reaction to the infamous L-shaped ruins that have expanded out from Warhammer 40k's competitive circuit to dominate the game at all levels. It's not the only wargame trying to bring visual spectacle back to the tabletop: I spoke to Mat Hart, COO of Steamforged Games and one of the creative leads driving the resurgence of Warmachine, to learn how his studio is battling the 2D terrain that once dominated the game.
In the case of Warhammer 40k I am purely speculating about GW's motivations. Still, two key rules revealed during the Adepticon preview on Wednesday seem to suggest that the designers are trying to bring back grandeur to the battlefields of the far future.
The fact that 11th edition will use buildings and areas of terrain as objectives, rather than perfect circles, hearkens all the way back to the Cityfight supplement from third edition, and is immediately more immersive. Then, the fact that at least some units will be immune to enemy shooting until they close distance or open fire will make games with more varied terrain layouts viable.
That chimes with GW's stated goal of re-uniting narrative and competitive players. And the fact that Workshop has that goal at all is an acknowledgment that many fans think 10th edition has catered too heavily to the needs of competitive players - who value functional terrain that a tournament organiser can easily buy in bulk - at the expense of narrative. This is the edition in which we saw - or in fact, didn't see - invisible terrain, after all.
I've written previously that Warmachine wrote the playbook for how game companies could support a serious organised play scene - everything that Warhammer 40k does now, from active balance updates to seasonal tournament packs, was pioneered in Warmachine. And Warmachine had its own competitive-play driven equivalent to L-shaped ruins: 2D terrain.
Steamforged Games acquired Warmachine from original owners Privateer Press in 2024. CEO Mat Hart recalls "Three to five years ago that's how people played the game - everything was 2D, there were proxy-bases everywhere". "Terrain is always a trade off between form and function", he says, and there's a slippery slope from terrain that's optimised for tournament play, to terrain that barely resembles a wargame at all.
Hart has made bringing evocative terrain back into Warmachine a key part of Steamforged's strategy for the game. "You don't get into wargaming for 2D terrain", he says, "You get into it because it sparks your imagination". Its an attitude he holds both as a businessman - since bland tabletops and unpainted models do nothing to advertise a wargame to new players - and as an avid hobbyist who frequently paints miniatures for the company's social media.
Steamforged's main strategy for getting more 3D terrain into the game - aside from explicitly telling fans during its Adepticon keynote that 2D terrain is crap - has been to make more of it available. For much of its existence Warmachine has only occasionally had dedicated terrain products. Steamforged is now offering a wide variety of terrain STLs via its Warmachine 3D subscription. Hart seems to be satisfied with how the community is adopting 3D terrain.
Terrain availability isn't the problem for Games Workshop, of course, which means it has one less lever to pull if it wants to change player culture. Either the 11th edition rules will make a wider range of tabletops fun to play on, or they won't. 40k might be about to replace perfectly circular objective zones with perfectly circular objective buildings, if that's what offers the best competitive experience. For both games, only time will tell.
How do you think things will develop? Will the changes we've seen so far move the dial towards realistic terrain? Are you part of the Warmachine scene, and have you noticed players using more interesting terrain? Join the discussion in the Wargamer Discord community!