Realm of Battle

The basic 6-tile set, once painted and grass'd. Costs only your firstborn child.

Realm of Battle is a Games Workshop and Forge World product line consisting of two-feet-square modular pre-molded terrain, intended to be assembled into a battlefield.

Games Workshop

The original 2008 "Citadel Realm of Battle Gameboard" set contained six squares, four of which have quarter-hills (which can be arranged together in a large central hill, or in half-hills at the edges of the board, or quarter-hills in the corners) and two of which are flat. The set came with its own zippered carrying bag and included connecting pieces (with plenty of extras!) to hold the tiles together. The carrying bag even had a little pouch to store the connecting pieces in.

All of the tiles were slightly textured with cracked earth in places (which can be decorated as exposed, weathered stone, or scorch marks, or whatever). GW later released an "expansion pack" consisting of two flat tiles. Anyone who buys two flat pieces of plastic is a fool -- in fact, anyone who buys two flat pieces of plastic and four flat pieces of plastic with a plastic quarter-hill in one corner is also a fool. Alternate viewpoint: these gameboards are gorgeous when fully painted up and you're just envious because you still live off your mom's allowance.

Games Workshop later released two additional Realm of Battle gameboard sets. In 2015 they unveiled a set themed for Age of Sigmar called Shattered Dominion, and in 2016 they released an industrial-city-themed set called Sector Imperialis. While the quality of these subsequent sets remained high, so did the price, and they lacked the convenient connecting pieces of the OG Realm of Battle set. These sets didn't have a carrying bag either; instead, each set's own box doubled as a carrying case. These latter points may or may not be a case of fail.

All three Realm of Battle gameboards were retired around the time 9th Edition 40k was released. As of late 2022 you're about as likely to find remaining stock in the wild as you are to find an actual unicorn, so if you REALLY want these now, your best/only bet will be to cash in your children's college fund to purchase one on Ebay. As a replacement, Games Workshop is now peddling their cardboard foldout Battlezone maps that conform to the slightly smaller "recommended" table sizes. However, per the rules you can still use a larger table size if you want to, so the plastic Realm of Battle boards are still legal.

Of course, everyone who plays 40k knows that 6' by 4' is the only true acceptable table size.

While the original Realm of Battle gameboard served as a more traditional "rolling hills" type of terrain set, the Shattered Dominion and Sector Imperialis sets each formed the centerpiece of an entire accompanying line of Games Workshop plastic terrain kits that share their name. Sadly, Games Workshop rarely keeps terrain kits in their catalog for more than a few years, so as of 2022 most of these tie-in sets have also been discontinued.

Forge World

Forge World has released some terrain tiles of their own, which are much more detailed and harder to scratch-build and thus more worthy of consideration (and also more expensive, but that should not be a surprise).

The first is the "Imperial Strongpoint," which is edge-compatible with the Citadel kit's quarter-hills, but is shaped on the interior like the opening to a bunker, with pillboxes, a generator, and some dragon's-teeth tank traps in front of a set of blast doors leading into a hill.

Later, for their Imperial Armour volumes focusing on the Badab War, FW released four "Zone Mortalis" tiles (designated Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta), which are flat 1-foot-by-1-foot tiles with walls arranged in different patterns. The idea is that they can be assembled into mazes to represent the cramped environment of boarding missions, Space Hulks, bunker interiors, and other such situations. Modular mazes where everything is at right angles are relatively straightforward to scratch-build, but FW did a great job on the texturing and detail (Imperial iconography only, though -- sorry, xenos and Chaos players). They later expanded the line with Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, and Theta patterns, as well as little doors, desks, and other (Imperial-looking) scenery bits to spice things up.

As part of the first wave of Horus Heresy releases, FW produced four "Cityscape" tiles, with detailed, rubble-strewn streets, wrecked vehicles, industrial-looking bits, and slightly-raised platforms for buildings and other scenery. Again, they're expensive, but they look great (like everything else Forge World makes). They later released a crashed-Thunderhawk tile and a Space Marine fortress. As part of the lead-up to the release of The Horus Heresy Book 3: Extermination, in March 2014, they announced the "Generatorum Nexus" (big ol' half-exposed generator turbines and dynamos) and "Manufactorum Sector" tiles (some half-sunken industrial buildings that take up space but don't have flat tops, so models can't stand on them).

For Imperial Armour Volume Twelve, Forge World produced a Necron-themed tile, the Tomb Citadel. It depicts a ziggurat-like structure, with layers and steps rising to a step pyramid in the corner. Said pyramid has an indentation on top that permits a Monolith to rest there.

All Forge World products related to Realm of Battle are now OOP as of 2020/2021.

External Links

• Zone Mortalis video on Youtube
• Cityscape video on Youtube Which, for some reason, has a fucking DEATH COMPANY CONTEMPTOR DREADNOUGHT on it.

Gallery

• 
  The original Realm of Battle gameboard. A $330 value! Released in 2008, OOP as of 2021.
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  A standard feature on any Warhammer product.
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  The first expansion for the RoB, the bunker tile.
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  The latest expansion for the RoB. Comes as a set of 4.
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  Realm of Battle: Shattered Dominion, a Chaos-blasted wasteland. Released in 2015, OOP as of 2021.
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  Realm of Battle: Sector Imperialis, a battle-damaged industrial cityscape. Released in 2016, OOP as of 2021.