Adeptus Titanicus – Civitas Imperialis

The first terrain kit released in 2018 for Adeptus Titanicus were the Civitas Imperialis. It was part of the initial Grand Masters edition of the Adeptus Titanicus Horus Heresy boxed set.

What's the point in reviewing a 2 year old kit? Well, first of all it completes the Manufactorum Imperialis review I just did, and the second reason, the Civitas kit didn't receive the coverage it deserves. It bears more potential than the regular, small buildings on the box or shop description show. For that reason this review will provide an introduction to the kit, that I'll continue with further build(ing)s using the bits and pieces provided from this kit.

Because the interesting aspect is, that the design of the Civitas Imperialis kit picks up the initial terrain design of the 1988 and 1989 boxed sets.

The 1988 Adeptus Titanicus edition covered terrain made from polystyrol foam, the 1989 Space Marine was card board with plastic toppers. In 1997 when the small scaled battles returned with Epic 40.000, the terrain was "just" ruins, but made completely from plastic.

The new kit comes at a price tag of 32,50 EUR and covers two large and two medium sized plastic sprues, along with an instruction leaflet.

Casting of the terrain kits is done in China. The quality is proper, good details and a low amount of mould lines, as the square pieces are properly aligned within the sprue.

The Civitas Imperialis kit is set up as a very modular kit, that provides a lot of option and freedom up to a certain degree for the builder. The walls come in three different sizes, low, medium and tall, as well as square floor tiles to provide levels and roofs. The wall pieces can be stacked upon each other to build taller fronts / buildings.

To give you an impression of the needed height to provide cover for a Warhound or Reaver please take a look at the third picture.

The tall wall pieces come in sets of 8 per sprue, you receive a double-door part, a single door and 2 or 3 of the regular wall pieces in two different designs. The pieces can be glued together as a corner and come with a slot and key connection on the insides. If you want broader walls, you'll need to use the pillar connectors. These come in two different designs, a regular pillar and a basilica like buttress.

I'll use the eight pieces and build a regular square, adding a two-wide floor tile as a roof for the first level.

The medium sized wall pieces come in sets of 10 per sprue, with two double-wide pieces, and three different designs to the single pieces incl. a door. They can be connected in the same way, on the corners or prolonged with pillar connectors. The medium sized pieces have their own pillars.

I went for a small two wide rectangle and a square. As you can see in the fourth picture, they can be stacked upon eachother. I could have build an L-shape as well, or go for a 2 by 2 square for the second level. I didn't glue the levels onto eachother just yet and didn't add a floor, as that will be covered with the low wall sections.

The low wall pieces come in sets of 10 per sprue as well. With a double-wide piece and a door piece, as well as two different designs for the single pieces. They have fitting connection pillars. I recreated the shapes of the medium walls, but included roofs this time.

I stacked them similar to the one shown on the box art. A good footprint and high enough to even partially provide cover for a Warlord titan.

It is a bit of pity that the roof tiles leave small gaps when build in squares. They come as singles, doubles and threes, but only straights. You can see there are quite a few bits left over after I used half the kit. And it can be combined with bits and pieces from other sets as well, like the crane from the Manufactorum Imperialis.

I wanted to build a larger build, to cover more ground. It should be at least as high as a Warhound to provide proper cover. If I wanted a closed 3 by 3 building, that would exceed the available pieces, so I went for a ruined / damaged building.

To organise the build, I laid out the pieces, to have an overview of what I had and what I needed. In addition I marked the damaged wall pieces with a CD marker, where I later would cut the pieces. Using the pillars I combined the wall pieces and glued the sides together for more stability.

I added the pieces together to create an U-shaped ruin, with the floor tiles on the top level to support the two 90° angles created. I would probably put the ruin on a plastic card base and use further plastic card for a second floor. Adding sand and gravel to show the rubble from the damaged building.

This is what I created from the kit. Of course, if you went to less tall buildings, you could cover more ground. That would provide more cover for knights as titans, and as I have more buildings planned, I went with these two set-ups.

Conclusion
Four sprues is a good stock to build upon and reasonably priced at 32,50 EUR. Yet, if you have the chance to get your hands on one of the administrative sectors (there is one just using the Civitas Imperialis sprues and another set incl. the Spires), I strongly suggest you do so, as it covers a better deal on the sprues and you will probably need at least one of these bundles, if not better two of them, to properly cover the area of a 4 by 4 or 4 by 6 ft table.

If you intend to build intact buildings, you'll go fast through the sprues, so plan ahead and think about building them as ruins, as this cuts corners / saves on needed wall pieces.

I am happy with the modularity and the quality of the casting. It is a solid kit, that could only be improved by a bit more love to detail. Angled roofs would be a nice addition. Yes, they would provide less playability, especially if later used with Epic 40k or infantry (bases). Yet it would be an interesting design choice. For example some optional pieces, like Gargoyles or Aquilas / Imperial Insignia, to recreate some official Imperial buildings maybe even scaled down versions of pieces we've had in 40k. Maybe that is something that Forge World has in mind for us down the road.

Warhammer 40.000 and Adeptus Titanicus are brands by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.