Empty Table to Full City: Terrain Bundles vs Single Buildings

You've got a bare 3x3 or 4x4 table and a head full of skirmish scenarios, but right now it's just an empty grid. The fastest question every terrain collector faces is this: do you buy a complete terrain bundle and fill the board in one go, or do you pick up single buildings one at a time and grow your city organically? Both paths get you to a great-looking table. They just cost different amounts of money, time, and patience. Here's how to choose.

What "a full city" actually requires

A common mistake is underestimating how much terrain a satisfying urban table needs. For most 28mm/32mm skirmish games, you want roughly 25–35% of the table covered with terrain that blocks line of sight, plus scatter to break up the open lanes. On a 3x3 foot board that usually means four to six multi-story buildings, a couple of vehicles or large pieces to anchor the center, and a scattering of barricades, crates, and street furniture. Anything less and your minis spend the whole game shooting across open ground; anything more and movement grinds to a halt.

That target is the real reason bundles exist. A single building looks fantastic on the shelf, but it covers maybe 5% of your table. To hit playable density one building at a time, you're committing to a long shopping list.

The case for a terrain bundle

A bundle solves the coverage problem in a single purchase. Take our 28mm Urban Cityscape Terrain – 5 Buildings + 4 Vehicles. That's nine pieces designed to work together: five buildings to form a block, plus four vehicles to fill the streets between them. Drop those on a 3x3 board and you're instantly at playable density, with sightlines broken in every direction and natural chokepoints where the vehicles sit. It's the difference between a board you can game on tonight and a project you'll finish next year.

Bundles also tend to share a visual language. Because the pieces are designed as a set, the rooflines, door scales, and architectural details match, so the finished table reads as one coherent neighborhood rather than a collection of unrelated kits. And there's a real cost advantage: buying a curated set is almost always cheaper per building than assembling the same coverage from individual purchases. For a new collector, or anyone outfitting a club table from scratch, a bundle is the efficient move.

Remember these are physical, unpainted printed kits. You'll receive the parts, assemble them, and prime and paint them yourself, so a bundle also means one shipment and one painting session to plan around rather than a trickle of small jobs spread over months.

The case for single buildings

So why would anyone buy one building at a time? Control. Single purchases let you curate exactly the city you want. If your table needs a very specific look, single buildings let you hand-pick each one.

A great example is the Modern Retail Store Terrain Set – 3 Storefront Buildings. It's a focused set of street-level shopfronts, and it's printed to suit 28mm, 32mm, and 40mm games, so it slots into a wide range of systems. Pieces like this are perfect when you already have a city block and want to add a commercial strip, a high street, or a specific objective building. You're not filling empty table here; you're adding character to a board that already plays well.

Single buildings also spread the cost over time, which matters if you're painting as you go. Many hobbyists genuinely prefer the slow build, because finishing and basing one kit before the next arrives keeps the painting queue from becoming overwhelming.

A hybrid strategy that actually works

For most people the smartest answer isn't either-or. Start with a bundle to establish your baseline coverage, then add single buildings to give the table personality. The bundle does the heavy lifting of getting you to a playable density fast, and the singles let you tell a story: a retail strip on one edge, an industrial corner on another, a landmark building in the center.

This approach also makes painting manageable. Knock out the bundle in a couple of batch sessions, using the same palette across all the pieces so they tie together, and from then on every single building you add is a one-evening project rather than a daunting backlog. You get the instant gratification of a full table now and the long-term fun of a city that keeps growing.

How to decide for your table

Ask yourself three questions. First, how empty is the table right now? If you're starting from nothing, a bundle gets you to playable fastest. If you already have a block or two, singles are the better add. Second, what's your scale? Confirm the kit suits the figure size you play. The retail set's 28mm/32mm/40mm flexibility is a real advantage if you run more than one system. Third, how do you like to paint? If batch painting energizes you, grab a bundle. If you prefer to savor one kit at a time, build single by single.

There's no wrong answer. A bundle like the Urban Cityscape set gets you from empty table to full city in one shipment, while a focused set like the Modern Retail Store Terrain Set lets you grow that city with intent. Pick the path that matches your table, your budget, and the way you like to spend your hobby evenings, and you'll have a board worth fighting over either way.