In this new series we’re looking at various terrain layouts for Warhammer 40,000 and exploring how they work, what you need to know about playing on them, and how you can improve your play when you play with those layouts.Â
Many games of Warhammer 40k are won or lost in deployment and a key part of that is terrain. In this series we’re going to look at various terrain layouts, looking at how the affect the game and how you can use them to your advantage. In this article we’ll start by looking at Layout 3 from the Games Workshop Tournament Companion, specifically with regard to the Chapter Approved 2025-26 Missions Pack.
This is the third article in the series – if you missed last week’s article on Layout 2, you can find that here, and the first article in the series on Layout 1 is here.
A Note on Terrain
In these articles I’ll be using Games Workshop terrain but it’s worth noting that terrain will change from event to event, and the layouts shown in the Games Workshop Tournament Companion are guidelines more than hard-and-fast rules about how terrain has to actually look. Most often you’ll find that terrain features may be longer or shorter than the layouts dictate, based on what the tournament organizers have available.
With that out of the way, let’s get into the layout:
Meet Layout 3
You don’t see layout 3 that often; that’s a good thing, in my opinion. It’s both a very open layout and also a massive pain in the ass to set up. Those middle ruins in particular are a real pain to get right, and it’s important that they be set up correctly. But because there are so many angled ruins on this table, you’ll need to take extra care before your games to make sure the terrain has been laid out correctly and symmetrically.
The big thing to watch for here is the corner overlap on those center ruins – they’re supposed to overlap the center objective by about an inch (or at least 3/4″), and so that means that if you have thin terrain like MDF you may be able to tag that center objective from the center ruins.
This layout is recommended for Search and Destroy and Sweeping Engagement battles, and of those I’d only ever recommend playing it on Search and Destroy. When you’re setting up those center ruins, note that they’re supposed to overlap by a little less than 1.5″.
Let’s label these ruins. For the purposes of this article, I’m going to group the connected center ruins, even though they are technically distinct pieces – note they have the crossed-out eye icon, meaning you can’t treat them like one larger connected ruin base.
The key pieces here are:
A. The slanted corner ruin. This is a 12×6″ area terrain piece, typically with a large/tall L-shaped ruin. It’s going to be an important piece on both Sweeping Engagement and Search and Destroy maps, and you can typically tag that lower left objective on either layout from inside that ruin. Though note that this is difficult on Sweeping Engagement and terrain-dependent. With what I believe was a “correct” setup, I could only “safely” tag the objective with about two cultists.
B. The horizontal ruin near the long table edge. This ruin is critical on Sweeping Engagement or if you get stuck playing Dawn of War. The U-shaped ruin here is important for staging and movement. As this ruin is 4″ from the long table edge, it can’t give you full line of sight coverage for a large vehicle, but in most cases you can overlap into it and the U-shaped ruin will do the rest of the work you need to stay hidden, particularly on Sweeping Engagement missions.
C. The small ruin in the corner. This ruin doesn’t offer a ton of cover on its own, but it typically combines with the larger E ruin base to help hide key units early. As this one is 4″ from the long table edge it’ll typically not be something you can use to protect wider vehicles.
D. The slanted middle ruins. These ruins more or less split the table up into three “lanes” on Sweeping Advance and provide critical cover on Search and Destroy. They also act as the key staging points for units looking to charge into the center of the table, protecting and blocking line of sight.
E. The other large slanted ruin. This one will never be in your deployment zone. It combines with C to create another set of solid cover on Sweeping Engagement. It’s also going to be a key piece of cover for masking deep strikes and Infiltrators.
Regardless, this is a difficult mission to hide on when you’re playing Sweeping Engagement – while you have some relatively safe spots, none of them are really on your objective, making this one of the more dangerous missions in that regard. Search and destroy will give you an easier time of things, both in deployment and with regard to the movement patterns it creates.
Objectives
I generally would only recommend playing this layout on Search and Destroy deployment. There the central D ruins work well with the corner deployment to create easy staging up through the middle of the table and the placement of the home objective is relatively safe while still being contestable from the other side of the ruin.
Sightlines
There are lots of long, crucial sightlines on Layout 3. Let’s start with the most obvious ones: You can see down each side of the table with an unbroken view. Similar to layout 2, the gaps down the short sides of the table are much more narrow (2″) and harder to shoot, but still available if your opponent is careless or pushed into the corner on a deep strike.
Across the middle of the table you have a relatively easy line you can draw through the three objectives on Sweeping Engagement. This won’t be an option on Search and Destroy, but the diagonal sightline will still be available, and generally you can get shots across the middle from either direction as needed – it’ll just be a question of which objectives you’re drawing a line between.
For TOWERINGÂ units, those middle D ruins are the key piece, particularly on Search and Destroy — though remember that they’re actually two detached ruins, so you’ll need to stand on both if you want full visibility. Otherwise the B ruin near the long table edge is the best option and your go-to on Sweeping Engagement missions.
Melee Staging
Where you want to stage for melee will depend a bit on whether you’re running Sweeping Engagement or Search and Destroy but generally a lot of staging is going to happen from those middle D ruins toward the center of the table, or the slanted E ruins, which can give great access to either the opponent’s home objective or the B ruin, depending on the direction you’re going.
These ruins sit about 6″ apart, but if you have units tucked in each corner you’ll likely need an 8″ charge to close the gap from one ruin to the other across the objective. That’s plenty doable without leaving the ruin, so if you’re worried about Overwatch, you can take a risk on a slightly longer charge instead.
What Does Well Here?
This is one of the most open Games Workshop layouts and it’s more or less a shooting gallery if you play it on Sweeping Engagement. If you’re on Search and Destroy, the shorter distances between zones and easy staging areas in the middle of the table make it much more friendly to melee units, though they’ll still want to avoid the center objective as they try to move into contact with your units. On that deployment, the center D ruins offer just enough cover to create some interesting lines.
Going around the sides of the table is a common play on Sweeping Advance but those can be long trips with little payoff. Going up the middle is going to save time but be much more dangerous. For melee armies and infantry, pushing across the middle of the table through the two D ruins is going to be the most common move.
For vehicles there’s really nowhere you can’t go on this map; it’s among the most open maps in the Tournament Companion and one of the few that can easily accommodate the likes of a Defiler or Soul Grinder. The terrain and positioning of the bases give you wide movement gaps between ruins and the places you’d most likely struggle tend to use 2″ ruins.
Those center D ruins also serve as strong spots for your Infiltrators and Scouts, letting them set up for solid positions, and setting up on the center objective with infiltrating scouts who can them move forward or backward depending on whether you have first turn is a solid play. The side E ruins also serve as good protection for infiltrators, and they can usually hold the objective in that ruin somewhat safely – it’s harder to do on Sweeping Engagement.
Being as open as it is, this map doesn’t offer nearly as many great deep strike spots as most other maps. The corners are really going to be the most common spots here, and even then those long sightlines down the sides of the table make those somewhat impractical. As a result, your deep strikes will typically be a bit more dynamic on this layout, and dropping down in front of the enemy instead of behind will be a bit more common unless they’ve over-extended.
Final Thoughts
Layout 3 isn’t my favorite layout. It’s difficult to set up and pretty open. If you’re on Search and Destroy it’s a little more balanced; otherwise, it’s going to be a huge benefit for shooting-oriented armies that can outrange opponents and use the easy movement to position tanks to be able to score easy kills. The lack of safer deployment spots will combine with this to make it much more generous to the player going first, so you’ll want to try and avoid getting caught in bad positions early unless it’s part of a plan to bait an opponent out.
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