The Theatre of Tragedies

Feudal world terrain in a way you've never seen before - Thracia Rex explored in videographic form! We've finally been able to combine our passion in wargaming hobby and cinematography via our YouTube presence and this battlefield feature is a sign of things to come. Be sure to subscribe for more cinematic showcases of miniatures, model terrain and wargaming in general!

Thracia Rex is a feudal world terrain project we produced for the use of our Horus Heresy games, aiming to create a deeply personalized and thematically coherent gaming setting. From the multi-leveled battlefield to the underground catacomb features, each core element has a narrative that has also put a thematic spin to the played scenarios as objectives or special rules. 

We wanted the board to have a bit of a mysterious aura; was the town originally a medieval settlement that was later upgraded with science fiction technology, or the other way around - an advanced society that forgot its ways and deteriorated into primitiveness over centuries? We combined scratchbuilt elements and 3D printed details with plastic and resin parts from Warhammer 40,000, The Horus Heresy, Age of Sigmar, Warhammer Fantasy and more.

Looking back, the entire build between 2020-21 was a pretty mad project, but it's been totally worth it already with all the games and army photoshoots it has provided a setting for! Its value is most importantly in the vibe we still get when we enter our studio space hosting the table - it's the centerpiece for the showroom. Thracia Rex has already set the stage for games of Horus Heresy, Age of Sigmar and Trench Crusade to name a few - who knows what adventures lie ahead!

Latest from Thracia Rex

We've been playing our Feudal World Horus Heresy campaign "The Thracian Insurgency" since 2021 and finally celebrated the finale some time ago! This was by no means the end of the narrative, but the conclusion of the Insurgency story arc which saw the Legion comrades turn against each other and ultimately burn in the fires of Heresy. We had many story hooks to explore in the various campaign episodes and we were able to wrap most of them up in the final battles. Many corners of Thracia Rex were left unexplored however, so there are still secrets to unfold!

Our in-house campaign finale happened simultaneously on four separate tables - the Renegade Governor was trying to escape the town on a separate "Outer Walls" tile, whereas the grand battle was fought on the main Feudal City table. On the countryside board the Loyalists were trying to protect their automated Artillery providing fire support to the cityfighting forces. In the underground tunnels the defenders tried to hold off invaders from reaching their combat-controlling HQ bunker. I really enjoyed putting the Loyalists under pressure and seeing them divide their strength between the different tasks - which part was deemed more important than the other and which units were trusted with which task. Our Traitor forces were almost like NPC adversaries, playing their part in the narrative with Dark Angels and Salamanders in the center of it. This made for good drama and memorable moments, especially when newly-finished surprise reinforcements kept rolling in.

Albeit having their resources stretched thin and suffering losses on all fronts, the Loyalist forces were able to hold their own and keep the emergency beacons transmitting - their only hope was to get the word of Thracia Rex's tragedies off-world and hope for distant reinforcements to arrive. Noa's Salamanders led by Praetor Barbados Khes were the unshakeable anvil all Loyalist efforts leant on, and Eric's Dark Angel elites performed surgical strikes with pinpoint efficiency.

I've been calculating some new World Eater rosters and have a couple of unit builds on the way - the game is in such a good state that it's exciting to add to the playable force. New tournaments are popping up monthly in Finland and the scene is growing, I think a lot of it is due to Horus Heresy hitting that sweet spot of balance between ("historical") gaming and universal hobby appreciation. Cool models don't hurt either!

Noa's Salamanders were always standing where the fighting was fiercest. Glory to Vulkan!