What a Competitive 40k Table Actually Needs in 11th Edition

The new edition changed how competitive tables get built, and for once the change favours the people buying terrain. Layouts are now defined by footprints, the base areas that terrain occupies, rather than by the exact walls sitting on top of them. That gives you real freedom in what your table looks like while keeping the game underneath consistent. Here is what a competitive table actually needs, based on the official tournament guidance as it stands right now.

The table itself has not changed

Standard competitive play still happens on a 44 by 60 inch battlefield, so your mat and your gaming surface carry straight over from the previous edition. Everything that changed happens on top of it.

Footprints now rule the table

The current tournament guidance defines layouts by around sixteen standardized footprints per table. The footprints are the skeleton of a legal layout, not the total piece count, and we will come back to that distinction in a moment. The published footprint sizes break down like this:

• Two large triangles at roughly 8 by 11.5 inches
• Four large rectangles at roughly 7 by 11.5 inches
• Four medium rectangles at 6 by 4 inches
• Two long barricade strips at 10 by 2.5 inches
• Four short barricade strips at 6 by 2 inches

Because the footprint is what matters, two tables can look completely different, one gothic rubble and one industrial, and still play identically. That is the point. If your ruins sit on the right base sizes, your table is tournament-shaped regardless of the style on top. Our 11th edition terrain collection is built around exactly these footprints for that reason.

What that looks like in practice

Footprint counts undersell how much terrain a finished table carries, because one footprint usually holds more than one piece. A tournament-ready table is more pieces than most people expect. Our most popular 11th edition set, the gothic foldable terrain set, ships as a full board in one style:

• 4x Large Ruin, Three Storey
• 4x Large Ruin, Two Storey
• 4x Long Ruin, Middle Part
• 4x Long Ruin, Side
• 2x Short Line, High Ruin
• 2x Short Line, Small Ruin
• 8x Small Ruin
• 1x Double Container and 2x Single Container

That is thirty-one individual pieces dressing sixteen footprints, and the ratio is the point. The large ruins anchor the big footprints, the long and short sections build out the mid-size zones, and the small ruins and containers are the scatter that actually blocks lanes and fills the gaps a bare footprint leaves open. The set includes matching footprint markers, so the layout underneath stays event-pack legal while the board above it looks like a place. The same composition comes in several other styles in the 11th edition collection if gothic rubble is not your table's look.

Why terrain matters more than it used to

Three rules changes make the terrain on your table do more work than it did before.

Objectives are now terrain features rather than flat markers, so scoring means physically occupying real estate, and the shape of that real estate decides how defensible each objective is.

Infantry-type units inside terrain can now stay hidden from enemies more than 15 inches away if they hold their fire. A table with proper footprint coverage gives both players real approach routes, which is why sparse tables now punish the player going second even harder than they used to.

Cover itself changed too. Instead of improving your save, cover now makes the shooter worse at hitting. That makes every piece of terrain relevant to every unit type, not just the ones with poor saves.

What to buy first

If you are building toward a competitive table from nothing, buy in this order. Start with the four large rectangles, since the big line-of-sight blocking footprints shape the game more than everything else combined. Add the two triangles next, because the angled footprints are the piece most collections are missing. The medium rectangles follow, and the barricade strips come last, since they are the cheapest to substitute in a pinch.

The full spread sounds like a lot, and as the set list above shows, a finished table really does run past thirty pieces. The heart of the investment is still the six large footprints, and a table that owns those can borrow or improvise the rest while the collection grows. If you prefer to skip the math entirely, our grimdark terrain collection covers the full spread in one style.

Check your event pack anyway

Every mission in the current rules ships with three recommended layouts, and organizers pick or adapt from there. Conventions also drift between seasons, so before a specific event, read its pack. The footprint sizes above are the standard as published today, and we will update this guide as the tournament scene settles into the new edition.

Build the table once, use it for years

The move to footprints means terrain bought today should stay legal through layout changes, since organizers rearrange footprints rather than demanding new terrain. If you are setting up a table for your club or getting tournament practice in at home, start with the footprint set and grow the collection from there. Your table will be ready before your list is.