"Mighty Empires desert tiles?" Topic

I've been looking into the old 1990s Mighty Empires rules (I'm thinking of modifying them for a map-based campaign I'd like to run) and I've noticed mentioned in a few places that there were desert tiles. There's even pictures of them on the Board Game Geek site. I can't seem to find any information on them though. For anyone who might remember a 30 year old game, were desert tiles added to Mighty Empires at some point and where I might find the rules/information for them (if there were any)?

Citadel Journal #1 or #3 had chaos tiles (Black & White)

I have the original Mighty Empires boxed set and all of the White Dwarf issues that contain additional rules material for it, and I do not recall any mention of desert tiles. Cannot speak for the early Citadel Journal material, though.

Should not be too difficult to write up your own rules, though – I think the simplest case would be to declare that no settlement can ever be placed or built in such a tile. Not sure how much that would add to the actual game, since there would be no particular point in conquering such tiles.

The 40K version of Mighty Empires was Planetary Empires and it had desert tiles in it.

link is interesting. I haven't played Mighty Empires in a while, but you got me to thinking of a map similar to northern coast of North Africa. Maybe you could build fortresses or town to provide shelter but no crowns at end of year. Extra pirates on the coastal waters maybe. Searches might yield valuable ruins several tiles into the desert away from the coast. A few oasis' also. I need to re-read the rules but this might be interesting for a few games; to me at least.

and link

If I am reading this right, then this will provide a interlocking base that the Mighty Empire tiles will fit in. thingiverse.com/thing:29890

For setting a campaign at the edges of the Khemrian Deserts, I think it might be worth looking at the Wilderness Locations rules that were included in various White Dwarf issues. One of the locations was an old Necropolis, and rolling for the contents could involve anything from finding old treasures to releasing a rampaging horde of undead to the world. Perhaps in a Khemrian desert tile there could be a relatively high chance of finding a necropolis, but no change to encounter other kinds of locations (mine, wizards tower).

However, how interested would players be in exploring desert tiles in the first place? Since they cannot provide subsistence, avid explorers would best bring a lot of baggage to feed themselves. However, I think baggage is a bit overpriced in the basic rules (compared to say just buying more troops to a banner), so especially in a setting with lots of desert or other wilderness it could be a good idea to reduce their price.

That said, I would like to remind that the basic rules for the ME already contain a lot of material. Especially if you playing with people new to the game, it might be best to stick in too many extra rules, whether from the pages of WD or house rules of your own devising.

Now I am thinking it might be easier to use blank tiles and spray with a desert colored texture paint.

Now I am thinking it might be easier to use blank tiles and spray with a desert colored texture paint.

Is there such paint available? I would probably go for glueing fine sand (with watered down PVA) and then painting that with normal miniature paints.

Not spray desert paint but there is a good range of textured masonry paint at many DIY stores in a variety of colours available at much cheaper cost volume for volume than hobby paints that might work for you?

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My wife bought this brand in a stone color, I believe, and I played around with it. The fine sand glue before spray might be even better.

This reminds me that I once also managed to accidentally get a textured finish with a white spray paint while undercoating some figures, so I guess that kind of effect could also be achieved intentionally. That said, nowadays I do my undercoating with brush, to be sure.

As for the ancient necropolises, there was a model released back in the day (I think I have two):

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It's a bit corny for my tastes, and probably difficult to find nowadays, though I guess one could instead use some simpler pyramid shaped structures.

Back in 2001 the now defunct hobby products realised a game called Empires which you Ral panther Europe now owns and has all the little buildings and stuff you could need
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