For a long time I have been thinking about buying terrain and search the interweb many a days looking for the perfect piece! I love Knights of Dice terrain, a tad expensive but i think I will buy something of them. A friend bought a bundle and add-ons from TT-combat. They are a little simpler but still looks good. Anyway, all this searching got me thinking. Good looking terrain is usually less easy to use, fewer access to different levels like roof while the simpler is much easier to customize, adding ladders and walkways across roofs. The table will look fantastic but I am not as sure about the game. We (at the local club) use a lot of terrain on our boards. A lot of it has been the paper terrain you get with the boxes but lately people have been adding their own bought or build. I think with the paper terrain I automatically put out more terrain then if I use bigger pieces and houses with more shapes than just a square. Been adding them together in an attempt to create bigger blocks but its never great. I like alot of terrain with options to get up high and when I make a table I try to make sure there are ways up from a few angels to make the board even from boths side. I have never been to a tournament and have only played with a few people at the club. Been looking at some tables from events and tournaments and a lot of them don't use that much terrain with open areas. What is the most common type? How do you play? Is it important do have a lot of options and access to buildings and terrain? Here is my Wednesday table I made for the 250pts Escalation league. (damn thats out of focus =/ )
Hi there mate, The good thing about terrain is that there never is a correct answer to density. As a model maker I see your point in good looking terrain, with many levels and big sized skycrapers, lots of windows, doors and how this elements give a bigger depth to strategy of the game itself. I know its nice and very attractive to try emulate a city like board, but for the gamewise its not so cool cause of the scale of things and distances of things. In Real life cities there are wide and open spaces that could never happen in infinity without a one sided game. playing in a skycraper board could be amazing but very difficult to hadle and play. I make my own terrain and models and many time I have to restrict myself to what I can do so its playable. But as a player I usually find it as an inconvenient that models get access to the interior of a building, specially in building with more than one store with more thatn one model using that buidling. theres also the problem of storage, only big clubs, stores, and lucky guys with a big house have the space necesary to safely keep this sort of elements. So if u want to play games in a board that allows many different setting use medium size element with no access to the interior. buy or make many ladders and small elements like crates, containers and wall to block LoS which can be easily stored inside building when you clean up your board. Some other companies that have some good designs are: Knights of dice Warsenal Zen terrain TTcombat Multiverse Gaming Miniature scenery With some of them you may have problems in the shipping cause of the country or the distance. Some ideas for board making are: -block side borders with some elements (for AD) -place buildings so the deployment line is in the middle of the element, no easy cover near the border of the deployment zone. -Asimetry, on side should be a bit better for ARO and the other better for objective. -not too many 100-120 shooting lines, try that every type of weapon can have an oportunity on the board. -combine elements . put a wall next to a building making greater areas of denial without bigger elements. -different hights in the elements make cover for some silhouttes but not for others.
As far as ease of play, that was a primary goal when this stuff from Muse on Minis was designed. It's preprinted MDF, super modular, and pretty reasonably priced for preprinted terrain too (especially if you're outside the US as the table deal has free shipping worldwide).
I have a city board made using the plans from Matakishi's Tea house https://www.matakishi.net/inner-city-buildings.html With the addition of some Chinese/Japenese signs and a couple of postmodern glass towers it really captures that Ghost in the Shell vibe. Bill boards on roofs really help at preventing too many long fire lanes and a large piece of polystrene with ramps and stairs around it is a good urban hill equivalent to further change levels, you tend to get snper duels across the roof tops while the direct template weapons shine in the alleys. Robert
This table is from Jackal Design. I really like it. A bit more than the base bundle to add a bit more depth to the buildings. I haven't painted up the buildings to be extra attractive but it's functional. The best thing about the table is it plays well. The terrain gives enough cover for S2, tall walls give total cover to S2 and all buildings/containers have inbuilt ladders. External ladders are prone to wear and tear. It packs up extremely efficently. All this plus more fits into a 60L container. I often bring tables to clubs/venues and it's so much easier to have everything in one container. Down side is that the buildings don't have interiors though it can be a positive. It encourages more open play and you can't camp in buildings though it has significant cover so you're not going to be BSG or spec fired to death. Check them out https://www.jackal-designs.com/product-page/sci-fi-bundle-deal This is a MAS + Plasticraft table. I like it though it was significantly more expensive and doesn't pack as well. As for local metas and terrain there is no right or wrong. It's great that people are bringing their own things in. You'll work out what works for you and how best you can make it work together. Goodluck
I agree. I prefer not to have building that you can access for that same reason and I dont think it adds much to the board. Its too small to actually get any action by itself and as you say, makes it a pain when you want someone on top of it too. I can gop so fas as have windows and things you can see through but that is something thats can ruin it for you if you miss that the enemy can see you. I have missed Zen terrain, they have a bundle that looks really good. They only have a render of the terrain but it looks good, lill add to list. They have all the building just not in the bundle. =) My friend with the TT-combad bundle came by sunday and we had a few rule-testing-games and the terrain looked really good, can recommend it.
