On the use of terrain zones in missions

You're probably right but tbh, aside from foliage, furnished interiors and transparent cover its hard to imagine what large zones could create saturation.

 

Another reason to be careful about table-wide visibility conditions is their interaction with AD.

 

I like being inspired by the outside conditions of our command post we are playing at. Heavy rain is a good reason for saturation or low vis. We had some very hot days and played with heat, which lead to a -1 MOD to PH (unless you have the skill: desert terrain). It is more about the (slight) narrative and less about the special strategic impact. We decide those things spontaneous and after everything is set, but before the lt. role off. It then leads to a bit tactical consideration, because of the slight change in balance between BS and CC-combat when burst and/or visibility are changed.

True terrain-zones with limited borders and appropriate effects are something still missing. I like to admit, that since this thread started, I am keen on snatching one or two woods out of Malifaux (next table) to add in our zone of operations...

 

Some of the local TOs set up tables based around a terrain theme, and its usually pretty good. I think there's usually 1/3 of tables that have a dominant terrain rule that covers the whole board or most of it, and we know about it in advance (in the player's pack).

And thats fine. But it'd be good to get small zones peppered around the other tables too.

Hell we even got to the point where hedges and planters are being pushed out so that there's tiny patches of low-viz/sat here and there to hide behind.

 

Yeah, I think giving people with the skill a bonus, rather than penalizing anyone who doesn't, is the better way to do things.

Depends on how hard the rain is.

Monsoon/typhoon/hurricane rain+wind will do the trick.

 

Can you imagine a better time for a clandestine blackop in enemy territory? Way less witnesses if they're all huddling inside. :)

Stuff like "Models with Mountain Terrain gain the effects of Climbing Plus while inside Mountain Terrain zones and when climbing Mountain Terrain scenery" ?

I think Multiterrain is probably one where you can give minor movement bonuses since its good everywhere, whereas the others are more specialised and should get consequently larger bonuses in their own particular mileau.

 

:p

 

Actually i like all your ideas.

 

Multiterrain lets you pick which one, not give you all at the same time. Just like SAS has boat troop, air troop, mobility troop or mountain troop, you can pick from a wide pool of Zeros, each with different special training (yet single terrain type in a per miniature basis). Unless you are redefining it (and it would justify Bran do Castro or Kusanagi, instead of current "selective memory" they have).

 

There's nothing you really need to justify if you consider that they probably have all the training, but can't carry all equipment necessary for crossing every terrain type imaginable at once.

Just make sure there's no "Climbing-plusable" terrain going right through terrain zone borders :P

 

Multiterrain just lets you choose which terrain type you get a bonus in, it does not give you a bonus in more than one terrain type.

 

Imho on ITS missions there should be at least 2 medium (building sized) terrain zones and 4 small sized (partial cover size) terrain zones.

 

I'm always a bit surprised that Zero-G models, when in a Zero-G zone, can't use a short skill to move in a straight line to another point they can see within the Zero-G zone (provided a sphere approx. the size of their base could travel uninterrupted along the line), and that Zero-G zones otherwise act as "climbing-" areas, where a trooper can use a short skill to transition from one plane to a perpendicular plane. Climbing+ still has a benefit, Zero-G has a benefit, and troopers with AD and Zero-G get a benefit over AD / Zero-G.

 

I forget where it was written exactly, but what I've always seen when playing zero-g tables is that in Zero-G all troops get superjump, and troops with the Zero-G terrain skill get to superjump their full movement as a short skill.

 

I kind of want all the terrain skills to be amalgamated into a single 'good at difficult terrain' skill, and anything that can be considered difficult terrain is under this banner. It's hard enough trying to get terrain used on a table without it seeming one sided.

I have a svalheima themed table with aquatic and mountain terrain. I bring my PanO units that are really good on that terrain. I literally built myself an advantage in every game we play at my house because I own the terrain.

And then what about poor nomads begging people to let them have a zero-g table this time?

 

For what it's worth, "interior" tables, while not being the most popular layout (mostly because they are harder to build than "put down a lot of boxes, count some of them as houses", but also due to typical discrimination against snipers/MLs), aren't too rare, and they work well if you want to pretend it's a spaceship interior.

But yeah, in the end it's about who can and wants to build what using a lot of his free time.

That said, I've seen people suggesting using Zero-G on "normal" tables, justifying it with some sort of "grav elevator" tech.

 

Quoted because I only have one like to give.

I'm still working on a boarding action table, blatantly stealing the mapboard from the Last Frontier: the Vesuvius Incident solo board game. Pretty cool mission, actually. You're the leader of a squad of a dozen Marines, your ship has dropped out of FTL and heard a distress call from a research ship in a decaying orbit.

But nobody is answering the radio...

The research ship is a spindle-and-ring design, and one of the effects in the game is emergency-stopping the centrifuge, which slams everyone in the ring into the nearest wall (in the appropriate direction).