Just on this topic, I spent the weekend trying to build an interior table that's a mix of large open spaces and narrow corridors. (room within a room is to show where an armory would be). Gonna need a lot of scatter but I think there's potential here.
very good start! You're going to need a lot of scatter. Random pipes going vertically, large lockers/circuit breaker panels, etc.
This is how I feel about special terrain on tables! Expect to see many more tables like this at the Rose City Raid 2019!
Very pretty! Let's see if I'm reading this table correctly: blue areas are aquatic terrain, docks/bridges to avoid. green-flocked areas are jungle terrain, height of the trees (fewer trees than there 'should' be for mobility/playability). Orange cylinders are objective markers?
Close! Beaches and water are both aquatic, one is difficult, the other is very difficult. The top of the islands are clear, and the trees are jungle. The trees do not move from where they are placed.
You may want to make some larger bases (felt or something) for the Jungle areas, so that people can actually move through them, because right now it looks like the Jungle areas just block movement and LOF entirely.
You can move through them, provided you have enough movement to do so. It's really hard to walk through a tree, I've tried unsuccessfully. :) We strive to play RAW for the terrain rules, so yes, trees can block LOF and movement (a tree is just as hard to walk through as they are to see through). You are also affected by the terrain simply by being in B2B contact with it, no need for your entire base to fit within it. For my other forested tables, I do use templates, but with static positions for the trees so they don't get knocked around.
Having played on that table, it was unfortunately an example of exactly what I have seen at a lot of events - no terrain rules in effect on most tables, with a small few becoming difficult/very difficult/saturation zone hell, which can be very skewing. A better solution would be to make sure there are terrain zones on each table, some with slightly more or slightly less, and that they're relevant to objectives.
Frankly, "relevant to objectives" sounds like Rescue. And that scenario is much maligned by players of certain factions (like Onyx) already. Also, vast swathes of terrain hurt MI the most, ones that already struggle hard for competiveness. If anything, I'd begin with re-writing difficult terrain rules to be more... Egalitarian.
I don't necessarily disagree, though I will point out that many Medium Infantry get a terrain specialty to at least partially offset this. But yes, it's 100% the reason why I never go slogging around the table with my Medium Infantry. 4-2, which is likely to get even slower, is partial reason why the most popular Medium Infantry are solo, static fire support pieces rather than full link teams!
You don't gotta convince me about MI, I play USA and Druze! There area actually multiple ways to get from one side of the board to the other, without going through difficult terrain, it is risky though. I've played on the island table a bunch (because I own it, haha) with predominantly MI based armies. It's tricky, but totally doable, you just need to plan your movement in advance, and leverage your 4-4, Airborne Deployment, Infiltration, and multi-terrain troops well. Yeah, this is why I didn't make it the top table, but next year, the vast majority of tables will employ terrain of one type or another. That said, some terrain, like low/poor vis zones will be beneficial to some troops (MSV), while some other tables will likely have white-noise zones (representative of radiation leaks, heat venting, etc), instead. Each table will come with a sheet explaining exactly what is going on, and we will be sure to keep the rules simple and straight forward (no custom rules, just using parameters allowed by the normal terrain rules).
A running start while wearing full body armor often helps. Either that or you need a light vehicle. Ah, gotcha. I tend more towards area terrain with the trees (or cars) being there for looks, so you can move them around if needed. They're already massively better than they were in N2.
I intend on starting to talk about the use of terrain for next year as soon as I get the details together for the event. I am exhausted still from this years event and already excited for next year.
