Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

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1 - Do you roll for terrain as in BRB? 2 - Do you use Magical Terrain?

1a - Roll for Terrain as BRB
2
18%
1b - Use standardized table
2
18%
2a - Yes
3
27%
2b - No
4
36%
 
Total votes: 11

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Jayby01
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Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#1 Post by Jayby01 »

I have a couple quick questions for everyone regarding Battlefield Terrain. I understand that tournaments will set up standardized battle maps, but how do you all deal with battlefield terrain in friendly matches?

It seems to me that if you wanted to follow the BRB rules exactly you would need so much terrain freely available that it makes having your own gaming table way more expensive. Not to mention that magical terrain seems to add huge advantages and disadvantages to some armies.

So...see above poll questions! And please reply with input!

Cheers!
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John Rainbow
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Re: Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#2 Post by John Rainbow »

I never use the BRB table or standardized terrain really. I just have a bunch at hand and me and my opponent select 3 or 4 pieces each and put them down. Neither of us really minds what they are but we do roll off and alternate placing pieces. If we're prepping for an event those pieces will usually be 2 hills, 2 woods, a building and some 'other' piece as this is the pretty typical range available at most events around here. I almost never use magical terrain.

In a friendly game I don't think it matters as long as you and your opponent are both ok with the choices you make. Magical terrain can be somewhat one-sided in terms of effects but I don't use it more for the fact that I always forget and it slows the game down (in general).
SteVieBizzLe
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Re: Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#3 Post by SteVieBizzLe »

Yeah when it comes to friendly games me and my opponent just see what terrain is available and throw it on the table. And agree with John, if prepping for an event, either go with provided terrain maps (like the ETC maps) or get a generic spread of terrain usually seen at tournaments and drop them using the alternating method.
pk-ng
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Re: Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#4 Post by pk-ng »

If you play at a store get a 3rd party to setup the terrain for you.
Whatever they like.
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Bolt Thrower
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Re: Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#5 Post by Bolt Thrower »

Use the warhammer terrain generating app! Can be customized to what kind of terrain you like and randomly generates a grid based map for placement.
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Eirik
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Re: Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#6 Post by Eirik »

I also use the willy nilly approach of John and Stevie. What can I say, I'm a rebel.
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Jayby01
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Re: Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#7 Post by Jayby01 »

Thanks for the advice everyone! Looks like everyone has the same issues with BRB terrain that I do. Looks like there are some cool Terrain Generating apps out there. I'll be playing around with them.

For now - there is an event coming up in June - so I'll be almost exclusively using their map.
Viale
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Re: Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#8 Post by Viale »

My group don't use mystical terrain per se. After having placed terrain such as others have described we usually(if we remember) roll a die for each piece and if it's a 6 we refer to the mystical terrain pages in the BRB. In this way we may get one or two unique features, that we might even remember, and it won't feel too silly and crowded.
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Re: Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#9 Post by Eirik »

I tend to always play with mundane terrain for the following reasons:

Possibility 1: Play with mundane terrain
Result: Mundane terrain

Possibility 2: Play with magical terrain, forget to roll for it EVER
Result: Mundane terrain
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Re: Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#10 Post by wisetiger7 »

Possibility 3: Play with magical terrain, roll for it when you first encounter it, forget the rules for it for the rest of the game
Result: Mundane terrain
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Re: Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#11 Post by Eirik »

This is why if you want to use magic terrain, try to do one or more of the following...
  • Use just one piece
  • Put it in a central and strategic position where it won't be easily overlooked/forgotten
  • Design a scenario around it
  • Use the less wacky ones
My favorite is Idol of Gork right in the middle of the map, re-roll failed charges for many of the most important charges of the game. If you don't have one, Idol of Mork works just as well.

Another is Bane Stone in a defensible postion (behind wall, near building, hill that is a convenient place to deploy war machines)
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Viale
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Re: Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#12 Post by Viale »

That is exactly why we only make a piece of terrain magical on a roll of six.

I've been toying with the idea of making all terrain mystical to a certain degree before the battle(ie forests, rivers) but allowing for any side which fields scouts to know about those features.

The only problem is the extra bookkeeping but it would make scouting units have a more scoutinglike feel.
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Gray
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Re: Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#13 Post by Gray »

I ran straight out of the book terrain for a while and made some amendments based on my experience. They are:

- D6+ 4 terrain pieces
- Divide up table to distribute features equally, then use artillery dice to scatter.
- D3 Items will be mysterious
- Reduce area affects of mysterious items.
- Use bit of common sense :)
- Don't place Acropolis of heroes or wyrding well in deployment zones.
– It's fun when the pieces make a story.

My thinking behind this is:
The random number and placement of terrain keeps things fresh and forces you to think on you feet.
D3 items creates an interest but not a wonder land of special effects! Having a game where the terrain effect dominate the game is not that fun in my experiences. Reducing the area of effect stops pieces like the acropolis of heroes making entire armies stubborn!
What I mean by common sense is just stopping anything that feels like it is going to make your games less fun. I try to tell a bit of a story, often random terrain does this- e.g in a hidden clearing to the side of the town is mysterious cursed statue. Or if I roll a something like a stedfast sanctum right by an encampment of destruction one of them should be ruined (it's feasible a new town could be built over conquered ruins of another civilization, but unlikely that two opposing forces would literally be next door neighbors :)
cerebros
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Re: Choosing Battlefield Terrain in Friendlies

#14 Post by cerebros »

Where's the "Sometimes" option in your poll? You're kind of assuming everyone does things exactly the same every time when in actual fact the terrain you use can depend on where your friendly game is (e.g. are you at a local store or club where you'll have access to plenty of pieces of terrain, or at home where you may only have a few pieces) or who you're playing (one of my friends hates playing with mystical terrain so we generally don't or have an agreement to have 2 pieces maximum, while other people I play with don't mind)
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