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Malifaux Terrain


Ratty

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Great work Ratty.  I would reinforce the value of 0 Ht terrain.  You use the bone piles for it, which is a good example.  But this category can also include rivers, swamps, plowed fields, etc.  Really good for severe terrain without granting cover or blocking LOS.  Can be combined with other pieces easily enough.  A swamp with a shack, a field with some crates.  I like to emphasize this because often times, people who are frustrated/unsure/questioning about terrain are coming from other game systems where Ht 0 terrain is essentially unheard of.  It makes a big difference in how much coverage you can get on a table.

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On Vassal I've been treating the coffin Piles as Ht1 and Ht2 Obscuring/Difficult Terrain. Which means you don't have to worry about climbing up and then down the other side. It seems an interesting way of dealing with them. Ht1 Obscuring/Difficult Terrain can be interesting, as it gives cover when moving through it, and also stops small models seeing things like markers on the other side.

 

One thing I didn't mention was the size of terrain. If a piece is too big it can mean the rest of the board is sparse, and no-one ever enters it. I have occasionally seen forests which are 6"x9" and people don't use them at all, because it would take 18" which is 2 whole turns to move through them. The same can go with rivers, I would aim to have a crossing point ever 6-9" along a rivers length, this leads to soft choke points but also allow people to move around the board easier.

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So, my locla players reminded me of something we did a while back.  Basically, it is just another illustration of what Ratty has already done, just using real world terrain rather than Vassal.
 
First up is a river board we designed at one point:
Condensed to 50%

Spread out

 
Then a farmland type board:
Condensed to 50%

Spread out

 

 

Both cases have a variety of terrain types.  In retrospect, the farm board could have used a little more cover in the center, but it was still fun.

 

Just tonight, one of our players started setting up a board.  He was apparently board and in a groove, because he just kept adding terrain.  We started joking that if we left him alone, he would end up covering the entire board.  We weren't far off.  The board ended up roughly 90% covered with a mix of swamps, hills, and trees.  The guys who played on it had a lot of fun, although it would not have been well suited to tournament play.  Just goes to show you that many different ideas can all be workable.

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So, my locla players reminded me of something we did a while back.  Basically, it is just another illustration of what Ratty has already done, just using real world terrain rather than Vassal.
 
First up is a river board we designed at one point:
Condensed to 50%
 
Spread out
 
 
Then a farmland type board:
Condensed to 50%
 
Spread out
 

 

 

Both cases have a variety of terrain types.  In retrospect, the farm board could have used a little more cover in the center, but it was still fun.

 

Just tonight, one of our players started setting up a board.  He was apparently board and in a groove, because he just kept adding terrain.  We started joking that if we left him alone, he would end up covering the entire board.  We weren't far off.  The board ended up roughly 90% covered with a mix of swamps, hills, and trees.  The guys who played on it had a lot of fun, although it would not have been well suited to tournament play.  Just goes to show you that many different ideas can all be workable.

 

 

Yep they look cool, I would have probably put the tower or rock pile in the center of the farm board and put the plowed field off to one side.. but overall good.

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This is a great and beautifuly illustrated brief !

Coming from Warmachine, I'd like to know if there is such a thing as a linear obstacle (fences, small ruins of walls, providing soft/hard cover depending on the obstacle but having a very thin width so that a model can't stand on top) and how they should be treated in terms of walk and charge penalties ?

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This is a great and beautifuly illustrated brief !

Coming from Warmachine, I'd like to knowo if there is such a thing as a linear obstacle (fences, small ruins of walls, providing soft/hard cover depending on the obstacle but having a very thin width so that a model can't stand on top) and how they should be treated in terms of walk and charge penalties ?

Yes.

Just give a fence the climbable, blocking and hard/soft cover as you please.

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There are 4 options (that I can think of) to handle such items. There isn't a right or wrong way, just agree with your opponent before the game.

You can treat them as climable, and allow the model to drop down the other side once it has climbed up.

You can treat them as severe, which will slow movement.

You can treat them as impassable, so you have to walk round

You can treat them as open, so they don't impact movement at all.

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For low walls, I've quite often just said they take 1" extra if you cross them. It's not in the rules, but it's very fast in practice, and stops any confusion.

As with any terrain, the important thing is to discuss before the game what things represent. Because when you have a VP or model in the balance is not the best time to discuss whether a wall blocks movement or not.

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For low walls, I've quite often just said they take 1" extra if you cross them. It's not in the rules, but it's very fast in practice, and stops any confusion.

As with any terrain, the important thing is to discuss before the game what things represent. Because when you have a VP or model in the balance is not the best time to discuss whether a wall blocks movement or not.

I agree. We also use the "extra inch" method when it comes to small ht 1 walls/fences. It does work real quick and slick... Dependent on what crews people are playing, and whether both players are happy with it, we sometimes still play the breakable terrain rules too... I think the important answer to the argument at the time was, "You try telling killjoy or chompy that he can't boot a hole in the puny shed"

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Looks like i need to reread the terrain and movement rules...  The way we've been playing hills is that they slow movement moving up and down.  So hills are a combo of blocking, height increase and movement impeding.  Is that how the rules read or are we doing it wrong.

 

I like there to be some elevation changes on my table but it is tricky making it work.  Something i know I need to add more of is a combo of scatter terrain for Ht 1/2 cover and some linear obstacles (fallen trees, wooden fences, etc.).  What terrain attributes would you give something like a wooden paddock fence (pig pens to be exact).  My guess would be they should be soft cover, climbable.

 

-DavicusPrime

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Looks like i need to reread the terrain and movement rules... The way we've been playing hills is that they slow movement moving up and down. So hills are a combo of blocking, height increase and movement impeding. Is that how the rules read or are we doing it wrong.

I like there to be some elevation changes on my table but it is tricky making it work. Something i know I need to add more of is a combo of scatter terrain for Ht 1/2 cover and some linear obstacles (fallen trees, wooden fences, etc.). What terrain attributes would you give something like a wooden paddock fence (pig pens to be exact). My guess would be they should be soft cover, climbable.

-DavicusPrime

Hill will have whatever traits you five them.

Having said that, making it hard to walk up them seems like overkill.

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I think the text suggests hills only block line of sight if you are stanind on opposite sides of the apex of the hill or something... like a more specific version of blocking.

What's sort of annoying about hills in my area is that they are all built like warmachine hills (steep edges). Its nice that the model is stable, but its a serious lip that you aren't calling a climbable face.

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