New player requesting feedback on first terrain build

[tooth]

I’ve never played miniatures before, but a friend convinced me Malifaux would be a great way to get started (thanks Andy) so I’m jumping in.  I still haven’t played my first game but have been reading a ton in preparation.  While waiting for my figures to arrive I’ve built my first terrain base and was hoping for some honest and critical feedback as to playability. 

 

My first set will be Mei Feng and her Rail Crew, and my wife is starting with Lucas McCabe and the Relic Hunters.  I want the terrain to work for a wide range of crews, but knew it would conceptually be in the badlands, and I had to have a train track for my boys.

 

Before I began I established a number of requirements:

The set was to be abstract.  I’m not a fan of a lot of the “realistic” wild west buildings and such that I’ve seen.  I’ve always figured imagination fills in the blanks far better.

It had to be inexpensive.  The base is 1” foam insulation with spackle spread over it.  Most of the terrain pieces are electrical or plumbing parts I also got at the hardware store.  Add in some sprinkle-on grassy textures from the model train store and this whole setup has only cost me a few bucks.

It had to be modular.  I live in a condo and space is limited so I cut the base into 18” squares.

 

I apologize for not having figures in the photos.  I only received them recently and haven’t started assembling them yet.  I included measurements on some of the key pieces so you could get a sense of the scale.

 

I see the hipped hill and the slope more as molded base than actual terrain pieces, but when I started spreading everything out it feels really busy and tight.  Is this too crowded for good game play?

 

Do you think I have enough variation in size and type of terrain?  Will this board be overly favorable to either ranged or melee?  Thanks a ton for any and all feedback, and please feel free to be brutally honest.  As I said this is my first try at building terrain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I see this as a sinkhole over a soulstone mine.  Severe terrain so -1 travel.

 

 

 

 

No travel penalty for gentle slopes, but if my opponent agrees I would like to have the pools of irradiated light coming out of this structure do Hazard damage if your figure stops within the glow.

 

 

 

 

It appears some ner-do-wells wreaked havoc with the Malifaux railroad.  That’s ok, will give my Rail Crew something to do in their spare time.

 

 

It may look like a thin slice of polished geode, but this small plane is the result of a weakness in the fabric of the Breach.  Time shifts quickly forward when you enter the plane – even though there is no mechanism in the rules for this, I would like to have this area be a +1 inch for each inch of travel across it.  Would that totally break the game?

 

 

 

 

Various electrical parts.  Treat them as dense with soft cover?

 

 

Various plumbing parts.  Treat them as blocking with hard cover?

 

This hill is made of dried grout I found in the bottom of a bucket I was cleaning out.  All I did was glue the pieces together, stick them on a piece of the leftover 1” foam I used for the terrain, blended them together with spackle, and spray painted the whole lot.

 

Hedge rows made of a piece of floral foam.  Trunks are random splinters from a 2x4 I broke up with a claw hammer.  My understanding is this type of item would be dense with soft cover.

 

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback!

[lusciousmccabe]

Nice terrain!

 

Is your idea for the geode thing not basically the same as severe terrain, or am I reading it wrong?

[tooth]

Sort of the opposite of severe - you could travel 2" for each inch allowed.  In other words, you could travel twice as far rather than half as far.  But like I said, I know that mechanic isn't in the rules.  Just thought it would be interesting.

[Ferossa]

Malifaux is pretty forgiving when it comes to using your own rules for special terrain. P 78 of the Core Rulebook has thirteen pieces of unique terrain you can use. While a 2x speed boost sounds nasty with certain models, that's what makes it a dynamic terrain element either side can use for or against the other.

 

EDIT: I forgot to say this looks completely amazing and I love the modular structure.

[tooth]

Thank you Ferossa.  You don't think it looks too crowded on the board?  From what I've read I know you need a lot of pieces to play around, and 1/3 - 1/2 coverage is recommended, but mercy it looks busy to me.

[Cy Dudley]

Very nice set you have made.

I think you have a good spred / amount of terrain and it all ties in together

One of the main sticking points of many games is clear deviation of in or out of a terrain pece such as the hazerdus light. You could mount the slope on a bace of thick card larger than it and cut to shape which would create a danger zone. alternatively if you want a bit of risk of am I in or not? you could create a D shape template (flat edge to terrain ).

The hill in pic 8 could maybe do with a bit of texture on the flat edge. But all in all a fantastic job and much better than how I started out with books under a green cloth and bits a cereal box to mark out woods and houses

[tooth]

Thanks for the kind words Cy-Fi, coming from you especially I am honored.  And super thanks for the constructive criticism.

 

Excellent point on the value of defining area of hazard.  I can easily see how that could be an issue with something as amorphous as pools of light.  I’ll see what I can come up with on that.

 

Good catch on the bottom edges of my hipped hill.  My first attempt at base material was ¼” foam core in 12” squares which totally curled up into little umbrellas when I put the spackle on it for texture.  That hill was one of the original squares I kept and repurposed into this final version, but it no longer sits down flush into the grid so now the bottom edges are exposed. I totally overlooked that.  Thanks man, that’s easy to fix.

[Ferossa]

Thank you Ferossa.  You don't think it looks too crowded on the board?  From what I've read I know you need a lot of pieces to play around, and 1/3 - 1/2 coverage is recommended, but mercy it looks busy to me.

 

After playing on my local WarmaHordes board (about 1/4-1/3 cover), this looks perfect. I literally gasped when I saw it. It looks like a joy to play on because both players need to work to find lines of sight, which makes for a more dynamic scheme/strategy game. With less cover, games tend to devolve into skirmishes with little to no interaction or use for scheme markers.

 

If you're just learning to play, I always recommend Henchman Hardcore (20 ss exactly (leaders have no ss cost), 4 models exactly, close deployment, Turf War, Assassinate, flip for other schemes). It gives you a good base to learn the dynamics of combat and scheme running and how they compete with each other. Most of the schemes and strategies are reliant on terrain to make them possible, and with a small crew you're very aware of how your models are interacting with the board at all times. They're also short, so ime they're excellent for testing pieces of terrain (like your geode), where you may not want to commit a 50ss game to testing one piece.

 

PS: I see you have chosen Ten Thunders, aka the best faction. Good choice. 

[tooth]

Thank you Ferossa, those are encouraging words about the terrain.  And your starting game system sounds perfect, will being that way for sure!  Thanks again for the tips and comments.

[Furio]

Your board looks great, well done! Only minor thing I would add is some more railway track as I feel the bit you have is a bit lonely.

 

P.S as a Guild player I wish your wife the best of luck(As long as she's playing McCabe as Guild!)

[Arli]

Great terrain!  For a first attempt, you knocked it out of the park!

[tooth]

Thanks Furio and Arli.  Great point about the track is a little isolated.  I have several extra inches of track from the piece I bought so will be easy to work up a nice flat section.  Thanks for the idea.