Permanent board with terrain

[english_boar]

Hello,

I am considering making a permanent graveyard themed board.

Walls, gravestones, mausoleum, possibly a church.

Would this be something that would be well received or too limiting?

[Caedrus]

@english_boar: Just my opinion!

I think permanent boards have the advantage of (often) being absolutely gorgeous. If designed well, balanced on all four sides (and corners!), and have access for 50mm models, they can be absolutely excellent.

Modular boards, on the other hand, give greater variation, and allow players to be certain that they have had a hand in the board layout (and will have a fresh 'feel' each new game.

But, as a person that is mid-design of a graveyard board, there are lots of cool things you can do: gravestones as walls, fallen gravestones or sinkholes as difficult ground (in my opinion, people don't use enough difficult ground). A disused (or active) crematorium incinerator. Open graves to fall in. Restless spirits as a form of dangerous scenery. Stacks of coffins.

Make your mausoleums flat-roofed for height advantage.

My very best on your build!

Caedrus.
 

[english_boar]

I agree with the modular stuff, wholeheartedly, but I'm just not a fan of it.

I love the idea of a graveyard board, I already have graveyard bases for my crews I plan to use (new player).

How have you made yours? Scratch built or have you bought bits?

I have found a site I like but the walls aren't quite the right length sadly so need to work out how to develop that or ways of using other terrain to fill the difference the difference.

[Adran]

There are two possible problems with fixed boards. Firstly, storage/transporting them places, and secondly they may get repetitive. But they can look really cool.

I would say go for it. Its unlikely to get too repetitive too fast as there are plenty of different deployment zones and missions.

 

There are a few things to plan on when you design a board. These are in general, but because you are trying to build a fixed board you can't easily nudge terrain to correct if you miss them.

You want to make sure that the spots where crew deploy have exit routes. This will want to hold true for all 4 sides.

You want to try and avoid putting Impassible terrain where strategy markers will be placed.

You want to try and make sure that 50mm models can access all section of the board that 30 mm models can.

[Sol_Sorrowsong]

16 minutes ago, Adran said:

There are two possible problems with fixed boards. Firstly, storage/transporting them places, and secondly they may get repetitive.

I agree fully on these parts.  If you can store/transport a fixed board then most of your trouble is out of the way.  The second issue is easier to deal with if you make sure you build the board from all angles.  Even with modular pieces, I've had issues with some boards because they were set up from a standard deployment perspective related to the way the board was placed on the table.  That can be fine for a quick match, but it is always more enjoyable when the layout is a bit challenging here and there and not tailored for certain access routes. If one area of the board has great territory advantage if held, see that access isn't only from two starting deployments or that it also has a disadvantage (a large amplitheater with 3 points of egress may be great for a tanky brawler crew to take the territory and lure enemies in, but if there is a 2-story building or overhead walkway that allows concealed shooting, they might become fish in a barrel).

 

Additionally, I've found that nice scenario pieces are really fun to play, but can lend towards certain crews having advantages that can't be altered in the table pieces now.  For a friendly, I want to build/play on a table where both crews can benefit from the terrain.  I don't want it barren and empty  for gunlines to mow people down, but I don't want a packed warehouse of boxes either where every move is divided into bits to get around obstacles.

 

My last piece of advice is that while building, use your models of different base sizes to move around the board.  That will help you keep scale, and get a feel for how it might play as you build it.  Other than that, make sure to have fun with it. It will be cool to play and even if it gets old after a while, you can bring it out on occasion between more modular games and it will breathe new life into the musty crypts.