RCT 7: Boards and Terrain.

[Maniacal_cackle]

Welcome to Ressers Community Thread 7! This time we will be discussing boards and terrain. As always, this is open to people with every level of experience - from newbie to master.

Anything about boards and terrain and how Ressers handle them is fair game here, but some suggestions on things to post about:

• Post some boards (whether photos of real life boards or Vassal boards).
• Lists specifically set up to deal with certain types of terrain, or to punish enemy lists weak to terrain.
• Model-to-model comparisons heavily influenced by terrain (for example a key difference between lampads and wanyudo is that wanyudo is unimpeded).
• Anything else you can think of!

Feel free to also use example scenario pools, but keep the focus on terrain and boards if possible.

Also, thanks to the people who suggested this topic!

Finally, if you have requests for the next community thread, feel free to flick me a message. We do one every week or so.

[Maniacal_cackle]

What do people reckon about this board?

What sort of crews does it inspire you to take? Which part of the map do you think you'd want to deploy in?

 

When I played it, I had Molly in the top right corner. Claim jump was a scheme, and the centrepoint falls in that nice clear area in the centre. Dead Rider and Archie gave me some solid maneuverability, but getting out of my deployment zone was difficult. Molly got a nice vision boost from the hill, which was awesome.

If you are the attacker, you can be pretty flexible with who you select into this board. If you're the defender, you're likely going to find yourself behind those trains, and need some serious gas to get past that terrain (either climb over it, or incorporeal models, or models with leap/flight are fantastic here). Note that incorporeal models like Hanged can struggle to get past that rock by the train because it is big (more than 4 inches), so they can't get through it in a single move.

[Sagrit]

Maybe it's a mistake, but, to be honest, i don't consider Terrain while choosing a Master. The only exception is Seamus of course.

But as for this exact map - you are right, it could be a pain to get stuck in bottom-left corner. I would say Urami and Transmortis will still feels good because of Incorporial, Flying and By Your Side placing. With such terrain heavy maps i like to choose Vendetta with Incorporial model. Onryo in Urami crew for example. Just hit once in correct time, score 1VP and use terrain to hide for the rest of the game. 

[Maniacal_cackle]

We tend to do it in the other order (determine scenario, form crews, then build a board that will be a fair matchup on this basis).

It can make a pretty big difference for some crews, so best not to unbalance it too much:

• Molly - long sight lines will absolutely wreck the enemy crew.
• Seamus - blocking terrain of course.
• Reva/Rider - unimpeded is a big deal.
• Incorporeal - of course.
• Hazardous terrain - movement tricks.

[MajorUndead]

I think I would try to go for Von Schtook, with Emissary to add another model with flight & the movement aura.
That way with the emissary & valedictorian, I got 2 flight models, with research assistant & emissary, 2 +1Mv aura.
Depending on the schemes & the ennemy crew I would go for necropunks to leap or undergraduates to push von schtook more (I would still take one to help VS get around the train.)

Though if the strategy & schemes really don't have much killing but are more about moving all over the place, then I could very well go for Molly, with at least 2 night terrors to profit from their huge movement potential & flight.

I would probably take crooligans too but I'm not sure I would take Archie to use by your side on them, since the leap can be tough to get.
I might try Phillip instead, with his deadly pursuit and his ability to profit from the Night Terror's fading ability, he should have the movement to get around the train if needed.

[unti]

I think, as you said maniacal, it highly depends on whether you are choosing side or not. When playing from right top corner against the enemy on the left bottom corner blasts and big tough models to block more walk lines come to mind. Emissarry with his wall and blast attack seems awesome. In addition I probably would pick Von schtook for more blasts and Valle to block them in there... 

Playing the other direction looks definitely harder...

[Maniacal_cackle]

Yeah, I like that about the board. Most boards I build tend to mostly symmetrical, so attacker/defender doesn't make as big a difference. Whereas it makes a huge difference here.

[Speedguyjp]

For that board I would definitely be bringing Seamus and the Rider regardless of the scheme pool. I'd love to play on that board in real life - imagine having a train set!

Usually if I'm playing on vassal my opponent and I just keep generating a board (after crews) until we get something that we both think is fair. 

[Maniacal_cackle]

What about this board? I reckon there's so much severe terrain that you're probably wanting something unimpeded (Rider, Reva, etc).

The huge open sight lines means Molly is going to be pretty devastating here (as are long-range crews in general, be something tanky if facing something shoot-y, I think!)

[Adran]

23 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

We tend to do it in the other order (determine scenario, form crews, then build a board that will be a fair matchup on this basis).

It can make a pretty big difference for some crews, so best not to unbalance it too much:

• Molly - long sight lines will absolutely wreck the enemy crew.
• Seamus - blocking terrain of course.
• Reva/Rider - unimpeded is a big deal.
• Incorporeal - of course.
• Hazardous terrain - movement tricks.

This order makes some sense if you have very limited model collections, but it misses the fun of altering the crew to deal with the specific issues raised by the board. There are certainly some boards that will give huge advantages/ disadvantages to some keywords, but give perfectly fine games for most crews. I would like to know what the table looked like before I hired a crew so I know if I can shoot(be shot at) long distances, or do need to cross severe terrain.

I also try to build the board as not symmetrical. I don't think it matters as much this edition, as the attacker/defender choice is more balanced, but last edition there was  definently a large bonus forcing your opponent to deploy first, so there ought to be a similar advantage to choosing the deployment zone.

[Maniacal_cackle]

14 minutes ago, Adran said:

This order makes some sense if you have very limited model collections, but it misses the fun of altering the crew to deal with the specific issues raised by the board. There are certainly some boards that will give huge advantages/ disadvantages to some keywords, but give perfectly fine games for most crews. I would like to know what the table looked like before I hired a crew so I know if I can shoot(be shot at) long distances, or do need to cross severe terrain.

I also try to build the board as not symmetrical. I don't think it matters as much this edition, as the attacker/defender choice is more balanced, but last edition there was  definently a large bonus forcing your opponent to deploy first, so there ought to be a similar advantage to choosing the deployment zone.

We do it on pragmatic grounds (so we can build our lists at home), but I do like that aspect of tournaments and having a premade map.

[Sagrit]

On 8/9/2020 at 3:48 AM, Maniacal_cackle said:

What do people reckon about this board?

What sort of crews does it inspire you to take? Which part of the map do you think you'd want to deploy in?

 

When I played it, I had Molly in the top right corner. Claim jump was a scheme, and the centrepoint falls in that nice clear area in the centre. Dead Rider and Archie gave me some solid maneuverability, but getting out of my deployment zone was difficult. Molly got a nice vision boost from the hill, which was awesome.

If you are the attacker, you can be pretty flexible with who you select into this board. If you're the defender, you're likely going to find yourself behind those trains, and need some serious gas to get past that terrain (either climb over it, or incorporeal models, or models with leap/flight are fantastic here). Note that incorporeal models like Hanged can struggle to get past that rock by the train because it is big (more than 4 inches), so they can't get through it in a single move.

I played on this map yesterday. My crew vas Von Schtook, pretty classical, with Valedictorian, Emissary, Undergraduated and Necropunk. 

Strategy - Symbols of Authority, Corner deployment. 

I feel pretty good on upper right corner. But I would say that lower left corner was better for the strategy - my opponent placed 2 Symbols in Hazardous terrain. It wasn't and issue to be honest, but still a nice trick. 

The biggest issue was a 4" Stone on the lower part of the map. 4" trains are OK but Stone + Train formed a big piece of very high terrain, it was tricky to tak LoS there.

I have lost that game for 1 VP because of scmenes - i took Claim Jump for a Necropunk with GST and he was destroyed in the beginning of the 2nd turn by The Brewmaster: Lure (2 poison) -> charge with 8 stat -> hit with 8 stat -> blow up poison.  So i cant score even 1 for that scheme. As for the crew i would say that Transmortis was completely OK with terrain on the map. Emissary helped a lot with protecting Symbols.

[Maniacal_cackle]

4 hours ago, Sagrit said:

The biggest issue was a 4" Stone on the lower part of the map. 4" trains are OK but Stone + Train formed a big piece of very high terrain, it was tricky to tak LoS there.

I know, right? I played Jack Daw on the bottom left corner once, and that stone was killer xD

[Graf]

My mains are Schtook and Daw atm and will be for a while. This means I have high mobility, pushes, teleport and often flat out ignore terrain. This means I don't care about terrain as much as other crews/factions in terms of "how can I deal with terrain".

What I do look out for is my opponent's all-terrain capabilities. Where do I get good LOS blocking positions? Which terrain will slow down my opponent the most? Where are potential corridors free of terrain, so engagement will likely take place there? 

If they give as less on it as I do, I mostly say "whatever, I take what my instincts tell me". If they're not... Well, then those are the questions I ask.

It is hard to give specifics without knowing crews and pools, because those influence each other so much. If there is a wide and open central field, I'll reconsider not taking Leave your mark in favor of Spread them out. But if I use Daw and I don't expect getting shot into oblivion, that's not as likely. 

[Maniacal_cackle]

8 minutes ago, Graf said:

My mains are Schtook and Daw atm and will be for a while. This means I have high mobility, pushes, teleport and often flat out ignore terrain. This means I don't care about terrain as much as other crews/factions in terms of "how can I deal with terrain".

What I do look out for is my opponent's all-terrain capabilities. Where do I get good LOS blocking positions? Which terrain will slow down my opponent the most? Where are potential corridors free of terrain, so engagement will likely take place there? 

If they give as less on it as I do, I mostly say "whatever, I take what my instincts tell me". If they're not... Well, then those are the questions I ask.

It is hard to give specifics without knowing crews and pools, because those influence each other so much. If there is a wide and open central field, I'll reconsider taking Leave your mark in favor of Spread them out. But if I use Daw and I don't expect getting shot into oblivion, that's not as likely. 

For Daw, aren't impassable pieces of terrain bigger than 4" (5"*?) a huge problem? Your incorporeal models can't walk through them.

[Graf]

How often does one really fails to cross large impassables straight through? It happend to me... once. Wasn't even important. Just think a little bit ahead, position yourself properly and cross tangential. Or simply teleport 8-10" with LOS.

So... yeah, it can happen in theory. But if one gets real problems with Hanged/Daw due to an occasional large blocking terrain, there is much more amiss imho.