Your Opinion on Terrain

[ThePandaDirector]

Hi guys,

I've been developing an idea for a new terrain product, and while it is only a concept (which I won't be sharing), I was just wondering if it is worth pursuing further. So I'd like to know what people's attitude is towards terrain.

1) How much are you guys willing to spend on your board and the terrain on it?

2) What has more value, the quality (i.e. plastic/resin modelled terrain) or the quantity (card/wooden such as Terraclips)?

3) Do you consider it a big bonus for terrain to have a high level of modularity and/or storability?

4) Is your attitude to painting terrain or buying prepainted sets any different to your opinion regarding miniatures, and what is that opinion?

5) Does your experience with terrain have much effect on your hobby, e.g. "I chose to start/ignore game X based on the terrain I have access to"

Don't feel restricted to these questions.

Thanks for your thoughts.

-Panda

[Hateful Darkblack]

To be clear: Terraclips are totally beautiful. They take a long time to assemble, but when you do, you get terrain that looks super gorgeous and way more immersive than laying down some plastic elevation on an otherwise blank table.

That said, I usually just go to my FLGS, where terrain is free and super high quality.

(I do have both individual terrain and a lot of Terraclips at home, but I usually go to my FLGS anyway.)

[Evilbleachman]

I'd never buy into a game because of the terrain. The main aspect of mini war gaming and tabletop gaming is and always will be the miniatures for me. Focusing on these and then building up a world for them to tinker around in is what embodies the aspect of terrain.

Personally I will purchase specific terrain pieces for different games I own. I will, however, paint them myself instead of purchasing pre-painted pieces. This is a hobby to mess around with models and paints. This includes terrain pieces for me as well. In addition I usually find painted terrain pieces to be just too expensive. Costs of up to twice the amount for some simple dry brushing or heck even only airbrushing is a bit too hefty for my wallet.

I do believe that Terraclips is downright awesome, though it is not the form of terrain for me. Even though it does let you play in doors games for Malifaux. I try to get terrain that I can incorporate into other games as well, seeing as I have more than one line of miniatures and rule sets on the table. Thus, the terrain has to account for at least two to more games, in order for me to claim it a justified investment.

The quality has to be good. Sturdy and lasting objects are always better. Especially since you have to consider huge pewter bombs like NE Lord Chompy Bits and other huge metallic models that do weigh a lot. A good quality plastic/resin line of terrain should do the trick.

Packing terrain is an important thing to consider when building your own home table. Unlike a LGS, most people will not have shelves of space just for different terrain pieces. Mostly my terrain will end up in a big box and that will have to suffice for my personal needs at home. A reason why Terraclips is so cool is that you can transport it around easily, not to mention store it. I have to say I have considered making a bag outfitted with the right kind of foam to transport terrain to and fro.

Hope this helps you.

[Omenbringer]

1) How much are you guys willing to spend on your board and the terrain on it?

I would say that the Games Workshop Realm of Battle modular boards are about the most I will spend for a singular board (though also think it is about $100.00 higher than it should be).

I think the Terraclips sets are very well priced for what you get (two sets and two connecter kits are around $120.00). The Sarissa Precision bulk sets are also decently priced for what you get.

2) What has more value, the quality (i.e. plastic/resin modelled terrain) or the quantity (card/wooden such as Terraclips)?

With a game like Malifaux which is terrain dense quantity is very important however the quality also has to be there.

3) Do you consider it a big bonus for terrain to have a high level of modularity and/or storability?

For those that primarily game at home modularity and storage are very important considerations. For example my 2 sets of Streets of Malifaux, 2 sets of Buildings of Malifaux, 2 sets Sewers of Malifaux, set of Dungeon Rise Vaults of Ruin, Set of Dungeon Rise Prisonof the Forsaken and set of Dungeon Rise Dungeon Essentials and 6 sets of connectors fit in 2 3 Gallon plastic bins yet provides for an absoultely dizzying array of layouts.

For a store these things are a lot less important with durability definately winning out.

4) Is your attitude to painting terrain or buying prepainted sets any different to your opinion regarding miniatures, and what is that opinion?

Painted terrain definately improves the experience however it competes with painting my miniatures. If priced decently pre-painted terrain (base colors and wash) is very desirable.

5) Does your experience with terrain have much effect on your hobby, e.g. "I chose to start/ignore game X based on the terrain I have access to"

I like terrain that aids the story of the encounter and provides tactical challenges. Nothing is a bigger downer than advancing across an open field with only a piece or two of terrain (especially with a melee centric force facing a range heavy force).

[ThePandaDirector]

I have two sets of Terraclips; streets and buildings. But for some reason I don't like them. They're so... flat, which isn't a problem in a boardgame (even a miniature based one like SW), but by making it 3D without being 3D there's something that puts me off. That and it feels like I'm playing on an imitation of a board than a real gaming space. I'm a little surprised at how much people like it, but then gamers have always been able to see the potential in the simple things.

When I was younger I had the gaming mat by GW, which was rather messy, but I was a lot less picky about terrain then.

Now however, I am holding off starting Carnevale because I don't have access to a board that can represent Venice or a similar location.

I've developed my idea for a way to create a gaming board with terrain, and look forward to doing some practical testing.

[CannonFodder]

1) How much are you guys willing to spend on your board and the terrain on it?

I find if you can make packs under 30$ people will pick them up a little at a time. A full table may be more but some will not buy a full table in one shot.

2) What has more value, the quality (i.e. plastic/resin modelled terrain) or the quantity (card/wooden such as Terraclips)?

I'm moving to a higher quality than cardboard. and like Resin accessories.

3) Do you consider it a big bonus for terrain to have a high level of modularity and/or storability?

Definitively, this is the main reason why I don't have large building. While they look great I can't store them. Also the shipping costs really increases the costs. Also modular lets you keep the price point under 30$ per unit. As long as each unit is usable seperately

4) Is your attitude to painting terrain or buying prepainted sets any different to your opinion regarding miniatures, and what is that opinion?

I think it should be playable out of the box, but easily touched up to look better.

5) Does your experience with terrain have much effect on your hobby, e.g. "I chose to start/ignore game X based on the terrain I have access to"

not completely

A couple other notes for you

I Love Zuzzy Mats, they are the right price, easily storable. not too hard to paint.

I made a pile of crates for malifaux, and my LGS uses them all the time in WM/H, Dust, Mercs.

Unless you plan on doing something different with lazercut building, I would avoid them. there is already a couple on the market and once kickstarter is over its word of mouth, and what can make to LGS shelves that will keep the market. So far I never saw any lazercut building make it to any of the LGS in montreal.

lastly the theme, I would avoid or make any logos, or excess style optional. Look at 40K terrain. Skulls everywhere. I personally find it excessive. It it was downplayed a little I might have picked some of it up.

[Jewomie]

Having just moved i have two opinions about this, so i'll give them both to you.

Last summer and the three years before that, i had a lot of space and my brother and i would build 3x3 tables with permanent fixed terrain specifically made to fit each of the locals laid out in books 1 and 2. we had built tables for the sewers, a swamp, lilith's castle, some ruins, and the badlands. there was enough there to cover most of the locations. the terrain on these tables was built right into the table so there was little to no scatter terrain (unless the strategies called for it. which we had built that stuff ourselves as well) this allowed us to store them on their side in a row. we took the time to carefully lay out the terrain and have each corner have a similar path to the center of the table so it was nice and fair. They were great quality, they stood the test of being used at our lgs for quite a while, and we got lots of complements.

On the flip side of that, i have now moved into a one bedroom apartment with my fiance and i just don't have the room for these things. now my main focus is storage. once space became a major player in my choices the terraclips began to look really great. at first i agreed with Panda about how 3d terrain that is just flat card looks strange, but actually i've really taken to it. I love that the boards can be broken down or even built into halves or quarters for storage between games or travel to the lgs and back. I mean sure, there are fewer complements on the look and more on the layout, but it's just the price i paid for moving out.

I guess my long ass story is really just to say that i see a great deal of potential in both concepts (real terrain vs card or other terrain made for ease of use over style) but i don't think there is a way to please everyone.

I would certainly buy pre-made terrain for scatter terrain. boxes and barrels, fences and trees, that sort of thing. but only to a certain extent as they would be a little harder to store than the terraclips themselves.

also i would want to paint any real 3d terrain i purchased as that is just part of the hobby to me. I don't mind not being able to on the card though. guess it's just one of those things. lol

Also, i'll add in real quick... Terraclips with real scatter terrain looks amazing! just add in a package of resin crates and a real 3d hanging tree or something and the board instantly looks better. (and note that i love how the terraclips look in the first place, i just can totally see what you mean about their appearance.)

I hope this helped and doesn't just come off as long winded and pointless.

[DavicusPrime]

Hi guys,

I've been developing an idea for a new terrain product, and while it is only a concept (which I won't be sharing), I was just wondering if it is worth pursuing further. So I'd like to know what people's attitude is towards terrain.

1) How much are you guys willing to spend on your board and the terrain on it?

I'm cheap so as little as possible. I build my own terrain, so putting a price tag on what I have is dodgy. But for about $100US worth of materials I can make enough terrain for maybe two 3 x 3 tables with two different themes.

2) What has more value, the quality (i.e. plastic/resin modelled terrain) or the quantity (card/wooden such as Terraclips)?

I have spent some cash on terraclips and I think they are great for what they do. But I mix in my own 3D terrain elements to flesh it out. So I like both, but cost, quality and utility all play into my mental calculation on what I'm willing to buy.

3) Do you consider it a big bonus for terrain to have a high level of modularity and/or storability?

YES! Flexibility is a huge issue for me. I don't have time or money to build fixed terrain boards. I like to be able to mix and match to build interesting battle fields and so that not every battle is over the same piece of territory.

4) Is your attitude to painting terrain or buying prepainted sets any different to your opinion regarding miniatures, and what is that opinion?

Same. I like continuity in my models and in my terrain. Pre-painted terrain means it's less likely that everything will look like it goes together, but it's not a deal breaker for terrain.

5) Does your experience with terrain have much effect on your hobby, e.g. "I chose to start/ignore game X based on the terrain I have access to"

Terrain is important to me on the table, but it won't keep me from getting into a game. What it does is push me into making/acquiring suitable terrain for the game. in fact I usually put more effort into getting the terrain built than i do at trying to get my models painted. For the most part I try to re-purpose my old terrain to every new game as well as make terrain that I can use with multiple games. For example... I play or have played Heavy Gear (12mm Sci-Fi), 40K and Malifaux. I've pretty much walked away from 40K so I have a bunch of scifi/gothic city ruins collecting dust, but all of my "wilderness" terrain has been re-purposed to the other two games I play. All the hills and rock formations I've made are compatible with Heavy Gear and Malifaux. All the 3" and smaller trees/shrubs have become tall foliage for Heavy Gear, while all the 3" and larger trees have gone right into use for Malifaux as the scales are close enough. For Malifaux, I bought some Terraclips sets to get into things right away. But now that I've spent some time getting to play the game, I've started building a table worth of Swamp Terrain.

Don't feel restricted to these questions.

Thanks for your thoughts.

-Panda

Usually, I'm short on funds so pre-made terrain has to have a lot of bang for the buck. I find it especially hard to justify buying terrain if I can come close or match the quality through my own efforts, only paying for materials. I'm much more likely to spend modest amounts of cash on detail items such as barrels/crates, light fixtures and other small decorative items that are annoying for me to mass produce.

Good luck on your unnamed business venture.

-DavicusPrime