Friday, May 27, 2011

How much terrain is too much?

o/

So? What's the answer to that question? The photo at right is my game table as it looks now (and soon to be the sight of a gun-line IG vs. renegade gun-line IG slug fest). This is the amount of terrain I prefer, and what you see just gets rearranged periodically. It seems like a fair amount of terrain and I prefer terrain to be a bit more dense than what is generally encountered @ game shops. I want it to look like a battlefield, not a game table with the random allotment of terrain scattered about with little to no thought.

This really hasn't been an issue except that lately I've been facing Nids on a regular basis, and despite what 'teh interwebz' insist, that the Nids suck, they've been giving me a hellova time! One factor that the Hive mind has frequently mentioned is the amount of terrain I have. Most game shops seem to have their terrain doled out rather sparsely, and the lack of cover is what he insists is benefiting his army.

Its kinda hard to compare as our FLGS' city table is on par with mine (just with bigger buildings), while their desert table is quite literally, a desolate wasteland with minimal cover. Nids however are a rarity @ the FLGS.

So is terrain my problem with nids? I generally play 'fluffier' lists, but the nids aren't exactly optimized either (well, maybe not...), however running a 2 v 1 game with the '2' being a Nids/Vraks renegades in a split force org, not even (according once again to 'teh interwebz') the vaunted Space Wolves and their death star unit could stand up to them (and the Vraks shooting was less than stellar).

So what the hell?

9 comments:

Mordian7th said...

I'm a "more is better" sort of person, and really tend to go for a lot of terrain, as that makes the game more about maneuver and sight lines than it is about mathhammering someone to death across an open field. In fact my usual method is to build the table then pull off a piece or two to allow vehicles and such room to maneuver. I like the look of the table that you've shown, especially the road section underneath it all (where is that from?), but honestly, that table is what I'd consider 'a bit sparse'. Looks great though!

Da Masta Cheef said...

When city fight was released the second time around, GW had a city fight mat to lay over the game table on a limited release. I was lucky enough to get one of them.

That's just it though, it looks a lot busier than it is as there's not just a black black/green/whatever board underneath. It doesn't seem like 'too much' too me, but admittedly its a lot more than I see on a lot of tables pictured online. I'd like it to be almost/if not on par with an actual city fight table.

And thanks as always!

neverness said...

I think your table is pretty much prefect man. It's not so packed to make big units (my squad of 30 orks comes to mind)unplayable in that they get stuck in a press of green between the buildings and it's not so open that every unit on the table can target them as soon as they step 6" into the field. You have a balanced board! If the hivemind wants to over-run and consume your world, well, they'll have to fight for it! I highly doubt the Hivemind cancels invasions due to leg room! Case in point, look at Charlie's board. we tend to pack scenery onto it, and sometimes we'll mix it with a packed city section on one side, a crumbled military section on the other, with open 'kill zones' sprinkled throughout it. Regardless, his hivemind doesn't blink and will consume all in it's way! Too much scenery becomes annoying with smaller, shootier armies that can position themselves in tight cover and snipe you into oblivion...

Da Masta Cheef said...

So it's not the terrain then? Hmm....well, last week when i got tabled, i did say that the gloves were coming off...

War Frog said...

I think that you table is a good amount of terrain. I like to see around 1/3 to 1/2 of the table covered. For me when I first started doing terrain i would place it all on one end butted up next to the next piece to get a feel for how much surface area was consumed. Eventually I got better at judging what would work and still be fun to play on. My bugs love it and so does my eldar. No one wants to be tabled because of sparse terrain. If we did we would play napoleonics or US civil war miniatures. Having played Nids on the above mentioned FLGS desert board I can definately say it is to sparse. Thats also why I carry my own terrain to the shops, since I began collecting terrain back in 2nd ed

CreativeName said...

I've played on this table before....

Da Masta Cheef said...

You have huh and you live in Murfreesboro?

Hmmm....

neverness said...

BTW, I watched a Cities of Death Battlemat (the one you see on Cheef's table) go for about $45 on ebay. The scarcity of this maybe a bigger challenge then price (I really thought it would go for more considering what I've seen GW rarities go for...). I don't think many people know this even exists!

Da Masta Cheef said...

Hmmm, that's probably close to what I had paid for it, don't remember what it was to be honest though.