So I was reading the aforementioned article and everything was going great, until they got to terrain. Something just doesn't sit right with me about having certain terrain pieces that you can place. I'd rather be able to set up the terrain then choose deployments. What do y'all think?

Can you elaborate? Placing terrain is kinda standard for historical ancients* and the rank & file fantasy games that followed.

Some place more, some less, some shift around the pieces after placement, some specify positions or table quarters, but they all have players laying down terrain.

*outside of specific battle reenactments, of course.

Players take turn to place terrain, so it isn't as if one player gets the advantage of setting up all the terrain to his benefit.

The thing that stuck out to me is that it looks like the terrain will be largely limited to the "official" templates similar to X-wing asteroids. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but the statement: " Terrain cards are revealed at random for defensive terrain and dangerous terrain " seems to indicate that there will be like a card for "Spikes," a card for "Pond," and a card for "Forest" that you have to deploy.

The cool thing about that is that the terrain features could actually become a very meaningful element of the game, with specific and fun rulesets. This has the potential to have some interesting battlefield effects.

The not so cool thing is that the terrain choices will likely be very limited and make the battles a good bit less thematic and realistic. Just a lot more "gamey" than I was hoping for.

The not so cool thing is that the terrain choices will likely be very limited and make the battles a good bit less thematic and realistic. Just a lot more "gamey" than I was hoping for.

For awhile, but I can see a 'Darquan March Campaign Terrain Pack I' as a product down the line.

The thing that stuck out to me is that it looks like the terrain will be largely limited to the "official" templates similar to X-wing asteroids. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but the statement: " Terrain cards are revealed at random for defensive terrain and dangerous terrain " seems to indicate that there will be like a card for "Spikes," a card for "Pond," and a card for "Forest" that you have to deploy.

The cool thing about that is that the terrain features could actually become a very meaningful element of the game, with specific and fun rulesets. This has the potential to have some interesting battlefield effects.

The not so cool thing is that the terrain choices will likely be very limited and make the battles a good bit less thematic and realistic. Just a lot more "gamey" than I was hoping for.

It might depend on how many there are in the core set. After seeing so many of the same obstacles in Armada/X-Wing, the change to a randomized pool of cards is actually exciting to me. The great thing is how easy it can be to add more in expansions. An actual terrain expansion, even a sort of mini-expansion like Corellian Conflict that doesn't add new figures, would be an instant buy for me.

Dear FFG, make a fallen golem terrain card or other such fun stuff.

For those keeping track, we have seen 3 terrain templates so far:

Spikes (dangerous)

Forest (defensive)

Swamp (?)

For those keeping track, we have seen 3 terrain templates so far:

Spikes (dangerous)

Forest (defensive)

Swamp (?)

I'm going to guess...

Swamp (impeding)

For those keeping track, we have seen 3 terrain templates so far:

Spikes (dangerous)

Forest (defensive)

Swamp (?)

I'm going to guess...

Swamp (impeding)

He meant category. I'm going to guess defensive just because of the movement penalty, although maybe they will do something different than every other swamp in miniature gaming. Hmm, the basic card Head-to-Head has two dangerous pieces. I also wonder if dangerous pieces will be typically smaller than defensive ones.

For those keeping track, we have seen 3 terrain templates so far:

Spikes (dangerous)

Forest (defensive)

Swamp (?)

I'm going to guess...

Swamp (impeding)

I'm going to guess swamps will count as dangerous terrain as the symbol for dangerous terrain is a mountain top.

I do hope we can extend the terrain to get some interesting rules. Hell Dorado was great for that, with really tactical terrains that could confer bonuses or dangers, and sometimes both, in a very thematic way for each battleground / scenario. Also, I hope we can use our current and home-made terrain pieces as I've gotten some nice ones over the years

I am pretty sure that there will be some campaign mode at some time. maybe will it be included in the core set, who knows ? I take all they say about their game as part of the skirmish part of it. Don't know if my point of view is relevant as I am not a rank and files gamer that much but nothing does seem to prevent you to build your own customized battlefield with a fluff aspect and so on... and if it is not in the rules then many players will tweak it to be able to do what they want ;-)

14 hours ago, Corto said:

I do hope we can extend the terrain to get some interesting rules. Hell Dorado was great for that, with really tactical terrains that could confer bonuses or dangers, and sometimes both, in a very thematic way for each battleground / scenario. Also, I hope we can use our current and home-made terrain pieces as I've gotten some nice ones over the years

You could probably get away with it. Just use your terrain with the effects of whatever card came up, using common sense. For example, using a custom ruin in place of a forest.

14 hours ago, Elrad said:

nothing does seem to prevent you to build your own customized battlefield with a fluff aspect and so on... and if it is not in the rules then many players will tweak it to be able to do what they want ;-)

In the beasts of War demo the guy said there would be rules for custom terrain.

And I've been ninja'd.

They mentioned in GenCon videos that custom terrain was not something they planned to produce but it was something they planned to encourage. Supposedly there are rules at the end of the rule book that explain how to use custom terrain. Of course, those probably won't be usable for official tournaments.

I wonder, though. What if someone made a 3D terrain piece that had the same footprint as the cardboard terrain. Would those be legal? The issue is that you cannot physically overlap a 3D terrain piece, but you can totally overlap cardboard. I wonder how this will all work out.

12 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

And I've been ninja'd.

They mentioned in GenCon videos that custom terrain was not something they planned to produce but it was something they planned to encourage. Supposedly there are rules at the end of the rule book that explain how to use custom terrain. Of course, those probably won't be usable for official tournaments.

I wonder, though. What if someone made a 3D terrain piece that had the same footprint as the cardboard terrain. Would those be legal? The issue is that you cannot physically overlap a 3D terrain piece, but you can totally overlap cardboard. I wonder how this will all work out.

Why not use both? Put out the basic cardboard terrain first, then put the 3d piece over it. When an issue would arise because of the 3d nature (i.e. a unit moves into it), just remove it temporarily until that issue ceases. It could also serve as a handy reference.

26 minutes ago, Kubernes said:

Why not use both? Put out the basic cardboard terrain first, then put the 3d piece over it. When an issue would arise because of the 3d nature (i.e. a unit moves into it), just remove it temporarily until that issue ceases. It could also serve as a handy reference.

That is a level of genius that will force me to make 3D terrain after originally believing it to get too much in the way for movement.

It's actually not too bad with 3D terrain. Your units don't overlap terrain pieces, they stop when they contact the edge, then If it's possible to occupy, you just remove the unit from the board and leave one figure on the terrain piece to mark that the unit is in it.

6 hours ago, Budgernaut said:

They mentioned in GenCon videos that custom terrain was not something they planned to produce

Hey Budgernaut,

can you clarify me what they call "custom terrains" does it mean that they won't produce any flat terrain tiles in the future or just that they won't produce like 3D terrains ? This seems evident but I am not too sure about that.

4 hours ago, Elrad said:

Hey Budgernaut,

can you clarify me what they call "custom terrains" does it mean that they won't produce any flat terrain tiles in the future or just that they won't produce like 3D terrains ? This seems evident but I am not too sure about that.

My Impression was that they had no plans to produce 3D terrain to sell, but I don't remember the exact wording.

36 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

My Impression was that they had no plans to produce 3D terrain to sell, but I don't remember the exact wording.

With all the companies making 3d terrain I feel like they don't NEED to make their own terrain, once the game is out and the templates are out I'm willing to bet companies are going to jump on making matching 3d terrain corresponding to the released templates. and also this will work well since once you hit a piece of terrain you can just remove the 3d for the template for ease of movement. Just my opinion though since i remember getting annoyed at navigating building and forests in WHF.

12 hours ago, Budgernaut said:

And I've been ninja'd.

They mentioned in GenCon videos that custom terrain was not something they planned to produce but it was something they planned to encourage. Supposedly there are rules at the end of the rule book that explain how to use custom terrain. Of course, those probably won't be usable for official tournaments.

I wonder, though. What if someone made a 3D terrain piece that had the same footprint as the cardboard terrain. Would those be legal? The issue is that you cannot physically overlap a 3D terrain piece, but you can totally overlap cardboard. I wonder how this will all work out.

I've seen a lot of people do this in x-wing and it works pretty nicely.

39 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

I've seen a lot of people do this in x-wing and it works pretty nicely.

I've done it and it does work well. Although it's often easier to just bring the cardboard to the LGS.

On 24/01/2017 at 3:01 AM, Oloh said:

For those keeping track, we have seen 3 terrain templates so far:

Spikes (dangerous)

Forest (defensive)

Swamp (?)

I think ruins are also confirmed. In the Beasts of War demo he said there would be rules for custom terrain such as ruins.

Perhaps they will offer a bonus to magic based units, such as the crystal spires done in Battlelore if I recall.

5 hours ago, Budgernaut said:

My Impression was that they had no plans to produce 3D terrain to sell, but I don't remember the exact wording.

Thanks for your answer

I feel reassured. I thought they would not produce any terrain template at all in the future... would kill nearly instantly any player ready for a mid-long term investment... I mean, I am not the kind of manual worker and no one never thought me how to create 3D terrains. Yeah, there are a lot of tutorials all over the web, but still... I am not the kind of player ready to spend an entire afternoon to build up a diorama for my games : no space and no time...