OK, so I'm following the Legion information closely, haven't made a decision as to whether I'm in or not. Have seen the GenCon videos, and got to watch the demos and see the stuff at NOVA Open.

And I'm intimidated by the terrain. Yep, it's beautiful. Really adds to the effect. Makes me want to have a basement full of the stuff, if I had the space and time and money. Heck, seeing the terrain boards -- not boards, dioramas -- the LotR guys put together ... stunning is too weak a word.

But ... it looks like such a huge hurdle to get in to that it's turning me away. Where are the scrubs playing on a playmat with some folded cardboard and flat terrain tokens? Is there an easier way other than becoming a master terrain modeler?

At the risk of just plugging myself. I am doing some basic terrain tutorials on youtube. And to do some basic stuff is fairly easy. You can get on the Star Wars Legion terrain group on facebook. There is also 3d printed stuff which will come. I suspect you will see stuff going more on sale as people realise how popular the game seems.

But this (below) basic tatooine building must be like less than £10/$10 with a shed ton of materials left over. Just keep looking and you'll find easy simple stuff.

Hope that helps.

Edit: Sorry how massive this video seems!

15 minutes ago, Hawkstrike said:

But ... it looks like such a huge hurdle to get in to that it's turning me away. Where are the scrubs playing on a playmat with some folded cardboard and flat terrain tokens? Is there an easier way other than becoming a master terrain modeler?

Where are they? Everywhere! You just don't see photos because generally most people take photos of the more elaborate and striking boards.

There is absolutely noting wrong playing with templates to denote forests and other terrain. Literally nothing, and anybody that tells you otherwise is an elitist *sshole.

I love complex terrain, and after years of Infinity am used to quite dense, 3 dimensional boards. But before that I was a high level Warmahordes tournament player for many years. Allow me to post pics of some WM tournament tables from major events:

These aren't outliers....it's normal. The last one was from the Las Vegas Open, a fairly important event.

Uktimately, the idea of e game is for the 2 people playing it to have fun. Some people love including the table and terrain as part of the hobby and get enjoyment from that, and many don't. Both are correct. If you have fun playing using template terrain (which in all honesty is actually far more practical, hence the reason it's so common in WM!), then do that. If you find creating amazing scenery is fun, do that.

You do your hobby the way you enjoy it. There's no need to follow the minority part (even if I'm in that category!) that goes balls out making silly, impractical but awesome looking terrain.

That got a bit rants, sorry. But I hate people beindiscouraged by things they honestly don't need to do

There are some ways to do it.

I lot of money, You can buy anything.

If not, You can buy some cheap printable terrain like this one: http://www.wargamevault.com/product/167915/SciFi-Style-Buildings?affiliate_id=583013

You can also build some nice looking scennery from trash.

4 minutes ago, Extropia said:

Where are they? Everywhere! You just don't see photos because generally most people take photos of the more elaborate and striking boards.

There is absolutely noting wrong playing with templates to denote forests and other terrain. Literally nothing, and anybody that tells you otherwise is an elitist *sshole.

I love complex terrain, and after years of Infinity am used to quite dense, 3 dimensional boards. But before that I was a high level Warmahordes tournament player for many years. Allow me to post pics of some WM tournament tables from major events:

10

As much as I agree with *sshole part, Warmachine has different terrain requirements than Infinity and I have the impression that Legion will be closer to Infinity in that regard.

In Warmahorde You basically cannot play on 3D terrain. It's impractical, because of how models interact with the terrain. But in games with the true line of sight, some 3d terrain needs to be there. But then surely, You will not see FFG convention level of scenery building too often.

3 minutes ago, Bohun242 said:

As much as I agree with *sshole part, Warmachine has different terrain requirements than Infinity and I have the impression that Legion will be closer to Infinity in that regard.

In Warmahorde You basically cannot play on 3D terrain. It's impractical, because of how models interact with the terrain. But in games with the true line of sight, some 3d terrain needs to be there. But then surely, You will not see FFG convention level of scenery building too often.

As Legion has height and climbing, as well as line of sight, and some 3d barricades in the box, all signs point to 3d terrain being fairly important. Nothing wrong with simple proxies (like plain boxes or something) but does seem it will be strongly relevant.

Not needed for anything like forests, rough ground, water or the like though.

5 minutes ago, Extropia said:

Not needed for anything like forests, rough ground, water or the like though.

True. Rough terrain and water are flat anyway.

And the best forest is base template with movable tree or two. Chep way: Artificial Bonsai Tree for 5-6 Euro.

That's how I've always done my forests. Nice, realistic looking stuff on mounted to a base is great....until stuff needs to go in the forest. Oops.

Crates? Look for wood blocks. Barrels? Glue matching bottle tops together. Mount on some Mdf (medium density foam) paint up and flock. Do 2 or 3 each and you have light cover.

Water? Blue felt. Trees? Green felt for boundaries and model trees from railroad sets, or after Christmas sales.

Hills? Use 2 inch foam, drywall spakel, and a box cutter. Trim to shape, coat with spakel, and paint for a hill.

I love building beautiful rocky terrain and buildings, but sometimes you just want something quick and easy, or maybe more transportable. I've used cheap cardboard jewelry boxes spray painted black to great success for modular buildings. Once you start building, just walk around a department store, or better yet a craft store and imagine what you could convert into a structure.

Beasts of War did a really nice terrain making tutorial for Rocks made from Sponges/Foam. Really light yet sturdy enough to be able to stand miniatures on top. Best thing though is that they can be compressed for storage to take up way less space.

You have to be a backstage member to view it (they used to do a free trial period though).

7 hours ago, Bohun242 said:

As much as I agree with *sshole part, Warmachine has different terrain requirements than Infinity and I have the impression that Legion will be closer to Infinity in that regard.

In Warmahorde You basically cannot play on 3D terrain. It's impractical, because of how models interact with the terrain. But in games with the true line of sight, some 3d terrain needs to be there. But then surely, You will not see FFG convention level of scenery building too often.

Hopefully they stay away from true LoS. I've seen too many arguments over the years where someone says they can see a model and their opponent says that they can't. A volume based LoS similar to Warmachine would be a better choice. Once we find out more about terrain and it's effects, then you can see how much 3d terrain you're going to need. And even if it's still restrictive when it comes to structures, there's nothing wrong with having a lot of fights on the forest moon of Endor.

Even with true line of sight, you basically just need to get some obstacles on the table. The game will come with 8 barriers which will get you started. After that, textbooks or other large hardcover books can create hills or other subtle elevation changes (and if you want them to look slightly realistic, you can overlay them with a simple piece of green felt, which is dirt cheap at a local craft or fabric store). Roads and rivers can be black or blue construction paper. Soda cans are classic fuel tanks. Boxes of various sizes are easy buildings.

Basically, just get some stuff on the table to get started. If you want to just keep using that stuff, maybe cover it with felt or a quick layer of spray paint and you can use that stuff for quite some time.

If you're motivated to go beyond that, great, but you don't have to. It is easy to do one piece at a time though. Just stick with the simple stuff and add stuff as you are inspired to make it (or when you find a really cool item for sale). A grove of trees here, a bridge there, and eventually you could have a table that will rival the stuff got see at conventions, but don't feel like you need that.

Just keep your eyes open, many things you encounter in real life make some nice terrain with just a little work.

German, but you should get the idea..

Also search youtube for Dm Scotty, he makes so much just out of cardboard, toilet paper, white glue and a hot glue gun.

On 9/2/2017 at 6:37 AM, Hawkstrike said:

But ... it looks like such a huge hurdle to get in to that it's turning me away. Where are the scrubs playing on a playmat with some folded cardboard and flat terrain tokens? Is there an easier way other than becoming a master terrain modeler?

The game isn't out, so only videos are of the diorama quality stuff made by FFGs contractors and marketing team are out. Once the real game is available you'll see more normal people with real jobs and lives playing with what's available.

If it makes you feel better here something from a game I played years ago with the old WotC minis and WEG rules.

All papercraft, and at the time it was all available free for download. I'm spinning back up so only a new "Tarkin Town Shed" is currently available, but the rest will be brought back up as I get time to revise and clean it up.

Another cheap alternative, is aquarium plants and scenery for a more jungle/forested area.

I will say that back in my days of Warhammer, It was really nice to have a game store with lots of terrain that me and my friend could just pick up and put on out table. This is one of the reasons why games like this are played so much more often at game stores than in people's homes.

I can totally understand many potential players feeling turned off by the 'burden' of building terrain, but consider it optional. Terrain is there to make the gaming experience more immersive and there will even be rules on how certain terrain types effect movement, for example. But you will be able to play the game absolutely fine without terrain and if you feel your table top is looking a little bare, then get one of those printed play mats. Terrain and scenery will add a new dimension to Star Wars gaming from FFG. I think most of this apprehension I'm reading on these boards may come from a generation of players who haven't experienced a 'hobbyist' game like Legion before. Most of us who are old enough will have at some point dabbled with Warhammer, i'm sure. Everything required fiddly assembly, then careful painting, then finally some terrain to play it on. It took a lot of patience and care, but the results were really satisfying.

It saddens me that there is a whole generation of players who have never experienced the panic of spilling acrylic paint on your bedroom carpet, accidentally supergluing your fingers together and cutting yourself on a scalpel, all in the name of gaming. You kids today have grown up with visually stunning Star Wars video games and pre-painted table top games. You haven't lived.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work"

- Thomas Edison

If you don't want to do terrain, then don't, if it is problem. When you go to your local game store there is a good chance they will have some form of terrain for use or someone really into terrain will have some. It is optional.

Also, it sounds like FFG, at the very least, is looking into offering terrain. So just buying it is an option, even if it isn't SW specific.

On 11.9.2017 at 4:30 PM, Ghostofman said:

The game isn't out, so only videos are of the diorama quality stuff made by FFGs contractors and marketing team are out. Once the real game is available you'll see more normal people with real jobs and lives playing with what's available.

Shots fired... ^^

No, seriously... Terrain is nothing you have to worry about if you don't want to. I spent all my Warhammer and most of my Lord of the Rings years without having built a single piece of terrain... The main reason for all the terrain building content around is that people try to channel their hype but don't have any miniatures yet... Most will prioritize playing the game over painting and painting over terrain once they get their core sets.

In the first mage knight match between a friend and me the terrain consisted of fruits and salt and pepper pots

18 minutes ago, JohnnyTrash said:

...The main reason for all the terrain building content around is that people try to channel their hype but don't have any miniatures yet... Most will prioritize playing the game over painting and painting over terrain once they get their core sets.

Exactly why I'm looking into building terrain >.>

I'll be making a post soon on how I made this, but here is something I've been working on this week for an endor map. It cost virtually nothing and it is completely scratch made. Everything you see here totaled less than $20. It's just sawdust, moss, hot glue, paper towel rolls, Elmer's glue, dowels, cardboard (or mdf if you want), and cheap paint. I'm still working on bases.

27 minutes ago, JBar said:

I'll be making a post soon on how I made this, but here is something I've been working on this week for an endor map. It cost virtually nothing and it is completely scratch made. Everything you see here totaled less than $20. It's just sawdust, moss, hot glue, paper towel rolls, Elmer's glue, dowels, cardboard (or mdf if you want), and cheap paint. I'm still working on bases.

I've collected some paper towel rolls for trees but I'm at a loss of where to go with it so really interested to see how this was done. Also curious to know what your bases are made of

45 minutes ago, JBar said:

I'll be making a post soon on how I made this, but here is something I've been working on this week for an endor map. It cost virtually nothing and it is completely scratch made. Everything you see here totaled less than $20. It's just sawdust, moss, hot glue, paper towel rolls, Elmer's glue, dowels, cardboard (or mdf if you want), and cheap paint. I'm still working on bases.

Very cool. I look forward to the details.