Using the third dimension

By Hawkstrike, in Star Wars: Legion

Checking out some cool new landing pad prototypes at Imperial Terrain while at Adepticon got me wondering: how do you get the most out of the third dimension in this game?

Sure, there are rules for climbing and clambering. But there are no bonuses or penalties for holding higher/lower ground or shooting up or down. With only six turns, taking time to climb probably means not going over big obstacles.

So how do you make use of heights more interesting? What terrain, what placement, and what tactics best bring three dimensions into play?

I'm thinking Halo type multi level platforms. I picked up 2 old Fisher Price gas station/parking garage elevator play sets. I think they will be fun.

I could see heights giving some kind of advantage against lower level targets like a single re-roll on attack and when defending (in addition to cover if they have cover too). But wouldn't work against anything at equal or taller height (at st and airspeeders wouldn't care about height)

2 minutes ago, Oberron said:

I could see heights giving some kind of advantage against lower level targets like a single re-roll on attack and when defending (in addition to cover if they have cover too). But wouldn't work against anything at equal or taller height (at st and airspeeders wouldn't care about height)

If in Cover is partly determined by the proportion of the miniature which is visible, no?

Also, with height comes better sight lines.

Yeah high ground will give you a better view of the battlefield, thats a pretty good advantage and reason enough to get up there!

Depending on table layout, terrain might also be restricting unit movement a lot so clambering can become very important since you lose a lot of time climbing safely. A valley kind of board with big platform style hills can really make grappling hooks and similar abilities very useful!

Put the good cover (barricades, etc) on terrain, or place the objective tokens there, or have many enough and large enough terrain pieces that not using vertical movement really impedes how you can move around.

So what might be good types or mixes of terrain to introduce good height options - especially if flexible or repositionable?

Link pictures for examples if you have them. I’m trying to figure out what I should be considering building having just done some of my first-ever wargaming terrain.

1 hour ago, Hawkstrike said:

So what might be good types or mixes of terrain to introduce good height options - especially if flexible or repositionable?

Link pictures for examples if you have them. I’m trying to figure out what I should be considering building having just done some of my first-ever wargaming terrain.

Here is a picture of a very simple small hill/elevation. I was thinking something wider and higher but its a good view of the concept! If you make it higher then the standard models it counts as impassable terrain and requires a climb or clamber to move up onto. Then make it wide enough to house some barricades or maybe even a bunker or similar.

Also, depending on deployment and table setup you might have objectives ending up on top of terrain like this making it absolutely essential to get up and stay there!

5f6217147b89c687ee4bb9520b4753ad--foam-c

This one is styrofoam cut and shaped and glued together, cheap simple and quick!

May I also suggest you visit "TheTerrainTutor" and "Lukes APS" on YouTube, they both have a wide range of very good tutorial and informative videos on making terrain. Dont be intimidated by their work, they are super good at what they do so everything they touch looks amazing, but they both have many tutorials that is great for beginners and also tips on how to keep costs down and whatnot!

Building terrain has almost become more fun for me then painting minis but it tend to be a good bit messier so I do it seldom :D

Edited by Soulless

yeah, flat cliff-like stuff would be best.

Issue with height and Legion is they treat Height1 as 6" off the ground. Thats REALLY high for tabletops, so anything more than the mini height all the way to 6" is 1 height.
Getting terrain higher than that is almost impossible without being cumbersome or clunky. Fortunately, Legion is small units so it might be easier than say 40k.

15 hours ago, Hawkstrike said:

So what might be good types or mixes of terrain to introduce good height options - especially if flexible or repositionable?

Link pictures for examples if you have them. I’m trying to figure out what I should be considering building having just done some of my first-ever wargaming terrain.

Here is some terrain I've done for my FLGS, hoth style terrain with a cave/echo base when it is done.

https://imgur.com/gallery/QMpIz

......the THIRD dimension!!......