I'm curious on the community thoughts on defining terrain at tournaments.

I've gotten used to playing in TTS (yay invader league) and everything is predefined. This thing offers X cover to models Y height and below. This thing is open/difficult/impassable to this type of unit and so on.

So, in meatspace tournaments is it more common for the TOs to define what's what on a table to maintain consistency across matches and save time or is it still common practice for each pairing to take time at the start of each match to define what is light, what is heavy and so on?

21 minutes ago, Zrob314 said:

I'm curious on the community thoughts on defining terrain at tournaments.

I've gotten used to playing in TTS (yay invader league) and everything is predefined. This thing offers X cover to models Y height and below. This thing is open/difficult/impassable to this type of unit and so on.

So, in meatspace tournaments is it more common for the TOs to define what's what on a table to maintain consistency across matches and save time or is it still common practice for each pairing to take time at the start of each match to define what is light, what is heavy and so on?

We made terrain cards at LVO and Adepticon - saved a bunch of time to give some definitions to the players as they rolled up to the tables!

I've done it both ways, with suggested terrain value cards, as well as it being completely open. I prefer having the option to discuss things with my opponent over everything being decided before hand.

Take the time to talk with your opponent. This building is heavy, that bush is light, and this weird thingy with a platform is an elevator. Helps make the game feel less video gamey, and more interative. Also lets you play things a bit differently than someone else would, and thus customizies the experience.

36 minutes ago, Alpha17 said:

I've done it both ways, with suggested terrain value cards, as well as it being completely open. I prefer having the option to discuss things with my opponent over everything being decided before hand.

Take the time to talk with your opponent. This building is heavy, that bush is light, and this weird thingy with a platform is an elevator. Helps make the game feel less video gamey, and more interative. Also lets you play things a bit differently than someone else would, and thus customizies the experience.

I'm thinking that's fine for a regular game, but it seriously eats in to tournament time.

I think it could also skew results because different players will play the same table but things will operate differently.

15 minutes ago, Zrob314 said:

I'm thinking that's fine for a regular game, but it seriously eats in to tournament time.

I think it could also skew results because different players will play the same table but things will operate differently.

It takes 2-3 minutes, max, and likely no more time than to read a list of assigned values and figure out what they correspond to on the battlefield.

And it might skew results, but not in any serious way; dice variance will have a far larger impact. And besides, what difference does it matter if the same tables are played differently? Tables don't factor into SoS nor standings. Larger tournaments feature a dozen or more tables, and only a handful of rounds, so most people won't play on all of the tables, or even half of them. Slightly different stats on the same table are small fries compared to that.

5 minutes ago, Alpha17 said:

It takes 2-3 minutes, max, and likely no more time than to read a list of assigned values and figure out what they correspond to on the battlefield.

And it might skew results, but not in any serious way; dice variance will have a far larger impact. And besides, what difference does it matter if the same tables are played differently? Tables don't factor into SoS nor standings. Larger tournaments feature a dozen or more tables, and only a handful of rounds, so most people won't play on all of the tables, or even half of them. Slightly different stats on the same table are small fries compared to that.

Honestly, I've never seen it take more than 30 seconds.

8 hours ago, arnoldrew said:

Honestly, I've never seen it take more than 30 seconds.

It can take that long, but it can also lend itself to boring tables.
I'm trying to build more dynamic tables and hopefully encourage players to use the terrain more than just walking around it.

I also want to address things like "well this section of wall has a bunch of crates next to it, can I use that as difficult terrain rather than clambering if I start in base contact?" There was also a thing they did in Invader league this season where ladders gave units scale if they started a move in base contact. That's pretty cool imho. Many players forget about that stuff in the beginning and it only comes up in game when it's likely to be a problem.

@TalkPolite how big were the cards?

Not too large - we just took an excel doc, printed it, and laminated it. Each section was maybe 1/3 or 1/4 a page

The biggest beneficiary of this system is the poor TO/Judge that has to run around and make calls during the first 15 minutes or so of a match. Most just calls are in the first 20, or last 20 minutes of gameplay. It solves a lot of issues up from and we’ll be doing it again at LVO and adepticon.