This question comes off the back of several recent conversations I will admit.
You see – I am TO for the largest singles 40k event in Western Australia’s history of 40k events. There are very high expectations of the event, not just from players but myself as well! There is nothing quite like playing on a fully themed table of terrain and it even better when the board is suitable for actual play rather than as a giant diorama!
The biggest complaint I have heard (and voiced myself on occasion!) is about terrain at events. The complaints are always about the same things
There’s not enough light of sight blocking terrain!
There’s not enough terrain on the table!
The terrain is not practical to use!
They are probably the 3 most common I have heard and I think its important to address them as a TO to your players.
Line of Sight Blockers
This is important in 7th ed 40k for sure. The shooting phase is often labelled king of the game and I am convinced that the lack of good line of sight blockers is the reason on most boards. In my opinion, 2 or 3 large, solid pieces that are placed evenly across the table should help those assault forces and give them a fighting chance to do what they do. Its not like these are hard to build either! You can go the easy was and buy GW terrain like the bastion or a cities of death building or spend far less and grab a slab of 50mm foam, layer it up and cut it into pillars of rock – these work just as well because they are solid and you can make them as large or small as you please.
Practicality
Lovely looking terrain is not always practical. Your models need to be able to move about inside the terrain and have space to be placed. This might mean that you need to tone down the grand ideas and details to keep it usable. Trees being removable from their bases is a classic and simple thing to do. Keeping the bases of terrain roughly level and even is always a good thing to avoid wobbly models as well as making it easier to measure within it. I actually advocate for keeping ruins as free standing structures without bases these days as it makes interacting with them much easier on the table.
Volume
How much terrain is enough is what brought us to this post so how much is it? For me – I am aiming for approximately 1/3 of the table covered in terrain. That’s a 2 foot by 4 foot space! Lets use a practical example… a board I am working on right now!
Ok – lets asses it. Please forgive the more than shoddy picture!
Its a 2×4 piece of board I have here – its going to be used on one of the lovely F.A.T mats from frontline gaming – specifically, the Barren Wasteland as I intend to really weather this terrain like its been run down and neglected as part of an old war.
So what do we have in the picture? We have a bastion and the aquilla strong point – both large solid objects that block line of sight very well. We have an imperial bunker and the firestorm redoubt which, while having a smaller profile, still block line of sight as well. All 4 of these items also add variation in elevation for the table which is important as well. We have 2 groves of dead trees and 4 craters which add some much needed ‘area’ terrain for cover saves while not blocking line of sight. We have a few sections from the wall of martyrs sets to add some solid cover which will give most tanks a cover save as well as come cool trench style fighting options. We then have a bunch of what I call scatter terrain – pipes, low walls and debris. Some of this is old forgeworld kits and some is from the honoured imperium set.
The board its all sat on is a 2×4 section of the table it will go on so I have met that criteria as well. While there is some space in between the terrain itself, we still have a significant amount to spread around the board. We need open spaces to some degree to allow movement and deployment to take place as well as engagements to occur. Despite what the internet thinks – not all assaults happen into difficult terrain!
Do you think this is enough terrain? Have you played on planet bowling ball? Would you like to see this painted? Let me know!