Saturday, February 12, 2005

Terrain: One Player's Perspective

Issues involving terrain choice and placement are among the most difficult topics to relate in text as it is a very visual subject. Nevertheless, in this article I'm going to discuss what tiles I personally use and why I use them. The opinions expressed in this article are just that. Opinions. Everyone is welcome to draw their own conclusions and agree or disagree with me as they see fit. What I want to relate in this article is how I view things and why I think they are good/bad, thus the title: "One Player's Perspective".

This article is not meant to be the end all be all of terrain use. There are many facets to this subject that cannot be covered in the size of the article I intend to write and this installment may end up helping some people more then others. Whether you need help on this subject or not, please feel free to read this through and get someone else's viewpoint. Who knows, you may just discover something new you haven't considered before. Now that the explanations are out of the way, lets cut to the chase, and as always, thank you for reading.


Assembly Tiles
Statue Assembly
Rubble Assembly
Assembly 4


Statue Assembly (referred to as Assembly 1 from here onward)

I used this tile exclusively for a long time. It offers a decent amount of cover and allows you to stick your 2-3 heavies (if your band has that number) on the front line. I played lower activation bands for quite a while and this tile works well for that type of band. But with the advent of the Mushroom Tangle, I grew to like this tile less and less as its only exit (only three squares wide and on the map edge) can be hampered a great deal by the rough terrain. While Rubble Room could attempt the same annoyance as the Mushroom Tangle, it couldn't accomplish it nearly as effectively, as large creatures only need to touch two squares of rough terrain to escape and other sized figures easily ignored it. Rubble Room was not enough to make me stop using this tile at that time. But these days, due to Mushroom Tangle, the advent of better assembly tiles, and tile points, I no longer use Assembly 1 as my assembly of choice.

Rubble Assembly (referred to as Assembly 2 from here onward)

I use this tile for my range based bands usually. With the wall set one square into the edge of the tile, you really get the opportunity to spread your band out and hopefully take advantage of line of sight that your opponent wasn't aware of. Its very good for your chances to win if you can nab even just a fodder unit or two off your opponents assembly tile on turn one.

The wall on this tile can provide a decent amount of line of sight obstruction if you need protection from an area of effect or superior ranged power. Another great feature of this tile is that it has two exits. This has two benefits:

1) A Mushroom Tangle (or similar tile) is no longer reliable in slowing you down as you always have a back up exit when you need it.

2) Regardless if you win or lose terrain initiative, you will always have a straight shot out of your assembly tile to your opponents half of the map. This helps out tile grabbing a lot as many of the other assembly tiles are biased in regards to which position they would rather be in (as in they have one position that is a substantially more direct rout to the middle of the map then its other position).

Assembly 4

I use this tile for my bands that are less focused on ranged attacks. It keeps the concepts I liked about Assembly 1 and takes away a lot of the weaknesses. This tile has 5 unblocked squares on its front line and still keeps some wall structure for blocking line of sight to the rear of your band. Mushroom Tangle is still annoying but lessened in power a great deal as you can ignore much of the tile. The main benefit is that it lets you get more tile grabbers on the front line to reach the desired tiles sooner. Granted, its usually only a one or two square improvement, but that could very well be the deciding factor between tile points for the turn or not.


Feature Tiles
Ranged Set
Creeping Tangle
Ancient Temple
Mushroom Tangle


Creeping Tangle

This tile works very well for ranged bands. It's wide open, has rough terrain to stop charges and slow pursuers, and has a statue for hiding creatures. The single wall can be an annoyance at times as well as the single strip of squares on the one side. Due to these two factors I usually place this tile deep into my opponents half of the map to prevent or disrupt line of sight blocks. I usually end up placing it with the wall closer to me (both players sitting on the long sides of the map) and the open part closer to my opponent and near his assembly, eliminating any cover placement near the front of his assembly. This placement really cuts down on the options your opponent has for his first stage of cover and will punish slower bands as now their best option is to rush toward the center of the map to gain cover. A placement like this has the potential to unnerve some opponents and force them into a "panic mode" in an attempt to gain any kind of cover. This favors you a great deal because you need all your wits about you when facing a range based band and may allow you to end the game much more quickly then normal.

Ancient Temple

This tile is very similar to the Creeping Tangle in function but does have some major differences for me. Having the wall on the very edge of the tile allows me to place it directly against the map edge when I need to (usually straight out from my assembly, with the circles being within a single move of my archers). Single moving to the magic circles do two things:

1) The single move may allow you to get a shot off on your opponents assembly through an obscure line of sight your opponent was not aware of.

2) You get to take this shot at +2 (cutting the cover bonus, which the creature most likely has, in half) and ignore DR for those archers that don't have magic damage. If your archer has hide you will most likely negate your targets cover bonus entirely due to the +2 from the circle and the +2 from hide.

The Ancient Temple is also a good tile to place right on the centerline, just on your opponents half of the board, making it viable for tile points while also getting the circle bonuses. I only recommend this against slower bands though as moving toward the center of the map against speedy hitters is akin to suicide and your doing a lot of your opponents work for you.

Mushroom Tangle

This tile is great for ranged based bands because it has no wall structure at all. I usually place this right in the center of the map, straddling the center line. This does two things:

1) It controls the center of the board. The best cover placement, in my opinion, is to place a tile like the Treasure Room or Torture Chamber along the centerline on your opponents half of the map, right in the center of the map. This blocks a substantial amount of line of sight and makes said tile viable for tile points, most likely of the first turn variety. The mushroom tangle prevents this when placed in the manner I stated. This relies a great deal on winning terrain initiative so if you wish to employ this tactic make sure you have a high commander rating in your band.

2) If the Mushroom Tangle is not surrounded by other tiles it could very likely force your opponent to burn a few extra squares just to go around it. Even just one or two squares can mean the difference between life and death for an archer.



Non Ranged Set
Treasure Room
Torture Chamber
Corridor


Treasure Room

This is the best tile for blocking line of sight in my opinion. The wall structure on all sides of this tile can really hamper range based bands and can help create alley ways (in conjunction with other wall intensive tiles) for large figures to hole up in and turtle. The way wall intensive tiles are set up usually dictates where the major clash of the game will take place and this can allow you to force your opponent into unfavorable situations based on their skill to spot such a ruse.

The two small openings in this tile make it great for spring boarding off of. You get in and then get out. Placed in the center of the board, as stated earlier, can provide you with tile points and cover against those dreaded HEBI and Gauth bands while putting you that much closer to basing and eliminating ranged threats.

Torture Chamber

This tile is less powerful then the Treasure room (but not by much) due to the wider opening on one side granting less cover. It's still a great tile for blocking line of sight and has almost all of the same benefits of the Treasure Room. The two small openings on one long side make it more accessible for a straight on shot for tile points unlike the Treasure Room where you may have to move a couple more squares to land on it.

A center-of-the-map Treasure Room usually works better (I have found) with its short sides parallel with the long sides of the map and a center-of-the-map Torture Chamber usually works better with its long sides parallel with the long sides of the map due to its difference in opening sizes and number. I hope that makes sense lol.

Corridor

Another great tile for blocking line of sight. This tile can let you hide and spring board better then a Treasure Room or Torture Chamber because there are far more options for entering and exiting but there are more options for line of sight to reach into it depending on how you use the tile. The single row of squares on the one side can allow you to get the Corridor one square closer to the edge of the map then a heavily walled tile usually can go. The two square cubby hole is great for fodder pieces to hide in while getting tile points.


Conclusion

I hope this article was informative and helped you see some of the finer points of tile placement such as warband interaction. As I stated before this is a very large subject and I know I only scratched the surface of some concepts but my goal was to explain what I used and how I used it. In the future I plan on tackling the colossal task of investigating tiles, tile placement and warband interaction.