Ideas for Terrain Sets

I've been designing and building sets of terrain for my local game store, Great Escapes Games and it's been a great opportunity and lots of fun.  The only problem is that I've yet to build a set of terrain for use at home.  So, while I work on a Forrest Battle set for the upcoming Contest of Champions, I began work on a set that could be used in 40k.

After some initial sketches and a rough plan for number and size of pieces, I start off the building process by making a test piece.  The one pictured here is near completion with only the windows and door to be detailed.  There aren't any other in progress photos because I didn't think to take any...I'll try not to let that happen any more.  The concept came from Riddly Scott's approach to set design in Blade Runner - Retro Fitting.  I'll have several structures taken from various architectural periods and regions and then muck up the facades with bitz and gubbins.  It'll have an overall Steam/Diesel Punk feel but be well within the scope of W40K.

As for the Forrest Battle set:  I've completed the test piece.  It measures 6" x 9" by 5" tall.  The fallen branch was sculpted out of balsa wood, the broken tree trunk was sculpted from polymer clay. 

Here's a shot of the notes for the set.  As you can see, it's themed around the ruins of a forest encampment. The dimensions indicated are just a rough idea based on 25% table coverage.  After the test piece was done, I'm opting for many smaller pieces of terrain that could be grouped together to form large areas of cover or spread out to allow for more open play.  Smaller pieces, like the  6"x9" test piece, can be inter mixed with the existing terrain so several tables could benefit from the theme.  There will be one or two larger models with multiple levels.











To be updated....

C!nder

1750 Raven Guard vs. the Firewalkers

I've been playing the Tau for almost three years straight now.  There have been other armies: Tyranids, Orks, the odd Vanilla Marine, Dark Eldar (4th edition) and now Blood Angels.  I don't know what the appeal really is.  The army as a whole lacks in several key places even on it's strong points: having access to some really shooty toys as it is hobbled with a poor BS.  In spite of having skimmers and jet packs, they're not nearly as fast or fast enough to outrun assaults which happen to be their weakest point of all even among their so-called "best close combat unit" - the Kroot (which don't even have a save!).  So why play them...like I said, it's hard to say.  I guess it's really the challenge. With the Tau, there is no forgiveness for shoddy tactics.  Strategy is solid and widely accepted:  as many Crisis Suits as you can, the minimum troops anyway you want them and get some rail guns and markerlights in the mix.  Tactics is where it all comes together or falls maddeningly apart.  It's kinda the reward for this army.  You know that if you loose, it won't be because you were faced down with an army that rolls 2+ on everything except it's leadership...it's because your strategy went up table while your tactics loitered in the deployment zone.  I'm not going to talk tactics because I still have some go-to generals that can talk a lot better on the topic.  Just remind you that all the list echoing means nothing if you don't know how to use the units at the right time.  That being said, these five little Shas-Las lasted one turn after their Devilfish was vaporized.   But it was enough to whittle Shrike's Wing down to one.  Ultimately, the game ended with Tau at 8 kill points and Raven Guard at 10.  Not bad for a mission Tau don't play well into and it could have been a draw if I remembered that rail guns ruin SM vehicles quite easily.