To absolutely no-one's surprise, I've set up an urban-themed table and I decided as all the miniatures are to be painted (painted miniatures should gain Preferred Enemy over un-painted miniatures, dammit!), all the terrain ought to be painted as well. When setting up a city, I generally start by laying down a crossed section of road at a diagonal to the long edges of the table, place a series of buildings in the intersections, then lay out the next section of roads to form city blocks. Another set of buildings followed bu more roads, etc. until the table is sufficiently covered. Similarly when I use rivers or hills, they are always placed first, followed by roads, then buildings - this helps to ensure that the table looks 'organic',
I find the diagonal set up not only breaks up sight lines across the table, but also ends up giving the impression that it's just a section of a larger city. I brought out a few buildings that I haven't used in a while - mostly pieces we use for Necromunda. Bless those old plastic bulkheads! I also like to include several levels of cover. For the game on Saturday, the intact buildings will provide a 3+ save, the ruined buildings 4+, and the craters 5+. There are also some smaller barricades which provide a 6+ save but are destroyed if moved over by any vehicle. I have a further set of craters I'm hoping to have painted by Saturday to represent my vehicles as they are inevitably destroyed.
I like to include some little humorous decorative bits to the tables, and I would imagine that Slurm would fit right in to the 40k universe. Of course, the Ordo Xenos may have some issues with their production methods...
Table looks damn good!!
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that you guys play with variable cover saves as well, we started out that way but the ork player decided to read the rulebook and decided that every bit of area terrain out side of the bunkers was 4+.
I tend to agree that craters and stuff should be 5+.
It doesn't help him with my Thunderfire cannons anyway though!
wow what a table. What I wouldnt give for the space for my own table!
ReplyDeleteLOVE IT!!! What are the bunker things?
ReplyDeleteMmmmm Slurm!
ReplyDeleteAwesome table. Usually most urban tables are just a few buildings thrown on there without any though, and it bugs the hell out of me. Nice to see someone who actually cares about making a slice of city.
Thanks folks!
ReplyDelete@Red - Indeed, I think that having multiple levels of cover adds a bit to the strategic aspect of the game; "Does this squad run to get into the heavy cover, or rely on the 6+ barricade and pump out some shots this turn?"
@Musings of a Smurf - I'm definitely lucky to have a hobby loft that will hold an 8'x4' table (barely), however storing all the terrain is definitely a challenge. I'm always thinking how it would be awesome to do a bunch of 2'x2' tile sections ala Brian's Killzone tables, but there's no way I could store them. The Closet of Doom is big, but not THAT big!
@DimmyK - The intact bunker-looking buildings are fairly simple multi-level foamcore constructs. The interiors are quasi-decorated with tile floors and elevators, and the levels are held together with rare-earth magnets to keep them from toppling over during the games and yet still allow for easy access to the interiors. I'll try to get some pictures of the insides during the game.
@#2501 - I agree! The 'mirrored terrain' look, while ensuring that neither opponent has a particular cover advantage, tends to look very static and unrealistic. I much prefer to build the tables such that they make sense as a real-world location. ...So long as it's an urban location. Hey, it's what I have. :)