Best Terrain for your Army

[ElectricPaladin]

With 6th Edition has come the turn-by-turn terrain system, and with it, the opportunity to lay the terrain to your advantage. I know not everyone uses this system - personally, I prefer it - but I'm sure some of us do. However, given that most of us are good sports and have spent most of our gaming careers setting up "fair" boards, I bet a lot of us don't know how to set up a table to our advantage.

Well, that's got to change.

Let's have a thread about what kind of board set up one should pursue depending on the kind of army. One thing to talk about is faction, of course, but we should also talk about units within each faction. Let's have spirited debate and try to build up to a solid tactica!

[Ghost]

I have never played with the terrain setup rules, so this is all speculation.

Playing my Nids I would go for at large ruin at the center of the board. I try to dominate midfield with Tervigons spawning termagants at least in objective based missions. Have decent cover for the Tervigons makes this easier.

Playing my eldar I would go for large terrain elements on the outskirts of the board because I often play them evasive, trying to circle my opponent while bringing down his numbers from shooting. The terrain pieces would provide cover in the process.

[Wolfshade]

If you wish for a cheese combo, have a tall tower with a roof and chuck in a heavy squad.

The tall tower means that you have great line of sight and makes it harder for you to be assaulted.
The roof is important as it stops those pesky barrage weapons dropping on your head :)

Then with your heavy squad devastators/long fangs, heavy weapon squads etc. you have brilliant range and fields of view.

[Lost Vyper]

Same, high buildings with multiple floors to set up Dark Reapers or Pathfinders...

[Xenith]

With 6th Edition has come the turn-by-turn terrain system, and with it, the opportunity to lay the terrain to your advantage.

Note that this is the secondary method of deploying terrain.

The primary method, and the one that should dominantly be used is the narrative method, as outlined in the BRB.

Obvious examples are putting LOS blocking terrain in the middle if you are an assaulty army, and at the edges if you are a shooty army.

I dont think it gets much more complex than that.

[rtmaitreya]

As Tyranids, you have infinitely available 5+ cover available from Venomthropes, so long as they survive. The most important terrain you can have, therefore, is midrange LOS blocking walls/structures to hide Vs behind, and 4+ ruins to provide BETTER than that protection for your monstrous creatures and genestealers. Woods are superfluous, and should be on the edges, where you don't already have overlap from V coverage.

Buildings are fine, since you can hide units in them, but ok if enemies hide in them as well because your own monstrous creatures pulp buildings quickly and easily (doing about as much damage as if attacking the foe in the open in the process). If you do make your own buildings, have some with large roll up doors so you can hide MCs inside when they need to hold out longer.

See? Plenty of options more than "center good, edge bad".

[Learn2Eel]

As Tyranids, you have infinitely available 5+ cover available from Venomthropes, so long as they survive. The most important terrain you can have, therefore, is midrange LOS blocking walls/structures to hide Vs behind, and 4+ ruins to provide BETTER than that protection for your monstrous creatures and genestealers. Woods are superfluous, and should be on the edges, where you don't already have overlap from V coverage.

Buildings are fine, since you can hide units in them, but ok if enemies hide in them as well because your own monstrous creatures pulp buildings quickly and easily (doing about as much damage as if attacking the foe in the open in the process). If you do make your own buildings, have some with large roll up doors so you can hide MCs inside when they need to hold out longer.

See? Plenty of options more than "center good, edge bad".

Agree with this. Also to note; bubble-wrap a Tervigon with Termagants, give the Tervigon a mobile 5+ cover save. :cool: The same (hilariously) applies to the Trygon as well, given how much of its tail is on the bottom of the base.

[walrusman999]

Being as I mostly play guard, most people would expect me to take tons of buildings to hide in, but since I prefer a mechanized list I actually prefer more open terrain. Sure buildings are nice but I would only put ratlings in it. I also use a few fliers which really eliminates how the terrain is set up for me as I just zoom stuff in then hover for a turn to drop them off and fly off again, all the while laying waste to any and all tanks/artillery they have fielded.

If i had so say what i would prefer for terrain, some hills to provide tanks higher LoS, and to be sure that the objectives get stuck in buildings for my veterans to get the extra cover save from.

[Tynskel]

I don't think termagants will always grant the Tervigon cover... If you can clearly see the target by shooting over the termagants, the termagants don't grant cover.

[Learn2Eel]

Obviously high up targets such as flyers would ignore the Termagants for the purposes of obscuring the Tervigon, but ground units - particularly infantry - won't.

[Tynskel]

If an infantry unit is on any elevated terrain, a 1" hill, they will shoot over the gaunts.

[Learn2Eel]

Why are you being so picky about it? Haha just joking around. It is for when you move between cover, it isn't something to rely on. But it is definitely better than nothing I guess.

[Wolfshade]

I think we are also forgetting a bolstered fortification to house an objective so the unit inside take a lot of getting rid of

[Tynskel]

Why are you being so picky about it? Haha just joking around. It is for when you move between cover, it isn't something to rely on. But it is definitely better than nothing I guess.

Because it is rare to be moving in between cover and the gaunts can screen a monstrous creature.

Also, in most cases a marine with a lascannon/missile launcher has a level ground sees the tervigon clearly.

[Ghost]

I wouldn't claim cover for a Nid monster behind a termagant unit. Put in a layer of hive guards between them and I would happily claim cover for both the hive guard and the tervigon/trygon:)

EDIT: Are Venomthropes common where you guys play? No one fields them in my area. Me neither, mainly because I want the Elite slots for other things.

[rtmaitreya]

I wouldn't claim cover for a Nid monster behind a termagant unit. Put in a layer of hive guards between them and I would happily claim cover for both the hive guard and the tervigon/trygon:)

EDIT: Are Venomthropes common where you guys play? No one fields them in my area. Me neither, mainly because I want the Elite slots for other things.

I don't claim cover for my tervigon behind gribblies. I do when there's something mid-sized though. As for venomthropes, I am one of two common tyranid players here, and I always bring one, so "yeah, kinda" is the right answer. Venomthropes are very much hated by my regular opponents, and it is a super-high value target in almost every game. It makes large units of poisonous crap into very resilient poisonous crap, and that's a problem for just about everyone.

[rpricew]

I typically run 1-2 units of Ymgarl Genestealers in my list, so I like to lead with placing the largest piece of area terrain just over midfield near my opponent's deployment zone. It's my default location just outside their deployment zone, but definitely within striking distance if my opponent tries to deploy on the 24" line. This is a great backup place to hide the Ymgarls in if there isn't enough area terrain in their deployment zone.

I also try to grab a large piece of LOS blocking terrain to put in my deployment zone near the center to hide behind with an objective.

Our gaming group doesn't give Tyranid Monstrous Creatures cover saves from Termagants unless they are right up on the Tervigon. And then it's usually from exceptionally short infantry. ;) We definitely do from mid sized bugs like Hive Guard, Zoanthropes or Gargoyles.

[Ghost]

I typically run 1-2 units of Ymgarl Genestealers in my list, so I like to lead with placing the largest piece of area terrain just over midfield near my opponent's deployment zone. It's my default location just outside their deployment zone, but definitely within striking distance if my opponent tries to deploy on the 24" line. This is a great backup place to hide the Ymgarls in if there isn't enough area terrain in their deployment zone.


Ha - I didn't even consider the consequences of the terrain setup rules when it comes to Y-stealers. That is just crazyness:D