I have decided that I need tutoring for terrain placement. The armies that I build are sound, my tactics work ok (the armies are built around my tactics), but I find that my opponents tend to get more use out of my terrain placement than I do.:rolleyes:

Weather it's blocking, hindering or water, I can't seem to figure out the best place to put things. If I put stuff close to my starting area, I bog myself down. If I put stuff in front of my opponents starting area (in hopes to bog him down) he gets tremendous defense out of it.

When I put stuff in the middle, either my opponent gets to it first, or he positions himself that my terrain becomes pointless and never used.

Is there a formula that I should employ? Something like "movement less then 10 put hindering terrain close to home".

I've obviously let this achielies heel daunt me far too long and would like some pointers in the art of terrain placement.

Pleeeaassee:D

What I tend to do Is First off Set any Hindering at the Exact maximum movement of the slowest stealth pieces movement (Generally 8 inches away) As for Blocking It depends on what i'm fielding hope i was helpful

Thanks, Kaos, it's a start.

I'm hoping to see some rules of thumb from other realmers and maybe a whole article devoted to terrain placement. It seems that my terrain placement is my weakest skill.

I dont feel there is any hard set rules for terrain placement. There are a lot of factors to take in:

Your army design
Opponents army
Your play style
Your opponents terrain pool
Your opponents terrain placement
Your opponents play style

Its more of a guessing game than a science.

I have been pretty successful in using terrain in tournaments. I will try to come up with some ideas and post them in a thread on here. Keep an eye out for it.

I think the biggest factor in terrain choice/placement is what kind of army you're playing. I won my first tournament with a Magus army, and the whole reason I won by so much was because of my terrain. I used Curtain Walls, and nothing else. I have been using my Hill Giant with Curtain Walls too, and that hasn't gone so well for me as of yet. It's because a better choice is low walls or some kind of hindering terrain. That way my opponent doesn't get to hide behind them and gang up on me more.

It's all about what kind of army you have, and if your terrain complements your army, you should be able to take much better advantage of it no matter where it's placed.

I believe 42up did a large post on terrain. i would run a search for it.

terrain placing depends on your army and your opponents army if you army is made up of blasters use blocking if you army is made up of stealth figs use hindering. your terraing varies if you opponent uses the same type or an all flying army. it really depends.

I don't have trouble picking terrain (if I didn't understand the value of terrain types, I wouldn't be able to build viable armies). My problem is geographical placement of terrian. I never seem to put the terrain in the right place to help me most and my opponent least.

A good guideline I use is before the game starts have all the terrain from both players pool set off to the side. I then ask a few questions of my self:

I stop and look at my opponents army and mine and decide who wants to get close to each other first and If I want to get close or not. (ie I have range, opponent is melee, he wants to base me first)

Next I decide if my opponent can use terrain to get close to disrupt my strategy. (example: he can use blocking walls to block my ranged attacks)

Next I decide if I can use terrain to disrupt my oppnents strategy (example: I can use deep water to keep them away but fire over)

Next I decide if I want to fight a cluttered battle with restricted movements or in the open where I have room to manuver. Which is more to my advantage?

After determining these answers I can now decide how I want to lay terrain.

Common tactics I use:

the Feint- I place both my terrain, 1 close to a side and 1 in the middle but closer to the same side where it looks like I will run and hide or choose to fight from. They will then place theirs to minamize the effect of mine. I then move the battle to the far side effectively negating all the terrain.

You can't touch me funnel-
I place 2 pieces of Deep water 1/3rd of the way out with only a gap between. This allows me to use bounders to still run out and fight them, but stay back where a melee army must disrupt their movement to come through and stay and stop in my firing arc.

The clutter- If they are using something big like a chariot or Stone throwers, I try to clutter the area where the fight is most likely going to take place (by me if a chariot, by them if a stonethrower) with deep water so that once the battle starts, they can't move effectively to respond to my threats.

The SafeHouse - I learned this from the only player to beat me during the swiss rounds at nationals. It single handly won him the game. when playing a Magic lev army, Place 1 blocking curtain wall in the corner angled so that the corner is a fort with only a 3" gap on each side. Force the fight to take place so that you are only 15" or so inches from that corner. Once a figure of yours gets heavily wounded, use ML to fling him away into the fort saving you from losing the points for him. In a timed game they most likely will not have the time to charge over to the fort and kill those figs. I had his whole army demoralized or wounded, but most made it to the fort keeping me from getting the points before the game ended.

Machine gun nest- this is a nasty tactic if your opponent has an army with less points than you (example your army is 300 theres is 299) Since they have to come at you, you can prepare the battle field where the battle takes place. Place a curtain wall or blocking a few inches out from your starting area, and put a river bend a few inches in front of it. leave enough room for your whole army to fit in with a gap in the middle for the wounded to retreat back away from danger but still protected from attacks by terrain and figure bases. Once they charge the nest, fight them, but when something gets badly wounded, retreat it back in the middle where nothing can get to him. This is a tough location to crack with out superior range.

The Secret Weapon- This is a when you really have no idea how to fight your opponents army because he is using something you have never played against. Your best bet is to count the number of good ranged figs they have and compare it to yours. If the number is higher place blocking in a slanted tunnel about 10 inches from your start area like this:

......___________......
............._________

this cuts down your range and gives you a way to seperate the battlefield. The tunnel is great for protecting vulnerable figs from range.

Against a melee based army, use 2 river bends to make a nest about 1/3rd the way out on the board. Stay back from it and force the opponent to have to come around it by keeping moving your army at an angle keeping the terrain between you and them. It will slow them and force them to split their forces and come around both sides or else allow you to angle around again and put the terrain between you and them again. Once they split, attack one side of their forces heavily and tie up the other with a few harrassers. The concetrated power of all your attackers versus half of theirs should allow you to mop them up quickly.


Most of these tactics are for ranged armies, but will work for most any kind. Thanks for reading!

Brad

Thanks bshugg,
that was some information that I can really use. I like the fort idea. I might levitate a technomancer and a healer into the fort and turn it into a hospital. :D