What exactly is 'our' terrain?

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ArchMagosAlchemys
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What exactly is 'our' terrain?

Post by ArchMagosAlchemys »

A wood is pretty clear from the main rule book.
Drycha's rules talk about forests. Where are they defined in the rules anywhere? Are they difficult or very difficult? And what is 'similar'? Is a wood similar? Can Drycha Spirit-walk into a wood. I assume not.

What about scrub, brush, orchard, or jungle?

When I used my 40K DWV, I rarely encountered the Jungle mentioned in their special rules, merely woods, scrub, brush, orchard, forest, etc.

Can I expect problems?

The wording of the army book uses 'woods' only in some cases; the moving part of treesinging and Forest Walkers for example, so I can see that means only woods and not anything else, but the damage option talks about 'woods or similar'. What is similar? Would this include jungle or only orchards, or what.

Since I am using a Tree Spirit army and will be creeping my woods around the board, I expect my opponents, as they did with DWV, to define as much terrain as possible as 'not woods'.

Is there any FAQ which clears this up in a comprehensive and unambiguous fashion?

Asrai have a poor reputation (undeserved) is some areas, and I don't want to compound it by stretching the boundaries of terrain definition for the special rules.
Last edited by ArchMagosAlchemys on 07 Apr 2007, 23:14, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Sethayla »

similar I take to mean anything with trees
Woods are 1/2 movement moving through i think.
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Post by ArchMagosAlchemys »

A wood can be both 1/2 and 1/4. The rule book also describes a very difficult wood with thick briars, so I think I can deploy either sort, so long as it is a wood.

Anything with trees seems a little broad. A desert oasis of palm trees or the jungles of Lustria or the dank forests of Malekith's realm can hardly be compared with the beautiful trees of Athel Loren, can they?
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Post by Amarel »

Is there any FAQ which clears this up in a comprehensive and unambiguous fashion?
That's a rhetorical question, isn't it? :lol:

I'm afraid this is simply something that needs to be decided with your gaming group, and hopefully everyone will be sensible about it. As far as I'm concerned a wood is a forest is a spinney is an orchard and if something isn't 'similar' then it should look suitably different to avoid confusion, but scuppering someone's army on a technicality has never been high on my gaming agenda.
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Post by ArchMagosAlchemys »

Perhaps I should have said more compehensive and less ambiguous fashion. :roll:

I can see my opponents wanting to draw this as narrowly against me as possible, given that I'm planning on a Drycha army.
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Post by ArchMagosAlchemys »

I haven't got much comment, so I assume that the definition of terrain will not be a problem.

Would it be unbelievably beardy for me to use the Very Difficult dense kind of wood for my free wood? The Main rule book calls both the Difficult and Very Difficult features woods, or does wood imply only the Difficult sort of wood?
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Post by Grimgor »

I would say yes it would beardy/cheesy/lawyery. BTW, my thoughts on woods are anything with trees, whether they be palm, spruce, oak, um... willow, ash.

one tree on the base = wood
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Post by Sethayla »

one tree on the base = wood
wood "or similar terrain"
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Post by Dracos »

You present an interesting dilemma

if your group is so anal as to purposefully hamstring you through miopic definitions of the the terrain available, then I see no reason why a little tit for tat isn't in order when it comes to your "free" wood. Add some shrubs to the trees and poof very difficult terrain

Too bad you have this problem at all really - and "friendly" game environment shouldn't alter the terrain definitions just because they're facing an army that is designed for said terrain.

I've long kept an eye on how many bases of trees my local group used and have already discussed with them the fact I expect no less than the average should be used "on average" once my WE army hits the table.

After we talked everyone was on board with the ideal that counting my "free" woods that there should never be less than 2 and no more than 4 tree bases

maybe if you have some open dialogue with your "friends" you can come to similiar accomodations.
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Post by ArchMagosAlchemys »

When I play against Lizardmen, I try to minimize the amount of water terrain. When I play against Asrai, I do similar. My Asrai opponents usually pick every terrain piece as a wood and I don't! These questions are more hypothetical, in advance of problems. I have encountered a couple of Asrai who have used the Very Difficult type of Wood for their 'free' wood, but I don't have enough experience to know how general or fair this is.

In games where the terrain is set up by a third party, sometimes, the terrain features are not properly defined, so the players need to do it. Before I get involved, I'd like to know what the 'standards' are. It's interesting that it is not usually considered unusual or unfair for players to choose hill terrain so that they can mount their cannon/trebuchet/repeater bolt thrower/casket of souls with a good arc of fire. However, when you want to plonk down a wood, building, hedge, or swamp, people look at you funny.


I think that Games Workshop made a mistake when they abanoned the 6th edition terrain placement rules. I would like to see a Supplement/Chronicle/FAQ/Clarification which presents a comprehensive terrain system for battles made by combining the best of the 6th ed rules and 40K rules. Such as:

Each army picks their preferred terrain on a cross-referenced table. This selects the actual terrain type. Players then roll, 6th ed style, to determine what sort of terrain they get to place. Once each player has placed their terrain piece in a separate 2' square area, the terrain pieces are scattered. Battle then commences. Few decisions, fewer arguments.
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Post by David L »

Personally, I think "very difficult" terrain should not exist. Difficult terrain slows down normal units so much they rarely enter it already, "very difficult" might as well be listed as "impassable except to skirmishers". I would be fairly annoyed if a WE opponent tried to make his free wood (or anything else!) very difficult.

I think there are only 4 types of terrain. Woods, hills, rocks, water. Plus buildings and obstacles, which are pretty well defined by the rulebook. It should be very obvious which type something is, just from appearance. Although you could make something two types, like a wooded hill.

There are then only 2 other attributes of each terrain piece - movement (open, difficult, very difficult, impassable) and cover (none, light, heavy). These attributes should be debated between the players beforehand, although again I think "very difficult" should not be used.
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Post by Hyarion »

Locally, what we do is this: any terrain piece (that isn't impassable) which is one of the following: wood, hill, water, rocks is difficult.

Any terrain piece which has two of those features is considered very difficult. Swamps (water, forest) Wooded Hills (forest, hills) Rock slides (hill, rocks) etc
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Post by Isir »

Hi all!

When the Lustria campaign raged, the jungle terrains stated as very difficult terrains. And its still in usage here. I use my free forest as a normal forest, and never ever tried to move a jungle with tree singing, 'cause jungle is a very different flora with very different spirits. :)
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Post by ArchMagosAlchemys »

That kind of thinking can be a pain because then my opponents will want to define as much terrain as possible as 'non-woods' so that the Asrai special abilities, such as Treesinging, do not come into play.
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Post by Sothalis »

I think the solution is very simple......

you want as many woods as possible
your opponent wants as few woods as possible

go somewhere in between, and just have a good game
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Post by Darkvoid_bluff »

Personally to save arguements I roll my terrain where ever possible 1D3 peices per table quarter rolled on the old terrain charts.
Pretty much the seven on every chart gives a choice between a hill or "wood" with an ajacent result also being a "wood". Generally if it contains trees, is soft cover & difficult or very difficlut terrain then it is a wood everything else is just descriptive text.
Edit: I always just make my free forest just difficult terrain.
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Re: What exactly is 'our' terrain?

Post by Beithir Seun »

Just to save time, effort and any disagreements simply agree with your opponent what of your terrain is classified as such (although you may get some strange looks when you ask if 'that wood' counts as a wood.....:wink:)

Also, as Wood Elves don't get reduced movement for moving through woods you don't need to worry about whether they're difficult terrain...

We always play that anything with trees in it is a wood....nothing confusing like forests, briars, thorns etc!
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