Warlord and terrain

[Unruly]

I've been looking at Warlord since the end of the Kickstarter, thanks largely to the Black Orc models. Once all the Kickstarter minis are available for retail, I'll probably start working on building myself a decent collection of those guys, and might try to build another army or two with other models from my Vampire set.

 

But before I start working on trying to build an army and buying rulebooks, I need to know what Warlord is like in terms of terrain? Is it required, does it greatly affect play(if it's optional), that sort of thing. I simply don't have the space to store a big terrain board or two, and that's kept me from playing a lot of tabletop wargames. If I can just drop an army onto a table and start rolling dice without having to worry about building, painting, sculpting, and storing a terrain board then I'm much more likely to actually try to play Warlord. And it will be a lot easier to convince other people to give it a chance as well.

[Don Rodolfo Graziani]

Whether you use books for buildings and cups for silos for a town or fight on the empty plains is up to you. You can use as much or as little terrain as you like. Terrain can be a blessing or a curse. It limits mobility yet offers cover. It really is up to you. So if you go sans terrain, I say enjoy. (I will say if you want some inexpensive easily stored terrain, look at small plants at your local craft store.= or even pet store. You can glue down to old cd's to make patches of plant growth pretty easily)

[Qwyksilver]

Terrain is particularly helpful depending on your army build as well. There are models that can completely ignore terrain features like Flyers and Burrowers. It brings in things like Indirect Shots. And it has a direct impact on Line of Sight, and maneuvering effects, etc.

 

Personally, I would be very unlikely to enjoy play on a flat table with no terrain features, unless there were some sort of scenario conditions like holding a spot, etc.

[smokingwreckage]

Have you considered 2-D printed terrain? Roll out a felt mat or a more elaborate roll-up gaming mat, then lay down some attractive 2-D bits and pieces. If height is an issue rate each printed "building" or "forest" etc with its height in inches, or build it up with books or empty boxes. For example:

 

http://www.fatdragongames.com/fdgfiles/fantasy/2d-tiles/e-z-tiles

[smokingwreckage]

Elaborate gaming mats that roll up:

 

http://www.zuzzy.com/

[joshuaslater]

The beauty of Warlord is that you can use as little or as much as you like.

[Warwick]

I own a lot of terrain, so my table is usually full. However, I've played on open fields, too. Those can be some hardcore battles.

2D terrain is a great source of quick terrain. Cut some blue felt and you have a pond or river. Brown construction paper can make buildings in a village.

I have a few rocks from the garden as well, for boulders and such,

[Unruly]

So, basically it's a situation where terrain isn't exactly necessary, but it's a big help. At the same time, I shouldn't worry about building a big terrain board out of foam or something the way that I've seen so many WH/WH40k players go. The Fat Dragon 2D tiles that I have should work just fine for building a set of terrain that's functional.

 

Guess I should probably get some outdoor tiles and the like to compliment my dungeon tiles then. I don't figure that too many battles would be likely to happen inside a dungeon, and the generally 10ft wide corridors probably aren't all that conducive to play.

[ObsidianCrane]

Terrain boards are for the hard core who have the space. A bit of green fabric, some blue felt (I actually recommend thin craft foam) for rivers, and some clumps of trees is heaps to set up a table. Heck I have enough of WotC's Dungeon Tiles that I could easily cover a table, if I include some of the maps I could have a castle with village and forest as my terrain all in 2D and as long as I indicate height where relevant that would be fine.

 

However while 2D terrain will work, going 3D does look better, it's why I've backed a few Kickstarters now, cool looking terrain makes your games just look better.

[Don Rodolfo Graziani]

Oh, man. A Warlord fight in a dungeon! (wipes drool from face) I think that should be a must for next Reapercon.

[wildbill]

A second battle during that campaign was over an underground gold mine. It was a vast complex (that just amazingly enough happened to fit on a 4’x4’ board! ) and we were given the layout of the mine ahead of time. So, each of us had an opportunity to prepare our forces accordingly. I made sure to field two Crusader Baby Kitties (aka Celestial Lions) as they were major tanks. Warwick took like two crossbowmen that were totally upsetting my grand plan. They were plinking away safe and sound behind their front line while I valiantly charged through the tunnels. I remember finally getting my poor defenseless little kitty cats into combat with the evil Mercenary forces. I lost both cats, but managed to make a major dent in his forces, which enabled me to rush the rest of my Crusaders into the gaps. But, a nice tidy rout it was not to be. Instead it turned into a major slugfest with both sides suffering heavy losses. In almost a repeat of the first game, it came down to a couple of my grunts vs a couple of Warwick’s grunts. This time the Crusaders stood victorious as I had the last remaining model on the board while Warwick tried to run away like a scared girl once again.

 

Wild Bill

 

 

This was from a thread called Most Epic Battles (or something along those lines). Warwick and I have had more than our share of titanic matches over the years. This was a dungeon match during a campaign several summers ago. I think we are like 50-50 in the win/loss columns. Very few games have come down to what amounts to a rout. The ones that have were usually the result of a lack of terrain (notice how I worked the topic into my post? I'm that awesome. ).

 

 

Wild Bill

[JeffyBaby]

While it wouldn't be a dungeon, a mine fight would fit nicely into ReaperCon's theme next year.

[Unruly]

Just the recap of the mine battle was on topic, since the question of dungeon terrain being used came up. So a mine battle actually working says that yes, you can use dungeon tiles to play a game of Warlord.

 

Which also means that I don't need to spend as much on new tile sets, since I can use the ones I've already got.

[smokingwreckage]

People use Warlord to run dungeon crawls. It definitely works. You'd just have to watch for certain combinations, troops, and abilities being either totally pants or terrifyingly awesome.

[Castlebuilder]

I think that I have probably pushed the limits farther than most as far as terrain goes. I love using terrain and I think Warlord plays best with terrain. Even coming from that perspective, I will also say that Warlord plays well with very little terrain.