Terrain Talk - Adding Some Water Features

Introducing Custom Terrain

After listening to Small Council Radio's August 31st Episode, Terrain, GenCon, Martells and more with Fabio Cury?!?!?, our group, like many others, became interested in seeing what custom terrain could do for the game.  I decided the next week we played, I would introduce 1 or 2 custom pieces, & the theme I decided on (as inspired by Fabio's comments in that episode) was water. (After all, who doesn't like a nice water feature?)

Piece #1 - The River

Terrain Keywords: Hindering

Special Rules: Placement by D6, 1" spacing from other terrain

I considered the keywords Hindering & Rough for this terrain (similar to a bog), but quickly dropped Rough, since such a large piece of terrain would be likely to have unequal impacts on the different factions if there was suddenly a 2.5" wide piece of terrain that was Rough spanning the entire battlefield. (Imagine you're Baratheon staring down a massive, bog-like terrain piece to deal with - possibly in addition to actual bogs...actually, don't imagine that - it might upset you!)

I planned for the river to be a continuous piece of terrain that spanned edge-to-edge, but was place-able by players during normal terrain setup.  If following normal terrain placement rules, in most games this means that it cannot go into deployment zones (except in Here We Stand & Fire & Blood) & then is fairly limited to span the battlefield lengthwise from flank-to-flank - maybe straight across, maybe at an angle.  I quickly realized this type of setup could leave no legal space left (if maintaining the 6" distance between terrain) if both players placed a river straight across as their first terrain piece.  This would obviously not be ideal.

And so we arrived at selection by D6.  For games with the river, we decided to roll a D6 to determine the placement location of a single river on the battlefield.  The D6 would decide on 1 of 6 symmetrical options for the river to cross the battlefield.  We then decided this river would exist in addition to the 4 pieces of placed terrain by players & we would only require 1" of spacing between the river & other terrain (similar to Corpse Piles in Feast for Crows).  Our D6 placement thus used this chart:

Note: 5 Objective Map Shown, but use the same template for other Game Modes.  

Re-roll 1's, 3's, & 4's in Feast for Crows so Rivers do not overlap Corpse Piles.

Piece #2 - The Lake (Pond?)

Terrain Keywords: Rough, Fortified Exposed

Special Rules: None

I had originally planned for the Lake to simply be Impassible with no other keywords.  I had some reservations about making a piece of terrain that was Impassible, but not Destructible, but figured we'd give it a try.  I didn't tell the group what the  custom terrain would be in advance, so it was unlikely anyone would think to bring a gunline-list that simply sits behind 2 lakes & mows down their opponent with impunity.

Come game night though, there were definite concerns about such a large, indestructible, Impassible piece of terrain.  Fortunately, the first paragraph of the Terrain section on page 24 of the rulebook gave us the guidance needed to come to a solution:

"If a chosen Terrain piece does not fall into one of the listed categories, you should discuss with your opponent what keywords the Terrain has."

After a brief discussion, we decided they would be better suited as shallower ponds, granting Rough and Fortified, to serve as an alternate choice to your standard Bog with Rough & Hindering. (Why Fortified, you may ask?  I don't have a perfect explanation, so feel free to suggest other ideas!)

(EDIT:) After writing our 2nd terrain talk article, we realized the perfect key word for this terrain was one that didn't exist yet.  Thus, we replaced Fortified with Exposed:

Exposed: If the Defender is in contact with this Terrain piece during a Charge, the defender suffers -1 to their Defense Dice Rolls vs. that attack.

We then eliminated Rough, because that terrain would be doubly bad for defensive units, who are usually already on the slower side.

Game Night

Once we decided on the rules to use, all that was left was to select game modes, throw our new terrain on the table, & try it out!

Match 1

Both tables randomly rolled A Dance with Dragons & both tables happened to also roll a river down opposite flanks (Positions 1 & 3 on the River Placement Chart).  On one table we had Dagmer versus Vargo leading the Lannisters & on the other table we had the Great Walrus leading a Frozen Shore horde against Rodrik Cassel, the Master-at-Arms of Winterfell.

On the Greyjoy/Lannister table, Victarion & his Reavers faced off against Vargo & his Cutthroats backed up by the Mountain that Rides in the River.  But nearly all of the fighting end up happening between the Flayed Men & Crossbows against the Ironmakers & Bowmen on the opposite flank.  Lannister killed the Ironmakers & grabbed all 3 points, leading to an inevitable victory for the Lions.

On the Free Folk/Stark table, the River was enough to discourage all but the Chariot from crossing its icy waters.  A bloody battle was had on the opposite flank, but besides the chariot launching down the River flank (leaving the token untouched all game), the river effectively served as a new, smaller border to that struggle that went to the Walrus by the narrowest of margins.

Match 2

Jaime Lannister marched North & encountered the Walrus & his refreshed army in a match of Dark Wings Dark Words, while Rodrik pivots to set his sights on defending the North against Asha Greyjoy in Here We Stand.  This time the rivers bisected the field in both matches & had a much larger impact on the game because of it.

A Round 1 Endless Horde spelled trouble for Jaime from the start.  Immediately out-activated 9 activations to 8, the Lannisters failed to use the river to their advantage against the charging chariot & instead tried (& failed) to rely on Jaime's prowess with the sword to Disrupt & Counterstrike their advance.  Addam, Trusted Bannermen, did little to defend Jaime, but he & the Warrior Sons held their own against an onslaught of Raiders & Thenns, striking back frequently, but failing to deliver any killing blows.  The Mountain held on against the Bear Riders for a time, but his fortified position along the water's edge did little to protect him from their Precision strikes.

On a nearby battlefield, Asha's formation broke & Rodrik eked out a minor victory by using his much dwindled forces, but mastery of battlefield tactics, to Press the Advantage in quadrant control & win 11 to 9.  His Tully Cav & Sworn Shields both limped away with hardly any wounds between them at one point to allow the shields to survive just long enough against Asha, Qarl, & her Ironmakers to gain a lead that held until the end.

Takeaways

Coming up with new terrain to utilize was a ton of fun before, during, & after the games were played.  My final recommendation for whatever you come up with is to keep it simple - it doesn't have to be complex to be fun (that actually can often lead to the opposite); even the same terrain with different footprints will really impact the game & feel new & interesting.  I've already started brainstorming what sort of terrain we can come up with next.  Feel free to try out our ideas or come up with your own - either way let us know what it is & how it went!