For those who may have read my earlier article/post regarding using
buildings and catwalks for an "urban" setting, I figured I might as
well post a follow-up after we've played a few battles using such
terrain.
One thing we've found (using the scenario rules described earlier) is
that, unless there is a specific objective located on one of the
higher levels, the action will tend to take place on the "ground
level", often leaving the network of catwalks and platforms virtually
untouched. After all, there is no real "height advantage" to be
gained, and being on top of a platform generally means you're out in
the open ... while being at the base of a building means that at
least you can get hard cover by hanging around the corner. There's
no real "height advantage" to be gained, after all.
Anyway, here are a few things we tried doing differently from the
scenario rules (and terrain construction suggestions) described
earlier:
Look Out Below!
One scenario to try, in order to make sure your pretty buildings and
catwalks are used, is to assume that the buildings on the table
represent all of the "standing" area. Any exposed table represents a
very long drop to certain doom. You will, of course, need enough
buildings to cover most of the table -- We made use of various pieces
of styrofoam packing, plastic containers and other items to add to
the floor-space available. Of course, you'll have to make sure that
the available walk-space extends into each player's deployment zone.
Any area of uncovered table is impassable terrain. If,
theoretically, someone were to step off into that area, they would be
out of the game. However, under current rules, there's not really
any way to force anyone off the edge, so it's a moot point for the
time being.
For characters able to ignore all terrain penalties (Shadow Walkers,
Deathbringers and Callistonian Intruders, at this writing), they may
pass through "open" areas, but must end their turn on solid ground.
They can't stand out in the middle of the air.
(We don't have the rules finalized or playtested yet, but we're
considering some scenario rules for some "bad weather" conditions to
introduce a chance of falling off of narrow catwalks due to
"kickback" (for un-braced firing of heavy weapons) or "knockback"
(for being hit by an explosion). Since introducing "knockback" could
have implications beyond just this scenario, we're still kicking the
house rules around.)
Self-Sanding Catwalks
My original idea for catwalks was unabashedly ripped off from
Necromunda's setup, with catwalks just consisting of cardboard or
wooden or plastic lengths braced across platform areas of various
"buildings". However, we've found this to be less than sturdy.
Rather, I've found it better to make the catwalks self-standing
structures. I found I could easily do this by taking some toilet
paper and paper towel cardboard tubes and hacking off bits at 3" or
6" long to serve as supports for each end of my "catwalk" structures.
(Most of my "catwalks" are about 50mm wide. My narrower ones will
require other means of stabilization, I think.) The catwalks may
still wobble a bit, so you might want to add a wider base at the
bottom of each. We found that this greatly improved the stability of
the catwalks and reduced how much they would be "knocked around"
during movement of miniatures. Plus, it allowed me several new ways
of arranging catwalks in relation to the buildings, since I wasn't
required to overlap the ends of each catwalk over a platform to
support it.
Steps
We found it a lot simpler to just rule that, when ascending steps,
one simply measures on the horizontal, rather than trying to follow
the diagonal of the steps. Sure, there might be some problem with
physics, the idea that someone could walk up stairs just as far in
the same time as they could run horizontally, but the lessened hassle
is worth the trade-off.
Height and Range
However, we did decide that measuring on the diagonal seemed to work
better when determining range when firing at a target at a far higher
elevation. We ended up with silly situations where a model would be
at the bottom of a tower, while another would be at the top (up to
12" away, vertically), and according to the game, it would only be 1"
distance for purposes of range. So, we decided to measure directly
along the line of sight ("on the diagonal", as we've been calling it
.... or "on the vertical" in some cases!) with the help of a wooden
dowel marked off in inches.
When shooting DOWN at a lower target, though, for the time being
we've been allowing the attacker to measure on the horizontal
instead. After all, even if it's 12 inches to the base of the tower
and he can only throw a grenade 4 inches, what's going to happen? Is
the grenade going to stop in mid-air? We don't think so.
Anyway, that summarizes our major findings for now. We're also
considering trying different "weather conditions", such as fog
(limits maximum LOS to, say, 20 inches or so?) and other things which
might change our way of doing things ... and perhaps a random
scenario generator so that we come to a battle with our lists without
knowing EXACTLY what sort of battle we'll be facing -- forcing us to
make the best of our troop selections which may not necessarily be
tailor-made for the terrain on the board.
If you've run into anything similar to the problems we've run into
(and perhaps come up with different solutions), I'd like to hear from
you!