RE: [SG2] Terrain

Glover, spake thusly upon matters weighty: 
> Terrain tiles are a great idea, unfortunately a lot of people neihter
have
> them nor can afford them. I know a few people who use tiles; 12", 24"
and
> also a couple are doing 4'x2' reversible!

I meant get a deck of cards and fill in 1x1 sections of the board 
according to that (it wasn't till later that it even occcured to me 
that such tiles may exist). 
 
> The system we've used in some of our games is simply to break the
table into
> sectors (12"x12", 24"x24" or quarters or whatever doesn't matter) and
then
> take it in turns to fill the gaps! This has worked quite well and is
able to
> be used with whatever terrain you have available. It also allows the
> defender to acheive one of the Maxims of war "fight the enemy on
ground of
> your own choosing". If he wants a dirty big hill to sit on then he can
have
> a good chance of finding one!

Of course, neither side would likely lay swamp. I like the idea of 
random terrain (bias the deck towards the terrain you own obviously!) 
and that way neither of you really has a choice. Sometimes you end up 
fighting over an area that no one really wants but for whatever 
reason people are fighting over. Vietnam and Korea both had this kind 
of terrain - no reason for people to die for it, but it happened.  

> Some people disregard the importance of balanced terrain a game but
IMHO it
> is something that is very important in the low level tactical game
like SG
> and even DS.

I can see your point. But part of the game is in dealing with the 
terrain. Another interesting way to slant a scenario is give the 
one player knowledge of terrain (the ambusher for example) and make 
the other side buy/pick forces BEFORE they know what the terrain will 
be.  

> So, I think I'd rather see some guidlines on terrain in the scenario
cards
> rather than a complete random setting.

I agree. I did mention that if you had a scenario card, it could say 
something like "Defend the bridge. Requires a bridge, a road to and 
from the bridge (off opposite board edges) and a river under the 
bridge that goes off board sides on each side. Rest of terrain random 
assortment for Temperate Plains." That would give you the major 
points, but let the rest be random.  

Tom.  
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Thomas Barclay		     
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