Re: [DSII] Genre (terrain is good!)

At 5:52 AM -0800 2/22/99, Christopher Pratt wrote:
>actually, in the bastardized version of GW 40k that I play
>(can't get my friends to switch to SGII yet).	I use the old
>scale heavy gears as infantry walkers and the do quite well
>in the dense terrain that we normally play in.  Their armor
>is thick enough to bounce small arms and they carry heavier
>weapons than the regular infantry.

It's been my experience that terrain is a Good Thing in miniatures
games. More terrain = better gameplay. This particular epiphany came
about after a few Space Marine games with sparse terrain; I then played
an Advanced Squad Leader game and was struck by the dense nature of the
terrain on the ASL maps. Our next SM game (there's an apropro acronym)
featured about three times as many terrain features and was a lot more
fun to play.

Maserati's first rule of wargaming: when in doubt, you don't have
enough terrain set out.

Heck, we had a good game of 40K with nothing more than cardboard
cutouts for walls (a lightbulb box broken down) and my bottles of paint
for equipment and such all representing a factory. No lines of sight
longer than about 6", worked great.

Even a simple game like De Bellis Antiquitatis benefits greatly from
terrain. An average game takes 60-90 minutes (100 Year's War usually
runs shorter). I ran a demo game at Games of Berkeley. I set two
experienced players at each other on a complex array of hills and
streams that took over two hours to play and left both players nearly
exhausted from the mental strain of maneuvering in my maze.

Michael Carter Llaneza
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1991-1950
Devolution is very real to me.

Whenever I hear the "Odd Couple" theme, I get this image of Dennis
Rodman borrowing Marge Schott's toothbrush.