SFR, Inc.

[dburkley]

Jim's recent topics on "The Great Flood" and "Ice Age" sparked a thought on my way home this evening: "Landscapes" at the major terrains. This idea may or may not be suitable for tournament use, but might be better suited for scenarios.

With the four major terrain types currently available (Coastlands, Flatlands, Highlands, Swamplands), I was thinking that there could be 2-4 different types of landscapes possible at each terrain, based on the colors of the terrain. The landscape could influence what types of units could move there. It is not intended to replace or undermine the use of minor terrains, but would be a separate feature of the major terrains.

To keep the idea simple, I'll use a two-player game as an example. Three major terrains would be in place at the start of the game. Let's say Player 1 had a Highlands Temple as his Home terrain, and had also chosen the terrain at the Frontier as a Flatlands Standing Stones. Player 2 chose a Coastland City for his home terrain.

The new "wrinkle" would be the "landscape" at each player's side of each of the three major terrains. The major terrain's function of abstractly representing the distance between the two opposing armies still applies, but this idea would let the players decide on the landscape their army is on as it advances.

The choice of landscapes would be based on the colors of the major terrain, and there could be 2-4 different landscapes per color. Each would have an influence on what types of dice could be present. The player that picked the terrain would pick one of the colors of the major terrain to choose his landscape from. The opponent would have to pick his landscape from the other color of the terrain.

So, at the Highlands, Player 1 might choose yellow (earth), and pick a landscape from these options (off the top of my head):
Forest (Fly SAI's cannot count as saves)
Mountain ("boat" and "swimming" icons count half for maneuvers)
Valley

The opponent would choose a landscape of the red color (fire):
Desert ("boat" and "swimming" icons cannot count as maneuvers)
Mesa
Volcano

At the Coastlands, Player 2 has first choice, and lets say he picks green (water). His choice of landscape might be:
Marsh ("feet" icons are halved for maneuvers)
River
Sea ("feet", "horseshoe" and Rend icons cannot count as maneuvers)

The opponent would choose a landscape of the color blue (Air):
Hot Springs
Plains
Tundra

Now, what the various landscapes actually do is still not completely figured out (but I threw out some ideas, based on three diferent landscapes per color) - and some of Jim's ideas start to apply here. Some landscapes would benefit, hamper, or restrict "foot" units (feet), or "cavalry" (horseshoe, Trample, or Rend icons), or "flyers" (wings), or "swimmers" (Swampstalkers), or "boat-riders" (Coral-Elf boat icons). The specifics would need to be worked out...

For scenarios or "special events", landscapes could play-balance forces or add an interesting challenge or problem that players did not have to consider before. It certainly gives the choice of major terrains added importance.
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Daniel Burkley
US National Champion (DEXCON 2007, 2009, 2010)
World Champion (GENCON 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014)
Battlefest Champion: DEXCON 2008, 2011, GENCON 2009, 2010 (co-champion), 2011, 2017)
"No Magicians": GENCON 2008
"Single Race": DEXCON 2008, GENCON 2010, 2011, 2014 (co-champion), 2017