two questions about terrain

[Rekila]

I have two questions about terrain. They may look a little too obvious, but we are isolated here (only 5 houses in the whole village!). The first one is about (precisely) the village piece. Apart for the central road I understand that no difference is made for the rest of the area between streets and buildings. That bases do not enter/leave buildings, etc, as in another wargame rules. All the area is the same, like a wood for example. We play that way now, in an abstract manner. At first it feels odd, with bases of the same BG moving at the same time in the roofs and streets! But now we simply move the buildings! (So the village changes shape every turn!). I hope we understand that correctly. The second question is about open areas: What size they have? i.e. How far away from the marked central point of the open area can other terrain be placed? Thanks in avance.

[Blathergut]

1. Village is just difficult going...like woods.

2. Open spaces are like other terrain: normal size (up to 12 MU diameter; 4x6 MU rectangle fits inside) or large (more than 12 MU, up to 16MU diameter; 4x6 MU rectangle fits inside).

Like other terrain, other pieces have to initially be 4MU away from the outer edges.

[durrati]

With a village, yes the individual building and where they are placed are not an issue. As you say, it is more abstract - the entire area is a village, with model buildings helping to model and show that it is a village area rather than representing an actual building. So exactly like a wood - the area is a wood, the model trees you put down do not represent individual trees, they help model / denote that the area is a wood and can be moved about if they get in the way of a unit.

[rbodleyscott]

Don't forget that each base represents about 250 men.

[Rekila]

Thanks for the (kind) answers. And in the chapter of obvious questions, here is another one. After both players select the compulsory item, the player with initiative select 2-4 pieces, then the other player do the same; but can he chose more pieces than the player with initiative? I suppose he can, as the rules say nothing against it, but seems odd that the player without initiative place more terrain that the one with it. We in fact don’t do it, some form of courtesy to the opponent, I suppose (is the XV century after all).

[kevinj]

Yes, there is no reason why the player without initiative cannot choose more terrain pieces than his opponent.

[Blathergut]

Initiative chooses a compulsory and then the other player gets the 2nd compulsory.

Initiative chooses 2-4 pieces...if they decide to only take 2, then that's their choice. Other player can take 4 if they like!

If I get the initiative I try to take any gentle hills and toss rough stuff on top of them...so that opponent can't take them as open gentle hills.

[TERRYFROMSPOKANE]

It seems to me if I am the player with initiative, I might want to leave the gentle hills for my opponent to select. If my opponent selects any, each is as likely to end up on my half of the table as his and I have the possibility of adjusting each hill's final resting place. Am I missing something?

Terry G.

[Blathergut]

It seems to me if I am the player with initiative, I might want to leave the gentle hills for my opponent to select. If my opponent selects any, each is as likely to end up on my half of the table as his and I have the possibility of adjusting each hill's final resting place. Am I missing something?

Terry G.

I tend to prefer battlefield clutter. I'd rather force him to choose rough ground than risk letting him end up with a hill he can park stuff on. But that's just how I like to play. Probably the only Roman who always opts for 'Hills' !!

[kevinj]

It seems to me if I am the player with initiative, I might want to leave the gentle hills for my opponent to select. If my opponent selects any, each is as likely to end up on my half of the table as his and I have the possibility of adjusting each hill's final resting place. Am I missing something?

I work on the principle that if I have initiative and want a particular terrain type, I'll take it rather than hope my opponent does because, even though there's the same odds of it arriving on my side of the table, a cunning opponent will attempt to minimise its usefulness to me, then I'm relying on another dice roll to hopefully put it somewhere more useful.

Also, if I have initiative, I'll always pick my 4 pieces, even if I don't want much terrain, as that allows me minimise the size of soemthing I don't like and deny my opponent the chance to put a large nasty piece somewhere I don't want.