Talk to me about terrain please...

Hi all, I am the brain (?) behind Fogou Models, a small terrain company from Kernow, UK. As a gradual side project I am working on some medieval ruins, which of course means Mordheim is forefront of my mind. We have a few stone ruins that people have used for mordheim in the past, but I'm looking at something a lot more useful (hopefully) to you all...



Before I get too deep into this project, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what makes a useful/attractive Mordheim table, what types of terrain you use most, which ones you'd like to see more of etc. I'm not promising that I can integrate all of this into my pieces but I will certainly try! Perhaps we can just use this thread as an excuse to talk terrain!

Here are couple of disjointed thoughts that are currently haunting me as starting points...

Rubble! - Looking at pictures of real-world battles like Stalingrad, I wonder if anyone apart from me would like to see a lot more rubble on thier tables, and rubble that forms a playable part of the battlefield.

Walkways - This is an area where fluff and practicality collides in my head I know that plank walkways are an ever-present on MH tables, I admit to not playing with them very often so I'd love to hear from people who play a lot more what they bring to your games. I suppose it depends on the exact character of your headcanon, but sometimes I wonder why the gangs that skulk around the city would bother building them.

Would love to hear what you all think!

Ah, walkways -- a constant question. I always figure they were built either because 1) the remaining population is crazy, you know, certifiably insane, or 2) the streets were so thick with blood &/or Chaos Goop people needed overhead routes. In gameplay terms, they means upstairs spaces get used more; you don't climb up a building, climb down again, over to the next building -- you run around at altitude. Mordheim rules (for shooting & diving charges) encourage you to use height, & walkways make it easier to make use of those rules.

That said, it's often difficult to fit walkways between buildings, so a good feature to include would be openings to fit them in on multiple sides & at multiple levels of a building. Elevated doorways, smashed open windows, balconies, that sort of thing. This would be my biggest suggestion for Mordheim (or Frostgrave or Carnevale) terrain -- opening out multiple higher levels for easy connections.

Rubble has potential. I've seen some people using a thick layer of rubble to weight down a tall scenery piece, & it could be formed into ramps for gameplay. Otherwise, I think's it's mostly just scenery you can't put models on. & compared to Stalingrad, it's worth remembering that Mordheim would be built from more wood & daub than brick & concrete, so more would have burnt away... conveniently leaving only the bits we want.

I also struggle with the idea of loads of aerial walkways. Plus, they get in the way when you’re trying to move your figures around. Tumbles from height are not welcome when you’re using metal figures.

Rubble makes sense but it can get in the way too unless figures can stand on it.

I think you might be best focusing on a range of things that are useful but a faff to scratch build e.g. doors, shutters, chimneys, architectural gargoyles. Scatter scenery might be worth a go too e.g. statues, fountains, barricades, drinking fountains etc.

Citizen Sade wrote:

... things that are useful but a faff to scratch build e.g. doors, shutters, chimneys, architectural gargoyles.

P.S. corbels, decorative carvings for woodwork & shop signs. Basically, anything that people can use to jazz up the buildings they make for Mordheim or Warhammer.

I'll second walkways. I love to use multi-level terrain in Mordheim table setups, and walkways make it much easier to preserve the flow of gameplay at multiple levels.

Infinity is also a wargame that loves multiple levels of terrain, and lots of Infinity terrain incorporates modular walkways, so you could look into ways that Infinity terrain manufacturers incorporate walkways.

One thing that makes a nice walkway is sides/railings. This helps to keep models from getting bumped off of a walkway. You don't need much, just a little discouragement, but a walkway with a lip or railing will need to be wide enough to hold a model on its base, with a little extra room for some projections over the edge of the base, because the base won't be able to overhang the edge of the walkway.

Personally, I think rubble is fine if it is being used like a wall, i.e. a narrow terrain element being used as cover/to impede movement without monopolizing table space. I enjoy barricades, but there's oodles of rubble/scrap barricades on the market already.

For a wider area of rubble, I'd recommend having a level spot where you can place a model that is able to get part way through the terrain element, but not all the way through, like a large stone block that is roughly 1"x1" and parallel to the table surface. This way, even if a model cannot be placed on most of the terrain element, you still have a stable area to place a model to indicate that it is moving through the terrain element.

I also like little 'corner cover' terrain elements for scatter. These are little bits that you can place next to a larger structure, usually one that is intended to block line of sight, so that models can still have some cover after 'rounding the corner'. Hay bales, crates, and barrel stacks make great corner cover and projecting cover, but little nubs of broken walls could also be nice for a Mordheim table. Something like 1-2" of wall, crumbling at the end, that you can abut against the wall of a separate building, either loose, or secured in place when scratch building.

Those are just my random thoughts.