Terrain Primer

Having been asked about Terrain/Cover on the Discord channel, I figured I'd better write a blog post about it.  I've done posts about this in the past.  But let's take a slightly different view this time.

1. The Look.
We can take cues from real world architecture here.  Different neighborhoods within cities have different looks depending on the architecture styles and building materials in use at the time of their creation.  Old neighborhoods are brick, not so old neighborhoods are cement, newer neighborhoods are glass and steel.  Building materials define color.  Style defines the look.  So work forward from there.  In my Sci-Fi Outpost setting I worked with primarily white and lime pieces to make it look like everything was made from similar materials.  If you have a big enough table you might even have enough room for different neighborhoods on that table.  Outside cityscapes things are a little different.  In the real world vegetation is primarily green due to clorophyll.  If you want something a little more sci-fi, we can change colors away from green.  I'm working on an idea where plants are made of white and gold pieces.  Vegetation in the Oasis setting is either blue & purple or red & black.  Do what you want, just have an internal consistency to what you do.  Also, don't forget that a good battlemat or piece of felt can add to the look of a table as well.

2. Composition.
I'm going to make up a formula here.  60% of your Cover should be 1 or 2 Hit pieces, 30% of your Cover should be 3 or 4 Hit pieces, and the remaining 10% should be 5 or more Hit cover.  Keep in mind that really heavily built Cover can be a problem.  The Milano in this game looked really good but barely looked scratched after taking damage that would have crushed most targets.  I don't have a formula yet for how many pieces of certain sizes of Cover you should have.  There should be a fair amount of Cover that can only hide one Frame.  There should be some that can hide most of a squad and, a few that can hide an entire squad.  Maybe call it 50% small, 30% medium, and 20% large pieces.  Of course all these numbers change if you want to have a super frangible battlefield or an almost indestructible one.

3. Quantity.
Looking at my Actual Play pictures on Flickr, I count between 14 and 26 pieces of Cover on the table at any one time.  Depending on the size of the table, this can be either a roomy or cramped battlefield.  This is why it can be hard to set down a number for what you should use.  Total area of the cover in relation to the total area of the table is a big variable.

4. Arrangement
Generally the arrangement of Cover on the table is up to all the players before the game starts so this note is more of a "How Not To" than anything else.  In our Missile Base Omega game I put a fence across the table and tall structures behind that fence with shorter cover on the other side.  The Defender set up in the structures pushing the Attackers to the other side of the fence.  There was one incursion through the fence towards the Defender and the rest of the combat occurred in the mostly open area.  I feel the fence discouraged people from trying to go over or through it -- despite being easy to destroy -- and this led to the fighting being bottled up on one side of the table.

One more caveat, all of this depends on what you're trying to accomplish and the supplies you have available.  Aiming to have an awesome looking table is one thing, feeling guilty because all you can do is put some simple walls on a bare table is another.  We're all here to have fun.  Nobody is going to judge.  I hope this helps people and I'm going to try and do more posts in this vein.

Sales Alert

Target is running a $5 off select Lego sets sale this week.  It looks like the majority of those fall in the 300 piece range so there should be some good deals to be found.

Good hunting.

Review: 70364 Nexo Knights Battle Suit Aaron

A quick Nexo Knights review to start out the week.

Box.  MSRP is $9.99.  This yields a $0.13 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts 1.  Ball Joints, Plates, Tiles, Slopes,
Clip Tiles, Wedge Plates, Minifig Axe Heads,
Technic bits, a Bracket, a Boat Stud, a
Minifig Handlebar, and a Hinge Plate.

Parts 2.  Nexagon, Giant Clip
Claws, Ball Joints, and Angle
Tiles are all cool.

Build. 2Rh/2B for Systems.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +5 (B+).  As you can see, I didn't pay full price for this. On the other hand, all the Nexo Knights Battle Suit sets are a good starting point.

Purity: Kre-O 83140 Transformers Optimus Prime Brick Box Review 2

Here's the last review for Kre-O week.

Box.  I paid $5.25 for this at Dollar General.  This yields a $0.07  Price per Piece.

None of these sets came with instructions.

Kreon.

Parts 1.  Wedge Plates!  Slopes,
Hinge Plates, a Projectile without
a launcher, and that Modified Tile
for mounting Transformer Heads.

Parts 2.  More Slopes, Clip Plates, Bar
Plates, Wedge Plates, Plates, and Bricks.

Build.  I managed an IO Cruiser this
time.  Four hardpoints to mount Attachments, it currently has
two sensor wings (2Y).

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  Three for three for the week!

Sales Alert

Lego has been spotted in BJs again.  Must be getting close to Christmas.  :-)

For $16.99 we have the following:
60181 Forest Tractor
60137 Tow Truck Trouble
60179 Ambulance Helicopter
31074 Rocket Rally Car
70638 Katana V11
21140 Minecraft Chicken Coop
10713 Creative Suitcase

For $25.99 we have the following:
41311 Heartlake Pizzeria
41335 Mia's Tree House

For $26.99 we have the following:
75208 Yoda's Hut
75209 Han Solo's Landspeeder

There's also a Champions of Roblox six figure set available for $16.99.  They might make for an  interesting Melee based squad -- assuming they have enough pieces and can be dismantled in a meaningful way -- but, the set is available elsewhere for cheaper.

Good hunting.

Purity: Kre-O 82578 Transformers Brick Box Review

It's the halfway point in Kre-O week.  Here's the second review.

Box.  I paid $5.25 for this at Dollar General.  This yields a $0.07  Price per Piece.

None of these sets came with instructions.

Kreons.

Parts 1.  Clip Plates, Jumpers, Round Bricks, Plates, Cheese Slopes, a Trans-Purple Connector, a Tile, a Grille Tile, a Winged Cone, and a few unique Kre-O pieces.

Parts 2.  Clip Plates, Bar Plates, a big Bar Tile, Tires, Rims, Axle Plates, Kreon Motorcycle parts, a Printed Trans-Blue Tile, and more unique Kre-O pieces.

Build.  The shoulders are a completely illegal connection.  (2Rd+d8/1SSR)

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  Two for two this week.

Purity: Kre-O 82579 Transformers Cliffjumper Brick Box Review

It's been a while since I've done a Kre-O week.  Here's the first review.

Box.  I paid $5.25 for this at Dollar General.  This yields a $0.06  Price per Piece.

Stickers.  None of these sets came
with instructions.  This one
came with stickers though.

Kreons.

Parts 1.  Ooh, a Trans-Purple Bar Plate.  Bar Plates, Cheese Slopes, Clip Plates, Round Plates, Plates, Round Bricks, Clip Tiles, Cones, Kreon Torchholders, Kreon Handlebar, Jumper, Hinge Plate, and a Tile.

Parts 2.  Trans-Purple Brick, Trans-Purple Textured Tile, Mudguard Plates, Plates, Rims, Tires, Axle Plates, Slopes, 1x1x2 Brick, Bracket, and Clip Plate.

Build.  Another Ram Cart (2Rh+d8/2Rd/1B).

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  Another Brick Box with the max score.