GW Terrain - what do we want, what's reasonable?

[amysrevenge]

This is a question that has been tumbling around in my head for a while.  It's a two parter (shocking, based on the thread title).

a) What sort of fancy GW terrain would I like to see?

b) Is what I want a reasonable thing to ask/expect/hope for?

 

The easy answer to a) is:  terrain sets for entire tables, themed to specific realms and/or factions.  An entire table worth of Aqshy terrain, and an entire table of Ghyran terrain,  and an entire table of Hysh terrain, and...  Also and entire table worth of Bonesplitters terrain, and an entire table worth of Fyreslayers terrain, and...

The answer to b) is not one I like to think about.  As the answer is clearly "no, are you crazy?".  6 or 8 different terrain things, times 8 realms, equals 50-ish individual pieces of terrain just for the realms.  Ain't nobody got the resources for developing that, and even then other than TOs, who is going to buy all that?

[chord]

I would love a Generic Castle fortress at a reasonable price.

[amysrevenge]

I think perhaps a reasonable first step would be any one set of a complete table worth of terrain, all to the same theme.  A couple buildings, a couple forests, a water feature, some line-of-sight blocking/impassable terrain.  All in one box for a couple hundred bucks, or individually at a higher rate.

[Ravinsild]

I want more racial themed scenery, like cool death focused scenery, and more realm themed scenery like Aqshy is the realm of fire so we could have a volcano or like a firewall or something. 

[Overread]

I'd say they want generic terrain features or terrain featured around races/factions rather than realms specifically. IF they want to do realms they could do it as upgrade kits that bolt-on to give a realm feel to multiple terrain features. That way it cuts a lot down on what they have to make and makes it possible to field just a generic battle instead of realm battles.

 

I still can't tell how much GW is going to push realms; esp when we consider that the vast majority of players won't be making realm tables; Most battles will be conducted on the good-old green tables if there's any decoration at all.  

 

 

As for specifics I'd love to see some houses and buildings; a church; a temple; ruins and the makings of a castle wall. Whilst the shift to a much stronger and more broken up high fantasy world means that generic seige gear will look odd in some factions they could still give us a siege-mode. A castle wall with a few castle buildings coupled to a "Sigmar Siege" expansion that basically revolve around similar appraoches to Apoc for 40K (ergo putting your whole 20K collection down on the table) would be a very neat bit of fun.  Though it might be a product for 5 years time when, assuming continued growth, Sigmar is in a much healthier position and many players will have larger armies that they want to field.

[Ravinsild]

2 minutes ago, Overread said:

I'd say they want generic terrain features or terrain featured around races/factions rather than realms specifically. IF they want to do realms they could do it as upgrade kits that bolt-on to give a realm feel to multiple terrain features. That way it cuts a lot down on what they have to make and makes it possible to field just a generic battle instead of realm battles.

 

I still can't tell how much GW is going to push realms; esp when we consider that the vast majority of players won't be making realm tables; Most battles will be conducted on the good-old green tables if there's any decoration at all.  

 

 

As for specifics I'd love to see some houses and buildings; a church; a temple; ruins and the makings of a castle wall. Whilst the shift to a much stronger and more broken up high fantasy world means that generic seige gear will look odd in some factions they could still give us a siege-mode. A castle wall with a few castle buildings coupled to a "Sigmar Siege" expansion that basically revolve around similar appraoches to Apoc for 40K (ergo putting your whole 20K collection down on the table) would be a very neat bit of fun.  Though it might be a product for 5 years time when, assuming continued growth, Sigmar is in a much healthier position and many players will have larger armies that they want to field.

I guess the narrative player in me wonders what terrain for the realm of metal or light would look like, and to have a bunch of different huge jungle pieces for the realm of life and stuff. Also kind of inspired by the paint jobs for the terrain tiles at our local GW where the store manager made 4 different sets. 

1 is death themed, 1 is fire themed, 1 is regular ground and 1 is ice themed. 

[Kugane]

I kind of want a playmat made of rubber instead of cardboard. I like the option to wash my warhammer stuff occasionally. If its scenery itself though. The cheaper chinese stuff would be great. Affordable and plentiful.

[Mephisto]

54 minutes ago, amysrevenge said:

I think perhaps a reasonable first step would be any one set of a complete table worth of terrain, all to the same theme.  A couple buildings, a couple forests, a water feature, some line-of-sight blocking/impassable terrain.  All in one box for a couple hundred bucks, or individually at a higher rate.

Add in one of those simple yet oddly thematic felt mat things and you got a heckuva set up.

[BaldoBeardo]

A modular system like the 40k Sectors would be a good start. What might be good to go alongside would be - similar to the basing kits - a sprue of realm-specific detailing that could be used with the terrain or indeed bases.

[EccentricCircle]

Proper buildings would be great. I have more than enough ruined buildings to last me pretty much forever. What I want is actual houses, shops, temples and the like to set up more of a city board. (i've got some lake town houses, but those only go so far).

A really nice castle would be great, but you know that if they make one it will be a really wacky Age of Sigmar castle, rather than a realistic looking one. Terrain is one area where I think they could hurt themselves by refusing to make anything that is "generic" since the more specific to a game or setting you make it the less easy it is to use for a different scenario.

[pseudonyme]

1 hour ago, Ravinsild said:

I guess the narrative player in me wonders what terrain for the realm of metal or light would look like, and to have a bunch of different huge jungle pieces for the realm of life and stuff. Also kind of inspired by the paint jobs for the terrain tiles at our local GW where the store manager made 4 different sets. 

1 is death themed, 1 is fire themed, 1 is regular ground and 1 is ice themed. 

For the realm of metal, I would say that the 40k terrain can fit. Add some dispossed helmets here and there, and you have something looking credible.

 

for the realm of light, frankly, I could see transparent piece of scenery. Wonder if you could make a mold out of AoS scenery and fill it with transparent resin.

[Hyperkinako]

I personally feel they should/will move away from the generic medieval Europe look and hope they produce much grander fantastical scenery.   Most gaming tables are littered with very old world looking pieces, nothing wrong with that and those places should exist in the mortal realms but looking through the new lore and art the realms have so much more to offer.

[Skabnoze]

The first thing that I want GW to embrace is generic terrain.  If we take price out of the equation then GW makes very good quality terrain.  Their products are durable and look nice.  I have always been a fan of the Citadel Woods.  The Garden of Morr / Sigmarite Mausoleum is another kit that is very nice and relatively generic. 

I play multiple different games, not just GW games, and so part of what I look for in terrain for my house is whether it is generic enough to work in a couple of games.  I don't mind getting some terrain specifically for certain games, but I don't want the bulk of my terrain to be just for a single game.  The Citadel Woods and Graveyard are suitably generic that they fit into a variety of tables for a variety of games.  A lot of the new 40k Industrial Terrain can work like that as well.

So, I would like to see them put out a series of generic terrain items.

[stato]

What happened to the dual level Ruins of Azyr that was promised?  did i just dream that or was it a thing?

For me i want Mortal realms weird crazy stuff we can incorporate.  What about ;

• Giant tiered interlinking cogs like they have on the realm of battle board.  
• Rock/crystal/bone spires thrusting out of the ground.
• Daft staircases to no-where (heaven maybe...)
• Torn up ground that looks like the earth has peeled back from some magic cataclysm to expose a layer of skulls/lava/maggots underneath

And i want them big, like at least 1/2 as tall again as a Mawcrusher or similar, really put some Mortal realms level of scale to it.

 

[michu]

I've seen some Tyranids terrain from MicroArtStudio https://shop.microartstudio.com/pl/elementy-terenu/362-hive-maw-2-5900232360437.html. I think GW could do something similar, because painted with more earthy tones it would be perfect for Ghur "predatory" hills and mountains.

[Redking]

Generic ruins that can work with skirmish.  The two-level ruins and maybe bring back some oop things like hills, dreadstone blight, etc.

[SuperHappyTime]

3 hours ago, amysrevenge said:

b) Is what I want a reasonable thing to ask/expect/hope for?

Silly internet AOS player, nothing you ask for is ever reasonable

I don't think terrain sells very well. Evidence would be that the 40K terrain is now being sold in Kill Team packs. Personally, I don't pick up too much because what I want to spend wouldn't cover half the table.

[amysrevenge]

2 minutes ago, SuperHappyTime said:

Silly internet AOS player, nothing you ask for is ever reasonable

I don't think terrain sells very well. Evidence would be that the 40K terrain is now being sold in Kill Team packs. Personally, I don't pick up too much because what I want to spend wouldn't cover half the table.

Yeah, that's basically the bitter truth I don't want to face.

[michu]

@SuperHappyTime That's the whole point of scenery  - it blocks LoS. And Kill Team is a game that needs even more terrain. Adding it to starter set and faction packs helps beginners to make crowded enough tables easier.

[Euphanism]

I'd love to see a big box of realm-specific terrain. Each one could come with enough pieces to make a table look like you really are in that realm. In my wildest dreams, each box would be $100 and come with one or two big realm pieces (like a giant beast skull for Gyhran, gothic building for Shysh, etc) and a smattering of smaller pieces like vines and walls or whatnot.

[Orsino]

As someone who enjoys building their own terrain what I really want are little pieces that can be used to enhance scratch-built terrain - statues, bridges, icons, market stalls, walls, more plants, archways, strange little beasties and animals.

This stuff is all available from other companies of course but I think GW is missing a trick by not making more AoS specific accoutrements for larger terrain pieces. The Citadel Skulls pack is great, give us more little boxes like that.

[SuperHappyTime]

@michu I agree with you entirely. I'm saying individual Terrain boxes are a) too expensive for my tastes, and b) too expensive for a lot of other players, and thus were sacrificed to being a part of a combination.

I'd like to see something similar to what @Euphanism suggested. Give me a big box of terrain, enough to fill a 4x4 or 4x6, and charge a decent price. I think $200 would sell like hotcakes, so maybe in the $250-$300 range.

[Barkanaut]

13 hours ago, amysrevenge said:

This is a question that has been tumbling around in my head for a while.  It's a two parter (shocking, based on the thread title).

a) What sort of fancy GW terrain would I like to see?

b) Is what I want a reasonable thing to ask/expect/hope for?

 

The easy answer to a) is:  terrain sets for entire tables, themed to specific realms and/or factions.  An entire table worth of Aqshy terrain, and an entire table of Ghyran terrain,  and an entire table of Hysh terrain, and...  Also and entire table worth of Bonesplitters terrain, and an entire table worth of Fyreslayers terrain, and...

The answer to b) is not one I like to think about.  As the answer is clearly "no, are you crazy?".  6 or 8 different terrain things, times 8 realms, equals 50-ish individual pieces of terrain just for the realms.  Ain't nobody got the resources for developing that, and even then other than TOs, who is going to buy all that?

Option c)  A generic ruins set that can fit into any of the realms with minor modifications and good painting. Then we can expand into some based on the realms which the generic ruin set will fit into. Later on if its feasible and the terrain does well then we can see maybe a few pieces of army specific terrain for the bigger ones. 

[michu]

If building Ghyran tables Creeping Vine and Barbed Bracken are perfect additions for ruins and rocks.

[RuneBrush]

I think key items for me is middle sized line-of-sight blocking terrain.  So things around the size of the old Watchtower and a little bigger.  I do think there's a bit of a balance to be had, you need enough scenery that it makes a game interesting, but not so much that it makes playing a game awkward.  Quite a lot of people run units of 30 or 40 models, which can become cumbersome if you've a sprawling metropolis to manoeuvre round.

13 hours ago, EccentricCircle said:

Proper buildings would be great. I have more than enough ruined buildings to last me pretty much forever. What I want is actual houses, shops, temples and the like to set up more of a city board. (i've got some lake town houses, but those only go so far).

^ this!  I can see the logic with having *some* ruins (and quite a few for 40k), but would love to be able to construct more complete buildings.  I think one of the real inspirational pieces of 40k "terrain" has been the armoured containers.  Lots of people have converted them into shops and makeshift buildings which look amazing as a shantytown.  They're also versatile enough you can use them for roads and as components in larger structures.