Need input on terrain

[Vash1313]

I am preparing to run a 500pt slow grow league at the end of this month and the owner of my local game store has offered to build two 4x4 tables of terrain. We would both like to do one of the more outlandish realms, such as the realm of fire and metal, than say the realm of life. I don't have any of the books except the mighty battles book, so I'm looking for suggestions for functional terrain pieces to make themed boards. Any ideas?

[Lysandestolpe]

The biggest issues I have encountered when building and designing terrain for both casual play and tournaments are: Durability and function.

Durability: Foam will break. It can be in one week, one month of half a year, it will eventually break and that pink foam is gonna illuminate the board and look terrible. My suggestion is: Seal everything with a coat of PVA/all glue and fine grain sand. It will serve as a cement and get rock hard.

Function: Doesn't it suck when you move your piece forward and have to stack 2 dice on top of one another to have you figure being able to stay on your piece of terrain? It sucks even more when someone lightly bumps the table and the figure comes crashing down and tumbles across the board. Well, think about the measurements. If you're building a pyramid, try to have every plane be at least 40mm wide so that even 60mm bases can stand firmly on the planes. In addition, don't build the plans too high and you can put your monsters across the diagonal and still stand firm. Furthermore, I have gone from building awesome terrain that are high in reach and gives a fantastic feel to it, but the great thing about AoS - there is not really any line of sight. USE that to your advantage. Build things that either block line of sight completely or that don't. 

You can check my terrain thread in the Painting and modeling for ideas on how to make terrain. I have skipped on certain pieces to cover the foam in sand. That is a conscious decision that I am aware of the consequences off. It is also because these pieces will be used more or less only by me.

Good luck! Don't forget to post pictures!