Hey guys Cavalier, commission painter for Frontline Gaming and co-host of Splintermind the Dark Eldar Podcast, back with a little advice column on terrain on how to get the most out of everything in your terrain collection.
For those of us on a hobby budget, creating a healthy collection of varied terrain that can last you down the years can seem a daunting thing. When you see endless battle reports with amazing terrain, or even go to events like the LVO where you see uniquely themed boards it can seem impossible to have a decent variety of terrain without making a dozen unique tables yourself. However I think I’ve found an approach that will give you almost endless variety, while still making it possible to mix and match any piece of terrain in your collection.
The theme I’ve chosen for my terrain is an “overgrown warzone”. Whether its hills and craters, city ruins or trees stands and Eldar ruins all of my terrain jives together by taking an overarching theme or visual motif on all my pieces. For my collection, that is a greyish-brown rubble and a smattering of varied green flock go on basically every piece.
Whether its on the rim of the bases of my own models, the basing for my ruins, the edge of craters, spots of foliage on the hills and mountains everything gets the same treatment. Supplemented with scattered pebbles and lichen (which you can pick up from Michaels) this allows me to pull everything into a single theme.
Whats cool about this is that no matter if you want to go pure wilderness board, Cities of Death style or a mix of both all your terrain can be featured on the same board and look really nice. It allows you to also simplify your search for cool accent pieces so you’ll know instantly if it’ll fit into your board scheme so you dont waste hobby funds on stuff that doesnt match.
You can also apply the process somewhat in reverse where if there is a key piece of terrain you know you want (perhaps if you are making your own table for the first time) you can choose a theme that you know will work that piece of terrain. A great example for Eldar players is the Eldritch Ruins. If you wanted that piece in heavy rotation on your board, you know you’ll probably want to avoid a snow theme unless you feel shaving off 8 tons of plant bits.
I would have to say that “reclaimed warzone” is probably your best bet to get the most out of your terrain collection. A mix of rocky hills and city terrain can easily be themed for deserts, wilderness or snow. It’ll allow to switch easily through a number of mats using the same terrain too, like a generic wilderness mat like my own and the new Overgrown City mat when I want to go full-on Cities of Death.
So hopefully you enjoyed this bit of advice and it simplifies your workload and allows you to maximize the terrain in your collection. My own board is a bit of a work in progress and between podcasting, playtesting, commission painting and continuing to update my own army this has really saved me a lot of time.
If you are interested in Aeldari discussion check out our podcast: Splintermind for exclusive Drukharii and all things Aeldari news and discussion. If you are interested in following my painting exploits check me out on Instagram! Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
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