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What you don't know can hurt you Okay, we've all seen movies like Aliens, where a group has to fight their way through a maze-like series of tunnels while being ambushed out of nowhere by nasties. It can be hard to set up a game like this for two reasons, player knowledge of the maze itself (meaning there's no concern about getting lost, they always know exactly where to go) and player knowledge of enemy movement, since they can see those Genestealers waiting around the corner. It can also be difficult to create a proper labyrinth, but let's tackle one problem at a time. First we'll cover the player knowledge parts, then I'll cover a bit about construction options. A little knowledge... First, player knowledge of the maze. If one or more players don't know where everything in the maze is, it makes it more of a challenge and adds a psychological element that is often missing from games. While this sometimes comes up the first time a new terrain board is created, after that first time, everyone knows how it works. Since there isn't enough time or energy to create a whole new board every time you want to play (if there is, come over to my house, I've got some stuff for you to do!) we need a way to keep that "new board smell" fresh. One option is to have the terrain board broken up into smaller sections that can be connected in different ways. With a 4x6 foot board broken up into 6 2x2 sections, you've got an amazing number of possible combinations. If you have a few spare pieces, and make the sections able to join at any possible side, you'll have a lot of variety. You can also create that effect by having multiple levels on the board, represented by different boards. (You start on board A. If you move off the North board edge, you'll come in on the South end of board B. If you take the Elevator in the middle, you'll come up in the middle of Board C.) Changing around which passage leads where from one game to the next (now if you leave the North edge of A, you end up on the South edge of C) will bring variety as well as giving you a much larger area to play on. On the other hand, you can use dice to figure out where each passage leads as you get to it, allowing players to explore and not really know where they are going. If you don't keep the direction fixed during the game, it can lead to unusual situations like a unit chasing enemies down a corridor, and when they follow them through the stairwell, they end up on the opposite end of the board from them. (The enemies rolled a 4 and came out on the North edge of A, while the friendlies rolled a 6 and came out on the South edge of C.) On the other hand, that can be explained by poor character knowledge of the area and taking a wrong turn. In a pinch, you could also use this on a single board (if you leave the North edge, you end up on the South side, or if you go off the board through passage A, you will come back in through passage B.) They're in the ducts! Warhammer 40k already offers several different ways of handling hidden deployment or movement. You can create a number of counters, each representing a unit, and deploy as normal (just marking which unit goes with which counter) then also deploying a number of "dummy" counters, that either represent booby traps/minefields, or are just a false reading on the scanners. A variation on this would be to only reveal the counters when a player gets line of sight to them. You could potentially even move all the counters (even the dummies) during your turn, and just reveal them when there is line of sight. Similar to this would be using Mandrake-style movement. You get 2-3 models per unit, representing "blips" on a scanner scope. They are moved as normal, and when revealed (still use the line of sight idea for this) you choose which blip is real and which are fakes. Note that if some of your forces have faster movement than others, you should slow them down a little to represent them moving more stealthily (and to keep the other player from guessing which ones are which!) An alternate way of doing this is to use Lictor or Catachan ambusher styles of deployment. (the player writes down where they are located, maybe allowing other players to search the areas they are in, but not using any counters so they don't have a clue where the units are.) Any of these methods will work for one player using hidden deployment or movement, but it gets to be very difficult to represent it when more than one player has that option. (My Blip moves into line of sight of your Blip, revealing it to be a dummy, but my mine was a dummy too.) One option is to simply allow one side to have the Home Field Advantage. (The Tyranids know where you are because this is their hive ship and it senses you moving through it and tells them.) If you plan on more than one side not knowing what's going on you can use a referee and hidden movement (only the ref knows where everyone is, and they'll let you know if you see something.) This can get kind of complicated and also requires having one person who is not actually playing. (This could be a good solution for when 3 people show up and you play a short game, with the understanding that the ref gets to play the winner of the previous game or something.) Another way to do this is to abstract it using the deepstrike rules, either for initial deployment or for when you move off the board using one passage, you put the unit into reserve and when it shows up, you can deepstrike it anywhere else on the board. (They crawled through the ventilation ducts.) Note that Deepstrike does not allow assaulting or firing heavy weapons, but that can be explained as cramped confines (like a ventilation duct) restricting their movement/firing. Insert Tab A into Slot B...wait... Construction. Okay, now you've got some ideas on how to get around without your opponent knowing where you are and you are stoked about getting a game on, how do you construct your passages? First off, while you'll want a lot of smaller passages to restrict movement and keep things exciting, you'll probably want a few medium size rooms for larger fights and possibly objectives. You may also want to figure out a way for unusual-sized things to get around. That Hive Tyrant may be able to slither through the passageway, but the Dreadnaught will have a harder time, and that tank will have to take the freight elevator or stay outside. Now that you've got an idea of how to get around and what sort of layout you are looking for, what are your construction options? Styrofoam (big pink or blue sheets are available from Do It Yourself type stores fairly cheaply) is one option. A hot wire cutter is very handy here. Take a couple of sheets, depending on how deep you want the walls to be, and cut a series of paths through them, either straight up and down, like normal walls, or curved/sloping like natural caves. That can give really cool results, but it can be pretty messy, too. You can also get various widths of plastic or metal pipe from DIY stores, either cutting it in half, or just cutting one side and spreading it out to produce your half-pipe tunnels. (Whole pipe tunnels look cool, but how do you get your models in or out?) The final option is to make it totally organic-looking (great for a Tyranid Hive ship or something) by using expanding foam (I have used Great Stuff brand for this and it works well.) A combination of these methods could also work well, use what works best for or is available to you. Finally, remember that if you plan to use modular boards that can be connected in different combinations, you'll need to have some regular connections on each side so that you can turn them and the passages will still line up. A good way to do this is to have each board have a connection in the center of each side, so they will line up no matter what. Then you can snake the passages around all you want in the middle of each section and still have them work out right. As an additional option, you might have a few dead ends where a tunnel connects from board A into the center of one side of board B, which is just a small hollow ending the tunnel. This is common in Anthills and natural caves, so it makes perfect sense for your labyrinth as well. Alright now, start digging! If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |