Saga - Tips for the Newbie Player III. Terrain

This post I'm going to cover terrain.

III. Terrain

Some would say this is not required and they'd be right. You don't need to have terrain - especially if you belong to a club or have a local game shop or space. Lot's of places have bins of trees, hills, and rocks.

Having some of your own is important though. You may be running a faction that may benefit from some terrain. Welsh have all kinds of terrain-based abilities so a  Welsh player may want some woods and marsh terrain. Everyone can benefit from a building. Some scenarios require roads, rivers, bridges, and carts.

Saga has mechanics for placing and using terrain. It can be a very important aspect of a game and a player's strategy. With that in mind it seems, to me, to be almost as important as miniatures. In many scenarios specific terrain is required (river and bridges for Fords, buildings for Homeland, etc.).

Not to get into minutiae of rules but, as an example of how important terrain is let's look at Normans. Normans are a very shoot-y and horse-y. Two major restrictions for those is line of sight and rough ground, things provided by terrain An opponent to Normans would bid high in the beginning to put down as much terrain as possible between them and Normans. Normans would bid low on terrain to keep the field clear and/or keep the terrain out of the way of lanes of attack. That's all part of the meta.

Earlier I mentioned that there are 2 sizes of terrain in Saga, M and L (6" and 12"). Saga Core has a chart in it that tells you what size specific terrain an be and what effects they have on play. Other than that it's pretty loose. I like to base my Saga terrain like miniatures as the rules tend to favor that, though not hard-wired. The edge of the MDF base = the edge of the terrain feature. Your figure is either on it or not. No gaming it. I just make sure that the terrain feature befits the size - I'm not going to glue a pebble on a 12" board and call it "rough ground".

My first building, thatched roof a-frame (cardboard, fur for thatch, and coffee stir sticks).

My first attempt at terrain bases - I found that cutting some MDF down to 12" squares is most versatile.

The craft of terrain making is vast and varied. Ridiculously so. Not having a ton of experience myself I'm a bit overwhelmed. There are SO MANY WAYS to make a hill.

As I have done you can scratch build a lot of terrain. I found that with limited space on my work bench (and time) sometimes just buying some pieces works out fine. That can get expensive though. My bar there is if I can't make it well the first time out and I can purchase it easy that that's what I'll do. I found things like fences from Renedra Plastics (Warstore on line), vacuum formed river and general terrain from Amera, plenty of resin in various states of finish from many manufacturers.

Here's some stuff I've learned:

• Any kind of aresol spray will destroy foam. Even spray-on gesso <<this I just learned last month.
• You can buy pink insulation foam at Home Depot in 2'x2' squares, very handy!
• Resin can get expensive but it's nice. Look for "seconds" if you can. I know, hard to do on the nets.
• "Buy in Bulk" if you need some epoxy style putty. "Green Stuff" is pretty costly on a terrain-level.*

*Actually, when it comes to sculpting and putty for terrain there are a ton of good options. Most of them are in your hardware store and very cost-efective. Caulk, drywall paste, plaster, plumber's putty... I've seen it all used to good effect. There is no right or wrong there. I just used up the last of my Miliput and have A-Poxy now.

• Utility Brushes! Get some. Don't use your minis brush.
• Teddy bear fur fabric, easy to find at the craft or fabric store. Great for long grass effects and thatched roof houses.

Funny anecdote time:

Spencer and I were playing at our FLGS one day. We wanted some forest terrain so we grabbed some off the shelves. The stuff we made was at home. The FLGS had some Battle Field In A Box terrain on the shelf - forests. You'd get a base that was flocked with dirt and tufts... and the trees were separate! You could move them around! WE NEVER THOUGHT OF THIS STRANGE TECHNOLOGY!  From that day fourth we never permanently affix trees to large area coverings.We all know it's woods and the trees do not get in the way of your figs.

Anyways, I suggest players that want a good smattering of terrain to get:
Woods
Hill
Building
That'll give you a good base to play with.