The Comm Guild Maelstrom's Edge

Terrain plays a huge part in a miniatures game, both visually, and from a rules standpoint - impacting where models can go and what they can see on the battlefield. For Maelstrom's Edge V2, we wanted terrain rules that allowed terrain to be important while being easy to follow and not getting in the way of playing the game. We did this by grouping terrain into a few different types, and applying some simple rules to make these different types of terrain affect the battle in their own ways.



There are three main types of terrain:

• Obstacle: An obstacle is typically a single, solid terrain feature from which a standard-sized model could gain some measure of protection when crouching behind it. Examples: rocks, hills, walls, gun emplacements, fences, crates, barrels, etc.
• Area Terrain: Area terrain is a single base that typically contains multiple terrain elements mounted onto it, representing a much denser, cover-filled area than it appears. Examples: woods, ruins, clusters of rocks or bunches of crates/barrels mounted together on the same base.
• Building: a building is a special obstacle that has additional rules which allow a unit to enter and leave it.

You may also choose to give terrain features additional terrain effects where you feel it is appropriate.

• Impassable ground: terrain a model cannot move into, through or over. Usually these are large solid objects, like a building or a tall wall, but can also include area terrain features like deep water, lava fields and bottomless pits. Specific portions of a terrain feature can also be designated as impassable, like a pool of toxic chemicals within a woods, or the cliff on one side of a hill.
• Dangerous ground: terrain that causes minor damage to units moving through it. Instead of deciding that a river of lava, minefield, cliff, etc., is impassable, you may opt to instead make it dangerous ground, raising a unit's suppression level when they move through it. (For more on suppression, see the article here!
• Open ground: parts of the battlefield that don’t contain any terrain features, or any portion of a terrain feature you feel shouldn’t protect a unit that takes cover there, like the flat top of a platform.

Moving through terrain generally doesn't affect how far a unit can move, although vertical movement over 2" (moving up a multi-level ruin, for example) is counted towards the distance travelled. Beyond that, we didn't want terrain to complicate movement any more than it needs to, as troops moving on a battlefield are already moving with care - a few trees shouldn't force them to slow down that much!

Terrain does affect line of sight, however! Obstacles block line of sight exactly as they appear on the table: if you are able to spot an enemy model through or over an obstacle, then your unit has line of sight to them. Area terrain, however, represents a much denser grouping of terrain than is actually seen on the tabletop. Therefore, line of sight can be drawn to models in the area terrain, but can't be drawn from outside an area terrain feature and pass entirely through it to see models on the other side.

Models are assumed to be making use of available cover as they move around the battlefield. As such, the normal shooting rules don't confer any bonus protection to a unit that is partially obscured by default. Instead, shooting units receive a bonus to their shooting if the target is completely in the open. Conversely, a unit that is touching an obstacle or in area terrain can receive a bonus defense from terrain through the 'Take Cover' status action. For more on unit activation, check out the article here!

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You can find the full terrain rules in the Maelstrom's Edge V2 rulebook. Grab your copy from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore now! And while you're there, you can pick up the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprues - packed full of plastic details to add to your scratchbuilt terrain!



If you have any thoughts on the new rules, pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group, or start up a thread in the Maelstrom's Edge section on the Dakka Dakka forums. We welcome any feedback, and would love to hear how everyone's forces stack up in the new rules!