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Well, I've decided to retire any terrain that felt to wargamey and started working on pieces that felt more skirmishy. Here is my collection of hills I built this summer. Comments and criticisms welcome.

I also wanted hills that felt 5th edition with guys clambering and slipping while they get into position. We've been playing them is difficult terrain for infantry and impassable for vehicles. A little built in protection from last round tank shocking.

I still have washes and highlights to apply to the bases and am thinking of doing some static grass to the tops to give them more of a moss covered feel.

Cheers!



The collection



Two larger hills put together



Guardians and Fire Dragons for scale



overhead of Wave Serpant hiding from Zoanthrope and Bright Lance. Note: this is the smaller hill and the others easily hide models.



Zoanthropes POV. Can see the turret. Zoanthrope is a tall model and this could be an advantage or disadvantage. I guess it would depend on who's turn it was...



Bright Lances POV. Hidden skimmer.

those hills are alive with the sound of music. . .!?

tra-la-la-la-tat-a-tat-tat....

They are much lighter then the usual hill I see, which isn't a bad thing...

So all your hills create choke points for ground vehicles?

How has that been working out for thenon-skimmer players?

My club has made new 5th edition hills also.

What we think is key is, whatever astetic form the hills have they must have a sihlouette that blocks vehichles 100% (be a lot bigger than 4th ed hills).

These you have made seem like they meet that criteria. Good work! They look nice too. Was that (size) intentional and if so was it motivated by the 5 ed rules?

Those are great. Very individualistic. I feel a spate of new hill-building coming on. Old terrain must go...

Nice! I like how models are able to actually stand on them. Also, if you want lots of hills quickly and moderately cheaply, then get some plaster cloth. that stuff is amazing for scenery. I made 3 hills in about 30 minutes (minus drying time.) You can probably find it in the train section of most hobby stores.

These are fantastic! May I ask what they are made of, how much they cost to build?

You really should do a 5th edition terrain building article.

Typeline wrote:These are fantastic! May I ask what they are made of, how much they cost to build?

You really should do a 5th edition terrain building article.

x2, I would really like to know more about them.

@corey - I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. A lot of granite quarries and exposed rock on the Island Highway. The rock is a white gray so I guess its just what I like

Malfred - No complaints, yet. We don't typically use all the hills in a single battle. I fill out the 25% terrain with other pieces (craters, ruins, tall grass). I think people like hiding their heavy support in the hills more than they feel the need to run their tanks/trucks up there. As we play the hills as difficult and area terrain. Heavy weapons teams aren't as easily assaulted by other troops or jump infantry. If someone had a really problem with it I would accomatate them but my feeling is that you just can't drive tanks *everywhere*. Bring infantry and be prepared to have them get out and grab an objective up the hill...

@Augustus - Yes, the size was definitely intentional and I think I was very motivated by a lot of the criticisms on the forums that the new rules made it impossible to hide vehicles. Before I glued the blocks down I had some walkers and tanks and made sure even the smaller hills afforded enough height to block LOS completely. My feeling is that even though these hills are large they don't feel unrealistic, at least in the parts of the world I have traveled.

@Warpcrafter - Yeah, I've recently donated some of my old hills to make room for these and other hills.

thanks for the feed back, guys

kid_happy wrote:@Augustus - Yes, the size was definitely intentional and I think I was very motivated by a lot of the criticisms on the forums that the new rules made it impossible to hide vehicles. ...even though these hills are large they don't feel unrealistic, at least in the parts of the world I have traveled.

Indeed, I suspected so, outstanding work!

We have found that vehicle blocking terrain generally helps game balance out a lot, we love our new hills too!

Good gaming to you sir!

great odins ghost! you must be a terrain building master! those are awesome hills.... i think im sneaking over to you neck of the woods and take those puppies!

There is no doubt that is some 'difficult' terrain to navigate across. Excellent work.

Typeline wrote:These are fantastic! May I ask what they are made of, how much they cost to build?

You really should do a 5th edition terrain building article.

Cheers!

I'll start putting something together when I start another one, focusing on some objectives and "table dressing".

In short the materials were:

MDF board
1", 2", and large Styrofoam chunks
plastic ferns
sand
paint

I just chopped up the foam and glued it down when I had something I liked. This whole set probably cost $30-$45. Hard to tell because I've used partially sheets of the pink 1" and 2" board and the white foam from packing in boxes.

KingCracker wrote:great odins ghost! you must be a terrain building master! those are awesome hills.... i think im sneaking over to you neck of the woods and take those puppies!

LOL. Well, no need. If your going to sneak over, stay the night. My wife and I bought a Bed and Breakfast and I'm always up for a game. My hope is to have another two tables by the summer (dark green and hopefully a winter board). I'm a gamer and it's what has allowed us to afford this place. She understands and supports my habit. If I can get gamers swinging through for games then I'm a very happy camper!

Bread and Breakfast gaming?

How many marriages have you broken up, man?

Very impressive.

I've always made terrain with TLOS in mind (it's how I've usually played my wargames - except for 40k's "area terrain" foofah last ed.)

Nice to see someone else who has actual LOS blocking terrain for 5th ed.