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I dont know about other areas, but at my FLGS I almost never see craters used for when people have their vehicles exploded. I don't because they dont, but a 4+ cover save can make all the difference to any army sans zonthropes and Th/SS Termies.

What about in your area?

Answer for the people in your area/at events you attended, not just yourself.

I bought the GW craters for this very purpose! Great kit, easy to paint and comes in enough sizes to realistically show a one inch Trukk explosion or a six inch Land Raider cataclysm.

We always use craters by the way, unless we are in the end game and they are irrelevant to the outcome of the game.

Interestingly, the craters my friend and I use (hand-made) have space marine and IG bits in them. So in one game, my friend's Eldar Warwalker exploded, and he questioned as to why there were imperial guardsmen and space marine in his warwalker.
The opponent's answer?
"They were having a party inside."

I don't see why you wouldn't use them craters are to easy to make.

When my manticores loose missiles or are destroyed, I take the remaining actual tiny missles and throw them on the board nearby. When a manticore is exploded, I put the little missiles in a rough radius of where the vehicle used to be.

Otherwise, no. I've never had a situation where it would have mattered that there was rough terrain where the vehicle used to be.

I don't, but only because I haven't had the time to make any craters yet.

I play against Orks a lot and they're pretty fanatical for those crater explosions.

I use white printing paper cut-outs, which I count as area terrain for the crater.

It's lazy, but I haven't really built any craters myself, I'm too busy painting my Orks.

You can buy a foam cutter for under $20 (a good one), and an 8 foot sheet of foam will make a couple zillions craters. If 2 or 3 people share the cost it is nothing. One evening's effort, and you will have plenty of nice looking craters. I coat mine in molding paste for priming, durability, and texture. But even that only adds an hour or so to the process. So I encourage all of you to spend an afternoon with friends and stock up on craters. Heck, it might even convince some of you to try your hand at building other terrain!

I didn't know that's what the GW craters were for lol! We thought they were to add some character to the terrain, and we use them occasionally as dangerous terrain. Usually not though, because they aren't model-friendly. I printed out vehicle-sized fiery paper to use...maybe I'll actually use the darn craters.

While we're on topic, I have a question about this (I know this should go in YMDC). When a transport explodes with units inside, do they go inside the dangerous terrain or outside?

I don't know if that's what they are for, but they work like a charm.

As a Daemon player, I went so far as to make craters for other people's vehicles, and simply bringing the box of craters along with the army each time.

I found that making plaster craters was really similar to making cookies. The trick is to not get confused and later try to spray paint a batch of cookies.

I came across these the other day when I was browsing about online.

http://classictoysoldiers.com/cgi-bin/ctsc6/rtl/prd_d.cgi?category=25mm%20Toy%20Soldiers+Accessories%20(25mm)



That site seems to have quite a lot of terrain stuff that could be used in 40k, including interconnecting river parts.

Bizmo wrote:

While we're on topic, I have a question about this (I know this should go in YMDC). When a transport explodes with units inside, do they go inside the dangerous terrain or outside?

Explodes results in difficult terrain, wreck results is dangerous. When it's a wreck, it's a disembarkation, so the disembarking player chooses.

I either use white pieces of paper cut to the size of my rhinos or if I forget them I use very large dice on the edges of the vehicle prior to detonation and mark the spot, saves time digging through terrain for an appropriate size.

My last 5 games were played over Vassal 40k, and that places them automatically, so: yes. ^^

I play at a GW, and there are tons lying around. I also play Razorback spam, so there are usually a few on the thavle by the end of the game.

Making craters out of foam is the easiest and most effective way to make craters imo. I've done them in plaster before and the mess it makes, waiting to dry, etc. just isn't worth it. That 8' foam sheet is like $9 and you can make enough craters to span... well its dimensions, 8'x4' :p

I have made "Wrecks" and Craters in the right size for my Rhinos and Dreads in my Legion of Brass army (Khorne mechanized dreadbash). For the Defilers I just remove the arms and turret.

I had a bunch of Mk1 Rhinos laying around that I would never use so I mounted them on WHFB movement trays (also never using!) and went to town melting and breaking the crap outta them to show them as wrecks. The craters are just foam with sand flocking.

Well... it's RAW .
Generally, random bits are laid around the perimeter of the vehicle.