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Summer is finally here and we're all expected to play outside! (At least those who don't have to work during the day )

So an idea came to me...

Has anyone ever played Warhammer Fantasy/40k outside?

I was looking out at my back garden and noticed there are several advantages:
-Massive space to play massive games. (Necron supersonic vehicles, tanks moving flat out, ability to use the Imperial Guard basilisk's full range!)
-Ready made terrain! (And lots of it!)
-Ability to mould terrain to your liking!
-No need to worry about being in the way of other people in your house!
-If it starts raining put on a coat and give a -1 BS penalty (or nightfighting rules!)



I decided to look out at my own garden and see what scenarios I could come up with. Here are a few from about 2 minutes of looking around:

1.) There's the main grassy bit which would be fantastic for a jungle world scenario. (Watch out for those thistles/patches of clover that count as dangerous terrain!)

2.) There is the edge of the flower garden which is mostly soil at the minute. You could easily dig trenches there and have a WW! style battle with mud etc.

3.) There is a path which is fairly flat ground, could represent an urban area.

4.) There is a patch of garden separated by a small stream of water. Perhaps you could make a few bridges across this? (AV 10 for wooden ones, AV12 for steel ones, AV 13 for anything stronger)


There just seems to be so much potential for playing Warhammer outside during the Summer!

Has anyone else ever played outside? It definitely looks like it could provide an exciting game!

Are you serious? You live in the UK and you want to play 40k outside?
You ever hear of this thing called "wind"? It's nigh-on impossible to play a card game outside, let alone 40k.

Wind would cause issues, as would surprise rain-showers.

"Ok my guys are going to deploy in these ruins on the top floors, and over the course of the game my guys are going to be blown down by wind, so when I fail a save on them, half the work is done for me!"

Haha, A penny/weight on the base solves most of my balancing problems.

Clearly strong winds are a problem in certain areas. In some places though the wind shouldn't be too much of an issue. I'm relatively lucky in the fact that my garden is sheltered by trees and a couple of other houses which can act as a wind breaker.

EDIT: And with all due respect, cards are an AWFUL lot lighter than even the lightest plastic infantry model.

Don't listen to Mr McNegative, it is doable, I've done it myself, but I would use patio furniture or a wallpaper table or similar. Playing directly on the grass makes it a nightmare to get infantry to stand up, and if you're my age, spending time that low to the ground gets painful!

Truthfully, a better solution is to set up some tables out of the wind, crank up the grill, and relax with your friends, some tasty beverages, and the...what...two days out of the year it isn't raining in the UK?

--B.

PS: I know, I know. FOUR days out of the year...

Biggest negative for us is carting all the models to and from the backyard, its fine when setting up because its exciting and fun but packing them all up and trudging them back to the house is a pain in the butt (they are all stored in the attic too so =/).

Briancj wrote:Truthfully, a better solution is to set up some tables out of the wind, crank up the grill, and relax with your friends, some tasty beverages, and the...what...two days out of the year it isn't raining in the UK?

--B.

PS: I know, I know. FOUR days out of the year...

That sounds like my kind of Summer!

Marsden wrote:

Briancj wrote:Truthfully, a better solution is to set up some tables out of the wind, crank up the grill, and relax with your friends, some tasty beverages, and the...what...two days out of the year it isn't raining in the UK?

--B.

PS: I know, I know. FOUR days out of the year...

That sounds like my kind of Summer!

4 days of sunshine? I wish.

The biggest problem is that some model will invariably be left behind playing on the ground. I'd really rather not see how a Guardsman's armor holds up against a lawnmower. Now bringing folding tables outside and playing there, I can do that! I've done it a couple times and it can be a nice change of scenery for a game.

Or the pet dog. Not even a Superheavy is gonna stop him.

Ratius wrote:Or the pet dog. Not even a Superheavy is gonna stop him.

A Manta with enough force might.

IS this thread REALLY going to devolve into "What Forge World monstrosity is best suited to knocking out the family dog"?

@blap I still wager on the doggy


haha Briancj!

Briancj wrote:IS this thread REALLY going to devolve into "What Forge World monstrosity is best suited to knocking out the family dog"?

You say that like it hasn't already happened!

The old metal dread causally strolls up to this competition and wins it anyway.

On tables yes, on the ground in the dirt no.

I'd be a bit nervous about my models getting covered in soil, especially things like vehicles that you can't clean easily. Outdoors on a table, definitely.

I still have nightmares about one of my old rogue trader sergeants disappearing down the gullet of a ravenous magpie...the only saving issue was he was mostly lead so in your face magpie! (And in my face for letting my models dry on my balcony!)

We used to rogue trader rules to play outside with 1/35 scale models. It's cool untill something gets stepped on.

There's nothing wrong with the idea of playing outside in the sunshine, but I would echo that if you're going to do it, a table still works much better than in the grass. Trying to get your infantry models to stand up in the grass is very difficult, and it's also somewhat nice to have the more defined boarders of a table edge than trying to mark it out. As for wind, I've never had much of a problem with it, but then again, I've never played in heavy winds. I can't help but feel like the only things that may have a problem in the wind are some of the fine cast models (howling banshees are really light), but you could always test it by just sticking them in front of a fan going full-blast.

If you have someone with a gaming table or even just one of those green garden carpets, gaming outside is awesome.

Sadly, if I put my gaming table on my balcony, there wont be anyone else out there :(

Playing wargames on an outside table, in a sheltered area is actually quite nice. If possible, build your gaming table with a bit of a raised lip around the edge to help keep dice and figures from falling over the edge,

And a few beers holders too!

Ratius wrote:And a few beers holders too!

More important than you might think. Especially when the 1s start coming 'round!