There was a time in which I was of the opinion that wargames were cool mainly because of the rules and you could fully enjoy them playing with unpainted minis, boxes as terrain and grandma's tablecloth as gaming mat. In this regards I have changed my mind quite a bit and in this post I am going to share my views with you.
Wargame rules are garbage
In full honesty I came to the realization that wargame rules don't really matter. Game rules primarily provide an excuse to get the toy soldiers we spend hours to assemble and paint off of their shelves, out of their boxes and play with them against our friends.
Also, game companies (some more predatorily than others) make instrumental use of rules updates to push new product lines and feed the hype machine. Do not get trapped into unhealthy metas!
For myself what I realized it ultimately matters is the game experience which only marginally depends on the rule mechanics while heavily relates to players attitude and immersivity of the setting, the lore and the game table. This makes miniatures and terrains complying to a minimum quality standard pivotal and I found that it really fuels me in reaching my hobby goals and improving.
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| some minor kitbash and personalization on the Games Workshop LoTR "Osgiliath Ruins" kit |
Different needs for different games
In the post in which I listed the 5 things I love about Infinity I elaborated on the fact that in some settings prismatic carboard buildings are perfect while in others you need much more textured terrain both natural and man-made.
Ruins are your friends as they nicely combine modularity, variety and ease of play. Large buildings are cool but it can be frustrating not to be able to reach and move models around. Also, even the coolest terrain can loose its appeal over time if it cannot be (at least to some extent) rearranged in a modular manner.
Finally, focus on the requirements that the games you play the most have. Skirmish games typically play on small, multi-level and terrain-dense tables while large scale battle games require flatter surfaces, more abstract and itemized features such as woods, fields, roads, rivers and buildings do not necessarily need playable interiors.
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| Corvus Belli Infinity cardboard buildings - legacy Operation Red Veil mixed with new generation Sálvora and Kaldstrom scenery packs. |
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| Games Workshop "Azyrite Chapel", perfect for Mordheim! |
Value your time and focus on what you like
There is a huge number of super talented creators that produce awesome scratch-built wargaming terrains. Let me just take the opportunity to mention the "MiniMondi" community which pumps out an incredible quantity of inspiring projects and is very welcoming and open to share pieces of advice and tutorials with beginners.
- website (and related forum)
- Facebook Group
Just for the records, it was within that community that Uopo got inspiration and motivation for his amazing project The Cathedral (the most viewed and successful post on the blog!).
Having said that, now the fundamental question comes: does it work for you?
If I have to answer for myself, the answer is no. I do not enjoy scratch-building, I already struggle to find the time to paint the miniatures I need to play and I do not have the space to accommodate terrain building projects.
The scarcest resource is time and that should be valued accordingly. In my case it would take lot of time to complete a scratch-building project, results will be poor and total cost eventually high.
To me terrain is just a mean to a satisfactory gaming experience end, and this is the rationale according to which I make my choices
Ultimately I found out that plastic kits are what work for me. Durable, very detailed and painted like miniatures (same products and techniques). The pictures in this post are all terrains I put together using Games Workshop's plastic kits and I am fairly happy with them.
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| old but gold Garden of Morr |
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| little statue conversion mixing Garden of Morr and Empire State troops parts |
Decisions are not forever and there are phases in the hobby just as in life. I might at some point invest in improving my terrain-building skills but I doubt it will happen in the short term. It is more likely I'll dab into aquarium terrain repurposing for a jungle-themed table...
I hope this gave you some interesting insights and I would love to hear what is your take on such a fundamental aspect of our wargaming hobby!
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