Moving trough Difficult Terrain (mainly Forest or Swarm)

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Marsyon
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Moving trough Difficult Terrain (mainly Forest or Swarm)

#1 Post by Marsyon »

Hi all,
ok, I know that some units need to take the Difficult Terrain Test. Especially Cavalry, Monstrous Cavalry and Chariots.
But I do not read clearly what happen to a unit of infantry that enter a Forest for example.

I try to explain what I understood:
- They do not take any Difficult terrain test if they march, charge, Flee etc;
- if I play the rules for misterious terrain then they apply;
but:
- what happen on the movement? Do they get penalties in the movement? Do they move half way?
- the same question is for any other unit (Cavalries, Monsters est). Do they get movement penalties?

I keep reading about the Difficult terrain test but not about this. Can you tell me where it is written?

for Swarm I suppose is the same, for rivers you simply cannot march with any unit, but what about charge, flee etc?

Thank you in advance
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SpellArcher
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Re: Moving trough Difficult Terrain (mainly Forest or Swarm)

#2 Post by SpellArcher »

Hi Marsyon

I've moved this topic to the general 8th edition forum for now to make it more visible.
Marsyon wrote:- what happen on the movement? Do they get penalties in the movement? Do they move half way?
- the same question is for any other unit (Cavalries, Monsters est). Do they get movement penalties?
The default is no, no movement penalties. Dangerous Terrain tests pretty much replaced slower movement as the terrain mechanism in 8th. Marshes do not slow you down. As you point out, Rivers preclude Marching per pg 120 of the main rulebook. The same paragraph states "movement is otherwise unaffected", so Charging/Fleeing etc. are not slowed.
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Marsyon
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Re: Moving trough Difficult Terrain (mainly Forest or Swarm)

#3 Post by Marsyon »

ah.. ok, but then, what's the point of the Special Rule for forest/wood that the White Lions have?

as far as I understood when an infantry unit is in the woods they do not get any movement penalties neither the difficult terrain test..

I am confused
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Re: Moving trough Difficult Terrain (mainly Forest or Swarm)

#4 Post by SpellArcher »

Marsyon wrote:ah.. ok, but then, what's the point of the Special Rule for forest/wood that the White Lions have?
Many HE players have asked this question!

:)

The main benefit seems to me when using the Mysterious Terrain rules. Ie, Lions don't take DT tests from Venom Thicket. The extra wood WE players get to place will also almost always be a Venom Thicket.
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Prince of Spires
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Re: Moving trough Difficult Terrain (mainly Forest or Swarm)

#5 Post by Prince of Spires »

SA is correct on all accounts. The white lion rule is pretty useless, except in Venom Thickets. It's mainly there for fluff reasons and because they had it in previous versions of the HE book.

As for movement and terrain, there is very little effect. You're of course free to make your own rules. It feel reasonable that a marsh would affect movement in some way (besides the dangerous terrain test). I often do so. The risk is of course, that the terrain affects the whole battle. In games for older WH editions where terrain had more influence I've seen games where the terrain dictated the whole battle (for instance playing a gunline).

It's a tough balance. If terrain has too much influence it can lead to weird games where as players your actions matter very little. Too little influence and terrain ends up as window dressing for the battle where it doesn't do anything besides look pretty. I feel the last is a bit the case in 8th edition WH. Unless you play with mysterious terrain, which always feels slightly silly to me. Having a whole battlefield full of mysterious terrain always doesn't make much sense to me.

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Re: Moving trough Difficult Terrain (mainly Forest or Swarm)

#6 Post by SpellArcher »

I agree.

Tournaments I've played usually had six pieces in 7th edition, eight in 8th. Simply because, as Rod says, each piece had more effect before.
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