Terrain positioning questions

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JonG
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:15 pm

Terrain positioning questions

Postby JonG » Sat Nov 13, 2021 2:42 pm

Hi
I'm gearing up for my first playthroughs of Darklands which will be using a 4'by 4' area to start with and I'm currently reading up on the positioning terrain rules.
These have raised some questions which I realise might be a bit niche as individual terrain features may not come up very often, but still I wanted to try and cut off any issues before they happen.

First of all:

Approximate Size
The physical size of a terrain feature is very important,
however, and should not be altered; but a terrain feature's size
can be approximately the size indicated rather than exact, up
to 2” different in any dimension but no more than that.


This paragraph seems contradictory = the size cannot be altered but can be approximately the size indicated.
Does this mean the area must remain consistent but dimensions can be altered i.e. a 12''by12'' could change to a 14''by10'' (almost the same area)?
I mean this probably won't come up as I plan on making some card templates that are all the standard square areas required. This will get me started, but was just curious as to how to interpet this.

Positioning Shores
A beach shore or rocky shore must be positioned so that either
the two sides of that shore are touching two battlefield edges
or all of one long side of a shore is touching a battlefield edge.
If the former is chosen, anything behind that shore is the sea -
and so is deep water and impassable!


I'm a little confused as to how this works.
The dimensions are 36 by 4 so if you place it with the long edge along one side it would go outside of the positioning square (which isn't always allowed ' player's opponent may not position any terrain feature so that any part of it is within 5” of any battlefield edge or outside the positioning square'). It is allowed for Kindred terrain so presumably Norse can place this along their edge across multiple positioning squares?
Also the table is 48'' minimum along the shortest side so the shore will end abruptly. Is this intentional?
To position it touching 2 sides I presume the area would need to be an 'L-shape' in the corner of one battlefield. Then if the terrain feature ptrojects into the field, i.e. the corner of the L shape is not along the edge of the field, as the text says the corner area would be sea? Is this correct?
(Quick related question - can flanking units enter from a shore edge of the battlefield? I would assume not (this may be mentioned elsehwere) unless they could fly or were amphibious?

Positioning Long Water Features
A river, stream or dyke - a long water feature - must be
positioned so that the two ends of the long water feature are
touching two battlefield edges. If there are two adjacent
positioning squares containing long water features, they may
join to become one long water feature, as long as the two ends
are touching two battlefield edges. Rivers, streams and dykes
may join each other - a river could flow into a stream and vice
versa, and a stream could flow into a dyke and vice versa.


I presume the position player has complete freedom to have the river straight or bending up to the length of 24'' and fulfiling the placement rules above?
To touch 2 sides of the battlefield again I presume it would have to be an L shape every time?
I like the idea of joining onto another river to bisect the battlefield but as you have to position terrain one square at a time, how can you possibly position your river to join to another water feature when you don't even know if that feature will be rolled? Or can you alter it if another water feature is rolled afterwards?
Can you position a river over a shore feature to represent a river running to the sea?

There is a similar issue with tracks and roads. Presumably these also have to be places to join 2 sides of the field or to another road or track though this is not stated.
But its either that or have all roads/tracks also be an L or U shape within one positioning square which seems wrong, especially for a nice straight Roman road!
It doesn't make sense for a track or road to cross one positioning square and then disappear? Or start up in the middle of a square (though I suppose you could argue that the track may have been destroyed in places?).

Cheers for any help

Jon
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Rob Lane
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Re: Terrain positioning questions

Postby Rob Lane » Thu Nov 18, 2021 10:56 am

Apologies for not replying sooner Jon, been mega busy getting the rule book ready.

JonG wrote:Approximate Size
The physical size of a terrain feature is very important,
however, and should not be altered; but a terrain feature's size
can be approximately the size indicated rather than exact, up
to 2” different in any dimension but no more than that.


This paragraph seems contradictory = the size cannot be altered but can be approximately the size indicated.


I'm afraid you've quoted it wrong - its says "should not" rather than "cannot" - so as to allow people a little leeway in terms of what they've got lying around.

JonG wrote:Does this mean the area must remain consistent but dimensions can be altered i.e. a 12''by12'' could change to a 14''by10'' (almost the same area)?
I mean this probably won't come up as I plan on making some card templates that are all the standard square areas required. This will get me started, but was just curious as to how to interpet this.


Yes, that's about right - size effectively means the area of the terrain feature. Apologies for any confusion. I'll change "Size" to "Area" in the rule book.

JonG wrote:Positioning Shores
A beach shore or rocky shore must be positioned so that either
the two sides of that shore are touching two battlefield edges
or all of one long side of a shore is touching a battlefield edge.
If the former is chosen, anything behind that shore is the sea -
and so is deep water and impassable!


I'm a little confused as to how this works.
The dimensions are 36 by 4 so if you place it with the long edge along one side it would go outside of the positioning square (which isn't always allowed ' player's opponent may not position any terrain feature so that any part of it is within 5” of any battlefield edge or outside the positioning square'). It is allowed for Kindred terrain so presumably Norse can place this along their edge across multiple positioning squares?


Yes, that's correct - a good point too, so I'll make sure the tracks and shores can be positioned against the edges.

JonG wrote:Also the table is 48'' minimum along the shortest side so the shore will end abruptly. Is this intentional?


I'm not quite sure what you mean, but the vision I had of a shore is almost like a curved shore so that it disappears on both sides naturally... so like a small bay, really...

JonG wrote:To position it touching 2 sides I presume the area would need to be an 'L-shape' in the corner of one battlefield. Then if the terrain feature ptrojects into the field, i.e. the corner of the L shape is not along the edge of the field, as the text says the corner area would be sea? Is this correct?


Well, you could do that of course, but as long as it looks natural you can do lots of different things...

JonG wrote:(Quick related question - can flanking units enter from a shore edge of the battlefield? I would assume not (this may be mentioned elsehwere) unless they could fly or were amphibious?


Yes - there are such things as boats ;o)

JonG wrote:Positioning Long Water Features
A river, stream or dyke - a long water feature - must be
positioned so that the two ends of the long water feature are
touching two battlefield edges. If there are two adjacent
positioning squares containing long water features, they may
join to become one long water feature, as long as the two ends
are touching two battlefield edges. Rivers, streams and dykes
may join each other - a river could flow into a stream and vice
versa, and a stream could flow into a dyke and vice versa.


I presume the position player has complete freedom to have the river straight or bending up to the length of 24'' and fulfiling the placement rules above?


Yes.

JonG wrote:To touch 2 sides of the battlefield again I presume it would have to be an L shape every time?


No, a C or U or n shape...

JonG wrote:I like the idea of joining onto another river to bisect the battlefield but as you have to position terrain one square at a time, how can you possibly position your river to join to another water feature when you don't even know if that feature will be rolled? Or can you alter it if another water feature is rolled afterwards?


Yes, you alter it afterwards.

JonG wrote:Can you position a river over a shore feature to represent a river running to the sea?


Absolutely.

JonG wrote:There is a similar issue with tracks and roads. Presumably these also have to be places to join 2 sides of the field or to another road or track though this is not stated.
But its either that or have all roads/tracks also be an L or U shape within one positioning square which seems wrong, especially for a nice straight Roman road!
It doesn't make sense for a track or road to cross one positioning square and then disappear? Or start up in the middle of a square (though I suppose you could argue that the track may have been destroyed in places?).


Well - the way I envisioned it was the road just ends; perhaps it's been damaged somehow, or become overgrown, etc., it could be anything really. Perhaps there's been a landslide over it, or people have nicked the bricks from the roman road, and so on and so on...

Remember the terrain positioning rules are guidelines really, it does depend on what you've got in terms of terrain. Don't interpret it all too literally - it's just a way to get different terrain on the board without going down the route of "I'll put a hill there, a wood there, and that's your lot" sort of thing...

Cheers
Rob
JonG
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:15 pm

Re: Terrain positioning questions

Postby JonG » Fri Nov 19, 2021 4:42 pm

Ta Rob
I realised you’d be busy so no worries and thanks again for all clarifications. I was guessing there is a fair amount of leeway with interpreting some terrain features and I think it’s awesome that there are so many options!
Cheers
Jon
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Rob Lane
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Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2013 2:46 pm
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Re: Terrain positioning questions

Postby Rob Lane » Sat Nov 20, 2021 7:30 pm

It's okay man, don't worry!

I'm glad you like the terrain stuff - it took me a while to get it right, but I think it works...

Wait until you see the campaign system...!

Cheers
Rob

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