US Grand Tournament Series: Let’s Talk Terrain! | Warhammer 40,000 State of Play

Avatar The Chef June 24, 202133  73 33 Likes

YouTube video

Spider and Beard sit down to talk about the Terrain layout for the upcoming US Grand Tournament Series, and what it might mean for events in future!

00:00 Intro

02:04 The Two Layouts

02:42 The Terrain Types

04:13 Initial Thoughts

05:21 What about Vehicles?

07:14 Only Ruins?

10:07 What Deployment Zones?

11:46 Meta Adaptation

13:20 Putting it into Practice

14:28 Final Thoughts

17:01 Yes? Yes

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easywayout
easywayout
3 years ago

That terrain is really anti-vehicle. Like maybe a chimera can move kind of freely, but I can barely see something the size of a leman russ or redemptor getting through; much less a knight that isn’t even getting any benefit of cover from any of it. A bunch of multi level terrain that’s impassable to normal vehicles?
This looks tailor made for harlequins/drukhari.

Ninja-for-Hire
3 years ago

If tournaments are a test of generalship, how is having pre determined terrain going to help with that? It will just reinforce the game being won or lost at the list building stage. Perhaps tournaments were never a test of skill and guile at out manoeuvring your adversary!… I also hope this doesn’t influence the more casual scene, since I currently prefer lots of much cooler looking scratch built scenery.

Flapdoddle
Lodge Warrior Member
Flapdoddle
3 years ago

I’ve been absent since the early COVID days and it’s lovely to see you boys sitting down together again! Any chance of returning to the old list format, where you sit down together, with the army in question in front of you both? I think it’s more visually interesting as you have some tasty models to admire, pick up, etc, and there’s also chance for some cheeky back-and-forth.

ANDREA CARRIERI
ANDREA CARRIERI
3 years ago

More GT discussion please, 4,5 september I got the italian one (and i need the spider’s advice) ahahah

Southpaw
Lodge Member
3 years ago

Doesn’t this make dense terrain almost irrelevant? It seems like if it’s wedged right in the corner, it’ll be very rare to have anything behind or within it.

James Bullock
3 years ago

I really like it because it brings another whole element to list building. When you know the battlefield style in advance, it gives a whole new tilt as to how effective some unit choices might be

mrainbow
Lodge Member
3 years ago

As a knight player its just one more nerf for my army.

Andrew McInally
3 years ago

I am here for the after credits scene. Brilliant.

Kaibong deity
Lodge Warrior Member
Kaibong deity
3 years ago

The v2 of the lgt pack has better map set ups

jacob simmons
3 years ago

I’m trying to be a brave boy, I’m taking Imperial Knights with a little bit of Scions to Orlando. So I was wondering Lawrence, I’ve got two Moiraxes, a Magaera, and a Castellan in the Super heavy detachment. (I know the Castellan isn’t competitive and I’m not a super competitive person, just going to my first GT and meeting a friend that lives down there.) With those Imperial Knights would you play House Raven or House Krast? The Magaera’s super nice with Krast re-rolls but a House Raven Castellan plus the support for Raven from the book of Rust is… Read more »

Bob Jacobs
Bob Jacobs
3 years ago

That edit at the end hahahah

dangersock
dangersock
3 years ago

Great video as always guys! The terrain guidance is welcome although I despair for my T’au- already struggling in 9th with no melee units and now bad sight lines to even opportunities to shoot people off objectives are going to be limited, and without much mobility it will be an up hill struggle! I wonder if Vespid will finally have their day in the sun!

maxpower
Lodge Member
maxpower
3 years ago

Beard – make sure you’re bringing the Master of Ordnansh!

Andrew Davis
Lodge Member
Andrew Davis
3 years ago

Am curious to see how this will work in a game. Looking forward to your battle reps showing these setups off.
The visual representation you had were really good as an idea to see how the board should look and might play out.

Stefano
Lodge Warrior Member
3 years ago

I really liked this video, and the photos with overlayed deployment were very nicely done. Good job! For my part, I am happy if GW release official terrain layouts that might justify some of the quirkness in the rules. I also think that it’s a good they put a lot of terrains on the table. That said, I am a bit concerned cause, like you said, it seems to favour infantry and flyers… I think that factions that mostly rely on gunline and tanks like the guard but also the AdMech will have a lot of problems. We’ll have to… Read more »

Sarah Soden
Lodge Member
Sarah Soden
3 years ago

Looks like a chess board, symmetry, GW has poor functionality as described by theeir own rules and is way too expensive to be a viable commercial option for Indie tournamnets. Most tournaments are not GW and so we will see a seperation where the indie scene uses 3D Printed terrian.

Felix
Felix
3 years ago

I’ve got a question, ten days ago, I read the on fb a Mike Brandt’s post where he said “I would surprused if the bigger pieces had open windows on the walls, vs attractively occulted ones, but we’ll see”, so the four biggest pieces, are “totally” obscured even if models stay in that big ruin areas, or touch with the model some part of the ruin? A totally obscured ruins, without windows or similars on the walls, like we can see used in WTC etc?? And nother thing: do you know the sizes of the all scenic elements? Searching online,… Read more »

Jack Kypreos
Lodge Member
3 years ago

Oh my! The possibilities for grey knights now!!

David Garneau
3 years ago

Good job guys. I’m really liking this terrain layout idea. I think with it we may get a little more balance on the who goes first thing.

Imperial Grunt
Lodge Member
3 years ago

Some of those boards sure look like they will favor armies that can advance and charge significantly. Gun lines will get swamped fast and not get a chance to shoot much. Get your chainswords ready brothers!

RIP Necrosius
RIP Necrosius
3 years ago

To clarify, if the whole area of those four squares is obscuring, the moment your units touch them can they see out and be seen? Then they’d just get the +1 save from being in light cover?

joseph woodland
joseph woodland
3 years ago

sandbags on a crater might be the way to do it spider, it’s a personal favourite of mine as an IW player to demonstrate circumvallation trenches. The meat grinder is fun but it is hardly methodical.

Andrew Oneil
Andrew Oneil
3 years ago

My only concern would be the symmetry of the boards. I like the idea of making the attacker defender choice interesting in terms of selecting which terrain you want to have in your deployment zone. If the whole board is mirrored it kinda removes that choice.

OK
Lodge Member
OK
3 years ago

Interesting stuff.

Gonna be a pain in the ass to film anything in that middle street for you guys though!

Joshua Burdine
Lodge Member
Joshua Burdine
3 years ago

I’m really glad I was grabbing a bite while listening because I was able to see the little meme reel at the end.🤣

Wallis
Wallis
3 years ago

My poor daemon engines, how will a giant robot crab fit anywhere?!

Jannik
Jannik
3 years ago

It looks a bit too much like a city fight setup for me personally as it doesn’t really allow for variety in terms of how the tables will look like. Maybe we all get surprised and they launch a new terrain line with the tournaments? In terms of game mechanics I guess this is a great opportunity to bring deepstrike units like inceptors, suppressors etc as you can get them into position nicely.

UseLess
Lifetime Member
UseLess
3 years ago

Honestly, I think this type of very rigid board setups (and to a further extent rigid missions) is quite silly for a game like 40k. The game is not balanced on all aspects, terrain being just one of them. Some armies will suffer more or less from this. Drukhari flying transports won’t care one bit and only profit from it. Knights will struggle much more with manouvring. As you said, the meta will adapt to these kind of boards. When you don’t play tournaments, that meta is completely irrelevant and skews how the game is played. Will GW start ‘balancing’… Read more »

Last edited 3 years ago by UseLess
Benji92
Lodge Member
3 years ago

Saw the layout and then thought about my chaos knights with this kind of terrain. They’re going to lose a lot of mobility, being forced into lanes, and they’re shooting power is massively reduced.
It’s definitely benefiting troops, especially assault troops but majority of vehicles will hate it.

Jens Sonntag
Jens Sonntag
3 years ago

The end is awesome🤣🤣

The Casual
Lodge Member
3 years ago

Can we get a Beard super cut of him spending command points.
No reason.

Christopher Cardamone
Christopher Cardamone
3 years ago

I think it is a good start for what GW is trying to do. A problem I see is if you are playing the “Dawn of War” style of deployment, both maps have huge fire lanes. This could give gun line armies a massive advantage in those missions. On all other deployments there are little to no fire lanes. The next problem is objective markers. On several missions the marks are smack dab in the middle of a terrain piece. The core rules says the objective markers themselves cannot be in terrain. How will this be handled? Move the terrain… Read more »

Mathieu
Lodge Warrior Member
Mathieu
3 years ago

Hot take : I like what I am seeing. At least it is not WTC non-sense. Part of it due to the fact that all of those terrain pieces will be put on a base, and that there is enough room in between the ‘large’ ruin to have vehicles manoeuvre around. It’s not the Ruin itself that is 12″x12″, but its base. The Ruin inside will be more like this : |_| and measures (from left to right) 6″x8″x7″, which closely ressemble the size of Battlezone: Manufactorum – Sanctum Administratus. You can see it on by the black line inside… Read more »

Last edited 3 years ago by Mathieu
Wael Riad
Lodge Member
3 years ago

Wouldn’t this make the spacewalk and mele army’s more stronger?

Love you both 😁

Mortz82
Lodge Warrior Member
Mortz82
3 years ago

Terrain 👍

In other news, any excitement on a personal level in the crew for the new AoS edition coming out 😍 Also Fundraiser for AoS Armies when 😁

Karmu
Karmu
3 years ago

The end confirms Spider as the antagonist. Where is El Beardo to save us?

Pritchard
Pritchard
3 years ago

Would you be able to provide the dimensions you covered with these terrain pieces? I’m trying to establish foot prints that I would need to cover as I build my terrain for my own board at home. Thanks!

Ty Matsushita
Ty Matsushita
3 years ago

I think its really cool they put this out, probably not going to be perfect on the first go, but I think it’ll be cool to see how it impacts the game. Very much looking forward to your reports with these layouts, would be great to see one of each mission on this terrain. Was very helpful to see you replicate the layouts!

Jared Bonter
3 years ago

Admittedly I have not played a game of 9th yet (been huddled in the basement painting like mad getting ready for Covid restrictions to ease) so I shouldn’t really have a say in the matter. However! I feel this will make more units viable to play.

Ryan Evans
3 years ago

Coming from competitive Warmachine, we’ve had maps circulated in advance of the World Team Championship. It worked wonders for giving people a view of what to expect, so they could accommodate the types of terrain with their armies.
Really like the sound of this direction if only to provide some community expectation of what a “good” board looks like so people have some consistent idea of what they might expect at clubs and the like. Thumbs up from me!

Sam
Sam
3 years ago

Release the Drukhari vs Harlequin game! Don’t let the moaners ruin TT competitive league! Many of us want to see what it was intended to be which is hard lists and great players going for it!

Matthew Lewis
Lodge Member
3 years ago

I do feel some factions will have a massive decrease in their abilities to win, particularly shooty armies. Melee focused armies will have a lot more cover and if they are clever to avoid a lot of fire potentially so they may benefit there. Plus it may lead to people using a lot of chaff to block the available spaces. I see that from your example board it looks really tight! One tank or a sting of cheap troops could block an entire lane making primary objectivise harder to come by too.

Peter Dunlea
Lodge Member
Peter Dunlea
3 years ago

I believe it was mentioned somewhere that the terrain will be based. No confirmation on that and it would be a slightly funny departure from Pure gw products only

Also what are they going to use as tables? No way they are going to use mats from a third party

NotaMiniPainter
NotaMiniPainter
3 years ago

Oh! My friends!

Nathan Whitchurch
Lifetime Member
3 years ago

Super useful and important to me as I am going to the US Open Tournament in New Orleans

Matt Cargill
Matt Cargill
3 years ago

Holy cow – 1st
Was just getting on to see if I missed anything, and look at that….new content to enjoy during lunch