Wargame Mechanics Index

Terrain generation

Procedures for placing terrain.

Open in the index

Watch it played 4 moments

  • 3:00–3:47
    Age of Hannibal Terrain Card Tutorial
    Little Wars TV
    Rule in play Roll-off and first card placement

    Both players roll a d10 to determine priority, and Steve wins to place the first terrain card face down along his baseline with the portrait facing him.

  • 15:47–16:22
    9-Player Pyrrhic War Campaign | TURN 5
    Little Wars TV
    Rule in play Card-drafting terrain setup before battle

    Both commanders use the Age of Hannibal terrain generation system, drafting terrain cards into hand and alternately placing them across the grid to lay out hills, woods, and streams.

  • 4:12–5:01
    Age of Hannibal Rule Review
    Little Wars TV
    Rule explained Pre-battle terrain and stratagem card setup

    Greg explains the pre-battle table generation system where players grid off the table and lay terrain and stratagem cards to create battlefields and concealed maneuvers.

  • 6:31–7:22
    9-Player Pyrrhic War Campaign | TURN 3
    Little Wars TV
    Rule explained Generating the battlefield with cards

    The host explains the Age of Hannibal battlefield creation system as players secretly place terrain and stratagem cards face down, reveal them, and place features including hills, woods, and a major river.

Moments picked automatically, by AI watching the video or reading its captions, and linked at the timestamp on YouTube. Quotes are from the captions.

How games do it 6 games

2env
Terrain & DeploymentDe Bellis Antiquitatis

Terrain must meet placement criteria; dice decide who picks terrain and which edge each side gets.

How it works

At least three quarters must hold a feature and two a river, bad going or impassable terrain. Both dice: the low scorer chooses the terrain and numbers edges 1-4; the high scorer assigns 5 and 6 to two adjacent edges and dices for his base edge. Camps are placed, then troops deploy within 600p of the base edge.

The high scorer allocates the numbers 5 and 6 to two adjacent edges, so that these are represented twice, then dices for which edge will be his base edge.
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2env
Terrain GenerationIn Search of the Perfect Campaign System (Linear Warfare campaign rules)

A battlefield is generated the first time a battle occurs in a box and reused for every later battle there.

How it works

The tabletop battlefield is created when a box first sees battle; thereafter players fight on that same battlefield whenever they fight in that box.

Once a battlefield has been created for a box, that is the battlefield players will fight on every time they fight in that box.
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2env
The CountryLittle Wars

One player builds the terrain; the other picks a side.

How it works

The Country is arranged by one player chosen by coin toss, and the other then chooses which side to fight from. It must be disturbed as little as possible, nothing may be moved to aid gunfire, and accidental disturbances are restored after the move.

The Country must be arranged by one player, who, failing any other agreement, shall be selected by the toss of a coin. (2) The other player shall then choose which side of the field he will fight from.
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2env
TerrainTercios: Brevis Editio

Terrain types bundle movement and combat features, and some have properties rolled at the start.

How it works

Terrain is placed before determining the battle. Each type combines features (Difficult, Very Difficult, Impassable, Hidden, Covered, Height, Protected); e.g. Forest is Very Difficult, Covered and Hidden. Cropland's feature is rolled for all crops (1-2 Difficult, 3-5 Covered and Difficult, 6 Covered, Hidden and Very Difficult), and River flow is rolled (1 Difficult, 2-4 Very Difficult, 5-6 Impassable).

Cropland: It is decided by a roll, with the result being applied to all crops in the table
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1env
SetupLongstreet Lite

Dice decide who places terrain and how many pieces.

How it works

Both roll a die; the higher sets up between the higher roll and the sum of both rolls in terrain pieces; the other player chooses a side. The board is split into thirds with each army deploying in its edge third and the higher roller choosing to set up first or second.

He may set up a number of terrain features up to the combined number of their two die rolls, but at least as many as the higher of those two rolls.
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1env
Terrain densityMicro Armour: The Game - WWII (2nd Edition)

The share of the board covered by terrain is rolled from the surface type, and players take turns placing pieces.

How it works

Open uses 2 x 2D6%, Mixed 4 x 2D6% and Closed 7 x 2D6% of the board area; each piece's area is recorded. Players alternate placing features until the total is reached. The Artillery Deviation compass template is placed on the board at this time.

Open - 2 x 2D6% various terrain features. Maximum sighting distance = 40"
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