Tables of the Rose City Raid

The Rose City Raid 2019 is going to be a tournament like none other, in fact, I’m aiming for it to be one of the most challenging events that any of the participants have taken part in! Not only have I carefully selected scenarios which create interesting problems when crafting your lists, but I’m also going to make sure that every game table make some use of Special Terrain zones.

To help players get ready for the unique rules of special terrain, I’ve put together a few example tables for people to be able to take a look at, and practice at home with. If you’re expecting to do well at the Rose City Raid, you’d better be sure to practice on a wide variety of game tables.

Low Coverage

This is likely going to be the most common amount of coverage on the game tables this year. They will play like fairly standard game tables, but with some unique interactions. Be sure to capitalize on things like Saturation Zones with your direct template, or single burst weapons, which are not going to be adversely affected.

For some extra reading, check out my article on Nimbus Grenades, much of the special rules that apply to them are used for the various terrain zones you’ll run into at the Rose City Raid.

Medium Coverage

Some boards will use a fair amount of special terrain, things like mountains, rubble heaps, lakes, and woods. When you’re dealing with this much terrain, it’s important to spend a little extra effort planning your movement, finding ways to maneuver around the terrain more effectively. Paying attention to your units with Multiterrain, or specific terrain types is important to be sure you move as effectively as possible around the table.

Remember that being in base contact with terrain means you’re affected by it, just like you were fully inside (exactly like smoke templates), so if you want to gain cover granted by the glaciers in this picture, you’ll end your movement immediately when you touch it (so no moving up then scooting along for cover to peek out of a corner, in a single order), and you’ll also both be affected by a Saturation Zone.

High Coverage

Finally, a few of the tables, will be covered heavily in special terrain zones, often meaning the game mat itself is such a zone. This lagoon table is a prime example, significant amounts of the table is covered in difficult and extremely difficult terrain. Bridges are used to connect the different clear areas of the board, and fighters must use Climb in many areas to get out of the beach and onto solid ground. Furthermore, thickets of trees provide saturation and visibility penalties to much of the long-range firing.

To win playing on a table like this, you really have to change your mindset. Playing much more like Limited Insertion is the key to victory — if you spend too many orders on shooting the opponent and hunting down their pieces, you won’t have enough orders to maneuver up the table and accomplish objectives. Infiltration, Airborne Deployment, Forward Deployment, Multiterrain, Climbing Plus, and Super Jump, all become critical skills to have.

This lagoon table will be present, as well as a few space station tables, which will mostly be Zero-G, plus any others I can get people to bring… Personally, I’m hoping for a table which is covered in jungle!

Hostile Environments

A very few number of tables will include terrain which is hostile, usually things like pools of toxic sludge and minefields. These terrain elements will be noted when they are in use, including its Hostility Level, and what damage it inflicts. For example a Minefield will be considered Dangerous Hostility (rolls of 18+ trigger the effect) and cause Damage 13 Shock against ARM.

When playing with Hostile Environments, it’s obviously important to steer clear of them if at all possible! Look for other ways around, using smoke if necessary. If you aren’t at any risk of ending your move in them though, they’re generally going to be safe. To capitalize on their effects, hidden deploy models are great, they can surprise your enemy who may think moving through them would be safe. Pop out a TO hidden model, and suddenly any dice roll they make could end up killing them, as well as the ARO piece. It takes a bit more finesse, but you can also try to leverage it so that your opponent is forced to go through them to get where they need.

Special Terrain Height

For the sake of simplicity, unless noted otherwise, terrain zones at the event will be considered to be as tall as the highest element. This means the beaches and ocean on the Paradisio table will not extend their effect high into the air. Similarly if you can see a model fully over a piece of terrain, you probably wont’ be affected by that terrain. The effect of terrain like the Nimbus Generators in the first example, will be specified to be infinitely high.

Practice Makes Perfect

Many people do not regularly practice with special terrain zones, and showing up to the Rose City Raid without knowing how they work is going to shoot you in the foot! Don’t only practice the scenarios, be sure to practice on tables with a variety of terrain, so that you can make sure to bring the units you need to handle the different environments. You may even want to consider making lists based on the amount of terrain you’ll be dealing with, not just the scenarios or opponents you may face.