Haunted Battlefield

[Cela Shyish]

Ok sooo, I've had a full 6 Realm of Battle Board sections since Golden Daemon day 2 years ago and finally decided I'm going to make it a haunted battlefield for my undead legions (spoke with one of my opponents who adores the idea of his elves fighting undead on a corrupted battlefield) so I need ideas, going to use grave stones from zombie and TK skele sprue to make a mini graveyard, possibly some horns from a zombie dragon or something half buried, a circle of mushrooms and warpstones from the basing kit in one section (dry brushes and washing for a glow effect, force sword style) with wood elf sprites in dark/ethereal colours spread out, my trees will be bare so I can use the leaves as shrubs, the skulls in the ground I was going to white, bleached bone, reiklamd fleshtone and agrax earthshade for built in charnel pits, I was going to convert 8 elemental altars on bases I could tack onto the board occasionally I was going to make a river somewhere (undecided as of yet) but that's my ideas for so far, any more would be appreciated.

 

[Adam_Barrow]

Every time one of these pops up I suggest--because I want to make it one day, too--make a counts-as forest out of impaled bodies on long pikes. Vlad the Impaler style.

 

[Cela Shyish]

Every time one of these pops up I suggest--because I want to make it one day, too--make a counts-as forest out of impaled bodies on long pikes. Vlad the Impaler style.

That sounds like a good idea, I was going to use the hanged zombies from the zombie sprue, so to accompany them I may use the brettonian archer barricades as a basis for the skewers

 

[Farmer7574]

Some cool inspirational ideas (some from movies and games):

-lake with ghosts in it (The Two Towers dead marshes).
-dead tree full of heads (Sleepy Hollow)
-dead tree full of hanging bodies (300).
-orbs floating around ruins (final fantasy X game).
-bodies nailed to sign posts (game of thrones season 3, on the way to mereen).
-impaled victims on spears (Bram Stoker's Dracula, the beginning) (like @Adam_Barrow suggested).

EDIT: More ideas.
-a statue with ghosts circling it or coming out of it.
-dead tree forest with wolves prowling in it.
-scattered pieces of dead bodies (like game of thrones, season 1 episode 1 wildling camp).
-gargoyle statues.

 

[Adam_Barrow]

Dead Marshes for the win. One of my favorite Middle-Earth locales.

 

[Cela Shyish]

@Farmer7574 I would love to put floating orbs around, but I have no idea how I might do that

 

[Farmer7574]

@Crystal Here's my idea I'd go for to achieve floating orbs:

-Take a spare skull
-Drill a hole in the back part.
-Place a piece of straightened-out paper clip/wire in (make sure it fits tightly by using the right size drill) and glue it.
-Bend the clip/wire into whichever direction you wish (you can make some cool curvy directions here)
-Mold green stuff around the metal and merge it into the skull (make sure it's thinnest at the back and gets no thicker than the skull by the time it reaches the skull.
-Attach it where desired.

 

[Cela Shyish]

@Crystal Here's my idea I'd go for to achieve floating orbs:

-Take a spare skull
-Drill a hole in the back part.
-Place a piece of straightened-out paper clip/wire in (make sure it fits tightly by using the right size drill) and glue it.
-Bend the clip/wire into whichever direction you wish (you can make some cool curvy directions here)
-Mold green stuff around the metal and merge it into the skull (make sure it's thinnest at the back and gets no thicker than the skull by the time it reaches the skull.
-Attach it where desired.

Oh that would be easy, its the same trick I was planning to do with banshee's on a statue. I thought you meant floating in the middle of nowhere.

 

[Farmer7574]

@Crystal A haunted graveyard with orbs would be cool, but the only way you could have the orbs flying around in the middle of nowhere would be to use flying bases or some metal rod to support them. I think they'd still look cool though

 

[Cela Shyish]

@Crystal A haunted graveyard with orbs would be cool, but the only way you could have the orbs flying around in the middle of nowhere would be to use flying bases or some metal rod to support them. I think they'd still look cool though

Would still need to move models around unless...If I gave it the rule that the thing producing them made D3 a turn, but they scatter D6" and anyone they hit suffers D6 S1 poisoned hits? so they wouldn't clog up movement?

Also taking my brother's advice and basingmost of the terrain on cardboard so it can be placed on the board differently each time I play and makes storage easier.

 

[Dragonet]

Awesome thread, I too have wanted to do this for ages! For my two cents' worth, I prefer to downplay the supernatural, I believe the most jarring events can often be the most mundane. I use a snow coloured table with hills, rocky outcrops, river and pine forests; frozen lake could also be fun!
. Butchers Field (impaled soldiers)
. Mass Graves (treat as difficult terrain)
. Charnel Pits (built-in)
. Capital Punishments (hangings; gibbets; crosses): I thought to recreate the Via Appia; the Romans made an example of the slave rebellion by lining the equivalent of the M1 with crucifixions every few hundred metres, probably one of the most brutal suppressions of rebellion in history. Also more fun than lampposts...
. Graveyards (obviously!)
. Stagnant marsh or bog
. Ruined water fountains or statues
. Gargoyle statues: In my fluff I'm not keen on Vargheists; I subsume their fluff into Varghulfs, making wild vampires much rarer, and playing Vargheists as gargoyles cast in the image of the Varghulfs to spread fear of them through the realm, to cow the masses into submission! Best part is that, painted with a stone effect, I can use a single Vargheist mounted on a plinth as scenery or use his ominously empty plinth or column alone when he's animated...
. Gothic/steampunk-inspired buildings: damp walls, gaslight, oppressively austere masonry.
. Wheat fields with scarecrows: dead crop to keep the warm colours out and to give a more barren, desolate effect.

 

[Cela Shyish]

@Dragonet They sound interesting and I'm always happy to hear suggestions, but I see a lot of the undead legions to be supernatural and that is more or less the idea of the haunted battlegrounds I'm not fond of steampunk to be honest, gothic yes, steampunk no ^^" although that vargheist gargoyle idea sounds really amazing, I might try that and use it as a sinister statue or something. The problem with massed graves is that it makes it difficult to move units through them, model wise, not just rules wise. So for my graveyard if it was going to be big I was going to make it force the skirmishers rule on any unit that passes through it until the end of the phase or until the move out of it (whichever comes later) making for a lot of tactical options but also make it dangerous terrain because of the hands reaching out, attempting to pull some unfortunate souls under. (This was mainly because moving a unit through a graveyard would be very messy if they were properly ranked on a movement tray) I'll definitely take all of these ideas into consideration.

Thanks for the input so far everyone

 

[Farmer7574]

@Dragonet Wonderful ideas!