Editing Coup-De-Grace: Arena Design (section)

=Arena shape, rooms, corridors and open spaces=

You can use any game boards, dungeon tiles or even graph paper that has a grid of squares on it, but its worth putting some thought into the following:

==General Principles==
===Encourage Movement===

Nothing makes for a duller game than two teams refusing to move from their start areas. Some scenarios actively encourage a more aggressive approach, but in a default kill-battle the temptation will often be to just set up a defensive line and let the enemy come to you.
<br>As an arena designer, you want to use tricks to discourage this. Perhaps set up the areas nearest the entrance points so that they aren't very safe. A wide open kill zone, with multiple accesses from different directions is a good starting zone, especially if its easy to set up flanking moves from protected positions at the side.
<br>Desirable features should be placed furher in, and persistent hazards should be kept near the starting areas. Make the most beneficial environments be the ones at the centre of the board, and the most detrimental ones over the starting areas.
<br>Early cramped space can encourage movement so that minis can be brought to bear. a 1 square wide corridor leading into an open chamber forces players either to move up into the open chamber, or to present his minis one by one.
<br>If all else fails, consider having the board move! This can be literal, with the scenario having board sections rearrange themselves (perhaps sliding towards a more dangerous zone), or can be achieved with advancing hazards: if both teams are being pushed into the centre room by a closing ring of fire, then they'll soon start moving!
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===Offer Choices===

The game becomes most tactically intersting if you give a choice of routes, which are equally (un)desirable. Maybe there's a shortcut between target control zones, but its across an exposed narrow bridge over lava. Maybe the corridors form a circle or figure of eight, encouraging outflanking moves for faster models.
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===Keep it Tight===

Vast sprawling dungeon arenas may look cool, but if it takes ten turns before contact is made, there's going to be a lot of dullness before the teams end up fighting within much smaller areas.
<br>Better by far to keep it tight from the outset. As a rule of thumb, for every mini in the battle, have the arena be 2 squares wide. So for twelve minis, the game board shouldn't be wider or longer than 24 squares. That doesn't just mean a big open space of 24 x 24 squares, of course. You can limit the number of squares further by breaking that area into rooms, corridors, hazards, obstacles and the like.
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==Layout Ideas==
===Hub and Spokes===

In this set up, the main "hub" part of the arena is a large central zone, likely containing a few passive hazards, such as pits or spiked walls. If the scenario has a primary objective, it should be in the hub area.
<br>Several "spoke" areas are attached to this central area by narrow corridors. Each player's starting area starts on one of these attached areas, and these areas are equidistant from the centre of the hub.
<br>Additionally, there'll be other spokes, leading off into other side areas. These other side areas will have a desirable feature.
<br>This map layout should encourage quick movement into the central area, with fast guys being sent out to other spokes to get any goodies when they can be spared.
===Floating World===

In this set up, the starting areas are mostly thin corridors, but the main area has larger "rooms".
<br>The special thing here is that there are no walls, and the tile pieces are considered to be floating over a bottomless pit. Anyone who gets knocked off will be taken out of action.
<br>This set up encourages movement away from the hazardous side areas, and into the melee in the centre.
<br>Just in case there's no forced movement effects, its a good idea to have the central area have a feature that contains a controllable forced movement effect. Maybe a kinetic cannon emplacement that knocks back targets at huge ranges when a gunner takes place. Maybe a series of levers that cause board sections to crumble and disappear.
===Ring of Fire===

In this set up, the starting areas are at the periphery. As the game progresses, a by round or random effect causes outer sections of the board to become terminally hazardous or undesirable. For example, a closing ring of fire that burns instantly, or a creeping cloud of poison gas that wounds anyone in it. You can play around with different concepts that have the same effect as well. Maybe there are a series of burning torches across the arena, which go out from the periphery inwards, and anyone not within five squares of one has a 1 in 3 chance of being eaten by a grue!
<br>The key here is that this layout is defined by the outer areas being dangerous, rather than the inner areas being desirable. Indeed, you can introduce a risk-reward element by having the most beneficial features be on the outside!
===Rescue the Prisoners===

In this set up, the warbands start with greatly diminished numbers, and must take action to get the rest of their warband into play. There should be opportunities to kill other people's warband members before they can get them too!
<br>For example, consider an arena with a series of locked cells, each containing a couple of figures from the same warband. The door could be opened simply by pulling a lever outside it. If its your guys doing it, thats grand, you've expanded your warband! If its the enemy, they could slaughter your men before you can reach them!
===Reunion===

Similar to rescue the prisoners above, except the warband is divided into multiple groups, that basically need to rescue each other! A simple two player set up would be four square rooms, set in a square pattern and linked by corridors. Each warband would then be split in half, over opposite corner rooms.

The key to success here, clearly, is to move fast and unite the two halves of your warband!

An interesting variant approach to the above would be to use one-way portals (see below) to create a single direction of flow to the scenario. This then forces players to think about whether they want both their teams moving forward, or if they want to keep one force still so the other can catch it up!
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