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

=Doors, walls, cover and transport points=
==Doors==
Consider the following tactical effects to make your arenas more interesting:
===Doors as LOS blockers===

Perhaps a door is just something that can be opened or closed for 1 Movement Point, which counts as an impassable square when closed and an open square when open.
<br>Placing doors smartly in the arena can create the opportunity to limit or allow firing lanes.
<br>If you're playing with an exploration variant, opening a door could allow a new tile section to be revealed from a prepared map.
===Locked Doors===

Sometimes its interesting to have doors not be easily opened. A lever could control a door being opened, making it a one way obstacle. Consider having a one way door like that opening onto a starting area, so that attackers can use it to spring a flank attack, but defenders can't access that route without going into the centre of the board.
<br>Having a door need to be opened, and having a goodies behind it is another smart way to encourage movement, and also to persuade players to split their warbands rather than keeping them in a big clump!
===Breakable Doors===

These can be an alternative to locked doors, or can just be an additional way to break open a locked door!
<br>You might treat a door as model with a a Defence Value and HP, and have attacks smash their way through. Or, you might specify that different sorts of weapons smash doors on different rolls: e.g. 4+ for double handed mauls, 5+ for other double handed weapons and spell attacks, 6+ for single handed melee weapons.
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==Walls==
By default, walls are just lines you can't move through. You can mix this up though!
===Breakable walls===

See breakable doors, above. Basically the same thing as a row of breakable doors!
<br>Its also interesting to combine this feature with an accessible effect that breaks walls. Maybe the breakable wall is near the emplaced mortar, forcing a choice. Does the mortarist bombard his enemies, or smash the wall for the goodies behind (or to release the monster behind, or to access the shortcut behind, or whatever).
===Climbable walls===

A low wall could count as something that blocks line of sight, but only hinders movement a little - say 3MP to climb over to the far side.
<br>Alternatively, walls could be passable by other means. Consider, for example, a scenario where walls are each keyed to one of two elements, and can be moved through by a mini that has picked up the appropriare elemental buff (but can only have one of those buffs at a time).
===Fences===

Conversely, you could have "walls" that can't be moved through, but can be seen through. For example, an iron rail fence could have sufficient gaps that it can be shot through but be close enough that noone can move through it. A few simple rules could be added to represent the cover provided as well.
<br>An interesting setup might be to have such fences be all that divides two adjacent starting areas.

==Cover==
In the basic rules, there are empty spaces, and there are filled spaces. The former can be moved into freely and do not block LOS, and the latter can't be entered, and do block LOS. The following rules add an additional layer of complication. Be careful with how you use cover rules in scenarios, as having too much cover near starting areas encourages entrenching there rather than dynamic movement.
===Obstacles that only partially block shooting===

For example, a fence that can be seen through but not moved through, a low barricade that can be climbed over but which protects against arrows. 

As a good rule of thumb, these defences inflict a -1 penalty on attack rolls made through them. This can be negated by the attacked being adjacent to them (as if he is stood by a barricade, it doesn't get in his line of fire). Likewise, you might rule that cover that can be ducked behind gives double benefit (-2 penalty to attacks) for those adjacent to it against ranged attacks originating from squares not adjacent to the barricade.
===Obstacles that interfere with vision===

For example, a cloud of mist or low-light conditions.

These could have no effect on melee, but protect against long range attacks. Determine a minimum number of squares distance where these conditions count as cover, and beyond this range give a -1 penalty to attack rolls.

==Portals==

In game terms, a portal is something that moves you from one part of a map to another. These could be squares that when you move onto teleport you to a matching square, or doorways that when stepped through move you somewhere else. Some things to consider:

===One Way Portals===
These are a great way of moving the game away from the starting area, and shrinking travel times across the map. A series of one way portals could also create a "direction of flow" and create interesting tactical decisions.

===Random Portals===
These move you to one of several random locations rather than to a fixed place. A forced random portal at the start of the game could be a great way of encouraging movement, as players will be keen to re-unite their warbands.

===Forced Portals===
Likewise, effects that an opponent can trigger to move your figures are a great way to discourage slow turtling. Consider, for example, a summoning circle that if you put three figures next to you can summon an enemy figure into... That'd be a resource that every player wants to reach quickly!