The galaxy is a vast place with millions of different worlds: ice worlds, desert worlds, hive worlds, feral worlds and many other exotic types of battlefield - if you can imagine it, then it probably exists somewhere. The terrain covering these worlds can vary from broad, empty plains to sky-scraping towers of plexiglass and plasteel, from verdant jungles to icy peaks or baking hoi deserts. One factor is common to all of them - they have areas seemingly designed to make it difficult to wage war.
Of course, areas that provide cover from which warriors can light or which present an obstacle to The enemy are vital in war, and these are destined to become the bloodiest battlefields. How to represent terrain on the battlefield is discussed later. For now, we're going to discuss terrain only in relation to how infantry moves through it.

Terrain provides useful cover from enemy fire, but can also impede the movement of your units. Troops can be disorientated or physically slowed by the need to push through or climb over entanglements and obstructions. There are three general classes of terrain: clear, difficult and impassable.

• Clear terrain can be moved across without any penalty, and generally covers most of the battlefield.
• Difficult terrain slows down models wishing to move through it. Difficult terrain can sometimes be dangerous to models passing through it.
• impassable terrain prevents all movement through it.

It is a relatively simple matter to classify terrain within these three categories, and it is important that you and your opponent agree what class of terrain each Feature falls into before starting your game.

• Clear terrain represents terrain that can be traversed easily. This includes open areas, such as fields, moorland, grass, deserts, ash wastes and gentle hills. This could be embellished with the odd tree, shrub or cactus (or alien equivalents) for visual appeal.
• Difficult terrain includes areas of jungle, woods, forest, ruins, brush and scrub, rocky outcrops, boggy ground, marshes, low walls, hedges, steep hills and shallow water, such as streams. l( also includes terrain features that combine several of these types, such as a ruin surrounded by woods. If the terrain feature includes hazards, such as carnivorous plants, toxic vents, erupting geysers and the like, then it may be additionally categorised as dangerous.
• impassable terrain includes deep water, lava flows, fully enclosed building models and towering cliffs. It is quite possible that a very large building could be classed differently in different locations, most of it counting as ruins and therefore difficult, whilst an intact tower at its comer counts as impassable terrain.

You will notice that buildings appear in more than one category. A building model with root and walls attached can be difficult to position models on. In these circumstances it is best to categorise them as impassable If the roof lifts off. or models can be safety balanced on top. then they should be categorised as difficult.

For most terrain features, what you see is what you get. Thus a hill or an enclosed building is as high as the model used to depict it. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to lake liberties and make assumptions about terrain. This is where Area Terrain comes in. Area Terrain, like models, comes in size classes, ranging from Size 1, representing low-lying terrain, to Size 3, representing very high terrain such as woodland that can obscure tanks. The types of terrain where this approach works best are marshes, woods, ruins and all types of rough going area. Realistically a wood might be a tangled, overgrown mass of foliage. If it is represented like this then it will be very difficult to position models on it with any degree of precision (or safety). What is important is where the boundary of the terrain feature is. You can show the boundary by using a flat baseboard, an outline of lichen or by painting a slightly different colour on your gaming board. Within this boundary loosely place trees or sections of ruins as appropriate for the type of terrain it represents. The exact placement and size of the terrain items used are not important and you can freely move them to allow models to be accurately positioned. Each area feature should be given a height, and it is this that will decide who can see over it. This is explained in more detail under Line of Sight and Area Terrain.

In all cases, you should discuss any unusual terrain features with your opponent before the game and agree exactly what everything counts as and where boundaries of terrain features lie. When the game is underway, it will be harder to discuss it quite so dispassionately...

Models may not be placed in impassable terrain unless the models concerned have a special rule in their profile granting them an exception, or are able to fly above the terrain like a skimmer, or both players agree to it.

If an infantry unit moves into, through or out of difficult terrain, it will generally be slowed down. Units that are slowed must take a Difficult Terrain test, rolling two D6 and selecting the highest.

This is the distance in inches they may move. Some units may be able to roll more than two dice and select the best, or even re-roll their dice. Where this is the case, it is explained in their profile or in their relevant section later in this book.

If a unit that starts its move outside difficult terrain does not roll high enough to enter the terrain, it is still only moved the distance rolled. This represents them approaching the terrain in a cautious fashion.

If you take the Difficult Terrain test, you are never compelled to move the models, considering you may not have rolled enough movement to make it worth moving at all. However, if you roll the dice, the unit is still considered as having moved for the purposes of firing. as detailed in the Shooting rules.

When a unit is moved, it can travel up and/or down The same distance as it moves along, subject to the Difficult Terrain rules. For example, if a unit moves 6" into a building, then it could be placed 6" above ground level inside that building as well.

As mentioned previously, some terrain features will be dangerous to move through. This is represented by the unit taking a Dangerous Terrain check. Roll a D6 for every model in the unit. Each roll of a 1 indicates a model suffers a wound with no Save possible {Saves are explained in the shooting rules, all you need know for now is that in this case you don't get any of them!).