Welcome to the Terrain Showcase, where we share table setups for Star Wars Shatterpoint. Our aim is to help fuel your creativity, find ideas, and get useful tips for creating your next battlefield adventure.
Introducing Dorn
Terrain Used: Core Set, High Ground, and Take Cover Expansion
Playmat Used: Battlemat Tatoone 2 (Torek)
Mission Pack: Shifting Priorities
Color Scheme: Release Art
Creator: Andre Dumont
Setup Notes: Dorn has a few overlapping gantries, and we will include additional photos for setup at the bottom of the page if the blueprint does not suffice with setting this layout up.
Much like most maps that include the High Ground expansion, the Array becomes the epicenter of the action. With all the gantry crossover, the map looks like a labyrinth of walkways. A few angles even mimic Penrose’s stairs.
An L-shaped gantry system connects to the highest point on the Array and features the map’s only elevated objective. A lonely tower also creates a high ground position with no ingress point sitting to the south starting position.
The mid-level has a T crossing right after the first south tower leading northeast to the east objective token. Meanwhile, the north vent building has a gantry that connects to the Array to mix up the mid-level terrain.
Dorn is unique in our featured maps due to its seven mission objectives on the low ground. It’s also the most dense map we have featured in Terrain Talk. Dorn starkly contrasts Aurek, our first map released based on the Atomic Mass Games Shatterpoint Core box-featured terrain layout. You can find Aurek here.
Strategic Considerations:
With 8 Ingress Points (the Array has two Ingress Points but can be chained together) located throughout the dense map, there will be no excuse for not utilizing the mid- and high-gantry system to traverse the map. However, with just one objective on the high-ground Array, jetpacks and force users may not be as impactful as they have been in other map layouts.
This map gives the separatists an upper hand, and you must plan accordingly. Andre lost against a separatist team (Grievous/Dooku) with a Force Clone (Obi/Luminara) and came to the community for help.
“You have to manage ranges, sit on hunkers, remember about your Obi-Wan triggers, heal and dash back after hits (if you feel competitive, get ARFs), and clones can be very good!” Marek Dubiel wrote in the official Shatterpoint Facebook Group.
When facing a droid army on this map, your primary objective is to disrupt their synergy. Pin them down every chance you get, especially focusing on Kalani, as their effectiveness as a squad relies on staying together for the Separatist synergy if you have chosen Clones, rally with Coordinated Fire. If you choose Jedi Hunters, you should laser focus your maximum damage on support units and the Magna Guards.
Overall, the strategic consideration on this map is how you will hold down all the ground objectives. Movement around the map will need to be swift. Using the gantry system to avoid snapping and engaging a near character is worth heavy debate. Do you push/pull, do you hunker, do you damage? This map can be great fun for list-building options.
Starting Position
The south starting position has clear access to its three objectives. The first visible ingress point sits a dash northwest of the southern middle objective. As mentioned, this puts you on a gantry system that leads right to the high ground center objective point, the only raised objective point.
The north starting position also has clear access to their three objectives, but the vent building does intrude between the north-middle and northwest objective points. An ingress point between these objectives will get you on the mid-gantry system connected to the Array. Once on this, take that to the Array’s ingress points, and you are now in position for the middle objective on the high ground.
Though the map appears dense and intricate and lacking symmetry, the raised center objective and starting proximity to ingress points create a minimal advantage for either player. Note that the south starting position has access to a single gantry compared to the north starting position, where they may need to chain ingress points together alternating with movement. The chain of ingress points for the northern player could become a problem later if one of these ingress points is blocked, preventing the chained climb.
Objectives on High
Dorn received feedback on the locations of the objectives. The lack of elevated objective points and dense terrain may turn specific playstyles off. Spreading the terrain pieces out or even shifting/twisting may put a few more objectives up on higher ground if that is your goal during map construction. We recommend giving this map as shot as is before tweaking; games of Shatterpoint can play out very differently based on the terrain and new challenges are great.
Some users try to put as many objectives on the high ground as possible to create a more scalable map that can create more friction through movement and planning. That’s up to you and your cohorts. Thanks to Andre for sharing this map with us! You can join the discussion in the Shatterpoint Facebook group here.
Check out this article for more information on the visual representation and examples.
Do you have a terrain layout you want to see us feature? Drop us a line at contact@goonhammer.com
