Spiker Plant

Spiker Plant

In the new Warhammer 40k rule book on page 107, there is a unique terrain piece call the Spiker Plant. So far I have never played a game using this terrain feature and have not yet encountered one on the battlefield. So finding some bits from my terrain box I proceeded to make one.

I have included below a tutorial on how I made this terrain piece, which to be honest was very easy to do. I plan on making a few of them to use in my next game. I will start creating some more terrain pieces that are featured in the rule book very soon, all will be scratch built and cheap, so watch this space.

Stage I

So first of all I gathered all the bits I wanted to use for the Spiker plant. 25mm base, some cocktail sticks and a small polystyrene egg from my local craft store, these are normally readily available especially around Easter time. Also needed will be some PVA glue and hot glue gun (but the glue gun is not essential).

Stage II

First I cut off the very ends of the cocktail sticks to remove the sharp pointy bits, this is so you don't prick yourself every time you go near it, then cut the sticks in half. Being very careful not to jab your hands, dip the blunt ends of the cocktail sticks into a little bit of PVA glue and then randomly push them into the polystyrene egg, continue to do so until you have your desired spiky effect. Once your happy stick the egg to the base with a glue gun or PVA.

Stage III

Now paint your Spiker Plant whatever colour you like, I have chosen do do a green plant colour with red spikes to represent them being dangerous. Above you can see the finished size. I have also based the Spiker Plant the same as my armies to keep in theme.

Deployment

For setting these up on the battlefield I plan on doing the following to make it fare.

1. After terrain set up but before deployment, split the board into six sections numbering each section.
2. Roll a D6 and place one Spiker Plant in the centre of that section
3. Roll for scatter on 2 D6, if a hit is scored the Spiker Plant will stay where it is otherwise it will scatter in the direction indicated.
4. Now roll a further D6, this will be how many other Spiker Plants are generated.
5. Roll for scatter on each individual Spiker Plant but only on 1 D6 and ignore hits, they will always scatter.
6. If any of the Spiker Plant go off the board or land on impassable terrain, move it the shortest distance required for it to be placed. They can be placed in difficult or dangerous terrain.

This should hopefully produce a nice little group of between two to seven Spiker Plants.

I hope you will enjoy having a go at creating one yourself and if you do, please email your pictures to me and I will post them to give others variation and inspiration of the terrain piece.


~ We care not what the Alien thinks; that we simply hate suffices ~