Structure

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In BrikWars, there is probably nothing more satisfying than witnessing the complete and utter annihilation of a city block. Watching buildings get torn apart by artillery and having snipers fight each other from the rooftops probably has more awesome than anything else. With that in mind the Minifigs often construct houses, office buildings, bunkers, and restaurants from which to do battle and to destroy. In addition to the obvious, structures can also be used as objectives or they may house objectives in a tactical battle and may even serve to modify the Battlescape in some manner. As such, structures are often the players' most versatile terrain.


Famous Buildings

Famous Buildings are influential elements of the BrikWars Canon. They help to define the setting and are well known to its players.

Hospital 555

Yellow Castle

Atmospheric and Tactical Buildings

Atmospheric Buildings are table dressing, meant to provide very basic wargaming needs such as cover and obstruction while simultaneously enhancing the play experience by providing a visual aesthetic pleasing to the players. Tactical Buildings serve the same purpose, except they usually have some greater game based function.


Airports

Airports are locations that vary from a huge, crowded, self-contained community to a dirt streak in a pasture with a lifeguard chair for a control tower. It is here where planes take off after being loaded with passengers, snakes, bombs or whatever mayhem the Humans see fit. Planes, however, tend not to actually land at airports since they usually explode, crash, or make good use of Kamikaze tactiks.

Possible Uses:

  • Access to aviation vehicles.
  • The large number of civilians could serve as allies or neutral parties.
  • Planes could serve as explosive caches or deathtraps.
  • Planes could deploy reinforcements.

Tactical Considerations:

  • Airports contain lots of open space with very little real cover, even inside the terminals. If there are a lot of civilians, however, soft cover can be obtained by using the crowd to one's advantage.
  • High ground advantage exists from the tower and arriving or departing planes. Since the planes are temporary affairs, the tower is sure to be an objective of contention.


Armories and Supply Depots

A staple for any self-respecting fortress, SHIP, outpost, or fast-food joint. It is here, shelved in gleaming chrome or hanging on slabs of stone, that the tools of mass destruction and hilarity sought after by all in the BrikVerse rest. Usually at an intersection or other easy-to-reach location, the armory is a fighting man's best friend. It is this room where men give their lives to hold back the zombie/barbarian/alien horde and save civilization, and is immortalized for the best place for a pre-battle montage of soldiers arming to the teeth while the beginning credits appear.

Possible Uses:

  • Supply and Resupply.
  • Obtain specialized equipment or objectives.

Tactical Considerations:

  • An armory may have limited access, so watch your exits.
  • Supply dumps serve as primary targets for your enemies. An army without weapons is a bunch of figs with shoves. Consider doing the same.
  • Remember to protect your supplies but be prepared to burn them as well; other tactical options may present themselves if you buy yourself some time.


Bunkers

Bunkers are heavily fortified buildings where you can put gun emplacements and hold out from apoc-zombies, nukes, and invaders. They are usually underground and have limited access. Smaller versions are called pill boxes.

Possible Uses:

  • Provide stationary cover.
  • Protect a mobile objective.
  • Fallback point, take and hold, or survival objectives work well here.

Tactical Considerations:

  • Provides for heavy cover but minimal mobility. Heavier weaponry may be better deployed here.
  • Bunkers are obvious and noticeable, making for common targets. Prepare accordingly.


Castles and Defensive Installations

Castles and other such installations are large scale buildings generally built with defense in mind. Due to their massive size, however, they also serve as containment units, housing small to large residential areas and other functionable structures. They can also mount large scale ordinance. They might serve as cities in their own right, military installations, or imposing wards.

Possible Uses:

  • Siege Warfare.
  • Castles and other such installations, if they are large enough, could literally serve as the entire setting for a battle or story.

Tactical Considerations:

  • Concerning Castles in particular: The keep is at the very heart of castle strategy. Usually situated at the back of or in the middle of the fortress, well away from structural weaknesses such as gates, drawbridges, large windows and doggie-doors. The keep is where the most important people in any kingdom will hide, generally while wishing that they had sprung for the more expensive castle with the hidden escape tunnels. The walls are what set a true castle apart from a stand-alone keep, or an unprotected garrison. they are strong, thick and generally monochromatic. Tactically, they provide an ideal defense against ground-based troops. Many castle walls are topped with a rampart and crenelations, the rampart being the pathway around the inside of the walls, provide the perfect place from which to insult invading armies, and/or fart in their general directions. And the crenelations being the intermittent blocks which partially obscure the ramparts, providing cover from most missiles. The Moat is the outermost of the perimeter defenses, it consists of a deep trough cut around the bottom of the castle, usually this is filled in with water, as it is a widely known fact that hordes cannot swim. This feature may be lacking in some castles, but others make up for it by having mega-awesome pits filled spikes and venomous creatures. These strategies may be adopted for other large scale defensive installations.


Death Walls

A Death Wall is a huge wall with heavy defenses on it that makes lesser minifigs shit their pants when they're forced to march towards it. It has to have seen at least approximately a fuckton of minifigs die before it deserves the title death wall (see: Natalya's Death Wall, the Walls of Fico, Starkeep, Lion's Maw, or the Walls of Kerrat).

Alternately, a death wall can be a wall so useless it actually gets those defending it killed more quickly and crumbles apart at the slightest assault, but is still appreciated because of the amount of carnage it allows, or even causes. (see the Bavarian Gustav Line or the Brittanian Wall of Fort Maren.)

Death walls may not suffer from Big Gray Wall syndrome.

Possible Uses:

  • To hold a perimeter or line in a battle.
  • A convenient place to pile corpses.

Tactical Considerations:

  • Assaulting or defending a Death Wall is similar to a castle siege but may involve somewhat different approaches due to the dimensions of the defensive line. A death wall serves only in this capacity. A castle or other defensive installation may, however, employ death walls.
  • Bring something nasty to the party or you may not be able to pierce the defensive hail of enemy fire or the wall itself.
  • Prepare for heavy fire and a total lack of cover on approach when assaulting.
  • Learn to pick your targets wisely when defending.


GasStations and TruckStops

GasStations and TruckStops house massive repositories of various fuels, from gasolines and diesels to breakfast burritos and SodaPops. Usually filled with civilians on their way to and fro, these important structures are epitome of culture. They fulfill every minifig need, at sneakily exorbitant cost, from refuelling vehicles and bodies to exploding barrels of flammable fuels.

Possible Uses:

  • Explosive fuel dump.
  • Source of vehicles.
  • Civilian population can serve as allies or neutral parties.

Tactical Considerations:

  • Fuel repositories, as in action movies, explode a lot. Use this to your advantage.
  • While the buildings are often small and the lots are open, the abundance of vehicles still provides a lot of cover, some of it perhaps mobile.


Large and Small Business Offices

Often called training centers or concentration camps, Offices exist to hone a minifigure's frustration and rage to a razor's edge. They are considered fundamental in urban areas not only because they maintain all the paperwork that keeps track of death tolls (something CityFolk are oddly fond of) but also because of their boring, oppressive environments. Minifigs aren't patient creatures by nature and being forced to sit around, not killing things, is an agony to them. You can always tell someone is about to be promoted when flipped tables or dead bodies go crashing out of fifth story plate glass windows.

Possible Uses:

  • The large number of workers could be used as allies, neutral parties, or cleverly sprung traps.
  • Source of OfficeSupplies, handy when you need to MacGyver something mid-battle.

Tactical Considerations:

  • Office buildings are a tactical joy: multiple floors, height and line of sight advantages, loaded with basic materials, etcetera.
  • Offices are a powderkeg ready to blow. Consider using the disgruntled employees against your opponent, perhaps by baiting and tailing them.
  • Keep the windows in mind. Enhanced LOS out also allows for LOS in.
  • Think Die Hard.


PoliceStations

Many countries and empires maintain a strong police force to deal with the inevitable crimes that occur in a society where everyone aspires to become a mass murderer. Unlike in the Human world, such feats of violence are glorified parts of a minifig's everyday life, police forces don't exist to prevent or punish homicidal rampages, but merely to regulate them at a government-prescribed level and to otherwise maintain their governments' executive monopoly on mass slaughter. During periods of low homicide rates, police forces really have no good reason to exist other than to annoy and ticket speeding drivers, consume copious amounts of ABS donuts and coffee, and engage in the occasional shootout or awesome high-speed chase; these have the effects of disgruntling the local citizens and increasing their propensity to go on wild murder sprees. These cops are housed at police stations, of which there is usually at least one in every town or city. Police stations are quite large, but only have room to hold 1 or 2 kriminals at a time. This tiny inmate capacity is rarely an issue because every cell has at least one breakable or missing wall, a design innovation which has been found to be an effective means of preventing prison overcrowding.

Possible Uses:

  • A Station could serve as an impromptu weapons cache.
  • Officers could serve as allies or a neutral party that attacks and arrests interlopers.
  • Criminals could serve as allies if broken out or a neutral party that attacks nearby minifigs.
  • Stations could serve as a "doomsday clock," limiting the number of available turns before an Officer calls in government reinforcement to "contain" the situation.

Tactical Considerations:

  • Reinforced walls and cells make for excellent cover. Conversely, action-breakable walls make for enhanced mobility and possible deceptive movement.
  • Trained allies may turn the tide of battle or, at least, give one time to deploy a new tactik.


Residential Areas

Minifigs need someplace to store their weapons in between campaigns of slaughter. And, you know, a place to sleep and eat. Houses and apartments fit that bill nicely. Home to a bewildering array of specialty items, a goodly cache of weapons, and usually a handful of reliable vehicles, Residential Areas are prime targets for raiders and key defensive locations, to be protected at all costs, for military and civilian minifigs alike.

Possible Uses:

  • Objects can serve as objectives.
  • Residential Areas could be used to determine battlefield control.
  • The massive number of civilians could be allies or neutral parties.
  • Serves as a source of vehicles, weapons, and assorted other useful items.

Tactical Considerations:

  • Most residential areas, even if just inside the homes themselves, are dense. Narrow hallways can become killzones and tight corners can restrict line of sight.
  • Approach cautiously but quickly, from more than one angle simultaneously, while having each man able to cover another's fire lane. Coordinate effectively.


Restaurants and Other Food Service Businesses

A minifig's gotta eat...well, they don't have to but sometimes they enjoy the practice. Plus, its a way to dispose of all those corpses. And what better time to get the drop on an opponent than when he has his face stuffed full of long pig? Restaurants make for exciting places to have shootouts. Glass shatters, tables get flipped, and the possibilities in a kitchen full of fryers, ovens, and cold storage are endless.

Possible Uses:

  • Food can serve to recharge a minifig's energy.
  • Food fights are a time honored and practical use of a minifigure's time.

Tactical Considerations:

  • There is a lot of open space and sight lines in a restaurant but also a lot of soft cover in chairs, tables, and buffet bars. Make good use of it.
  • Highly dangerous hazards and equipment can be found in the kitchen area. Head there for maximum hilarity.
  • Always tip your server.


Environmental Structures

Environmental Structures can serve aesthetic or tactical designs, of course, but the primary reason for their inclusion is as a basic modification to the Battlescape. They alter the entire battle in some way, usually related to the environment detailed in the battle's narrative.


Astral Constructs

Astral Constructs are Creations that appear on the Astral Plate. These are most often buildings and the like but there have been some cases of other kinds of Creations, like SHIPs, appearing as Astral Constructs. There are essentially three types. First and foremost are Mirror Constructs. These locales are the idealized Astral reflection of some particularly important site in the RealVerse, even if those sites no longer exist. Second are those created by powerful beings, such as gods or humans. These tend to be much more permanent and unchangeable than other structures in the Astral and often serve as waystations or headquarters. Last are constructs which ebb and flow around the consciousness' in the area. Most often they vaguely mirror their counterparts in the RealVerse but in a twisted and unexpected manner. These constructs are never permanent and change shape and function often.

Possible Uses:

  • To navigate the Astral Plate.
  • Serve as a morphic terrainscape.
  • Spawn any sort of creature, item, or building.

Tactical Considerations:

  • You never know what's coming in the Astral. What you see around you could change at a moment's notice. This isn't much different from the regular BrikVerse, so BrikVersians have an advantage here and are able to react more quickly than other universal denizens. However, the changes are still more mercurial and even BrikVersians may be outpaced.


Moon, Asteroidal, or Space Facilities

As evidenced by the overabundance of Space Empires in the BrikVerse, minifigs are always wandering off into space. There are a great many resources to gather and wars to be waged. And, after all, more space means more room to do it all in. Engagements can become ever larger and more epic and the value of resources (and the Creations those resources go toward making) becomes ever more extravagant. Natural byproducts, then, of this expansion include MoonBases, Asteroidal Mining Colonies, SpaceStations, and the like. They serve as the platforms for resource gathering (and, more importantly, for the struggle over those resources) as well as military launchpoints, garrisons, and for other combative purposes.

Possible Uses:

  • Obtain or Defend Resources.
  • House Armies.
  • Plot Villainously.

Tactical Considerations:

  • These environments allow for low gravity movement. Some of them allow for gravity to be adjusted on a whim. Take advantage of the movement situation but be aware than other gravity environments can be tricky.
  • These facilities often have really heavy duty machinery, both of the construction and destruction varieties. Use them to full effect to create as much mayhem as possible.


UnderWater Installations

Whether used as a means to hide a secret laboratory by submerging it in the deep, a way to gather resources from the ocean floors, or as an unexpected launching point for some military engagement, it can't be denied that UnderWater Installations are an extravagant and iconic trope. Whatever the case, minifigs are only too happy to have yet another way to do battle.

Possible Uses:

  • Stage underwater battles.
  • Use underwater equipment and creatures.

Tactical Considerations:

  • Three dimensional combat is prevalent in underwater scenarios. Be aware that attacks could come from any direction. More importantly, never forget that you can attack from any direction.
  • Specialized equipment may be required to operate underwater. If that equipment gets damaged, the minifig relying on it may be out of the fight.


Specialized and Utility Structures

Specialized Structures are pieces that represent a singular function, depending on player taste and the narrative of their battle. This may be purely aesthetic or it may serve some very specific game-related function like an objective that does only one thing when captured. Utility Structures are structures that facilitate an alteration to the basic ruleset instead of Battlescape, such as racing or roleplaying.


Arenas

Arenas, oddly enough, are one of the more failed examples of BrikVersian architecture. Originally designed to specifically house violence as a spectator sport, these massive constructions seated thousands of minifigs around a central combat floor. Though their actual construction varied somewhat from culture to culture (from sand pits to floating crystalline disks hovering over a variety of deathtraps), their central design philosophy remained the same: provide an artificial location for combatants to duke it out and plenty of space for other minifigs to get a good view of it and revel in the carnage. The reality, however, is minifig reception to the idea ranged from disgust and a feeling of being insulted to outright disinterest. Mostly disinterest. Minifigs already have a place to fight and revel in carnage. It's called "Everywhere Else." And, of course, with the advent of the Far-Ums, the need for physical seating has become a thing of the distant past. Thus, most Arenas are now little more than crumbling ruins, piles of briks not being put to better use. Nevertheless, some of the more martial minded cultures still use them for training purposes or to keep their populations in line by forcing them to participate in the "fake" combat Arenas offer.

Possible Uses:

  • Training Grounds.
  • Population Control.
  • Hideouts and similar retreats.
  • Tournaments, challenges, and other tests of worthiness.

Tactical Considerations:

  • Ruins provide a steady flow of basic brikbuilding resources.
  • While there is a good deal of open ground topside, Arenas often feature more complex underground facilities.
  • In functioning Arenas, the stands are a great place to start a riot.


Dungeons

Dungeons are often, in the eyes of many BrikVerse minifigures, the most important (or at least coolest) room in a large space ship or fortress. This room is a combination of torture gallery, transplant-surgery theatre, and over-all prison. It should come with a torture table, some kind of execution chamber, (usually electric or gas, but a firing range is good too) some surgical apparatus for the transfer of POW figs' parts onto wounded soldiers', and a few holding cages. More insane dungeon designers come up with more insane ways of executing minifigs though, so in the ships or bases of especially demented minifgs you might find things like snake pits or lava pools which minifigs are lowered in to their deaths.

Possible Uses:

  • House and interrogate prisoners to obtain tactical information.
  • Stage rescue attempts.

Tactical Considerations:

  • There's a whole lot of really deadly stuff in a dungeon. Most of it takes some time and effort to use, however, and a whole lot of it is designed for pain, not death. As an attacker, consider moving quickly and ignoring most of what you find unless its small, light, or easily usable.
  • As a defender, consider the worth of the possible information. If it will help you achieve victory, defend the chamber with all you've got. If not, abandon it at the earliest opportunity and use the time gained to set up a counterstrike.


Mazes, Labyrinths, and ObstacleCourses

Mazes, Labyrinths, ObstacleCourses, and the like serve a very unique function in many BrikVersian societies. As in the human world, these sorts of structures do exist to fluster and bewilder those caught within its confines. However, the end purpose is different for denizens of the BrikVerse. For Humans, confusion is goal enough. For BrikVersians, confusion is the means to a greater end. A stymied minifig is a very, very dangerous beast. Minifigs, in general, don't enjoy thinking too terribly much. They certainly don't enjoy a lack of killing while they're sat about doing all this thinking. This sort of situation can break a minifig's mind, turning them into an engine of mindless rage. Which usually works well enough for the owners of the Maze, though Offices are usually the more efficient and expedient method of obtaining these beasts. However, just sometimes, great leaders are forged through this trial, leaders reforged with a tactikal mindset and a deep, cold rage, and therein lies the true purpose of the BrikVersian Labyrinth.

Possible Uses:

  • To forge shock troopers.
  • To forge great leaders.
  • As tests of worthiness.
  • To protect Artifax of great power from lesser minifigs.

Tactical Considerations:

  • A battle in a Labyrinth can be a frustrating affair, stick close to your enemy lest he elude you like the coward he is.
  • As distasteful as it sounds, make good decisions and use consistent logic to quickly see your way through. Unless your goal is to become a mindless engine of war. Which, let's face it, is a pretty damn good goal.


RaceCourses

Good old fashioned war, minifig against minifig dashing about and clashing forcefully together in a ballet of death on the field of battle, never really gets old. But there are always ways to expand the experience. For most BrikVersians, more ways to experience sheer bloody carnage can never really be a bad thing. For some BrikVersians, the way to make battle even more interesting is to put it on wheels and drive it down the highway to hell, mounted machine guns a-blazing. RaceCourses can take a variety of forms, depending upon the vehicles being used (from deathbikes and machine gun toting cars to starfighters), and maybe located virtually anywhere in the known galaxies. One of the more expansive examples is BrikRace, a Far-Ums show featuring a variety of races from around the universe.

Possible Uses:

  • Prove dominance in more than one arena.
  • More things to put more dakka on.

Tactical Considerations:

  • Vehicle speed creates an added element of danger, that of collision damage, so take advantage whenever possible.
  • Pilots, drivers, and riders are typically more protected from incoming damage than they otherwise would be on foot, prepare some anti-armor weaponry and accuracy boosts in order to mitigate this advantage.
  • Bring pilots to a drive-fight. You want to be able to maximize your killing efficiency.