[?] Natural obstacles in the desert

[wuschel]

Hello,

I have a question regarding the creation of larger natural obstacles on a 4x4 km^2 map, in particular in a desert enviroment. These obstacles should block vehicle movement.

Currently, the following options come to my mind:

a) River.
A river brings in lots of water. And water support vegetation. And vegetation might destroy my beautiful desert - at least 100-200 m from the edge of the river.
Or would it be OK to let some water flow through a place like Kashan without creating lots of vegetation, creating an envirment like seen in Jabal? While most of the water in Jabal is salt water, there is still a river without vegetation on the map.

After all, there are dry river beds in the desert with their filling beeing totally dependent on sporadous but heavy rain.

b) River bed, empty.
Well, that might be a better solution, at least from the vegetation point of view. However, here I fear that the problems with the grid size on 4x4 maps might not allow me to make river bed steep enough to prevent unit movement to the other side.

c) High ridge lines
See also, b: The size of the map might not allow the creation of steep ridgelines without the known problems with high terrain polygon size.

d) The small dry/slightly filled river-beds a la Basrah
A good option, however, they come at the price of sacrificing the desert enviroment (large, small dunes) and again, include some farming vegetation.

Any thoughts?

Gibbon-6

[Tarantula]

Think about deserts like mexican ones, where there is alot of grass and shrubland dry grass as undergrowth can cover the entirety of a map.