11–20 of 34 posts
Great example of this is Napoleon's Triumph: http://www.simmonsgames.com/products/Austerlitz/Map.html
Now that we have PCs and color printers everywhere, I ask: is there any software ("app" for the younger ones) for creating your own maps for wargames? Which one does the HN community recommend?
And I think I found a new use for my 3d printer... infantary!
There's this great thing called a flexible curve ruler. Assign each unit a movement speed in centimeters of map per turn, apply penalties and bonuses, and measure out the path that you want them to take. They're expensive compared to cheap dice and cheap compared to expensive dice. With high-end board game prices the way they are now, bundling one in is reasonable. Then you can use any map of the right scale.
But hexes are good enough and they're easy and cheap. :)
There's this great thing called a flexible curve ruler. Assign each unit a movement speed in centimeters of map per turn, apply penalties and bonuses, and measure out the path that you want them to take. They're expensive compared to cheap dice and cheap compared to expensive dice. With high-end board game prices the way they are now, bundling one in is reasonable. Then you can use any map of the right scale.
Measuring gives an opponent information about what you're thinking.
Deciding which one is appropriate would need to be decided on a game-by-game basis.
The "drunken hexagon walk" doesn't really seem like a big deal to me. In the real world, terrain will prevent you from moving in a straight line in many cases. Just like any type of 2D map projection, hexes distort the world to some degree, but it's a lot less than square grids.
This article is about a weird, arbitrarily chosen, ultra-pedantic interpretation of the tool, and not at all about its practical use.
Yeah.
A philosophy professor I used to know always had as an example of false belief a man who got a PhD in math to meet women.
"It was great for a few years and then around 2012 DARPA, Army, Marines, DoD, et. al., suddenly had no interest in not just wargaming but C4I decision support in general."
There's a huge upside the article misses. Having discrete movement allows the rules to be easily and exactly mentally simulated by humans. And that is key to a lot of tactical thought where you enumerate the possible responses and counter responses you and your opponent can have. For the opposite side of the spectrum, see the excellent game Frozen Synapse which has non-discrete motion and so to allow this "simulate t…
Mapping a game such that it's as true to life as possible doesn't necessarily make a fun game.
There's this great thing called a flexible curve ruler. Assign each unit a movement speed in centimeters of map per turn, apply penalties and bonuses, and measure out the path that you want them to take. They're expensive compared to cheap dice and cheap compared to expensive dice. With high-end board game prices the way they are now, bundling one in is reasonable. Then you can use any map of the right scale.
Hexes have the advantage of being able to eyeball the situation when making a decision. Measuring gives an opponent information about what you're thinking. Deciding which one is appropriate would need to be decided on a game-by-game basis.
But if you don't allow premeasuring the game becomes more about who can accurately eyeball distances than who has the best strategic mind. Hexes replace all of that nonsense with a simple counting step that can be done in less than a second.