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Is the Board too wide?

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:31 pm
by hazelbark
In all the postings about this, that and the other thing.

Is it possible the formula is more simply points to board width ratio?

In 15mm, should 800 points be played on a 5 foot wide board instead of 6?

A narrow board would to a small degree

Increase the worth of HF.
Reduce the LH scamper away.
Increase value of power troops over fiddily troops.
Make the games more likley to conclude.
Make terrain either a bigger issue or less relevant in its absence.

Re: Is the Board too wide?

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:55 pm
by azrael86
hazelbark wrote:In all the postings about this, that and the other thing.

Is it possible the formula is more simply points to board width ratio?

In 15mm, should 800 points be played on a 5 foot wide board instead of 6?

A narrow board would to a small degree

Increase the worth of HF.
Reduce the LH scamper away.
Increase value of power troops over fiddily troops.
Make the games more likley to conclude.
Make terrain either a bigger issue or less relevant in its absence.
Certainly a possibility, doubles at 900 on a 6' seems to work ok. Though depth may be easier to fix, change 15 and 10 to 18 and 12.

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:01 pm
by nikgaukroger
Play with 900 points - works better in my experience. More toys is good 8)

Re: Is the Board too wide?

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:15 pm
by david53
azrael86 wrote:
hazelbark wrote:In all the postings about this, that and the other thing.

Is it possible the formula is more simply points to board width ratio?

In 15mm, should 800 points be played on a 5 foot wide board instead of 6?

A narrow board would to a small degree

Increase the worth of HF.
Reduce the LH scamper away.
Increase value of power troops over fiddily troops.
Make the games more likley to conclude.
Make terrain either a bigger issue or less relevant in its absence.
Certainly a possibility, doubles at 900 on a 6' seems to work ok. Though depth may be easier to fix, change 15 and 10 to 18 and 12.
maybe works for HF armies were I have seen wall to wall HF one base deep at 900 points Northern Doubles but all your doing is making a cavalry army unworkable.

Why not get more event organisers to narrow the books down allowed therefore you'll have more near historical games as possible.

Otherwise your sorting one problum and making another.

Or maybe wait till FOG R is out in September and see how they have sorted things

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:09 pm
by stecal
Just use your HF army in 25mm where we have the opposite problem: board is not wide enough. 15mm & 25mm are almost 2 seperate games in FOG.

Re: Is the Board too wide?

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:14 pm
by jlopez
david53 wrote:maybe works for HF armies were I have seen wall to wall HF one base deep at 900 points Northern Doubles but all your doing is making a cavalry army unworkable.
Or it might just encourage players to send their cavalry on flank marches.

Re: Is the Board too wide?

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:20 pm
by dave_r
hazelbark wrote:Is it possible the formula is more simply points to board width ratio?
No. Be quiet you miserable flat foot.

Re: Is the Board too wide?

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:25 pm
by peterrjohnston
dave_r wrote: No. Be quiet you miserable flat foot.
The song that plays in Dave's nightmares

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQRIOKvR2WM

:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Re: Is the Board too wide?

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:56 pm
by dave_r
peterrjohnston wrote:
dave_r wrote: No. Be quiet you miserable flat foot.
The song that plays in Dave's nightmares

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQRIOKvR2WM

:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
I really meant to watch that song, but as soon as I got to youtube my computer put this on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqYmBzHP ... 1&index=55

Re: Is the Board too wide?

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 3:07 am
by waldo
hazelbark wrote:In all the postings about this, that and the other thing.

Is it possible the formula is more simply points to board width ratio?

In 15mm, should 800 points be played on a 5 foot wide board instead of 6?

A narrow board would to a small degree

Increase the worth of HF.
Reduce the LH scamper away.
Increase value of power troops over fiddily troops.
Make the games more likley to conclude.
Make terrain either a bigger issue or less relevant in its absence.
So, a proposal that might bring some balance into the game with no rules changes and that can be easily reversed if it proves to have too many adverse effects?

Something so sensible will struggle to gain acceptance.

Walter

Re: Is the Board too wide?

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 4:49 am
by expendablecinc
hazelbark wrote:In all the postings about this, that and the other thing.

Is it possible the formula is more simply points to board width ratio?

In 15mm, should 800 points be played on a 5 foot wide board instead of 6?

A narrow board would to a small degree

Increase the worth of HF.
Reduce the LH scamper away.
Increase value of power troops over fiddily troops.
Make the games more likley to conclude.
Make terrain either a bigger issue or less relevant in its absence.
I am playing a league with an entirely Heavy foot starter army (597 points) on a five foot table. It works fine and any more points on tabel would even stregthen an already strong position.

The problem is that the experience in points/tabel width balance is entirely different with different army types. ie in the biblical period battles 800 on a six footer leaves lost os spares for rear support and only a few avenues for flankarama.

Hellenisic armies real romans and pike are much more expensive per frontage so 900 is probably better.

Dark ages and the balance swings back 9eg a scots highlander army is almost identical to a late hoplit greek and can pretty well fille the table with offensive spearmen.

into middle ages and 5 feet still leaves plenty of room to manouver with 800 points of armoured drilled HF and knights.

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 6:36 am
by Cerberias
For me the manouver of this game is what keeps me playing, I'm not really in it to fight 'historical' battles, but play strategy against another person. It works as is for me.

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 8:35 am
by hammy
Different point to table ratios provide variety and variety is good.

5' wide tables are going to help foot armies to some extent but I suspect that 3' deep ones might work better.

1000 or 900 points on a 6 by 4 seems to work just fine.
650 points on a 5 by 3 is a popular format in the UK
I suspect that 600 points on a 4 by 3 would be worth a go and I think it has been tried in Aus

There is nothing forcing people to play 800 points on a 6 by 4 after all.

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 9:21 am
by waldo
hammy wrote:Different point to table ratios provide variety and variety is good.

5' wide tables are going to help foot armies to some extent but I suspect that 3' deep ones might work better.

1000 or 900 points on a 6 by 4 seems to work just fine.
650 points on a 5 by 3 is a popular format in the UK
I suspect that 600 points on a 4 by 3 would be worth a go and I think it has been tried in Aus

There is nothing forcing people to play 800 points on a 6 by 4 after all.
The rules do say it is "ideally designed" for 6' x 4', so to go against that would incur the wrath of certain players as a conspiracy against their army type. Some players feel the terrain rules favour horse armies over foot so if the board were smaller terrain might feature more often.

Walter

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 9:59 am
by hammy
waldo wrote:The rules do say it is "ideally designed" for 6' x 4', so to go against that would incur the wrath of certain players as a conspiracy against their army type. Some players feel the terrain rules favour horse armies over foot so if the board were smaller terrain might feature more often.

Walter
Well, that doesn't mean you HAVE to play on a 6 by 4 does it.

All I can say is that by the sound of it UK gamers are a lot more open minded than furriners when it comes to what they play.

The only FoG tournaments I have ever had to turn players away from because of lack of space have been the one day, three game, 650 point on a 5 by 3 table format ones.

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:48 pm
by hazelbark
hammy wrote: There is nothing forcing people to play 800 points on a 6 by 4 after all.
Dictates of your Scottish Overlord? Rule book?

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:50 pm
by hazelbark
nikgaukroger wrote:Play with 900 points - works better in my experience. More toys is good 8)
While I agree, I wonder if that impacts gamers too much. A lot of people needed to expand DBM armies to get to FoG 800, so while I like more, I am not sure it doesn't have a side effect.

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:54 pm
by hammy
hazelbark wrote:
nikgaukroger wrote:Play with 900 points - works better in my experience. More toys is good 8)
While I agree, I wonder if that impacts gamers too much. A lot of people needed to expand DBM armies to get to FoG 800, so while I like more, I am not sure it doesn't have a side effect.
650 points on a 5 by 3, you know it makes sense ;)

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 4:03 pm
by hazelbark
hammy wrote:
hazelbark wrote:
nikgaukroger wrote:Play with 900 points - works better in my experience. More toys is good 8)
While I agree, I wonder if that impacts gamers too much. A lot of people needed to expand DBM armies to get to FoG 800, so while I like more, I am not sure it doesn't have a side effect.
650 points on a 5 by 3, you know it makes sense ;)
We had a mini of 400 on i think it was a 3x2 that worked really well too.

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 4:06 pm
by hammy
hazelbark wrote:
hammy wrote:
hazelbark wrote: While I agree, I wonder if that impacts gamers too much. A lot of people needed to expand DBM armies to get to FoG 800, so while I like more, I am not sure it doesn't have a side effect.
650 points on a 5 by 3, you know it makes sense ;)
We had a mini of 400 on i think it was a 3x2 that worked really well too.
You can't do that :shock: it is not in the rules .... :shock: you will be punnished for such heresy ;)