Base shapes

[green stuff]

Before posting this I did a search, and didn\'t find anything on it, but if it has already been discussed, sorry, and please let me know where I can find the discussion.

So without further ado, here\'s my question : I was wondering why hexagonal bases had been dropped in wargames?

I can understand that they would cause problems when alining big regiments, but I assume they could be useful for skirmish games. Come to think of it, the system worked well in Demonworld.

The only reason I seem to find in various magazines is that they aren\'t \"pretty\". Does anybody have a less subjectif reason?

 

[Naukhel]

As far as I\'ve ever been able to tell, hex bases stopped being used because you couldn\'t flank from as many angles with them. Only 6 sides, as opposed to the 8 available to a square base.

This is commented on, actually, in the comic \'Order of the Stick\'.

But it seems to have some basis in fact, despite the joke about it in the comic.

Then there\'s the other school of thought that just says \'Who cares what shape the base is, if the guy\'s getting fragged from 200 yards away by a shrapnel grenade??\'

 

[green stuff]

Message original : Naukhel
As far as I\'ve ever been able to tell, hex bases stopped being used because you couldn\'t flank from as many angles with them. Only 6 sides, as opposed to the 8 available to a square base.

I\'m sorry, I\'m missing something here ???. Could you please explain?

Message original : Naukhel
Then there\'s the other school of thought that just says \'Who cares what shape the base is, if the guy\'s getting fragged from 200 yards away by a shrapnel grenade??\'

True, but it is important in hand to hand combat ... well at least when the game you are playing has rules on types of movements and cohesiveness of troops.

If your group has several ranks and they have hex bases, each rank won\'t necessarily have as many units in it.

[edit]Going to check out \'Order of the Stick\' [/edit]

 

[frenchkid]

@naukhel: dosn\'t a square have 4 sides ???

@cedric: truth is ..... they aren\'t pretty :moon: I know that harbinger\'s minis have hhexagonal bases, or at least they use to duno if chenged it or not.

 

[green stuff]

@Arthur : I did a quick search. It seems they changed to some thin round ons ... not very convincing IMHO.

 

[frenchkid]

well if you desperatly need hexagonal bases I\'ll slip in the few I have lying arround with the giants

 

[Duende]

Originally posted by frenchkid
@naukhel: dosn\'t a square have 4 sides ???

The square base has 8 points of contact; 4 sides and the 4 corners.

I hope this clears that up!

 

[Naukhel]

To elaborate:

The hex base has six sides, and each side represents a flank that can be struck by your standard medium sized weapon.

For a square base, draw a tic-tac-toe board, and consider the centre square the \'target\'.
The other 8 sections are able to reach it, assuming the standard base=five feet, and a standard weapon\'s reach, including arm length is 5 feet.
Ranged weapons and extended reach weapons mess the whole thing up, though.

 

[No Such Agency]

I suspect the inability to \"rank em up\" on a hex grid is partly to blame. I personally agree completely with this, if one HAS to use a grid system of some kind, a hex is a poor choice. True straight movement is available in three directions, but not at right angles, which humans are fond of dealing with. Or whatever. Anyway I think round bases are the best compromise, your minis can still fit in a movement tray but also can face in any direction just like a real person. And I understand that games like WH don\'t use a grid, but measured movement in any direction?

 

[Dedwrekka]

And I understand that games like WH don\'t use a grid, but measured movement in any direction?

True, but sometimes I wish we had a grid to go off of. Too many people decide to get...creative in their measuring. Let\'s see of the types I know of, there\'s: Placing the miniature and retracting the tape measure at the same time, moving the tape measure while moving the miniature (leading to several extra inches), knocking over the opponents models \"accidentaly\", then moving your model where you want while he/she\'s distracted, and my favorite one, poking the opponent in the eye with the tape measure then moving your entire army wherever you want. Hexes may be kind of \"ugly\" but you get the bonus of having a pre-measured grid to work with, not your oponent\'s, or the tape measure\'s, incompetence.

 

[green stuff]

@Arthur : no, that\'s OK, but thanks. The question was just for the sake of my wargaming culture. Just now, I did a Google search on the subject, and apparently the hex base makers destin them for DBM type games nowadays.

@Naukhel & Duende : depending one the game system, on could also argu that hex bases have 6 corners and so make up 12 hit zones. One could also argu that I\'m being picky .

@NSA : absolutely right for WH Battle, Confrontation, Warmachine, ... It has become the trend in the \"newer\" wargames (as opposed to the DBM type). Actually, square bases are useful in WH Battle, because of the rules (they take into account flank and rear attacks).

 

[Klute]

hex bases have 6 corners and so make up 12 hit zones

I was confused at first but get it now.
If you draw a square then place equal sized squares around it you can get 8 to touch the original.
With a hex only 6 will touch.The corners are covered by the 6.
And Im not being picky,Ive just spent 10 minutes trying to work it out.lol

 

[Sturmhalo]

Blimey and I thought hex bases were dropped just coz they were sh*t! Handy for games like Battletech that use hex maps, but utter crap for anything else. And they don\'t look as good as a nice round base either.

 

[MarkusTay]

Reaper\'s CAV game still uses hex bases, and they sell some nice ones seperately (stone sides).

Does anyone know of a sytem of rules that can use armies from ANY GAME? I remember reading about it somewhere, and the base shape doesn\'t matter at all. Basically, you could have a WH army fighting a WM one, or a Aegyptus one, or a Warlord one, etc. You could even mix Sci/fi with fantasy. They were like the ultimate generic rules, but I can\'t remember where the hell I read about them, or who made them.

 

[green stuff]

@MarkusTay : I think you may be talking about 100 Kingdoms.

 

[vincegamer]

Not 100 kingdoms.

I know what you are talking about because I saw some guys playing with I-Kore pieces about 3 years ago and when I asked if they were playing VOID, they said no, they had a better system that is generic. They told me what it was called, but unfortunately I don\'t remember and don\'t live in that state anymore to see if they are still playing.

 

[green stuff]

Concerning a genric wargame, I found >>this<<.

 

[airhead]

Universal gaming system? wouldn\'t have been GURPS? (Generic Universal Role Play System). Kinda the precourser to the D&D/d20/d20modern/d20scifi that we have now. One set of rules, many games.

Reaper is trying a similar thing. The CAV 2.0 rule set due out this summer will use the same RAGE (Reaper Adventure Game Engine) as Warlord. So if you know one game, the mechanics are the same, but obviously the special abilities will be diffent.

 

[vincegamer]

GURPS was good for role-playing, but we\'re thinking tabletop.

I know there\'s this one:

Hordes of the Things

 

[supervike]

I\'m confused...

are you people saying that you play GAMES with miniatures.

I\'ve never heard of such a thing....