CrystalBlue
Sep 7 2006, 04:22 AM
I'm going to be starting a new game, and the one thing I've never got was how to use a battle mat and mini's to represent movement, placement, and range. I've got both a hex grid and a square grid and I have a few genaric mini's. Does anyone have an idea or have you used a system in your game that I could try? Thanks.
Demerzel
Sep 7 2006, 04:36 AM
In my experience use the grids on the mat to help you draw out stuff, but use measuring tapes to measure distances. Play it more like 40K than Battletech. After all you are guarenteed to have a player say, I want to be 2/3 in this hex, and 1/6 in this hex and 1/6 in this one...
Just pick a scale.
Gort
Sep 7 2006, 04:44 AM
Use 2 meter squares for indoors, 5 meters for close outdoor combat, and 10 meters for distant close combat.
FrankTrollman
Sep 7 2006, 04:54 AM
I prefer 1 meter squares for indoors. Most rooms, even spacious offices, are rarely more than 4 meters on a side. And with 2m squares you really don't have room to draw the couches, counters, and trid sets.
-Frank
ShadowDragon
Sep 7 2006, 04:59 AM
I use a hex grid. Each hex is 1m, and buildings are frequently not perfect rectangles, but it works. I can't imagin combat scenes without it.
A houserule that helps make movement smoother is always dividing turns into 4 IPs. Then you can move each IP without spending an action. So a human/elf/orc would run 7,6,6,6 meters or walk 3,3,2,2 or walk and run using the same pattern; IE 7,3,2,6.
chazuli
Sep 7 2006, 01:31 PM
I've found the Axis and Allies Miniatures to work well for SR. They're in a smaller scale than the usual 25mm scale minature, and because of that work better for gun combat which can often be at longer ranges.
Additionally, while they're not exactly 'hi-tech' the fact that they have rifles and pistols as opposed to swords and bows makes them more modern than most minatures I've found. Plus the game has lots of tanks and other vehicles from WWII that are scalled to the minis to offer the rigger something to represent. Sure, they're a bit retro, but with a little paint they work out pretty well, IMHO.
-Charles Millar
NightHaunter
Sep 7 2006, 04:19 PM
We've recently started using gummy bears and jelly babies as character and troop representations.
On a vague map so as to better represent combat situations, every kill earns the player in question the delicious food stuff to eat.
Anyone got suggestions for vehicles and critters etc.
Roadspike
Sep 7 2006, 04:40 PM
How about Peeps?
On a more serious side, one of my college groups used minis and a dry-erase game-board for tactical movement. The other one just used a dry-erase board, writing in letters/symbols for the various people. Given the fluidity of SR combat, I think that hex or square grids are just asking for trouble. It does, however, end arguments about "how could that adept move up to me so quickly, I thought he was further away?" For the d20 game that I'm playing (yes, I'm horrible like that), a wet-erase mat with a square grid and Warhammer minis is working quite nicely (Empire militia make great pirates).
Lurker69
Sep 7 2006, 05:07 PM
We use a hex map and state the hex's are 1 meter in diameter. We use normal mini's to represent characters and Star Wars (trademark) Mini's for oppenents.
I use crayon washable markers on the map to drawout the enviroments the runners are in.
the only problem we have is space on the table and map for everyones stuff.
But we get by fine.
GrinderTheTroll
Sep 7 2006, 05:49 PM
| QUOTE (CrystalBlue) |
| I'm going to be starting a new game, and the one thing I've never got was how to use a battle mat and mini's to represent movement, placement, and range. I've got both a hex grid and a square grid and I have a few genaric mini's. Does anyone have an idea or have you used a system in your game that I could try? Thanks. |
We use 1m (squares or hexes) for close-combat (melee especially) and Indoors (buildings, structures, etc.). We switch up the scale when required and it varies depending on the situation. 1m increments work well for weapons and char movement since movement is quantized to 1m increments as are weapon ranges. Keep in mind that if you have vehicles involved they will blow across a 1m scale map very quickly, so we often have maps of various scales on hand to represent the situation.
For example, last sessions the team was setting explosives in a Radio Tower compound that was 1500m x 1000m. For that map, I used 100m squares to "fit" the compund on a smaller dry-erase map (15x10 squares). This worked good for Drones and Vehicles (was also the AR overlay used by the team) and placing team markers or other information.
I had a larger-scale 1000m-per-square map (very small) used for geographical reference (compound was 1x2 squares) that had hills, mountains and roadway information.
Ultimately, I had a dynamic 1m-per-square map for the limited combat siuations that came about.
As my group has grown in experience and years of play, they like strategic maps as well as tactical detail maps when required. It takes some prep-time but not enough to make it a chore for me as the GM, plus I consider myself good at creating locations and content on-the-fly.
Hope this helps.
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