Aware the game bans measuring before taking an action.
Wondering on why?
Agree it sounds 'right', lack of accurate range finding, chances of making mistakes etc.
Few problems:
- if you use minefields it simply doesn't work, you need to be able to measure the ships position to know which 12" square its in - indeed gridding the table becomes the most practical way of playing this.
- 1" shallow water from coastal boundaries, needs to be indicated on the table to make it work
- Not hard to get round it by using a small ship to fire a 'ranging shot' which will provide a very good estimate
- There are a few games that use this mechanic, or used to, its easy to provide various advantages.. e.g. knowing exactly how long your models are to provide a visual clue, knowing how long your arm is etc.. somewhat 'grey' tactics, and a dark grey at that for some of them but it works.
Biggest of all
- It provides a massive advantage to a player who is used to that mechanic and/or has good depth perception, in effect a player who is better at estimating distances on a table has an advantage when using the same fleet as one without that advantage who may have better tactics.
Hopefully this is going in V2, not seeing many games using this mechanic these days - you are in effect paying points for a model that is intended to have a crew who are trained at this sort of thing and have some clever optical gizmos to find the ranges etc.
Q1: how many people house rule to allow measuring?
Q2: how often does it actually make a difference?
Wondering on why?
Agree it sounds 'right', lack of accurate range finding, chances of making mistakes etc.
Few problems:
- if you use minefields it simply doesn't work, you need to be able to measure the ships position to know which 12" square its in - indeed gridding the table becomes the most practical way of playing this.
- 1" shallow water from coastal boundaries, needs to be indicated on the table to make it work
- Not hard to get round it by using a small ship to fire a 'ranging shot' which will provide a very good estimate
- There are a few games that use this mechanic, or used to, its easy to provide various advantages.. e.g. knowing exactly how long your models are to provide a visual clue, knowing how long your arm is etc.. somewhat 'grey' tactics, and a dark grey at that for some of them but it works.
Biggest of all
- It provides a massive advantage to a player who is used to that mechanic and/or has good depth perception, in effect a player who is better at estimating distances on a table has an advantage when using the same fleet as one without that advantage who may have better tactics.
Hopefully this is going in V2, not seeing many games using this mechanic these days - you are in effect paying points for a model that is intended to have a crew who are trained at this sort of thing and have some clever optical gizmos to find the ranges etc.
Q1: how many people house rule to allow measuring?
Q2: how often does it actually make a difference?
