07 November 2012

GameTalk - Area / Square / Hex / Point-to-Point


What are the inherent strengths or weaknesses of the different types of map movement paradigms?

By: Brant

2 comments:

Brian said...

Ooooh goodie, a wargame mechanics question... to which I say, as always, "it depends".

I like areas because you can make them large or small to reflect difficulty of terrain, same with point to point movement.

Hexes and squares (whether orthogonal or staggered, which is just like hexes) are more problematic because you are imposing a regular grid on top of an irregular landscape, and things like different movement points to enter such regular areas still impose distortions on the way things actually are.

But they are better for tactical games where you need to count off ranges for weapons and the like, so areas or P2P woudl make sense for a strategic or operational game that doesn't involve actual ranged combat.

Jack Nastyface said...

Witness the wisdom of...the Order of the Stick!

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0175.html