Portable Wargame, am I making it too complicated?

[JozisTinMan]

Ok, I have 2 travel battle board sets painted up and a couple of 6mm armies mounted on 20mm squares. (Normans and Orcs right now)  So… I am stuck thinking about how to track hits on the little bases.  Of course, I thought about 3d printing a solution, but I cannot think of an elegant way to show hits.

 

Am I just making it too complicated and I should just use a roster?  Thoughts?  I am trapped by analysis paralysis.

http://jozistinman.blogspot.com/

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

For a portable game, I’d go with a roster. Otherwise the casualty tracker markers are liable to be too visually disturbing.

However, if you can make legible diaorama style casualty markers (i.e. dead guys on a base), that might be worth a go.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Logain]

Baccus 6mm casualties!

[MartinR]

I just put tile spacers on the bases for individual SP and keep track of overall losses to determine exhaustion using a deck of cards (give each side a number of cards equal to exhaustion and remove one per hit).

Yes, you could use a roster, or little dice, but I tend to knock little dice over with my big fat fingers.

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

[Shaun Travers]

Yes, you are a bit stuck there.  I use hit markers that about 10mmx10mm for my 6mm portable games so not attractive all all.  Cannot think of an on table solution that would blend in.  Sorry!

[Blackhat]

Use the “instant” death version and you don’t have to track anything!  I also don’t use exhaustion point as I don’t see how it works as written and always use scenarios with a fixed game length.

 

[Sane Max]

There’s a similar thread about this elsewhere – I generally find markers too obtrusive whatever I do, at that scale you really are stuck. I would second the ‘use a roster’ method.

If it doesn’t take up too much room, how about a peg board like you used to get in the Mastermind Boardgame? something like a Cribbage Board?

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Little tiny plastic blood drops by Litko might work.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Who Asked This Joker]

Hi Patrick,

Have you considered a numeric counter?  Just place it under the base.  When you need to see or change it, just pick up the base and read/remove the counter and replace it with the appropriate number.  That will probably be the best, non-roster solution.  Otherwise, I think you are doomed to a roster or some ugly counters.

John

John

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

--Abraham Lincoln

[Sane Max]

ahh I dislike that concept. it’s the basic concept for Fire and Fury, and we ALL found it annoying picking up bases, putting them back, dropping them, forgetting what we had just read, doing it again – we eventually gave up on aesthetics and used strips of post-it-note sticking out the back of the base for ease of reference. Ugly as heck but much less of a pain.

YMMV of course

[MartinR]

I was just about to suggest a sticky strip protruding from the back.  Just blob the hits on the bit of paper with a sharpie.

If you fold printing labels they stick quite well and have a nice surface to write on.

I usually put an 8mmx8mm square of magnetic tape on all my bases so I can attach labels, strength point markers etc, but it is a bit late for that as you’ve already done the bases.

 

 

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

[Sane Max]

yah, I bought these for  £2.00 at The Works.

 

 

 

[Mike]

Coins based to match the tabletop and a number of small rocks on each one that denotes casualties and does not look out of place?

[JozisTinMan]

Hey guys!  Sorry, I was out of town a couple of days.  Thanks for all the great replies.

 

I think the answer is yes, I am making it too complicated…

• I thought about 3d printing numbered markers and may try that.  I am worried that it may be fiddly, but I need to try it before dismissing it.
• I think I will start out with a paper roster BUT…
• … if I do stay the roster course, I like the master mind board idea above and could print that.

The other option is to go 1 hit or 2 hit option in the rules, which is where I shall probably start because it is the path of least resistance.  I’ll post how it goes.

 

PS- Hi John! I am looking forward to the conventions starting up again and we can push some lead again.

http://jozistinman.blogspot.com/

[Andrew Beasley]

I’ve fallen back to paper for one hour wargames (each unit takes 15 hits to remove) and colouring the edges of bases to identify the units (e.g. red / blue infantry etc) and been happy with that.

I’ve wondered about dropping down to two / three ‘hits’ per unit as I’ve found my plastic rings again and have fire / smoke markers for more modern games.

How do you find the Battle boards?  I’ve had my eye on them since they came out and noticed you can buy them without the boards direct from Perry Miniatures.  My only concern is the fixed scenery – totally in the wrong place for ALL of the 30 provided scenarios!

[Author]

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