"hexless maps and counters" Topic

Just a quick query – due to financial and time limitations, has anyone considered the possibility of rescaling certain rule sets and producing their own counters and maps for these rulesets
I am considering a number of rulesets such as Spearhead, Great War Spearhead and even Polemos WSS and other large scale rules, with 15-20mm (roughly 1/2"-7/8") counters in the case of GWSH, representing one company or platoon. Ideally, reducing space required and expense.
Just wondering how many others had attempted hexless counter based games. I am familiar with victory point games's recent "Gettysburg wheatfield" which got me thinking about it. This could mean whole armies could be kept in small boxes, or even plastic wallets within the rulebooks.
I also have a number of 2mm armies before people suggest these and I am also familiar with their limitations. Having played several hex games over the last year or so I feel that a less restricted map (without hexes), allowing taped movement and truer LOS might be better, with the added bonus of cheap, generic counters, with only a unit symbol and name (no values required as in traditional hex counter games-counters simply denote unit footprint on groundscale). Printed on different coloured paper would be enough for nation identification, stuck onto some 2mm card. If anyone can suggest an easy way of producing such counters (to the correct size) would also be appreciated.

Also, what is the practicality of gaming on real maps (for me in the UK, 1:25000 or 1:50000 OS maps seem appealing, giving me the opportunity for hypothetical situations around my home county. The scale does not portray modern details too accurately – although major road systems may prove problematic; but I could have scenarios based around a ‘very British Civil War' 1938 era with the various protagonists fighting over my neighbouring towns and villages. Admittedly at this scale platoons and upwards with some characters would be the required minimum unit size, which out of curiosity I have never seen done by anybody, but having larger forces would be appealing to me.

Would be interested to hear what anyone thinks…

Some years back I managed to get a board gaming friend to play DBA by using counters marked 'blades', 'spears', etc.

Now he owns a number of tin armies.

I also tested out some new rules by using counters. If you plan on doing it most of the time, try and make them pretty.

Look for paper armies at juniorgeneral.com

The other option would be to go for a skirmish game in paper. One good site is One Monk onemonk.com the hordes figures are FOC

I found boxes worked out better – I bent bits putting them in envelopes and had to tip the lot out to find the correct ones each time.

In the 70s there were the Micro Wargames by Tabletop Games, that were actually miniatures wargames with counters in lieu of miniatures. I had the Micro Colonial (British vs Zulu) and was a nice set.

I use counters to try new rules / period, but I always end buying the miniatures, even those tiny, wonderful 2mm blocks.

I have often used counters to substitute for minis and have played games on real maps too.

One thing to watch if playing with card on paper is that the counters can slide around in a really, really annoying manner.

If using real maps it might be adviseable to do the military map analysis thing and trace out the significant features – watersheds, watercourses, roads, areas of bad going etc. Either on the nap itself or on an acetate overlay.

Real maps have lots and lots of terrain on them and can be v. confusing, particular trying to analyse elevations and depressions.

One neat trick is playing on real maps using counters made from acetate, than you can see the terrain features underneath. You can write on acetate with OHP pens.

More suggestions.

Walmart's craft department has long roles of clear plastic sheets (look for it near the cutting table). A 6' by 4' section cost me $10 USD, put the maps under this and they will not slide around. The stuff is easily rolled up for storage and easily cut with scissors.

Home Depot sells self adhesive vinyl tiles (cheapest ones are under 50 cents for a 1' square piece), these are excellent for stiffening counters – easily cut on a cutting board.

Vassalengine – set everyting up on a computer for playing on the internet. There are a couple of existing miniatures sets available for it (everthing is free and open source too). vassalengine.org

Finally, em4 has paper miniature holding stands, print those Junior General figures out and place them upright.

Forgot to mention – the vinyl/plastic sheet over the map and the vinyl tiles will keep things from slipping and sliding.

Yes have done it often in the past few years.

As for 1:50,000 or other small-scale maps it was not uncommon for us to use them in the military with counters on CPXs. If you are a good Image Interpreter and Land Navigation Instructor (Which I am) it is second nature to figure out movement rates, terrain obstacles, cover & concealment and other military aspects of terrain.

VR
James Mattes

Wow, thanks for responses everyone.

For me the junior general stuff isn't quite what I'm after, although the effort and research that's gone into that website is impressive.

Micro wargames looks like the kind of thing I'd like to reproduce but with more detailed rulesets. Acetate too sounds like an interesting suggestion, particularly if used on real maps.

I make maps and plans for a living so understanding the geography isn't the problem, simply the practicality of playing on real maps – as mentioned 'busy' maps may prove problematic. Is it easy to only factor roads, rivers and urbanised areas on the map into a game or do games/simulations get bogged down with players claiming that a ditch or tiny stream is feasible for movement and cover of whole units? Perhaps a role playing element, simply marking on the map objectives and starting points for each side and then having an umpire decide on certain factors may prove easier.

Skirmishes too sound interesting, not on commercially available maps but for smaller bespoke printed maps, definately!

Creating printable terrain also seems like a good idea (looking at the micro wargames stuff) – creating maps easily and quickly. Any cheap/free software anyone can suggest for creating such things – I'm not a fan of 'Paint'. CAD is an option too although my boss may be a little unhappy.

I think at this current stage of development (as for the GWSH games) square/rectangular counters, with Nato symbols and one line of unit description (i.e. MG, Infantry, Stormtrupen, Mk IV, etc) on coloured paper (brown for British and Commonwealth, powder blue for French, powder grey for Italians, etc), backed onto 2mm card is enough. The battlefield a flat tabletop (covered maybe) with printed terrain features and descriptions on them, i.e. "Hill 1 or 2" to denote elevation, or "Town 1/2/3" to denote urban development and defensive capability. Roads and Rivers in varying sections. Maybe not aesthetically pleasing to some, but perhaps a more authentic feel to grand scale command. I bought a lot of magnetic tape a while back – might be the time to use it.

I had calculated that it would cost me minimum of £50.00 GBP to build a British late 1917 Corps in 6mm (H&R) I think this may come to less than a tenner for all of the armies in GWSH, plus terrain.

Any element based game is just that, a counter on hexless map game – eg Spearhear, Shako, Fire & Fury any of the DBx family among many others. Also kriegsspiel is another example (one which was never intended to have figures).

The biggest problem is finding maps that work at the ground scales and element sizes of most wargames. For example your 100 yard square GWSH counter is about 3/32nds of an inch across (a bit fiddly to play with).

One advantage of this approach is that one can scale the terrain to the ground scale of the game. Your built-up-area for example need not have two houses to represent a village.

Good terrain analysis (if you are using real terrain maps) can add another level of "realism", for example no all villages are the same shape and not all woods are wide enough to fit miniature trees at a game's ground scale.

Cheers
David