"Do you use counters or tokens I n your skirmish games?" Topic

In an ideal world miniatures games, particularly small scale skirmish games, would consist of just nice figures, nice scenery, and maybe a bunch of dice discreetly placed in the corner of the table. But it seems almost inevitable that markers , chits, tokens, end up on the table as well. Some rules, like Song of Blades, have been designed to eliminate the need for counters, but the rest of the time, it's just so convenient to have a coloured token, or a small die, to indicate where things are at with the figures.

So do you use counters, markers, tokens, in your skirmishes? What are they?

Yes we use a few. Overwatch ,suppressed ,prone and immobilized. Doesn't clutter up the scenary but helps to clarify the situation a bit

I drop a little section of drinking straw over a broken weapon….

Yes. I am not hung up the "nothing but minis on the table" ideal. As long as such tokens are super-obvious and ugly, or in profuse numbers, I am OK with them. I also don't "tip over" my minis to indicate certain negative effects, do there is that.

I'm afraid I don't see SoBAH being designed to eliminate battlefield markers so much as just streamlining the rules. There are plenty of tokens for it, Litko sells them:

link

It's hard to avoid though I do appreciate efforts to use little puffs of smoke, craters and so forth.

Yeah. We play Deadzone from Mantic.
If a model is enraged it's got a token. If it's suppressed it's got a token. On overwatch. Mutated. Wounded. Activated. Carrying an item. Objectives are tokens. Items scattered throughout the board are tokens. Every time you move a figure that's had something change it's game state, it drags one or more tokens along with it.

Oddly, even though I do prefer a well set-up and decorated game table, I do not mind using chits and other markers.

Most of the games I play require tokens or counters of some kind. Force On Force requires a lot of tokens: overwatch, hidden, light wound, serious wound, -1 firepower per previous fight in this turn, possibly morale effects.

Some games just require tracking wounds or fatigue or whatever, and for those I made these micro-dice holders out of sculpey and pennies, and they work great:

Whereever possible I much prefer rosters to markers…also helps with the "I know for a fact that enemy squad is pinned and therefore at -2 on shooting at me so…."

My (formerly) regular group seems to have completely transitioned over a period of years from big, ugly poker chips to dice or puffs of cotton wool; certainly an improvement, but the more aesthetically appropriate your markers the better, as far as I'm concerned.

Some markers I use for various games. Made some of them in the last few days.

"Gone to Ground" "Down" "Tactical"

"Overwatch" "Ambush"

More here if you're interested :)
TMP link

Counters
Stones
Piece of wood

In the craft stores you can find these little rubber bands that girls weave into bracelets, necklaces, etc. They come in a variety of colors. I found a pack that had green, brown, and black. They have the diameter of a dime. I put those around the necks of figures to denote pinned, wounded, or jammed weapons. I like them, because they move with the figure; I don't have to move the figure and then the markers. There is no issue two turns later remembering which marker goes with which figure. As they come in a variety of colors, you can make them as noticeable (or not) as you like.

I love War Panda's markers, especially for artillery fire and blown up vehicles.

Buck

We try to avoid tokens (and definitely clear them off the table when it's time to take photos) but sometimes they're the byproduct of a particular chosen ruleset.

The best scenic solution I've ever done has been some homemade "blood splatter" markers for Tomorrow's War, used to track wounds on figures in a fireteam. Just transparent blister packaging material painted with flesh wash. Blends right in and looks kind of cool when it ends up in the photo.

Counters!

War panda, like your homemade markers! ..and Buck, your idea is a good one

An idea I've never actually used for marking wounds on particular body parts, as required in certain Old West rules such as Law of the Gun, is to attach a small piece of red plasticene to the relevant part of the figure. I just wonder if this would react with the paint. Presumably gloss varnish would protect it adequately.

Well, I was at a con playing a western gunfighter game once where the ref used 2" red stickers on the players for wound markers.

Other than that, the game we play a lot mostly doesn't require markers. By mostly, I mean that it doesn't require them, but sometimes it is easier to use them than to use non-token mechanisms. Generally, however, most figures don't require any markers and the figures that do are few and only need two or three states, so we usually use different figures for the different states.

"In the craft stores you can find these little rubber bands that girls weave into bracelets, necklaces, etc. They come in a variety of colors. I found a pack that had green, brown, and black. They have the diameter of a dime. I put those around the necks of figures to denote pinned, wounded, or jammed weapons. I like them, because they move with the figure; I don't have to move the figure and then the markers. There is no issue two turns later remembering which marker goes with which figure. As they come in a variety of colors, you can make them as noticeable (or not) as you like."

Now I have a reason NOT to be upset at finding errant "Loom Bands" here and there all through the house. A brilliant idea!

Duck

As much as possible I try and make natural markers that when looking for them are readily apparent, but when playing blend in with the terrain and hence not very noticeable. It takes a little extra effort, but pays off in the end.

Christopher