"How far does the infantry move?" Topic

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Okay, you have to pick a movement rate for the infantry in a game.

You don't know the time period.
You don't know the ground scale.
You don't know how many men one infantry figure is going to represent.

How many inches do they move per turn?

6-8 inches

Six inches.

Depends on the size of the table but 6-12" in general

6", unless the table is a 3' x 3' or less, then it is 3".

6" in line, 9" in column. Everyone knows that. (Dale's right, though: half distance on half tables.)

If we're being serious, I thought the much-abused Priestly was probably on to something with his 1/8 table depth.

6" normal
8" in column
10" skirmish

Add 2" to anything that is allowed to charge.

From "Universal Wargame Rules 4000BC-4000AD".

15-16cms, round there.

How much time does a turn represent?

10 to sevral trillion planck lengths.

A lot less when the get shot.

Kind of like "how long is a piece of string?" isn't it?

12 inches. But then I'm used to Volley & Bayonet and lately Bloody Big Battles. Both games have generous movement offset by restrictions about fancy moves. Sure does get the troops into battle soon, none of that slow early game stuff.

1d6 for a walk, 2d6 for an average move, 3d6 for an all out run.

6"

6 inches like most of the above

Depends on formation and terrain. 6" is normal for me.

12 parsecs.

6" – its always 6"…

Fast enough to cross the table in eight turns if moving tactically, or four turns if non Tactical.

This may be different pre twentieth century, when quick fire rifled weapons didn't force infantry to hide and move VERY slowly to avoid being wiped out.

Big moves, but with a random element: something like 12+1d6". Movement in rough terrain could be 6+2d6" or 3d6".

No fixed rate in my book. 6" works, as does 'next horizon': It all depends on the rules.

Next horizon was interesting and would conform to how orders would be given –

"Where to, Sir?"

"OK boys, get up to [as appropriate] the top of the hill / that tree line / those buildings / etc."

Given the time scale in most rules (for battles rather than skirmish) seems to represent about 20 minutes, infantry can walk at three miles an hour, and a lot of tables seem to represent a depth of a mile or two at most, it seems reasonable to me that troops should be able to cross no-mans land in a turn or two. The trick, I suppose, is finding rules that allow it happen in a reasonable way. I think the rules in question (for horizon movement) might have been Command Piquet – I thought it an interesting concept in game design.

One hex if battling, two hexes if not.

Whatever the rules state plus half an inch…

Very funny, Dynaman.

Why would you do that? What is the point of picking movement when you know nothing else about the game?

Martin has is right. You need to know the probable size if the table and the length of the game. You also need to know where the infantry needs to go: just lines clashing in the middle of the table, each side trying to break the morale of the other army? Advance to an objective 2/3 of the distance across the table while starting within 1/10 of the table width from their table edge?

Vigilant – Just curious to see what people would say.

There's an old joke that regardless of miniatures, time and ground scale, infantry tends to move 6" so i wanted to see how many people might say that.

The problem is that some people don't see that ridiculous statement as a joke – they believe it.

Now I understand. Interesting experiment.

From the tip of your outstretched thumb to the tip of your little finger at a walk, from your elbow to your longest finger at a run.

Six inches could also be a psychological thing. Anything much less makes the player feel like they didn't really move – see comments on various games with shorter movement.

Also at six inches, common measurement errors of 1/4 to 1/2 are not significant.

And most people can easily visualize the distance.

Just some thoughts,
Mike

I agree, Mike. A 6" base move feels like a reasonable move to a player, and keeps the slow/fast stuff in a manageable range. 6 inches works, because you can then have slow units at 4", faster at 8", and really fast at 12".

Plus, shorter moves feel like you are crawling,and much longer moves make it much harder to plan ahead. Units could be all over the table in a turn or two!

6" just works on a gut level.

Interesting observation guys.
I agree that 6" "feels" like a decent distance.

I guess even if you are standing back a bit, a 6" move is easy enough to see.

As long as a pice of string. Daft quations can only have daft answers.

I don't think the question is stupid at all.

It makes a lot of sense – from a game design point of view – to pick a few parameters and build the game around that. 6 inch "feels right" in a classic IGO UGO game, on a typical 6x4 table, in which the game lasts for let's say 10 turns at most.
You can work out other parameters (time scale, ground scale) from those choices if you feel the need to do it.

If you start from a given ground and/or timescale, without keeping an eye on the average table size or real-time length of the game, you can end up with strange results. Unless you do take those factors into account, which is equivalent to picking an distance for an average infantry move. One choice implies the other.

The 6" is only iconic. It could as well be 5 or 7 inch. But 6" also has the advantage it can be easily divided by two or three – useful if want to specify movement modifiers for types of terrain that way. AFAIK, many old-school rule sets use that mechanic.

A little bit unrelated, but to illustrate the design process: I once read design notes about a car racing game. The designer started top down: game lasts for 3 hours with 6 players, that gives each player 30 minutes of active time. Suppose we race for 3 laps. That's 10 minutes per player (one car) per lap. Suppose a turn takes 1 minute. That means a lap should be completed in 10 turns. A typical circuit might have 6 to 12 curves. So that means in one turn, you should be able to move your car roughly from curve to curve, with 1 or 2 long stretches in between. Now, what game mechanics should we use to make that happen, and make the player feel he is actually driving a car? It also implies the "decision points" in the game should be focused on the curves, and what to do there.
Such a design process makes a lot of sense to me. You would never end up with such a clean design when starting blindly from a ground scale and timescale for a car racing game.
(Bonus Question: what car racing game am I talking about? :-))