Playing without a hex grid?

[maduncleandy]

Have any of you tinkered with playing the game without a hex grid? Aesthetically speaking, I think I'd prefer it, and rules-wise it seems simple enough to turn hexes into some sort of concrete measurement, and allow turns up to 60 degrees where a hex side had been indicated in the rules.

This said, though, I haven't tried it yet, and would love to hear from someone who has done this (or similar) regarding how it worked out.

[warchariot]

First, Welcome aboard!
We were first drawn to this game because of the hex movement. After years of FT with ships running over each other’s bases and not be able to leave everything on the board because it was on top of other ships, made this game interesting.

In practical terms, the hexes really help with fighters and missiles for both the attacker and defender as you can see where everything is and where it can go without measuring everything. Also you can tell shot ranges and it keeps everything away from each other as only one ship can be in a hex.

You certainly can try without hexes and if you come up with something let us know. There maybe a thread here somewhere on that subject…?

[maduncleandy]

Thanks for the greeting and feedback.

I've tried space games both with, e.g., Silent Death, and without, e.g., BFG. Ironically the convention game variant of Colonial Battlefleet I played in last weekend at Historicon 2012, from which I learned of CB's existance, was hex-free, but was based on an earlier variant of CB, it seems.

Both methods have distinct advantages to commend themselves, but aesthetics make me tend to avoid the hexes. It doesn't hurt that the Hotz mat that best fits my table is available only without the hexes.

That said, I still have my Silent Death mat laying around and may play it both ways before I do anything terribly drastic, but if I do come up with a hex-free variant that seems to work well, I'll be happy to post it.

Cheers!
Andy

[warchariot]

Glad someone was showing the flag at Historicon. Harry had an earlier version of the game that was just based around BSG, but rewrote it in a more general way so he could later taylor it around different universes/movies/shows.
Larry
Hey, do find an Avatar

[TheDreadnought]

Was he calling that game 'Colonial Battlefleet'?

[maduncleandy]

Honestly don't recall and have long since tossed my programme. If I had to guess I'd say it was something like battle of Scorpio shipyard...but may have had colonial battlefleet: in there somewhere. It was a variant on 1.1, methinks. Certainly when I enquired about finding the rules, CB was mentioned.

[maduncleandy]

I've been playing a bunch of games on a hex grid to get a feel for how the rules as written should work, rather than diving right into this, but thus far my untested thoughts are:

Hexes translate into serving a few functions:

1) measurement of range...this is easily translated into some standard linear units. Measurement is flight base post to flight base post. Adjacent = 0-1 unit, n hexes away = between n and n-1 units away. With the models I have, I will probably go with 40mm units as I already have measuring devices in that range. Premeasuring is always allowed.

2) Measurement of arc for things like turns, arc of fire, shields, &c....use a template measured into 60 degree increments and a "front" line bisecting one of those 60 degree angles. Alternately hexagonal flight bases make that work. Turning is "up to" the max of 60 degrees.

3) measurement of area. Don't let people stack model on model...situations that would create that use existing area conflict rules. For fighter attacks and missile/ fighter launches, base (or near-model where model size is larger than base) contact and max of 6 fighters around a starship with a max of one per 60 degrees of arc (using the template).


So,...unless I'm missing something, this should provide a very similar experience to the hexes, eliminating the aesthetic disadvantages of the hexes themselves, and measurement inaccuracies from the hex grid, and while allowing greater freedom of turning arc.

Hope to try it soon and find the bugs...I'm sure there will be some.

If any of you have spotted anything I've missed already, though, I'd appreciate your insight.

[warchariot]

I don't see anything you have left out. I know you're want the aestheics of a hex free board. But for us, one of the things we noticed about the game was the lack of clutter by not having rules, templates and other items we had to move to take pictures. So while hexless boards may look better, the added items to play without them were less pleasing than the hexes. You can surely play without hexes, I just prefer the hexes over the other items I have to bring and move around the board.

[maduncleandy]

I've now tried it both ways, and the hex-free system works with a brief change...instead of measuring post to post, I need to measure base to base because of the size of some of my bases.

That said...the hex board makes for speedier play. This alone is *almost* enough to sell me on hexes.

The one other thing that causes me a bit of grief is the size of a hex compared to the minis I'm using. With the big figs and big bases on which I've mounted them, I'd need big hexes, which makes my playing area much smaller.

I have capital ships mounted on 2.5" hex bases, escorts on 1.365" hexes, and fighters on 1.25" hexes with Y shaped peg toppers allowing me to mount three fighters on a stand in a "V" formation. Each base has an integral dial for speed or number of fighters. Works like a charm.


Still, it's much faster playing on my old Silent Death hex mat, even though I need to fudge things to fit the ships on.

It's to the point where I'm strongly considering getting a double sided starmap with three inch hexes on one side and none on the other, and/or *gasp* rebasing my ships. Not only is that costly though (Litko bases aren't cheap, and take quite a while to ship), but also I was very happy with my "at a glance" differentiation of Capital v. Excort using base size.

As an aside, when everything is mounted on a hex base, it removes the need for a template...all I have on the board then that's any different from playing on a blank map is a measuring stick for which I'm using 40mm increment screw-together measuring stick I get from Products for Wargamers, originally for DBA.

[TheDreadnought]

I order all my hex mats from Hotz mats. I've had a good experience with them, and they have beautiful starfields they can paint on there now - with any size hexes you want.

2.5" hexes generally works for me, except it does allow some starship-hex overlap. . . but I'v rarely found it to be a problem.

[warchariot]

We did 3 inches on one side and none or the other. I would now put 2 inch on the other if I had it to do over. Another tip to save some money is order a plain space map with hexes and then spray some other colors on. I did that this summer to match my buddies new maps.