Sandbox Combat

[DungeonCrawler]

Originally Posted by Langy

Depends on what you're measuring. If you want to measure the distance between the center of one thing and the center of another, you measure from edge A to edge A, not the shortest distance between them. This is equivalent to adding the dimension of the base. The distance from the center is what you use for determining reach, not the distance from the edge. You use the distance from the edge to determine ranged weapon distance, though.

Actually, since measuring across a figure means raising the ruler/measuring tape up, it's not the best method. Far better to measure nearest edge to nearest edge and add the size of one base (if the bases are the same size and if you want center-center figures).

However, in formation wargames where each figure may represent 5, 10, or 20 (or more) troops, the edge is where the melee contact is, not the center. For missile fire, it may be center to center or edge to edge, depending...it's easy enough to create the tables to allow for that particular issue and allow consistent measurements, so most wargames do it that way. (Naval wargames are often different, since the ship models are usually far larger in scale than the ranges; it's tough to get tens of thousands of yards range on a table top if the figures are to scale and are larger than a half-inch or so. And no one buys naval miniatures where they can't admire the detail.)

More importantly, for a man-to-man game, a character is not confined to exactly the center of their hex or base...it is more of "they're somewhere in this area at any given fraction of a second" kind of thing. They are moving, dodging, feinting, and lunging, not just standing there. Think of it as a probability cloud rather than a precise location. That means their reach is from the nearest edge and that at some point they can be reached at the nearest edge. Makes life a lot simpler.

Originally Posted by Humabout

WH40K measures from front of base to front of base for movement, just like Langy described and for the reasons he mentioned.

AS for facings and turning, I'd just break out a protractor and treat up to 60 degrees of rotation as a changing facing by one hex side, and use the rules from there.

For movement, you are measuring the base of a figure at the start of its move and the base of the same figure at the end of its move. Of course you measure front to front.

But that's got nothing to do with how you measure the range to an enemy (or friendly) unit. In fact, it proves the point. If a friendly unit can move 12" (measured front to front) and doing so leaves it in contact with an enemy unit's nearest base-side, then obviously that enemy unit was 12" away. You measure nearest side to nearest side to determine range to an enemy unit.