Combat Spaces: Squares, Hexes, or Zones?

[Ruin Explorer]

There's what my heart says, which is hexes, and then there's what my brain and common sense say, which is "To hell with hexes, squares or zones all the way".

 

[Malmuria]

Zones! The Black Hack does a good job at abstracting things for totm. You can still have a grid on graph paper, but the purpose is mapping out the dungeon, not determining exact positioning.

Ryuutama has a combat sheet with zones for something visual:

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

Then there's LANCER: Battlegroup, in which players and NPCs control dozens of capital ships and hundreds of fighters and mechs. Positioning is abstracted into six range bands on the gyre map, because when fleets are tens or hundreds of thousands of kilometers apart, and a single round of fighter and bomber attacks represents half a day of travel time, there is no point is using a grid or hex map!

I go over the gyre map in more detail here:

LANCER: BATTLEGROUP - To Kill the Worthy King

Prelude This is Lancer: Battlegroup! Against the stark black of deep space, the long silhouettes of capital ships drift in tightening gyres, training their guns and missile tubes on enemies hundreds of thousands of kilometers away. Inside their hushed command decks, officers listen to the...

www.enworld.org

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Put me down for hexes. They're easier than squares.

Areas can be easier still. The old Marvel FASERIP game kept things light and easy with areas. There are definitely times I feel areas would be a good way to go.

But at heart I'm a bit of an old wargamer and I want a bit more precision, so I go with hexes.

 

[Campbell]

I like range bands pretty much the best, but I would rather the interesting tactical bits be less about positioning and area effect templates. My favorite games from a tactical perspective are Conan 2d20, Legend of the Five Rings Fifth Edition, and Exalted Third Edition that are much more about individual fights and timing.

 

[dragoner]

One thing I have noticed is that there is a big difference in combats and ranges between guns and swords (ranged and melee) where with guns all combat is usually short inside, and outside as long as possible. Melee weapons don't mix as well, and esp on outside maps, where they almost never get close enough to be used.

 

[Hussar]

It matters a lot on what scale of combat we're referencing.

For D&D combat, sure, you're losing a bit of accuracy using squares. But, the system is so loosey goosey anyway (no, medium creatures aren't really 5 foot cube meeples) that any loss of accuracy doesn't really matter.

Sure, if I move diagonally 30 feet (6 squares), I've gained, what, 12 feet (ish)? But, again, it doesn't actually come up all that often. How often, in your games, does someone actually do that? Most of the time, movement is not diagonal, or at least not all diagonal. So, meh, who cares? 12 feet is not exactly going to break the game or really matter except to potentially trigger someone's OCD.

OTOH, in a game where combat ranges are measured in hundreds of feet, squares don't work anywhere near as well. The inaccuracy starts getting very noticeable.

So, as I said, it depends on what we're playing.

 

[aramis erak]

This is a spin-off of the tactical combat RPG thread.

It's combat time, and we're playing a tactical roleplaying game where spaces and miniatures are mapped onto a combat floor. What is your general preference Squares, Hexes, or Zones?

Squares

Hexes

Zones

None of the above.
I honestly prefer ruler on ungridded maps.
I like zones and hexes about equally well, squares a bit below that.

 

[aramis erak]

Staggered squares - aren't those functionally the same as hexes?

Not quite, if there's an underlying topography to be referenced.. Staggered rectangles can be. Actual squares result in a vertical compression; you need rectangles. (IIRC, 1.16:1 T:W)

 

[Aldarc]

Sure, if I move diagonally 30 feet (6 squares), I've gained, what, 12 feet (ish)? But, again, it doesn't actually come up all that often. How often, in your games, does someone actually do that? Most of the time, movement is not diagonal, or at least not all diagonal. So, meh, who cares? 12 feet is not exactly going to break the game or really matter except to potentially trigger someone's OCD.

Sure but people generally don't run only in terms of a cardinal direction, but straight outwards from a point of origin.