In the first two posts of the series, I made the decision to make a fantasy tabletop wargame that players could use with any miniatures in their collection, no matter what their scale. As long as your opponent has similar models, you should be good to go!
Not wanting periods where one player is sat watching their opponent play for half an hour without doing anything, I decided to not go for the IgoUgo system (think 40k) and instead decided it would be a random draw where players acted with a single unit at a time.
This would be based on the number of orders a player had available to them from the Commanders in their army.
With the basis that the game will be based on a bolt action draw type method, players act out orders as they occur.
We’ve already established how those orders would be issued to units. But now we need to bottom out the movement mechanics for the game.
For a start, how many turns will a game take place over? How big is the battlefield? Both of these factors will determine how far units can move in their turn.
Game Length
Ideally, I’d like the game to be playable in 2 to 3 hours.
Table size would be determined on the scale of the bases being used and, in turn, the measurements that are associated with that scale.
For example, it would be unrealistic to expect a 3 hour game to be played out on a 6’x4′ table when units at 6mm tall are only moving 6 cm a turn.
With 4 feet being 48 inches, we need to take this measurement and divide it by the number of turns in the game. That tells us how much a unit needs to move to reach the other side.
Movement Orders
For example, if the game was to be 6 turns long. Then 48″ divided by 6 is 8″. That means a unit can reach the other side but has to be focused on doing so for the whole game. Which is fine. 8″ would seem like a march move rather than a standard move.
But! We have to remember that our commanders can often issue multiple move orders to the same unit or brigade. If we suggest as a starting point that units can move 4″ per order. A commander would need to issue multiple move orders to have that unit march further.
One thing that may also be needed is to limit the number of similar orders issued to the same unit or brigade. For example, having a commander issue five move orders or five shoot orders to the same unit could be tedious. Therefore, it may be best to limit the same order being issued to the same unit to 3.
Battlefield Size
A Battlefield of 6’x4′ is usually the standard in most games and is both easy to source mats and terrain for, and transport. There’s no need to break the mold here, 6’x4′ for the larger base sizes of 100mm+ wide is reasonable.
For smaller base sizes, playing on half this size keeps the maths established above still viable when using centimetres as a measurement instead of inches.
