Flying, mini's and combat

[GrooveD70]

I've been playing Champs for awhile, and one thing that still feels clunky is using miniatures in large battles with flying characters. Anyone have any hints or tricks to keep track of altitude or figuring actual distances between oppenents when one or both are flying at different altitudes... Maybe I'll have to bust out the Pythagorean Theorum more than Id like.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

A) Just place a die next to the model that indcates how many hexes up they are. If you are dealing in kilometers of altitude, just scale it and only represent the #k.

 

I've always used the Pythagorean Theorem to handle altitude and so forth in the HERO System, but a recent player questioned it and I raised the question w/ Steve Long here:

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41865

 

Personally, I still plan to use the theorem the next time it comes up, but officially its not done that way.

[Bengalelf]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

Everyone in my group has bought at least two 36-6d packs from Chessex. We place flying characters on the top of the empty clear plastic cases the dice come in. It's quick and dirty, but it is visually easy to see who is flying and who isn't

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

A) Just place a die next to the model that indcates how many hexes up they are. If you are dealing in kilometers of altitude, just scale it and only represent the #k.

 

I've always used the Pythagorean Theorem to handle altitude and so forth in the HERO System, but a recent player questioned it and I raised the question w/ Steve Long here:

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41865

 

Personally, I still plan to use the theorem the next time it comes up, but officially its not done that way.

 

Pretty much what I do, though I simplify the Pythagorean Theorem down to 'the range is the long 'axis' plus half the short 'axis'.

 

So, if someone is six hexes away laterally and four hexes vertically, the range is 8". Not always completely accurate, but close enough that I think the saved time makes up for the inaccuracy.

[gamerz123]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

Here's something I cooked up quickly awhile back.

 

[Listed on new posting. Some people had trouble with the file.]

 

Print up on cardstock or glossy-paper with a decent rigidity and tape together.

 

Only covers heights 1-3" above ground level. (They should stack up to 6", but depends upon how strong and rigid the cardstock and how well you put them together.)

 

Also put in -1 to -3" for underground/underwater folks.

 

 

For range computations, Pythogras works well as long as somebody remembers to bring a calculator in case you're talking about large numbers

[Steve Long]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

Besides those clear plastic dice cases, I've known lots of gaming groups that use the inserts that come in pizza delivery boxes (to keep the box from getting squashed and ruining the pizza) as platforms to put minis on. I've also known groups that used dice.

 

When I get my Ultimate Gaming Table built, it will have five or six large sheets of hex-marked plastic arranged in a "tower" configuration for use by flying characters, as the battleground for space combat, etc.

[Blue]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

Been there with the clear plastic boxes AND the pizza box thingies. Additionally there are places that produce clear plastic platforms with grids drawn on them for representing the next area up.

 

I had a bunch of small plastic discs that were stackable. If you were on one disc you were in the air. 2 put you over 5 hexes up, 3 put you over 10, etc, though the miniature wouldn't be way up in the air, he'd only be about an inch total off the table.

[hooligan x]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

We have always used poker chips, one for each hex in altitude.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

I use the same simplified method as Collie for determining range. At least one game uses it as the official range determiner.

 

By the way, I can't open that file that gamerz123 posted. Is it messed up, or just me?

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

We have always used poker chips' date=' one for each hex in altitude.[/quote']

 

That's a damn good idea. You could also use the colors as different numbers of hexes, too, if you had some fliers who wanted to get that high. You know, white chips equal 1 hex, red chips equal 5 hexes....

[Erkenfresh]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

Girl Scout Cookies. When they land it's snack time!

[Zeropoint]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

I second the "long leg plus half the short leg" method. I've run the numbers, and it's definitely close enough for the convenience.

[wagnern]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

We use the poker chips too, these chips can also be good for other conditions.

 

"ok, the blue chips are for the entangled charictors."

 

Now if people are moving verry fast, it may be best to handle em kinda abstractly. (eather in chases or in passes)

[aylwin13]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

I second the "long leg plus half the short leg" method. I've run the numbers' date=' and it's definitely close enough for the convenience.[/quote'] There's a good quick-reference Excel chart here in the Free Stuff section.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

I've used everything from the dice cases to the pizza stands to milk jug rings and stacking dice under or near a mini to mark a flying character. Recently though, we've put togeter a number of "flying bases" made of clear plastic mini bases and the left over pieces of model kits.

 

What's proven difficult is to mark a character that's crawling on a wall or ceiling, though my girlfriend and co-GM as worked up a base using a paperclip to hold a mini upside-down or sideways.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

Girl Scout Cookies. When they land it's snack time!

 

This reminds of a guy I knew who used M&Ms for blood point counters when playing the Vampire TCG somehow.

 

"Spend two blood ..." *munch munch*

[Bloodstone]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

Everyone in my group has bought at least two 36-6d packs from Chessex. We place flying characters on the top of the empty clear plastic cases the dice come in. It's quick and dirty' date=' but it is visually easy to see who is flying and who isn't[/quote']

 

We do pretty much the same thing, but also tag the altitude on the base with little post it note strips.

 

The nice thing about the plastic cases is that you can put a mini under one as well, for those situations where one character ends his movement directly over another.

[proditor]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

I saw some pics recently (Maybe on the Superfigs Yahoo group?) that just used champagne flutes. Turn them upside down, set the fig on the base. I'll see if I can find the pics.

[gamerz123]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

 

By the way, I can't open that file that gamerz123 posted. Is it messed up, or just me?

 

I saved it with Illustrator as a .pdf (which, in theory, should work with anyone with Acrobat Reader from even 2 years ago.)

 

Saving it this time with Acrobat 6.0

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

We do pretty much the same thing' date=' but also tag the altitude on the base with little post it note strips. [/quote']

 

We put dice beside the characters showing their altitude (good use for those multisided dice from other systems).

[hooligan x]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

Another trick we used were erasable markers on the Battlemat. we would write {Fl=20"} next to a mini that was up 20 inches. A red {E=6+6} meant a 6def 6body entangle.

 

We also had plenty of Newcastle caps to rest a figure on.

[input.jack]

Re: Flying, mini's and combat

 

My group has a collection of "rice dice" (those tiiiiny little dice). We use white dice for "ones" and green or black ones for "tens", and its worked well for years.

 

But I -like- the clear chessex boxes concept....