How big is your battlefield?

[WHM]

I've received a copy of "Moderm Micro Armor: The game" and was looking over the scenarios and it has gotten me to thinking as to what size terrain people play on.

I've set my terrain up in the garage and typically it is 4feet by up to ten, depending if any lawn equipment is stored there or not. The scale per my VERY old rules is one inch equals 50 meters. I thought it gave a better "spacing" on the terrain so the forces do not look like a outdoor parking lot. Seeing tanks 3 inches from each other in an engagment dosen't look to cool.

So was just curious how big most playes battlefields are for modern micro armor.

[pmaidhof]

WHM, my battleboard is 4x8 foot, so my Micro Armor the Game: Modern has just under 5x10km (4.8x9.6km) to fight over.

[Extra Crispy]

I play on everything from a 3x3 to a 7x12. At home 4x8 is as big as I can manage inthe dining room. At the club we have a permanent 7x12 so plenty of room there.

[dnichols]

For modern tank battles I generally use two big tables I push together for about a 5' x 8' because of the range of the weapons and I like larger modern battles. For Infantry only WWII fights I have used a 3' x 3' area.

I think a mistake that allot of gamers do when setting up scenarios is make the playing area too big. The WWII rules have some excellent guidelines for battlefield sizes based on a units defensive frontage. I have used these guidelines and always had good scenarios with an appropriate sized tabletop.

[paul]

I have used everything from 4x8 to 6x16. Must say that took up the entire garage.

[KenPortner]

I believe that the Modern rules suggest 1 foot of frontage per defending battalion is right.

[Extra Crispy]

Funny - in my experience the usual problem is far too little space (or too many units - take your pick). For every occasion I've seen of a table too big, I've seen a dozen or more parking lots.

[WHM]

I've been thinking lately of using the ground scale of 1 inch = 50 meters. That when the pieces are on the table a kilometer looks better spaced then if it were 12 in. to a kilometer. But w/the 100 meter scale it might just give a greater opportunity to encompass a greater area to play.

In turn it seemed that a 4ft front limited any ability to manuver or if there was say a 8 ft. front then depth was limited. The impression I had was the shooting would start right off the bat and the gane would degenerate into just a festival of dice throwing and attrition of the forces in play.

You guys who like 1:1 ratio I would think would run into this. After all while your forces are i:1 the miniature wold they are in isn't. But that's just mu philosphy.

When I would see two tanks 4 inches apart I would alway get the feeling of "Cripes! How can you miss"? Especially when you see the game is in the bigger scales.

Sometimes when I would see a game at a convention or some of the pictures on the net it looks funny to see a battalion of armor crammed omn to a terrain feature model that dosen't really have the size, or when they are bumper to bumper when they are supposedly advancing.

Anybody have any thoughts?

[Cav Dog]

I play 1:1 with modified WRG rules and use a ground scale of 1mm = 1m on either a 3'x8' table if it is predominately an infantry fight or a 6'x8' table for engagements using more armor. There are always going to be tradeoffs between unit density and range when gaming so use whatever looks good to you and fits your favorite rules.

[ACWBill]

Its not how big your battlefield is that matters, but how you USE IT thats important.

[Extra Crispy]

Guys with really small battlefields always say that.

[ACWBill]

Good point Mark - I couldn't afford a Corvette so I guess I am stuck with my little gaming table.

[Donald M. Scheef]

For ACWBill who says he can't affort a Corvette: UKN18 is only $7.75 for a pack of four.

Don Scheef

[Mk 1]

ACWBill asserted:
Mark - I couldn't afford a Corvette

Hey HEY hey hey! How do you know what Mark-1 could or could not afford?

I'll have you know I could quit my job right now, and live out the rest of my life in comfort and luxury!*

So don't go saying what I may or may not buy. Its just that with Xmas coming up and all, I'm not buying much for m'self. Hate to ruin the pleasure other folks may be anticipating when they give me so many wonderful gifts. Wonder if there will be a battalion of those nice new M4A1s under the tree for me this year, or maybe a new corvette ...

-Mark 1

*Provided of course that I pass away before the end of the month.

[voltigeur]

The biggest limit I have is 6ft wide. Just not neadrathal enough for a 7ft wide table. My current table is 5x5 with gives me a 3KMx3KM battle field.

One idea I saw recently was a guy that was making his terrain out of 20" square tiles. On a scale of 2"=100M this means each tile is one click.