2 replies to this topic

[Joe LePard]

I am in need of some help. The guys that I used to game with have moved. I'd like to keep playing MP but all I have is my kitchen table, which is round and about 40" from one side to the other..My question is what size forces can I use on a small table and still make a fun game? I want to have both infantry and armor on it. Should I use coy size, smaller or what?Any help would be great.Joe

[Bob Benge]

Hey Joe,I would try a company size engagement and see how it works out. I'd think that you should get about a 36" square area to work with and that you will have plenty of maneuver room if you are using micro armor (1/285th/6mm).

[Mark 1]

I would like to add a few points about gaming on a small area.First -- If you fill up whatever area you have with terrain, you will find that a surprising amount of units can battle in a small area. The key is cutting down the line-of-site distances, which is easily done with hills, structures, and trees. Take a 40" area and put two lines of wooded hills across it, with a village and some outlying farms, and you could have two pretty substantial forces maneuvering around each other and duking it out without feeling at all constrained by the edges of the board.First-and-a-half -- I tend to set up pretty large game boards. I use our ping-pong table, so most of the time I have about a 5' by 8' gaming area set-up. Yet most of my games wind up revolving around a core area of about 2 x 2 or 2 x 3'. All the additional area winds up being little more than a way to use 4 hours of game-time moving up to get into the fight. I could probably make my games shorter if I just learned to use smaller game boards. :P Second -- Use more infantry. My experience with the MP rules has been that the infantry rules play so well you can have a great game with only a very few vehicles. Not only do the infantry rules play well, but the infantry integrates into the vehicle combat very well too. True combined arms fighting is a real pleasure with these rules.To see some of these characteristics of the game proven through my experiences, check out my After Action Reports in the lounge. For a prime illustration of the first point, see BATN-PP's 1st MP Game - Russia 1943. To observe the first-and-a-half point (a proof of the first point, if you will), see almost any of my AARs, but particularly BATN-PP's 3rd MP Game -- Lithuania 1941. Look at the second picture to see how expansive my game board was. Now as you read (or skim) the rest of the AAR, realize that the whole battle took place in about 1/3rd of the area shown in the third picture.To see the second point illustrated see BATN-PP's 5th MP Game - Tunisia 1940. I've spent a lot of years gaming, and I have developed a strong preference for rules which encourage combined arms actions. I'm more of a fan of historical simulations than two-lead-armies-on-a-bowling-green-with-a-bucket-of-dice kind of gaming. That's part of the reason I am so pleased with this ruleset.Hope that helps. Good luck, and good gaming.-Mark 1p.s.Oh, and please take a few pics, and post an AAR. We'd all love to see your games in action!d.s.