Re: premeasuring=holy wars

On Fri, 20 Aug 1999 18:56:14 GMT, "John C" <john1x@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Steve Jackson had it right.  In Ogre Miniatures, he justifies 
>premeasuring...and then justifies NOT premeasuring...and then says that

>"It's your game; you decide."

That's it, John.

Premeasure or not. Some people like pre-measuring because in a space
combat
game it makes sense. Sensors in Star Trek seem to be able to give exact
ranges, why not FT. Then there are the people who are good at
pre-measuring,
and that becomes a factor that seems outside of a person's tactical
ability.
Of course, there are also the people who measure with arms on the table
and
checked shirts. 

Some people hate pre-measuring because it slows down the game, and it
makes
people move figures to artificial boundary distances to stay out of
range of
enemy figures. 

My feelings: depends on the game. I allow pre-measuring in FT, because I
think
it makes sense due to sensors. Also, since movement is pre-plotted with
built
in errors during resolution, it's hard to optimize movement
artificially. I do
not allow pre-measuring in SG2 as it just doesn't seem... right,
somehow.
You're firing at a spread out mass, not a point target.

However, in SG2 if a side is considered to be dug in, I DO allow
pre-measurement to various terrain features. The Israeli army used this
to
good effect in the Yom Kippur War, so I allow it before the game starts.
After
that, no pre-measuring. 

But that's just how our game group does it.

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@interlog.com
Goodall's Grotto: http://www.interlog.com/~agoodall/

"Surprisingly, when you throw two naked women with sex
toys into a living room full of drunken men, things 
always go bad." - Kyle Baker, "You Are Here"