[GZG] Do chits give you the sh**s? (was: [Aliens] was FMA at EEC etc.]

When I first played SGII, I thought "ugh" about the chits on  
aesthetic grounds, but I've come to believe that they're probably the  
least-bad solution. It is trivial to replace chits that represent  
something physical (a missile, smoke etc.) with more scenic markers,  
but abstract states such as suppression, activation etc. are more  
difficult. We've experimented with SSD-style record sheets, and "pig- 
pen" sheets (where the chits are placed in numbered boxes  
representing units rather than on the board next to them). Both  
seemed to slow things down, and made it easier for players to  
"forget" (deliberately or otherwise...) the state of their squads.

As regards "skirmish" games, I haven't played FMAS obviously, but my  
nephews were introduced to Necromunda a few months ago at a friend's  
house, and we've been playing that quite a lot. Since I admit I'm  
prejudiced against GW games, I was pleasantly surprised by Necromunda  
(though I'm not thrilled by the rather clunky combat mechanisms, or  
the slightly barmy weapon rules).

We found it useful to introduce chits into Necromunda. Individual  
figures can have a variety of states: normal, pinned, wounded, down,  
hiding, overwatch etc. which need to be recorded quickly to keep the  
action flowing. The official rules use a mixture of on-table and  
record-sheet methods to do this, but we found that chits were  
quicker, produced fewer arguments, and were better able to withstand  
over-enthusiastic players barging into the table...

I suspect that special dial-bases as used in the Heroclix system  
would probably be ideal to record the state of individual figures in  
skirmish games, but they would be difficult for amateurs to make, and  
tie the figures in to a particular set of rules. GW's 28mm figures  
have bases that are often big enough to carry the relevant chits,  
which reduces their aesthetic impact IMHO.

Best regards, Robert Bryett
rbryett@gmail.com

On 01/03/2007, at 23:46 , <Beth.Fulton@csiro.au>  
<Beth.Fulton@csiro.au> wrote:

> I really do understand that the chits aren't to everyone's taste, I  
> personally like the elegant
> way they solve the problem of lots of different results in an  
> "easy" way. I will say however I am a fan of opposed dice roles and  
> sliding dice types, it is something else that strikes me as a nice  
> way of getting multiple solutions fairly simply and keeps everyone  
> involved.

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