Re: premeasuring=holy wars

>Greetings, Folks!
>
>One thing I have learned in my 30+ years of wargaming is that the
>"pre-measure" issue is a holy war topic - nearly everyone who holds an
>opinion on it is firmly convinced that their way is the only right way
of
>doing it.  Several threads over in rec.games.miniatures.historical this

>last
>year have discussed this issue to death, with no general consensus ever
>being drawn except "my way is best". [sigh]
>
>Unless firmly written into the rules set, just agree to a single method
>beforehand.  Our group allows a player to pre-measure the range of
their 
>own
>units before declaring fire, but doesn't allow a player to measure the
>potential range of their opponent's fire or movement.	This works for
us -
>which is all that counts.  Yes, occasionally this bogs down play, but
we're
>also pretty good at humming the Jeopardy timeout theme to josh the
errant
>player into hurrying up. <g>
>

This is just one of those things, I suppose.  In our gaming group, you
don't 
premeasure.

Ever.

I've been gaming with these people for about 15 years now, so this fact
has 
been solidly ingrained within my psyche.  At this point, premeasuring
just 
seems...wrong.	I'm not saying that it *is* wrong; just that it seems
that 
way.  Not because it's (un)realistic, not because it slows things down,
but 
because it takes away a little of the uncertainty when you premeasure. 
And 
that takes away a bit of the fun.

All of this is probably because of one of my earliest experiences gaming

with a different group, in which I watched one of the other players
measure 
24 inches from my unit of archers, and then carefully maneuver his
spearmen 
(one at a time) so that they were *just* over 24 inches away at all
times.	
This required them to leave the road and crawl along the edge of the
board, 
you understand.  I think that this just stuck in my craw.  Mind you,
these 
were also they kind of people who made continental drift a factor in
their 
games ("Wasn't that hill 6 inches to the right, so my guys had cover
behind 
it?"  "Um...no."), so I know that this is atypical behavior.  Hey, I was
15 
at the time, and this was my second historical game...I'm allowed to be
a 
little bitter.

It's not something worth arguing about, but I think that it is something

worth keeping in mind as a factor in discussing new rules ans tactics --
not 
everyone does things the same way.  If you're gaming with us, you don't 
premeasure, so keep it in mind.  It's like the way that you will very
rarely 
see a ship moving faster than 12" a turn; that's not a rule by any
means, 
that's just how we like to play.  It's the same kind of thing, though. 
As 
long as everything is established before the game starts, there's no 
problem.

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."

John Crimmins	 john1x@hotmail.com    johncrim@voicenet.com
	http://www.voicenet.com/~johncrim/index.html
    Home of "Destroy All Monsters!" and other nonsense.

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