Soulcatcher Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 We have so many people showing up to our weekly CAV get togethers, that despite having 4 4x8 tables, we've been forced to play on the "standard" 4x4 playing surface. Using a 4x4 surface seems to do an injustice to the game. The CAVs with 60" of range can hit anything on the board, and the 48" can do almost as well. Additionally, the super-heavies don't pay any real penalty for being so big. Even 8" of move on a 4x4 board is still pretty decent. So what you wind up with is super-heavy cavs being underpriced relative to their effectiveness, and 60" range CAVs being overpriced because a 48" range CAV would do just about as well. Additionally, your deployment winds up covering most of the board because you're forced to take up so much room to keep your interval. We came up with a simple solution to solve all these problems: When playing on a 4x4 surface, cut all ranges, movement, and areas of effect in half. This effectively turns the surface into an 8x8 area. We found that once range and movement were really limiting factors, the game became much more tactical and enjoyable for everyone. Even if you're suspicious of this idea, I'd encourage you to at least try it out for one game and see if it doesn't improve your experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOldcorn Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Frank (Leech) and I were talking about doing the exact same thing for a forth coming CAV tournament as space will be limited. Although I think it would be somewhat easier just to convert inches to centimetres as at least that way all the numbers stay the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Froggy the Great Posted January 29, 2003 Moderator Share Posted January 29, 2003 Gak, that'd drive me nuts. Still, follow your joy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulcatcher Posted January 29, 2003 Author Share Posted January 29, 2003 Yes, the centimeter conversion works out about the same. Ultimately, we decided that we had all these measuring tapes marked in inches, so we might as well use them. Frosch: Give it a try. You might decide you like it. . . and if not, it was only one game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Pat Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 We had discussed this in the play testing of Soccer but a few of the players felt it would add a level of confusion to the game. At the time I took that into consideration and left it out of the Soccer rules. Personally I liked it. And #### if there was some way to flip a switch in Armybuilder to cut all ranges in half it would make it that much easier to print the sheets that way. Mad Pat AO 00092 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Lightning 2 Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 When playing on a 4x4 surface, cut all ranges, movement, and areas of effect in half. This effectively turns the surface into an 8x8 area. We found that once range and movement were really limiting factors, the game became much more tactical and enjoyable for everyone. Heheheh... Does anyone remember when CAV actually /had/ those half ranges and MM scores? I do. In fact if you bounce around the yahoo mailing group for CAV... Say, back around Oct. 2000... You'll notice that CAV was using those values. They changed to the new values about 6 months before the rulebook got released. I remember begging Ed to keep the ranges and MM score the way the were for just this very reason. You see, from a Mecha game standpoint, I was used to the way BattleTech and Heavy Gear does their measurements... As in nothing really goes any faster than 16 hex/inches (and these are the fastest, souped-up scout machines available), and a weapon that can hit you from 20 hex/inches away, was more valuable than gold! Having just standard trooper machines do 20 hex/ inches of movement (the Dictator), and weapon ranges that allow you to shell on the first turn, was a very hard pill for me to swallow. Well... I've got a League coming up here next month and I've dictated that the table size be 4'x4'... We shall see if the specified values are too much and if we should reduce range and movement by half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leech Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 For St Valentine's Day Carnage, I'm going to be producing data cards for everyone (they're using my models too, save Stuart) so I'll just use some tip-ex and a pen :o) The half ranges and movement scores tip is mentioned in the rulebook somwhere, and I plan on using it if I have too small a table. And I agree with you Pat, but until then I'll use tip-ex and a black biro :o) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nadinbrzezinski Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 Here is an easier solution folks, switch to centimeters... after all it is 2.5 centimers per 1 inch. Just a sugestion. In fact we will be trying this here... Nadin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Froggy the Great Posted January 30, 2003 Moderator Share Posted January 30, 2003 See, the joy of CAV for me is that the ranges are so long. Constricting it by half or a third (going to CM) would destroy it for me. If I want unreasonably short ranges, I'll play 40K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abngi Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 See, the joy of CAV for me is that the ranges are so long. Constricting it by half or a third (going to CM) would destroy it for me. If I want unreasonably short ranges, I'll play 40K. If everything keeps the same ratios, the scale is effectively the same. Otherwise, you could improve your level of satisfaction by tripling all the range and speed numbers. Side note: you caught that he was reducing speed by the same ratio, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Froggy the Great Posted January 30, 2003 Moderator Share Posted January 30, 2003 Yes. If we reduce ranges and speed like that, I'd rather also reduce the size of the models. It'd feel better. Don't get me wrong, I don't care if you do it, but I'd start to feel claustrophobic if I did it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOldcorn Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 But as said this was all aimed at getting round the small tables they have to use some of the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Froggy the Great Posted January 30, 2003 Moderator Share Posted January 30, 2003 Right. Perhaps I'll shut up now. :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulcatcher Posted January 30, 2003 Author Share Posted January 30, 2003 Yes, we're not making any changes to the interaction, we're just "blowing up the playing surface." Actually, I've thought about how much fun it would be to run armies that were 4,000 - 5,000 points a side and then play on an actual 8x8 table using the range mods to make it a 16x16 table. There's one weekend completely gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nadinbrzezinski Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 Now frosh the size of the models would be ideal but as I cannot reduce them either... anyway, just in the things I wish to see, an Epic scale game for CAV... yes I do dig strategic games... :D Those minis are VERY SMALL, in particular the infantry. Hey what can I say, Ogers will also make very good Titans when that game re-releases. :p Nadin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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