The Loose Association of Wargamers

Grid/Hex based wargames?

Are they Brilliant or a bit Gateway Cavalry?

"Wow Purps, another terrible Poll. That killed 16 seconds, I'll go back to staring at the wall thinking of the fit one from Time Team.''

Oh Phil Harding

On the basis that this is figure-gaming using hexes/squares/dodecahedrons, I must confess that I've never tried it and so voted lack of knowledge (although I thought "of anything" was possibly a bit excessive).

Oh, except for the Ben Hur chariot game - complete with Syrian Suicide Squad from Life of Brian - at Colours one year, run by Rich Clarke of TFL. That was the absolutely most absolute hoot ever.

[Just for the record, I thought Poll 25661884 "What do you keep in your belly-button apart from fluff" was better.]

It's a bit yes/no isn't it. How about 'in their place they are quite ok-ish as a possible tactical/strategic simulation and if you paint 'em, I'll play them" as an option?

Don't mind them, hardly done them though .. used it more with naval gazing .. gaming .. and it worked ok. Nothing wrong with it, makes life easy as you get older. I'll vote "Brilliant" as they aren't crap.

good grid games are good. bad ones are bad. I don't think there's any argument to say that the griddiness of rules makes them good or bad on that basis only.

Grids have the advantage of simplifying movement and bringing the gamer more into a linear style of play which in some periods enhances the period feel. On the downside the grid detracts from the visual effect and is faffy to set up.

Like wot Simon said.
I'm a fan of grids for certain types of game but do think you need a permanent gridded surface to remove the faff of setting one up each time.

Not sure I like the look of a battlefield covered in grids and hexes. Having said that, I've never actually played one so no idea if the actual games are any good

I think they look more "natural" in a naval context - possibly due to looking at maps of the seas/oceans, but (much) less so when representing dry land.

The use of them for naval games is okay but they make the table more like an enlarged boardgame and thus remove the aesthetic appeal which I think is a major issue.

My main experience of them is playing Battletech on the mapsheets, we did expand the idea using Heroscape tiles just for variety.