Does having a half inch melee range break anything?

[nathan]

So I have the rules on the way from toysoldiers.ca along with some miniatures.  I checked out the demo PDF and noticed close combat was base to base.

After playing games like Warmachine & Malifaux, I'm a huge fan of models having a melee range.  So instead of having to get in base to base on a charge, you just have to get within half an inch.  I find it makes it easier to move things around on the table and if models have a tentacle, weapon or something else sticking off their base, it's less likely to get in the way.

So what would be the effect of models having a half inch melee reach rather than needing to go base to base?

[fairoaks024]

I don't think it would make any real difference in the game,

regards

jim

[Dolmot]

If memory serves, the game doesn't even define any base sizes or shapes. If you imagine all your models having 1" larger discs under their current bases, you could achieve the same effect (mostly) while using exactly the current rules. No big difference if you define a virtual melee range instead.

Technically speaking, melee range will create a slight discrepancy between movement (through small gaps, for example) and positioning in close combat. Also, it makes the combat arrangements slightly looser for, say, dynamite attacks. However, these details are currently very open to interpretation in the first place and hardly fine-tuned for anything. It's not a tournament game like Warmachine so you can do pretty much anything that looks/feels right.

Still, note that there's no model facing (front/rear zones) either. Using the original base-to-base rules, you can probably rotate the models slightly to fit. If you can't, I suspect someone's chosen too small a base to begin with...

[nathan]

So it'll probably be no big deal one way or another.  We may have to increase the size of dynamite slightly (or not as the game already makes no assumptions about base size).

Cool thing about no facing.  That cuts the need for melee range down a bit.  But we'll probably still use it as myself and my fellow players really, really like that mechanic.

For bases, we're going to use 30mm, 40mm and 50mm warmachine style bases like the ones shown here:

http://www.strange-aeons.ca/img/mini/SA-025.jpg

I have the winged nightmare and the formless thing on the way and they'll definitely go on 40mm and 50mm bases
http://www.strange-aeons.ca/img/mini/SA-015.jpg
http://www.strange-aeons.ca/img/mini/SA-005.jpg

Like on Anatoli's blog:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ycMde43Wqe0/TTXKNA9akXI/AAAAAAAAC_c/uWCaorGwReQ/s1600/SAM_0377.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ycMde43Wqe0/TNgvEinHEUI/AAAAAAAAB9I/heGC-MgHe14/s1600/PB080001.jpg

It also doesn't look like there are rules like not being able to shoot if someone charges you.  And you have to do charge as your combat action each time you want to attack.  So it looks like there is no "locked in combat" that happens in other miniature games.

I guess we just find it pleasing to measure, set the miniature down a bit away from the other and roll our dice rather than having to push the miniatures precisely into base contact.  And if terrain ends up making placing models in base to base difficult, you just put the model a bit off of base contact as needed and it doesn't matter.  It just feels a bit more relaxed at times. 

[LidlessEye]

So long as you're consistent, I really don't see an extended melee range having a substantial impact on the game.  I'm not even convinced dynamite will present that much of an issue.  Even when centered on a 50mm base, the template would still hit any models in a 1/2" melee radius.

[nathan]

Cool.

My favorite thing about a melee reach instead of base to base is that I don't have to get finicky with model placement.  If a model has a charge distance of 5, we'll measure 5" to the target and then plunk him down about a centimetre away and call it good.

We're also used to rules where terrifying creatures frighten within their melee range (Both Malifaux and Warmachine use this), so the base to base rule for Hideous will probably also extend to half an inch.

The sense I keep getting from Strange Aeons is that it's best played as a relaxed and enjoyable campaign and base sizes don't really matter nor the minute details about whether or not you're a millimetre  short of base to base.  We just already play a lot of games with certain rules conventions and basing so why change them if they work for us unless there's a rules interaction that would make it problematic.

Maybe we'll increase dynamite to a 4 inch area rather than a 3 inch.  Kaboom!