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(TFT) More about Troop Movement in TFT



Let me take up the RPG and miniatures topic before I go into more Troop Movement. Ah...Yes, the group is correct. The Fantasy Trip is a boardgame. It can be converted to a miniatures game. My comment was that TFT <as Melee> started out as a miniatures game.

	Roleplaying            = all acting
	Miniatures Roleplaying = using miniatures w/ emphasis on RPG
	Roleplaying Miniatures = using miniatures w less emphasis on RPG
	Miniatures             = all representational tactics

Bret Slocum - In RPGs, figures are simply a play aid, even if you have detailed rules for movement. So, TFT & GURPS are RPGs, Melee & Dawn Patrol are miniature games. <boardgames?> Psychohist - I'd classify Melee as a wargame <boardgame?>, rather than a miniatures game, because of the board and the hexes (not to mention that most of the rest of the Microgames are clearly board games.)
	Dave Kohr - When I play it as a non-RPG, its really a board game.
	Ron Pehr (in a TFT review copyrigt 1980 SJG, Inc.) -
It is the hexagonal-spaces game "board" which makes THE FANTASY TRIP unique. Unlike other games it is designed to be played with pieces moved on a board. The board consists of linked hexagons, each representing one and 1/3 meters, the pieces are anything which indicate individual characters. Most people use 25mm metal figurines, sold by many different companies. Whenever a situation arises wherein distance is important, and that usually means combat, markers are put on the board at the appropriate distance from each other. All movement and weapon ranges are given in terms of the number of hexes separating characters. In this way are resolved the questions of who could perform certain activities at certain times during the hostilities between characters. All games have some sort of movement criteria, usually expressed in scale inches, but THE FANTASY TRIP fully develops the use of a board to completely define the operational limits of the characters. This might seem limiting, the kind of thing you took up FRP to avoid, but it actually makes the game far more workable. Gone are the disputes between the players and Game Master in which the former claims the characters were out of position or didn?t have enough time. There is now a graphic, discernable basis for ongoing actions which increases rather than limits the fun. Those who can?t stand the idea of a board in FRP can simply convert "hexes" to inches and play on any surface, even actual scale-model terrain.

So if you play on a table without hexes and use lead figures, then its a miniatures game. The reason I bother to differentiate is that at Cons there are those who see miniatures set up on a terrain table and thinks its a miniatures wargame, while there are others who have only the thought of roleplaying as something acted out <no figures>. Even with my friends who know how I run my TFT games, Troop Movement with 8+ figures per player does not offer as much roleplaying as Troop Movement with 3 to 5 figures. Running 1 or 2 figures is strictly RPG (per Bret's concept. I agree.) with our without hexes.

Note on Hexes: In TFT, a melee hex is supposed to equal 1 1/3 meters; thats about 4.5 feet. A megahex then is 4 meters or about 13 feet. I cheated and say a hex represents 5 feet. Therefore one inch (hex) equals 5 feet. At long distances, it starts to distort, but I live with it.

Note on Time: I split play between game time of 5 second rounds and FLEX TIME of 'roleplay until you screw up and we need to go to 5 second rounds again.' In FLEX TIME, you can move pieces around freely or just dispense with the board altogether.

Equipment: I usually use a 4'x8' plywood board or convention table. I throw a large green felt over it. If you want hexes, you can buy giant felt hex blankets from game shops, etc. I use 25mm resin houses, walls, bridges, whatever; anything from historical/warhanner gaming. You can even buy ships (now where were those naval rules.) I have various items for those creative players:

	* one inch base of 3" long orange sheepskin for huge fires
	* orange cotton for regular fire, white cotton for smoke/fog
	* 1/8" red brick painted wood block for walls
	* 1" black wood block for shadow hexes
	* small plastic pizza raiser posts for showing flying
	* small resin craters for....craters
	* blast radiuses and blunderbus patterns
	* string...for line of sight
	* I haven't come up with anything good for invisibility

I note the wind before the game: Speed and Direction. You never know what those players will send up.

I have a drymarker board marked out in 12 round boxes for time. If the players go all the way through, one minute has passed. These boxes are good for noting when some special occurance started.

And now for the Special Rule Expansions for Troops:

		THERE AREN'T ANY!!!  HA HA HAAAaaaaa......

Actually there are a few. Though I've been playing multi-character TFT on tables with miniatures for over 15 years, its only been the last year that I looked at establishing some advantages for trained troops (UNITS) or other disciplined mass effort.

Psychohist commented "I'm still awaiting the promised rules expansion for troops. I've yet to see a system that allows one to abstract results for multiple figures 'stands', while retaining about the same distribution of results as one would get playing out all the combats individually."

Sorry Warren, these aren't abstracted results for multiple figure "stands". Its standard TFT movement & melee. Each piece moves how it can. Each blow for each person. What I'm refering to when I say 'Troop Movement is mass combat' is you're running lots of characters, a mass amount of combat.

Rick Smith, can you post your TFT Mass Combat Simulation System? [thanks Michael for mentioning it]

My small list of advantages for a trained military UNIT:

	If fighting 3  abreast* they get +1 DX
	            6+ abreast* they get +2 DX
	If shielded 3  abreast  they gain +1 shielded armor
	            6+ abreast  they gain +2 shiedled armor
			*with same weapon

	Only those in the line get the advantage, as long as the line
	doe not break.  One hex displacements are OK.

	If you have a back rank of UNIT trained spearmen, they get an
	advantage:  When fighting 2+ abreast with an overhand spearer
	behind, the back spearman gets +1 DX.

That's it so far. The above isn't necessarily based on reality or IQ points or anything other than seeing a need for troops fighting as a UNIT to have their discipline mean something. I'll take more suggestions!

Also, I found it real rough to run 100 characters and still try to maintain strict DX order. So I've altered the TFT turn sequence to suit my tast [this will definitely raise some hackles, but I tried it for playability.] During Action Opitons:

	ALL MISSILE AND MAGIC GO FIRST BY HIGH ADJDX; THEN OTHER
	STUFF GOES (by clusters.)  ALL 2ND MISSILES GO LAST BY ADJDX.

This makes a low DX wizard or bowman able to take out a higher DX character, but this arbitrary game mechanix does speed up play [those absent minded players can slow down the game.]

By doing actions 'by clusters', I mean that I take small melees of the whole battle and handle their fights. As long as there is no drastic reason to go strictly DX across the board, this is a lot more coherrent and satisfying.

In order to prevent high dex, buff, mongoloid UNITS of 8 IQ romping thru the fields, any unit which has 25% or more humanoid troopers with 9 or under IQ cannot operate with any UNIT bonus.

With Troop Movement, having a military background makes sense. Now you can be a sargeant and use your strategy (well, maybe not on a 4'x8' board) and tactics as it should be used. It gives a reason for Seige Equipment.

And now on to other TFT Items.
I just started using the links on this website. Many good TFT items and articles. I have a seige weapons list I createted long ago and then I saw Rick Smith's "New Weapons and Armor for TFT" and Ty's "Revised Hi Tech TFT." I'll enjoy testing these out. And I'll see about posting my seige weapons list.

John Paul

(Next under Group List of TFT Talents, etc.:  Skill packages)




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