V-hex Placement, Win SP, Victory Levels

[Narwan]

Does anyone remember how we used to convert Marginal or Decisive Victories before the Blitz scoring system was introduced?

That was a very simple and very effective system. I still use it as I think it's much better than the spreadsheet method.

You simply take the points of player 1 and player 2 and convert them in a ratio. For a marginal win you need a 2:1 ratio, for a medium victory a 3:1 ratio, for a decisive victory a 6:1 ratio and for an overwhelming a 8:1 although I use a 10:1 ratio for that as overwhelming victories should be very rare.

It works best IMO if the total VH value is about 75 - 80% of each side's force points for ME's. The 2:1 ratio for a marginal then means you can lose no more than 85 to 90% of your force and still score a marginal victory provided you destroy just about all enemy troops.

I believe that capturing flags shouldn't be enough to win a game, at least not an ME. You also need to preserve enough of your troops to keep it.

Narwan

[Cross]

You simply take the points of player 1 and player 2 and convert them in a ratio. For a marginal win you need a 2:1 ratio, for a medium victory a 3:1 ratio, for a decisive victory a 6:1 ratio and for an overwhelming a 8:1 although I use a 10:1 ratio for that as overwhelming victories should be very rare.

Thanks Narwan, I remember that now. I recall using that system against a regular opponent from years ago.

[wulfir]

Years ago all my PBEM battles let the AI decide where the V-hexes would be. Then someone suggested editing the V-hexes to more realistic objectives, like bridges, hill tops, town squares, crossroads etc. Made so much sense, never let the AI decide again.

I do this to, along with using custom maps in almost all my games.

I generally set the VHs to max value and spread them out in what I think is sensible locations. I don't worry too much about it being perfectly fair or not.

:smoke:

[Cross]

I do this to, along with using custom maps in almost all my games.

I generally set the VHs to max value and spread them out in what I think is sensible locations. I don't worry too much about it being perfectly fair or not.

:smoke:

Yes, custom maps are definately the way to go.

'Perfectly fair' isn't important to most people here, to their credit; but I still try to make things as fair as possible.

[Cross]

The only way to make the situation fair (that I can think of) is to make sure that an equal number of V-hexes are reached by each player before they run into each other.

I have a theory that this can be done by not putting any V-hexes in the central zone. Let’s call this central zone ‘no man’s land’ or the DMZ. The size of the DMZ should be as small as possible. It would probably only have to be 10 hexes (from 45 to 55) for most 100 wide maps, and perhaps 15 for wider maps.

I've had an opportunity to test this in PBEM; and I think it worked really well.

As expected, you each control 10 V-hexes without contest.

I think at least some of the V-hexes should be just beyond the 'no man's land', as it may be too challenging to have to penetrate deep behind enemy lines to capture your first objective.

I would even consider making the 'no man's land' only 8 hexes wide for smaller maps, but 10 wide works fine.