Wargaming Mechanics Blog and Square Grids

I am embarrassed to say that it has taken me all this time to find Phil Dutré's blog Wargaming Mechanics. There is some really good material out there, not the least if which is his analysis on using a square grid. I am not going to copy any of his material here as I have not asked for permission, but if you are interested in gaming on a square grid, this post is a must-read.

The main question his post answers is: should I allow diagonal movement in a game using a square grid? Phil lays out numerous methods for counting and compares the distance moved to  the "true" Euclidean distance from the center point of the starting square. In his second blog post on the matter he comes to the conclusion that "we don't really want a measurement procedure, we want a counting procedure", meaning a means of counting squares. (The second post makes the distinction clearer, as Phil discusses moves like the Knight's Move, the Zebra's Move, and the Camel's Move.)

What this answered for me is that my previous counting method, which he calls "at most 1 diagonal move allowed", is sub-optimal. I much prefer his "1-2-1-2 alternation" method. It is simple and a much better representation of the "correct" distance. (Again, go to Phil's blog to see the diagram.)

When I put it into practice, I had another revelation. Rather than placing the units in the square, I placed the center point of the unit on a dot I normally use to define the corners of the square. This allowed me to more easily to use the counting method Phil described (in my case, from dot-to-dot rather than from empty space-to-empty space). Also, because units straddled two squares (rather than being within a single square), this made for much cleaner unit pivots. Below is an example that I used for my small space gaming grid conversion of Neil Thomas' 19th Century rules.

How to pivot within a square.

As you can see, the center point of the unit moves when you are confined within a square, whereas if you pivot on a point the center point stays fixed.

This also solves another issue, which is that I generally only allow a unit to face the flat side of a square and not the vertices. With this improved counting method, there is little reason not to allow the additional four facings. (You still have to deal with contact for hand-to-hand combat, but that is another subject.)

Tip of the hat to Phil and his blog. I would also tip my hat to the follower of this blog - I look at your profiles every so often to see the other blogs you follow - that led me to Phil's blog, but I forgot who it was.

If you like examining game mechanics like I do, Phil's blog is highly recommended. If you know of any other blogs like this, please let me know in the comments.