What the 'hex' he on about now!

I know that I have been blabbering on here recently about hexes/non hexes! I'm sure many fans of Commands and Colours - those who play quite happily on the standard 9 x 13 hex grid - may well be thinking "Why doesn't he just play the damn game properly and stop banging on about trying to play a hex designed game on a non hex board" They probably have a point!

I wanted to experiment, to see how the rules work without hexes. The game itself (Command & Colours) is in my humble opinion, brilliant. I can't see myself wanting to play any other Napoleonic rules, so my issue was not with the rules. I could probably happily just play the boxed game with blocks etc and still enjoy it. But I have always enjoyed creating miniature terrain, something I learned from a brief fascination with model railway layouts years ago. Those guys could create amazingly realistic terrain boards and I have long had an ambition to play wargames on terrain like that - I think 6mm would be perfect. The hex is an integral part of C&C, but aesthetically it would detract from a landscaped terrain system. There is also the issue of being able to make the boards interchangable when marked with a hex grid. So it's not really a case of "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it", but rather an enjoyable exercise to discover how well C&C would translate to a standard wargame table.

'Foy' made some good practical points in his comment left on my last post. In particular I liked the idea of using some kind of hex measure to determine the area occupied by a unit or leader. I'm not sure who recalls Charles Grants early shell explosion device? but it was a sort of wire circle with soldered legs which could be stood at the point of impact and by looking down from above the device casualties could be determined by who was within the 'blast' area. I suppose a simple hex cut from clear plastic sheet could be quickly used to determine the boundries of a 'virtual hex' grid in cases where it is critical. In actual fact, such a device would overcome most of the issues I encountered in the later stages of the test game. All is not yet lost!

Ultimately I would like to have the best of both Worlds, play standard C&C games on my hex mat, but also be able to play C&C games on fully landscaped terrain boards. It's a challenge, and I'm enjoying it, and it does not detract from the pleasure of the project in any way for me. But I do apologise to those who may be finding this a little tiresome.