Saturday, January 21, 2012

How Important is the Front Arc, Really?

Well, I hope I got your attention with the title.  First, let me state that I am perfectly aware of how important the front and back arcs in Warmachine and Hordes.  The changes to DEF are huge and provide lots of tactical advantages.  That's not what I'm talking about.
 


That makes this article a bit more of an editorial on sportmanship, I guess.  I know that in any competitive game like Warmachine/Hordes or even Warhammer 40k, things can get pretty heated, but I wonder how often what constitutes the front arc comes up.  I have wondered this because I have seen quite a few warmahordes bases somehow decorated to delineate between front and back arcs. Bottom line: This looks ugly to me and I want to know how socially acceptable having unmarked bases is.

So, I want to ask people who have experience on the topic.  How often do people play without marked bases?  Does it cause much controversy? 

Being relatively new to Warmachine, I would like to have some more casual games until I have the rules down well, but eventually, I want to get into more competitive gaming.  So, I wonder how often it really does matter or isn't obvious where a model's front or back arc is located and how that affects a game.  I tend to see the best in people and haven't run into too many jerk players who would make too much of an issue about something like that, but this is the first game I have played where front and back matter, but also where the models have round bases.  Coming from a GW background, Warhammer Fantasy includes square bases and 40k has round bases, but front and back don't matter.

Here's my request.  Post a comment and tell me your stories, whether good or bad, about how marked or unmarked bases have had an effect on a game in a big way.  Thanks.

Other Warmachine related articles:
Crusader Heavy 'Jack Completed
Warmachine the Way I See It: Part 2...err kind of
Warmachine the Way I See It: Warcasters
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3 comments:

Von said...

I get that it's not easy on the eye but personally couldn't care less - my models are functional gaming pieces and not works of art.

To be honest, I've yet to come across an argument in favour of round bases that isn't 'it looks better', even though squares and hexes are much easier to develop line of sight mechanics around. Besides, PP's mechanics for dealing with unmarked round bases are cumbersome and inaccurate (I mean, what if the shoulders don't actually extend into a line bisecting the centre of the base?).

J said...

http://jubei.ceyah.org:8081/~jandrese/youngwolf7/Effects/WM_FrontArc.pdf

YoungWolf7 posted this up when WM was still young (Escalation time, I think).

This will solve your problem in the least obtrusive way.

1) attach model to base
2) place base on template with intended front facing the vertical line
3) paint a very fine line up the side of the base using the template as a guide.

This can be done with a color that matches your models, a neutral color, or even a dark grey if you don't want it to be very noticeable, but easily apparent should any disputes arise.

Enjoy!

Dave said...

Thanks for the comments guys.

@J. That PDF of the templates, it really cool. Thanks for the idea there. I definitely will check that out.

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