Author Topic: ground scale and turn scale  (Read 2021 times)

Desert Scribe

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ground scale and turn scale
« on: 18 August 2024, 17:44:16 »
I'm hoping to find some approximate numbers for Alpha Strike scales, and I didn't see anything in the quick-start rules I have.

1. Is the ground scale the same as the minis scale of about 1/300 (so one inch on the map = around 25 feet), or ground scale different than figure scale?

2. How much in-game time is one game turn supposed to represent?


Weirdo

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Re: ground scale and turn scale
« Reply #1 on: 18 August 2024, 18:49:24 »
I believe Alpha Strike is deliberately vague on this. An Alpha Strike turn doesn't last X number of seconds, it lasts 1 turn, however long that takes. Alpha Strike scale isn't 1" equals X meters, it's 6" equals short range, with the precise in-universe distance being "whatever it has to be to make things work".
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Desert Scribe

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Re: ground scale and turn scale
« Reply #2 on: 19 August 2024, 11:51:19 »
Thanks, that's good to know. It gives me a lot of freedom in setting up a hex-based campaign.

Descronan

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Re: ground scale and turn scale
« Reply #3 on: 09 September 2024, 11:51:33 »
Alpha Strike doesn't specify time, but it does reference distance and unit speed. By that, you can estimate time in relationship to the speed of the units.

Alpha Strike says each inch is 7.5m. Units with 8" movement can move 60m per round and the unit's cruising speed is 43.2 kph walk or 64.8 kph run. 1 kph is 0.27m per second so walking speed is 12m per second and running is 18m per second. So, one round is about 5 seconds at walking speed or 3.3 seconds at running speed.

Scale has always been an issue in BT.

Kerfuffin(925)

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Re: ground scale and turn scale
« Reply #4 on: 09 September 2024, 16:40:52 »
Alpha Strike doesn't specify time, but it does reference distance and unit speed. By that, you can estimate time in relationship to the speed of the units.

Alpha Strike says each inch is 7.5m. Units with 8" movement can move 60m per round and the unit's cruising speed is 43.2 kph walk or 64.8 kph run. 1 kph is 0.27m per second so walking speed is 12m per second and running is 18m per second. So, one round is about 5 seconds at walking speed or 3.3 seconds at running speed.

Scale has always been an issue in BT.

where does it say that?
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Descronan

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Re: ground scale and turn scale
« Reply #5 on: 09 September 2024, 21:30:18 »
where does it say that?

ASCE page 24: "The rough “real world” scale for this battlefield is approximately 7.5 meters per inch, making the recommended table sizes generally equivalent to a battlefield size 360 to 540 meters across."

Weirdo

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Re: ground scale and turn scale
« Reply #6 on: 10 September 2024, 09:19:10 »
Alpha Strike doesn't specify time, but it does reference distance and unit speed. By that, you can estimate time in relationship to the speed of the units.

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glitterboy2098

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Re: ground scale and turn scale
« Reply #7 on: 11 September 2024, 19:05:02 »
the battle force rules the unit stats originally derived from had a 30 second turn length IIRC. since conversion of for AS stats still uses most of the same math, turns representing 30 seconds or longer is a good rule of thumb for AS.

psionics313

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Re: ground scale and turn scale
« Reply #8 on: 24 September 2024, 16:29:52 »
ASCE page 24: "The rough “real world” scale for this battlefield is approximately 7.5 meters per inch, making the recommended table sizes generally equivalent to a battlefield size 360 to 540 meters across."

this seems to add up with MWO gameplay lol. you get into actions and units start dying 10-15 seconds in
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DevianID

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Re: ground scale and turn scale
« Reply #9 on: 25 September 2024, 04:14:25 »
Alpha strike is roughly 30 seconds to 1 minute, from a stats on a card POV.  The OG stats were based off of a 30 second battleforce turn, but when converting to alpha strike you can do more in 1 alpha strike turn then in 3 battletech turns (like, damage rounds up, meaning more then 1 battletech shots of a medium laser are being taken to deliver the 1 alpha strike damage/30 classic armor damage, so 3 to 6 turns of classic are happening to do the listed alpha strike damage).

As for model scale, the game (like many) has a scale issue where it trys to make height on the table be 'mech scale ish' so that 2 inches of vertical terrain blocks LOS to mechs.  This leads to very tiny battlefields due to the game trying to kinda match scale to minis.  By game stats this cant be reconciled, as a 5 hex mech can move 10 inches, for ~75m, leading to 'long range' at 42 being only 315 meters, and 5 second turn times (instead of 30-60 second turn times).  So alpha strike map scale and gameplay scale disagree by a factor of 6-12x, a consequence of wanting to use true LOS terrain for the models.  40k has the same problem with very short/small ranges as a result of using minis with true LOS terrain.