but I would like to know what advantage there is to hexmaps over terrain.
As someone who enjoys playing with both:
Hexmap pro:
- It's pretty quick and easy to set up the playing area, especially if you're fairly familiar with your hexmaps.
- You're not adjusting terrain later (kind of a common problem when you use hexgrid terrain; the hill shifts a bit as minis are moved across it, and suddenly during movement you find it just a bit off.
- It has less ambiguity with regards to such things as LOS, and terrain cover/costs. Emphasis on "less", some hex maps aren't labelled that well, and LOS can still be tricky and arbitrary if the line skirts a few hexes on the border.
- There's a little less maintenance if you like using trees, and have to juggle those around when a 'Mech enters the patch.
- You don't get 'free' movement when a mini is picked up and returned for whatever reason. IE, someone wants to admire the paintjob and places it 0.25 inch too far to the left when he returns it. Suddenly LOS works differently. A more common problem with the clickdials given how often you pick those guys up.
- Now with hexpacks, you can really customize hexmap terrain (used to be a con as you couldn't)
- You can handdraw a map on the back for specific scenarios. I've done that a few times.
- Most rules are hex based, so stuff like clearing woods isn't ambiguous. Working with buildings seems very daunting in mini rules.
Hexmap cons:
- It just doesn't look as good as terrain. I'm ignoring crap quality terrain in that statement.
- It's a little harder to intuitively estimate tactics; the 3D aspect really helps.
- No hexmap based shenanigans, like the freeway that exists where maps meet (always clear level 0 terrain) or rivers that evaporate at the border.
- Much less likely to look like a coherent whole if you use an eclectic set of terrain. IE, std map, moon terrain and the canyons because you wanted some increasingly rough terrain, or the aftermath of orbital bombardment. Even just the background color mismatch is jarring.
- It gets repetitive. Some maps, you know exactly where some of the good hexes are (1205 on the standard map, what's happening today? How's the missus?), and for most kinds of play, you tend to find yourself using the same maps over and over. For some people, that's not a downside.
So, either style of play has it's place, I think. I tend to favor hex-based or hex-gridded terrain, but I think playing with full miniatures rules can be really cool also.
Paul
