Hexagon & The Combat System

[CivHyperFreak]

So now we won't be able to directly move (or attack) in eight directions, but rather six. Apparently some ranged units will be able to fire over more than one tile, but I'm wondering what the actual impact of this loss of manoeuvre will be.

Losing the stacks on top of this is the reason I posted earlier my concerns that V will turn out to be a lot like Revolution, although I can't imagine Firaxis would deliberately simplify the game and put its hardcore fanbase out that much.

Then I think of the land battle system in Pirates, and it was really good, but again, each group was able to move in 8 directions.

I really hope they continue to produce a fun, cartoony, quick game for people who don't live and breathe this franchise, and that whatever the combat system turns out to be it is very complicated, but incredibly rewarding.

[Ellestar]

So now we won't be able to directly move (or attack) in eight directions, but rather six. Apparently some ranged units will be able to fire over more than one tile, but I'm wondering what the actual impact of this loss of manoeuvre will be.

Losing the stacks on top of this is the reason I posted earlier my concerns that V will turn out to be a lot like Revolution, although I can't imagine Firaxis would deliberately simplify the game and put its hardcore fanbase out that much.

Don't they make a game more complex? I mean, they add a complex wargame combat system on top of a complex Civ-style economy system.

[Edmundrw]

Less direction options doesn't necessarily mean less complexity. There's good post in another thread about this... let me see if I can find it:

I will take a stab at it.

There are three ways to use symmetric polygons as a grid to regularize movement. This can be done with triangles, squares, and hexagons.

With triangles, you can move to an adjacent triangle in 6 directions (3 sides and 3 corners). However when you move across a corner, you will be covering more distance than when you move across a side. This is less than optimum in some opinions (see below).

With squares, you can move to an adjacent square in 8 directions (4 sides and 4 corners). Again, when you move across a corner, you will be covering more distance than when you move across a side. Again, this is less than optimum in some opinions (see below).

With hexes, you can move to an adjacent hex in 6 dirctions (6 sides). There are no additional hexes that are only adjacent at a corner. This creates a situation in which you will cover the same distance no matter which direction you go in.

Why keeping the distance covered is important:

In any situation where terrain is an obstacle to one's path toward an objective, the effect of this obstacle is reduced immensely when using triangles or squares as the regular movement.

Think about it this way. There is an impassable mountain range running north/south that is 7 squares wide and I need to get from the left side of it to the right side of it.

I have two units that I need to get around this mountain range. Both unit's are placed such that their north/south position is in the middle of the mountain range (.i.e equally distant from the north end of the mountains and the south end of the mountains). Unit A is one square to the west of the mountains. Unit B is three squares to the west of the mountains.

If we move these units to the point where they can go around the north end of the mountains, they will get there at the same time even though Unit B had much farther to go.

Unit A should have to travel 3 squares north (a distance of 3) to get to the point where he can 'step around' the mountains.

Unit B should have to travel 3 sqares north and three sqares east (a distance of just over 4 - remember Pythagoros) to get there.

With a square grid, they get there in the same length of time. With a hexagonal grid, they probably don't. The longer the distances in question, the more 'realistic' a hex grid will be.

Please note that with shooting at a distance (mentioned in this forum as a possibility for bombardment), this effect will be even more important. Squares could allow you to place a bombardment unit so that it could hit two cities, even though on a real map it would be too far away to hit either of them.

In short, a hexagonal grid reduces distortion of distances. This is important for maneuver and range. I think it is a wonderful addition to CIV V.

[Ellestar]

Less direction options doesn't necessarily mean less complexity. There's good post in another thread about this... let me see if I can find it:

I don't think that distortion of distances has any strategic importance, it's just a quirk that can be gamed for certain gains.

However, hexes directly affect combat balance if there can be only one unit per hex (as mentioned in some Danish magazine):

1) With hexes, defense line may always be 1-hex wide. With squares, vertical defense line may be 1-square line while diagonal defense line should be 2-square line, or units will be able slip past the defences).

2) With squares, 3-4 units may attack one defender in a defensive line
AAA
DXD
A - attacker, D - defender, X - attacked defender
AAA
DXA
DDDD

With hexes, 2-3 units may attack one defender in a defensive line
AAA2A3
-D1XXD2
A - attacker, D - defender, X - attacked defender
AAA1A2
-DDXXA3
DDDDDDDD

Given that in wargames units don't fight to the death but instead deal some damage to defending unit, it's important to attack one unit with as many of your units as possible. So, attack/defence ratio of units should be balanced against a typical number of attackers that attack one defender. That number will be lower with hexes.

Also, attacker recieves some damage during the attack too. So, if you attack a unit that attacked on the enemy turn, you effectively gain an extra attack against that unit (if your goal is to kill it). That's 50%-33% extra damage with hexes (3-4 damage instead of 2-3, all units are identical melee units for simplicity sake) and just 33%-25% extra damage with squares (4-5 damage instead of 3-4). So, units are more vulnerable to counter-attack with hexes.

Zones of control look better with hexes. It looks weird and not really intuitive with squares when a unit stops enemy movement in a diagonal square. With hexes, all hexes in the zone of control of your unit are equally distant from the center of your unit so zone of control looks more intuitive.