Aerial Combat - Looking for Tips

[Justin_Bacon]

Here's an excerpt from the development document for Rule Supplement 2: Flight:

Playtest Tip: Tracking Altitude

The most difficult aspect of aerial combat is keeping track of the altitude of flying combatants: Miniatures and counters tend not to float conveniently in mid-air. A number of different methods can be used, and you can use whatever method suits your style of play best.

1. Mark the altitude of the combatant next to the flying combatant. In some cases, this can be written down on the battlemap itself. Alternatively, you can write the altitude down on a slip of paper and place it next to the flying combatant. This method is relatively simple and easy to use, but has the drawback that the altitude information must travel with the combatant and frequently be rewritten.

2. Stack building blocks or similar platforms under a flying combatant. Each block can represent 5 or 10 feet of altitude. This method is visually intuitive, but balancing miniatures and restacking the blocks can become a headache (although using interconnecting toy blocks, such as Legos, can mitigate this problem). Plus, you’ll run into serious difficulties if a flying combatant stops directly above or below another combatant. As a possible variant, you might consider using the clear plastic boxes that some dice are sold in: These boxes fit nicely over the top of most miniatures, allowing one combatant to fly above another. Unfortunately, obtaining a sufficient number of such boxes is usually difficult or impossible.

3. In addition to the standard battle map depicting the horizontal plane of the battle, you can use a second battle map to depict the vertical plane of the battle. By placing one piece for each flier on both battle maps, you can accurately track and reference their relative positions. Of course, you’ve just doubled the number of miniatures or counters you need to run an encounter. Plus, you will now run into the problem of having multiple miniatures in a single space on your battle map not only when fliers are directly above or below other combatants, but also when they are directly in front of or behind other combatants.

4. Keep an altitude tracking sheet, such as the one found on page XXX. You can record the altitude of each flier on the tracking sheet. This method is accurate and leaves the battlefield uncluttered, but recording the data on a separate sheet can be a hassle. It’s suggested that if you use this method, that you find some simple way to indicate flying combatants (possibly using a single building block) so that they are not confused for land-bound combatants.

The reason I'm posting this is that I'm wondering if anyone has another method of tracking altitude that works well for them. (Or a refinement of these methods.)

It's one of the trickiest parts of actually using aerial combat in a game. I'm sitting here with a supplement that streamlines the aerial combat rules (while keeping them compatible) and offers all kinds of nifty new options for flyers, but it's all for naught if actually running aerial combat at the game table is too much of a headache. :)

Justin Alexander
http://www.thealexandrian.net

[AtomicKitKat]

Make a small paper wheel, with letters/numbers from A/1 to Z/26. These are the Z coordinates, and have another sheet on top but with a hole small enough to show the letter/number under it. Put it under the flyer(1 per flyer). Use the map as normal, taking note of the Z coordinates via the hole.

[Quietus]

Rough descriptions and marking height in memory. Works for my group.

[Jannex]

One group I played with for a while always used a dry-erase whiteboard for combat, rather than a mat and miniatures. Whenever a combatant became airborne, they simply had their altitude noted beside their initial (usually in a different color; I preferred blue).

[Saph]

It's actually worse than that, because not only do you have to track altitude, you also have to track velocity. Most creatures with flight can't turn on a dime, so you have to take into account their direction of travel.

Personally I do it two ways:

If the majority of the combat's on the ground: Use a clear dice box or something to stand the flying figure up in the air, to make it obvious that they're flying. (An upside-down empty glass works too.) Remember their height.

If the majority of the combat's in the air: Air combats move so fast you can't keep them on a map anyway, so either ignore the map completely, or only have it track relative position (the map is centred on the PCs and the landscape is assumed to be flying past underneath them).

- Saph

[SKarious]

Silent Death had a method where you put a d10 die next to each ship, so that the number represents height. How about it?

[woc33]

I like to handle it in different ways, the most common one is adding a second map relative to the first (same length and width), and putting the fliers on it, maybe even adding a third or forth one in case the fliers are in different hights.