Topic: an amusing experiment
Last week the group I play with tried an experiment with our game set up.
We divided the table into a 2x3 grid of 1' squares. Then we took turns placing a piece of terrain in each square (1 large building, 1 small building, 1 small hill, 3 stands of trees). Finally we dealt a hand of cards the same as we would for initiative, to determine the order of unit placement. As each unit was deployed we rolled a d6 for the square that it was allowed to be deployed into. following that we rolled our customary 1d4+3 for number of turns (4 in this case), and dealt a new hand of cards for initiative.
It was a lot of fun, and a definitely different feeling than our usual games. We were forced to use troops in unexpected ways, and even re-evaluate some warband configurations. Archers, wizards, and "support" individuals were much riskier to play (or had to be combined into one unit - at the expense of initiative cards), as were units that relied on open terrain or special terrain types. I highly recommend it as an occasional deviation.
We think we have just enough room for a 4x3 grid for our next game, and using a d12 for placement. That might be a little friendlier to ranged figures, at the cost of possibly delaying the fight an extra turn or two for movement.