Faeria Board and Tiles Nomenclature Suggestions

I saw recently a faeria game board with each tile named, so you can refer to a tile with a letter and a number.
I’m not sure I’m expressing myself correctly, so here’s the picture.


Let’s ignore all the cool features on this map and talk about the naming of the tiles. (A1, B2, C4 etc)
The principle of this nomenclature is the following : “Divide the board into columns, each collumn is assigned a letter, then number the tiles from top to bottom.”
It’s really simple. That’s great. But there are some problems:

  • Firstly, these columns don’t have a real impact on how the game is played on the board. In other words, we don’t follow these collumns when playing, so they create a representation of the board that isn’t pertinent.
  • Secondly, they don’t represent the hexagonal nature of the board either. This makes them unfit for representing the geometrical structure of the board.
  • And lastly, the navigation is a bit clunky in my opinion, because only the columns are aligned.
    So this system, although simple, is not pertinent nor adapted to faeria’s board.

This system is obviously copied on chess, but it lacks the lines you can easily make on a square board. So I made a new model with lines.

In red and green, columns, obviously. In Grey, wells and orbs. Same numbers are aligned following inverted V lines. It gives this grid in the end:

I really don’t like that model, actually, it resolve nothing and I feel like not naming orbs’ and wells’ position is way better and less disturbing for navigation.

Then I came up with a system that solves the pertinence problem:
It’s possible to divide Faeria’s board into five areas. The first two rings of lands around the orbs, the tiles between and near the well, and the central area that’s left. These zones have impact on gameplay. The space around the orbs is where you fight as rush, develop as control, and the space near the wells is where you fight as midrange.
So here’s the model based on this division:

Ok. Explanation is badly needed, actually. Each zone gets a different color. I named the five zones “Protective ; Offensive ; Neutral ; Left ; Right” So each zone have a letter (P ; O ; N ; L ; R) that is not the same as the column nomenclature, wich allow both systems to coexist without ambiguousness.
The numbering is the tricky part. Each zone can be further divided in two, external and internal parts of the area. So I coded this differenciation into the tile names. O1, O2, O3 ; P1, P2, P3 ; L1, L2 ; R1, R2 ; N1 makes their respective zones’ internal parts. This allow symetry and easier orientation. To complete the numbering, I proceded from top to bottom first, then from left to right.
To simplify: “The board is divided into zones. Each zone is given a letter. Each zone is further divided into external and internal parts. The internal parts are numbered first. The numbering is done from top to bottom, then left to right.”
I’ll admit it’s really complex in the end, and that’s the number one problem of this model. But it represent the strategical structure of the board quite well, and is pretty easy to navigate once you’re familiarised with the system, because the approximative location of a tile is coded directly in its name.

Well, this “zones model” isn’t adapted to the geometrical structure of the board either. So let’s trys something else.
The board can be divided into concentric circles. It gives you three rings and a central tile. The two outer rings are composed of 12 tiles, the inner one of 6. Yes, Faeria’s board is a clock.

So, X for eXternal ring, M for Middle, I for Internal. And that N1 because I didn’t have any idea for a good letter for the center that wouldn’t conflict with the previous systems, so i reused the same name as the zone model. It’s completely arbitrary.
Note that you can also number the internal ring with even numbers only:

It’s as easy to navigate in the clock model as it is to read… well… a clock. The rings are also quite adapted to Faeria gameplay because it highlights charge 2 paths. This clock representation also fit the hexagonal board. What’s more, the system is fairly simple as well. “Divide the board into rings. Each ring is given a letter. Number them clockwise.”

This were my reflexions on this matter. Adopting pertinent conventions seems important to me. So, what do you think of these suggestions ?

Personally I like PONLR, it’s color coded to the most important aspects of play, which would help you understand which stage of the game is being played, and help define strategies easier imo. The biggest problem isn’t the complexity imo since it’s literally color coded and easily defined areas of the board state, even if a new player didn’t get it I think it’d be really easy and quite beneficial to explain it to them.
But I think that the numbering seems kind of arbitrary to me. By that I mean “I’m moving from p2 to p5” remembering that the numbers go from left to right and top to bottom isn’t that hard but without the map there it seems counter-intuitive. Also with the center tile starting in the middle it kinda seems like it breaks it’s own rule.

But honestly that’s pretty much a problem with every single one of these for me, including the current one to a lesser extent. Maybe it’s just a problem with how I view things. Since I really can’t see a solution without using the same number multiple times in one zone.

All of the suggestions are interesting.

Since i am a lifetime chess player, i also played some blind games vs friends of mine, and for me, any notification system has to be intuitive and should be useable without any eyesights. So therefore i closed my eyes and tried to play Faeria… here is what i came up with:

Imagine each Player’s Orb your own starting Point.

Now the Navigation works as the Following: There are 3 Directions in my System

Upwards

Left

Right IN THAT ORDER!

That means u will always start at your Orb, name the tiles u go upwards and after that u go for the Direction

NOTE: even if u DO NOT move left or right, you will STILL be using the L from LEFT with a zero behind

for ex.:


So Desert M0 L0 is not Possible, that is your orb: but u still need to name it, so u can name enemies attacking it.


PLAYER /// ENEMY

M0 L3 /// M-0 L3
M0 R3 /// M-0 R3
M3 L3 /// M-3 L3
M3 R3 /// M-3 R3

These Would be the 4 well’s

M0 L0 /// M-0 L0

These would be the 2 Orbs.
(the -minus indicating the enemey — which can easily be swapped)

Left and Right followed by the numbers of tiles u wanna go in that direction, resulting in the following (for me intuitive) Dual Notifications System for 2 Players:
(If you close your eyes and talk loud for yourself, u can even reach the point where u “see” the tiles like:


Desert M1 L0

Mountain M-0 L1


Desert M1 L1
Windstorm Charger M1 L1
Windstorm Archer M1 L0

Mountain M-0 L2
Bloodsinger M-0 L2
Explore M-0 R1
FireElemental M-0 L1 - Gift - Mountain M-0 R2
FarmBoy M-0 R2

So for every “move”… the Point of Orientation is your own Orb.

If u wanna Swap Players Perspective, Swap Left with Right and the minus from the Middle.

I am a Paint Master so thats why there is no picture :wink:

Its like the V-Shaped thingy… but different^^

That’s my Opinion, and thanks for the effort for making a notification System for Faeria!

Peace out <3

1 Like

If y’all want I made a blank faeria board to colour and stuff :slight_smile:

1 Like

The simplest IMHO would be to just do columns (say A thru G) and rows of one kind (either northeast or southeast) as the other (say 1 thru 7). It’s not symmetrical, but the lines don’t kink.

E.g. (using northeast lines):

  • You are D7.
  • Opponent is D1.
  • Center is D4.
  • Opponent’s left well is A1.
  • Opponent’s right well is G4.
  • Your right well is G7.

My way (for another hex system) was to pick a zero then list the perpendicular distances in three directions - west, northeast and southeast. It has redundancy (which shows up errors) and symmetry (if you don’t mind negative values).

So:

  • You are 0,-3,3.
  • Opponent is 0,3,-3.
  • Center is 0,0,0.
  • The tile down-left of your opponent would be -1,2,-3.

IMHO it’d be better / easier if the tiles had the same identifiers when looking from both players, rather then relative as it currently feels. So one player is designated up/black/D1 or whatever.

yeah right… s.thng like this