Reading the Board: the ArcoMage coordinate system, and why we built it this way
After a lot of back-and-forth we've finalized how ArcoMage games get written down -- the board notation. If you've ever wanted to describe a game the way chess players do ("Imp to 2,-1"), this is the post to read. I'll cover the board itself, the numbering system, why we chose it over the obvious alternatives, and how to actually notate a move.
The board
Two wizards face each other across a hex battlefield -- one on the west edge, one on the east. Between them, dead center, sleeps the stone Angel: an impassable landmark. You cannot march straight through the middle. That single decision shapes everything.
The field is split into a top lane and a bottom lane, and to reach the enemy you have to commit to one of them and go around the Angel. The board is deliberately small -- we tested bigger layouts and they played soft, because there was always somewhere else to be. A tight board does two things at once: it creates real choke points you have to fight over, while still leaving two separate lanes of attack so a single wall never locks the whole game. You are always choosing between pressure up top, pressure down low, or splitting your attention and getting punished for it.
The numbering system
Every hex has a coordinate, written (column, row):
Why signed-from-center, and not 1-8 or row/column?
This was the argument we kept having, so here is the reasoning we landed on.
1) The board is a mirror, so the numbers should be a mirror. ArcoMage is symmetric -- both wizards see the same board from opposite ends. With a corner origin (chess-style a1 to h8, or a plain 1-8 grid) one player "owns" the low numbers and the other owns the high ones, and the middle lands on some arbitrary value like 4 or 5. With a center origin, 2,0 and -2,0 are literally mirror images, the Angel is 0,0 for everybody, and neither side's home reads as more "primary" than the other's. The notation is as neutral as the fight.
2) The sign tells you the story at a glance. Read any coordinate and you instantly know three things: which side you're on (column sign -- west or east), which lane you're in (row sign -- top or bottom), and how deep you've pushed (the magnitude). -3,0 isn't just "a hex," it reads as all the way into the west wizard's throat, dead center. A 1-8 grid makes you do arithmetic to figure out the same thing.
3) It matches the geometry. The board is widest at the spine and pinches at the edges. Putting 0 on the spine and letting the numbers grow outward mirrors how the board actually looks, so the map in your head and the map on the table agree.
Chess uses a corner origin because a chessboard is a neutral 8x8 with no center landmark and a fixed orientation. Our board has a shared center, a shared obstacle, and two players pushing inward from opposite sides -- a center origin fits that shape far better.
Notating a move
Write it like chess:
Full turns can be strung together -- west player, then east player -- so a whole game is replayable from a few lines of text. That is the real payoff of a clean coordinate system: you can share a game, argue about a line, and diagram a tactic in a single sentence.
A few opening thoughts (tactics)
After a lot of back-and-forth we've finalized how ArcoMage games get written down -- the board notation. If you've ever wanted to describe a game the way chess players do ("Imp to 2,-1"), this is the post to read. I'll cover the board itself, the numbering system, why we chose it over the obvious alternatives, and how to actually notate a move.
The board
Two wizards face each other across a hex battlefield -- one on the west edge, one on the east. Between them, dead center, sleeps the stone Angel: an impassable landmark. You cannot march straight through the middle. That single decision shapes everything.
The field is split into a top lane and a bottom lane, and to reach the enemy you have to commit to one of them and go around the Angel. The board is deliberately small -- we tested bigger layouts and they played soft, because there was always somewhere else to be. A tight board does two things at once: it creates real choke points you have to fight over, while still leaving two separate lanes of attack so a single wall never locks the whole game. You are always choosing between pressure up top, pressure down low, or splitting your attention and getting punished for it.
The numbering system
Every hex has a coordinate, written (column, row):
- Column is the west-east axis. It is signed from the center: negative to the west (the left wizard's side), positive to the east (the right wizard's side), 0 down the spine.
- Row is the top-bottom axis, also signed from center: negative rows are the top lane, positive rows are the bottom lane, 0 is the central line the Angel sits on.
Why signed-from-center, and not 1-8 or row/column?
This was the argument we kept having, so here is the reasoning we landed on.
1) The board is a mirror, so the numbers should be a mirror. ArcoMage is symmetric -- both wizards see the same board from opposite ends. With a corner origin (chess-style a1 to h8, or a plain 1-8 grid) one player "owns" the low numbers and the other owns the high ones, and the middle lands on some arbitrary value like 4 or 5. With a center origin, 2,0 and -2,0 are literally mirror images, the Angel is 0,0 for everybody, and neither side's home reads as more "primary" than the other's. The notation is as neutral as the fight.
2) The sign tells you the story at a glance. Read any coordinate and you instantly know three things: which side you're on (column sign -- west or east), which lane you're in (row sign -- top or bottom), and how deep you've pushed (the magnitude). -3,0 isn't just "a hex," it reads as all the way into the west wizard's throat, dead center. A 1-8 grid makes you do arithmetic to figure out the same thing.
3) It matches the geometry. The board is widest at the spine and pinches at the edges. Putting 0 on the spine and letting the numbers grow outward mirrors how the board actually looks, so the map in your head and the map on the table agree.
Chess uses a corner origin because a chessboard is a neutral 8x8 with no center landmark and a fixed orientation. Our board has a shared center, a shared obstacle, and two players pushing inward from opposite sides -- a center origin fits that shape far better.
Notating a move
Write it like chess:
Code:
Imp -> 2,-1 summon (or move) to the east side, top lane, one deep
Wall @ -1,1 raise a wall on the west side of the bottom lane
Moat @ 0,1 flood the bottom-lane centerline hex under the Angel
Fireball 3,0 hit the deepest hex on the east wizard's spineA few opening thoughts (tactics)
- The Angel is your anchor, not just a wall. Everything at row 0 hugs the center -- contest it early, because whoever controls the hexes beside the Angel dictates which lane the game is fought in.
- Threaten both lanes, commit to one. Because the board is small, a credible feint up top pulls defense off the bottom. Show pressure at -1,-1 and strike through -1,1.
- The pinch points (x,-2 and x,2) are safer roads but slower. The edge lanes have no center hex, so they're harder to cut off -- good for a patient push, bad if you're racing.
- Depth is danger. The -3,0 and 3,0 hexes are the deepest strikes but the most exposed; landing something there is a statement, holding it is another thing entirely.
