Best way to keep track of wounds?

[kbdrand]

So I've seen a few different ways to keep track of model wounds, laminated cards with grease pencils (I have too many cards for that), dice (I don't want to have any dice as part of my Malifaux game) or glass beads. Does anyone have another solution to managing wounds for models that is visual and fairly easy to keep up with? Most of the time we have a fairly small area for displaying the cards, so it has to be fairly compact as well.

I was thinking about using baseball card protectors where I could slide the cards in and out (so I don't have to laminate all of my cards) but the problem there is that if it is in the card sleeve you can't look at the inside of the card without pulling it out of the sleeve.

[Seebass]

I use card sleeves. There is the problem of having to take it out of the sleeve, but you can still see important things like the Stats and the casting costs. Also, once you've played enough games, you remember all of your special rules, so you won't have to look at them.

[DangerousBeans]

I cut all my cards in half, have each half in a standard sleeve protector and then use tape to join them into a nice little book. Works pretty well, some models don't even need both halves, and some I've chopped up to fit on one card. Works pretty well but I can understand why some people wouldn't want to dissect the cards like that.

Another of my friends uses numbered counters, another just keeps track on a seperate sheet of paper.

[Pipeline]

about 3 posts down...bcw

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=11262&highlight=sleeves

[Talishko]

I use d12 atm tho I se that you don't want to use dice at all. In the future I'm planning on printing crew sheets for my games that include wound fields so I can mark them with a pencil / erase if they heal. I know the whiteboard marker is what every one votes for, but I think it's too messy.

[dragonwolf]

Couldn't you just use more cards?

http://www.printmini.com/printables/games/pcards1.shtml

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Playing-Cards/dp/B0023XT5N0/ref=pd_sbs_t_2[/ame]

Or a counter slider you could make kind of like this mini abacus

http://www.craftsforlearning.com/MiniAbacus.htm

If max wounds is twelve, you could use watch parts to make neat dials.

[kbdrand]

I like the idea of the mini cards and the abacus although it may slow things down to use the cards. If you custom made an abacus with enough slots (or whatever they are called) so that each miniature had it's own column, that may work.

[Santiaghoul]

Small, plastic paperclips. Slip the max onto the card at the beginning of the game and take them off as the game continues. They dont block the text and they dont slip off. I use glass beads for soul counters.

[RitualNet]

Gale Force 9 do wound counters (shaped like blood dots) in various denominations, so they might do?

[kbdrand]

Oh! I like the paper clip idea. Clever. Also looking into the Gale Force 9 wound counters. They don't look too bad. I may try both of those ideas.

[chaosobscuros]

If your budget will support it, the laminate sheets are really the best bet. I took my cards to Staples, and they used the heavy laminate. It ran a little under sixty bucks for 158 cards. Just cut the laminate yourself. They charge a dollar a cut!

Before I did the laminate, I used to store the cards in 5x7 picture sleeve sheets in a notebook:

http://www.staples.com/C-Line-Clear-5-x-7-Photo-Holders/product_CLI52572?cmArea=SC2:CG22:DP2182:CL163263:SS942701

I didn't like the way the cards slid around a bit in the pages though, so I pulled out the cards and used glass beads to measure wounds.

[Justin]

I like dice, it's not as if they will be picked up and rolled.

But I have always fancied the idea of drilling small holes in my bases and going Battleship on my models.

[Subötai]

I use 3"x5" 4-up photo sleeves and wet or dry erase markers (whichever I have handy). I prefer dry erase, but they mar most laminates.

Individual sleeves are made, but are hard to find, so I went with the 4-up sleeves. There are also 3"x5" photo wallets, but I didn't think of it until after I had the pages.

[Grim]

But I have always fancied the idea of drilling small holes in my bases and going Battleship on my models.

I like this! Do it! Start with your gremlins ... hehe

[Flikfutch87]

I actually use the damage counters from my old Pokemon card game (Hey, they're from like ten years ago!) I just put one on per damage level on top of each of my cards, and when more damage is taken/healed I can just move them off. Very simple and easy.

[Brightmore]

I use Red Glass Beads for wounds, and I place them by the model to indicate how hurt they are.

It works pretty good for most models, anything with over 8 hp, can get cumbersome, but I prefer seeing the damage on the model, as opposed to on a card on the opposite side of the table.

[Soupydawg]

I'm fond of the laminating the cards and using dry erase markers myself, got a laminator at walmart for under 30 bucks and then use the photo sleeves, you can get a pack of 20 of those for like 2 bucks and get 2 cards done per sleeve. Sounds like some other good options here in the post too.

[RitualNet]

I use Red Glass Beads for wounds, and I place them by the model to indicate how hurt they are.

It works pretty good for most models, anything with over 8 hp, can get cumbersome, but I prefer seeing the damage on the model, as opposed to on a card on the opposite side of the table.

Get another colour to represent five wounds. Black, for example congealed blood). 8 damage is a black and three red.

I do hope Wyrd releases a counter set. Stuff like poison, fast/slow, wounds, a turn marker maybe, blast counters etc.

[Toranoga]

I use small 'Mini' Poker Chips.

http://www.greathallgames.com/index_achipsDrops.html

They are 3/4" round and stackable. I use white for 1 wound, blue for 5 wounds, and red for activated markers. Yes, I only have red white and blue for now. I plan on ordering more soon. You can get these in multiple colors. I think they will make great markers for effects.

[HandsomeDan]

I made this thing

Photobucket decided to blow it up for some reason. It supposed to print at 5x3. Then I sleeve each half and track it with a dry erase. Its been really handy.

[Amarel]

I do hope Wyrd releases a counter set. Stuff like poison, fast/slow, wounds, a turn marker maybe, blast counters etc.

I just picked up some Warcogs to solve the worst of the issues (or, at least, the ones we find most confusing to recall). Should work quite well for effects (spiral for Harmless, skull for Poison, etc) and seem to be about the right size for counters if needs must (although I haven't got a 30mm base on me to check).

[RitualNet]

I just picked up some Warcogs to solve the worst of the issues (or, at least, the ones we find most confusing to recall). Should work quite well for effects (spiral for Harmless, skull for Poison, etc) and seem to be about the right size for counters if needs must (although I haven't got a 30mm base on me to check).

They look nice. What happened though, I mean not long ago, these were specific to Warmachine, and now it's "komrade red" and more generic?

I'm sure Wyrd will make some up, or at least work with people like GF9 to get some created. I know most people will take it on themselves to make counters, but for us lesser abled, it would be nice to buy them in first, and tinker with making our own later

[Amarel]

They look nice. What happened though, I mean not long ago, these were specific to Warmachine, and now it's "komrade red" and more generic?

I think it was due to the amount of packs they were having to create (i.e. one for each new Warcaster) which was expensive for them and for players (who probably didn't want to factor in a $10 token set on top of the cost of the new figure). Now they're still geared towards the particular factions but are much less specific (handy for us).

[Toranoga]

They look nice. What happened though, I mean not long ago, these were specific to Warmachine, and now it's "komrade red" and more generic?

PP pulled the license. The sale of those tokens really helped built up GF9. PP saw how much GF9 was making and decided to keep more of the profits themselves and that by producing their own would be the way to do this.

[Gremlin Swarm]

A friend of mine found some card sleeves that actually fit the full-sized character cards. Problem is, the company that supplied them to the card shop he found them at is out of business.

There might be another company out there making something similar, though. If you can find them, using the good 'ol dry erase markers isn't a problem, since you could just toss the sleeve if it gets too grungy.

(I'll keep an eye out for those sleeves.)

In the meantime, I usually use dice.

I like the idea of specialized counters, though.