Where to place characters?

[Dobbsy]

I would just like to confirm.....

Once set up is complete you get to place characters. Do they have to be placed inside the deployment area or can they be placed outside in front of your troops?

I am assuming they must be placed inside the DZ.

Cheers all!

[jchaos79]

We play placing the character inside de deployment zone. I could see that is the way it is.

[Dave]

In the DZ here, but I always seem to forget I'll have to and have no good place to put them.

[Lex]

I actually tend to place my characters first, to determine the forward edge of my deployment zone....

[wmchaos2000]

We deploy the armies first, hidden or alternating, then deploy characters simulantiously.
All in deployment zone.
We use dices to "see" the limits of the deployment zone.
About alternating deployment, has anyone a good strategy to do that in a fair way?
Chaos 17 deploys, Undead 29...
Alternating 1 by 1 just dont "cut it".

[Big Red]

If you are alternating and you have deployed your army before your opponent - he has a few units to go, even if he started deploying first due to the higher unit count - you could always get a "bonus" to the dice role when seeing who goes first?

[wmchaos2000]

Sure.
But for obvious reasons, the army with the highest number of units will definately save the toughest for last, when the lower number army already has been forced to reveal his thoughest units. When we tried this and afterwards concluded the game, we could trace the trail of winning events/combats back to the advantage of late deploys.
We tried deploying brigade by brigade, which seemed pretty balanced. If one army wants to have the last deploys, he has to divide the whole army into smaller brigades and thereby forcing more chain of orders in turn one.
Last years we have only used hidden deploys, which sometimes end up in a swirling hunt for having the upper hand in the combats. Pretty unrealistic.

Dobbsy, sorry for hi-jacking your thread. Just got inspired. 

[honestmistake]

We play that Characters must be in the deployment zone.
For Army placement our usual tactic is that one player places roughly half their army points value  (inc charcaters) then the other places their whole army before the 1st player places the rest of their force... it's quick but still offers scope for flexibility and tactics.

[Stormwind]

We would play with them definitely within the deployment zone.