Plan a cheese board for guests.
Cheese board quantities depend entirely on what the board is doing. Two ounces a head is an appetiser before dinner, three and a half is a substantial starter, and five ounces is a board people will eat as their meal. Divide the total across varieties: three to five is the conventional range, chosen for contrast rather than number — something soft, something hard, something blue and something aged covers the ground. The per-variety figure matters practically because pieces under about two ounces look mean on a board and are hard to cut, so with a small group it is better to have three generous cheeses than six slivers.
Cheese Board
Total cheese oz = guests x oz per guest; per variety = total / varieties; accompaniments lb = guests x accompaniment oz / 16
Two ounces as an appetiser, three to four as a starter, and five or more if the board is the meal. For twelve guests as an appetiser that is a pound and a half total.
Three to five, chosen for contrast — soft, hard, blue and aged. More than five and each piece becomes too small to cut and serve well.