Part 1: Small Ship Movement

Hitting an astroid can be one of the most frustrating things in X-Wing, especially if you could have just gone a little faster and missed it. Understanding where your ships will land befor you place the template down will vastly improve your game.

All the pieces in X-Wing have a relative relation to each other. Understanding this relation will help you in picking the best Movment for your ship. The small ship base and templates are closely link to each other. By now you may have figured out a 1 forward is the distance of one small ship base. The same goes for all the forward movements.

You can practice these forward by placing one ship down and then a second to where the ship should end up. After both are on the table, try placing the template between them and see how close you come. This will give you a good eye towards seeing the distance of a ship base. Once you can accurately predict with in a half inch or so 90% of the time your ready for the hard turns.

The hard turns have a built in sight line to indicate where the ship is going. Whether turning left or right, look down the firing arc of the ship template and there is where your ship is heading.

Now that we know ruffly the direction it will end up, we need to know how far for each speed. In order to best see the distance we need to learn a half ship base. The width of a ships base is 1 forward and that is the same as the width of two templates. So a half ship base is one movement template

So how far does a turn go along that sight line. For a 1 turn, the front corner will end up .5 of a ships base or one template width from the rear corner. Here are all three turns and the distance they travel:

1 turn = .5 ship bases

2 turn = 1.5 ship bases

3 turn = 2.5 ship bases

Once again you want to practice this by placing a ship down and the second one where you think the turn will take you. You will start build a good understanding of the distance by this point. You are now ready to tackle the banks.

Even the banks have a sight line to help us see the direction a ship will end up. If you are banking to the right, imagine a line going from the front right nub on the ship base to the opposite nub on the rear of the ship base. This line will fall right where the banks will move you.

The distance is a little tricky as we now have to use a quarter of a ships base to determine the distance. Sometimes it can be hard to see a quarter of something. It is easier to see a half template width. So here is the distance for each of the 3 speeds of the banks.

1 bank = 1.25 ship bases

2 bank = 2.25 ship bases

3 bank = 3.25 ship bases

It's time to practice these once again. Use then same method to practice as before. Now when your sitting around wishing you could find someone to play, pull out your movment templates and ship bases and practice. You'll soon find you can quickly and accurately predict where your ships will go before it's to late and your sitting on top of an astroid.

Part 2: Large Ship Movement - http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/110115-earning-your-wings-a-guide-for-understanding-movment/?p=1144441

Part 3: The Barrel Roll - http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/110115-earning-your-wings-a-guide-for-understanding-movment/?p=1146610

Part 4: The Boost - http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/110115-earning-your-wings-a-guide-for-understanding-movment/?p=1152578

Part 5: Decloaking - http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/110115-earning-your-wings-a-guide-for-understanding-movment/?p=1152870

Part 6: Pilot Skill Level - http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/110115-earning-your-wings-a-guide-for-understanding-movment/?p=1154853

Part 7: Formation Flying - http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/110115-earning-your-wings-a-guide-for-understanding-movment/?p=1157409

Part 8: Large Ship Barrel Roll - http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/110115-earning-your-wings-a-guide-for-understanding-movment/?p=1222267

Follow the links at the end of each part of the guide to continue to the next section.

That's really cool. Any chance of doing this for large bases?

Wow, very insightful! This will help a lot! Perhaps I can break my curse of always landing Soontir on an asteroid EVERY match?

That's really cool. Any chance of doing this for large bases?

I'll work on the pics for the large bases. The sight lines remain the same whether you flying a small or large ship. The distance for the turns and banks are as such

1 turn = 0 ship bases, it's actually a slight negative as the ship base will overlap a bite

2 turn = .75 ship bases

3 turn = 1.75 ship bases

1 bank = .75 ship bases

2 bank = 1.75 ship bases

3 bank = 2.75 ship bases

What happens with the corners of the bases in soft turns?

Any interaction?

Thanks so much for this post.

Once again the laser level is one of the best purchases made for the game lol

EDIT: with the banks (the trick with the nubs) I'm curious to see if that works also for the large ships

Thanks for the great tutorial!

Awesome. Thanks!!!

I think this should be stickied.

Brilliant.

Wow, great article.

Fantastic article! Be sure to post this in the strategy section on BGG. This one deserves to be kept around.

I had not noticed that relationship before. I had a different method for eyeballing. Seems about as effective, but not as easily explained as this. Good job mate.

That's really cool. Any chance of doing this for large bases?

Ditto

I had not noticed that relationship before. I had a different method for eyeballing. Seems about as effective, but not as easily explained as this. Good job mate.

Yeah, there is definitely many ways to go about this. I've found this to be the easiest way to teach newer and veterans alike. The real trick is seeing 2-3 moves ahead and planing on getting there.

Great thread, did something similar (nowhere near as thorough) for some mates a while back, even glued up my spare cardboard templates for them to play with. Improved there game massively.

Very good guide/tutorial! Though I was quite good at eyeballing movement already. All those years guessing ranges in Warhammer certainly has payed off.

Just out of curiosity what part of the guide was the most helpful or which part was new to you. I have other tips and tricks and this info will help me decide what to write up next.

For me it was seeing how the firing arc basically gave you a clue as to where the ship would end up. It'll take some practice to correctly gauge the distances, but this was a very helpful visual aid.

I always end up overestimating distances.

For example: I was flying the defender toward the edge of the board (thanks ion cannon!) with a y-wing behind me. I wanted to 4k turn, but feared my ship base would be dangerously close to the edge, so I hard turned. For fun I decided to measure before I moved and discovered I probably could have 6 or 7k turned and been fine. I can usually maneuver through the asteroids pretty well as far as turns go, but I have a harder time with the distances.

Just out of curiosity what part of the guide was the most helpful or which part was new to you. I have other tips and tricks and this info will help me decide what to write up next.

I liked how you explained the banks and used the laser ruler. With banks I've always just guessed. How you explained it is very precise, and intuitive.

Great job, thanks!

Great guide.

But I have question. Where to purchase in Europe this great laser?

http://www.amazon.de/LINIENLASER-650NM-5MW-90%C2%B0-70105025/dp/B005LGULI4/ref=pd_sim_ce_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0YDZV951HAQ3GM43PPDM

This one?

Great guide.

But I have question. Where to purchase in Europe this great laser?

http://www.amazon.de/LINIENLASER-650NM-5MW-90%C2%B0-70105025/dp/B005LGULI4/ref=pd_sim_ce_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0YDZV951HAQ3GM43PPDM

This one?

In Switzerland, it's available here (which is where I got mine):

http://www.conrad.ch/ce/de/product/817954/Lasermodul-Linie-Rot-5-mW-Laserfuchs-LFL650-5-4515x6860?ref=searchDetail

It depends on where in Europe you live I guess. The one you linked is amazon.de, thus probably available in Germany.

Great guide.

But I have question. Where to purchase in Europe this great laser?

http://www.amazon.de/LINIENLASER-650NM-5MW-90°-70105025/dp/B005LGULI4/ref=pd_sim_ce_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0YDZV951HAQ3GM43PPDM

This one?

I spent ages trying to find that one but couldn't, I ended up getting a cheap one out of desperation from eBay for £1.99 delivered which I now prefer anyway as it can be set flat on the table and projects the line perfectly with no need for shakey hands and isn't much bigger than that one

Great guide.

But I have question. Where to purchase in Europe this great laser? http://www.amazon.de/LINIENLASER-650NM-5MW-90°-70105025/dp/B005LGULI4/ref=pd_sim_ce_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0YDZV951HAQ3GM43PPDM

This one?

I spent ages trying to find that one but couldn't, I ended up getting a cheap one out of desperation from eBay for £1.99 delivered which I now prefer anyway as it can be set flat on the table and projects the line perfectly with no need for shakey hands and isn't much bigger than that one

There are many on amazon. I got a little chuckle out of cheap as the one I'm using only cost $5 from Harbor Freight here in the U.S.. I've looked through thier web site but can't find it there, it must only be sold in stores.

Part 2: Large ship bases

A Large ship base is the distance of two small bases.

It's I'm important to know that when a large base ship moves it gains an extra small ship base over the small ship, due to the size of the base. So in order for a large ship and a small ship to fly together the small hip has to fly 1 speed faster than the large.

The sight line for the turns is the exact same as the small ship. Use the firing arc as a guide to where the large ship will go. You will notice it points a little further away from the templates for the large bases. This is fine as it points more to the center of the base for where it will end up.

The distance the ship will travel on turns is less than the small ships due to the larger base size. In fact the large ship base rotates on it's leading corner as it more or less pivets on it. The distance for the turns are:

1 turn = 0 ship bases

2 turn = .75 ship bases

3 turn = 1.75 ship bases

For the banks of a large ship we will still use the sight line we did for the small ship bases. The nubs will give you a good indication for where the large ship will go.

Once again the distance is less then the small ship base due to the size diffrence. Here are the distances the ship will travel while banking.

1 bank = .75 ship bases

2 bank = 1.75 ship bases

3 bank = 2.75 ship bases

Have fun flying your YT-1300, Firesprays and Shuttle astroid free.

Part 3: The Barrel Roll - http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/110115-earning-your-wings-a-guide-for-understanding-movment/?p=1146610