I was trying to do the math on the typical X-Wing battle area and I'm not sure if I'm doing it right.

Is the actual size of a 36" x 36" battle area, 270 yards x 270 yards?

Less than 3 football fields (NFL)?

Or 246.88 m x 246.88 m?

Did I do the math right on this?

I don't think the play area, movement templates, or range bands are intended to be to the same scale as the miniatures. That idea leads to some pretty absurd numbers, as you are discovering. For instance, the length of the YT-1300 model (not the base) is almost the length of one range bracket - would it make any sense that the ship can't fire beyond three times its length? Of course not. The scale of the models leaves them substantially oversized compared to the scale of the play area.

I imagine that the entire thing is relative.

I play World War II Naval where the ships are 1/4,800 scale but the sea scale is 1/20,000, and all on a 8'x4' table. When you've got guns that can shoot 40 kilometres or more, you have to make sacrifices somewhere. If you went with the model scale, everything would be at point blank range. If you went with the sea scale, the models would be too small to make out what they are. I don't know of any game that uses an accurate scale for models and ranges.

I think of it as the peg is the actual ship, the rest is there to be pretty and make the game easier to play.

Yeah. There isn't really a full scale setup. It's yet another reason I don't get scale junkies...

36" X 36" represents the size of plot where this fictitious battle takes place. It could be a small sector of space, a run through an asteroid field, or a battle with an epic level ship.

Point being, the size of the battle has no real world measurement, and nor does it make any sense to try to place one there. It is the size of your imagination!

Yes when I did the math it was about 247.25m x 247.25m...

The play area can be to scale but it depends on what you are comparing it to? Your calculations are to scale based on model size...but as others have mentioned you could also compare weapon ranges, capable speeds etc.

Personally if I were to "adjust" any scale it would be weapon ranges and speed/distance just because it is easier to balance the game mechanics and isn't as "obvious" as size of models (attack wing is example of goofy model scale).

Basically how FFG has already done it.

Ultimately this is a game, just like any game there has to be some fun vs balance vs realism.

Let's use the Falcon's speed as a test case. It's speed according to Wookiepedia is 1050 km/hr. It's fastest maneuver is a 4 straight. If one maneuver takes 2 seconds(for ease of comparison), then it travels 1050/1800 km. This gives a 4 straight a length of .58 km. A 4 straight is 160mm, .58/160 = .0036 km/mm on the board. The board is 36" or 914.4 mm. So multiply, 914.4 x .0036 = 3.33 km!

(Some numbers were rounded here but not on the calculator.)

In this case each side of the board is 3.33 km!

If you think a maneuver only takes ONE SECOND, then each side of the board is 6.66 km!

If you think a maneuver takes 4 SECONDS, then each side of the board is 1.67 km!

How is that for scale analysis?

It's 3D space. Two ships can be an inch away on the table, but fifty kilometers away in the "actual" battle. It's all very relative.

Let's use the Falcon's speed as a test case. It's speed according to Wookiepedia is 1050 km/hr. It's fastest maneuver is a 4 straight. If one maneuver takes 2 seconds(for ease of comparison), then it travels 1050/1800 km. This gives a 4 straight a length of .58 km. A 4 straight is 160mm, .58/160 = .0036 km/mm on the board. The board is 36" or 914.4 mm. So multiply, 914.4 x .0036 = 3.33 km!

(Some numbers were rounded here but not on the calculator.)

In this case each side of the board is 3.33 km!

If you think a maneuver only takes ONE SECOND, then each side of the board is 6.66 km!

If you think a maneuver takes 4 SECONDS, then each side of the board is 1.67 km!

How is that for scale analysis?

That's its atmospheric speed. In space its considerably faster. The **** space station goes ~20,000mph and its just orbiting.

That's its atmospheric speed. In space its considerably faster. The **** space station goes ~20,000mph and its just orbiting.

True! We had to start somewhere tho! And the space station would seem to be moving at zero km/hr however to the ships orbiting it! So it's speed would not be a factor if the tabletop is it's surface.

It's 3D space. Two ships can be an inch away on the table, but fifty kilometers away in the "actual" battle. It's all very relative.

This is true vertically! As ships are in different vertical levels. Which raises the question, why can't ships that collide still perform their action?!? Hmmmm....

It's 3D space. Two ships can be an inch away on the table, but fifty kilometers away in the "actual" battle. It's all very relative.

This is true vertically! As ships are in different vertical levels. Which raises the question, why can't ships that collide still perform their action?!? Hmmmm....

Cause its in the rules...

No seriously... at a certain point every game is not "realistic" or "thematic". If they were they wouldn't be fun.

They wanted there to be a penalty for running into other ships... they didn't think the mistake required a penalty enough to do actual damage to a ship.

The rules as they are, explained thematically as a close collision the averts enough attention/focus of the pilot from an attack or evade.

The connection between ground scale (or space scale) and model scale in most wargames is largely irrelevant. The models are made to be a certain size for aesthetic appeal. To keep things confined to a tabletop, the ground scale is set and invariably it is something very different from the model scale. Throw in a time scale and things go hairy real quick.

For example: The Falcon flying at full speed - how far would it move in a 5-second game round? 1.458km every 5 seconds. Scale it down to the model scale of 1/270 and we now need a 4-straight template that's 5.4 metres long. Try catching an Interceptor that's using the 6.75m 5-straight template!

As I said above, World War II Naval suffers exactly the same issue. My 1/4800 model of the USS Iowa is 56mm long, and the model has enough detail that you can pick the class of ship easily. But use the sea scale of 1/20,000 and it becomes 13.5mm long and good luck trying to identify that. And that's a big ship. If you make a Fletcher-class destroyer in that scale you end up with a model that's 6mm long and 0.5mm wide.

The models are there to look good, but the scale in which they move is never going to be right or you'd end up playing a game on a basketball court instead.