I have seen a ton of 3rd-party acrylic vendors offer Barrel Roll tokens. What's up with that? What are they used for? Am I missing something?

They're just an indicator of the action, personally I dont see the need. I do like some of the other tokens though for Droid actions or Marksmanship and the like...

They're just an indicator of the action, personally I dont see the need. I do like some of the other tokens though for Droid actions or Marksmanship and the like...

Exactly this. Applied Perspective has a new set of EPT/Droir tokens. They've also got some for C-3P0 and Greedo, just to serve as reminders that the ability was used. Personally I don't see much of a need for them, but oh well.

I could actually see a use for a Barrel Roll Tool/Template that was able to mark both the original position of your ship and the position of the 1-forward template. It would be useful for those tight situations where you're trying to execute a barrel roll into an area congested by ships/obstacles -- occasionally the initial placement of the 1-template doesn't give you room to land in the clear, but by then you've often picked up your ship and can't return it to its exact starting position.

Why not just have a spare base handy and use that with the standard move template to see if you have space?

I've played against one player who used barrel roll tokens. (If they had any boosting ships, I'm sure they would have used boost tokens.) It's fine during the activation phase if it helps you keep track of things, especially if you're running a swarm, but those tokens should come off the board before the combat phase so that they don't get mistaken for evade tokens (which is what I thought a barrel token was, at first glance -- a third-party "we're trying not to look TOO much like FFG's icons" evade token).

Why not just have a spare base handy and use that with the standard move template to see if you have space?

Would totally work! But we're talking about luxury gaming aids here.

The only time I could really see this being useful is for pilots like Turr Phennir who can take a boost or barrel roll action after preforming an attack.

The only time I could really see this being useful is for pilots like Turr Phennir who can take a boost or barrel roll action after preforming an attack.

I could see having boost and barrel-roll tokens for pilots like Turr or Jake that have actions that don't always trigger consecutively. Drop the token when you boost or barrel roll during your perform action phase so that when you get the opportunity to boost or barrel-roll in the combat phase you remember which action you have left. They could also be handy if you are running with with a ship with the Squad Leader EPT. Any time a ship barrel-rolls drop a token next to it so later in the round when you are deciding where to use Squad Leader who know which ships can still barrel-roll. In a round that you had a couple of TIEs barrel-roll and one that bumped and lost an action it can sometimes be hard to keep which one's which straight.

You can find your 3rd party acrylic barrel roll token in this picture here

It is the straight one with the number 1 on it.

You can find your 3rd party acrylic barrel roll token in this picture here

It is the straight one with the number 1 on it.

Nice! It's also got the new rules large-ship barrel roll template, too.

*This is not an attempt to pick on "Fly Casual"*

It is common for players in X-Wing to allow missed opportunities when a player forgets an action during combat. Since when you Barrel Roll there is no indication that action has been selected during combat, it could be used to gain a second action. The use of the token is to remind players an action has been used so a free focus is not assigned during combat as a perceived missed opportunity.

*This is not an attempt to pick on "Fly Casual"*

It is common for players in X-Wing to allow missed opportunities when a player forgets an action during combat. Since when you Barrel Roll there is no indication that action has been selected during combat, it could be used to gain a second action. The use of the token is to remind players an action has been used so a free focus is not assigned during combat as a perceived missed opportunity.

True however that is why the activation phase has steps for each ship before moving to the next ship. The action step happens after the check stress step which happens after the execute maneuver step. Technically you are supposed to perform the action before you reveal the dial for the next ship even if it is the same pilot skill.

Now I know many people (myself included) like to move our pair of generics or group of 4 Tie Fighters at the same time then have them perform the same action (Like having all Tie Fighters do a 1 hard left and then focus). I am not a stickler on actions steps allowing them to take actions they forgot about and not trying to prevent actions if they move another ship before the action. However if my opponent has a habit of forgetting to perform actions I tend to continuously ask what his action will be before he moves the next ship just to avoid having to backtrack due to missed actions without being a jerk and saying he loses the ability.

So as a suggestion if you find yourself continuing to forget actions maybe you should go strictly by the book and do the action after the stress step and after the movement step for each ship. It will prevent missed opportunities and help you become a better player.

for our local tournament we ran, we had some tokens made up. One was a barrel roll token, but it was just a 1 straight with "do a barrel roll" printed on it. ITs just a fun little thing. its nice to have another 1 on the table, as when you put them back in your pile of rulers, you can never seem to find what you need when you need it.

heck I never use the Hit/crit tokens...

heck I never use the Hit/crit tokens...

I don't even know what they're for...

heck I never use the Hit/crit tokens...

I don't even know what they're for...

To remind you "this ship suffered critical damage, don't forget to refer to them for the effect".

They are there to indicate that there is a crit that affects that particular ship. Maybe it's Blinded Pilot. Maybe it's the one where you get damaged if you bump into someone. Have you ever played and forgotten about that crucial critical hit? Well, the little star-burst is there to remind you.

heck I never use the Hit/crit tokens...

It does help to remind people which ships have critical hit effects. Those are so easy to forget on both sides.

Also if you run out of damage cards you can use those tokens as hit counters.