It is slightly humorous to me that so many people complain about picking up and putting down pieces when the rules tell you to not do that and instead eyeball it as best you can.

Yes, it is humorous. But both players have to agree on final placement of the eye-balled minis. This will lead to arguments in competitive play. I've already seen it cause tension in friendly games.

I think the goal here is to come up with a method that is more consistent than 1) mark 2 eyeball + 2) both players must agree. That and to smooth out one of the few areas where play has a tendency to bog down a bit.

It is slightly humorous to me that so many people complain about picking up and putting down pieces when the rules tell you to not do that and instead eyeball it as best you can.

Yes, it is humorous. But both players have to agree on final placement of the eye-balled minis. This will lead to arguments in competitive play. I've already seen it cause tension in friendly games.

I think the goal here is to come up with a method that is more consistent than 1) mark 2 eyeball + 2) both players must agree. That and to smooth out one of the few areas where play has a tendency to bog down a bit.

You misunderstood. No one should be eyeballing moved minis. You are supposed to just eyeball your ship movement.

Ya the hover above method is not that accurate, but if both players are happy it doesn't matter. My opponent last game was good enough to say just stick my ship down close to where you think it needs to go. He trusted me to do it justice. I think that is a great sportsman.

im using a blanket out of black "molton" fabric (its usualy used for stage curtains) for the table atm. the material is a little bit hairy so that you can press the fighter base on the fabric right before removing it. that will leave a footprint of the base. Thats very convinient for placeing the model back in position afterwards. we often remove bases if they are just in the way of measuring conviniently.

edit: english translations for "molton" fabric is "hush cloth","mollitan","molleton","silence cloth","swanboy"

This game has more on the table than X-Wing but it really isn't a problem. The only things really out there are game elements. There aren't a bunch of tokens or markers having to follow ships and squadrons around.

This game has more on the table than X-Wing but it really isn't a problem. The only things really out there are game elements. There aren't a bunch of tokens or markers having to follow ships and squadrons around.

Just a couple max, and the bases are large enough to accommodate them if things get tight.

It is slightly humorous to me that so many people complain about picking up and putting down pieces when the rules tell you to not do that and instead eyeball it as best you can.

Yes, it is humorous. But both players have to agree on final placement of the eye-balled minis. This will lead to arguments in competitive play. I've already seen it cause tension in friendly games.

I think the goal here is to come up with a method that is more consistent than 1) mark 2 eyeball + 2) both players must agree. That and to smooth out one of the few areas where play has a tendency to bog down a bit.

You misunderstood. No one should be eyeballing moved minis. You are supposed to just eyeball your ship movement.

I did get that: It's that eye-balled ship movement -- into a dog-pile / furball of fighters, other ships, etc -- that seems to be causing some stress.

So folks are looking for a way to avoid the hover above / eye-ball.

Granted, these are all just house rules. If they decrease tension and speed play, they add to the fun.

Heck, if the mark 2 eyeball works for you, do it

the only issue i had was in a situation where my squads were chasing a cap or another squad and would end up just out of range to fire so instead had to move, i could see where the eyeballing would/could have aided me one way or the other. we were just having fun, so no big deal but in a serious game it could have been detrimental.

I used to play in (and run) tournaments for another miniatures game that sometimes potentially had similar "just barely in range/out of range" type issues. For us, we just solved it in these cases by measuring whether the piece in question was/wasn't in range before moving the figure, and then placing it back so it was in the same status.

For Armada, for instance, if you need to pick up a squadron for whatever reason in a situation like you describe, just measure before you do so, determine "ok, I'm not in range to shoot", and then when you place it down you can make sure the same status applies. It may not need to be super-exact, but it will be close enough and won't have the issue of it changing state by mistake.

It is slightly humorous to me that so many people complain about picking up and putting down pieces when the rules tell you to not do that and instead eyeball it as best you can.

Yes, it is humorous. But both players have to agree on final placement of the eye-balled minis. This will lead to arguments in competitive play. I've already seen it cause tension in friendly games.

I think the goal here is to come up with a method that is more consistent than 1) mark 2 eyeball + 2) both players must agree. That and to smooth out one of the few areas where play has a tendency to bog down a bit.

You misunderstood. No one should be eyeballing moved minis. You are supposed to just eyeball your ship movement.

I did get that: It's that eye-balled ship movement -- into a dog-pile / furball of fighters, other ships, etc -- that seems to be causing some stress.

So folks are looking for a way to avoid the hover above / eye-ball.

Granted, these are all just house rules. If they decrease tension and speed play, they add to the fun.

Heck, if the mark 2 eyeball works for you, do it

I did get that: It's that eye-balled ship movement -- into a dog-pile / furball of fighters, other ships, etc -- that seems to be causing some stress.

So folks are looking for a way to avoid the hover above / eye-ball.

Granted, these are all just house rules. If they decrease tension and speed play, they add to the fun.

Heck, if the mark 2 eyeball works for you, do it

I would much rather maybe put one ship in a slightly off position than take the time to move several pieces, all of which then have the potential of being in the wrong place, even with marking. But maybe I'm alone in that

I can definitely see that. Someone (some where in this Forum?) suggested making a template for each base size. Hover / eyeball the template and the move stick to determine overlapped minis. Pick up the overlaps. Then pick up the ship and move it. We have used that idea a few times and it works pretty well.

I wonder if the differences in opinions on this topic come down to the sizes of games people have played.

In last nights game, we had 15 squadrons and 6 cap ships on the board. Except for 3 squadrons that died in turn 3, everything ended up in a massive dog-pile in the center of the board. We ended up taking the fighter models off the stands -- which greatly cut down on accidental bumps during the hover and eyeball. Removing the minis also lets you hold the move tool in between the bases, closer to the table. That made the hover & eyeball work much better. I find myself wishing the stems were a bit shorter...

In the end -- it all comes down to what works best in the situation. And a lot of that is what the players are comfortable with. It's starting to look like this may be a good thing to discuss before playing a pick up game.

I tried placing a coin under each squadron base, keeping them there for the whole match. (If a squadron had to move, it moved with its coin.) This made it easier and more accurate when replacing them if they needed to be moved out of the way for ship movement or if their dials and activation tabs had to be changed. Felt better in my head knowing ship movements were accurate.

For moving a squadron, I measure up to its speed from its base and draw an imaginary circle, and then I just place it anywhere within that circle. Not sure if this is allowed in a tournament setting, but it definitely speeds up squadron movement and prevents bumping things with the range ruler and having to place it down every time. If moving up to a squadron's maximum speed, then it's better to actually place the ruler down to check the limit.

I also like to keep a 1-2 movement template along with a 1-4 one. When the separate movement template is released, I may consider having one for every speed. But I find that 1-2 and 1-4 cover movement well enough without having to temporarily remove many ships and squadrons.

I'm worried how this will affect the competitive scene, since some people would rather eyeball than keep templates under their squadrons. It's difficult leaning over the table and trying to see directly above a furball in the center. Miniatures move in and out of range bands by the millimeter, often changing the game.

Also for one guy this was enough to push him from most certainly buying to maybe buying.

Sounds like one of those kind of guys who finds a problem with any game. Personally I agree it can be troublesome. But so was the Falcon, Decimator, Lambda's wings, Tie fighters solar panels in x-wing by blocking other ships from finishing their movement. While it's a pain, I think your pals need to just nut up

Also for one guy this was enough to push him from most certainly buying to maybe buying.

Sounds like one of those kind of guys who finds a problem with any game. Personally I agree it can be troublesome. But so was the Falcon, Decimator, Lambda's wings, Tie fighters solar panels in x-wing by blocking other ships from finishing their movement. While it's a pain, I think your pals need to just nut up

To give my friend some credit,, he's gone all in for Imperial Assault so was debating where to throw more money.

Also for one guy this was enough to push him from most certainly buying to maybe buying.

Sounds like one of those kind of guys who finds a problem with any game. Personally I agree it can be troublesome. But so was the Falcon, Decimator, Lambda's wings, Tie fighters solar panels in x-wing by blocking other ships from finishing their movement. While it's a pain, I think your pals need to just nut up

To give my friend some credit,, he's gone all in for Imperial Assault so was debating where to throw more money.

You ever get the feeling FFG (and Disney) get too much of our money?

You guys do realize that if placing the movement took down is not possible that you are supposed to get as close as possible and eyeball where it goes right. If you want to be fair them let your opponent hold the tool as you move.

Another thing that can be done is get multiple tools and only make smaller sections. For instance I have 2 of the tools because I have 2 core sets. Well since that is the case, one of them is only built to the 2 zone and the other is at 4, simply because the Imperials dont go above speed 2 atm.

IMO people are far too worried about exact positioning when squadrons are placed back down. Fighter combat is so abstract it is not a big deal as long as they are placed back down in the rough original spot. If money was on the line maybe, but otherwise its supposed to be fun. I think people forget that it is a game at times.

That and fighter movement in general isn't so exact. They can move ANYWHERE within range. It isn't like they are ever going to accidentally fly out of the play area.

Also for one guy this was enough to push him from most certainly buying to maybe buying.

Sounds like one of those kind of guys who finds a problem with any game. Personally I agree it can be troublesome. But so was the Falcon, Decimator, Lambda's wings, Tie fighters solar panels in x-wing by blocking other ships from finishing their movement. While it's a pain, I think your pals need to just nut up

To give my friend some credit,, he's gone all in for Imperial Assault so was debating where to throw more money.

You ever get the feeling FFG (and Disney) get too much of our money?

Disney gets a more then a fair share of my money. I have Disney Annual Passes for a family of 6.