During games, when a CAPITAL SHIP is moved, we often need to move a SQUADRON or two, and sometimes even SHIPs in order to place the movement template on the table prior to manoeuvre. Similarly, I find that when Squadrons take damage, it is more convenient to pick up the squadron, in order to rotate the damage dial, obviously the squadron then needs to be replaced to the table.

Now I know that there are 3rd party position markers available to mark the place they came from, or we can even use items like the setup "L" shaped deployment zone markers that come in the core set.

But I am wondering how most people deal with this, in casual and tourney play.

Do you

1. always accurately mark both SHIPS and SQUADRONS?

2. always accurately mark SHIPS, but SQUADRONS are repositioned as close as possible?

3. just approximate repositioning of both SHIPS and SQUADRONS as close a possible?

To me, I feel that the SHIP positions need to be accurately marked, but I'm not sure I feel the same way about marking the positions of SQUADRONS.

thoughts?

My sister and I just put it back at the approximate position.

Unless if it's X-Wing miniatures, than we're particular to where we put them

Depends on who you're playing and what you're playing in eg for fun/tournament.

Some people are more particular then others and tournaments have a strict code on this sort of thing.

I'm personally in favor of using the corner marker myself. But it seems like being off a few millimeters won't cause a major issue.

It depends. If I move a ship and it is a few mm away and you don't let me shoot after you have picked it up, then I would probably complain. On the other hand if you are forgiving about a few mm here and there then I probably won't care less either.

Once we are engaged then I would just err on the side if you shot me I can shoot you and visa versa.

If there's any measurement that could matter (ie. engagement range) then I just measure it before lifting the squad. That way when putting it back down there's no debate over whether it was/wasn't engaged already.

I've been rocking the capital ships up on a side to facilitate the maneuver tool for my opponent. Sometimes we'll use the corner markers for the ships if that's insufficient.

For squadrons we use the corner marker sometimes, but usually we pick it up and then set it back down so that its engaged with the same squadrons. With the sheer flexibility of squadrons its not worth quibbling over a few millimeters.

Corner markers...great idea!

i use molton/hush cloth/molleton/silence cloth on my table which leaves footprints of the units if you gently press them on the cloth.

So i used the privateer press 30mm base hugger wound trackers. You get 10 of them for $5. They do 2 things for me. First they are a great way to easily mark a squadrons location. secondly, I used them to track my wounds so that I only ever touch my squadrons to move them. As a warmachine/hordes player this is just instinct for me now.

The base huggers are not required but I really do like them for squadrons.

I'll often explain where I'm moving a squadron. I'm moving it within range of your Xwings, but outside the medium range of your shotgun Neb B. I show with ruler that's how it's setup. It helped b/c we had a whole lot of movement, hits, activating, etc. At which point the fighters had been moved enough to be within range. But b/c I had shown when I moved them why and where, the other player didn't start shooting at my wimpy little squadrons with 2 dice, because he remembered they weren't supposed to be in range.

Xwing is a very exacting game for something that has sooooo much nudge potential and so many things on the board. But armada is MUCH more forgiving of a nudge, or a ship being slightly angled differently when placed back on the board. Heck, the movement tool is wobbly as all get-out and has a bit of play. I find that most players are much more relaxed with movement, place of squadrons after picking up, etc. B/c it rarely affects the game to have them nudged a little bit.

My group just eyeballs it.

We just put em back down by the old mark 1 eyeball.

we've been eyeballing it using relative positions, ie keeping track of what was and was not engaging the models and vice-versa before we pick it up and put it down accordingly

I hit the squadrons so often with the range or movement ruler that it isn't with fighting over... If yu feel it is that important then please feel free to replace your squadrons with cardboard discs.

Why I really hate is when ships are at extreme range and you end up nudging The ships with the range ruler pushing them apart. That is a pain.

Plus this is a long game already, so I am more interests in speed than precision when it comes to this.

Generally we are pretty much, that looks close enough. And useual don't bother moving the ships obstructing the movment but hold the movement tool over the table and eyeball it, like I said very relaxed.

One reason for this is since armada has virtually everything as open information that generally it does not need to be as precise as say x-wing which involves a lot guesswork

as long as you can say ok, i am engaging this stuff, so when you put it back you are still engaging that stuff your good. just pay attention to LOS and obstacles not that people use that as a way to compensate for sloppy placement. it hasnt been a huge issue at all when ive played.

It's funny how much my fellow X-wing players seem put off Armada because of simply things like the horror of picking up the squadron models to change the hit points.

It's best to explicitly agree on which squadrons are engaged where. Then nudges and improper placement aren't a concern. Learned that one when a local player did that to me in our early games. "Oh, now that it's convenient a turn later, it looks like we're just outside of 1 range." Yeah, since then I just make sure it's been stated.

For me it depends who I am playing with. Some opponents are more uptight about it than others. I do understand it from the uptight point of view, because placement does really matter. At the same time, I don't want to have it ruin a good game by spoiling the atmosphere.

Probably the best thing to do is to see how exactly your opponent plays it, or - in case you're the first one having to potentially fudge it - ask them how they want to play it.

I don't get all worked up about the precise locations of squadrons.

Positioning matters. Its good practice to maintain proper placement because at some point an issue WILL occur that was part of a players intent. Turning the 'precision' on and off isn't my preferred method. Of course this is coming from an anal retentive bastarrrdo.

Positioning is important to the game, especially once the scrum starts. That said, it's a tabletop game of plastic spaceships. So nothing is ever super important.

In our casual games we mark the locations of squadrons we pick up and try to keep them as close as possible, but no one is too concerned with a little unintentional fudging. I imagine it would be different in a tournament enviornment

I dislike moving squadrons around if they are in the way of the maneuver tool. I usually do what the rulebook recommends and hover the tool over the playing field, estimating the ship's final position as best I can.

I'm starting to consider removing the ships and flight peg from my squadron bases. It makes me sad that the models wont be there, but think about how much less you'll have to move the bases during gameplay.