Determining line of sight with a ... ruler?

By FrogTrigger, in Imperial Assault Rules Questions

Just curious, what does everyone use to determine if they have LOS?

It is usually pretty easy to draw to two corners but sometimes it can get a bit tricky, especially with say a double blue attack with Mak from far away. Do you have a 'weapon of choice' for determining if LOS is in fact accurate?

I noticed x-wing has some tools for this..

Some kind of laser pointer or laser guide seems like it might be handy, but in practice I've never had too much trouble. It helps a lot to just identify what the major obstacle is between you and the target, and "count off" the angle to that obstacle corner -- i.e. 3 up, 2 over. That makes it easy to continue that pattern to see where that line passes near the target, which should usually make it clear whether two corners of the target are within your "visible arc" or not.

I use the edge of a card.

I count the vertical and horizontal displacements and draw lines using the relations in my mind. It's just geometry or fractions.

1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and 2:3 are the most used fractions / relations.

Back in the day we used the strings from those retractable key chains. They roll themselves up, give a straight line, and have a very satisfying "ZIP" sound when you pull them out.

Also, unlike a ruler, a zip line doesn't stick out on either end and mess with the pieces. Not a nice as a laser, but a fraction of the cost.

Edited by Sam Tomahawk

You can just use the edge of a card.

Sometimes I find the cards just aren't long enough, but that is generally what we have used. The laser pointer is a neat idea, something worth looking into.

Thanks.

Sometimes I find the cards just aren't long enough, but that is generally what we have used. The laser pointer is a neat idea, something worth looking into.

Thanks.

You can also use the character sheets, they're about twice as long as the cards.

Tape measure. Not as small as the keychain or as unobtrusive as the laser, but most people can usually find other uses for it, which is a plus (that and I always misplace mine so I have half a dozen scattered around the house).

On 3/11/2016 at 1:15 PM, a1bert said:

I count the vertical and horizontal displacements and draw lines using the relations in my mind. It's just geometry or fractions.

1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and 2:3 are the most used fractions / relations.

Can you explain this in greater detail please? Ive heard people mentioning this trick but nobody explains how to actually do it. Are you counting spaces or corners or what? And then how do you know if a number indicates line of sight or not?

Choose attacker corners (one at a time if needed) - count/determine the ratio of edges to an "left" and "right" obstructing corners or figures. Then either

a) continue "drawing" the line with the same ratio forward to see which, if any, corners of your target space fall between the left and right limiting lines.

b) or compare the ratio of the corners of the attacker.

A little hard to explain. Here's a "don't have los" example:

loslines2.jpg

Does Blaise have LoS to Lando? 1:2 to the right-side obstructing corner, so continue 1:2 line and reach Londo's top right corner. 2:4 to the left-side obstructing corner, continue and reach the same corner. The lines overlap, so only that corner can be reached from Blaise - no LoS, because other corners cannot reach Lando.

Can Lando have LoS to Blaise? The same for the red line, and Lando's bottom right corner (2:3) doesn't hit any corners of Blaise's space.

Even if Blaise were one space up and you would draw from the top-left corner, then the right obstructing corner would be 1:1, and left obstructing corner 2:3. Continuing the left line for another 2:3 would still leave the top-right corner to the left of the "left line", thus only bottom-right corner would be visible and no LoS.

On ‎3‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 8:15 AM, a1bert said:

I count the vertical and horizontal displacements and draw lines using the relations in my mind. It's just geometry or fractions.

1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and 2:3 are the most used fractions / relations.

This.