I'm all about theme and love to see it in games. So, I get how models on a mat can cross through each other - 3 dimensional space provides room to fly right by other ships.

But then how's that work with blocking? They run into each other and don't blow up? What?

What am I missing?

It's not fluff, just a physical limitation of playing a 3 dimensional game on a 2 dimensional surface.

If you want a "real world" reason, imagine they are using most of their skill maneuvering around each other so most of their focus is on not crashing but they can still take a pot shot at a further off target.

You had to turn really tightly upwards to avoid the lethal collision, so you were too concentrated on this that you couldn't manage to perform fancy action stuff.

You had to turn really tightly upwards to avoid the lethal collision...

I like it.

So, whenever I play, I'm going to explain this bit of fluff to my opponent and insist that every turn two ships are blocked we add a peg to them.

If you're looking for a narrative reason why ships would lose actions after being blocked, think of the battle of Endor and the swarm of TIEs buzzing past the Falcon. Pilots concentrating on avoiding collisions rather than picking out and chasing down targets.

X-Wing may be a 2d representation of potentially 3d combat, but mist ships still have forward-firing weaponry, and need to fly directly at their targets. Head on engagements lead to games of chicken, which leads to last minute jinking and weaving to avoid collisions.

I always explain it as the pilot is too concerned with the enemy being that close to focus on anything else

Blocking isn't actually a word in the game, players use it.

The word that is used is 'overlapping' which makes a lot more sense. In essence, we are not shooting each other because we are flying over/under each other. The 'action' was to avoid being on the same plane.

If your ship runs into a ship that hasn't moved yet, you lose actions from concentrating on avoiding them. If a lower PS ship moves to block you, you lose actions trying to avoid them. A lower skilled pilot's tendency toward aggressive, reckless maneuvering is their sole advantage vs a higher skilled pilot whose instincts have been honed by years of experience toward self-preservation. There is no actual "collision" involved since we are maneuvering in 3D space.

Ultimately it's a game mechanic and I don't care but if I felt the need to justify blocking this is how I would do it.

Yup, from the beginning the overlapping rule was described as your pilot using their action time to swerve out of the way and avoid the collision. I do find it kind of funny that the better pilot always does this, while the rookies just kind of blindly fly to their doom (for profit, sadly).

I imagine it as they are flying over/under each other. Not much of a way to get shots doing that. And the sudden swerve to dodge high and low is the "action" that you would have otherwise taken.

"OH **** DONT DIE DONT DIE DONT DIE PULL UP"

-- your pilots that bump.

The original art on ptl basically explains blocking perfectly.

if your looking for realism then your missing a bunch. Ships in space should be able to spin around to face back wards while still moving in the same direction. Realistically lasers would have such an extraordinarily long range that you would not be able to see your target with the naked eye. Also the speed of light such as it is, you would just have to place your cross hair on a target a pull the trigger. and you would hit. not leading the target, and rolling to hit or evade would be unnecessary.

All that being said Star Wars was filmed to resemble WW2 fighter combat. And it was made for an audience who tend to think in 2 dimensions. So this game fits perfectly with the movies. And those earlier posts about spending your attention not crashing is pretty close to the best explanation of the issue.

if your looking for realism then your missing a bunch. Ships in space should be able to spin around to face back wards while still moving in the same direction.

I heard in a podcast that this is actually being considered, inspired by a scene in the Rebels cartoon.

"OH **** DONT DIE DONT DIE DONT DIE PULL UP"

-- your pilots that bump.

-Will Smith, Independence Day.

The original art on ptl basically explains blocking perfectly.

pretty much yea.

I'm all about theme and love to see it in games. So, I get how models on a mat can cross through each other - 3 dimensional space provides room to fly right by other ships.

But then how's that work with blocking? They run into each other and don't blow up? What?

What am I missing?

Blocking is flying into ultra close range to force a ship to swerve, costing it its action.

It's best represented by the Push The Limit card art.

Blocking I get ... the last second evade to avoid your enemy.

But when I see two opponent's ships fortressing .. it reminds me of that awkward moment when two people almost walk into each other and then step side to side in clumsy synchronicity .. except doing it for 30 minutes.

Head-canon for blocking isn't too bad. Just losing actions and 2D momentum by swerving in 3D.

Hard to get a head-canon going for fortressing though.

Going with actual fighter pilot experience. There are many times when your wing man will engage an enemy and fly closely to take away their concentration or distract them. You don't actually bump, that is the wrong term. It's called overlapping, which means getting close enough to distract them, in actual dog fights you buzz by them, or get underneath or on top of them, to force a change in their flight path.

Normally while you doing this your wingman is maneuvering for a better angle of deflection to get a better shot.

You might as well try to explain the 3-5 minute bullet time where players roll dice and resolve actions.

Blocking I get ... the last second evade to avoid your enemy.

But when I see two opponent's ships fortressing .. it reminds me of that awkward moment when two people almost walk into each other and then step side to side in clumsy synchronicity .. except doing it for 30 minutes.

There was a real-life precedent for some planes (decades and decades ago) to kind of "circle the wagons," and just fly in a ring, covering one another's backside. When I hear about someone fortressing, I just imagine them doing it, but in a gravity-free, three-dimensional, environment; they're not actually holding still, they're kind of pinwheeling around one another, climbing and diving and not making any headway along any other axis.

It doesn't really help, though. Still feels lame as hell.

Going with actual fighter pilot experience.

Go on!

Blocking I get ... the last second evade to avoid your enemy.

But when I see two opponent's ships fortressing .. it reminds me of that awkward moment when two people almost walk into each other and then step side to side in clumsy synchronicity .. except doing it for 30 minutes.

There was a real-life precedent for some planes (decades and decades ago) to kind of "circle the wagons," and just fly in a ring, covering one another's backside. When I hear about someone fortressing, I just imagine them doing it, but in a gravity-free, three-dimensional, environment; they're not actually holding still, they're kind of pinwheeling around one another, climbing and diving and not making any headway along any other axis.

It doesn't really help, though. Still feels lame as hell.

Your talking about an air circle, It prevents people from targeting one plane, because if they do the guy behind them will be on it's rear. The USA used superior diving and climbing capabilities to dive through the squadrons and shoot at them then climb back up, this way they would not engage the enemy on the same altitude and if an enemy broke from the circle the next USA plane would then be on it's rear. Essentially creating their own circle around the enemy.

With modern jets fly close to each other you take away their air speed. All planes turn almost the exact same, the difference is that some planes lose more speed in the turn, thus slowing them down. If you are inside of your opponent and blocking his turn radius and he is forced to let off the throttle just a bit to avoid you, his turn radius has just decreased 10 fold. If he adds throttle and to keep his turn radius his engine burns even hotter. This slight adjustment could me another mile which means an heat seeking missing could lock on and be fired. Or even a medium range Aim 120.

The problem with Fortressing in this game is that you have no altitude.

Quite honestly, I have played a fortress squad twice so far, both times I don't even try to fight it. I take about 10 minutes to decide my dials and then move forward and barrel roll backwards, Boring as hell, but the other guy gets the point.

I think of it as losing your action due to having to listen to your cockpit voice warning system (famously known as Bitchin' Betty) say, "Traffic, traffic, descend, descend" while your stick shaker goes nuts.