Your at a tournament let's say

Your opponent sets up square flying straight

He does a 2 bank,a 2 straight then another 3 bank let's say.

During the planning phase (setting dials) he notices that his ship is off by 5 degrees or so (enough to notice he's no longer flying square) and asks do you mind if he straightens up.

Seeing as he set up flying straight and only had done 45 degree turns, he should be facing 90 degrees, but is off a bit.

Enough to notice the angle difference.

He did not collide or anything.

Do you let him straighten up?

Edit

This has happened in a tournament once and I told my opponent sure thing since he should be facing the correct way, but got into a debate about this with a friend of mine who said he wouldn't. He thinks once your at the dial phase its too late. Anyway we thought be interested to see what the community thinks

I figured since there was no collision etc the ship should be square. As we sometimes know ships can tend to nudge a bit, but he says that comes down to player skill

Yes

As someone who flies ships in formation, I believe it is the pilot's responsibility to keep their ships straight.

That said, the OCD in me can relate and I probably would let them pivot.

Your right that it is the person who is controlling the ship, but if no mistakes were made, no collision or anything that should throw him off other than a possible slight twitch/bump cause by shaky hands or removing the template then he notices during the planning phase that his ship is no longer flying perpendicular with the board and asks if you mind

Should the ship technically be flying in the correct direction, or do you tell him no, which actually may throw him off

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. If it is early in the match, and I'm feeling generous that day, then I'll probably allow them to correct the ship's position. If it's a continual problem throughout the game, and it appears that my opponent is either incompetent or is trying to cheat, then I would probably say no. It's one of those things that probably won't make a huge impact on the game, but it potentially could change the final outcome. In a tournament, you would be within your rights to not allow them to correct their ship's position. If you aren't comfortable making that decision, call a TO over and have them make a ruling.

I'd like to say "yes" but my head says "NO!" If he is "getting off course" it is either because his templates are sloppy or because he is being sloppy in how they are being used. If he wants to "stay square" then I'd suggest he do a better job of movement.

Now if an "earthquake" shakes everything up then I'm more inclined to allow position correction but not when it is just the result of standard play.

Yeah, i'd let them. I personally suffer from really bad anxiety, which translates into shaking and shivers, so it's really not uncommon for me to end up with crooked ships. As such, i empathize with players whose ships should be perfectly square, but arent. I always let my opponent do that, at least when it's early-game.

I've watched plenty of sloppy play and would be inclined to say no. Did their first moves help them maneuver around an obstacle? Where did they misalign? First, second or third move? I think it's subjective depending on who you're playing and the event.

So far I guess it's preference, nothing to stop you from saying no.

I've done it once where I allowed someone.

Reason was I wasn't being nice or anything, I just believed that technically the ship should be in the correct position. If he hadn't bumped or anything I felt the ship should be on coarse

However if he collided then there isn't anything that can be done at that point, and Ya it was early in the game, round 3-4 I believe

I know some people tend to have shaky hands, and sometimes can be time consuming etc making sure things are exact

No.

If you deploy your ship sideways and it's tilted slightly towards the board edge and you do a 5 straight, it's off the board buddy.

Although it pains me to agree with PGS, I wouldn't let my opponent "fix" his ships' heading--not in a tournament setting, anyway. X-wing isn't a terribly precise game: although of course some players are sloppier than others, even the most careful player isn't going to be pixel-perfect on every move.

So the only way X-wing works is if both players agree implicitly that the "real" location of any given game piece is its current physical location. As soon as you relax that rule, you let in all sorts of shenanigans. There's no such thing as "straightening up" because wherever your ships are right now, that's exactly where they're supposed to be.

I'd like to say "yes" but my head says "NO!" If he is "getting off course" it is either because his templates are sloppy or because he is being sloppy in how they are being used. If he wants to "stay square" then I'd suggest he do a better job of movement.

Now if an "earthquake" shakes everything up then I'm more inclined to allow position correction but not when it is just the result of standard play.

This.

I've seen players with shaky hands, and I can/do empathize with them. But I've also seen people not put the movement template flush against the plastic base of the ship (and have it be off a bit) just to get a little more "wiggle room" on their bank/turn maneuvers to avoid hitting the rocks. I've seen people mislay their maneuver templates "just enough" to dislodge an asteroid so that when they realign the template, "Well, would you look at that?! I avoided hitting it!"

So yeah, it's hard to empathize at times, but I also take it case by case. I mean, if it's about precision flying, then it shoulda been straight when you finished the maneuver. If it's not, then you may not be quite the ace pilot you thought you were.

Edit: And for what it's worth, in the two cases above, I smiled, shook my head, and said "So it's like that, huh?" At that point in both games fly casual went away and it became all about kicking their a$$ as best I could. I won both games.

Well something similar very interesting has happened to me, when I was flying IG's and was facing a swarm.

The guy ask me the same thing and say sure go ahead.

Then in the next turn I fly my Advanced sensors IG, straight into his formation and collide with the first row ships.

The guy says I did not touch one of his ships by a mm or so.

I say, I let you keep your formation in the previous turn just for that, so since your ships did the exact same move they are exactly parallel and they are now both touching my ship.

I went on and one-shoted one of the back ships and took return fire for one more that was left in the back.

No. That never happens to me when using official FFG cardboard templates.

I like that swarm example. Generally it is nearly impossible to have two ships run perfectly parallel/perpendicular to each other making the simple "jump over" maneuver possible. Having a situation where you can simultaneously overlap two new ships should be virtually unheard of in the real world but if someone insists on lining their ships up perfectly then it becomes possible and they should live with it.

Perhaps the worse offenders at the "let me straighten these things out" are those close knit swarms. If you put your ships too close to each other you really SHOULD expect that will run into each other at some point even if you want to keep them doing maneuvers that should keep them right next to each other.

I generally agree with Vorpal Sword, but I will say that I will always allow it in the first move, perhaps two (if we're still some distance from engagement), but not after that.

X-Wing is a game where "margin of error," and dealing with it, are in the rules. The ship is where it is, unless it is inadvertently bumped, and then it goes back as close to where it should be as possible.

No, it's called margin of error and is in the tournament rules and is part of the game. If the player wants perfection in formation he needs to practice. Ive set my squad inside range 2 on the border, did 2 straight maneuvers and ended on the edge of an asteroid that was placed just outside range 2 like it should have been. My little mistake just going straight screwed me over. I learned not to rush if I plan on placing my ships in that spot.

This is not a game of dexterity and co-ordination. If you want to match skills with me physically, I'm more than happy to meet you in the carpark after our match is done. We can have a dance-off.

When it comes to where we know our ships SHOULD be, then we SHOULD make every attempt to put them in the correct position. We don't just play the ships as they lay when they get bumped, we attempt to return them to their original position. And I've got to say, if anyone pulled that 'Nuh uh, it has to stay where you leave it' attitude, I think I'd be getting very creative with my 'bumping' of both mine and his ships over the course of the game, and of course insisting that the ships be played from their current position.

EDIT: This is not to say that disallowing post-move corrections is always the right thing, but I think it's important to make allowances for the physicality of moving our models and accidental nudges. And it's important to always give our opponent the benefit of the doubt as well. A demonstrated pattern of bumping or adjusting for advantage is not to be tolerated, but simply correcting, in good faith, a physical fumble of the template/ship is always to be allowed and even encouraged IMO.

This post is just meant to be acute.

This post is just meant to be acute.

Don't be obtuse.

This post is just meant to be acute.

Don't be obtuse.

Something just isn't right about both of these posts...

I'd tend to say no in a SC or above.

I've run blocks of ships loads of times and had my own slack play result in bumps that shouldn't have been possible. Wouldn't even think to 'fudge' them back into formation. If we both own our mistakes you get a straight up game. If I allow a take back, is my opponent then morally obliged to allow me one? Why even get into that muddied water?