On my last tournament I had to measure arc from the opponents Lambda shuttle to see if he had a shot on one of my ships. That's when I realized that the ship token was pretty loose and had some wiggle room within the plastic base: if I moved the token on one side (small rotation around the base center), my ship was clearly out of arc. If I moved the token to the other side, my ship was slightly in arc. How would you, as a TO, handle this situation?
Below you'll find what I did.


















The problem was that I was also the TO in this tournament. Just a friendly small tournament. No Hyperspace trial or anyhting like that. So I could have asked another player to make the decicion for us, but we thought we could figure it out ourselves. Anyway: I decided that you cannot just simply wiggle the token to the side that benefits the Lambda shuttle the best. So I moved the token to the position so that the arc line pointed directly to the corner of the plastic base. In this position my ship was slightly out of arc. My opponent was fine with it at this moment of time. But in the end I won a very close game and my opponent was a bit salty and commented that he should have asked another player to rule the situation for us.
It certainly would have been the proper thing to do. But I'm still standing by my decision. And I also told my opponent that if I would not have been involved and had to judge this situation, I would wiggle the ship token to the side that is most disadvantageous for the ship.

What do you guys think?

I would have pushed the base token within the base so that it was lined up flush and parallel with the side of the plastic ship base.

Also you should have gotten a third player to make the ruling, and this is why you should always assign a player to be your secondary judge to rule in games you are playing so that your opponent doesn't feel like you are abusing your authority to gain an advantage.

That is a tough situation.

Since, presumably the player did not intentionally bring a base and token combo that did not fit together on purpose, its neither players fault.

Since the round was already in progress, I would had the two players roll a die for it.

If the shuttle player wins the roll, they get the arc. If the opponent wins the roll, it's no arc, no shot. That way, at least it feels like both players have a chance and are not being ruled against for something out of their control.

Post round, I would have called for another token plate, to see if the token, or the base was the the problem. If you could proxy another base token (one that fit properly), I would have done that for consecutive rounds, assuming that was not the final round.

4 hours ago, Echoseven said:

Post round, I would have called for another token plate, to see if the token, or the base was the the problem. If you could proxy another base token (one that fit properly), I would have done that for consecutive rounds, assuming that was not the final round.

Very good point. I should have done that.

4 hours ago, Tvboy said:

I would have pushed the base token within the base so that it was lined up flush and parallel with the side of the plastic ship base.

Also you should have gotten a third player to make the ruling, and this is why you should always assign a player to be your secondary judge to rule in games you are playing so that your opponent doesn't feel like you are abusing your authority to gain an advantage.

I always have another player who can be the judge for my games. But obviousely I don't get him over for every little detail. At the moment me and my opponent both didnt think much of the situation. I told him that of course you can't wiggle the base token to the right if you're checking for arc on the right and wiggle the token to the left if you're checking for arc on the left side. We both agreed that we will just place the token so that the arcs point to the corner of the plastic base and then check arc. I only started questioning my decision (and the decision not to get the other judge) when my opponent was a bit salty after the game.

10 hours ago, cybu said:

certainly would have been the proper thing to do. But I'm still standing by my decision. And I also told my opponent that if I would not have been involved and had to judge this situation, I would wiggle the ship token to the side that is most disadvantageous for the ship.

As a TO, I would have rules the player's loose token as "defective" or "damaged" and require he use a different, undamaged base for the ship. For big tourneys that I TO, I always bring all my stuff for situations like this. For a casual tournament I'd have just put any old ship base in there as a proxy if no one had the correct one at hand.

13 hours ago, cybu said:

I always have another player who can be the judge for my games. But obviousely I don't get him over for every little detail. At the moment me and my opponent both didnt think much of the situation.

Whether or not a ship is in arc to be attacked seems like not a little detail. An extra attack or skipped attack is a huge deal in a game. Things like arc-checks and bumps are where you should be having your 2nd step in to keep things on the level and create the perception of an unbiased judgment.

@cybu Yes, it probably would have been better to call in your secondary judge or to roll a die for it. However, you made a fair judgement call and your opponent agreed to it. So don’t beat yourself up about it, the outcome is on your opponent just as much as it is on you, and he has no justification for being salty about it after the fact.

22 hours ago, cybu said:

My opponent was fine with it at this moment of time. But in the end I won a very close game and my opponent was a bit salty and commented that he should have asked another player to rule the situation for us.

Opponent being fine at the time should have been the end of it. But yes to avoid saltiness always get your second to check.

There's always a lot of little things to remember when judging and playing. It's tough, there's a few unique situations I came across previously that I wish I handled differently.