In the above picture is a fairly common situation that comes up on Vassal.

The ships are usually set up perfectly with no slight rotation in either direction.. which results in ships having parallel sides sometimes. Thus when trying to determine whether a shot is going through an asteroid or not, there will be many different lines.. some will go through the rock, and some won't.

In the above example almost 95% of the parallel is covered.. yet not all.

My opponent said this situation was already talked about and that the attacker gets to choose any line that doesn't cross the rock.. which sounded weird to me in the above case.

What's the correct call?

Well in this case, neither ship actually has a shot at the other...

I don't have my rule book handy but I believe for shooting the line is drawn from the closest point on the attacker's base in it's firing arc to the closest point on the defender's base, period. No attacker's choice is involved.

I don't have my rule book handy but I believe for shooting the line is drawn from the closest point on the attacker's base in it's firing arc to the closest point on the defender's base, period. No attacker's choice is involved.

quoted for truth

From the FAQ:

"Q: If two ships are oriented so that their closest edges are parallel, there is no single closest-point-to-closest-point line between the two ships. If one ship attacked the other, could it choose which line to use?
A: Yes. In this case, the attacking player chooses the best point from which to draw the line to the target, which may allow him to avoid having his attack obstructed by an obstacle."

So in this case, the attacker would get to choose the specific line of fire to the target.

I believe that rule was specifically tailored for those vassal situations. In the real board, 99% of the time there is always slight variations on the angle.

Not in the games I play. We generally set up parallel to the board edge and as long as you don't hit anything you'll always be either parallel or at 45deg to the board edge...

Not in the games I play. We generally set up parallel to the board edge and as long as you don't hit anything you'll always be either parallel or at 45deg to the board edge...

Because nobody ever banks?

Bank is a 45deg turn... hence why 2 banks leaves you parallel to the board edge...

Yes, or one turn. But unless you guys are playing with robotic precision, the idea you're moving all over the game board and somehow constantly winding up perfectly perpendicular to one another when taking shots is fairly hilarious.

Well we generally define pre-game that we are parallel/45deg to board edge, and after moves we make sure we are still at the expected angle. Simplifies movement a bit.

Well we generally define pre-game that we are parallel/45deg to board edge, and after moves we make sure we are still at the expected angle. Simplifies movement a bit.

Except that ship collisions would usually result in other angles. So what do you do in those cases? Take extra movement the following turn?

Well, working out the expected angle of a ship isn't exactly hard... Collisions will of course lead to it being a little bit more complicated, but still eminantly doable.

Seriously, what are you, a Cylon? Even on Vassal, where the movements are executed by program and not by hand, nothing stays at perfect angles to one another for very long.

ok newb question what is Vassal??

Yes, or one turn. But unless you guys are playing with robotic precision, the idea you're moving all over the game board and somehow constantly winding up perfectly perpendicular to one another when taking shots is fairly hilarious.

I do this on a fairly regular basis. I hold my base down on the yoga mat, then move the template to position, take my finger off the base and place it on the template and then square up the ship at the other end. The only time that things get cockeyed is if I run into anything harder than a space rock.

Yes, I'm aware of how to move a ship without knocking everything all over the map. The fact remains that with things getting bumped and nudged and turning/banking/boosting/rolling nothing ever remains at perfect angles to anything else for very long.

ok newb question what is Vassal??

Vassal is a virtual table top people use for playing various wargames and board games.

The page isn't working right now, but that's the link to the page. It has modules for X-Wing, and people use it to play over the internet.

http://teamcovenant.com/ a TC they run tourney's and friendly games using Vassal, the also have a number of tutorials on how to use it.

Thanks Vanor, i have heard the term before but just thought it was somebody name.. will have to go check it out...

It's a little flaky but it's an awesome resource. Takes a little getting used to, but great place to go and find a game.

Apparently I didn't actually put the link in. It's pretty easy to find with Google, but just in case here it is.

http://www.vassalengine.org/