So for the past year, I've only played with people who put their tokens (focus, evade, stress, TL) on the ships on the play mat. Some put their dials on the mat, and some put them on the edge, and some on the pilot cards. But the tokens always go on the ship.

But yesterday I was in a tourney where multiple people put their tokens on the pilot cards instead of on the playing field. Being that I'd never seen that before, it totally threw me off. I was taking actions based on the fact that his ships didn't have tokens, and planning my manuevers not realizing when his ships were stressed. I found it rather difficult to play the game like that, but the opponents liked it because it kept the "appearance" of ships dogfighting.

How do you guys play? Am I the only one that likes to see the physical representation of the tokens on the ship?

I thought 'officially' all tokens went on the mat next to the ship or on the base.. but I have seen/heard of people doing this.. maybe a friendly comment to keep them.. 'in the open' might work.. I feel the 'no clutter on the board' crowd is a little too anal .. it's a game and it's important for everything to be in the open .. so.. just my 2

Especially being newer to the game, I'd find it confusing. I'd like to see tokens next to ships. It would t be especially challenging if they were flying multiples of the same ship type. Honestly the more I think about it, the more I'd ask them to follow the rules here for clarity purposes.

I normally keep my dials on my cards, it gets too busy on the board at times. I put shields by my cards, and all other tokens on or by the ships.

Actions, TL and Crit tokens on ship. Dials normally next to ship. Shields on the Cards.

I'm trying to get myself to put everything but focus and evade tokens on the printed squad sheets. Much cleaner! ...especially for the times when we have 3 or 4 target lock pairs between myself and my opponent.

I have played both ways, and faced players who play both ways. I found it easy enough to remember to look at the opponents cards for the tokens, or even to ask them which ship had what, while planning or taking actions. But then again, it's not like I have 50 games under my belt with foes doing it the "real" way either. So I could see where an experienced player, used to seeing the tokens near the ship model, could be at a disadvantage. I think you would be within your rights to politely ask the opponent to please put the tokens near the ship even in friendly games.

The ironic token, for me, is the crit token. I do feel that ships with ongoing crit effects need to have the crit token next to the ship to remind both players that there is an ongoing effect that needs attention each round. I have yet to play a game where it was used. Note that I don't think the crit token is necessary when the crit is Direct Hit.

I've occasionally played with someone who wanted to use the crit tokens, but I don't tend to do it myself unless asked.

I put focus, evade and target lock tokens on the play mat next to their ships. One challenge I sometimes have is getting the opponent to move the target locks assigned to their ships when they move their ship. I played with one fellow at the game shop where I had to remind him to do it literally every time he moved over the course of two games.

I was playing Colonel Jendon with a Weapons Engineer so there were plenty of Target Locks flying around!

I put my maneuver dials on the pilot cards, I find those are large enough to clutter the play area and it can get confusing if you have a swarm or a cluster of ships close together.

I feel the critical token isn't used much due to it being .. just another token to move around ... perhaps a critical token with a hole in the middle to slide down the stand and be less.. fiddley if you get my drift.. or even a channel to a hole to center it.. maybe?? Thoughts, anyone...

Putting tokens on the pilot card is very confusing for your opponent, especially on some of the larger wargaming tables that many game stores have. Please refrain from doing this, it's just being considerate for the other player.

Putting tokens on the pilot card is very confusing for your opponent, especially on some of the larger wargaming tables that many game stores have. Please refrain from doing this, it's just being considerate for the other player.

I defintely agree for larger game, when your opponent has 8 Tie card next to each other, it's a nightmare to remember which ships have tokens if they are not next to the ships.

Okay, I feel a little better now knowing that I'm not the only one that would be thrown off by this. I didn't realize it was in the rules though that you had to put the tokens on the board. The one guy was playing a semi swarm and barrel rolling often enough that not having a token wouldn't be unusual.

I also know some people who store the tokens on each ship card and then when the ship takes the action, they move it from the pilot card to the table, so seeing tokens on a pilot card didn't catch my attention either. And we were playing on two banquet tables pushed together, so his cards were ~5ft away from me.

Thanks for reminding me it's in the rules!

Putting tokens on the pilot card is very confusing for your opponent, especially on some of the larger wargaming tables that many game stores have. Please refrain from doing this, it's just being considerate for the other player.

not only is it confusing for your opponents but also confusing for yourself as well.. i've tried putting things on just ship cards, which resulted in forgetting about things constantly and having to look back and forth multiple times to figure out what ship had what.. all for a clean board you get a cluttered mind?

i'd much rather have clear thoughts and a cluttered board, thank you

I normally keep my dials on my cards, it gets too busy on the board at times. I put shields by my cards, and all other tokens on or by the ships.

I also keep shield tokens on the cards, except when my daughter plays because she insists the shields tokens help protect her ship. Dials I do both depending how close together ships are, but have no problem with people who put dials by the cards all the time. I even think that's in the tourney rules when facing same sides.

I also know some people who store the tokens on each ship card and then when the ship takes the action, they move it from the pilot card to the table, so seeing tokens on a pilot card didn't catch my attention either. And we were playing on two banquet tables pushed together, so his cards were ~5ft away from me.

I quite often put a TL pair on the card of any ship that has TL, as it saves searching around for them during the game. So yep it is confusing, if you keep active TL on cards.

I've waffled back and forth on this issue. It's sometimes a bit of a pain to have to constantly be moving your ship and a bunch of tokens around. Especially when things start to get a little cluttered.

TBH as you move then put on Focus and Evade, they don't generally get left behind. I have tiny TL counters that can happily sit on the base so they don't cause much of an issue, but the huge fat ones you get with the game (with 2 sides.. who thought that was a good idea) are an issue.

Personally i use small containers i got at the dollar store. There Measurements are aprox. 3x2x2 inches. They work VERY well and being i got 5, 10 packs for all my games there well worth it!

Personally i use small containers i got at the dollar store. There Measurements are aprox. 3x2x2 inches. They work VERY well and being i got 5, 10 packs for all my games there well worth it!

Personally i use small containers i got at the dollar store. There Measurements are aprox. 3x2x2 inches. They work VERY well and being i got 5, 10 packs for all my games there well worth it!

Umm... the thread is about where do you put the tokens during play. Next to the ship on the table or on the ship card. Not about how to store the tokens between games.

LOL just read the rest of the topic and realized that! But i put all tokens other then target locks on my pilot cards, and dials next to my ships on the board.

The first person I played in my first tournament put the focus and stress (no evade, he was playing a Rebel XXBB squad) on the his pilot cards. It was the first time I saw that. I didn't complain, but it was much harder for me to get an overview of the situation. I had to look at his ships, figure out which one went with which card ,and then I could tell if it had any tokens.

The other two opponents put the tokens on the table, except for the shields of course. I definitely prefer it that way. If the tokens get in the way, I just move them and replace them when I'm done measuring or using the movement templates. No problems.

the problem with this issue is, that it is the most useful when there is the most cluttering.

in small games (either because of overall point number or because of high value ships) most of the time it doesn't really matter either way, since you can relatively easy track ships and their respective tokens even when they are placed besides the pilot cards.

in bigger games with a high number of ships (possibly of the same type) it's the most useful to have the token near the ships to keep track of things for your opponent as well as yourself, but there the risk of cluttering and orphaned tokens is rather high.

In the end it's probably a matter how used the players are to their way of playing.

the worst case is always if you want to track on the map, but constantly forget to move your tokens.

Like what most people here seem to do I place all my tokens next to the ship as per the rules (including crits and TL) and place the shield tokens on the pilot card. I place dials next to their respective ship unless I am running a swarm, then the dials end up on the cards to no one gets confused on which ship is doing what. The only exception is in games with a TL capable ship count. Then the blue token goes on the pilot card and the red when next to the ships target. Always making sure that my opponent is aware just who is TL'ing who when doing so. Other than that any token not in current use is placed in a couple small containers so that they dont get in the way

Putting your tokens on your Pilot cards instead of next to/on the effected ship is not in accordance with the rules and thus a very bad habit to get into. I've only run an opponent once who wanted to do it that way and he stopped without argument when I asked him to please not to -for our match anyway- I claimed I couldn't keep track of his ships that way. I also always insist on Crit Tokens for Active crits as well as opponents dealing off damage for overkill.

I'm with the majority here, all tokens and ship dials are placed by the ships on the table. I have not yet had the opportunity to try a large game though, so I have not experienced a cluttered board yet, some day I will.

(note to self, don't try to fire off a post on my phone, always go to the computer, sorry for the illegible ramblings folks)