Grid Plotting & Trigonometry

[shasodnarb]

Even though I don't bring it with me to the tabletop, one thing that I've done at home that's helped me work out distances is draw a representation of a 4'x6' tabletop on a piece of graph paper and work out lots of distances between different points. In time, when I get more used to it, I'm hoping that it'll help me greatly speed up my gameplay.

Also, this is just basic trig but it's helped me a lot: figuring out distances between units that are at 45 and 30 degree angles from each other. All you need to do is guess how far the units would be if they were directly across the board from each other. The easiest way to estimate this distance is by looking at the board from the short edges. Remember this distance. Then do the following arithmetic:

- if the units are 45 degrees apart, then multiply the above distance by 1.4
- if they are 30 degrees off, multiply by 2

That should give you the distance between the two units. It's nice and easy. If the angles are slightly different, just give or take a few inches. Practice this and guessing distances will become much easier. I'll post a couple images later today to better show what I mean.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that because it's helped me.

[thesanityassassin]

Definately a good tool, and I know lots of top level gamers that make good use of similar things.

Too bad for me I'm terrible at maths, and so had to do it the hard way and stare at a tape measure for about a year until I could just eyeball most things to within a quarter inch.

[shasodnarb]

Aye, that's exactly the plan: to help me with distances until my skill at estimating them improves, just to speed up the long process of becoming competent at this game.

[thesanityassassin]

Yup. One guy I know who has played for years (and won a fair number of tourneys as well) STILL has no idea what 12" looks like, and despite his skill at the game it comes back to bite him in the face over and over and over.

Learning your distances is a fairly simple thing to do (though a bit time consuming) and can go farther than most other things towards improving your overall gameplay.

[shasodnarb]

Yeah, from all the games I've watched, that definitely seems to be common to all of them: how much a bold or missed distance estimate can influence the outcome of a game. The number of times I've seen shooting fall short is incredible.

I do have a related question to this: what's the etiquette regarding how far to pull out the measuring tape? I've seen a lot of variance in this regard. Some people (myself included) will pull out the tape just far enough for the weapon range while I've seen it pulled out much farther. Seems to me a bit unsporting, to be honest... but if that happens, is it something you can call the TO over for?

[thesanityassassin]

Call me over if people are pulling it out 48" to measure a 36" shot and dangling very near their missile launchers, and arcing it very near one of your units. It IS part of some strategy to shoot in particular orders to get an idea of distances, but you shouldn't be extending your tape over units that aren't involved int he firing process. Of course this is sometimes unavoidable, (IE two squads standing between a heavy weapon and a tank), in which case just make sure the person isn't looking closely at how many inches are between the squads under the tape.

The way I do it is usually to get my opponent to hold the end of my tape above the base of his furthest forward model, and I extend it back over my unit and see how many of my models fall within shooting range. If it's questionable I almost always let my opponent tell me what's in (and expect that they let me do the same for their shooting). I find that usually leads to fairness between players, and rarely do I have a problem with that. I've found that letting an iffy model shoot or assault (unless it's game breaking, in which case I roll a dice if we can't decide as the rules state), often leads to a far more pleasant game.

[redshirt2375]

Matt. once again, said it pretty much how I would

Over extending isn't right in my book. Putting the tape to the max range to just the one unit for a quick show that something is obviously in range, still okay by me. My usual measuring method is using the minimum needed to show every model is in range (easier to manage the tape measure itself so less likely to knock over models)

As Matt said, you can use shooting at one unit to get an idea of what the ranges to other units can be by using the range you measured to one unit to estimate the ranges to and from other units.

[Mythweaver]

I am terrible at math...

After Jon taught me this it has made a great difference in my ability to judge distance.

It was probably because he was playing me...but it is hillarious watching Jon use the way too long measuring tape method. What he was doing was sooo obvious you couldn't help but laugh.

[thesanityassassin]

The best way to do that kind of math is to start getting the distance between points on the board while legitimately measuring. Once you get those kind of distances, you can logically extend, or if you know your angles, do the math. It's far easier to know that the trees and the building are 27 inches apart, and try and decide if the tank is more than 9 inches from the trees than trying to decide if the tank is 36" away from your unit.

[shasodnarb]

it is hillarious watching Jon use the way too long measuring tape method

I don't recall *ever* doing that aside from very clearly joking around with you.

[Mythweaver]

I know, that's why I said it was 'cause you were playing me....still hilarious though.

[shasodnarb]

No worries. I just didn't want "probably" to accidently besmirch my name with others who don't know me.

[Mythweaver]

No worries mate, I'll leave the besmirching to you!

[redshirt2375]

LOL I was going to say he can do the besmirching well enough on his own

[shasodnarb]

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