Article 1: Understanding the Board and Templates Through Small Base Lengths
This article acts as a transcript for Episode 1 of the Back to Dials Podcast.
Hello! You are listening to the Back To Dials Podcast for the X-Wing Miniatures Game! I am your host Liam and this is Episode 1: Understanding the Board and Templates Through Small Base Lengths.
One of the major understandings of the game of X-Wing is that it is a game based on geometry. Every millimeter counts in terms of movement, spacing, range, overlap, etc. Your positioning is by far the most important aspect of the game, and is something that can be improved no matter your skill level. The path towards mastering this skill is in every principle the way you master the game itself.
Because the game was originally created by a U.S. based company Fantasy Flight Games and later produced by another U.S. based company Atomic Mass Games, the primary measurements for the game match up best with imperial units, but to introduce the basics I will also mention the metric system equivalent. The game itself is played on a 36 inch by 36 inch board, approximately 91.44cm by 91.44cm square. The small base ship by comparison is 1.5625 inch by 1.5625 inch square, the decimal portion being 9/16ths of an inch, and the metric measurement of the small base ship is hence 3.96875cm by 3.96875cm. To make distance calculations easier the overall X-Wing community refers to everything in terms of “base lengths”, where we treat the side length of a small base ship as a single unit. For example this makes the mat of the playing area 23.04 base lengths long.
To show how easy it is to measure everything in terms of base lengths, let’s take the medium and large base ships as our next comparison. The large base ship is 2 base lengths long, and the medium base ship, which was introduced in the game’s second edition, is 1.5 base lengths long. When looking at the maneuver templates, the straight templates correspond to how many small bases they move in length. A 1 straight is 1 base length long, a 2 straight is 2 base lengths long, all the way to a 5 straight which is 5 base lengths long. On top of that, the width of a maneuver template, or the space between a ship’s guides, is half of a base length long.
Another easy comparison is the range rulers. Each range is equivalent to 2.5 base lengths long, making the range 2 5 base lengths long and the range 3 7.5 base lengths long. A neat trick with this is that a 5 straight and a range 2 ruler are the same length. Though importantly, the width of a range ruler is NOT the same length as the width of a maneuver template. This width is the same as the width of a ship’s bullseye arc, which is 0.4 base lengths wide.
Bank maneuvers and hard turns are where things get a bit more tricky. For this if one should want to note how far their ship moves they should focus on the distance the center of their base moves for an appropriate reference point. This is because when doing a bank or hard turn, the angle of your ship changes, and thus how far you move forward and to the side is not in neat round numbers.
The easier one to understand is the hard turn. Because when using a hard turn template your ship rotates 90 degrees, less math is involved for the movement of your center point. Plus a hard turn moves your ship the same amount forward as it does to the side. A 1 hard moves your ship 0.92 base lengths in both directions, a 2 hard moves your ship 1.56 base lengths in both directions, and a 3 hard moves your ship 2.28 base lengths in both directions. To make your math accurate just add half the length of your base size to the length of the hard turn in both directions, 0.5 base lengths for a small ship, 0.75 base lengths for a medium ship, and 1 base length for a large ship.
As stated the bank maneuver is much more difficult to plot. For a bank maneuver, the vertical and horizontal distances traveled are different. For a 1 bank it goes 1.64 base lengths forward and 0.6 base lengths to the side, a 2 bank goes 2.36 base lengths forward and 1 base length to the side, and a 3 bank goes 3.24 base lengths forward and 1.36 base lengths to the side. When calculating the distance this makes the center of your ship move, the distance is also different between going forward and going to the side. A small ship goes an extra 1.207 base lengths forward and 0.707 base lengths to the side, a medium ship goes an extra 1.811 base lengths forward and 1.061 base lengths to the side, and a large ship goes an extra 2.414 base lengths forward and 1.414 base lengths to the side. You may have noticed that the distance forward is just the distance to the side plus half of the ship’s size, and you’d be correct. This is because you have half of the ship for the center point to travel forward at the beginning, and the distance a 45 degree angle makes your ship move both forward and to the side at the end of the template.
Finally their are a few niche circumstances to be aware of. The nubs on each ship size are all the same, 0.08 ship lengths wide and 0.04 ship lengths long. These nubs don’t count for range, but they do count for overlap with other ships, obstacles, the board edge, and initial placement. Next is barrel rolls, and your ship size changes what kind of barrel roll you do. For small base ships you place the short edge of the 1 straight template against the side of your base with the center lines matched up, whereas for medium and large bases you place the long edge of the 1 straight template against the side of your base with the center lines matched up. Note in the games first edition there were no center lines so this rule did not exist. When barrel rolling, after picking up your ship, the ship may also match the center line of their base with the front or back edge of the template, allowing them to adjust forward or backward. So for a small base this allows them to adjust forward or backward 0.25 base lengths whereas a medium or large base can adjust forward or backward 0.5 base lengths.
Other notable niche movement circumstances are that of huge ships and barrel rolls and decloaks that utilize the bank template instead. Each of these movement styles deserve their own episode to break apart individually. Otherwise that is a wrap on all things maneuvering and measuring distances using the length of a small base!
This has been Liam of the Back To Dials Podcast, and as always if you have any questions or feedback feel free to email us at feedback@backtodials.net. We’ll see you on the table when it is time to go Back To Dials!
