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Hello, I just had a few questions about measuring tools other than the stock standard ruler and tape measure. Firstly, as I'm reading the movement rules, a unit may move 6" and it isn't specified that this has to be a straight line. Can a flexible tool be used to figure this out, like the sort of tape a tailor uses to take measurements? What about a string marked out in inch increments?

Another tool I'm considering on hand would be a homemade device consisting of a 6"x2" plastic rectangle for quickly moving a whole lot of models and keeping them coherent. Is this something you think anybody would complain about? I do understand I'd likely have to show it to my opponent and get them to agree that my measurements are correct and legal.

Not sure if this should have went in "You Make The Call" or not.

Rather than a string, maybe use some sort of thin chain marked in the same way. It will sit on the table better than string will?

Get a caliper.

So long as the measurements are demonstrably correct, few people are likely to have a problem with it.

One of my regular opponents back in second edition used to carry a piece of blister foam that was 2" x 4" specifically for measuring coherency as he moved his models.

You can also buy various measurement gauges that have different standard use measurements on different sides. They can come in rather handy...

I would probably just go with the measuring tape that tailors use - nice and flexible, and marked out correctly. Although I have seen a fair amount of success with just bending a regular tape measure - only problem is, over time that tends to wear down the numbers and make the bend permanent (it's how I lost my first tape measure, played with it too much out of boredom and eventually the lock stopped working).

Oh, and though it might not help with flexible measurement, I believe Galeforce 9 has a nifty 2" by 4" by 6" measuring tool kind of thing for gaming, most helpfully for measuring out that 6" move with 2" coherency.

Agrinja wrote:Hello, I just had a few questions about measuring tools other than the stock standard ruler and tape measure. Firstly, as I'm reading the movement rules, a unit may move 6" and it isn't specified that this has to be a straight line. Can a flexible tool be used to figure this out, like the sort of tape a tailor uses to take measurements? What about a string marked out in inch increments?

Another tool I'm considering on hand would be a homemade device consisting of a 6"x2" plastic rectangle for quickly moving a whole lot of models and keeping them coherent. Is this something you think anybody would complain about? I do understand I'd likely have to show it to my opponent and get them to agree that my measurements are correct and legal.

Not sure if this should have went in "You Make The Call" or not.

Ah, the movement rules cloudy as they are.

While no-where in the movement rules you will explicitly see the words or phrase: "models move in a straight line, nor Models Move in a forward direction", but the whole of the rules indicate that this is the case. First we are told models may move up to 6", then we are told that they may turn any number of times during that move. Put these 2 together; and we see that models do move directly forward(although they do not have a "forward arc", excepting vehicles), but are allowed to change that direction at any point during the move, and as many times during the move as you like.

of course I don't believe there is a player out there in the great wide world that is going to have a problem with you moving anything but vehicles in arcing moves(so long as said move is measured within the models movement allowance).

I'm glad to be sure of that, it seems like it might be to my advantage to occasionally move on a curve for sake of cover, terrain or what have you.

As for Gale Force 9's measuring tools, all I've really found was some sort of "universal template' that had quite a few measuring tools, and quite honestly looked like it had so much on it it'd just become screwy to use. If we're both looking at the same tool, thing looks like a 2D spiked mace of some kind. Do they make a simple rectangle?

Its not a rectangle but they make one of these



Its 6 inches long and the wide side is 2 inches

They need to make the curved side of that a 3 inch measurement, for determining distance from objectives.

That thing seems a little more useful than the one I found, I'll have to check into it.

I use the T.A.C. all the time.

It is handy and gets the job done. Not just measuring movement, but quickly spreading out a unit to make use of max coherency and quickly determining the 1" distance from an enemy unit.

I am sure that somebody is simply dying to point out that; "he can do that with his standard GW ruler too", and I am equally sure that such a person hasn't tried the T.A.C.