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Not a question of rules per se, but more of how strict you are with them.

I'm pretty strict about measuring distances, but I generally let my opponent hit units at the fringe of their range if it's not material. Like 1 extra bolter shot into my 30 boyz, yea go ahead. But making charges or the more game changing hits I'm a bit stricter on. I don't want to lose my battlewagon to a guy who can't measure and make me feel cheated.

This generally works in my opponents favour, all things considered. I'm strict all the time with my own measurements. If I can't hit something I don't pretend it does. I don't usually ask my opponent his opinion either, but they do often offer up the extra hit unprompted.
However I've been encountering a number of people who, for lack of a better explanation, have trouble measuring.
It typically goes like this:
Line up the range from the firer, look to see where the tape measure ends. Tape measure creeps forward and is now over my unit.
If I call them on it it just results in them repeating the measure in the same way.

I got a bit sick of this my last game and said "look. Do you agree that I'm holding the tape measure against the gun barrel for max range? Good. Now look how the other end stops short".

So do you see a lot of 6" and-a-bit measuring? Or measure 6", take the tape away, then move? Do you do it? Am I being TFG?
This game is supposed to be fun after all.

This is why I've been using the Blue thingy, it has a 2" side, 6" side and well another side to it. Regardless it clears up the "charge scenario nicely. Shootings pretty straightforward, but yea I see people fudge a MM or 2 every now and again. Depends on the game/person honestly, fun game or "serious" game haha

inch for inch why would you let anyone let shoot less/more?
It's in the rules

Still do it for the fun part but following the rules even tough ur 0.2 away your still to far away :/

and as for the the barrel thingie... meh i tend to measure from my bases i have no idea why when i think of it... but when having 30 boyz to count at the same time... might be why.

Oh the barrel thing was from his defiler. I'd use from base for non-vehicles.

I realise that its either definately in/out of range, but the practicalities of calling it sometimes can be difficult. In the really marginal cases, and where its not that material, I give it to my opponent, and don't for myself. I'd probably be more strict under tournament conditions.

Thanks for the feedback guys.
I wasn't looking for justification to be really anal about it, but I couldn't exactly post this on my club's forums could i? heh.
I may be a bit more diligent for the more obvious tape-creep and just hope that it sticks.

EDIT: The last guy I played was pretty bad at seeing what was under a blast maker. He'd look through it on an angle and try to centre it over empty space, etc.
Then he'd treat my alarm as a dispute and suggest we roll it off. This happened like 10 times (and our game only lasted 3 game turns). It grew old fast.

I try to be as precise as possible with my own measurements. I also try to be precise with the opponent's measurements. Usually, measuring gun ranges involves them sticking the tape toward me; if it's a close thing, I will grab the end and push it to my models, to see if it actually reaches.

The thing I find myself giving grace on is blasts. If it's iffy whether or not their large blast covers four or five models, I give them the five. This is usually due to the fact that the blast is somewhere over the middle of the table, and neither of us can get a straight-down view. Both of us have different angles, which can affect how many models appear to be under the blast. So since I'm too lazy to see the truth, I give them an extra hit :/

RAW: you measure exactly from barrel or base as the particular unit and rule defines it.

HIWPI: If it is debatable, as can sometimes happen, then I err on the side giving my opponent the advantage. Meaning, I wouldn't take the shot/assault, but I'd let my opponent do it.

Not sure how blast markers can be jacked up. I pretty much set the thing on top the "head" of a model in a unit being hit. You can work out what's underneath from most angles when it's real close like that.

Now, for measuring during movement: I agree with JD: that blue triangular thing with the 6" and 2" side is great. Throw it on the table next to the front most model and move. When moving the other models in the unit I tend to "fudge" it a bit. Meaning I put them in as close to the same position behind the lead model as possible, but I don't bother measuring the movement of each model. That takes forever and usually isn't a problem.

the Blue TAC template is amazing, really good for the 6" move. Even better for the 2" gap. Makes Pie plates not as scary when they get 5 models and not 8 or more,

Plus one for the blue template as well, except mines purple! ha

I always try and pre measure the charge ranges, even going so far to pre measure charge moves pile in and 2 inch of another model after the charge moves have been rolled sometimes. For shooting though I am pretty easy

We are pretty lax generally, and pre-measuring has helped a lot with it, there's no longer any need to try not to reveal distances, since your opponent can measure them whenever he wants.

So for example, when moving models that we suspect might be charged next turn, we will declare how far apart they are from the chargers then, so that you don't have to be a tightass on every move your opponent makes, if he gets half an inch here or there and manages to charge the unit that was declared to be 13 inches away with a 6 inch charge, bad luck, you shouldn't have been able to.

Being clear about our expectations of the distances between units when moving them lets us save time on the actual movements and avoid debates afterwards.

I am strict with my best mate because his vision sucks! He wears thick glasses and I reckon that effects his ability to see where the blast casualties are, that and he's a Waac player but refuses to admit it!

Removed

To throw in my two cents.

When moving my Guard blobs about i have a tendency to measure the front guy and then measure the back guy so i spead them out roughly the same in the middle.

The reason i measure the back guy is ive found that some of those back models 'Being shoved forwards' can bring more of the squad into rapid fire range then is supposed to.

This assures that when i 'First rank fire second rank fire' with the squad it is quite common for 5-15 guys to be in range but outside of 12".

I like to be a bit pedantic about my own measuring as i gives me the gaks when i see fuzzy inches in others.
My personal pet peeve on the subject is which direction a blast marker scatters.

I tend to be a little loose with my measuring, but I also build in a 1/4-1/2" safety net in my opponent's favor, give them the benefit of the doubt on templates/markers, etc.

If I lose a game because I was an inch off, no big deal. If the game was that close, I probably had fun anyway.

I try to be as close as possible with my shooting and assaulting measuring. Since I play a horde though our gaming club has asked me to do the speed moving to moving things along. So I just measure the front rank and pull the boys in back along. I do try to keep the same spacing as best I can by eyeballing it. I'm pretty lack when it comes to my opponent though. If your measuring tap is so close that its milameters or withing 1/16 of an inch ill give it to you. I'm there to have fun and I really don't want to argue over something that close. Plus it's cinamatic .

I do find it amusing when I'm playing a game with some players and everything is really relaxed and nobody's being really supper specific. ( So far I always lose, haven't been able to pull of a win yet but I will.). When the game starts to get really close they do a 180, then all of a sudden everything has to be 100% accurate and everything has to be referenced or proved that I can do it. I never say anything. I find it amusing though

While I try to have fun and all, I am tend to get very particular about measuring. I have seen too many cases of: I measure and I don't make range, they measure the same range, without moving, and manage to hit or the one that gets me more than anything is when they try to move a model and set it down and then inch it forward a bit (and by a bit I mean sometimes close to an inch) cause they are 'turning' the model or 'settling' it so that it doesn't fall or whatnot.

I am not trying to be TFG, but there are quite a few ways I have seen people cheat but they get all pissy if you call them on it - they complain that you are being too strict or trying to screw them over, or my favorite 'It's just a game' arguments....I can understand if you are arguing every rule...but following the rules is following the rule - a 6" charge is 6", not 6.25"; 24" range is 24", not measure, realize you are not in range and then wiggle the guy forward....

Measurements that do not directly affect enemy models: I play it fast & loose. 6" move vs. 6 1/8" move = don't care. At all.

Measurements that directly affect enemy models: Exact. There's no reason not to, it's a measurement from the barrel of a gun to the enemy model. If the measureing tool can't make contact between both models, then what is there to debate?

 azazel the cat wrote:
Measurements that do not directly affect enemy models: I play it fast & loose. 6" move vs. 6 1/8" move = don't care. At all.

Measurements that directly affect enemy models: Exact. There's no reason not to, it's a measurement from the barrel of a gun to the enemy model. If the measureing tool can't make contact between both models, then what is there to debate?

^this. Even still, I tend to err on the side of the guy I'm playing against, since they tend to do it for me as well. Except for this one Necron player who seems to think friendly games are the opening rounds at a Grand Tournament.

I tend to hold myself to a ridiculously exacting standard when it comes to exactness, but I am more lax when it comes to my opponents measuring their distances. The one thing I tend to be anal about is measuring devices. I only use metal measuring tapes, and the GW template/markers. I even carry a second set of GW markers and a spare measuring tape. If my opponent uses an overly flexible (say, nylon) measuring device, or a set of third party markers, I will tell them that I am uncomfortable with them and ask if they would mind using one of mine. So far, no one has made a big deal out of it.

I'm pretty precise, but I actually prefer that my opponent is not when he is moving a large foot unit or army.

It gets pretty ridiculous if a 30 man squad has to have every model's movement exactly measured.

Movement, especially > 5 or so models, measure the closest model exactly, measure the farthest model exactly. Then put everyone else between those two models in roughly the same formation they were in to start with. You can change a little bit but don't go from blob to conga line without measuring them more closely. Same with shooting I suppose. And always from the same spot on the base to the same spot on the base. So no extra 1" for the base.

Homer

When it comes to 30 man ork blobs, I played a guy who measured every model, 3 turns in 2 hours and 30 minutes.
I asked him to speed it up and said he only needed to measure the 1st rank and could eye up the rest.

He refused and just dragged it out to his advantage mostly.

Really the only thing I'll call out being exact on is charges. Before they even move a model in the movement phase, I will measure their closest model to my closest model, and declare their needed charge distance allowed. That way the opponent and I both know what he needs to roll in the assault phase before he even moves in the movement phase. This prevents a lot of the "he was here, no he was here" disagreements that can pop up in pressure situations.

This is something I learned from playing Flames at a highly competitive level where move+charge is 10", and some players would have a tendency to move 7+" in the movement phase "accidentally".

Knowing the distance before the model is even displaced kills all arguments about it.

As far as shooting, I go with everything close to being in is in, and everything close to having cover has cover. I cover this with my opponent ahead of time, so as not to cause confusion. That way both players benefit.

did read any of the other posts but here is the way we play.

Models get bumped, tipped over, hit by dice, and generally jostled a bit so as a simple rule of thumb measuring in this game is a bit of an imprecise exercise. You are eyeballing at angel in the center of the table and measuring round bases from a non contacted point. Lots of opportunities for small but cumulative errors. Some things we do to help with this are simple and not time consuming.

For instance if you deploy 24 inches apart there will be no first turn charges with units that move 12 or second turn charges with units that move 6 and didn't run assuming their targets didn't move, so we use some simple math to determine if certain things are even possible.

If an opponent knows he is going to charge we will measure it before he even moves and know the total required.