Hunted through all 20 pages of rules here, and found minimal discussion on this.  So thought I'd bring it back up.

The question itself is pretty simple: When can you measure range?  The specific situation I was facing last night was my opponent moved a TIE, and was considering a barrel roll.  Before doing so, he pulled out the ruler to check the range and see where he would end up after the roll.

My personal read on this: The rule book lists several specific cases where you can make measurements before actually taking an action.  Barrel roll, target lock, target selection…  IMHO if you can measure everything at will, there's no reason for these to be listed.  So even though it's not explicit, I tend to think you can't measure unless there is something that allows you to do so, such as one of the specific cases or an ability which requires a range check to work.

In general I think it hasn't been a huge deal, but I think it's about to get more important with Boost becoming a lot more common.  Thoughts?

During the planning phase a player cannot use the maneuver templates. You can place maneuver templates to see if you can legally perform a barrel roll or boost action. You can check range at anytime. 

paradox23 said:

Can you cite something to back this up?  I keep seeing people saying it, but to date I have yet to see anything in the actual rules to support it.

Buhallin said:

• "A player may measure to verify that these conditions are met before declaring a target."

It's a little less clear when you can measure during the Activation phase. Any ship with the Target Lock action can measure during the action phase (page 9, under "Acquire a Target Lock"):

• "The active player may measure to see if an enemy ship is within range before committing to this action."

So I think "measure range at any time" is at least a reasonable adaptation of the rules in friendly games. In tournament games, you'd be within your rights to politely request that your opponent not use the range ruler except when measuring before declaring an attack target or measuring for Target Lock--although I'm not sure there's much of an advantage to the "free measure" version of the rule.

Measuring with range templates, though, is never okay except in the case of Boost and Barrel Roll.

Buhallin said:

Doesn't need citation. There is nothing saying you cannot measure at any time. Don't mistake specific examples of when range measurement can be done as meaning it cannot be done at any other time.

ziggy2000 said:

So, if I were to take your models, put them on the ground, stomp on them and declare them destroyed I'd win, right?  After all, the rules don't say I can't do that…

This is a common mistake when it comes to rules analysis.  Rules can be either prescriptive - telling you what you can do - or proscirptive - telling you what you cannot do.

The entire concept of proscriptive rules falls apart in a heartbeat.  A rules system cannot possibly tell you everything you cannot do.  Any rules for games are, almost by their very definition, prescriptive.  They tell you what you can do, not what you can't do.

So yes, examples of when you can do range measurement do go a long way towards meaning that it cannot be done at any other time.  That's not guarantees, but that's more because of a failing in the rules than anything to do with game rules as a concept.

OK fair enough. Although if you stomped on my models there would be far greater consequences than just winning the game.

Anyone else agree that there are limitations on when you can measure range? I know the group I play with has never had this restriction. Nor any tournaments that I know of, all the way to Worlds.

I see absolutely no value added to the game by prescribing exactly when Range may or may not be measured. The only prohibition against measuring is during the Planning Phase with respect to maneuver templates.

Grimwalker said:

Allowing someone to measure range during the Planning Phase is just an end around on the rule about not being allowed to pre-measure movement.  If you allow people to measure range at that point you are giving them a tool to premeasure movement with as well.

You can measure when an action/abilities tells you to (only to the limits of the ability/action) or when preparing to target for an attack.

I'm with you on not using the Range Ruler to cheat during Planning Phase, sure. But outside of that, pettifogging over when you are or aren't allowed to measure range would only bog down the flow of the game.

suffice it to say it's never been a problem.

ziggy2000 said:

I want to clarify this statement to include "outside the planning phase". I never meant to imply that you should be allowed to measure range during planning, for all the reasons that Scottie ATF and others mention above.

Sunsteel said:

The rulebook does not say you can measure range to ships during the Planning Phase, so you can't measure range in the Planning Phase.  The rulebook highlights a number of instances where you can measure range, the Planning Phase isn't one of them.

You can't look at rulesets and say, "Well it doesn't say I can't, so therefore I can", no game's rules can function in that way.

At the bottom of page 8 in the rule book it does say the player can pre measure for a barrel roll before commiting.   as for pre measuring my gaming group uses the following house rules:       obviously you cant pre measure movement templates but we do allow pre measure for range as sometimes abillities can tke effect before a ship moves eg:    Dutch vander allows a friendly ship at range 1-2 to aquire a target lock after he has performed a target lock,  if the ship at range 1-2 has not already moved here is an example of range measurement outside of the action phase.  we also allow for pre measure of turbo boost although there is nothing in the rules that states otherwise we take the assumption that a pilot might not take a maneuvre that could put him in dangerous situation eg overlap or asteroid(similar to barrel roll).