"What do you use to measure distance on your table?" Topic

Share your unique distance rulers!

I really do not want to use my Stanley tape measure :)

Depends on what game. I am rather fond of measuring sticks, just cause I like the multicolored lines and all. And sometimes, if you need to go around a lot of terrain, those cloth measuring tapes work great. But there isnīt anything wrong with a good Stanley tape measure!

We don't allow no Commie Socialist metric system on my table.
Inches and feet only, my friend.

I have a lot of Walmart extruded rulers. Interestingly, their lengths can vary by +/- 1/4".
Their calibrations are not traceable to NIST, that's for sure.
I do have 30' Stanley tape measures but on a 9' x 5' table, that's just showing off. It's not the size that matters.

Well over here inches are scarce as henīs teeth, so if I need inches it has to be a homemade measuring stick. Besides, I hate to say it, but metric is so much more elegant for wargames.

Would you like me to smuggle some cheap inaccurate 12" rulers to you?

A small measure tape and a home made small arms fire sick with short, middle, and long range for smoothbore and rifles.

A lot of times playing skirmish games on a 2' x 2' I use a popsicle stick for movement (1 stick for normal move, 2 for sprint, etc…).

V/R,
Jack

I use a ruler pretty much identical to this. An old wooden and brass builder's ruler. Also us a tape measure with dual imperial/metric increments.

I use plain-ol' tape measures, but I should make a few sticks for various rules I want to try.

Wee bits of string with a knot tied every so many inches. Handy for measuring around corners.

Tape measures. Unless it's a big "show off" kind of game, then I use my trained shark with laser range finders strapped to their heads. NOBODY argues with ranges at those games.

Oh, and these rulers are great – they have both metric and Imperial…

I prefer almost anything to expanding tapes – dowels cut to length are OK but something amusingly relevant to the game is even better – in my DBA-based Bosworth game I used little arrows for moving and shooting

(Phil's Bosworth game, measuring tools visible in this shot*)

Swords, rifles etc. are other good, more or less straight, items that can be crafted to the right length …

Phil
Ancients on the Move
*I had to hunt around for a pic, though, as I tend to clear game tools and wargamer detritus out of the way when I take photos

Games workshop whippy sticks or a transparent plastic ruler – sometimes a measuring tape

I use the omniruler from CorSec

corseceng.com/omni-ruler

Of course you can always use your bodily spans and cubits. Not my fault that you are small and scrawny.

I wish that Flames of War had used bodily measurements.
Pistol fire a span, rifle fire a cubit.
25pdr range 3 paces…

Hexes.

… and what normsmith said – area movement systems do obviate the need for measuring and all of the disputes (and much of the cheesiness) that goes with measuring …

Phil

"I wish that Flames of War had used bodily measurements"

So many jokes, so little chance of remaining undoghoused…

"Mine's 6 inches, but I don't use it as a rule…"

Marked bamboo skewers

Brian,
I had one of them when i was much younger(i say i had it, it really was my fathers. I used to use it as a type of bridgelayer for my Airfix 54mm figures.

6"?? you have really short arms…

In my WWII game, hexagons 8" across on parallel sides.

I have used the plastic packing strips cut and coloured into 'blocks' of measurement……and ranges too…….great for conventions too when the gamers 'wander' off with them……tough and flexible, just marked with indelible black marker………

I like the OFMīs idea! Then no more of converting things from metric and back again. If the cubit was good enough for Noah, itīs good enough for me, damn it!

In grewing up number of games I use squares.

See here too: link

The reason is the same Yesthatphil wrote. You can play much quicker without boring discussions about measuring

Try playing crossfire.
Then you have no need of any measuring device

I'm fond of the cheap yardsticks you get at the big box hardware stores for a buck or so. While my son was younger he was fond of bending them like bows or leaving them on floor where someone would step on them and they would predictably snap. I'd cut the ends square to the nearest inch (they had inches on both sides so one would always start at zero) and I ended up with 14" long rulers, 17" long rulers etc.

Just a cheap retractable measuring tape. Though I have some plastic wall sections that are exactly 6" long, so often we just use one of those since for FiveCore all the movements are 6" and "short range" is 12".

Sometimes it's easier than swinging around a long tape that'll get everywhere and knock stuff over.

I have a 12' tape measure I use. I need to find a small metric tape (maybe a tailor's tape?).

My hands are actually 4" across the knuckles, so it's really easy to spread out in Flames of War.

I was debating about using 2" Base Widths for LaSalle and the rest of Sam's new games.

Lion – a buddy of mine back in school figured out one of his fingers was exactly 2" long, so he became the squad coherency checker in warhammer 40K :)

Actually, for the skirmish type games I run, movement
IS measured using the knuckles of one's hand (roughly
4" as mentioned upthread).

Wounded figures move 2 finger widths (about 2").

A 'run' is the distance from the tip of the pinky finger
to the tip of the thumb, the fingers being extended (about
8 and 1/2 "}

A walking horse uses that distance, while a horse moving
fast uses double.

For mundane stuff like ranges, etc., a flexible tape
measure.

I dislike having players talking about centimetres or inches when it represents 100s of metres of yards or paces or whatever.

In my games I made light wooden measuring sticks or thick paper ones [laminated ideally]. I wouldn't allow my ten thumbed players bring one of those heavy metal tape measures anywhere near my games…and it was one rule for one one rule for all – so even the most nimble fingered had to use my measuring sticks.

Equilateral triangles with each side an appropriate scale distance and the angles 60 degrees could be useful too. I like the hexagons idea above as well.

Mostly metal rulers. Sometimes sticks and in some participation games we use things like your forearm for shooting distance and extended thumb-to-little finger for moving.

I use a flexible curve (used for drafting). You can measure straight or around curves in metric or inches. They also hold their shape if needed. Plus, they're covered in soft plastic/rubber so they won't harm figs or terrain.

Oooh, Punisher I like those!

Texas Jack, never had a problem with one. I've used one for years and really like it after trying all sorts of other measuring devices already mentioned by others above. Forgot to mention that you can also get them without any measuring scale too. I have a couple in just a plain blue color that I marked with my own measurments for a one-off homebrew game I play. :)

For games with fixed movement, I have some of these:
link
Look nice on the table and can be used to punish rules lawyers.

For games with mostly variable movement, cheap tape measures.

For those who use the GW sticks, you should compare it to a real measuring device. You may find an interesting result.
I prefer wood rulers but get all kinds of grief from other players who quibble (yes, quibble) over +/- 0.5mm discrepancies.

3-inch hexes:

link

No arguments over whether something is in range or not.