"Preferred Type of Measuring Tape?" Topic

What type of measuring tape do you prefer to use at the wargaming table?

* metal tape, retracting
* cloth tape, retracting
* cloth tape, loose
etc.

Metal tape.

6 foot, metal retractable with lock and dual Imperial/metric.

Metal tape, retracting, but longer than six foot if possible. After all, I might need a diagonal measurement across my 6ft by 4ft table.

metal tape, retracting

Flexible card strip.

metal tape, retracting

+1 Louis XIV

For a serious table, 25' 1" wide metal retractable measured in inches unless the game requires metric and then the metric tape comes out.

Smaller, handier metal retractables for smaller tables. I have a sweater box of measuring devices.

But surely it depends on rules and table? I do SYW with "From Marlborough to Frederick" which measures everything in paces, and paces depend on infantry battalion frontage--so I have custom card sticks to match, but different in 2mm than in 6mm.

Metal tape, retracting, inches and metric 10 foot

Really depends upon the game, but generally metal retracting.

Measuring sticks specific to the game system, for example:

Mostly metal retractable. A few years ago, Harbor Freight had a weekly coupon to get one free (without purchase) and I drove past one every day during my daily commute. I must have at least 5 in the gaming room and several more scattered around the house.

I also like wooden rods painted with range bands.

Metal tape retracting

Measuring sticks for games like Songs of blades and heroes

Paper Tape (free from Ikea or Home Depot, or homemade)

We do a lot of skirmish scenarios where running around a corner or bobbing and weaving among crates is important. Paper works well for that. Cloth would too…

The Shadowrun Duels (I should get that out soon …) game had a "custom" measuring tape that came with it. All it did was take the various range numbers and put colors on that matched the dice colors for those capabilities that came with the figures.

It modified a wargaming artifact to remove drudgery math from the players. I did a similar thing for the movement and range penalties for QILS at a convention and the players liked it.

Even though the QILS rules and very simple and the math is very simple, I think it helped players focus more on maneuver and engagement and less on rules and arithmetic.

So, adding option …

Custom

When I use a measuring tape, a small, metal retracting type. (A local designer furnishing store my wife likes gave out some 6' tapes marked in standard and metric, and I now use that.)

But most of the time I use either a plastic ruler, a measuring stick, or a grid. Or, frankly, I eyeball it. An over-obsession with precision is a fool's game.

Retractable metal tape.

Metal.

The default is a metal retractable tape measure, with both metric and Imperial units. I have several of these in 1-yard or 1-meter lengths, and several in 2-yard / 2-meter lengths, and usually keep them with the play aids for each game.

I own a couple of much longer tape measures, like 16 feet, for gaming on large tables, like at conventions.

I also have some freebie paper tape measures (from IKEA, if I recall correctly) which, as Etotheipi noted, are good for measuring movement that winds around obstacles.

I think pre-measured colored sticks could be useful, but I've never gotten around to making any.

I prefer a manually wound retractable tape, with the tape itself in leather, marked in micro-furlongs.

Metal, retractable in imperial and metric. Good ones are hard to find in the US, but I have gotten some inexpensive ones at Dollar Tree.

For most things a metal retractable 3m tape in marked in metric and imperial. For a couple of rules sets I've got home-made measuring sticks for movement and ranges.

Retractable metal tape.

For spaceship games I like to use my Grandfathers old wooden folding rule. Otherwise metal retractable or game specific measuring sticks.

Robert