RE: Pre-measuring things

Some quick remarks about measuring:

1. Measurement before or after declaring of firing is a matter of
choice. I
prefer "before", but only bother in cases where the (artificial) range
boundaries
are borderline. It's necessary for playability that a Class 1 beam has
full
effect at 11.99 MU and zero effect at 12.01 MU, so I don't see anything
wrong
with measuring before firing, as you're going to have to measure
afterwards
anyway.

2. Measuring when deciding what to do next is also OK by me. It's really
important
if using fighters, missiles, KraVak, or fighting against them.

3. The basic meta-rule is not to take too long about any measurement. A
swift
whip-out tape measure, point in about the right direction, read off
range, retract
tape, should take no more than 10 seconds. You might want to fan it a
bit to
get approximate ranges to other enemy ships. And no more than 1 or 2
measurements
should be necessary even with a large fleet.

4. I tend to follow "statements of intent". If my opponent says during
fighter
reaction movement "I want to place this fighter group to be just in 6MU
of this
ship, and just out of 6 MU of that one", then as long as the Fighter
Group is
placed in about the right position, exact distances don't matter.
Similarly,
saying "I'm dogfighting this group and that group with my group here" is
OK
providing the 2 groups are close, as sizes of stands for fighters vary
so the
definition of "base contact" is flexible. This saves a LOT of time.

Someone who measured every range with a micrometer, then wrote orders
like "Thrust
3.7723 MU" would be a painful opponent to play, as his game is "Rules
Lawyer"
not "FT".