Premeasuring. The good. The bad. The Snuggly.

Ok now unless you live under a rock, outside earth's atmosphere, in a cave, or in Kilmarnock (I kid, I kid) then you'll know that premeasuring is now totally 100% legal in 8th edition. And I'm here tonight to talk you through the good, the bad, and the snuggly.


So, premeasuring, lets go through this in order.

The Good:

Ok, the first and most obvious improvement it has on your game, and in most players minds is the shooting phase. So lets start there. First off premeasuring is amazing, as it ensures a shot is never wasted. If you move up to find you're out of range of EVERYTHING, well you could have calculated that in the movement phase, so why didn't you move, or, if you would have still been out of range, march? No excuses now. In addition, now War Machines don't have to guess (what'd the point be if you can premeasure). If you are an army that has warmachines, this is very very good. If you aren't, then pray. But seriously, it always seemed unfair to me, I knew a guy who was blind in one eye and had awful depth perception, so couldn't use guess range weapons at all (he also had to magnetise all his models). So it always peeved me off, that once you get good and experienced you almost never guess wrong anyway. Anyway, +1 for no more guessing! This makes mortars and stone throwers very good, as they suffered the most from bad guesswork.

In addition, it makes target priority easier. You know exactly when things will be hitting your lines. This is a good thing in my opinion. However, random charges do occasionally break games (dwarfs charging 15" and suchlike). But most of the time, it's a good'un.

Tying in to that it means you can better decide whether or not to charge. Yeah this is offset by random charges and suchlike, but it definitely helps, especially if you know the averages on dice. I usually go for charges if it's 6"+M away. Of course, in make or break moments, I've gone for charges M+>=10" away. It depends on the moment. But premeasuring helps with this too.

Another thing is it makes working out aura's and such much easier. For example, the BSB aura, the aura of your engine of the gods etc. You can make sure everything is within 12". It's a minor advantage, but it always sucked when you mismoved by half an inch and your unit ended up out of range.

Finally, and this has only helped once with me in 8E, but some of you 40k'ers out there might know the idea behind castling against drop pods, where you give them just too little space to land in your castle. Well it's a tactic I use a lot against flyers, to stop them soaring over my lines and charging my general. Basically I put a tarpit/redirector about 35mm in front of the unit i'm protecting. Means they can't charge, which is good.

The Bad:

It takes away the ability of seasoned players, or people who're just good at
guessing ranges to totally outplay (and I use play loosely) someone with an
inferior knack, smaller amount of experience, or reduced depth perception. In my opinion it can get really stupid among younger and less experienced players, because I do not approve of seal clubbing. Honestly, that's about all you lose from being able to premeasure. It hasn't changed very much for the worse. I want to clarify, I was amazing at guess ranges, so I wasn't one of those guys that got clubbed. I suppose it sucks if you play an army that didn't use guess range weapons. But I play skaven, so ha!

Seriously guys, I can't think about anything that's "bad" about premeasuring. As long as both parties can premeasure, it's fine. I don't get why so many people bitch and moan about it.

The Snuggly:

It stops a lot of arguments and debates dead. The ability to premeasure has done a lot for that situation in my area. No more "Aw I thought I was in but i'm out by half an inch, i wouldn't have redirected to them otherwise, can I take it back please?". Now there's no reason to not know, you had ample oppertunity to premeasure. Admittedly random charges again rears its ugly head to stamp all over the dreams of the innocent, and it often means you're out by hairs breadth's. But this stops a LOT of bickering in the shooting/magic phase. And because you can premeasure prior to magic/shooting I'm totally merciless when it comes to "can I just have it?".

This makes me feel snuggly, less arguing is good for our souls.

Hope you guys enjoyed the article!