OK. This isn't really a question, but it was something that I was unaware of until judging at my Month 3 OP event. I just wanted to share in case of future event issues for other players/Judges.

Now...when determining range and if a ship has a Line of Fire to another ship, you MUST use the shortest distance between the two ships. You can't pick a different spot to avoid obstacles or change your firing qualifications (like if you need to be with 2-3 instead of 1-2).

During my Month 3 OP event a player had an issue where the shortest distance between the ships did NOT pass between the planet token, but when placing the range ruler inside the firing arc, the range ruler did overlap the planet token. Obviously the players questioned on whether or not LOF was obstructed or not. According to the rulebook, it states that if the Range Ruler overlaps an obstacle, then the LOF is obstructed. Another player stated that the LOF is really just determined by an infinitely thin line between the two shortest points.

Well...according to Andrew on BGG, the infinitely thin line answer is the correct ruling. Andrew's post can be found HERE.

Some of you may have already been aware of this, but I wanted to share this with others (like myself) that were not.

Very good information to share with the crowd!

So are you saying that if the closest point between two bases falls outside the firing arc, but a portion of the base is within the firing arc that the ships cannot fire at the target?

If you read that post of Andrew's he says "During combat, you use the shortest distance between the two ship bases that falls within the attacker's firing arc."

In your example the shortest distance between the two ships is outside the firing arc - however, you would need to actually find the shortest distance between the two ships inside the firing arc.

From there you would see if anything obstructs the line of fire. During combat you need to deal with shortest distance inside the firing arc - not simply shortest distance period.

Correct. Think of it as you have multiple ways to get from your work to your home, but you always take the shortest distance to save gas.

In these games you always have to use the shortest distance from ship base to ship base. If anything obstructs +1 die or no shot in the case of a planet.

Edit: Nevermind. There is 1 subject (distance between ships) and 2 different phases of the game (during combat and everything else) being talked about here. And the way to measure each is different.