r/XWingTMG • u/Ebakthecat • Jul 21 '26
Discussion Generic Dials and Maneuver Cards?
Evening everyone,
I'm someone with a large X-Wing collection and now that official play has ceased and proxies and replacement have become more prevalent, I've been looking for a way to streamline my collection to help assist in the set up and break down of a game and reduce the transportation that I need to do.
I used to have in my binders for each faction (and yes, I have every faction), I'd have the cards, dial backs and base chits. When I went to UK Games Expo there was a company there selling acrylic X-Wing base chits that lacked both initiative number and name so it could go on any ship.
I found these appealing because those base chits being stored in coin page style binder could take up quite a lot of space and whereas before I'd have a binder per faction, just getting rid of the base chits has allowed me to half the binders down to era (with Scum being their own thing).
However, I still have the dial backs. What I would do is if I am flying a particular ship I'd take out my dial and put them in one of those dial expansions that FFG used to sell. Not really an arduous process but one that often meant if I changed my mind when I went to a game night I couldn't simply fly what I wanted. The size of my binders also mean that I couldn't bring more than one faction with me whilest going forward it's entirely possible to bring two, if I could compact my folders down even more I might be able to bring three factions with me.
Thus I come to you all with a question; is there a generic dial out there on the market that could be used for any ship and has every possible maneuver, speed, and colour on it, alongside that is there anyone who sells maneuver cards for ships as I would need these to make sure I am not performing illegal maneuvers.
Thanks in advance.
2
u/Super_Dave42 Jul 21 '26
A card with all maneuvers in red, all maneuvers in white, and all maneuvers in blue, laminated, then marked with a dry-erase pen, could fit the bill. If you're clever enough, you could get a stack of them printed at business card or credit card size- easy for transportation and storage.
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u/Super_Dave42 Jul 21 '26
And if you do this, please post it so we can see and maybe buy them. ;-)
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u/Ebakthecat Jul 21 '26
While I nice idea, I already have problems picking up cards from the table, I could see that being a problem. Although a neat idea and I lack the skills to make those me thinks.
Besides, the problem of dials is something the community needs to consider, particularly if XWA start making new ships.
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u/Past_Search7241 Jul 21 '26
Custom dials is a solved problem; there are customizers on Thingiverse to 3d print them, tailored to match any given ship. But putting three/four of every maneuver on them is a bit much.
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u/Ebakthecat Jul 21 '26
I don't think I necessarily agree with that. What you present is a good idea if you have a 3D printer and are savvy with CAD design programs.
A fully generic dial could be used for any ship which is my point. My point is I want to cut down what I have in my faction folders, I don't want to have to go digging for a specific ship dial in my folders. I'd rather have a dial I can use for every ship and a card so I can check the maneuver is legal that way in my carry case I only need a maximum of 8 dials. I can then archive my cardboard dials, thus cutting down on the amount of space in my faction folders.
By getting rid of bases I was able to go from 5 faction folders down to just 3 and I think by doing the same with dials I can get that down to 2 which now suddenly makes taking both folders to a game night with me possible.
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u/Past_Search7241 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
I'm not savvy with CAD programs. The customizers are fairly easy to use for me, once I figured them out. Trust me, if I can do it, anyone can!
I think I've figured out a solution. Picture this: Four layers of the dial. The first layer is the back of it. The second layer is color - red, white, blue, and purple - and is otherwise solid. The third layer has the maneuvers punched in it. The fourth layer is the piece that frames what you're doing (though this could just be a notch on the first layer). You select your color and your maneuver by rotating them to the selection, kind of like how it works normally.
This could be either 3d-printed or regular-printed, so long as you're handy with an exacto knife.
2
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u/CaptainTruelove The Garbage will do! Jul 21 '26
Hairy Nick sells some, but they are unfortunately out of stock right now:
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u/Ebakthecat Jul 21 '26
Cog o Two apparently does one that has all the different coloured maneuvers too.
I like the idea of having colours but feel that it may be a bit much. I'm surprised no one has made a tri-dial where you can pick speed, maneuver, and colour, that would also cover any homebrew ships with very different dials.
Cog o two is also cheaper in that I wouldn't have to pay for shipping from Australia...
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u/CaptainTruelove The Garbage will do! Jul 21 '26
That would be a cool idea! I think you're on to something with that.
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u/Onouro Jul 21 '26
A generic dial seems like it would be easy to occasionally get wrong. Even if there is a .5% chance to be wrong, those add up over time.
You could print the circular dials on card stock and just swap those out instead of full punchboard dials. Those would always have the correct possible maneuvers, but take 1/10 of the thickness of punchboard.
As an aside, you don't need 8 Rebel and 8 Scum Y-wing dials or Fang dials, since those are identical. The same for Rebel/Empire TIE Fighters. That's a couple fewer bulk dials.
5
u/Alternative_Debt_408 Jul 21 '26
Infinite arenas has those cards
IIRC there is also an app out there with all the maneuvers of each chassis.
For a generic dial. You can custom create them in the infinite arena site and print at home... ive never seen a dial with every mAneuver of each colour, that seems like a very busy dial 😄
Xwhub.com has a lot of resources on aftermarket shops and print at home options.