Turns. The ugly, expensive option

In FT, turns are always 1/12th of a circle. Eddie made the forceful point the other night that everyone should be turning in the same reference frame, so that every ship heading is an exact multiple of 30 degrees off the long axis of the table, for example. It's a good idea, except that the square pieces of the table aren't ever squared up to each other and it's hard to measure the offsets satisfactorily.

I think we can get a part fix with a big-gish 30/60/90 triangle; lay it alongside the ship with one side pointing straight ahead, and then move the ship down the other side. I will try to make up a couple of these about a foot long between now and Monday evening.

The other thing I can think of - the expensive option - is a hex cloth. Not to measure moves on directly, but to provide a reference frame. So your ship will always be lined up either with a hex spine or the nearest hex side, making it clear what the headings are and simpliflying arguments over arcs.

Hex cloths are not, however, all that cheap. So I'm inclined to throw aesthetics to the wind a bit and suggest that it makes more economic sense to buy them in blue so that they can be used for air and naval games as well.

Might be something to look out for at Salute