The standard 3x3 table in 9 square feet. If you have a 5' diameter table that's over twice as much area although not have "square" edges can make maneuvers near them more challenging. The area increase may be a bit much but if you're award points for thing other than just shooting up your opponents that extra space could be good.

I have thought that a round play area would be interesting myself. I wouldn't mind hearing more about this scenario, before or after the fact, matters not to me. Let us know how the round area works out.

At our local game con, we've played on a round table when the rectangular ones just didn't fit the days floor plan. It was... different. Granted, we were playing a Furball, but there was no defined 'edge' to start on.

It certainly helped with the movement choices for some ships as it was much harder to drift off the edge of the map. However, on a round you end up with even *more* center of the table confusion/collisions as it's such a natural point for everyone to fight in.

*edit* I think it was a 4' round table. Whatever typical meeting room/library style table that is.

A table that is only 4' across has a little more than 12 square feet of area so it's a lot closer to the regulation 3x3. A little more space but still not too much.

Thinking on the 5' table, I believe that is be enough to allow evasion tactics to completely avoid enemy contact. It's probably big enough to allow Interceptors and A-Wings to actually use hit and fade tactics against things like Y-Wings without worrying too much about flying off the table. Looking at a table that size one should consider the advantages a "faster" ship will have.

I think the intent from the original post is getting a little lost with the comments about the 3x3 play area.

This would be an epic scenario, so I'm considering the play space to be 3x6 with the round 5' space being near equivalent. The obstacles take up much more room than asteroids, so the space is tighter, not looser and prone to evasion.

The obstacles would also be predetermined in location to make maneuvers in a centralized circular flight path almost mandatory. This makes cards that allow for evade tokens more valuable because K-Turns and sharp turns become more risky.

Hope that clears up some things.

Most of the games I've played have been at my local gaming club, where we set up on an 8'x4' table, but we haven't constrained ourselves to the 3'x3'. We play casual, not tournament style. We haven't used the whole 8' though, it just leaves plenty of room for the dead 'uns. No one has run to the edge, so most combat has been intense furballs in the centre of the table.

I think a 5' round would make a good size for 3 vs 3 starfighter combat. You will find that it should gravitate towards the middle anyway.

Most of the games I've played have been at my local gaming club, where we set up on an 8'x4' table, but we haven't constrained ourselves to the 3'x3'. We play casual, not tournament style. We haven't used the whole 8' though, it just leaves plenty of room for the dead 'uns. No one has run to the edge, so most combat has been intense furballs in the centre of the table.

I think a 5' round would make a good size for 3 vs 3 starfighter combat. You will find that it should gravitate towards the middle anyway.

Thanks for that. I guess I'm finding it hard to find people who enjoy casual play. Most of the chatter seems to be around maximizing squadrons in a highly competitive way.

I think play on a round field would be pretty cool. I would love to hear how it works out for you.

As for the 3d obstacles, most people I gave read who have used them make sure that they are mounted on stands so that the 3d part can be removed and leave just a base. if they get in the way of a ships movement.

Hmmm, so I think I will need to plan it out so that we can predetermine the locations of the large obstacles (think mountains) so that we can remove them and plan movement accordingly.

However, since the obstacles are so large, has anyone out there seen rules about ships crashing completely into obstacles the same way they would if they went off the map?

An alternative would be that if the ship would at some point overlap an obstacle, the ship's movement ends as if it had bumped. The player then rolls a number of attack dice equal to the speed of the maneuver and suffers damage as indicated on the dice.