So - I'm sure plenty of you know that if you're inside the asteroid area, you can safely 4K a small ship or 3K a large ship (assuming you're perpendicular to the edge) without flying off the end because they have to be R2 from the edge, which is 5 straight, or the distance (less back nubs) of a base + 4 straight, or large base + 3 straight.

I used this to judge that I could safely make a 3K with my Firespray yesterday, and then ended up off the board. We measured the asteroid and found that it wasn't R2 from the edge. The TO ruled that it sucks, but it flew off the board, so it was off... Which I kinda agree with. But the opponent agreed to let me do a 3 turn instead because we both were judging the 3k based on the position relative to the asteroid... plus he basically had the game wrapped up and we play against each other all the time in good fun.

Obviously, the asteroids move a bit every now and then, and I agree with the TO that my ship should have fled the area. But the question the arose - what do we do with the asteroid? The TO said we should push it back to R2 from the edge, which almost screwed over my opponents move as he cleared the now moved asteroid by 2mm...

There's nothing in the rules about asteroids moving. It does state about ships bumping and nudging and that it's part of the game and as long as it's not intentional/excessive it's fine... but how would you rule about the asteroid?

And while having it be at 1.8 from the edge may not sound like such a big deal... but what if they nudged .8 between each other... now a big base can't fit between them, where as with fancy flying it can when they're R1 from each other. Was the TO right to say place it back in its original legal location, or should we have played out with it in its new location?

I'm going with a golf rule on this one: Play it from where it lies.

Stuff moves as you jostle, place, roll, template, measure stuff so an asteroid could move from its initial placement. I would leave it where it is and call it a minor adjustment.

It does state about ships bumping and nudging and that it's part of the game and as long as it's not intentional/excessive it's fine... but how would you rule about the asteroid?

I'm inclined to say you play with it where it's at. If it was knocked out of place by a meaningful amount, I'd say move it back, but only if doing so wouldn't interact with any ships. So no moving it back so now a ship is ontop of it. Wait until the area is clear then move it back.

Play it where it sits.

Bumping happens. You clean it up as you can, when you can, but you certainly don't go back several turns and try to fix something like that.

As the others have said, I would just continue with it where it was. If, for some reason, you had to move it back to a legal placement I would wait to do so until the end of the current round to ensure it doesn't mess up any remaining moves that round.

I also heartily approve of your opponent being a sport and letting you change to a 3 turn since you were operating on faulty information.

Play it where it lies.

When it was bumped, it should have been moved back to it's correct location ... just like you would do with any ship. Once you're past that, play it as it is.

Mark it up as asteroids floating through space. No reason to push it back. Add some realism! Those things don't just float perfectly still!

If one is really concerned about asteroid mvt and has a felt or slightly rough surface, just put a little piece of velcro on the back of the asteroid. Stays in place nicely.

Blu-tac or similar works well too!

I would leave it. You fled the battle because of it, so that should remain for all subsequent rounds.

we blutac the asteroids onto the board, so they dont move, unless you really rip them off the surface

Asteroids move all the time! Look at the movies!

So - I'm sure plenty of you know that if you're inside the asteroid area, you can safely 4K a small ship or 3K a large ship (assuming you're perpendicular to the edge) without flying off the end because they have to be R2 from the edge, which is 5 straight, or the distance (less back nubs) of a base + 4 straight, or large base + 3 straight.

I used this to judge that I could safely make a 3K with my Firespray yesterday, and then ended up off the board.

Here's where you went wrong. Under normal circumstances (asteroids staying where they were put) you'd be fine. But the asteroid had moved and you assumed it hadn't.

Never, never, never assume. There's no such thing as a safe move.

Just for the record, how far over the edge did your K3 end up?

It ended like 5mm over the edge... It was clearly off, but it wasn't off enough that I could see that there was going to be a problem doing it.

While basing your movement off of the position of the asteroid might be a valid way for some players to judge distances, but ultimately, you should be basing your movement off of the position of your ship. If this were a tournament, I would have told you tough luck (if it were casual play, I wouldn't care too much, fun is the most important factor there).

If the asteroid moved a great deal, then I'd let to TO decide if we should try to move it back. If I were the TO, I would say that unless both players agree on placing it back to where it was, then it should stay where it is now.