For all I care he can set them all down and line em up, then change his mind and set them on the other side, then move them again. But once he says he's set and a ship of the next higher PS (mine or his) is grabbed then they are locked.

Naturally if my opponent was messing with his TIE Swarm and the clock is already running then I'll let him know we're on the clock ad he needs to get his ships down (so I can get mine down).

Kind of like playing Orks in 40K. If you can't move 6 squads of 30 boyz each in under 10 minutes you need to play a different army. Likewise, if you can get 7 Ties down in 5 minutes you need to fly BroBots.

And if the order was PS 2 you, PS 3 me, PS 4 you, then most certainly I would not allow you to mess with your PS 2 once I've placed my PS 3. It's not because now we're "reacting" to each other. It's just because the game state has moved on. This ship, then that ship, step by step in order because everything else in this game happens in a very strict order, especially when tiebreakers are needed. I really don't see a good reason why we'd be making an exception during ship placement.

There is no need for a reason to "make exception". The strict order of the activation and combat phase does not justify having the same for the ship deployment. If you want to implement a rule, you need to find it's own purpose.

The point of the PS order deployment is to allow the higher PS ships to react to the lower PS. That's exactly why the "game state moves on" after I deploy my PS 2 ships.

Another point I wanted to make. May have already been made, but this is reason enough I believe ships at the same PS in the same squad should be able to be adjusted in any order, whether or not they have been "placed".

Players use templates to adjust their swarms and make sure they are spaced correctly all the time. If we are going to go by this ruling, that once you have removed your hand from a piece, it is set in place, then this is illegal, as I'm certain no player is going to make sure one hand is on all 3 or 4 ships at all times, then slide a template in between the ships, then adjust, and then remove their hand from all the ships. The reason they would have to keep their hand on every ship is because undoubtedly, minor adjustments are going to be necessary for each ship, and as a ship where the hand is raised is considered placed, they can't risk placing one ship at a time and having one ship slightly off. Stating they have to place one at a time means that if they place their first ship, and while lifting their hand, slightly nudge it in the wrong direction, their whole game plan is absolutely ruined from the start.

This isn't like chess where a piece moved has a large square of where the pieces literal final position can be, and the move will be interpreted the exact same. Each millimeter can be important in a set up in X-wing. Penalizing players for the smallest of nudges that naturally occur in this game seems way, way too strict of a way to play this game.

I mean, even if a player nudges a ship the wrong direction after their PS set up is over, there is no way they should be expected to keep that ship there. They should be allowed to set the ship up as it was intended without any worry about following the ruling "by the book". Heck, I'm even fine with minor adjustments to placed ships when placing ships at a higher PS where the intention of a formation is obvious from the initial set up.

But yes, perhaps FFG does need to be a bit more clear on this.

I have no issue with an opponent changing the placement of any of his or her ships that have been placed since I last deployed a ship.

I don't even mind a "Oh, these guys aren't lined up mind if I tweak it?" even if I've deployed the next ship.

I just watched a national match on YouTube..howlrunner swarm vs. Luke, biggs,wedge.

The dude didn't even use a maneuver template for almost the entire first half of the game.

Everyone knows what was intended and didn't quibble about the fractions of millimeters. Very different from the age of laser line tools and marking every ship out of the way for range rulers we live in today.

Rules are only what is written. NOTHING can be inferred or added out of "common sense". I find "common sense" often is not common nor does it make any sense...

The setup rule pertaining to placing ships (Core, 17):

Place Forces: The players place their ships into the play area in order from lowest pilot skill to highest pilot skill. If multiple ships tie in pilot skill, the player with initiative places his ships with that pilot skill first. Ships must be placed within Range 1 of their player’s edge.

This says nothing about WHEN a ship is finished being placed. There is no "until the hand leaves the miniature" or other such wording here. The only limitation is a ship must be placed within Range 1 of the player's edge. As this rule is written, there is nothing wrong with moving around ships of the same pilot skill until that player declares they are done (and their ships are "placed") and the next ship in pilot skill order is readied to be placed.

I just watched a national match on YouTube..howlrunner swarm vs. Luke, biggs,wedge.

The dude didn't even use a maneuver template for almost the entire first half of the game.

Everyone knows what was intended and didn't quibble about the fractions of millimeters. Very different from the age of laser line tools and marking every ship out of the way for range rulers we live in today.

That was actually a terrible play by him (I've see the video).

Not because he didn't use move templates, but because where he actually put them would be wrong if they did all the same moves like that (when turning, anyway).

Very different from the age of laser line tools and marking every ship out of the way for range rulers we live in today.

That game sounds like it was played sloppy and quite frankly we're better off playing with more precision. Especially when you're talking about high level competition like the finals of Regionals, Nationals and Worlds.

The dude didn't even use a maneuver template for almost the entire first half of the game.

Did he just have all of his ships facing each other and bump to stay in place?

I try and hold myself to a strict "my PS2 is set; now I will place this PS4, followed by this PS4" setup ordering. I allow my opponents to do whatever they want, so long as their ships are set in stone when placement order returns to me.

Strict with myself, lenient with others. Seems that's how fly casual should be.

If someone isn't comfortable with their opponent placing, tweaking, replacing, etc. within a set of same-or-similar-PS ships, they should probably communicate that before placement begins.