My reasoning is that you'd only bring small rocks if you were afraid of hitting them yourself. i.e. you are not confident of manoeuver.

That is, my belief is that better players will be more likely to bring the larger asteroids.

1/ It would be nice if ListJuggler would record rock and obstacle choice as they are part of the list.

2/ Have people noticed a correlation between player skill and asteroid size? I am reasonably certain (but haven't recorded and counted) that I see more smaller rocks in the early rounds of swiss.

edit: What rocks or obstacles were brought at worlds?

This flies in the face of everything my girlfriends have ever told me. Its not the size that matters, its how you use it. And now youre telling me the better people have bigger ones?! Not sure I can get on board with this

It's a tad more complicated- Swarms and Jousting lists prefer smaller rocks to minimize the advantage a more maneuverable opponent gets from a dense asteroid setup. However, both those archetypes are marginalized at the moment, so big rocks are more popular.

Yeah generally I bring 3x big rocks, even with my swarms. It's easier to build fields that counter your opponent's list, or funnels them where you want them, and I trust that my manoeuvring is better than most people's.

I can't actually remember the last time I landed on a rock, although occasionally I'll fly through them to throw my opponent off. Dash can be a pain with 3x big rocks, but at least it's not 3x big debris.

I usually bring large debris with ships that dont care about stress. Then, I land on and fly through them a lot on purpose. I'm crazy like that.

I do believe that higher play will see large rocks like you said. Could break formations, bump them where they land on one, and the extra possible damage and no action helps.

I think this is simplifying the decision. It's what suits your squad, your maneuver dial, your way of playing.

I mean at a basic level the 'bring big rocks if you're good' assumes you're going to be playing against idiots who can't avoid rocks. If you think you're playing against good players then other factors surely come into it.

I will literally just grab the first 3 rocks that come to hand.

Unless I'm playing Dash, then it's the first 3 debris.

There's been a bit of a spike of tractor beam lists in my local meta, so I'm bringing smaller obstacles to minimise the amount of time I spend tractored onto them...

I tend to bring the 3 biggest rocks unless I'm running multiple large bases (and even then I might if one of them's Ketsu) or a swarm. Unless debris is advantageous for some reason e.g. all ships having Collision Detector, or having Assaj on the board to benefit from stressed enemies.

I tend to run the fat potatoes unless I am running swarm or multiple large ships.

I've been running big rocks, but very recently changed to smaller rocks. I do this because most players bring large rocks and expect to see all large rocks.

So I bring small rocks, but during placement I use their big one or two (however initiative works) first in hopes it affects their strategy.

Additionally, if I see hem making wide lanes with big rocks I can use little ones to clog them.

Turn zero is still, after all this time, abstract to me and I have difficulty figuring out if my opponent wants a cluster or a wide field. So I just mix it up.

I like big rocks and I cannot lie...

2 minutes ago, Fuzzywookie said:

I like big rocks and I cannot lie...

Where swarms cannot fly?

1 minute ago, Caboose2900 said:

Those other swarms cannot fly?

fixed

As others have said I think it really depends on what ships you are flying. I bring small rocks when flying stuff like the lambda or upsilon shuttle. I also tend to bring small rocks when flying barrel rolling and boosting aces to maximize their mobility options.

I'll bring big rocks when I'm flying a 2-3 ship list that has about a medium level of mobility.

35 minutes ago, Jarval said:

There's been a bit of a spike of tractor beam lists in my local meta, so I'm bringing smaller obstacles to minimise the amount of time I spend tractored onto them...

And while I'm not in your local meta, I tend to bring things with Tractor Beam (lookin' at you Quadjumper) and I tend to bring all the big rocks to maximize my opportunities.

Going through an itty bitty place your large ship gets stuck...

32 minutes ago, Fuzzywookie said:

Going through an itty bitty place your large ship gets stuck...

want a list that's tough

cause you notice that rock is stuffed,

deep in the meta he's caring

his list he is not sharing

no debris fields and he cant stop staring...

Oh baby. I just wanna blast ya... make you crash yea....

Conner Net, Fett

Got going like a Correlian Corvette!

Im tired of Tractor Beams,

saying big rocks are the thing,

Take the average Xwing player and ask him that,

Gotta pack much more than Latts...

Even Dashes boys gotta shout, Rendar loves rocks...

Anyone else think it's time we get some more rocks or new types of obstacles?
It would be an easy and effective way for FFG to introduce new mechanics/strategies.

This is true. I'm more confident in my ability to avoid rocks than the regular potato, so I take large rocks to give me an edge vs newer players.

Also, of course, mine are bigger and better.

So players if your rocks are round,

and you're Rebel "Triple-X" throwdown!

Dial 1-900-TRCTRBM, and kick it with Unkar Platt!

I usually bring small rocks as I often perform formation flying and big rocks can significantly complicate that. However I consider myself average XWing player, so the trend may be true after all