My friend and I have taken to playing 150 point matches in order to create more thematic battles. He brought a bunch of upgraded TIE F/Os during our most recent skirmish. He equipped several with the Hyperwave Comm Scanner and then proceeded to leap frog them down the playing board until the last of his ships was within range 3 of me before the first turn had commenced.

I note in the verbiage of the Hyperwave Comm Scanner that additional benefits occur when ships are placed at range 1-2 of the ship with the Hyperwave Comm Scanner, but does the card allow for him to place ships outside of range 1 during the initial set-up?

No, unless he has lt. dormitz In play

1 hour ago, Cpt Salty Dog said:

My friend and I have taken to playing 150 point matches in order to create more thematic battles. He brought a bunch of upgraded TIE F/Os during our most recent skirmish. He equipped several with the Hyperwave Comm Scanner and then proceeded to leap frog them down the playing board until the last of his ships was within range 3 of me before the first turn had commenced.

I note in the verbiage of the Hyperwave Comm Scanner that additional benefits occur when ships are placed at range 1-2 of the ship with the Hyperwave Comm Scanner, but does the card allow for him to place ships outside of range 1 during the initial set-up?

Yup he did it wrong. Hypercomm doesn't change the deployment rules at all, it just lets you gain a benefit to ships which are deployed after the ship carrying it.