Just played in a recent Regional Event (my first) in Tempe, AZ and found I had a different interpritation of the asteroid ( obstacle ) rules.

The players there (Or at least a large group of them) contend that you hit an asteroid if your ship base overlaps an asteroid during any part of the movement along the manuever temple.

I contended that either the Manuever Template must over the asteroid or your ship base overlaps the asteroid at the end of it's movement otherwise no collision has occured.

when I brought this up with rulebook in hand I was brushed off with a… "Well its in the FAQ"

This in no way significantly impacted any of my games.

So am I wrong or missing something in the FAQ?

There is absolutely nothing in the FAQ that even remotely suggests that a ship moves along the template at anytime other than when overlapping another ship.

Your interpretation regarding obstacles is absolutely correct, and was clarified by one of the game designers at the FFG regionals this past weekend.

dbmeboy and ziggy both have it correct, I'm just here to add citations

Page 7, Execute Maneuver: H olding the template firmly in place, grip the side walls of the base and lift the ship off the play surface. Then place the ship at the opposite end of the template.

Page 17, Plastic Bases Overlapping: If a ship executes a maneuver that would cause the final position of its base to physically overlap another ship's base…

Page 20, Moving Into and Through Obstacles: When a ship executes a maneuver in which either the manuever template or the ship's base physically overlaps an obstacle token…

So: The ship never "flies the path" - you pick it up and put it down at the far end of the template. Overlapping of the base is defined solely by final position (which is why I included the Page 17 reference, even though it's for ships rather than obstacles).

In short: You were right, they were wrong. At the risk of shameless self-promotion, you might point them here:

http://teamcovenant.com/buhallin/2013/04/12/all-about-obstacles/

Big miss on the TOs part. And the excuss that it is in the FAQs without having it on hand and being wrong is honestly bad enough to say he should not TO again.

And I sah this becuase I am going to be the TO in my area and I know this is not a new question and has been answered many times.

Sorry for your bad experience.

If your going to TO know the basics. And if you don't know them don't lie through your teeth to just be right. It makes you look stupid.