I keep seeing people commenting about how asteroids cannot be placed within range 1 of eachother, and I cannot find this ruling anywhere. I have scoured the updated rules and FAQ and found nothing about basic play. The only reference to not being able to place them within range 1 of eachother is in one of the missions in the base set. (I am not referring to any tournament rules, just standard play).

Obstacle rules from the updated general rules:

"Starting with the Imperial player, each player takes a turn placing one obstacle inside the play area. Obstacles cannot be placed within Range 1–2 of any edge of the play area. After placing all of the obstacles, the Rebel player chooses which edge of the play area is his. The Imperial player’s edge is on the opposite side of the play area.Players may agree to increase the size of their play area to account for these extra elements."

It's in the Tournament rules, where they also state that the game's played on a 3'x3' square, and other things like that.

The way this game is designed, you could theoretically mass a huge number of players and do this on a mat spanning a football field to reenact the battle over Endor.

Yeah but I keep seeing people say this is a rule for general play, not just tournament play. This is clearly not the case then. If you're playing a non-tournament game the asteroids can be as close together as you want.

If you're playing a friendly game at home, do whatever you want. Put them in a pile. Play without them. There are no rules.

The accepted competitive format uses the standard 6 asteroids, placed a minimum of range 2 from the map edges and range 1 from one another, and that is the format that everybody uses outside of games with friends where they're homebrewing whatever rules they feel like.

I'm not sure what you're asking here - that's the accepted format. If you don't want to follow it in your own games, don't. But it is what most of the rest of us play by, precisely because it is the 'standard' format for competitions.

If you're playing a friendly game at home, do whatever you want. Put them in a pile. Play without them. There are no rules.

The accepted competitive format uses the standard 6 asteroids, placed a minimum of range 2 from the map edges and range 1 from one another, and that is the format that everybody uses outside of games with friends where they're homebrewing whatever rules they feel like.

I'm not sure what you're asking here - that's the accepted format. If you don't want to follow it in your own games, don't. But it is what most of the rest of us play by, precisely because it is the 'standard' format for competitions.

This.

In any miniatures game I've played, the accepted standard -- or mutual language if you will -- is whatever the rules for the tournament scene are. Those become the rules for general play (with the exception of time limits) and the conversation that surrounds the game. If the standard tournament game changes to 125 points, you'll see the new standard for general play change as well and people will talk about building 125 point squads instead of 100 point squads.

If you're going to walk into a game store and find a random opponent, the basic tournament rules (again, exception of time limit) are the ones that he or she would expect.

You're always welcome to do what you want outside of that and scenarios and tweaking a lot of fun (there's no rules for the first death star battle, for example, but people still play it), but tournament rules tend to define the standard game.

I would echo the other comments that it is better to play using tourney rules when possible even for casual games if you think you may enter a tournament at some point. You will benefit from having gained experience with the tourney rules before you face your foes. You also won't be faced with issues where you might have developed a strategy in casual play that you can't use in a tournament. For example, with the astroids, you get used to creating a tight barrier to deploy your ship behind.

Having said that, by all means, do not play *every* casual game as if it were a tournament. This above all else: HAVE FUN!