So it is great that FFG supports it's tournaments with swag. One of the most frequent items seems to be pilot cards with alternate art. I really applaud them on finding a way to go about giving something special to tournament attendees without making it something that those who cannot attend suffer for not having.

BUT, as fun as getting alternate art on a pilot card is, or a Bandit card from IA, doesn't really 'help' you in any way. I'd like to see a reward that is a little bit more rewarding, ESPECIALLY for those people who have to pay an entry fee.

One area I'd like to see FFG examine more for tournament participation awards is to offer new copies of existing "upgrade" cards with new art. It doesn't really hurt anyone who doesn't attend as you can still get the upgrade cards the traditional way - - - by buying the correct ship - - - and it doesn't have any sort of game balance implications, but it sure could be useful for a player to get more copies of certain upgrade cards. Imagine getting a "Gunner" card with alternate art, or if the IA tournament gave out the "Wingman" upgrade card rather than the Bandit pilot card.

You would have to limit those to top 4/8/16 to prevent stores from just selling old copies from previous events that went unused.

I think the problem with this is twofold.

One, anyone who plays the game uses pilots, but not every list contains upgrades. Sure, most have some, but many most/all generics. I think they'd need to limit it to the super common upgrades like mods for sure, and possibly EPTs.

Second is the problem that there are tons of upgrades to pick from, and it would be tough to choose items that please everyone. IA was my first tourney, but I'm pretty happy with my Bandit card. At 12 points, its a nice filler in Reb lists, and thus will get used.

My only suggestion to this format would be to make Unique versions of the generics for all the new ships, and give them to the folks that take them home. This would be in addition to the participation prize. This way the winners have some element to show and reminisce about. I'm planning to paint my Defender in some alternate scheme to mark it as my prize, but it'd be nice to have a built in method.

I love the idea.
We should start with the truly potent upgrades.

Push the Limit has recently tripled its odds of accumulation, so that's not needed.

Advanced Sensors has doubled with the E-Wing
Expert Handling comes with the X-Wing Expansion, which is a staple

Engine Upgrade only comes on the Millennium Falcon, and I want it in droves.

Stealth Device only comes on the Slave-1, and I want it in droves.

Draw Their Fire only comes on the Millennium Falcon, and I want it in a full plurality.

Those are some great options to start, for sure. Hull Upgrade is another one I wouldn't mind more of. I don't think Advanced Sensors is a great choice. It is quite powerful, but fairly limited in use.

Gunner would be great for us Imperial Players who hate seeing a <shudders> Wookiee by our pilots.

Eh, the anti-alien sentiment was never my favorite part of the Empire, but it would be nice to see him in a proper military uniform.

Obviously it'd be darned cool to see a picture using the weird black helmeted dudes that fired the Death Star laser.

Gunner would be great for us Imperial Players who hate seeing a <shudders> Wookiee by our pilots.

Wookie Slaves - you better not miss...

I got into this not long ago. Only played a handful of games. It seems to sell here but no one shows up to actually play it. I don't know if alternate card art cards are a draw since what's out there hasn't been enough to get people in to play to win it. I was fairly surprised only myself and 1 other guy showed up to the local AoIA despite what store employees say about people in the area that seem to play each other with sizable fleets. It was mentioned, generically, a nice prize could draw people. It was pointed out that the Star Trek ship mini game tourney recently went over very well because of the prize - a scale model of Deep Space 9 for the game. I'm not sure if the tourney was a summer championship type of event though. I'm not sure what FFG could do like that but perhaps a unique fighter model expansion set with a new, unique pilot card, dial and token, specific to tourney kits.

It would be really nice if FFG put out a booster type of card pack with cards people look for multiples of but don't think buying 3+ Falcons makes sense just to get the Engine a upgrade card. Cards like Engine, Hull and Shield upgrades, Advanced Sensors, etc..

As long as the fighter isn't such that its something only obtainable through tournaments. Alt-art and other such spiffiness are fine, but if its a product that you can only obtain by winning a tournament.... well, I personally think its awful. Even aside from the logistics issue of trying to balance such a thing, it tends to be very off putting to new and old players alike. Unobtainable products are frustrating to folks.

Free Exp Item, Pre-Release Item, Alt Art Cards, transparent Dice, etc are all viable rewards based off their principle of "Non Rarity Chaser" type of game.

Start throwing our "tourny" win only products not only unbalances the gameplay, but also pushes those "re-sale" their stuff people.

I totally love this idea.

It satisfies the alt art crowd, it gives an actual 'reward' for paying up front fees and supporting the game and is a better choice than just another Luke or Fett card, seeing as you can only use ONE of those, but multiple upgrades.

However I don't see FFG being excited to jump on that wagon. The reason being that if they had a choice of giving away things versus making you buy them, I suspect they would opt for the latter. Not that FFG is a greedy money hungry company or anything, they might be all for it, but in this day and age I have lost a lot of my faith in others that come together under the umbrella of business.

I just assume all of them are most interesting in the bottom line.

I would love to be proven wrong about it, like I said this is a far better option for us players.

Alternative art on upgrade cards will get boring pretty quick, at least the unique pilots are the actors from the movies

I love the idea.

We should start with the truly potent upgrades.

Push the Limit has recently tripled its odds of accumulation, so that's not needed.

Advanced Sensors has doubled with the E-Wing

Expert Handling comes with the X-Wing Expansion, which is a staple

Engine Upgrade only comes on the Millennium Falcon, and I want it in droves.

Stealth Device only comes on the Slave-1, and I want it in droves.

Draw Their Fire only comes on the Millennium Falcon, and I want it in a full plurality.

I HATE how many required upgrades the Falcon has that it only has that it doesn't even need.

Engine upgrade is the first and foremost. I feel strongly about this. Strong enough to entice me to get cookies to remind myself what side I play on.

Power through cookies.

I'd like to have a record for my sanctioned events. Once this game gets big enough I'd like invitationals

I am a realist and I like the tournament kits.

Its the best they can do without gimping their sales. Handing out upgrade cards is giving money away, meaning people will not buy an extra ship for that upgrade. Handing out alternate art pilots even makes money, because when you win that awesome character you might even want to buy the ship if you did not have it yet.

Company needs money, but they are emptying our pockets as fantastic and nice as possible. So an honest thanks to FFG.

How about this then... since initiative is now determined by a coin toss, FFG mint a coin that has the rebel symbol on one side and the Imperial symbol on the other. The artwork is already there, look on the back of the pilot cards. This would be a fantastic 1st place prize.

How about this then... since initiative is now determined by a coin toss, FFG mint a coin that has the rebel symbol on one side and the Imperial symbol on the other. The artwork is already there, look on the back of the pilot cards. This would be a fantastic 1st place prize.

That would be amazing!

How about this then... since initiative is now determined by a coin toss, FFG mint a coin that has the rebel symbol on one side and the Imperial symbol on the other. The artwork is already there, look on the back of the pilot cards. This would be a fantastic 1st place prize.

That would be amazing!

I second (third?) this. Awesome idea.

How about this then... since initiative is now determined by a coin toss, FFG mint a coin that has the rebel symbol on one side and the Imperial symbol on the other. The artwork is already there, look on the back of the pilot cards. This would be a fantastic 1st place prize.

I'd say Top 8, and make it plastic.

I like the idea of 1st Place getting an officially sanctioned Mat and/or acrylic rulers, tokens, et c.

I also love the idea of using alt-art Upgrades. That would get me to actually attend tournaments!

Alternatively, for the High-Tier tournaments (like, say, Worlds), we need to crack out cheap fascimiles of the medals from the New Hope Awards Ceremony, and have a Princess Leia cosplayer hang them round the winners necks.

I think the problem with this is twofold.

One, anyone who plays the game uses pilots, but not every list contains upgrades. Sure, most have some, but many most/all generics. I think they'd need to limit it to the super common upgrades like mods for sure, and possibly EPTs.

Second is the problem that there are tons of upgrades to pick from, and it would be tough to choose items that please everyone. IA was my first tourney, but I'm pretty happy with my Bandit card. At 12 points, its a nice filler in Reb lists, and thus will get used.

My only suggestion to this format would be to make Unique versions of the generics for all the new ships, and give them to the folks that take them home. This would be in addition to the participation prize. This way the winners have some element to show and reminisce about. I'm planning to paint my Defender in some alternate scheme to mark it as my prize, but it'd be nice to have a built in method.

First problem - everyone uses pilots but not every list contains upgrades.

Counter

1. If you have the ship to use the pilot, then you don't need the promo card because you have the regular one. Without the ship the promo card is useless.

2. Not everyone plays faction X, so there is the 'useless' factor there

3. What percentage of players do you think never use upgrade cards? I imagine it is quite low.

4. Probably the easiest thing to do at certain points levels is to squeeze in an upgrade card. giving them a lot of utility.

Second Problem - pleasing everyone.

Counter

1. Don't bother. You never can, even with promo pilots. In fact I think it would be easier to please with an upgrade card than a pilot due to wider potential utility.

I am a realist and I like the tournament kits.

Its the best they can do without gimping their sales. Handing out upgrade cards is giving money away, meaning people will not buy an extra ship for that upgrade. Handing out alternate art pilots even makes money, because when you win that awesome character you might even want to buy the ship if you did not have it yet.

Company needs money, but they are emptying our pockets as fantastic and nice as possible. So an honest thanks to FFG.

This I do see as a legitimate concern.

BUT, this is a standard business concern. You could say that FFG is already cannibalizing their prospective sales whenever they include 'reprints' in a new ship, or multiple copies. Why not force everyone who wants to fly multiple A wings with the refit price reduce to buy 4 copies of Rebel Aces? Because FFG knows at some point people simply won't buy a ship just for a card.

Heck, a game that gets a reputation where everyone has to buy multiple expensive ships and never use them just to get key utility cards can drive prospective players away.

The other real risk I see with this plan is what someone else mentioned...if popular upgrade cards are chosen a store may decide to sell them rather than give them out. As far as how to handle the card is one per attendee and extras after that split up amongst the top 4.

While it is true that there are some Faction Specific players, it seems like most buy ships on both sides. Even further, most seem to aim for one of each ship at least. Also, even if they are useless, they seem to have a decent secondary value, so folks could ebay them if they really don't care.

I would say the majority of my lists use few upgrade cards, maybe 1 or 2.

And my point was not pleasing everyone, its pleasing even a majority. Outside of some of the mods, most upgrades are fairly to really niche. I'm not counting consumables in here, since I think they'd be a fairly lame prize for difficulty in showing them off.

That being said, a round of some of those more common mods would be darn cool. Even a few EPTs that are common enough. Most of the rest of the categories are fairly limited. Even some of the common ones may feel less shiny to some folks, depending on how deep in to the rabbit hole they've already gone.

Gunner would be great for us Imperial Players who hate seeing a <shudders> Wookiee by our pilots.

Amen, brother! Give us an Imperial gunner!

This is a fantastic idea! I'd much rather have alternative art for desired upgrades rather than for pilots.