Just finished a game using my Vidla Crucible racing scenario with 6 players on a 36"x72" play area. I had run it before with 3 players on a 36"x36" and wasn't sure how it would hold up. But I think everybody had a good time tonight. One of the players took photos after every turn so I'll try to get those posted up here whenever he sends them to me.

The competitors, by initiative order (we rolled 8 attack dice to settle tiebreakers):

Troy (39 points):

(ID token: stress marker) Blackmoon Squadron Pilot + Engine Upgrade + R2-D2 + Flechette Torpedoes

DagobahDave (40 points):

(ID token: 13) Academy Pilot + Engine Upgrade

(ID token: 14) Academy Pilot

(ID token: 15) Academy Pilot

Patrick (40 points):

(ID token: black 35) Omicron Group Pilot + Ion Cannon

(ID token: 39) Academy Pilot + Engine Upgrade

Beau (40 points):

(ID token: 31) Prototype Pilot

(ID token: white 35) Gold Squadron Pilot + R2 Astromech + Ion Cannon Turret

Valerie (40 points):

(ID token: 40) Prototype Pilot + Ion Pulse Missiles

(ID token: 7) Bandit Squadron Pilot + Cluster Missiles + Engine Upgrade

Taylor (40 points):

(ID token: 11) Academy Pilot

(ID token: 18) Sigma Squadron Pilot + Advanced Cloaking Device + Fire-Control System (and using a Defender dial, we realized after the race -- the crew chief for that team has been executed)

The starting grid (an area measuring Range 2 by Range 3 in the "southwest" corner of the mat) was pretty full with 12 ships. The starting cannon fired and they were off. The objective was to pass to the outside of three "corner" asteroids and then flee the battlefield across the northern edge of the mat (the finish line).

DagobahDave sent one of his Academy TIEs off the course as a blocker/interferer, as did Patrick's Lambda shuttle and Taylor's Phantom. Everyone else headed for the first corner asteroid.

Weapons were disabled until the start of the fourth turn. By that time, the race leaders had rounded the first corner asteroid and were heading for the second, with DagobahDave's upgraded Academy TIE (#13) leading the pack. Troy's E-Wing seemed to be a popular target for ions, and Taylor's Phantom was behaving... strangely, bumping into other ships more often than not.

Valerie's A-Wing (#40) blasted the race leader and took over the top spot as it rounded the second corner. The middle of the race area was chaos, with the Lambda delivering ion shots and blocking everything, and the Y-Wing and Phantom getting in each other's way. Most of the carnage took place between the first and second corner asteroids.

Fast forward a couple of rounds, and #40 was a cloud of debris and Patrick's Academy Pilot (#39) was now in the lead and rounding the third and final corner, protected by his blocker/interferer Lambda. He had a clear shot to the finish line, taking 50,000 credits as the race winner.

The Lambda was destroyed by then, leaving just two ships to battle it out for second place: Troy's E-Wing (#stress) and DagobahDave's interferer-become-third-place Academy Pilot (#15). Dave's only hope was to destroy the E-Wing, but took a flechette torpedo to the face and couldn't stop the E-Wing's momentum. Troy took second place with his nearly pristine E-Wing and Dave's #15 came in third place as the last surviving ship.

In the end I think we all found it a refreshing change from dogfighting, and having 6 players playing at once was a lot of fun. We decided to allow barrel rolls and boosts even if they resulted in overlapping an asteroid, with the usual consequences for doing so. Other than that, the scenario worked really well and seemed to end pretty quickly after the first players were knocked out of the race, so no one was standing around too long. I think it says a lot about how great this game is that we can do something like this without making major rules changes and it holds up just fine.

The scenario rules are available here:

--DEAD LINK. SORRY.--

This sounds fantastic. I might try and run this at my locL group. Well done!

Cool, I hope you do! Let me know if you run into any rules issues or come up with some interesting courses or house rules.

I've just updated the PDF with the rules change about boosts and barrel rolls, a couple of new courses (including the one we used for last night's event) and a tracking sheet to keep everything organized. It's vital to have one player calling out the order of activation and order of combat, and announcing who's on deck so things move quickly.

this does sound like alot of fun. It's like mario kart except with table top x wing! I might need to try this out!

Yes! I had this same idea with my buddy inspired by the classic CIRCVS MAXIMVS!!! There has never been a game that has inspired more hysterical laughter then that game. I still recall my chariots drivers names

Superkilldeathicus and Eatmydusticus.

Man, this is really cool! Definitely going to give this a go.

Looks like a lot of fun! Thanks for sharing.

Cannonball race yesssssssssssss!

Troy took second place with his nearly pristine E-Wing

I did? I didn't even know I was playing

Seriously though, sounds like a blast.

This sound immensely entertaining...I'm going to introduce it to the more fun-loving members of our group (we have, perhaps, one or two at our FLGS who focus solely on competitive events, and so probably would be as entertained by this as the rest of us).

I can't shake the feeling that a Green Squadron Pilot with PTL or an ORS with Engine Upgrade would always win this...the A-wing is naturally fast and agile, and it can easily get out way ahead by turn 3, then after begin taking PTLs (an easily-fixable setback) for survival. Once they get Chardaan Refit, they become 20pts each, so you can field two of them. Favoring A-wings myself, I know just how slippery they can be when they want to be. And ORS with EU has slightly faster forward movement than the aforementioned A-wing, after boosts. (The A-wing moves 5+1, then boosts 1+1, for 8 standard baselengths, while the ORS moves 4+2, then boosts for 1+2, for 9 standard baselengths.) The large amount of health and the turret aid it's chances of crossing first.

Will definitely give this a try sometime soon.

I got all excited by the title.... but I was thinking of this....

and this... GO SPEED ANI GO!

This looks fun, I like all the options and variants you included.

In your experience, is spending points on PS worth it? It seems like between getting blocked, getting the last spots in starting placement, and losing photo finishes*, taking a high PS ship would have too many downsides to be worth the points.

*I'm assuming that final rankings are just in the order of crossing the finish line, so lower PS would get there first. Were there special rules for two ships finishing in the same round that I missed?

On 8/6/2014 at 1:13 PM, caelenvasius said:

I can't shake the feeling that a Green Squadron Pilot with PTL or an ORS with Engine Upgrade would always win this...the A-wing is naturally fast and agile, and it can easily get out way ahead by turn 3, then after begin taking PTLs (an easily-fixable setback) for survival. Once they get Chardaan Refit, they become 20pts each, so you can field two of them. Favoring A-wings myself, I know just how slippery they can be when they want to be. And ORS with EU has slightly faster forward movement than the aforementioned A-wing, after boosts. (The A-wing moves 5+1, then boosts 1+1, for 8 standard baselengths, while the ORS moves 4+2, then boosts for 1+2, for 9 standard baselengths.) The large amount of health and the turret aid it's chances of crossing first.

Try it! Someone on BoardGameGeek was convinced that Bounty Hunter + Engine Upgrade would be the best choice. I think there are too many variables to declare one ship to be a sure win, but I've only played this a couple of times. Everyone seems to have a different idea about what's going to work.

A lot of things can ruin your plan. You could get blocked out of the starting gate, preventing you from darting ahead of the pack. Halfway through the race, you could find yourself with six competitors on your tail, and you know who they're going to be firing at. Most of the courses feature a "figure eight" sort of layout, so the chances are pretty good that someone will have you in arc no matter how far ahead you are. And then there's always the possibility of your opponents running blocker/interferers, who don't have to stick to the course and will cause trouble.

In both games I've played, an Academy Pilot finished first.

On 8/6/2014 at 1:34 PM, DB Draft said:

I got all excited by the title.... but I was thinking of this....

GO SPEED ANI GO!

Seeing all of the different ships on the starting grid reminds me a lot of the podrace scene. I think this is even more fun because you get to shoot at each other.

On 8/6/2014 at 1:52 PM, Pandademic said:

In your experience, is spending points on PS worth it? It seems like between getting blocked, getting the last spots in starting placement, and losing photo finishes*, taking a high PS ship would have too many downsides to be worth the points.

*I'm assuming that final rankings are just in the order of crossing the finish line, so lower PS would get there first. Were there special rules for two ships finishing in the same round that I missed?

There are no special rules for two ships finishing in the same round. Finishing first means finishing first. Being able to shoot first has advantages, of course.

I don't know if it's worth it to invest in PS. But since it costs 2 squad points to buy an elite talent slot for a ship that doesn't already have one, by spending the same amount of points you have the option of having a PS1 or PS3 "Green Squadron" A-Wing, or a PS1 or PS4 "Black Squadron" TIE. I didn't actually plan for that possibility, but it's a nice side effect anyway.

I got all excited by the title.... but I was thinking of this....

and this... GO SPEED ANI GO!

I WANT THIS TO HAPPEN NOW.

I have some prototype rules in the works. The ability to combine several maneuvers together makes movement faster and more intense. There are plenty of "Dirty Tricks" like ramming, sideswipes and illegal weapons to add spice to the games.

FANTASY FLIGHT, YOU MAKE A GAME BASED ON THIS THAT ACTUALLY WORKS, I WILL BUY THE CRAP OUT OF IT.

There are rules and it's called CIRCVS MAXIMVS! Funniest game ever. This could easily be adapted from those rules.

DAMNNIT DAGOBADAVE!

I blame you for tempting me to get a 2nd Falcon JUST for the 3 cargo containers to make a Mario Kart scenario, complete with item cubes that respawn.

totally your fault and not my compulsion-ness.

Land on a cargo container. Roll some dice for randomness. Consult charts and receive rewards!

Standard rewards are:

-Bombs

-Torps

-Missiles

-+1 shield

Rare rewards are:

-+2 shields

-1 free barrel roll action

-1 free boost action

-flip crits facedown

-Tubolaser token to place where you see fit

-Ion cannon token to place where you see fit

Track would be an oval shape with enough asteroids in the way to effectively limit straights.

God ****, I'm going to introduce this to my gaming group on Friday after refining it a bit more! I just came up with it off the top of my head!

Dagobah Dave,

Read over the rules and I hope to run a game soon. Some questions/thoughts:

1) Can a sponsor use a mixed fraction or are they locked into Rebel or Imperial teams?

2) Haven't play tested, but doesn't the TIE Phantom and decloaking have a crazy advantage here in terms of distance covered?

3) What do you think about a Transport or Corvette as one of the course obstacles?

4) When will we see a multiple lap figure 8 course?

1) Can a sponsor use a mixed fraction or are they locked into Rebel or Imperial teams?

2) Haven't play tested, but doesn't the TIE Phantom and decloaking have a crazy advantage here in terms of distance covered?

3) What do you think about a Transport or Corvette as one of the course obstacles?

4) When will we see a multiple lap figure 8 course?

1) Mixing factions is not allowed. You can always house rule otherwise, but this may cause unexpected problems or broken combos (just as it might in the standard game).

2) The Phantom might have an advantage there, but being in front is risky, especially with such a fragile ship. Try it! Quite a few people seem to think there's a ship that's a sure winner. The funny thing is that everyone has different ideas about what that ship would be. I think we need a race between a Firespray + Engine Upgrade, Phantom + ACD, YT+1300 + Engine Upgrade and Green Squadron + PTL.

3) I love the idea of using huge ships as obstacles. Maybe I'll draw up a couple of courses that use them.

4) I wouldn't recommend running a multi-lap race, since there's a high attrition rate even in the single-lap race and it takes an hour or two to play out. Players who get knocked out of the race will be sitting around for a long time. For those reasons, it's unlikely that you're going to need or want additional laps. I think a figure-eight track could be fun, as long as it's more like a bow-ribbon.

You've just given me two more 36"x72" track setups! I'll update the PDF with those when I get a chance.

-edit: nothing to see here-

Downloaded and looking forward to a whacky Races evening

i want to do this so bad. really really really badly.

This is awesome!

Also an easy way to get people in the basics of maneuvering without having to worry too much about actions, arcs or stress at first.