Ok, so I'm taking x-wing over to a dinner party tonight with some friends who like traditional board games. (and I've only played about 4 times) There are going to be six newbs playing, I'm going to officiate.

I have 1 HWK, 1 TIE intercepter, 2 TiEs, 1 A-wing and an X-wing, so three ships on each side (one ship per player).

Has anyone got any suggestions for a particularly balanced game? Should I just go by points, or is there a good reason to give one side a points advantage? I'm worried the Rebels are going to wipe out the Imperials if I just go by points. Are there any really nasty builds I should avoid giving to one side or the other?

Thoughts?

Based on points alone I was thinking:

Rebel Operative (16)

Rookie Pilot (21)

Prototype Pilot (17)

vs.

Dark Curse (16)

Sabre Squadron Pilot (21)

Mauler Mithel (17)

good luck!

That one dice HWK is gonna really suck though. my call would be to at least give it blaster turret and recon specialist. this isnt too hard to explain, 360 arc for range two only, so its balanced against the range 3 of the rest of the ships. you get two focuses but one is eaten up automatically to attack, so you keep only one like every other ship.

or give the rebel operative an ion cannon turret. i know its a little more complicated but its required. Then feel free to give them kir kanos or soontir fel or turr phennir. give these two ships to the most excited or the most familiar with these type of games.

the HWK is really useless with one attack dice. If you dont feel like trying to explain ioning or turret, maybe just upgrade to Kyle instead and at least pass focuses like a real support ship.

Again feel free to then pick a decent interceptor

I don't have backstabber - if it comes in the solo TIE booster I don't own one yet.

Good advice about adding a turret. I was trying to keep extra cards to a minimum, but you are right, 1 dice would be lame.

Maybe adding recon specialist + blaster turret, and then upgrading Sabre to Soontir Fel.

I'm afraid X-wing isn't exactly cut for that kind of thing, being a dueling game in the 1st place. It would indeed be better to let 2 people play then switch because this game is about managing a squadron and not just a fighter, so giving one ship per persone isn't good and it doesn't cut it either to be multiple people to manage one side even without assigned ship.

not sure if you did your dinner party yet, but having each person play a ship without too many upgrades is definitely the best way to get people interested. I learned via a 15+ person game and have been teaching up to 6 people at a time a few times now.

With your list, I would go with 25-30 points per player, and maybe have 1 player play 2 TIE fighters (I know that's only 5 people playing at once). Or explain to the TIE players that they'll be a little underpowered and will have to support each other.

The game should go pretty fast and you should give the option for one side to concede and switch ships if one side is dominating half way through, this way you don't have too many people with dead ships standing around.

Good luck and may the force be with you!

IF you had enough pieces that you could give each person a 20-30 point ship so each side totalled around 75 points I think you could make things work. With your collection that just isn't going to happen because the ships are so different.

I maybe think we could get things down to four "players" with two on each side.

Empire:

1. Turr Phennir (a good, solo Interceptor pilot who can get by without upgrades)

2. Two Academy Pilots (because it pretty much will take two TIE Fighters to match an interceptor or a rebel fighter

Rebels:

1. Tycho + PtL (+ retrofit although it doesn't matter much)

2. Rookie Pilot (could be Red but the PS isn't going to matter)

We can say the Empire has the slight edge with the numbers but those two TIE Fighters are the weakest ships on the board. Going with Tycho so it can make Turr's "double Action" although this also staggers turns. You have the APs going at PS 1, the X-Wing going next followed by Turr and ending with Tycho.

Defend the HWK!

Make a mission out of it, have the X and A escort the HWK, and have that try to reach a goal.

That way you promote a team effort as the HWK would fall easily if left undefended.

I'd set the lists up something like this, based on what you've listed:

Thanks for all the feedback, in the end I went with Glentopher's suggestion, and it seemed to go over well.