We've been playing this format recently and it's a lot of fun so I thought I'd share.

Voidstate's Rules for 60-Point Furballs

Each player may spend up to 60 points on his squadron. As usual, a squadron must be from a single faction. All squadrons must contain between 2 and 4 ships.

Games take place on a smaller-than-usual play area. Three or four players: 2x2 , five or six: 2 x 3.

As usual, initiative is decided by squad points, with equal-point squads rolling off.

The two worst initiative players one asteroid each, then each player places one asteroid, in initiative order (for a total of [# players + 2] asteroids). Asteroids may be placed at range 1 from the edge, not range 2 as usual (this discourages a whirlpool effect as ships circle the board avoiding the kill zone in the middle).

With four or fewer players, each player starts within range 1 of a different corner of the pay area. With five players, two start in corners at each end of a short side of the play area, another starts midway along the opposite short side, and the remining two start 1/3rd of the way along a long side from that player. With six players, two players start halfway along the long sides of the board, the rest start in corners

You play to a time limit, normally 75-90 minutes, with the winner being whoever destroyed the most points-worth of ships (including upgrades). You get nothing for your remaining ships to discourage turtling.

If your last ship dies, you begin the next turn with one ship of the cheapest type for your faction (Academy TIE or Bandit), appearing anywhere within range 1 of any board edge.

If you fly off the board, you lose the points for that ship from your total, unless you were forcibly ioned off in which case it counts as a kill.

Lone Wolf is not allowed in this format. Or maybe "friendly" refers to all ships of your faction. You decide.

Go!

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60 points is a fun total to fill, meaning all players need one top pilot and one low PS one, or two average ones. The reduced space means you get a lot of action from the very beginning and there's nowhere to hide.

Cheers

vs

I like it. Addresses many of the key complaints of timing and meta-focused play.

We've started doing 35 point free for all furballs in my group to tie up the gaming night. Our rules are a single 35 point ship, standard 3x3 area, each player placing a single small asteroid. Players may set up along any board edge or in a corner, but must be facing the center and may not set up within range 3 of any other ship. Place a reinforce token in (as near as you can manage to) the center of the board, this will represent the gambit token. Since you do not need many cards for your damage deck, we also use it as a scorekeeping deck. Each time you deal any amount of damage to an opponent with an attack, discard two damage cards (facedown) as points. Each time you are attacked but take no damage, gain one point. Each time you kill an enemy ship, gain an additional point. The final round, if you are the last ship standing, gain two points. At the end of each end phase, check your range to the gambit token. If you are in range 2 of the token, gain one point. Player with the most points at the end of the game (final ship or time limit) is the winner.

Last night Darth Vader of all ships walked away with 31 points and the win. My Jake was the second-to-last with 21, Luke died third, Nera Dantels went down second, and Echo got hate-crushed into oblivion on turn 2. The previous week, my Keyan took the game, killing an outer rim smuggler after two Jakes died, with a Wedge death starting that game off.

Both of these formats sound very entertaining. I love multiplayer games but without certain variatioms the format seems to get stale quickly.