--------
THE RULES

Players divide up into Rebel and Imperial sides. Each player picks a pre built list that consists of 55 points of pilots (in this way, each side will have 110 points for 4 players or 165 points for six. With five players, one team gets to pick an extra page and divide its ships among them)

Win condition: destroy [110 or 165] points of enemy ships.

Special rules [a variant on the rebel aces scenario]: When a player loses a ship, if it had a pilot skill of 3 or less, it is removed from the game. Otherwise, he sets it aside for the end step. During the end step, this ship becomes the lowest-point-cost version of the same ship (e.g. Jake Farrell becomes a Prototype Pilot with no additional attached cards) and the new ship must be put in the faction set up area in the corner furthest away from enemy ships.
--------
The feedback I'm looking for

• What do you think of the rules above, specifically the respawning rules that I've used to prevent player elimination?
• What do you think about what can be done when Scum and Villainy comes out? I can't think of a good way to do a 2 vs 2 vs 2 scenario because it would be really easy for one faction to deal all the damage to, say, a Falcon and then someone just swoop in for the kill. Seems like I may have to limit it to one faction vs a different faction.
• If you wanted to propose different lists, I would hear them, but keep in mind that my goals for these lists is not to make tournament quality builds. I want lists that each feel like they do something a little bit special and also are easy to fly (you'll notice the A Wing Squad below both purposefully have 7 pilot skill). And I'm trying to avoid a TIE Bomber that doesn't have bombs or missiles since that doesn't make thematic sense to a new player. I'm also limited to the ships I own, but obviously if I'm printing out proxies for cards, that doesn't so much matter in that regard. But I can't have two different lists that each have my one Z in it since they couldn't be picked together. Basically I'm trying to divide my collection into 55 point chunks.

What I'm trying to accomplish with my rules

I don't get much of a chance to play X wing (I have a 3 year old and an 8 month old) but I do have my normal Sunday board game group. I wanted to make something that would be easy to dive into and set up but still give each player the ability to control the sort of thing that he or she flew. I also wanted to make sure that someone didn't get their ships knocked out and have nothing to do until the game is done. I also wanted to avoid the game getting drawn out to where there is one ship left and they're just chasing each other around and everyone's waiting for the game to end.
​
An example of a pre-built list and how the players would encounter it (you'll notice I omitted the A-Wing test pilot card just so as not to give the player too much to read)


Lists:

Rebels:

55 A-Wings
Jake Farrell [Cluster Missiles, Outmaneuver] (31)
Gemmer Sojan [A-Wing Test Pilot, Chardaan Refit, Stealth Device, Veteran Instincts] (24)

55 Chewie
Chewbacca (55)
YT-1300 (42), Draw Their Fire (1), Concussion Missiles (4), Luke Skywalker (7), Millenium Falcon (1)

55 XZ
Red Squadron Pilot [R2-D2, Shield Upgrade] (31)
Airen Cracken [Concussion Missiles, Munitions Failsafe] (24))

55 BB
Keyan Farlander (33)
B-Wing (29), Fire-Control System (2), Swarm Tactics (2)
Blue Squadron Pilot (22)
Imperials:
55 TIEs

Howlrunner (22)
TIE Fighter (18), Shield Upgrade (4)
Mauler Mithel (17)
Backstabber (16)

55 Kath
Kath Scarlet (55)
Firespray-31 (38), Concussion Missiles (4), Autoblaster (5), Proximity Mines (3), Slave-1 (0), Munitions Failsafe (1), Proton Torpedoes (4)

55 Whisper
"Whisper” (43)
TIE Phantom (32), Tactician (2), Fire-Control System (2), Predator (3), Advanced Cloaking Device (4)
Academy Pilot (12)

55 Interceptors
Soontir Fel (30)
TIE Interceptor (27), Push the Limit (3)
Turr Phennir (25)

55 Darth Bomber
Darth Vader (31)
TIE Advanced (29), Swarm Tactics (2)
Scimitar Squadron Pilot (24)
TIE Bomber (16), Proton Torpedoes (4), Cluster Missiles (4)
--------------

Sets I own and can use in the lists above: 1 Core, 1 A, 1 B, Imperial Aces (so one more A and B), HWK 290, Z95, Falcon, 2 extra TIEs, 2 Interceptors, Bomber, TIE Advance, Slave 1, Defender, Phantom

for Gemmer you should not omit the Awing Test Pilot card, else new players will get confused about why he can use a EPT

I don't think it is a bad idea, but I'm not sure how even it would be. A 2 x wing list is going to have 42 points respawn with 2 Rookies, your Chewbacca is coming back as a 27 point ORS, and the 3 named ties come back as 36 points of academy pilots.

Maybe it'd be easier if you had something like once your 55 points is gone you get 1 academy pilot each for Imperial and 1 z-95 each for Rebel. I noticed you only have 1 z-95 at the moment, but I'm sure you can source another one at some point. That way if the original squad is something a bit varied, like your Darth Bomber list, then they get something basic to use as well.

It is a good idea though, hope it goes well.

If you want balance the Falcons are very very very very very powerful at that point range basically they will kill everything. Statistically nothing wins. Nothing. Is that clear? Nothing.

Other than that. Dunno what else you can do at 55 point. But it does stop Someone from taking 5 ties.

The respAwn idea will probably work.

My format for multiplayer is to give each player two 24 point lists with no uniques. That's a lot of choices you can have and literally nothing is overpowered. It also gives you some fun options too.

If you have uneven number of players one person should just use four 24 point lists and it's even.

Indeed, for a first game a player should have ships, and no more than one upgrade card each. Less if you can manage it. Focus more on having the sides be thematically equal than points accurate. 4 TIEs = 2 X-Wings = 1 Falcon

Thanks, everyone, you all make good points. I fully expected that there would be a huge downgrade if you have a falcon and then get stuck as that generic YT1300 guy. I thought that would be something that made it sort of interesting and give players something to think about the more they played it.

But now that I think about it more, I think what will make the game more interesting is instead to let people pick out their initial lists, and then also have them pick out an extra list that serves as their "on deck" list. Whenever you have lost points equal to the point cost of one of the guys on that list, you can spawn one of those guys. I like how that will encourage people to try out some new ships once their initial ships die, and it also gives the game more of a flow. Rather than there forever being a YT-1300, you get the accomplishment of taking it off the board never to return.

Or you can do "reinforcements incoming!" style. When your first ship dies, your next ship spawns...

to make it wackier, you could have an opponent choose that second ship. Haha. Tie Advanced, Proton Rockets! 24 points! Fulfill your destiny!!!!