I'm not talking about the 1 ship per playere furball game format. I'm talking about when a whole bunch of ships get stuck somewhere near the middle as you get 3 or more ships all touching in some form. Thats a furball.

I hear allot about jousting and Arc dodging but there is one strategy I don't hear much about but it is a very common place in the game. So much that I think strategies should be included in this and that is the furball.

Everyone knows it, it is that whole mess where a bunch of ships move into the center and then can't go nowhere due to the multiple overlaps. Seldom actions are made and ships really grapple as they try to focus one down in the mess while some try to make desperate break attempts with 5 straight, 4 K or 3 turns. Not to be confused with fortress which is more of a deployment strategy furballs is the mess that noe one loves but everyone has been in one and are going to be in one. Well lest take a look at furball characteristics.

• Furballs are static, which means there is little to no movement. Now just because of no movement means you should not ignore all maneuver dials because they can still remove stress and if there is a chance of a break the maneuver dial will be come all important.
• Most actions must be given. Due to the constant overlapping most ships in furballs can't take actions which means action giving ships such as Lando become more valuable as it gives focus target locks or evade tokens which would otherwise won't be available. You can keep some ships on the outside of the furbal to add in support but unless they have turrets they will have 2 difficult choices. Skip a round of attacking or get stuck in.
• Blocking is not automatic, just because the board looks like there are no movement at speed 3 doesn't mean that you got everyone trapped. Ships can still find gaps in the furball to move in a place and get the one important action to make them deadly in this engagement. I have seen fighters line up on purpose to block a Y-wing from making any moves or actions.
• Range is close, which means everyone is going to get a free attack dice. Those wimpy 2 attack ships like Y-wings and Tie Advances are going to have more punch then usual. They might not have stat boosting actions but most likely neither would their targets.
• There still is arc dodging. It is often called getting right in the targets face or bumping. Don't want a interceptor to get gunned down by a falcon in range 1 then hit it.There is only 2 pilots that really can do damage in base to base contact and there is 1 modification for large ships that can also do damage. However if you can still pull right next to a ship in a furball or give space to make ships take the break. Now the downside is that you can't attack ships you are touching (with the exception already mentioned) but you can attack any other target in your arc even those that are touching the ship you are touching. This makes it far more different then other table top games because the fight range is rather like a doughnut then a circle.
• Stress makes things even more sticky. Resist the K-turn attempt to break. If you do not make it you greatly limit any breaking maneuvers you can do the next round. Sure many will do green straights and banks which will cause little movement and in open space dogfights where stress will prevent actions stress will keep ships from trying any red maneuvers to break from the furball. Also if there is a break from the furball and there is a stress still attached they will have to clear it first before they try to go straight back into the fray. If any ships pursue the breaking ship before it clears stress it won't have any action to boost defense dice.
• Ion not only starts furballs it keeps furballs going. Furballs already have a lot of movement options closed. Even more so when you start adding in ion tokens removing any option to move. Also ion prevents the removal of stress unless there is an R2 aboard. We already discussed how stress makes things sticky.

Well there are the conditions you will find in a furball. If anyone has any furball specific strategies, tricks or tactics that will be great. Any diagrams or pictures will also help. What is your favorite trick to do in a furball. Do you have any ship builds specifically for furballs? How do you start or enter a furball and when do you choose to break and how do you break?

Predator is great for furballs.

Man I love furballs, at least when I get stuck in the right way

The "right way" as I see it is as such:

1.) Arrange asteroids in as tight a cluster as possible (as close to range 1 from one another as you can)

2.) Run a mini-swarm (3-5 Zs or Ties)

3.) Clog up the gaps in the asteroids with mini-swarm

4.) Have fun

I use this tactic basically every time I run Wedge (Predator), Farlander (Advanced), and 3 Bandits. It does an obscene amount of work when it comes to keeping Wedge safe (can't do actions, can't even get to him sometimes).

Recently used it to great success versus Roark and 3 Adv Sensor Blues in a local tournie, simply because the furball made it impossible for the slow Bs to maneuver properly and it exposed the PS 12 chicken to a fatal dosage of lasers. the fun thing is that I had initiative, and routinely used it to bump my Zs so that they essentially never moved and continued the furball for two rounds.

It seems like Swarms are good at making furballs,

And Big Ships are good at falling into the trap and getting stuck. I guess APL is more of a Big Ship anti furball defense.