So will epic tournaments be a thing? (How well will ti be ballanced?)

By Marinealver, in X-Wing

(pardon my dyslexia) ^_^ also had to reread competitive epic rules noticed some errors in my post. and noticed that their are 2 squad building sections, one is for epic tournament play.

Okay so now poor S&V will have to live in the I don't have huge ships shadow that the Imperials had in a year. But with Imperials joining the huge ship clubs finally they can field an epic list in their own right. Of course many could argue that Imperials could already play Epic they just take a massive starfighter squadron and overwhelm the slow cumbersome barbarians. Also with the epic point limit at 5 the most huge ships you could field is 2 huge rebel ships and one of them must be a transports, You are basically limited to only 1 huge ship, so for Imperials they will still have only 1 huge ship and everything else will be fighters.

So here are the epic builds to talk about based around the number of epic points spent. Which one do you think is the strongest and which one is the weakest.

  • Rebel Huge Starfighter Squadron
  • 1 Rebel Huge Ship (CR-90 or transport)
  • 2 Rebel Huge Ships (Transport + CR-90 or 2nd transport)
  • Imperial Huge Starfighter Squadron
  • Imperial Solo Raider
  • S&V Huge Starfighter Squadron.

  • note in competitive squad building the current competitive rules list as of 7/16/2014 restricts tournament lists to 3 epic points and 200 points. So basically either twice the size of a standard squadron or one huge ship.

Now there could be a bunch of sub-types of the builds from the previous list (such as the 24 Tie Fighter mega swarm which will fall under Imperial huge Starfighter squadron). But once the raider is released all epic list can fall under the bulletted categories.

So which one will be the strongest and which is the weakest? How could we balance it to the complexity of the standard competitive scene?

Edited by Marinealver

The format is fairly underplayed and massively shaken each time a new generic upgrade is revealed.

Honestly, the strongest isn't your super-archtype, but rather your practice and familiarity with the subarchetypes you employ.

Epic tournaments would definitely be fun to play and watch. One problem I see though is the time constraint, 100 point matches take pretty long themselves. I could see epic making a tourny format if there were team entries, 2 people per side to speed some of the flying up.

A full epic tournament could take a full weekend. At 3 hours a game 3 games is probably 10:30 hours with time between games to score and move. 10:30 hours is a long day for a lot of stores. I would love to see a Sat-Sun epic tournament somewhere. But I think they will be few and far between.

The other option is a long format tournament. Swiss, but you play 1 game a week with your opponent. It takes 1-2 months to play. Not as fun but doable.

The format is fairly underplayed and massively shaken each time a new generic upgrade is revealed.

Honestly, the strongest isn't your super-archtype, but rather your practice and familiarity with the subarchetypes you employ.

Epic tournaments would definitely be fun to play and watch. One problem I see though is the time constraint, 100 point matches take pretty long themselves. I could see epic making a tourny format if there were team entries, 2 people per side to speed some of the flying up.

I will say the common 3'x6' format I think is too lopsided and often makes it to that it takes atleast 3 turns before shots are fired. I would rather go for a more square 5'x5' or a 4'6"x4'6" would be better, just about the same area but ships start closer and still have room to move around.

https://fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/x-wing/support/X-Wing-Epic-Tournament-Rules.pdf

Edited by Marinealver

Almost every Epic game I've been in had shots firing on turn two at the latest. A turn three start of combat would have been memorable. if you want to make sure that happens then shrink it in the sides, but not width. Width determines time until start of combat remember. There's definitely challenges to a tournament structure though. As a release event I was hoping to host at our FLGS a Massive Multiplayer one day Epic Event where the players played on one continuous battlefield that would be like 15'x3' or something with scenario objectives to steer them toward the player exactly opposite them. Make it a giant clash of light capital ships supported by sparse fighters on either side. Could be cool.

Almost every Epic game I've been in had shots firing on turn two at the latest. A turn three start of combat would have been memorable. if you want to make sure that happens then shrink it in the sides, but not width. Width determines time until start of combat remember. There's definitely challenges to a tournament structure though. As a release event I was hoping to host at our FLGS a Massive Multiplayer one day Epic Event where the players played on one continuous battlefield that would be like 15'x3' or something with scenario objectives to steer them toward the player exactly opposite them. Make it a giant clash of light capital ships supported by sparse fighters on either side. Could be cool.

Saw a video of this online YouTube. They ran a Hoth evacuation scenario. 6 or so GR75s with fighter escorts trying to make it to their jump points. Love the idea

The format is fairly underplayed and massively shaken each time a new generic upgrade is revealed.

Honestly, the strongest isn't your super-archtype, but rather your practice and familiarity with the subarchetypes you employ.

Epic tournaments would definitely be fun to play and watch. One problem I see though is the time constraint, 100 point matches take pretty long themselves. I could see epic making a tourny format if there were team entries, 2 people per side to speed some of the flying up.

I will say the common 3'x6' format I think is too lopsided and often makes it to that it takes atleast 3 turns before shots are fired. I would rather go for a more square 5'x5' or a 4'6"x4'6" would be better, just about the same area but ships start closer and still have room to move around.

https://fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/x-wing/support/X-Wing-Epic-Tournament-Rules.pdf

5x5 would be rather difficult moving the ships near the center if the board. Think about how far you have to lean sometimes using a 3 foot board.

5x5 is okay. we play on 5x6 (two tables together). its getting annoying.

6x6 is just NO. Short people not allowed to play. =D

4.5x4.5 is probably great.

I could never understand, do you start on the wide sides, so that your distance to the opponent is only the 3foot side? its pretty dumb that way i hear, you just kind of slosh in and do mosh pit xwing. our 5x6 games were much more interesting and used up way more room.

We switched to deploying on the 3' sections of a 3x6 in epic games because we noticed that the battle tends to end on one 3x3 section if we don't.

Exactly. What's trhe point if you don't even ever use half the space. Deploying on the 3 side and flying down the 6 side seems a little more interesting.

Ya but if you keep your CR90 in the middle and fly down the length leaves your opponent nowhere to go at some point unable to avoid fire from the range 5

Which is why they say to set up along the 6' side.

Sure some areas don't see much action, but it allows more for flanking and the huge ships don't have to drive center down the board, and allows more room for others to get out of the way

Epic tournaments would definitely be fun to play and watch. One problem I see though is the time constraint, 100 point matches take pretty long themselves. I could see epic making a tourny format if there were team entries, 2 people per side to speed some of the flying up.

Sorry looking at the rules for squadbuilding there is a separate section for tournaments that knock it down to 3 epic points and 200 points.

I think an Epic tournament should end 2 turns after one side has destroyed 3 or more total Epic points. IG-88 would count as 3/4 of an epic point per Aggressor.

Each side would have to field a minimum of 3 epic points.

By forcing a focus on blowing up the Epic ships, you'd speed up the games quite a bit. And by letting the game continue for a bit after the big boom, you build in the potential for both sides to lose their big ships- and thus the smaller ships determine margin of victory.

By making IG-88 worth epic points, you introduce a very different playstyle for the Scum.

I think an Epic tournament should end 2 turns after one side has destroyed 3 or more total Epic points. IG-88 would count as 3/4 of an epic point per Aggressor.

Each side would have to field a minimum of 3 epic points.

By forcing a focus on blowing up the Epic ships, you'd speed up the games quite a bit. And by letting the game continue for a bit after the big boom, you build in the potential for both sides to lose their big ships- and thus the smaller ships determine margin of victory.

By making IG-88 worth epic points, you introduce a very different playstyle for the Scum.

By not making huge ship mandatory it does allow for more players (such as Imperial players) to play in Epic format.

Simply having large ships count to the epic limit handicaps large ships. They tend to get hit quite often.

But that is a question how do you balance swarm fighters or group of large ships against Huge ships with allies?

I think an Epic tournament should end 2 turns after one side has destroyed 3 or more total Epic points. IG-88 would count as 3/4 of an epic point per Aggressor.

Each side would have to field a minimum of 3 epic points.

By forcing a focus on blowing up the Epic ships, you'd speed up the games quite a bit. And by letting the game continue for a bit after the big boom, you build in the potential for both sides to lose their big ships- and thus the smaller ships determine margin of victory.

By making IG-88 worth epic points, you introduce a very different playstyle for the Scum.

By not making huge ship mandatory it does allow for more players (such as Imperial players) to play in Epic format.

Simply having large ships count to the epic limit handicaps large ships. They tend to get hit quite often.

But that is a question how do you balance swarm fighters or group of large ships against Huge ships with allies?

Ah, but the thing is, it's equally unbalanced on both sides.

Your opponent is playing the full number of allowed TIE Fighters? I'm going to play 6 Headhunters with Munitions Failsafes and Assault Missiles.

Your opponent is playing a large number of Phantoms? With the number of X-Wings I'm fielding, some damage is going to get through.

Also, remember that Huge Ships can easily squishify, and it is oh-so-fun :)

5x5 is okay. we play on 5x6 (two tables together). its getting annoying.

6x6 is just NO. Short people not allowed to play. =D

4.5x4.5 is probably great.

I could never understand, do you start on the wide sides, so that your distance to the opponent is only the 3foot side? its pretty dumb that way i hear, you just kind of slosh in and do mosh pit xwing. our 5x6 games were much more interesting and used up way more room.

The format is fairly underplayed and massively shaken each time a new generic upgrade is revealed.

Honestly, the strongest isn't your super-archtype, but rather your practice and familiarity with the subarchetypes you employ.

Epic tournaments would definitely be fun to play and watch. One problem I see though is the time constraint, 100 point matches take pretty long themselves. I could see epic making a tourny format if there were team entries, 2 people per side to speed some of the flying up.

I will say the common 3'x6' format I think is too lopsided and often makes it to that it takes atleast 3 turns before shots are fired. I would rather go for a more square 5'x5' or a 4'6"x4'6" would be better, just about the same area but ships start closer and still have room to move around.

https://fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/x-wing/support/X-Wing-Epic-Tournament-Rules.pdf

Any vassal players on here find these comments ironic?

15901408628_6efd888619_o.jpg

"This maps represents

four black 22" x 28"

poster boards.

3'8" x 4'8" = 17 sq.ft."

3'x6' = 18 square feet.

Those would be four black $1 poster boards

from a local dollar store, were it not a star field in this case.

Edited by gabe69velasquez

5x5 is okay. we play on 5x6 (two tables together). its getting annoying.

6x6 is just NO. Short people not allowed to play. =D

4.5x4.5 is probably great.

I could never understand, do you start on the wide sides, so that your distance to the opponent is only the 3foot side? its pretty dumb that way i hear, you just kind of slosh in and do mosh pit xwing. our 5x6 games were much more interesting and used up way more room.

The format is fairly underplayed and massively shaken each time a new generic upgrade is revealed.

Honestly, the strongest isn't your super-archtype, but rather your practice and familiarity with the subarchetypes you employ.

Epic tournaments would definitely be fun to play and watch. One problem I see though is the time constraint, 100 point matches take pretty long themselves. I could see epic making a tourny format if there were team entries, 2 people per side to speed some of the flying up.

I will say the common 3'x6' format I think is too lopsided and often makes it to that it takes atleast 3 turns before shots are fired. I would rather go for a more square 5'x5' or a 4'6"x4'6" would be better, just about the same area but ships start closer and still have room to move around.

https://fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/x-wing/support/X-Wing-Epic-Tournament-Rules.pdf

Any vassal players on here find these comments ironic?

15901408628_6efd888619_o.jpg

"This maps represents

four black 22" x 28"

poster boards.

3'8" x 4'8" = 17 sq.ft."

3'x6' = 18 square feet.

Those would be four black $1 poster boards

from a local dollar store, were it not a star field in this case.

Not that familiar with Vassal. Can they host epic format? Is the vassal play area slightly different?

I thought they revamped epic play completely and called it Star Wars: Armada

I thought they revamped epic play completely and called it Star Wars: Armada

Different game. That would be like calling Epic: Armageddon Warhammer 40,000.