It's my birthday in a few weeks, and I wanted to arrange a casual "tournament" with my friends. I'm the only one with ships, and I listed which I have later in the post. I want to keep the rounds quick enough so we can have 3-4 games in 4-5 hours. So here are a few questions that I would love your input:

• What point limit should I use? I'm thinking 60 currently.
• How long should the rounds be? I'm thinking 45 minutes.
• What is a format of tournament that I can have close to everyone playing at once the entire time? I'm thinking Swiss, but wondering if it's possible with 4-6 players.
• What's a good way to handle ship choosing? Draft system? Bid extra squad points for a ship you really want?
• I'm going to have little prizes for first and second and a joke prize for last, so will the tournament format have a clear last place?

Ships: 1 Core Set

Rebel: 1 Y-Wing, 1 HWK, 1 B-Wing, 1 Rebel Aces, 1 Z-95, 1 E-Wing, 1 YT-2400, 1 Rebel Transport

Imperial: 1 Firespray, 1 TIE Bomber, 1 TIE Phantom, 1 TIE Defender, 1 VT-49, 1 Imperial Aces

Thanks for your input!

Whenever I have done small "tourneys" of this nature for people who don't play often, I pre-build the lists. It avoids a lot of the potential issues that can develop draft style or otherwise. How many players do you have coming?

Prebuilding is a good idea. I've got 4-6 players.

Ok. That's a lot of players for your collection if you want them to each have individual lists without overlaps. Maybe reduce points to 50 and ensure each player has one large ship or two small.

I would also consider outlawing the Phantom as it can be all but unbeatable at this point level.

Swiss can work well for small groups. But if you have a small enough build list, you can do a straight round robin. 5 matches with 50-60 points would be pretty doable in 5 hours. Time limit of 45 minutes to give everyone time to play.

It might be fun to have 'Stations' where the ships live, and players get to hop around and try different things. This could also be useful if you are trying to get them into the game, as they learn what they like. Players can flip a coin for each match and whoever wins can choose to either pick which faction they will play, or have initiative.

I'll throw together some fun easy lists for ya.

The 'hunger games' variant might work well in a casual party situation. The general idea is a bunch of players each fly one generic ship on one map. A cornucopia of upgrades is set up in the center. Fly over a token an equip whatever upgrade it is. Last player on the board wins.

It'll get more than two people playing at a time, and has each player flying a single ship, so newer players can focus on basic mechanics. Then there's the added social layer of alliances and betrayal.

I've not actually played this, so take all that with a grain of salt, but it did sound fun as described on nova squadron radio.

Happy birthday!

With only one Core Set, you'd be hard-pressed to have several people playing at once -- 1 template set, 1 range ruler, 3 attack dice, 3 defense dice.

I'd say do the full hundred

mostly because the tournament will be a wash if your squadron's pilot skills do not add up to your age

jme, I didn't mention I do have extra dice. I'm planning on setting up the space where we can keep the templates and range ruler between the two games going on. It'll be harder, but I imagine we can pull it off.

Here is a quickie set of builds

Team one
Mauler Mithel
Academy Pilot
Scimitar - Seismic charges - ion pulse missles

Team two
Kanos - PTL
Saber Squadron - wingman

Team three
Chiraneau - Ysanne Isard

Team four
Luke - r2d2
Airen Cracken

Team five
Proto Pilot - refit - test pilot - expert handling
Nera Dantels - proton torps -ion cannon

Team six
Dash - HLC - Recon Specialist - PTL

This gives a decent taste of each factions skills and game mechanics. There is some stress, some ion, lots of maneuvering, teamwork, turrets, action economy, and most other important ideas. But each team is limited to only a few of those aspects at once. Luke did steal one of Dash's points, but it is close enough for a birthday party.

• Team one lets them experience piloting multiple ships and some ordnance fun
• Team two lets them see what it is like to fly all over the darned place
• Team Three lets them fly a large base tank
• Team four lets them experience some of the rebel synergy
• Team five gives them a chance to fly all over the board, and to try out ordnance
• Team six lets them try out a somewhat mobile large base and helps them understand the difference between a turret and a primary firing arc.
  

I would suggest:

• Luke vs. Chiraneau
• B-wing vs Bomber
• Outrider vs Interceptors

This lets them learn about some concepts at the same time, so there are fewer questions per station.

Happy birthday, I hope I helped

My advice would be to get another core set, makes things go much quicker.

I did something like this and pre-built teams around 60 points each and had two teams of two players while I assisted. It was fun and the guys liked the game. If you have 5-6 that would make it a little tougher.

What about 2v2? Or have your tables set up with balanced squads and when you rotate, you only move the players, not the squads so everybody gets to play a variety of squads.

Also, splitting one damage deck four or maybe even six ways is rough!

So none of your friends play X-Wing? Did you ask them if they wanted to play the same game for 4 hours?

Maybe instead of splitting up your party into 2s you should have a battle royale or team game so everyone can have fun together.

Honestly, I don't think a tournament will work. There's just not enough ships.
However, I think you could have fun with a team game. Assign each player 50 points, and play a cooperative game. Everyone gets to play, and the lack of supplies (dice, rulers, templates...) isn't a problem because you're doing one thing at a time

So none of your friends play X-Wing? Did you ask them if they wanted to play the same game for 4 hours?

Maybe instead of splitting up your party into 2s you should have a battle royale or team game so everyone can have fun together.

Yeah, that's a good question. I have played X-Wing with these folks for 3-4 hours several times already this year, and they enjoy it. I was considering having just a team game like we usually do, but I wanted to give out prizes for first, second and last. So if you have some idea of how to determine who is the "MVP" in a team game, by all means I'll stick to what's most straightforward.

Here is a quickie set of builds

...............

Happy birthday, I hope I helped

Ben, thanks so much! Those are some fun looking teams. One question, I don't have Expert Handling. Both PTLs are taken, and those are fun to put on A-Wings. Maybe Outmaneuver?

My bad, thought I had looked everything up. I suggest, Lone Wolf. This will let them learn a little more about range and maneuvering in a setting where it actually makes a difference (which is why I didn't put it on Dash) and is relatively easy to do.

Good idea, one more question. We would all love if Kir Kanos had an EPT, but he doesn't. Should I switch him for Carnor Jax? Or something else?

Furball!

Leave the big ships out of it, they take too long.

Prepare 7 or 8 ships, let everyone pick one. Last ship standing wins the round. See how much you can squeeze in that time. Every round, switch ships.

Lessee, trying to keep the ships around the same PS and the same point cost to balance things out a bit.

A-Wing

B-Wing

E-Wing

X-Wing

Y-Wing

TIE Bomber

TIE Defender

TIE Interceptor

TIE Interceptor