In my limited experience, the standard game surface is too small if at least one player decides to swarm. More than 8 ships is too cramped. I think that 4' x 3' works better. Your opinion?

We play 150 points per side on a 3x3 regularly! it seems fine! Even official escalation tourniies use it without issue.

EPIC needs a larger field, Id even go so far as to say it would be nice if that went to 4x6 officially, but keep standard field at 3x3.

try flying 4 shuttles..lol

Perhaps I have played too much "Over the Reich" and "Birds of Prey", and too few " x wing", but 3' x 3' is simply too small. Ok to play a short 60 pts fighter scenario, but not to play a bombing run or scort 100 pts game. My opinion only. I do not play "official" games, only fly casual in private.

Ah well, if you're playing a scenario where you need more space I think that's your answer.

In my limited experience, the standard game surface is too small if at least one player decides to swarm. More than 8 ships is too cramped. I think that 4' x 3' works better. Your opinion?

As a swarm player having faced other swarms, there is enough room. It does get congested once they meet up, though. How are you flying swarms? Scattered? Or in formation? Swarms usually need to start out in some formation, whether all together or in two-three groups.

I exclusively Fly Casual, and I find the 3x3 map feels about the right size when we each start with around 75 points and roughly 2 to 4 ships per side. With a swarm on one side, it feels cramped. But then again, maybe a swarm *should* make it feel cramped! But if we are each fielding 3 or 4, then 3x3 feels like the right amount of room to emphasize the maneuver aspect of X-Wing.

The issue there is that you're new. You're experiencing a lot of jam ups when someone plays a swarm.

I'm going to be totally honest, that's the person flying(and the person flying against them. Not the map size. Even on a 3 by 6 map they'll happen because strategically focusing fire is key, and jamming your opponent is also clutch. So the game tends to become a jam without superb piloting. And the player who avoids most of the jam(via creative manuevering and long term thinking/planning will probably be the winner.)

What, turreted ships need more room to run away? 3x3 is fine.

My playmat barely fits on my kitchen table, so no. 3x3 is a perfect size.

Nope. Perfect size.

I think it's only small if your going fast with a large ship, we post speed limits for a reason.

I've comfortably flown eight fighters on 3x3 before.

I regularly play 300 point epic battles, with huge ships included, and the 3x3 map holds perfectly.

Cramping ships is not a consequence of the map size, but of how you fly them.

Last week, I played a 4 player game where each player had 100 pts of ships. We used 2 3'x3'mats but we ended up using only about 20% of the second mat. And we used 12 obstacles 8 of which were on the mat we were mostly using.

My sons and I have always played on a 4' x 4' board. It gives us that extra space to manoeuvre around, we just add more asteroid templates.

We play team epic on 4x4 most of the time and 100pt games at my place are on a 2x3 table. I think it might be how people are flying, or maybe its just expectations.

Perhaps I have played too much "Over the Reich" and "Birds of Prey", and too few " x wing", but 3' x 3' is simply too small. Ok to play a short 60 pts fighter scenario, but not to play a bombing run or scort 100 pts game. My opinion only. I do not play "official" games, only fly casual in private.

I agree with you in that the 3'x3' is small. For our tournament games we stick to it, but the majority of the time our group sets up in the middle of a standard 8'x4' table and we don't bother measuring play area for edges. It usually takes maybe an extra turn to get into engagement range, but we don't run off the 'edge' either.

I'm happy with 3x3 for anything up to 200pts per side, and 3x4 for 300pts per side. These dimensions make for an intense battle.

I have a 5'X7' setup. I rarely play anything unless it fills that table and takes several hours to finish... properly.

Keep the hours of video games, I got real toys to love.

In my limited experience, the standard game surface is too small if at least one player decides to swarm. More than 8 ships is too cramped. I think that 4' x 3' works better. Your opinion?

Play how you want dude.

3 by 3 is just fine.

I think 3x3 is typically seems large enough for me, but any increase in points (over 100) and I prefer an increase in size. It also seems to me that in order to make and effective and intelligent comment on this thread you need experience on standard 3x3 and larger mats. If not you are simply defending your preference (for larger) or blindly clinging to the status quo because it's what you have always played and you enjoy the game so it must be right. Experience both then form an objective opinion. If you like 4x3 or 4x4 then play them. Nothing wrong with that. I think the vast majority will find that both can be fun.

My X-Wing friend and I started out on a 3x3 when we only had a starter pack and X-Wing expansion pack between us, but now that we've both expanded our forces quite a bit, we play on a 6x4 now. It's awesome having all that extra space to play with - it really helps the fast manoeuvrable ships come into their own.