So guys, what are the rules for team play?

Can people openly talk to each other and show each other's dials?

Or is it all done in secret?

I remember seing that you can't show anything to other players, but it seems like the tournament rules say otherwise...

The core rules and team epic tournament rules disagree on this.

in the core rules all talk must be public. In team epic team mates are allowed to confer between themselves without sharing with the opposition.

For friendly games I suggest you do what you like as long as everybody agrees.

Personally I prefer the team epic variant over the core rules variant.

I also prefer the epic rules to the core rules. I can see why the core rules say to discuss in public, because if you tell your teammate what your dial will be, it is tantamount to showing it to them. Saying your dial plans in front of your opponent is practically giving the game to them.

On the other hand, discussing general tactics in front of your opponent gives them a good idea of what you're going to do even if they don't have specifics. For a game that relies on outguessing your opponents movements in order to shoot at them without being shot, you impede your ability to work as a team by having to keep as many details out of conversation as possible.

I'd say that the epic rules are more in line with the spirit of the game. But if you're playing a casual game, you can really do whatever you want as long as your opponents agree.

I'd say one problem I have with private discussion between team mates is that it can make it too easy to take the "team" out of it. You can get the situation where one player is making all of the decisions and not only does the other side have no idea what he's up to his team mate may not know either.

I'd say one problem I have with private discussion between team mates is that it can make it too easy to take the "team" out of it. You can get the situation where one player is making all of the decisions and not only does the other side have no idea what he's up to his team mate may not know either.

I'm confused as having a discussion with my teammate takes the "team" out of it.

Just how do I get the "team" in on it?

I think he means that one person dominates the planning and the other is just an extra set of hands to move some of the ships. While there's a natural tendency for that to happen if one player is more experienced, I think that it's important to trade off as I've thrown an opponent off balance many times by making a random terribad move when he was moving his pieces to counter my expected best move. With the few team games that I've played, my partner frequently brought up alternate moves that never even crossed my mind. A good partner who both speaks up and listens is like Autothrusters on a Tie Interceptor. A partner that dominates all the play or never provides input is like an Engine Upgrade on the same ship.

I believe flyboymb has voiced my concern.

A great team can basically act as a single unit even without individuals talking to each other because each already know what the other will do.

I'd say that in normal team sports if one player is the 'brains' behind the entire operation he must still communicate with his teammate to make things work smoothly but this communication does run the chance of being picked up. If one is too worried about having signals stolen then codes should be worked on.

With secret communication that description of one teammate just being an extra set of hands it pretty much spot on.

But on the other side of this, even if one side is the brains, that doesn't mean he has enough cash to pay for 2 team's worth of miniatures. And even if his collection is large, if the other teammate brings in ships, upgrades, and pilots that the brain doesn't have, that gives the potential to make his team that much more effective. And if he doesn't have his teammate's ships, he probably doesn't know the best way to use them or the effective tactics that have worked for the teammate playing that team over and over.

If the teammate is a true scrub who has nothing but a core set and an X-Wing upgrade, then it will be a good learning experience for the scrub. He/she can take what they've learned and apply it towards future games.

That's the best thing about team games. You don't have to make the choice between X-Wing and eating if you don't have a lot of spare cash!

Having one person bring the 'extra' stuff needed for a massive squadron is little difference from just borrowing those same pieces with half of the 'prize' being the cost of doing so.

I will not dispute that having a newbie playing on a team with a vet can't be a great learning experience but if the vet controls all aspects of the team game the newbie will actually learn less than just playing one on one with a breakdown/review of the actions explaining what he could/should have done differently.