I'm currently organizing my first Escalation League, and we're playing a round a week.

Since there's extra time between rounds, I wanted to add a twist to the rules:

Your squads may be secret until fielded for play. All ships and upgrades from previous rounds will need to be included as usual.

I figured this might add a strategic element to the game that has never been available before, and that is choosing ships/upgrades that could counter your next weeks opponents squad that's been revealed so far.

For example: Your opponent is fielding Soontir Fel? Use the points for a Doomshuttle. Your ship is PS6 but theirs is PS7? Tack on VI, etc.

As it was our first run through we decided it would be best if we just stuck with the official rules, but I wanted to brainstorm and see what potential issues could arise if this twist to the rules was implemented.

What do you guys think? Would letting people "alter" or leave them open for versatility become a potential issue in Escalation?

*Note this is just for casual play over a span of a few weeks. If running an Escalation tournament in a single day, I agree all squads should be turned in immediately just so TO can verify squads and it becomes less of a logistics issue.

Sounds fine to me.

I'd be happy if I could attend - but I cannot just travel around the globe...

Sounds fine to me.

I'd be happy if I could attend - but I cannot just travel around the globe...

Are you on VASSAL? We might be able to get a group of VASSAL players to run a tourney like this. Could be cool

I'm mostly done with playing on Vassal. Its just too time consuming for my taste and I'm missing moving the plastic models models with my hands.

I'm mostly done with playing on Vassal. Its just too time consuming for my taste and I'm missing moving the plastic models models with my hands.

Haha I agree but people aren't always available and its nice to do a pick up game right away

As a caveat to this, you NEED to issue your ship-list to the Tournament Organizer, to prevent cheating.
But otherwise, yeah, should be fun

As a caveat to this, you NEED to issue your ship-list to the Tournament Organizer, to prevent cheating.

But otherwise, yeah, should be fun

As a caveat to this, you NEED to issue your ship-list to the Tournament Organizer, to prevent cheating.

But otherwise, yeah, should be fun

But I'm wondering how could someone "cheat"? The 60 point squads are known to everyone, so when you add the other 30 you can tell if the previous 60 are being fielded, and the new cards/ships add up to less than or equal to 90, and so on for subsequent rounds. I don't see how someone could "cheat" the system, and that's what I'm trying to identify.

Simple; by having the 30 additional points be made up between rounds.

Escalation is pre-built, and having the full squad-list be hidden information allows for a cheater to change their later lists, for an improved match in the perceived metagame.

After all; you can't hide all of the 60 point lists from the players.

As a caveat to this, you NEED to issue your ship-list to the Tournament Organizer, to prevent cheating.

But otherwise, yeah, should be fun

But I'm wondering how could someone "cheat"? The 60 point squads are known to everyone, so when you add the other 30 you can tell if the previous 60 are being fielded, and the new cards/ships add up to less than or equal to 90, and so on for subsequent rounds. I don't see how someone could "cheat" the system, and that's what I'm trying to identify.

Simple; by having the 30 additional points be made up between rounds.

Escalation is pre-built, and having the full squad-list be hidden information allows for a cheater to change their later lists, for an improved match in the perceived metagame.

After all; you can't hide all of the 60 point lists from the players.

Gotcha. I guess if you view Escalation as pre built squads that makes sense.

I think the theme I was trying to run is having intelligence of your next opponents strengths/weaknesses, and using the remaining points to attack specific aspects of your opponent. However, it's a risk/reward as you will have to keep these changes without knowledge of who your opponent is the following round after, so whatever you used as counters this round could weaken you in the one after.

I guess that complicates things, but I was trying to see if I could add a strategic element. I guess it could limit it to ships with versatile upgrade slots like Crew, System, EPT, etc. But it might be best to run things the way it's meant.

Thanks for the input!

As a caveat to this, you NEED to issue your ship-list to the Tournament Organizer, to prevent cheating.

But otherwise, yeah, should be fun

But I'm wondering how could someone "cheat"? The 60 point squads are known to everyone, so when you add the other 30 you can tell if the previous 60 are being fielded, and the new cards/ships add up to less than or equal to 90, and so on for subsequent rounds. I don't see how someone could "cheat" the system, and that's what I'm trying to identify.

Simple; by having the 30 additional points be made up between rounds.

Escalation is pre-built, and having the full squad-list be hidden information allows for a cheater to change their later lists, for an improved match in the perceived metagame.

After all; you can't hide all of the 60 point lists from the players.

Gotcha. I guess if you view Escalation as pre built squads that makes sense.

I think the theme I was trying to run is having intelligence of your next opponents strengths/weaknesses, and using the remaining points to attack specific aspects of your opponent. However, it's a risk/reward as you will have to keep these changes without knowledge of who your opponent is the following round after, so whatever you used as counters this round could weaken you in the one after.

I guess that complicates things, but I was trying to see if I could add a strategic element. I guess it could limit it to ships with versatile upgrade slots like Crew, System, EPT, etc. But it might be best to run things the way it's meant.

Thanks for the input!

I mean, if you want to explicitly allow sideboarding, so long as you maintain the old, that's a whole different ballgame.

And one that I approve, though it would have to have a bit of time between matches