Hello,

I'm new to the game (less than 1 week) and 1 game only under my belt but I have a few rule changes that my wife and I are considering. I'd like to have the opinion of more experienced players:

- Random move of asteroids/debris: Nothing in space is motionless. I suggest asteroid/debris could have random moves. Between planning phase and activation phase, the asteroid/debris could be moved. Create a move wheel with 8 directions, place it in the centre of the item to be moved (no particular orientation), roll a 1D8 and move the item by about 2.5 cm in the direction given by the wheel, resolving collisions with ships.

- Evade token: it seems weird that with an evade token, the number of attack dice is not reduced and the pilot can have a focus token too (if he has a free action) (my understanding of evade is the pilot taking evasion maneuvers to avoid being targeted). Would it be better if a pilot gets an evade that they should not be allowed a focus/target lock and have the attack dice number reduced by 1 or 2?

- Upgrade/Pilot cards are know by the opponent at the start of the game. Would it be better to have them revealed at first use. Some of them would not be obvious to the opponent until the upgrade is used the first time. How would you know who's piloting that TIE fighter, an ace or a rooky, or that this x-wing is equipped with an advanced sensor?

The first one aeems thematically sound but I find the game random enough to not want another random event that can do damage. Also, since the asteroids are an irruglar shape, any movement would be inexact. Really, an asteroid should be able to destroy a ship in one hit at any time.

For two, it could make 2 attack ships rarely ever hit. Too negative an effect.

You have every right to know the other players cards before the game starts and any time during.

I've done the third one a few times. Not hidden pilots, but hidden upgrades (pilots are hard to do because the cardboard on the ship and they still have to activate in order). It's actually pretty fun. It makes ordinance significantly more enjoyable because you never know until they drop a proton bomb on you. You just have to trust your opponent (and yourself) aren't erroneously using upgrade cards on ships that can't take them.... like an x-wing using adv sensors

Wouldn't it make more sense to play the game as designed for a little while longer before adding fairly major house rules?

Don't mess with evade tokens. They work fine as-is. This game is deliberately designed so that offensive dice and actions like target lock are, on average, more powerful than defensive dice and actions like evade. Otherwise you could just evade forever and have absurdly long games.

Instead of assuming an evade token should reduce the attacker's dice, think of it as adding an extra defense 'die' that will always give you a sure-thing result. Which is essentially what it does now anyway.

Trust a little in the developers, things are the way they are for a reason. With more experience in the game you'll get better judgement about your own rules/scenarios.

1) I have heard of people having moving asteroids in casual games. Another idea I heard was to replace destroyed ships with debris fields when they are removed.

2) An Evade token effectively reduces the number of possible hits by one. To have a Target lock in the same round as evade requires that you either targeted in a previous turn as your action, or have a special ability or upgrade. Likewise to have a focus and evade in the same round requires a special ability or upgrade. See no reason to change. Would drastically impact my use of Soontir Fel.

3) I think you have to know the pilot in order to manage initiative, movement and actions.

In terms of upgrades, I could see revealing them as they are used to make the game more unpredictable, but for me personally - I think I would forget I had certain upgrades if I had them turned face down. On some ships, it's not uncommon to have 3 or more upgrades (Elite, Title, Modification, Secondary Weapons, etc..) so I usually weigh my options each round to make sure I can use them effectively.