Somewhere in this forum, a long time ago, I read a post about a tournament where everyone would build the worst possible list they could with their own ships and upgrades, and then your opponent gets to play that list and you get to play his.

I would probably set some limitations, like you can't put EU on ships with Boost, has to be minimum 4 ships, no more than two of the same ship and/or some other rules.

I'm thinking you get to fly a new squad every game, but will be facing the same to make it really backwards.

The idea is to have a fun and lighthearted event to get away from the seriouness that the Regional/Nationals season has brought. And to see some pilots on the board that we never see!

Anyone have experience with something like this? Ideas and suggestions?

Thanks!

I think you would see a lot of turret-less HWK swarms in said tournament.

I think you would see a lot of turret-less HWK swarms in said tournament.

Don't think many people with have enough HWK ships to make a swam.

You might need to ban Munitions Failsafe without munitions, Stygium without Cloak and Experimental Interface without any other upgrades that give an action.

Hmmmmm. On the one hand you can easily blow half your points on a Patrol Leader with Rec Spec, Flight Instructor and Shield Upgrade or (even funnier) Stealth Device. On the other hand, I feel like 3 attack dice would be kind of at a premium in this format so I worry it might be too good even with ten useless points hanging off it. I like Major Rhymer as a wingman, though.

You might also have to specify that the squad has to come in at 98 points or higher?

I don't think that this type of event works at all. The problem is that, in X-Wing, certain ships are completely dependent on upgrades. Not giving them their upgrades doesn't make them feel 'haha-how-can-I make-this-work bad,' it makes them feel crippled.

For example, flying a list with a naked Rebel Operative is barely any different than flying an 84 point list at a 100 point tournament. It works similarly with Rhymer without any munitions or with a Decimator loaded with 3 Flight Instructors.

Turret-less HWK with gunner: Killing machine

Turret-less HWK with gunner

If failedparachute is flying it, you're screwed.

I think the only way you can run a tournament like this properly is to do the list swap stuff in swiss, then in the final cut you are forced to fly your list. So, you cannot make a completely garbage list. You actually have to win with your list. You want to make a list that is difficult to win with but something you are good at flying.

I think it would be better to make some sort of list of "sub-optimal" choices and see who can win with the most "bad" cards in their list. Would need a large enough group to choose by consensus whether a list is truly "bad enough" for the competition.

Flying a turret-less HWK with Targeting Coordinator, and Advanced Slam is no fun, anybody can flat out waste points. Flying something like this:

Did this with a couple of friends a while back. It's a bloody awful way to play the game. It was the polar opposite of fun.

Id prefer a generic vs. Generic battle. Xwing vs tie and you roll off to choose rebel or imp. Or everyone plays the same ships and you call it war games for best pilot bragging rights.

A play on this that my pals and I do on our xwing night at times (usually is just 4 of us) is that you build your opponent's garbage list but, should you make it to the "finals", you have to use the list you built. It tempers the horridness somewhat... plus you see unique lists at the very least.

You could limit it to 2 of any type of ship, that may weed out multi-hawk lists.

I did this once with Star Trek Attack Wing, it was actually a really fun tournament! Although the rounds were about twice as long as they should have been to get a victor.

I have heard of tournaments where you bring a list and the TO flips a coin to see if you play your list or your opponent's list, that sounded like fun too. Bring a list only you can pilot effectively? Sign me up!

While this may be fun for the right people, I just don't see it working out well in most gaming groups.

Better ideas would be using Fab's to randomly generate squad lists, giving each faction a required ship to use, or a tournament style event where there is some chance you may have to switch lists with your opponent.

One way you could do this is have everyone generate lists and then put them in a drawing. That way there's a chance the creator may have to fly it so they might sabotage the list some but won't completely cripple it.

I think I saw a tourney where which player's list you played was based on a Coin flip.

That way, youll likely get your squad at least once, so you'll want it to be good. I really like that format idea, and would gladly play it.

I think playing only really bad squads would result in several boring games of X Wing. Bad Squads generally don't kill things very fast, so action is very minimal, hence, boring.

One could also put a bounty on some cards, so you have to use at least 1 "bad ship" and at least 6 "bad cards." PTL? Ok, but your squad also has a Spice Runner and Expose and Advanced Proton Torpedoes in it.

Some fat version of Lambdas Kagi and Fels Wraith?

Similar to superdave's suggestion, I had an idea for a format that could give you the effect you're looking for. First, make a list of underused pilots and upgrades for each faction (including neutral upgrades on each faction's list). Then make a list of overused pilots and upgrades. Have each player choose a faction, then roll X times on the underused list, and each one they get has to be included in their squad, and X times on the overused list for the things that they can't put in their squad.

You could even tie the number of rolls together to give the players some choice in how they're restricted. For example, each player picks one of these options:

A) Roll 1 time for an underused card; roll 5 times for overused cards

B) Roll 2 times for underused cards; roll 3 times for overused cards

C) Roll 3 times for underused cards; roll 1 time for an overused card

Then each player makes the best list they can with their restrictions and tries to make it work. You'd probably need to set the list restrictions ahead of time, so that people know what to bring and to avoid using up too much time at the beginning of the tournament.

Give under-used and under-powerful cards/pilots a point value, have everyone play their own list, and factor in the points to their MoV or score or something like that. That way, people would have to choose between a list with normal meta, and have no extra points, or a "worst" list with a ton of extra points they'll gain just by flying it.

If you add a bunch of rules like "no useless upgrades" then it shouldn't be called "worst list." To me, a worst list squadron would be pilots with useless abilities (Kavil without a turret, for example) loaded with useless upgrades (Extra Munitions with no ordnance, Targeting Computer on ships with Target Lock, etc.). Ban those options and you make it impossible to build a "worst" list. It just becomes bad lists.

17 minutes ago, pkreynolds said:

Necromancy is bad.

You should feel bad.

On ‎21‎.‎8‎.‎2015 at 3:20 PM, IG88E said:

Turret-less HWK with gunner: Killing machine

Once I have played turretless HWK with Greedo. Surprisingly it worked pretty well. It was sooooo utterly ignored it did most of the "last shots".

I kinda like the idea of the tournament coordinator making 3 lists as balanced as they can make them, 1 for each faction, and roll a d6 to determine what you fly in each round. No knowledge of these lists period before play, you know imp or scum or reb but till the first round you have no knowledge what the squads are.

Granted this would require the host to supply the lists and the more people involved exponentially increase the need for specific things but it could work as a vassal tournament. It would showcase real skill and adaptability not who practiced more and can auto pilot their turns. I know it’s an unpopular view here but I find obcessive dedication sad. Being handed something and making it work, now that is skill.