Worst of the worst

By Oxymandias, in X-Wing

On 8/21/2015 at 6:39 AM, FTS Gecko said:

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.

Yeah, I can't see this format being much fun unless you created, in advance, a whole FAQ/rules list for banned cards and combinations.

Granted, there are a few things you can do to guarantee that too many useless things don't creep into the game, such as point limits: small-base ships need to be a minimum of 30 points and a minimum 3 upgrade cards), and large-base ships a minimum of 45 points and a minimum of 4 upgrade cards. That way you don't have naked HWKs, but are forced to take HWKs with pilot abilities and high-value crew (no Int Agent, Inspiring Recruit, etc., or you won't meet your 30 point minimum). That way you also aren't taking Guidance Chips and Long-Range Sensors without ordinance or Tactical Jammers unless they're on named pilots, or naked Lamba shuttles. Sure, we'd see a lot of funny things, like Stealth Device on Lambdas & Decimators, but to reach the 45 point minimum they have to consider whether to add stronger crew or stronger guns. Maybe they'll be forced to take a Jamming Sensors, which would inadvertently (though not very effectively) help their Stealth Device.

At any rate, this format still doesn't seem like it would be as fun as it would be frustrating... even if a third party crafted all the squadrons, both players would feel helpless throughout the game, and that's no fun, to feel like you're losing even if you're winning. The object of the game would need to be changed in order to make this fun: instead of the goal being winning outright, points would need to be scored for dodging hits, landing hits with 2 or fewer attack dice, for actually turning a damage card face-up via Saboteur, etc... so then, we'd be back to the beginning: this format really would need a whole FAQ...

(Sorry to be the naysayer... I do wish this would be fun)

How about whatever bad list you make plays itself in a mirror match? You can make a bad list, but not a useless list, if you catch my meaning.

Or if you're worried about "boring, un-fun" lists, maybe allow for one "good" ship/pilot that can't be worth more than 34 points + including normal upgrades?

If for example, you bring N'dru+Lone Wolf+Cruise Missiles+Chips+Scavenger Crane (24 pts) the remaining ten points must be used on making the "bad" list.

Then flip a coin and either you or your opponent gets to play the list you came up with.