Hi all

I'm looking to set up a couple of demo games in my area as the game hasn't picked up any traction at all - it's so dead that I haven't even had the motivation to play solo for the last few months!

I know the starter game is good for learning the rules, but I don't think it's any good for generating that 'wow' factor for those sitting on the fence or just thinking about buying into it. Has anyone got any suggestions for how I should go about this please?

Any ideas greatly appreciated!

Cheers

Buy a gladiator, AFmk2 expansion. The game is still pretty balanced, and then having the different types of spaceships draws interest.

Also, use a star field map and make some polystyrene asteroids. It's all about the visuals for a lot of tabletop players, and some decent backdrop and terrain helps fend off questions about scale...

Thanks for the feedback D503 - great point about the visuals too!

I have two core sets and will have one of everything from wave 1 by the end of the week. Any ideas about good balanced lists for a demo game with what I have?

So long as you have a relatively equal mix of fighters/bombers/ships on both sides, it's not really that possible to unbalance the game too much that new people can't have fun.

I'm sure you can break the game if you tried with unlimited cards and ships, but with what you have you'll be fine.

I liked pulling out the core set, and just playing that with no upgrades. It's enough to show the game mechanics. And if someone is about to fly off the board, just fix it so they don't. Haha

Cool - many thanks for the thoughts D503 and Stasy

When I am doing a demo, or a teaching game, I have a pair of fleets that I built especially for the event (see below). These fleets feature no Admirals, Upgrades or Objectives. Basically a 300-point version of the beginning game from the core set, just up-scaled for more of a visual attraction. These fleets can be built using only the Core set, and one of each of the following Wave 1 expansions: one Victory Star Destroyer, one Gladiator Star Destroyer, one Assault Frigate, one CR90 Corvette, one Imperial Fighter pack and one Rebel fighter pack.

The goal of this game is simply to kill your opponent. Like the learning game from the core set, this game teaches how to maneuver and fire with a variety of units without introducing the more complex, such as Upgrades and Objectives. You can play with or without Obstacles. This scenario puts a lot of models on the board (eye candy) since there are no Upgrades to use up points. I find that it works well for a player's first game when they have an instructor. I find that the game moves pretty smooth once the novice player gets a few turns to see how things work.

Link to the fleets

Perfect, thanks Edsel62

Zaha:

I was about to add but someone beat me to it. A lot of it is the visual wow factor.

-Paint some of the squadrons (or buy some painted ones on Ebay) and use those for display.

-Get some cool looking asteroids and/or debris. Space Rocks sells some awesome stuff and the owner is great to work with. Another thing to do is go to Michael's and get one of these. Then paint it up to look like a planet or moon or whatever. Here's what these extra props can do. Now tell me the little Star Wars kid in all of us wouldn't get sucked in if they saw this set up at your FLGS!

A rebel task force jumps out of hyperspace to join with the main fleet at the rendezvous point.

Little do they realize, an Imperial Star Destroyer is lying in wait on the far side of a nearby moon, poised to ambush them!

Star Map: http://www.ds-tone.com/

Asteroids and Debris: http://www.space-rocks.net/

That looks bloody amazing! Thanks for the ideas and links :-)

The 'planet' styrene ball can be made into a giant asteroid instead.

1. Attack it with a hairdryer until it is all uneven on the surface
2. Seal the surface with watered down PVA, and add some sand for texture
3. Add little buildings and spaceports with miniature fighters on them
4. Spray black
5. Drybrush appropriate colours

I find it strange that an entire planet would be represented on a space battlefield, but a huge asteroid starbase would be cool.

The 'planet' styrene ball can be made into a giant asteroid instead.

1. Attack it with a hairdryer until it is all uneven on the surface
2. Seal the surface with watered down PVA, and add some sand for texture
3. Add little buildings and spaceports with miniature fighters on them
4. Spray black
5. Drybrush appropriate colours

I find it strange that an entire planet would be represented on a space battlefield, but a huge asteroid starbase would be cool.

To each his own. I like my planet :-) But I also like your idea to make a big asteroid. I didn't know a hair dryer would have that affect, so that's good to know.