No, no, not those Furballs.

I'm talking the semi-casual Multiplayer format in which each player flies one ship, with max points in the 20-40 range (A point limit is set; we just can't agree on which it ought be).

How is the metagame going these days?

Postulate 1: At 35-40 points, the Imperial Aces are meta-defining

At 35 points, Soontir Fel

At 37+, Whisper

At 35+, Vader

Know that these ships are coming. They have counters, and occasionally that counter is everyone at the table ganging up on them.

Know that their counters are coming too.

Postulate 2: Large Ships are NOT terrors

Furball doesn't allow the 60 point tanks to actually enter the fray, and in most cases it doesn't allow the named pilots to play either. This means they're fairly easy to hit, and at a PS disadvantage to boot.

Postulate 3: C3P0 and R5-P9 are worth their weight in gold

The counter to C3P0 and to Regeneration: Combined Fire

What furball lacks? Combined Fire

Postulate 4: Aggro Management becomes a much more important method of defense

Upgrades/Abilities that punish enemies for attacking you (a la Rebel Captive) will usually result in you not being attacked unless you're the only target.

Upgrades/Abilities that anger multiple enemies (a la Ruthlessness) will usually result in an early loss

Upgrades/Abilities that force enemies into terrible situations (a la Ionization) will usually result in their death, without you seeming to have done anything to the table at large

Have there been any shifts here? Have any of the new ships entered the fray? What are the ideal point limits?

I play mostly with kids after school and 25pts is great. You can have 2 basics or one mid PS midrange ship or one beefy ship. Each faction gets options and things do t ever get too crazy.

Ideal Point Limits:

There are a few dichotomies here.

Enabling v Disabling powerful builds

34 points disables Soontir Fel. 35 points enables him. 40 might overpower, but it enables Darth and Whisper. Repeat for every broken ship.

Enabling v Disabling certain ships

29 points disables both TIE Fighters and TIE Defenders, for opposite reasons. Fighters can't compete in the price-range, and Defenders can't be bought.

Enabling v Disabling named pilots and/or upgrades

The cheaper you are, the fewer named pilots you'll see in the game, due to simply being unable to afford them. This curbs power drastically, but also curbs the fun of play for many, and the complexity for all.

Enabling v Disabling pilot skill vs ship

As with disabling/enabling ships, some ships at certain cost levels will shine with pilot-skill, as the low pilots cannot compete, while the higher-end pilots for the higher-cost ships will not be able to enter play.

At 35 points, Tycho Celchu's a likelier A-Wing than Jake Farrel, while a Sigma is more likely than Whisper.

Benefitting large collections vs small collections.

The fewer ships a person has, the more they'll benefit from a lower cost, where the weakness of their collection will be more on par with the weakness of all the ships on the field.

The more upgrades a person owns, the more they'll benefit from a higher cost, for the reverse of the same reason.

Had an epic game (store owner vs everyone else), we had 40pts on a single ship. It's amazing how different everyones brain works round this problem.

We ended up with no duplicates (closest thing was my Tycho and someone's Jake). it's genuinely a fun format at 40pts.

You can have 2 basics

Most furballs I've seen eschew the multiple-ship option.

This arbitrarily lowers the effectiveness of many pilots, and allows certain ships to get completely outclassed.

Not doing so, I feel, is healthy for the game, but increases the confusion of the board-state in an already complex format. What if everyone brings 2x TIEs?

25pts is great.

It's genuinely a fun format at 40pts.

And there's the extremes, lol

Whats Fu-Ball

Like FUBAR?

Whats Fu-Ball

Like FUBAR?

...****

We play a lot of furballs at the FLGS. We've found we like 33 points. At 30, you hey mostly generics with a lot of upgrades. At 35 the majority tends to be mostly kitted aces, with high average Pilot Skill around a 7-8 with small spread 9s not uncommon. At 33 we found we like it the best. Solid mix of kitted generics AND aces with an upgrade or two. Pilot skills begin to spread wide, and you get a very interesting interplay of abilities. Recent discussions have even included players wanting to furball upcoming releases like Wave 8 ships and the updated Defenders.

Our group plays a lot of furballs. We started off at 35 points, which worked pretty well, but we've been playing 40 points for a while now, and seem to like it. It lets you put just a bit more on the ships, or take that named pilot that would have been pretty naked at 35 points.

In the end, its really just a matter of taste, I think.

At 33 we found we like it the best. Solid mix of kitted generics AND aces with an upgrade or two. Pilot skills begin to spread wide, and you get a very interesting interplay of abilities. Recent discussions have even included players wanting to furball upcoming releases like Wave 8 ships and the updated Defenders.

Interesting.

My pics at 33?

Vader, with Title, ATC, Lone Wolf, and TIE mk.II

Jake Farrel with VI, PTL, Autothrusters, and Prockets

Omicron with Engine, Rebel Captive, Intel Agent, and Sensor Jammer

Palob Godalhi with Moldy Crow, Recon Specialist, Elusiveness, Dorsal Turret, and Cloaking Device (Blaster and ID until release)

33 is interesting... you cant take easy aces.

i really dislike the one ship rule. i try and teach everyone tpo use more than 1 ship. 24 points was for a while a fun number. generics only. 2 ties or 2 zs worked great. while excluding phantoms from noob players getting confused

Omega Leader looks to be a shocker. A TIE Fighter variant that can plug along at 30 points? Neat!

At 40 points, I wonder if Ten Numb could be a threatening counter to all the aces.

Ten Numb

- Veteran Instincts

- Mangler Cannon

The last 4 points are up in the air. C-3PO+B-Wing E2, Sensor Jammer, and Advanced Sensors all seem nice.

At 40 points, I wonder if Ten Numb could be a threatening counter to all the aces.

Ten Numb

- Veteran Instincts

- Mangler Cannon

The last 4 points are up in the air. C-3PO+B-Wing E2, Sensor Jammer, and Advanced Sensors all seem nice.

I'd prefer Calculation + Ion Cannon. Cheaper, and a much more brutal effect.

As a new player with a very limited collection and only somewhat better understanding of all the ship/card interactions I'm glad there is still interest in <40 pt. games.

At least in my area, hunger games style matches usually take place rather than straight furballs

At least in my area, hunger games style matches usually take place rather than straight furballs

what is this?

We used to do furballs every other week, our group is pretty small so you normally don't see any of the big aces flying. We do sometimes tweak the rules like making the obstacles explode randomly every other round which was fun. My only complaint is how our rules don't allow for large ships, so no space cows

double post

Another version we've experimented with is the Mario Kart game. I built a 4'x4' table a couple years ago with a 3'x3' play area marked off. We used that, but played on the outer area as a track. Set up some asteroids and debris tokens for obstacles, some tracking tokens for upgrades (one time use only), some satellites that shoot at you (three dice attack) and you have a nice little race. We've run it a couple times and it seemed to be a lot of fun.

At least in my area, hunger games style matches usually take place rather than straight furballs

what is this?

I would imagine that, in his area, everyone's learned how to avoid the problem of being in the center, so they tend to square off into duels in tiny corners in the world that are invaded by other players occasionally, where they're just trying to eke out a system of not-dying rather than all out aggression.

His group also might be playing with more obstacles than most, possibly modifying the obstacle density rules.

To avoid this, make the map size claustrophobic. Can't hide in a corner when the corners don't exist... but that comes with lots of trade-offs as well.

32 and 33 seem to give a lot of interesting builds for a lot of ships - jake and soontir are buzzing along pretty happily (not perfect, but plenty to keep them potent), b-wings are fielding ten and keyan, and the x-wing is wedge or luke; pretty iconic either way.

More than this, and you see increasingly LA large numbers of ships unable to fight without allowing multiple bases.

I teach this game relatively frequently (I'm a college librarian and teach a board game class with a day on X-Wing) and really appreciate exploring the nuance of this format! 32-34 seems to be a good range for the "everybody gets one or two ships" learning game.

At 34 points, you could have...
1-2 A-Wings
1 B-Wing
1 E-Wing
1 K-Wing
1 T-70
1 X-Wing
1 YT-1300 (Outer Rim Smuggler)
1 Y-Wing (Reb or Scum)
1 Assault Shuttle
1 YT-2400
1-2 Z-95s
1 TIE Advanced
1 TIE Defender
2 TIE Fighters
1 TIE Punisher
1-2 TIE /fo
1 Firespray (Imp. Bounty Hunter)
1 TIE Interceptor
1 Lambda
1 TIE Adv. Prototype (unless there's a cheaper generic pilot)
1-2 TIE Bombers
1 TIE Phantom
1-2 HWKs
1 YV-666 (Slaver)

That's a pretty good assortment, and I should be able to field most of that for my class of 17 next semester....

When my group plays a furball,each player puts in a bid for how many points we use. For three players we use 8-20 and for for we use 6 - 15. The squads are then built based on the total points bid. That way each game is different. And we don't have a single ship limit, either. Mini swarms are welcome.