I have to admit... It really seems to me that XWing is just not a great game for the epic format. I could be wrong.

It is different from standard. Some people like a not too professional weekend game that eats up a day off with people playing an impressive selection of miniatures all at once. What is the point of having a whole collection if you don't get play it all at once. Not to mention the scale of the huge ships makes the Imperial Star Destroyer of Star Wars Armada look puny.

That being said Epic takes some prior planning to ensure you have enough time to play a full game. One of my biggest complaints of the epic tournaments that my store has is that they chose to have it on their dedicated X-wing night which is a normal weekday night and we end up with only 2 hours to play and not on a Weekend night like Friday or Saturday. Then again the reason was size constraints and X-wing has threaten to drown out all other customers. The FNMtG scene hasn't even come close to doing that.

I have no idea why Epic is such frowned upon. After two years in this hobbie most players should have at least the most basic Epic list or lists. I and most on this forum probably have enough for a 1000 point game. I would love to play one Epic game a month. But too much complaining from people.

Be mindful that Epic does NOT need a huge ship.

Again that depends on how you enjoy X-wing. Many players like the highly refined, meta driven, and time efficient gameplay of competitive play like tournament formats. Some people like to finish a game in an hour and a half but Epic takes much longer and with all the models on the table the turns take longer. Ever played horde Guard vs horde Tyranids or Ork Horde list in warhammer 40,000? After a couple hours you were moving fast if you were on turn 2 but games like that such as armada has a turn limit to keep games from running too long. X-wing doesn't have turn limits because the model count is so low sometime you can get to turn 27 in a game without any speed play.

Tournament players are going to like torunament play because it is the most engaging and time efficient way to play X-wing.

Collectors are going to like to play Epic because it gives them a chance to play with their entire collection and ships that are not used in tournaments or not often used in tournaments.

I checked that I play Epic, but not exclusively. I have to admit, though, that I tend to play Cinematic. That is, I don't stick to the 300 pt set up. Also, I prefer to make both lists up to make them a balanced game. To me, if you are going to take the time to set up a large game and get buy in, make it a fair match so people have fun. It's no fun if someone figures out a dirty trick and crushes you. It tends to turn people off trying. I tend to like to balance the game and make it fun, even if you lose.

My friends and I have just started playing epic and I love it. it's a nice change of pace from vanilla x-wing. Almost makes me want to play some of the scenarios certain ships come with. Almost

I'll say that the campaign packs that come in the epic ships are fun. They are also good at teaching new players how to run the ships. I'm trying to get a bunch of the local guys to try them out in the next few weeks to help build up the number of people that actually understand the epic ship rules.

Besides that, scenarios can be really fun if you get a good one. It's good to get a 2 x 2 person scenario to run through. It's the same game....but different. It's a nice change. Also, some ships that tend to not do well in 100 pt deathmatch do really well (like X-wings).

I have to admit... It really seems to me that XWing is just not a great game for the epic format. I could be wrong.

I have found it to be great. As I stated above, it's a nice change of pace for the same game. Get tired of seeing the same meta lists over and over again? Try out some different form of the game. Want to use your X-wings? They are great for Epic or scenarios.

To me, I'll set up different squads of 3-4 of the same ship types and an epic ship for each side. Give them missions. Have the Bombers/Y-wings try to make a torpedo run on the other ship. Which squads do you protect your own Bombers? Which go for their bombers? You make strategic decisions before you make the tactical decisions.

I also find epic is not the place for Aces so much. For one, having too many slows the game down as you try to remember all the rules. Next, they tend to get focus fired down pretty easy. For the amount of points you spend, you can get more generics. Also, there is something about a bunch of generic squads flying across the board.