Hi,

I'm organising a 4 player game this weekend using two original core sets.

This is a casual game and two of the people involved have never played X Wing or any RPG before.

Drawing upon your experience, what's the best way of balancing the pilots for each side in the core sets I have to make a balanced game?

Also does anybody have any advice on gently introducing the ability cards?

My own thoughts at this stage were a 2 versus 2 matchup perhaps using Luke, Biggs and two of the named TIE Fighter pilots with two generics.

Rebel Players:

Rebel Players:

Luke Skywalker (28)

Marksmanship (3)

R2-D2 (4)

Rookie Pilot (21)

R2-F2 (3)

Total: 59

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Imperial Players:

"Mauler Mithel" (17)

Marksmanship (3)

"Dark Curse" (16)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Total: 60

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I'm worried that if one of the Rebel players uses Biggs, they'll be taking all of the fire and will be destroyed long before Luke would.

Great, thanks for that!

Yeah, you can use pretty much any combo you can come up with out of those two boxes and have a decent match-up.

Use the quick play guide, that get's you going on movement and combat. Then you just add in actions, and maybe even the couple upgrade cards you get like Marksmanship and R2D2. I'd play with maybe only 4 asteroids a first and that way no one is getting frustrated by landing on rocks too many times.

Also, don't be afraid to fudge the rules a tiny bit at first. If you find that one player is having a hard time lining up fire arcs the first game maybe "use the Force" and nudge their ship once or twice so they can at least roll some attack dice and feel like they are taking part. Just say, oh look you missed your shot again, but Space Jesus is watching and he feels gracious so bump, take a shot! Don't do it all the time, it's just a trick to keep a first time player interested in the game. I mean it's no fun getting smoked hard and not getting to do anything.

And switch it up! Especially with just the core set it's very easy for Luke to run wild across the mat swatting down Ties like... well, like an X-Wing Ace swatting Ties! So be sure everyone gets a turn behind the wheel of each type of ship.

Good luck, welcome to X-Wing, and... Pew pew! Voosh voosh! Pew!

Two players each get an obsidian and an academy, the other two get a rookie with a proton torpedo. It's a modified version of my usual tutorial, presented here for two players. Great intro game, follow the rules in the rule book you have for co op play.

X-Wing: •Luke Skywalker (36)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

•R2-D2 (4)

T-70 X-Wing: •Poe Dameron (37)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

•BB-8 (2)

TIE Fighter: •"Mauler Mithel" (20)

Marksmanship (3)

TIE Fighter: •"Dark Curse" (16)

Total: 36

TIE/FO Fighter: •"Omega Ace" (21)

Wired (1)

TIE/FO Fighter: Zeta Squadron Pilot (16)

Total: 37

Thanks for the tips everyone!

X-Wing: •Luke Skywalker (36)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

•R2-D2 (4)

T-70 X-Wing: •Poe Dameron (37)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

•BB-8 (2)

TIE Fighter: •"Mauler Mithel" (20)

Marksmanship (3)

TIE Fighter: •"Dark Curse" (16)

Total: 36

TIE/FO Fighter: •"Omega Ace" (21)

Wired (1)

TIE/FO Fighter: Zeta Squadron Pilot (16)

Total: 37

Key word in the OP is Original

X-Wing: •Luke Skywalker (36)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

•R2-D2 (4)

T-70 X-Wing: •Poe Dameron (37)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

•BB-8 (2)

TIE Fighter: •"Mauler Mithel" (20)

Marksmanship (3)

TIE Fighter: •"Dark Curse" (16)

Total: 36

TIE/FO Fighter: •"Omega Ace" (21)

Wired (1)

TIE/FO Fighter: Zeta Squadron Pilot (16)

Total: 37

Key word in the OP is Original

Yeah, I can't use that list unfortunately as I don't have the new core set.

Thanks for trying to help though.

Sorry! I misread it. Lol. In that case, I'd just use the quick start guide. I think I saw that someone suggested that already. That's probably your best bet.

The only other thing I would suggest would be to do one of the missions in the book. I would suggest the Political Escort mission. Its quick, its easy, and its fun.

One thing that can suck about playing x wing with more than two players is that once one player gets destroyed he has to watch the other two play. At my work we have played a few 6-8 player games with much fun and success using a variation of the Furball version of X-Wing. (original idea for this was here http://teamcovenant.com/transmogrifer/2015/01/31/modified-furball/ )

Each Player gets 1 ship (or two tie fighters).

Deploy as normal

When your ship is destroyed, award a "victory point" to the other team.

Redeploy your ship at your starting table edge during the next turns planning phase.

Rinse + Repeat, the team with the most victory points at the end wins! (and play until you get bored! Thought we usually restrict the game to 1.5-2 hours and call time).

Also you might want to swap the droids on frbfli's list. R2-D2 on the Rookie would make him a little better, thereby balancing the fun out between him and Luke.

****edit

Each tie could be worth half a victory point. That would be more fair.

One thing that can suck about playing x wing with more than two players is that once one player gets destroyed he has to watch the other two play. At my work we have played a few 6-8 player games with much fun and success using a variation of the Furball version of X-Wing. (original idea for this was here http://teamcovenant.com/transmogrifer/2015/01/31/modified-furball/ )

Each Player gets 1 ship (or two tie fighters).

Deploy as normal

When your ship is destroyed, award a "victory point" to the other team.

Redeploy your ship at your starting table edge during the next turns planning phase.

Rinse + Repeat, the team with the most victory points at the end wins! (and play until you get bored! Thought we usually restrict the game to 1.5-2 hours and call time).

Also you might want to swap the droids on frbfli's list. R2-D2 on the Rookie would make him a little better, thereby balancing the fun out between him and Luke.

****edit

Each tie could be worth half a victory point. That would be more fair.

That is a really cool idea, but shouldn't the victory points be based off the strength of the ship? You could base it off of the point count of the ship and upgrades that was blown up. Or .5 VP for every 5 point cost, meaning a 20 cost ship would be 2 VPs, a 35 would be 3.5, and you could all agree to round up or down ahead of time for the in between-ers.

The only other thing I would suggest would be to do one of the missions in the book. I would suggest the Political Escort mission. Its quick, its easy, and its fun.

Cheers!

One thing that can suck about playing x wing with more than two players is that once one player gets destroyed he has to watch the other two play. At my work we have played a few 6-8 player games with much fun and success using a variation of the Furball version of X-Wing. (original idea for this was here http://teamcovenant.com/transmogrifer/2015/01/31/modified-furball/ )

Each Player gets 1 ship (or two tie fighters).

Deploy as normal

When your ship is destroyed, award a "victory point" to the other team.

Redeploy your ship at your starting table edge during the next turns planning phase.

Rinse + Repeat, the team with the most victory points at the end wins! (and play until you get bored! Thought we usually restrict the game to 1.5-2 hours and call time).

Also you might want to swap the droids on frbfli's list. R2-D2 on the Rookie would make him a little better, thereby balancing the fun out between him and Luke.

****edit

Each tie could be worth half a victory point. That would be more fair.

Thanks mate, that furball sounds like a really interesting idea.

Not sure how I'd exactly make it work with the ships I've got, but I'll deffo check out the link.

@boba rick-With furball you can only spend 30-35 points per ship. So it keeps it pretty balanced.

@mfairhu-your welcome! What ships do you have?

Hi,

My ship collection is in my signature below.

Any ideas as to what would make a decent furball or a 100pt three player game (2 x 50 pt fleets vs 1 x 100pt fleets)?

I'm trying to get a couple of people who've never played it before interested in the game.

Cheers!

When I got my coworkers to play we started slow. Only a few upgrades, mostly thematic. Tried to keep it pretty simple so they only had to think about their maneuvers and doing actions. Since you are only doing 2v2 you can probably just do a standard game and forget the furball rules. Heres two simple lists that would show off a few of your ships and give people plenty of choices.

Rebels - 99pts

Good Luck!

When I got my coworkers to play we started slow. Only a few upgrades, mostly thematic. Tried to keep it pretty simple so they only had to think about their maneuvers and doing actions. Since you are only doing 2v2 you can probably just do a standard game and forget the furball rules. Heres two simple lists that would show off a few of your ships and give people plenty of choices.

Rebels - 99pts

Luke Skywalker X-Wing

Gemmer Sojan A-Wing

Dagger Squadron Pilot B-Wing

Gray Squadron Pilot Y-Wing

-Ion Cannon Turret

Empire - 100

Darth Vader TIE Advanced

Tetran Cowall TIE Interceptor

Lieutenant Lorrir TIE Interceptor

Academy Pilot #1 TIE Fighter

Academy Pilot #2 TIE Fighter

Those two lists are pretty thematic to the star wars movies without much to distract from learning to maneuver and do actions. You can use the Ion Cannon turret to talk about how upgrades affect the game and such.

If you wanted to be more thematic you could run this rebel list instead. Pretend your running the death star trench or something

Rebels 99 Points

Wedge Antilles X-Wing

-R5-K6 Proton Torpedoes

Luke Skywalker X-Wing

-R2-D2 Proton Torpedoes

“Dutch” Vander Y-Wing

- Ion Cannon Turret

Good Luck!

1 Rookie, Proton Torpedoes

1 Red Squadron, Proton Torpedoes

1 Academy & 1 Obsidian

1 Academy & 1 Obsidian

Start off with only a very few asteroids, if any.

I did this to teach my friends the rules just last weekend. (3 of us, total) Gave them each 2 TIEs, I took both X-wings.
They solidly defeated me, and it got one of them really excited about the game. So I'm calling it a victory.

This was a great idea all around, kudos!

Thanks!