In casual play we keep it at 120 points because 100 points just seems a little cramped. Do a lot of people do this or do most just stick with 100?

In casual play we keep it at 120 points because 100 points just seems a little cramped. Do a lot of people do this or do most just stick with 100?

You can do as you like in casual play! When new stuff comes out, my group often wants to run combos that seem uber (and over 100 points). It can be a lot of fun.

In casual play we keep it at 120 points because 100 points just seems a little cramped. Do a lot of people do this or do most just stick with 100?

at 120 aces who rely on repositioning and tons of tokens suddenly understand that it's not super-effective already.

so 120 is perfectly fine

Agreed. How else are you going to play with all your toys. The game changes significantly for some ships with the additional points though.

I'd guess it depends in part on how likely you are to play in tournaments.

For those of us who play at one or more store championship, regionals, casual tournaments, ect... We'll tend to stick to 100 points because we're getting in practice for tournaments, and testing lists and the like.

But if you never play at them I don't see any reason why you wouldn't increase the number to whatever most people find fun.

We sometimes do 150, but don't allow ship-spam. Use some of those upgrades!

The game is designed around 100 point games and it is more challenging to find lists that are good with in a hundred points and as pointed out going over is ok for casual but might mess you up if you decide to do tourneys later. For as long as i have been playing nobody has had 120 150 lists every one has had 100 point lists .

I disagree about 100 pts as the "perfect".size. It depends on time available, table space, what kind of game...

Very often we play 250 pts 2 vs 2. But if some of my buddies walks to my home for an evening play we usually play a 150 pts game. This means between 90 - 120 minutes of play, the same as a film. 150 pts, 4 x 3 game surface. 100 pts games are too short, and playing twice too long. A 250 pts 2 vs 2 in a 5 x 3 game area is 120 - 150 mins ( chat, beer...)

If we have very little time, some mates are 4-5 minutes walking, or 1 min driving. So we can fight a couple of 40 pts 2 ship vs 2 ship "turbogames". 10 -15 min each, relax after a long day and practice.

We are lucky we are a close group or wargamers who live in the same neightbourhood and with more or less similar worktimes. As I am single I have plenty of.space to wargame, and it is a luxury.

In casual play we keep it at 120 points because 100 points just seems a little cramped. Do a lot of people do this or do most just stick with 100?

at 120 aces who rely on repositioning and tons of tokens suddenly understand that it's not super-effective already.

so 120 is perfectly fine

To the op: casually do whatever you want. The game is balanced around 100 points but doesn't disintegrate at higher levels.

In casual play we keep it at 120 points because 100 points just seems a little cramped. Do a lot of people do this or do most just stick with 100?

at 120 aces who rely on repositioning and tons of tokens suddenly understand that it's not super-effective already.

so 120 is perfectly fine

This 120 points question comes up all the time and so does this approximate reply. I don't get it, what magical upgrade fits in 120 points but not 100 that invalidates aces?

To the op: casually do whatever you want. The game is balanced around 100 points but doesn't disintegrate at higher levels.

Well, in my case we usually have 6-8 ships on the table, and because I'm just getting started some of those ships are higher point cost (E-Wing, Millennium Falcon, Slave 1, Phantom). Also, because we usually play with 3 players on one team and 2 on the other, it lends towards everyone wanting a super cool ship. We're working on that though.

I can usually get 1-3 upgrade per ship.

I've played some times 120 pts matches: a good and funny option!

Have you ever played 100 pts matches but with free upgrades?

I always find the aces struggle at 120-150 thing funny. I just look at my escalation list and realize that's all a bunch of hog wash xD.

You can play points at what ever you feel like. Some people do 101-102, some 150, some 500, some 60. The game play changes significantly with each. One list might dominate while another just barely holds its own. The reason I advocate 100 point lists? It the tournament standard and honestly it just feels natural, usually just enough ships in the board to capture a skrimish between forces in one sector of the battlefield. 300 works well too mostly because of the small and large ship limits. I would hate to see 25+ academy ties in the board... Or some of these 1k-5k point games where they no longer feel like a game but moving around a diorama set.

I've been over 100 a lot. In epic.

My club often runs 150 point games. We have our hall for 3 hours and 100 point games are usually over too quickly. Some people play fast enough to get 2 games into that time. But 150 points makes for a good 2-2.5 hour game and allows players to field a few more toys.

I haven't seen anyone play quad brobots yet but I'm sure it is only a matter of time.

In casual play we keep it at 120 points because 100 points just seems a little cramped. Do a lot of people do this or do most just stick with 100?

at 120 aces who rely on repositioning and tons of tokens suddenly understand that it's not super-effective already.

so 120 is perfectly fine

This 120 points question comes up all the time and so does this approximate reply. I don't get it, what magical upgrade fits in 120 points but not 100 that invalidates aces?

To the op: casually do whatever you want. The game is balanced around 100 points but doesn't disintegrate at higher levels.

it's just a couple more TIEs that can block, 3 more dice that are thrown in soontir's face, another gun you have to arcdodge

the more dice are thrown around, the less impact these 2-3 tokens make

I find 100 point games stimulating, because it forces you to go through some though choices to build a competitive squad. Ironically, I also find the same though choices have to be made in 300 point epic games, because huge ships really do force you through some though decisions whether you are playing with them or against them. Good times

As others have said - it's a matter of preference. What I will say regarding the aces not doing well at 120-150 - there are three things playing into that mentality.

First, as the games get larger, it is easier to kill any single ship. Therefore, a single high threat doesn't have a large ROI. But if you have 5 Aces in a 200pt game, one will likely die quickly, but the others will stick around and presumably have a better ROI as they last longer into the game and outplay the dwindling numbers on the other side.

The second is that playing Aces typically requires a bit more finesse. If you're running a swarm, you can just run in formation and do a pretty good job at murdering whatever is in front of you. But if you're playing an Ace, every maneuver is that much more important. As your opponent gets more ships on the board, the probability that he screws up your plans drastically increases. Therefore, having Fel get blocked and then being massacred by Z95's is a real challenge.

These two first things though scale as the points themselves scale. There's not that much difference at 120 than at 100... But go all the way up to 300, and all of a sudden they're no longer viable at all. Where the quick jump comes from is the third point. Aces are generally a more advanced play style. You have to know your specific ace inside and out to do well with it. This requires flying the same guy over and over and facing a bunch of different scenarios and learning from them. This is the environment that a tournament player would prep for. However, a tourney player is more likely to be playing 100 point games to reflect the tourney scene. The casual player is more likely to play 120, or 150. The casual player is also more likely to try all sorts of different builds. Therefore, there is a drop in ace effectiveness at 120 more so due to the type of player than the type of game.

X wing is a great game, but tournaments are boring and constantly playing 100/6 tournament practice games is boring. We usually play 150 points, but sometimes 120, and our Epic matches are usually 400-500 points.

As a point of contrast, I'm attending a 40K tournament next month that will be using 5 new scenarios, that won't be revealed to the players until immediately before the game. It's common in most wargame tournaments to create new scenarios to force players out of their comfort zone and to build lists that do things other than just murder their opponents. I find the lack of scenarios for competitive X Wing disturbing.

Casual games for me can end up anywhere between 60-150 points, depending on how much time is available.

Although my preference is mostly towards 100 point lists because those will transition easier when you're not playing inside your regular circle.

It feels to me like the units in the game were designed with 100 points in mind (or at the very least had their place in a 100 point list very carefully considered).

Other point values are fun too, but everything seems to "click" at 100 points. I don't know how to explain it better.

(obviously excluding any analysis of the 300pt epic format from my observations - I've never played at point values that high, so I don't know about that.)

We like 150pts. That's usually 1 big ship we don't usually use or 2-3 smaller ships that just get tacked onto a list we already liked at 100pts with some more upgrades. It does kill Aces a bit better as long as you don't increase board size. Ordinance is also a better buy as it's a smaller percentage of your spent points.

If you min/max out 150pt lists they tend to snowball really fast against more casual lists so we don't do that. 150pts pretty much just signals "Hey, this is more casual" and I don't have 4 hours for epic.

We like 150pts. That's usually 1 big ship we don't usually use or 2-3 smaller ships that just get tacked onto a list we already liked at 100pts with some more upgrades. It does kill Aces a bit better as long as you don't increase board size. Ordinance is also a better buy as it's a smaller percentage of your spent points.

If you min/max out 150pt lists they tend to snowball really fast against more casual lists so we don't do that. 150pts pretty much just signals "Hey, this is more casual" and I don't have 4 hours for epic.

One of the things I've been considering is getting into the epic ships or scum faction. But those games take a really long time, is that right?

If you play an epic game all the way to completion it's usually in the 2.5-3 hour range if you're fast on set up (and usually 2 players). Extra players and list building takes longer too. Also, even more so that 100pt games, you can tell pretty quickly when an EPIC game is "over". There can be pretty big momentum swings and green dice can make you live forever (or die immediately in epic) but the game can be determined "over" pretty easily even with a lot of ships still on board.

If you're choosing between the two you'll get more bang for your buck adding the Scum Faction. If you're looking for a different game then go EPIC.

I once played in a 99 point game...

I play multiple pick-up games at multiple friendly local game stores every month and I've never had anyone ask if I wanted to play over 100 points, everyone always has a 100 point list ready to play.

If/when this game makes it to the equivalent of a "2nd edition" I really hope they define a 150 point category for organized play. It would open up a lot of new squad types and restore life to some underused pilots.

I understand that people can already play 150 points games, but a lot of organized play/TOs are beholden to the standard rules (for good reason, since you're bringing together a lot of strangers into a play environment where everybody needs to be on the same page). I'm not looking for 100 points to be replaced, but I would like FFG to "give their blessing' to the idea of 150s. Make them canon, if you will.