X-Wing 5000 Points Game

9 people on a 6' x 15' table get 4 rounds of play in 16 hour game. (Lots of pics.)

16 hours. And only 4 rounds.
I feel like there needed to be some way to simplify things, or having a bunch of stuff going on at once...

One of the LGSs in my area did something similar with about 1200 points per side on a 4x16 table that - for whatever reason - they decided to play short edge to short edge. Setup started at 1:00, game actually got started around 3:30, and the first shot was fired around 7:00 - it was terrible and went downhill from there.

X-Wing basic rules just don't seem well suited to very large points totals.

Spitballing ideas. Give each person a square and they control the ships in that area. Put a timer on dials. It'll still take forever but might make it feel fast paced.

But that games look awesome.

There needs to be more HUGE ships at that size! Filling the table with smalls doesn't help the situation.

From my experiences with Epics, close to half the points need to be HUGE ships with their upgrades!

Even a 600 point game is way too much.

We did an epic tournament here last year, each player got 300 points but then only 4 people showed up so we decided to combine into 2v2 600vs600 and it sucked.

Took like 3 hours to get the first two turns, we had a massive lead after the first round of firing, and so we decided to call it quits.

Wouldn't want to try again unless there are huge ships on the board and or some kind of limits to numbers of small ship or something. Like 300 points, max of 10 ships or something.

Straight up bad idea... I admire the ambition displayed but it was never going to work.

A local store is looking into something similar near me. It was going to be a 5k for each faction, but we don't want to play for a couple of days straight. Now we're looking at objectives and other additional stuff to make it enjoyable. Probably will only do 1-2k points per faction.

Mayfair Games developed a system for Mega Catan. Each player interacts with only 5 other people even if their are 100 playing. The person directly across from them and the people to the direct left and right of themselves and their direct opponent.

Set up battle zones about three feet wide with an objective or two in that zone. Each team needs a supreme commander who has bee tasked with accomplishing some or all of the objectives (The big picture). Each player brings their detachment, 100-150 points, and supplies the commander with their list. The commander deploys the fleet in a way he feels will best complete the objectives either by decree or by committee. If a player completes their objective or can no longer complete their objective they may reinforce the zone to their direct left of right but must take into account the directives of the direct zone command and the fleet command.

In this way you have several standard games of X-Wing being played but also linked into a single overall battle.

Omg... It looks very epic tough!

2k vs 2k

took us two hours just to set it all up in our store...

4 players per side, 3 rebels 3 empires and 2 scums, one on each side.

But the result was fun: played til the dark, 13 hours total, rebel victory (Abaht and Dodonna bros for life!)

5 turns total, 27 ships stampeded by Huges... and we ordered armada the next day...

The problem with large games is that once it starts to lean in one player's favour it can be very hard for the other player to come back and even it up. In a 100 point game its not such a big deal because neither player has invested much time and you can just declare the winner and play another game.

I wonder if a better approach might be to play it in waves... For a wild, stab in the dark example how about 150 points first up, then 150 additional points after 5 rounds and then another 200 points after 10 rounds. There would need to be some requirement to move and engage before your next wave could enter i.e. you can't have any ships within range 4 of your side of the mat to get reinforcements.

5k battle could be a superb diorama. Forget the game. Deploy aseveral skirmishes, a huge broadside to broadside engangement, add damaged models, etc. Set the lights and take several hundreds if photos. Work for a whole day if well done, and memorable.

But fighting 5000 pts is similar to deploying a Pre Horus Heresy Legion in 40k or playing ASL full Operation Cobra. Not the game for that.

A game that big, you'd need to section it into several simultaneous matches to keep it flowing, which then merge with each other as they complete.

For example, here's a 800 points each game and a 1600 points each game. Each match is a 100pt dogfight. If you eliminate all enemy forces in your field, you can fly through the enemy setup zone (but not your own) into an adjacent match to reinforce the forces fighting there (or if that match is over, all the way through it into the next one). If you build a big enough ring of mats you can scale this up as far as you want.

Before they merge the games all operate independently and maintain 100pt flow, although I would recommend keeping the rounds in sync (wait for everyone to finish Round 1 before starting Round 2, for example) to prevent artificial advantage/disadvantage to faster playing lists.

The problem with large games is that once it starts to lean in one player's favour it can be very hard for the other player to come back and even it up. In a 100 point game its not such a big deal because neither player has invested much time and you can just declare the winner and play another game.

I wonder if a better approach might be to play it in waves... For a wild, stab in the dark example how about 150 points first up, then 150 additional points after 5 rounds and then another 200 points after 10 rounds. There would need to be some requirement to move and engage before your next wave could enter i.e. you can't have any ships within range 4 of your side of the mat to get reinforcements.

Isn't the second mission in the escape from hoth (from the rebel transport expansion) similar to what you suggest? Maybe have a look there for ideas.