THE FURBALL

By Boba Rick, in X-Wing

So I've been trying to nail down how to play Furball, and somewhere it says that:

1) Everyone gets a 40, 35, and 30 point ship of any mixture of factions. No more than 3 ships, no more than the previously stated points per ship.

2) You only fly the 40 point ship until it gets blown up, then fly the 35, then the 30.

3) Last guy with a ship on the table wins.

Is this right? Did I miss something? It seems to me that if you had a bunch of players it would be advantageous to try and avoid all conflict? Like fly away. Is there any reward for landing a killing blow?

Edited by Boba Rick

Escalating the points from a 30pt ship to a 35pt ship to a 40pt ship seems better. That way the people who've already taken a beating can come in with more firepower rather than less. Keeps the tempo right.

Also, it's good to award points to the last man standing, but also to killing blows, so that the guy who cowered in the corner and stacked evade and focus tokens all game isn't necessarily going to be the winner.

Flying away from fights is the easiest way to get a target on your back. The best is in combat but never perceived as a real threat or good target.

Escalating the points from a 30pt ship to a 35pt ship to a 40pt ship seems better. That way the people who've already taken a beating can come in with more firepower rather than less. Keeps the tempo right.

Also, it's good to award points to the last man standing, but also to killing blows, so that the guy who cowered in the corner and stacked evade and focus tokens all game isn't necessarily going to be the winner.

I really like this. Anyone have any idea how points should be awarded?

Escalating the points from a 30pt ship to a 35pt ship to a 40pt ship seems better. That way the people who've already taken a beating can come in with more firepower rather than less. Keeps the tempo right.

Also, it's good to award points to the last man standing, but also to killing blows, so that the guy who cowered in the corner and stacked evade and focus tokens all game isn't necessarily going to be the winner.

I really like this. Anyone have any idea how points should be awarded?

If this were me, I'd go 30pts, 40pts, 50pts, escalating. Random spawn location next round after you explode.

1pt each round you do damage (max once per round). 1pt on a killing blow. 5pts for last man standing. 3pts to each person still alive if match goes to time without all ships destroyed. High score wins, obv.

I did some "research" on furball a while back and it seemed like everyone really does play it a bit differently; radically different, in some cases. I took what I liked about what others have done and brewed that up with what we wanted to do. This old event announcement on our website will link you to a pdf of the Furball rules that I wrote for us -- the 760th Fighter Wing variant.

Edited by jme

Escalating the points from a 30pt ship to a 35pt ship to a 40pt ship seems better. That way the people who've already taken a beating can come in with more firepower rather than less. Keeps the tempo right.

Also, it's good to award points to the last man standing, but also to killing blows, so that the guy who cowered in the corner and stacked evade and focus tokens all game isn't necessarily going to be the winner.

I really like this. Anyone have any idea how points should be awarded?

If this were me, I'd go 30pts, 40pts, 50pts, escalating. Random spawn location next round after you explode.

1pt each round you do damage (max once per round). 1pt on a killing blow. 5pts for last man standing. 3pts to each person still alive if match goes to time without all ships destroyed. High score wins, obv.

Looks really good and balanced. You could score 2 points in a round if you blew someone up: 1 for the hit and 1 for the kill.

An escalating Furball sounds interesting.
Its rather similar to my "Tag-Team" idea, where the two ships can swap out at-will by leaving the field of fire (but one must spawn when the other dies).

I would also like to posit: If you have 3 levels of combat, why not make it a feature that each ship must be a different faction from the other two that you're fielding?

Escalating the points from a 30pt ship to a 35pt ship to a 40pt ship seems better. That way the people who've already taken a beating can come in with more firepower rather than less. Keeps the tempo right.

Also, it's good to award points to the last man standing, but also to killing blows, so that the guy who cowered in the corner and stacked evade and focus tokens all game isn't necessarily going to be the winner.

I really like this. Anyone have any idea how points should be awarded?

If this were me, I'd go 30pts, 40pts, 50pts, escalating. Random spawn location next round after you explode.

1pt each round you do damage (max once per round). 1pt on a killing blow. 5pts for last man standing. 3pts to each person still alive if match goes to time without all ships destroyed. High score wins, obv.

Looks really good and balanced. You could score 2 points in a round if you blew someone up: 1 for the hit and 1 for the kill.

Who scores the point if you fly yourself off the edge, or self-detonate with ordnance/Feedback/Vader/Baffles/Chopper?

Who scores the point if you fly yourself off the edge, or self-detonate with ordnance/Feedback/Vader/Baffles/Chopper?

No one, you have to inflict damage on someone else to get a point.

Who scores the point if you fly yourself off the edge, or self-detonate with ordnance/Feedback/Vader/Baffles/Chopper?

No one, you have to inflict damage on someone else to get a point.

So, I can run the above to suicide, to deny my opponents points in case of inevitable death?

Who scores the point if you fly yourself off the edge, or self-detonate with ordnance/Feedback/Vader/Baffles/Chopper?

No one, you have to inflict damage on someone else to get a point.

So, I can run the above to suicide, to deny my opponents points in case of inevitable death?

Would make total sense to me.

Honestly never been a fan of awarding points for killing blows in multiplayer scenarios. The guy who did all the damage yet had the dice come up just short only to watch someone else claim the kill is understandably frustrated.

On the other hand, I really like the escalating furball format idea!! Recently played a furball that was basically an escalation first round: 60 points/player, must field 2 ships. That was also a lot of fun.

One other furball idea I had was 2 ships up to 35 points each, when one dies you bring in the other, but your total PS cannot exceed 12. So if you field a PS11 Vader to get on top of everyone else, your other ship has to be a lowly PS1 mook. Of course, with Imp Vets on the horizon, a TIE/D Defender with an Ion Cannon doesn't sound too bad...