So tell me about epic play...I am not sure I am really interested because I like the quick playing of standard x wing. However, so many good cards and pilots come with the big ships I really want to pull the trigger on aquiring them, especially the transports, which may be even less interesting in epic play. Should I resign myself to the big ships sitting on the shelf or is epic good enough to suck me in?

If only FFG would sell cards separately...

Epic is fun.

It's fun because losing a single ship isn't a crippling blow, but rather something to be expected.

It's fun because it's more like a real squadron action.

It's fun because a list and battle plan can be more fluid and include more flexible options - instead of having one big ace and a few fillers, or a couple of aces and nothing else, or a big ship and an ace, you can have ALL of those together.

It's fun because it's a different way to play; all too often we're so focused on "100 ship deathmatches" that we lose the various fun ways - and it drives people AWAY from the game.

It's fun because it can be either a solo 1v1 or a team 2v2 matchup, with team games actually going FASTER because there's more hands on the dials.

It's fun because the Huge ships are BEAUTIFUL and it's a shame to make that sit on a shelf.

It's fun because... it's fun. A 300 point game takes maybe 2 hours instead of 75 minutes, but hell, speed of a game is NOT everything. In fact, I think the ideal for a wargame is 2-3 hours, with 'smaller' games being for fun but lacking the broader sweep and strategy potential of larger games.

Hey, even if you dont get a chance at an epic game, at least give a go at using the big ship as an obstacle!

Also the transport is good, it has some good buffs and some sneaky damage dealing tricks ofits own.

iamfanboy about says it all. Epic is an awesome way to inject some more STAR WARS into your X Wing.

Like I told someone at our regular Sunday game, you don't necessarily have to have a big ship to play epic. You can do a 300 point build of the regular ships and still have a blast. I ran all four IG-88s with four TLT Y-Wings against some Gozantis and TIE swarms and it was tons of fun.

I am looking forward to doing some epic games. However I am waiting until I get my study/mancave redone. I plan to have a table that can be dedicated to playing the game. That way I can set up an epic game, and if we don't finish it, play it again later.

My fear is that 150-points of small ships can do anything 150 points of huge ship can do, but the small ships can do it better.

I have played the Gozanti campaign, which is not quite epic in scale (110 points and 150 points for the various missions), but it's a blast to have the Gozanti out there, and the requirements to squad building are a great regulator of that campaign.

I would really like to do more Epic, and including the Huge ships, but for that fear of imbalance.

I've heard of house rules; I've heard that Huge ships are balanced best against the small-ship problem by requiring both sides to take a Huge ship (that kind of makes sense).

Any opinions on the balance aspect of Epic?

I think people don't play enough Epic to really figure out the best builds for the huge ships. We play normal X Wing flat-out, so we know inside out which upgrades are awesome, and which ones synergise with which pilots, etc, but we don't have as many hours logged with Epic.

Off the top of my head, Ordnance Tubes is a game-changer for the Huge Ships. Unlimited ordnance? Oh, yes please!

Off the top of my head, Ordnance Tubes is a game-changer for the Huge Ships. Unlimited ordnance? Oh, yes please!

I'm not so sure. I've seen it do damage, but you can get a maximum of two target locks in a round, and they have to be on separate targets. With the Raider, I could fire 2 Primary attacks AND an Ion Cannon Battery at the same target, all with the help of Optimized Generators. I think THAT is the card to change Epic.

But back to the general topic, I agree that we just don't know very much about what's good and what's not -- which is so refreshing! I love exploring a bunch of different options. Ihavebadluck and I have been playing epic matches just about every Tuesday evening on Vassal, and it's been so much fun! I want to play more epic, and people in my area are interested, too, so I'm optimistic to get more games in on the actual tabletop!

I've played through the CR90 campaign twice, and it's a lot of fun, too. Campaigns are great, an as was mentioned above, the rules are good equalizers to balance the small ships against Huge ships. When I play the campaigns, I still use the old rules of 1 bonus defense die at range 3, 2 dice at range 4, and 3 dice at range 5, because I think that's how they were designed. Playing with the updated rules makes the Huge ships real killers, and increases the difficulty for the opposing player.

Off the top of my head, Ordnance Tubes is a game-changer for the Huge Ships. Unlimited ordnance? Oh, yes please!

I'm not so sure. I've seen it do damage, but you can get a maximum of two target locks in a round, and they have to be on separate targets. With the Raider, I could fire 2 Primary attacks AND an Ion Cannon Battery at the same target, all with the help of Optimized Generators. I think THAT is the card to change Epic.

But back to the general topic, I agree that we just don't know very much about what's good and what's not -- which is so refreshing! I love exploring a bunch of different options. Ihavebadluck and I have been playing epic matches just about every Tuesday evening on Vassal, and it's been so much fun! I want to play more epic, and people in my area are interested, too, so I'm optimistic to get more games in on the actual tabletop!

Think you nailed it here. Epic is a very different game, and poorly understood (relatively) since far fewer of us are playing it (and even those that do are generally less "serious" about it than we are about Standard), so it's hard to determine whether or not it's balanced.

iamfanboy about says it all. Epic is an awesome way to inject some more STAR WARS into your X Wing.

Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week - except when I'm at the local game store trying to get people interested in Heroes of the Aturi Cluster.

Off the top of my head, Ordnance Tubes is a game-changer for the Huge Ships. Unlimited ordnance? Oh, yes please!

I'm not so sure. I've seen it do damage, but you can get a maximum of two target locks in a round, and they have to be on separate targets. With the Raider, I could fire 2 Primary attacks AND an Ion Cannon Battery at the same target, all with the help of Optimized Generators. I think THAT is the card to change Epic.

But back to the general topic, I agree that we just don't know very much about what's good and what's not -- which is so refreshing! I love exploring a bunch of different options. Ihavebadluck and I have been playing epic matches just about every Tuesday evening on Vassal, and it's been so much fun! I want to play more epic, and people in my area are interested, too, so I'm optimistic to get more games in on the actual tabletop!

Think you nailed it here. Epic is a very different game, and poorly understood (relatively) since far fewer of us are playing it (and even those that do are generally less "serious" about it than we are about Standard), so it's hard to determine whether or not it's balanced.

I think because there's more space in an Epic game that bringing stuff which is Rank B/C like X-Wings or (current) Defenders or Scyks doesn't mean you're going to lose the game.

A wing of 5 Mangler Cannon Scyks (or 4 HLC Scyks) is just a third of your list and it WILL do damage. Is it efficient? No. But it'll ruin a Huge or Large ship's day if you point them at it. That same list in regular X-Wing is an auto-lose to any Ace list, or even medium PS, because it can't survive to deal its damage. Even including one of those in regular X-Wing is bad because other ships do its job better, making them inefficient - and at 100 points, efficiency is everything.

It also lets ships do their actual jobs. Bombers go for the larger ships, interceptors move to stop them or catch other interceptors, dogfighters go at each other with abandon, while the larger ships (which are technically escort/AA frigates at best in naval terms) rain death. In regular X-Wing, EVERYTHING'S a dogfighter, even the ships that don't have the endurance (TIE/LN, Scyk) or the maneuverability (Y-Wing, Lambda) to do that job.

For all of this, the number of times I've played Epic can be counted on one hand. I'm TRYING to understand Vassal (after realizing it worked on Linux!), but it's giving me early 90's PC game flashbacks. I just need an easy walkthrough...

Epic is fun but make sure you have some time for it. The LFGS that I go to has X-wing on Thursdays although they close at 10. It doesn't take exactly 3 hours to play a game but to get set up and often people don't have their lists and teams set up that adds an hour.

I suggested to hold it on a weekend when the store is open until midnight but so far too many other events competing and it already gets rather crowded on the weekends.

Epic is fun. Epic is long long long long long long.

I've gotten maybe 3... games with my Corvette. I think 2 actually. But its still my favorite looking ship. Ugh the pow-wow it delivers is just addicting.

Epic is fun. Epic is long long long long long long.

2-3 hours is pretty standard for a decent sized wargame.

Is this tuesday Vassal epic night on the normal vassal X-wing server?

I would be interested in playing that.

Epic really is just normal X-Wing with more points.... so it will take more time. I wanted to add some new huge ships I have so I actually decided to "reinvent" epic as my own set of rules called "Strike Force". It simplifies the huge ships where it counts, gives them the ability to use their weapons as they should be able to be used. I almost laugh when I see a CR90 and Raider exchange broadsides at range 4-5.... it is basically handbag range! So my rules allow for them to engage at longer ranges, especially for turbolasers. Just look at Armada, the effective ranges at least look more in scale with X-Wing ranges.

Now for fighters I also have made these work best as teams, the smallest tactical element is a section of 2 with a leader and wingman. You just plot the leader's position and then have the wingman follow along. It speeds up play, makes the ships work in a more "WW2 style".

Just a couple of pics of some ships....

GIVE ME THAT FREIGHTER.

But seriously (give me that freighter), if you don't play Epic, or game that consist of more than 200 points, you're missing out.

400 vs 400 Imps vs Scum, first time playing the Raider.

Important note : Epic needs to critical elements. Time and ample game surface. You will need 3-4 hours to play Epic, and in my experience 6x3 game area is the best.

We play a lot of epic, one or two games a week. Not really epic, scenarios between 200 and 400 pts. Ideal to play 2vs2. Beware that if you go over 400 pts the game starts to be too big and "fat".

Note about Huges. Point vs point small are better. Simply this. Epic works better if you more or less field a similar number of points invested in huges. And the smaller "one.card" Huges are quite different that the GR 90 and Raider.

I would recomend buying the smaller two epic ships, and play a couple of games

Is this tuesday Vassal epic night on the normal vassal X-wing server?

I would be interested in playing that.

Well, actually it's an informal thing befween me an another community member, but it would be great to expand it. I couldn't make it yesterday, and I'll be on a plane next week, so maybe Ihavebadluck would like a new opponent in the mean time. I'd look him up and message him on the forums.

Went to my first epic tournament recently, 300pt 1vs1. Have no Epic ships so made Rebel synergy list (basicly every rebel ship that gives good stuff around, Lando, Garven Katarn, and the like). Won 2 games out of 4 and had absolute blast. People who say 150 of small ships is always better compared to 150 big ship never faced range 5 6 dice (for real) turret, raider shooting Ion torps every turn and evil stuff like that. Its a whole new world out there, and you must add it to your bucket list

Last time we played epic my torpedo boat Raider was definitely the MVP. Played right huge ships destroy squadrons.

Epic, if you have the time and the space, is the best way to play X-Wing in my opinion.

It's pretty epic. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Team Epic 200x2 versus 200x2 is by far my favorite way to play. First all players have 200 pt lists which really opens up the squad design to stuff you can't play in competitive events like shuttle and bomber support wing or tie swarm with interceptor flankers. Second it opens up the play space allowing for ships with high speed to really do some work instead of just buzz in circles they can actually go intercept stuff. Third capital ships really shift the tactics a lot and are very interesting to play around. Basically I would play Team Epic anytime I played X-wing if I could.

How big game surface?

Only played one game so far we had fun but it was pretty one sided in the empires favour I didn't lose any ships and nothing got crippled.

I think my friend would of been better off without the transport and more snub fighters.