Played Furball with a couple friends last night and it was a blast. VERY good for new players. You can fully load up a ship and its okay, because they only have to think about 1 ship. Anyways, I was hoping to get your thoughts on a couple of things to make the experience better.

1) We did 30, 40, 50 point ships.

I think this escalation is best and I'm sticking with it. But, in trying to make Furball lists I found some ships don't fit into 30 or 40 points, they're somewhere between - even after you fatten them up. Take for instance Soontir (Soontir Fel + Royal Guard TIE + Push the Limit + Autothrusters + Stealth Device). You certainly can't put him in the 30 point category, but I thought as a house rule if a single ship only (not one in a squad) is 4 or more points from the next level you can give him a hull upgrade and then put him in the next level. So in this case Soontir would get that build + 1 more hull and be a 40 point ship.

Is this crazy? Will it not work? There are many factors at work: casual game, lots of players, scary ships do tend to get focused down, etc.

2) The scoring system was okay, but needed work.

I ran it like this:

1 point for landing a hit.

2 points for destroying a ship (3 total for also hitting it).

I felt like that awarded the killing blow too much, and there wasn't enough reward given to surviving.

So, my adjustments:

1 point for landing a hit (but not destroying a ship), max 1 point per player per round.*

2 points for destroying a ship, max 2 points per player per round.

1 point awarded for each ship/squad surviving once time is called.

1 point awarded to all players in the case of a ship self-destructing (asteroid or edge), other than the ship that blew up.

Also:

1) On an accidental double red maneuver, the closest enemy ship to said ship gets to choose the maneuver. No collusion allowed.

2) A bomb or any other damage caused by a player on another player counts as a hit and the player that caused the damage scores 1 point for landing a hit, unless that person has already scored a hit that round.

If the ship is destroyed, the player that inflicted the damage receives 2 points for destroying the ship, unless they have already been awarded 2 points that round for destroying a ship. In such cases, it is treated as a self-destruct.

* The Corran double tap can gain 2 points in a round because he loses an attack the following round. Any hit, regardless if any damage or not was inflicted (Lt. Blount), counts as 1 point total per round, per player.

3) Squads:

While I was writing this I came up with the idea of squads. I think I came up with an idea that will allow for squads without it getting out of control and ruining the whole principle of this furball.

Here are my squad rules:

1) A squad consists of no more than 3 ships total.

2) Each player may have only have 1 squad, and it can only be placed in the 30 or 40 point slot.

3) Regardless of how many times a squad may fire, that player can still only receive 1 point for damaging a ship and/or 2 for destroying a ship per round.

4) If a ship in a squad is destroyed, the player that destroyed that ship is rewarded as per the normal scoring system.

5) A squad is considered still a squad until all of its ships are destroyed. Meaning, it can still get a point for surviving once time is called.

The idea is that a squad will mix thing up and add more offense to the game, but it is counterbalanced by fragility. A squad runs an above average chance of getting 3 points in a round by landing a hit that doesn’t destroy a ship AND in same turn destroying a ship. The downside is that they can get blown up a lot easier as well, and they also become a major target because of their fragility.

Anyways, a work in progress. What do you think? If you make a recommendation that’s amazing I’ll revise this post.

Thanks!

Looks pretty good. I'll be stealing this by the way, thanks!

Looks pretty good. I'll be stealing this by the way, thanks!

Thanks, it worked well enough before the tweaks. It definitely felt like a frenzied dogfight!

An idea that my friends and I do when we run Furball, is to base the match off of points. What I mean is, each of us will take whatever pilot we want, soup him up with whatever upgrades he has if we want to, and then dogfight. The results, as far as point cost per ship, can vary, but that's what makes it fun. Rob can choose to run Fat Han at 50+ points, and Jeff can choose to run Soontir at 35. Let's say I choose a Blue Squadron B-Wing at 22 points. Obviously there is a huge point discrepancy between us, but we mitigate that by calculating points killed versus points flown. For example, if my B-Wing killed 66 points worth of ship(s), then my score would be 3.0 (66 points killed divided by 22 points flown).

It isn't a perfect system, but it certainly works for us, and keeps the spirit and interest of Furball alive even after one of us is destroyed. To further this end, we also put a time limit on the entire match and we each pick 3 to 4 ships that we have set up and ready to go. When one dies, we simply pick the next ship in our list we'd like to fly and next round, they are back in the fray. Of course, you have to do a little work in keeping track of who killed what, but it truly is a great way to play Furball.

And it can reward the player who plays a "leaner" ship if they get the kill shots, but then again, Fat Han eats lean ships easily enough. We've found it to be pretty balanced and it works well for us. Do you go high points, and risk the target on you back, or do you go lower points and hope to swoop in with the kill? Good times indeed.

That actually sounds like a great idea for more experienced players, but right now my friends are at the point where they just run with a list I give them. Eventually, I'd love to see them get their own styles and lists.