Red Squadron Veteran (26)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Targeting Astromech (2)

Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 29

Standard Royal Guard comes in at 30pts on the nose so you get to move after it and while it can boost & roll it's not that tough to keep it in arc when you have boost yourself. Having a TL after a K-Turn or T-roll opens up some really nice manoeuvring too as you're not relying on unmodified dice against the squint. Speaking as a guy who flys Royal Guard quite a lot in this format it's a tough match-up that you can easily loose from a single mistake.

Edit:

Also we don't ban Phantoms. They are really not a bogeyman in this format. You don't have the sort of advantages that Whisper brings to the 100pt game.

So we run this in our area with these rules:

No unique upgrades or pilots of course

90 point lists

30 points max per ship

Limit of 2 per ship type. No crackswarm lol. You can end up with 5 Crackshots in a list but that's it and they're all going to be low PS with minimal other upgrades. Not having a 3 ship cap allows you to fly Z-95's and TIE Fighters and other inexpensive ships without having a 15 point hole in your list, and limiting to 2 of each ship type then prevents the obvious 6x Crackshot Black Squadron.

Faction mixing ships is okay, but faction specific upgrades are still faction locked.

No large bases.

So in this format, I have done extremely well with 2x Tansarii Point Veteran, each with heavy scyk, HLC, Attanni Mindlink, and Hull Upgrade with a Black Sun Ace equipped with Mindlink, Guidance Chips, and a Homing Missile.

Haven't run into the dreaded Royal Guards with the Soontir Fel loadout. If they're arc dodging they're not token stacking, so I think I could take them. You could then fill your remaining 30 points with 2 Crack Squadrons or a Defender.

The PS 5 Scum generics are strong in this format. PS 5 G1-A's can take the Mindlink, Outlaw Tech, FCS combo.

Fastest match I had all tournament - 15 minutes into a 60 minute round -against a very competent pilot

Then he wasn't competent

Interceptors were strong contenders in the league, for sure, but certainly didn't 'beat every generic' with such ease. They're still fragile and dice are still dice. Besides, there was a minor bonus given for being the only person using any given ship, so there was incentive for diversity.

4 health behind two tokens and 3 green, or able to dodge arcs due to PS difference, is not fragile. If you are stupid enough to joust with them though, yes, they can die to a bad roll.

How is this different than furball? If it's not, let's not rename stuff for no reason.

Just ran one of these today, with some house rules and a capture the flag deal.
it was AWESOME. 4 Players took one ship each.

Tier II ships were allowed 34 pts - TIE Bomber, E-Wing, X-wing, Kihraxz, M3-A
Tier I ships were allowed 30 pts. - (everything else that was a small ship)

Omega Leader, Soontir, Jake Farrell, Inquisitor, were placed on the ban list and could not be taken.

Aim: fly the flag into your home sector.
Asteroids were randomly scattered across a 4x4 table, at the dead centre the X-wing Initiative token was placed, to function as a flag. If a player landed on or flew over the flag, they picked it up. To win they needed to either kill everyone else, or take the flag back to their corner.

If a player with a flag died, the flag returned to the centre.
If a player with the flag is bumped, the player that bumped the flagholder steals the flag and becomes the new flagholder.

How is this different than furball? If it's not, let's not rename stuff for no reason.

Generic pilots only, 30 point limit on ships, no unique upgrades, the ability to just play the format at 90 points and have a great format instead of free-for-all.

What are the rules of Furball? Because I don't see the appeal of a format that is purely just overpowered Acewings. If I wanted that I'd just play the standard format and get the same stupid "I boost last, so I win" gameplay experience.

My understanding is that Furball has a higher points limit (40 or 45 points are the versions I've seen), with the only restriction being your ship must be a small base ship. It's also a free-for-all rather than a 1v1 or 2v2 format. I think there's more than enough difference for Top Gun to stand on it's own as a format.

How is this different than furball? If it's not, let's not rename stuff for no reason.

Generic pilots only, 30 point limit on ships, no unique upgrades, the ability to just play the format at 90 points and have a great format instead of free-for-all.

What are the rules of Furball? Because I don't see the appeal of a format that is purely just overpowered Acewings. If I wanted that I'd just play the standard format and get the same stupid "I boost last, so I win" gameplay experience.

The only thing that looks different sounds like nothing unique. Which doesn't remove the "I boost last so I win", it just happens at a lower pilot skill. Furball used to be defined at a lower point total, for example 30-40, 2 players each using a small base ship. I'm not sure I see any benefit to this format over furball, especially since the name of it is completely misleading (there are no top guns if everyone is a generic no-name pilot).

Furball is a grand melee though whereas Top Gun is 1v1 or 2v2 (which is where the name actually comes from). Even if the points levels are similar that and the no unique pilots or upgrades rule make it a significantly different play experience from Furball.

I could never understand people wanting a 1v1 format. That just sounds lame as all hell, especially given how much more in depth the game becomes with more ships

as a team event , however, (or even a hectic free for all) a top gun with a small 1 to 2 man squad between multiple players sounds like it'd open up the game a lot

25pts a person is usually enough for a free for all game. You can get some of the more interesting Z's, X's, FOs, Kfighters... things that don't see a ton of play otherwise. It's always fun to run a Bwing with fcs too.

Furball is a grand melee though whereas Top Gun is 1v1 or 2v2 (which is where the name actually comes from). Even if the points levels are similar that and the no unique pilots or upgrades rule make it a significantly different play experience from Furball.

Back in 2013, FFG did a furball events with teams of 2 and 4 players. It was the fanmade version that turned it into a melee. The first game I ever played was using FFG's furball format for 2v2 at 30 points a piece. Keep in mind, unique pilots weren't very good back in 2013, where generics dominated the scene.

How is this different than furball? If it's not, let's not rename stuff for no reason.

Generic pilots only, 30 point limit on ships, no unique upgrades, the ability to just play the format at 90 points and have a great format instead of free-for-all.

What are the rules of Furball? Because I don't see the appeal of a format that is purely just overpowered Acewings. If I wanted that I'd just play the standard format and get the same stupid "I boost last, so I win" gameplay experience.

The only thing that looks different sounds like nothing unique. Which doesn't remove the "I boost last so I win", it just happens at a lower pilot skill. Furball used to be defined at a lower point total, for example 30-40, 2 players each using a small base ship. I'm not sure I see any benefit to this format over furball, especially since the name of it is completely misleading (there are no top guns if everyone is a generic no-name pilot).

The basis for 'Top Gun' in X-Wing was originally based on the '80's movie. You are an up and coming pilot headed to the Miramar Top Gun school to master dogfighting from some of the Navy's best aces. So you start as just a generic at first. Some key points from the movies are you fly as teams and its one ship type vs one other ship type. Now, a lot of variations have spawned from this original format and yes some are very close to what others call furballs. Furball is usually any ships & upgrades up to a point cap and then every ship for itself where Top Gun is usually teams and generics up to a point cap.