I have 3 friends coming over for a few hours on Saturday and I thought I'd introduce them to X-Wing. I can't decide if I want to do a furball or 2 vs 2. What is faster?

If people are learning for the first time keep it as simple as possible. There are people here that have played for a long time that get things mixed up. Now with the timings changes, it has become a little worse.

There are a couple of 4 player missions on the Mission Control site. Honestly I would look there for more then furball, OR I would run missions supplied from the ships exp packs most use smaller forces of 2 or 3 ships and are quite fun seeing winning or losing is based on objectives not ship to ship destruction.

Last thought if you do a single ship per person furball throw out 20 asteroids, it is an amazing way to play if everyone is trying to dodge rocks.

I've run a team Furball variant where players respawn after being destroyed that worked well for beginners since nobody gets eliminated and it gives you a chance to try out different ships.

First, I put together a number of pre-built ships that total to ~33 squad points. You'll want more ships than players so you have some selection within their faction and so players can switch ships if one isn't working for them or they want to try something new. You can tweak that squad point number up or down but it ended up working well for the ships I had at the time.

You split players into 2 teams, Rebels and Imperials (or Rebels + Scum, etc.). Players can pick whatever ship they want to fly from those you have constructed for their faction.

Instead of playing until you wipe out the other team, you play to a time/round limit and score points for your team by killing ships. The team with the most points at time wins.

Each ship starts out worth 2 points to the enemy team when destroyed. However, when a ship earns a kill, it gains a bounty of +1 point.

Example. An Imperial player flying Soontir Fel destroys a Rebel player's Keyan Farlander. Keyan had earned no kills so far, so the Imperials score 2 points. Since he has earned a kill, Soontir gains a bounty point and is now worth 3 points to the Rebel team if they can destroy him. The player flying Keyan will respawn at the Rebel board edge in the End Phase and assign a manuever during Planning as normal. That player can stick with Keyan or swap to another ship if they would like. Pilots lose all bounty points when they are destroyed.

The bounty system is meant to balance out unequal player skill to a degree - it draws enemy fire to the more threatening pilots and lets less skilled players fly under the radar a bit.

Some general advice:
When constructing your ships ahead of time, try to keep the special rules manageable and make sure ships focus on offense over defense. You want players to be able to deal damage consistently so combat is satisfying and teams are able to score points. Don't load Soontir Fel up with Stealth Device and Autothrusters and only give the Rebels A-Wings. Also, keep in mind that a 33 point Soontir Fel is much more powerful than a 33 point Wedge Antilles - feel free to fudge the numbers a bit to keep things fun or at least make sure players have the tools they need to counter each-other's ships.

I've been thinking of taking a page out of the multi-battle format for the upcoming Pokemon games. You have a sort of free-for-all where each player can attack any other player, but the game ends as soon as one player has been completely eliminated. Then you just see whose list has the most health remaining to determine the winner.

One way this might work is to take the cost of each ship and divide it by the total health. This tells you how many points each hull/shield is worth on that ship. Then you add up all the remaining hull/shield for each player and calculate who wins with the most health.

These rules make it so destroying one player early on is an unviable tactic. If one player has regeneration or lots of hull/tokens/agility/etc., the other players will gang up on the one until they are close to death, but nobody wants to finish that person off unless they are in the lead.

I just haven't figured out how to handle initiative investments yet. If someone only has 97 points, does that get corrected for in the hull/shield value calculation? I'm thinking not.

FFA fights in any game are usually imbalanced. More because of the players' mentality than anything else.

"If i just turtle for a few rounds, i wont be in the battle so i'll have stronger ships when i get there!" (causing a boring game)

or

"He looks deadly...think i'll focus fire with player X and take him out" (ensuing a 1v2)

Even if you make it about killpoints instead of last man standing, problem 2 is still around. Only one player will get the reward but it will be a race to get the points rather than a legit teamup.

The first mission in Heroes of the Arturi Cluster would be great. Only thing you'd really need to print out would be the TIE and TIE interceptor movement templates. Could be a lot of fun!

A nice 400 point game with everyone together, 200v200 is a pretty nice starting point for people.

It could also be fun to run a 3v1 with you running a corvette or Raider, and them trying to take it down with small ships. The rules are pretty easy to follow as long as you're the one running the huge ship, and that kind of game is a lot of fun to play casually.

The first mission in Heroes of the Arturi Cluster would be great. Only thing you'd really need to print out would be the TIE and TIE interceptor movement templates. Could be a lot of fun!

This.

When you say introduce them to X-Wing, do you mean they have never played before? If so I would keep it simple.

Option 1: Give each person 1 generic ship and fly 2v2 as teams. Games should be quick with only 50-60 points a side so maybe do 2 or 3 games and change the ships each game so they get a chance with a couple different ones. This should let them get the turn order and basic actions down.

Option 2: Try something thematic from the movies they so they can connect with their pilots. Wedge and Luke taking on Vader and 2 Black Squadron wing mates or something similar.

The first couple games are more about learning to fly than upgrades and points. HAVE FUN!

I did a 2v2 the other day. We each made 75 point list. 150 v 150. It worked out pretty good. It took about the same time as a normal game. It was 2 new guys a guy that had played a bit and me a long time player.

I ran 2 vs 2 and it was GREAT. First to 150 points wins. It literally came down to a single die roll on an asteroid - if it hit one team won, if it missed the other team won when a ship that was guaranteed to fly off the board did. Every player had a 100 point squad.

Really excited about the next game! It will go like this:

REBEL TEAM:

Player one:

- Biggs with R4-D6

- Sabine with PTL, and Nien Nunb

- Kanan Jarrus with Accuracy Corrector, Autoblaster Turret, Recon Spec, Jan Ors, Tactical Jammer

Player Two:

- Miranda Doni with TLT, C-3PO Advanced Slam

- Kyle Katarn with Elusiveness, Blaster Turret, Recon Spec, Moldy Crow, Shield Upgrade

- Gold Squadron Pilot with BTL, R3-A2, Dorsal Turret

IMPERIAL TEAM:

Player One:

- Commander Kenkirk with Determination, Ysanne Isard, Rebel Captive

- Countess Ryad with PTL, TIE /x7, Twin Ion Engine Mk. II

- Academy Pilot

Player Two:

- Rexler Brath with Predator, Ion Cannon, TIE /D, Twin Ion Engine Mk. II

- Royal Guard Pilot with PTL, Autothrusters

- Omicron Group Pilot with Emperor Palpatine