My FLGS will be hosting an Epic tournament this October, and I'm not sure how to go about it. My store has about 10 people who reliably show up to our regular events and all have the ships to field 300 pts each.

My dilemma is that a 300 pt epic game is standard at this point and takes way too long for 3 rounds of swisse + a potential cut to top 2. On the other hand, team pairings would mean we only have 4-5 2 man teams overall, which is really boring and restrictive. So I got to thinking about a new format. I was thinking along the lines of a modified team Epic:

Adaptive Team Epic :

1. Each player may field a squad of up to 200 points.

2. During each round, groups of two players are paired with each other so long as they have different factions.

3. Each of these groups is then paired against another group and the round begins as a standard team epic match.

4. After the match concludes, each player on the winning team receives 1 win point, and the losers receive 0. No modified wins.

5. Play proceeds this way following the standard swisse amount of rounds (in my case, 3).

6. In the cut, each player fields their own 200 point squad by itself.

The theme is about unpredictable alliances, where you never know what you'll be paired with, or face off against.

What do you think I should go with?

Big question - do your ships count as 'friendly ships' to one another? Because whilst you can't predict who you'll get, there are some nice abilities available if you can combine 'friendly ship' abilities cross-faction!

The 'so long as they have different factions' is something I would drop. If, of your 4 players, 3 want to play imperial, it's a bit of a shame to tell them "nope. put your epic ship back in the bag and scrape together 200 points from the rebel ships you don't like using."

It sounds like a good format, though.

I'd be hesitant - in a 200 point squad - to go with a gunned-up huge ship. Such ships need support and you can't rely on your ally having fighter cover for you. A Carrier/Transport might be a good call, though. You can never go wrong with a reinforced battering ram for your fighters to fly in behind.

Thanks for the feedback: Just a few clarifications: we have 10 players - it would only be 4 "players" if we had a standard team epic tournament where you pair up for the whole thing. This rule was mainly to stop things like double Biggs or Palpatine from occurring. You're definitely right that its a bit wonky though, so I'll have to think of a fix for it.

Yeah, that's a problem at 200 points. I could see someone bringing a fully loaded out Raider, because opposing players really don't have the points individually to counter it. It'd be a hard fight if both your team members brought huge ships though...

I like it.

2. I think the cross faction may also introduce some unexpected broken combos. Bodyguard equipped low PS pilot, Sessiru, Biggs sounds wonderfully annoying.

6. This might be the a semi solution to your 200 points concern since in the end you will have to rely on your fleet to stand on its own.