We are considering an epic ship tournament at our local shop. We are not talking a premier event here, more scaled for fun. We do want to reward players though and make sure things are fun.

Is there an epic prize pack for 2017? I didn't see one but haven't had a thorough google time.

Due to the size of the shop and limited epic ships I think team epic is the way to play... any variations?

Really just seeing what people like and want and whether it's something we can pull off. If somebody ran an epic tournament near you what would you want to see?

One cool idea I've been bandying about is an epic ship tournament that either ONLY uses Huge ships, or where you have a severe limitation on how many small and large size ships you can take.

I think it'd be fun to see the huge ships directly duking it out, with no or minimal interference from small ships.

Is there an epic prize pack for 2017? I didn't see one but haven't had a thorough google time.

Due to the size of the shop and limited epic ships I think team epic is the way to play... any variations?

There has been no OP kits for Epic and the only non-tournament kit was for I am your Father's Day. Every other kit was for a dog fight tournament format.

Main thing to make an epic tournament worth it is to make sure everyone playing has to have at least one epic ship on the table. A big group of small ships wreck huge ships every time.

Main thing to make an epic tournament worth it is to make sure everyone playing has to have at least one epic ship on the table. A big group of small ships wreck huge ships every time.

Is there an epic prize pack for 2017? I didn't see one but haven't had a thorough google time.

Due to the size of the shop and limited epic ships I think team epic is the way to play... any variations?

There has been no OP kits for Epic and the only non-tournament kit was for I am your Father's Day. Every other kit was for a dog fight tournament format.

One cool idea I've been bandying about is an epic ship tournament that either ONLY uses Huge ships, or where you have a severe limitation on how many small and large size ships you can take.

I think it'd be fun to see the huge ships directly duking it out, with no or minimal interference from small ships.

Would anyone recommend objective based points for play?

I would think that you would have to have at least 1 epic ship per side. The more epic ships, the better. Otherwise you get people that just want to go to win that will load up with TLT Y-wings and such. Most team epic are 200 pts per player, I believe.

Objectives would be cool. I'm trying to think what some of the objectives could be. One could be trying to get your epic ship off the other table edge. Another could be to destroy/protect some targets. That one would be really hard as it would be so easy to blast things to pieces. I would think you would have to have either a few really tough things or lots of little ones. So...either one/few space stations that maybe get energy and actions (Reinforce/Recover) that need to be destroyed. That, or maybe a dozen of those little satellite markers on each table that need to be killed off. Space them out. Not sure which is better. Maybe the few big things. I like the idea of the epic ship defending being able to use the Reinforce action to let the defended object get to Reinforce and Recover in the same turn.

If you wanted to make some objectives, it wouldn't be too hard. You can get some yogurt containers or plastic bowls to be painted and made to look like a space station or something. I made a big thing out of a large plastic cup, 2 plastic plates, and a yogurt container. I can send you pics if you want.

Would anyone recommend objective based points for play?

I would recommend using some objectives, yes. It's good to split up the battle a little bit and add a strategic element to epic matches. I'd recommend using a few (2-3) simple objectives that are on opposite sides of the table.

Actually, I just read the next CR90 campaign mission and I liked some aspects of it.

Special Rules

• Satellites : Satellites are treated as obstacles that can be attacked, target-locked, damaged, destroyed, and have shields as if they were Rebel ships. Each satellite has a hull value of "2" and an agility value of "1". For each damage or critical damage a satellite suffers, remove one shield token. If the satellite had no shield token to remove, place one damage token near that satellite instead. When there are two or more damage tokens near a satellite, it is destroyed.
• Protect the Satellites : When the CR90 performs a recover action, it may either recover its own shields or assign shield tokens to one or more satellites. With this action, the Rebel player may recover the CR90's shields, assign shields to satellites, or any combination of these two (up to the number of energy tokens removed). A satellite cannot have more than two shields at any time.
• Reinforce the Satellites : When the CR90 performs a reinforce action, the Rebel player may assign the reinforce token to a satellite instead of to a section of the CR90.

The Epic ships being able to Reinforce or Recover for the targets is really cool. When you are facing other capital ships, it also gets pretty tough as the other epic can just target your epic for a turn or two and you will be forced to defend or repair yourself or you will be blown to bits. That then gives the attacker a chance to hit the objectives that turn.

We've had good fun at 200 points per team member, two players per side. It works well, and Capital Ships do actually put up a surprising fight against mobs of smaller ships.

You do need to build for it, though. A 'generic' corvette is very much equipped to fight another corvette, and struggles to engage snubfighters.

The best flak warship is the Raider - kit it out with Ordnance Tubes, Assault Missiles, the Impetuous title, a Weapons Engineer and watch the explosions fly. For best results, pair with Captain Jonus, TIE shuttle, Swarm Tactics, Systems Officer, Twin Ion Engines MkII

3 heavily modified Assault Missiles and two primary shots at PS6 can devastate a fighter swarm - if someone wants to play massed TLT Y-wings or similar, you will find that when you put 400 points on 2 standard tables, you get double the density of ships. If you want to combine that with a squad that's essentially generics spam, you're going to have a hell of a lot of people in close proximity of one another....

I ran an Epic tourney in January of this year, Escort Duty . I set the requirements at a huge ship, three large ships, or six of the same small ship. That let people that didn't own an epic ship still play, and kept all the tables looking suitably... well... epic.

The after-event report is here .

FFG has officially released Epic movement tools and Acrylic Energy and Alt Arts for the CR90, Raider, and Targeting Coordinator, but they have only been available through official FFG Epic Events. FFG does not (yet) support Epic with seasonal kits.

If you want cool Epic prize support, I might recommend ordering some third party acrylic sets of Energy, Reinforce Tokens, or Huge Ship movement tools and putting those up as prizes.

My thoughts so far. Hit me with perceived issues.

Tournament Setup

Time limit 2.5 hours

200 points per player. Cannot have more than 4 of the same class of large base or 8 of the same small base.

If you do not have a partner, one will be assigned on your arrival. An attempt will be made to pair you with somebody of the same faction.

OBJECTIVES

- Fleet Engagement

Standard epic game - most points killed by end of time limit wins

Scoring - Standard Rules

- Data Raid

One side sends a force in to hack at least 2 of 3 communication satellites, steal information, and escape with the information. A ship must end its turn within range 1 of the satellite - use an action to retrieve the information, and escape off their home edge. If the ship with the stolen information is destroyed, another ship may attempt to slice into the satellite. The satellite cannot be destroyed and do not obstruct attacks - any ships or templates that overlap are dealt one stress.

Victory is based on success/failure of the objective. MOV - 133 points per satellite retrieved. 400 for all satellites. Fleet casualties are unscored.

- It's a Trap!

One fleet has been ambushed and must escape. They've managed to push through the opposing fleet but must reach a safe location to make the jump to hyperspace. To escape, ships must fly off the far side of the map - length-wise. Deployment - Escaping fleet deploys their entire fleet along the short edge of the map - with dials set for their first turn. Move all ships. Chasing fleet then deploys along the same edge. All remaining turns played as normal.

Scoring - Escaping fleet scores points for each ship off the map, opposing fleet scores points for ships destroyed or left on the map at time.

- Sensor Net

10 Sensors are set up to detect fleet movements. Need to destroy 8 to break the net for the rest of the fleet to penetrate and attack. The fleet must remain in battle-worthy condition. Defending player deploys the sattelites no closer than range 1 apart, but no further than range 3 apart. Satellites are treated like debris for collissions - if an epic cruiser overlaps the sensor instead of dealing one face up card it deals one damage and is destroyed. Due to their small size, satellites roll 3 Green.

Scoring - Each sensor is worth 40 points. An additional 80 points is awarded to the attacker if they can keep half their fleet alive and obtain the objective. The defender scores the 80 points if they destroy half the attacking fleet.

Here are the rules we used for our epic league. I was quite happy with them and they take the edge of most extreme builds.

The rules would be the standard Epic Tournament rules with the exceptions:

. As normal you have 5 epic points to spend but you must use a minimum of 2 Epic points.

. The following ships and cards cost Epic points:

o Raider 3 pts

o Corvette 3 pts

o Transport 2 pts

o Assault Carrier 2 pts

o Large Base ship 1 pt

. The following upgrades cost Epic points but do not count against your minimum Epic points required:

o Heavy Laser Cannon +0.5

o Twin Laser Turret +0.5

(This means you can only use 3 IG-88s with HLC, or you can use 2 with HLC and 2 with a different cannon.

Rebels and Imperials can play without using an Epic ship, but must field at least 2 large base ships to do so (this prevents 300 swarm spam somewhat and TLTs have a theoretical maximum of 6 per list.)

The only other changes I would make would be to clarify that Juke does not work against Reinforce. It is a bit of a grey area at the moment (since Frank's email says it does, though it seems to contradict the rules as written).

The other change is to make Comms Booster "limited" so no stacking on the same ship. This is just a bit too effective and abusive.

I'd love to make the epic ships mandatory but we have a lot of new players at our shop. The idea with team epic is to pair them off with somebody who owns a big ship. Although maybe to encourage big ships allow 12 fleet points for every 2 epic?

Nobody commented on the four mission types? No thoughts on balance?

I would say make it on a weekend or a multiple day event. Epic games do tend to take longer than standard games (for obvious reasons).

Making epic ships mandatory does leave out Scum, so unless you have them available as mercenaries ( or have other options ) you remove a third of the playable ships.

I would say make it on a weekend or a multiple day event. Epic games do tend to take longer than standard games (for obvious reasons).

Making epic ships mandatory does leave out Scum, so unless you have them available as mercenaries ( or have other options ) you remove a third of the playable ships.

Oh, agreed. Weekend is planned.

and yeah... Well, since it's not a premier event and I'm already wandering down the path of casual... I want to be fairly sure it's pretty balanced though.

In our future league, considering making a few modifications

1) Must play at least 2 Epic points (forces a Huge Ship)

2) Scum Players may play a Transport or Gozanti. No faction restricted upgrades may be used. Gozanti may deploy M3-A, Protectorate Starfighter, Kiharxz, or Z-95

Has anyone tried #2 A little worried not play tested yet.