As my weekly games with Piscopas have evolved, we've tried various formats beyond standard 100-point dogfights, including the popular Mario Kart X-Wing. We've also picked up a couple other players lately, so this week we managed two 3-player Escalation Furballs (EF). Rules are as follows:

1) Each player flies 3 ships from the same faction.
2) One ship costs no more than 30 points, the next 35, and the last 40.
3) Players fly one ship at a time, starting with the 30-pointer.
4) After a player's ship is destroyed, they spawn their next (35, then 40) at the start of the next planning phase.
5) Last ship flying wins!

As I had brought an Imperial dogfight list using my shiny new Upsilon (Stridan coordinating for Soontir and Omega Leader - tons of fun!), I decided to stick with Imps for the EF.

30 - Inquisitor, PtL, Title, Mk. II Engines
35 - Soontir, PtL, Title, Targeting Computer, Stealth Device
40 - Darth Vader, Lone Wolf, Title, Advanced Targeting Computer, Prockets, Engine

Piscopas also ran Imperials, while our third opponent had Scum.

30 - Omega Leader, Juke, Comm Relay, Stealth
35 - Inquisitor, PtL, Title, Autothrusters, Concussion Missiles
40 - Whisper, upgrades unknown (we didn't quite get to finish), but presumably VI, Advanced Cloaking, Fire-Control, 3-point crew

30 - Constable Zuvio, Snap Shot, Tractor Array, Cluster Mines, Bombardier, Scavenger Crane
35 - Fenn Rau, PtL, Title, Autothrusters
40 - Ketsu Onyo, A Score to Settle, Zuckuss, Slicer Tools

Jose (player 3, Scum) won the Initiative roll and made Piscopas go first, me second, and himself last. Note that we only knew each other's starting ships at the start. We placed 2 obstacles each, then set up. Piscopas and I were across from each other, with Jose starting in the middle of the far side. I set my sights on Constable Zuvio because I wanted him down quick before his shenanigans could cause me too much trouble and also so he didn't start spitting Clusters everywhere! Meanwhile, Omega TL'd me to keep himself safe even if he, too, ended up gunning for the Constable.

Luckily, Range 3 is the best place to avoid Zuvio's tricks and that happens to be the Inquisitor's favorite range. Zuvio had a choice and decided to tractor Omega onto a rock (shield down) and force him to fly over it as well (-1 Hull). That let Inq do some work and get him down to 2 Hull in return. A few turns later, though, Inq ended up jousting Zuvio, which meant Clusters were about to come flying at my face. Thankfully, a hard 1 just cleared them and let me come around for another pass at the same time Omega set his sights on Zuvio. Zuvio defended Omega, but couldn't survive Inq's shot as well. In comes Fenn Rau.

Rau set up and played beautifully, dropping in on Omega and timing the kill shot perfectly to have the Inquisitor's evil 35-point clone spawn right behind him! I ran with my Mk. II Engines and tokened up to try to survive the missile in my back... only to have Rau predict me perfectly with a 3-straight over a rock into Range 1. But wait, what's this? A roll for obstacle damage? "Blinded Pilot!" I yell. <crit> "Yes!" Damage card is flipped and it's... Major Explosion. Not quite what I need, but there's another roll coming. <hit> "Yes!!" Damage card is flipped... Blinded Pilot! "YES!!!" I opt to only spend the Evade on defense and not the Focus, letting the Concussion take me down to 1 Hull, but leaving full mods for my shot on Fenn Rau. Three hits and a blank defense roll later and just as quickly as he appeared, Rau is gone again!

Then, plunk!, down comes a big ship, Ketsu with more tractor beam nastiness. Still on my 30-point ship, I manage to run for a while, and end up jousting my Evil Twin. Evil Twin takes me out, and my simultaneous fire does... nothing. Oh well, time for Fel!

That's about as far as we got, though. There were a few rounds of maneuvering, shots that didn't connect, and Soontir finally taking the first 2 shields off Ketsu.

Slightly disappointed we didn't get to finish (played a dogfight first, store was closing by the time we got this far), but this was an incredibly fun format that everyone needs to try. In fact, next week, we're going to do it again, only this time we'll each fly one ship from each faction!

Love the idea! Please write and tell us how next week goes.

My Wednesday group has done this (or rather, a minor variation) a few times, and my only niggle is that one of the three always ends up getting focused down. Especially once his second, more powerful ship comes out. Still haven't quite figured out a fix for that. Four players doesn't seem to have that issue, somehow, and there is always the option for teams at that point. Which is also hugely fun.

I am definitely planning on a follow-up next week.

We were originally planning for 4 players, but 2 more showed up (always welcome!) so it worked out for 3 and 3. We didn't really have a 2v1 feel, but any multiplayer game is going to have bouts of (temporary) alliance.

Sounds like teaming up is a good part of the strategy. A tiny Inquisitor without AT or missiles, then out comes Inquisitor with AT and missiles. You gotta team up to take that guy down. Also with OL, 1v1 he is brutal. If you fly OL in round 1, you have to expect a double team coming. Same with Whisper, if she comes onto the play field, you gotta team up to take her down. If you have Soontir, you can kind of ignore lower PS not turret ships and try to get the big fish off the board. I like the strategy involved in just picking your ships. You want to be deadly, but not DOUBLE TEAM ME deadly, unless you have super confidence in your flying skills May have to try this!!

I was actually worried about getting double-teamed all the way from my first ship to my last, because there was a moment where both my opponents were dangerously close to being on their 40-point ships while my 30-point hung on by 1 Hull!

As a mater of fact, I hadn't realized this until after the game, but all the damage I had done was against Jose, all of Jose's damage was against Piscopas , and all of Piscopas ' damage was against me!!

That's awesome. Ha ha ha.

Our last iteration of this, we had three players. We started at 15 points and went up in five point increments, no faction restriction, ending once one person had 100 points in kills. I can't remember exactly how it went down, but I was still on my 20 point ship when both the other guys were on their 35's. Lucky dice, I think. Then Alex went to his 40 and killed everyone quickly and won. Heh.

I love this format.

Iam so taking that as my first ship

A-Wing: · Tycho Celchu (26)

Rage (1)

Chardaan Refit (-2)

Autothrusters (2)

A-Wing Test Pilot (0)

Push The Limit (3)

-- TOTAL ------- 30p. --

Nice idea! I will try with friends next week !

My first ship would be :

PILOTS

N’Dru Suhlak (28)
Z-95 Headhunter (17), Concussion Missiles (4), Glitterstim (2), Lone Wolf (2), Stealth Device (3)

I love N'Dru, but I would go for Cluster Missiles or Homing Missiles, and be prepared to kill someone then get killed soon after.

This week we have a 4-player EF. Here's what I ran:

30: Kavil, TLT, Trick Shot
35: Warden Squadron K-Wing, Sabine, Cluster Mines, Extra Munitions, Ion Bombs, Advanced SLAM
40: Darth Vader, Lone Wolf, Title, Advanced Targeting Computer, Prockets, Engine (since he didn't make it to play last time)

At the start there was another Quadjumper and two identical Juke Inquisitors. The Quad got behind Kavil and threw him onto a rock which hit twice (here we go again with the rocks!) while Kavil traded shots with one Inq who was in arc (no Kavil ability) but obstructed (+1 die for Trick Shot anyway!). Then Kavil rushed the Inq to get behind him, but he still ended up at Range 1, so I had to shoot the Quad which had gotten blasted by the other Inq and my shot finished him off. Inq 1 also killed Inq 2.

In came Quickdraw and Tycho. I continued a long loop around the asteroids, while the two new 35-point ships went after each other. Inq 1 got shot down, then so did Kavil, bringing in Fenn Rau and the Warden. The Warden was able to set up an immediate bombing run on Quickdraw (that's one thing you have to watch in the format: almost every time someone was shot down, their respawn was able to give them a good run on someone else!), which also gave him a free shot on Tycho for losing a shield!

Fenn Rau died to a quick series of hits and crits (lesson learned after 2 weeks: don't bring Fenn Rau?), bringing in Poe. Meanwhile, Quickdraw dodged an Ion Bomb and started putting damage on the K-Wing. Tycho ended up in Poe's corner as he respawned, giving the Warden a good ion opportunity. Poe ended up blocking Tycho into bomb range, which left him floating dangerously close to the board edge.

Tycho managed to stay on, though he was getting hunted by Poe. My Warden dropped its last bomb (Cluster Mines) on Quickdraw, but despite getting him to hit 5 of 6 Mines I only did 5 damage with Sabine's help! At this point, my K-Wing was left with only its turret, which proved to be completely ineffective. However, Quickdraw finally lost his last Hull and Tycho didn't last much longer. This spawned Norra and Dengar. After a few rounds with everyone else on their 40-point ships, I was ready for someone to put my 3-Hull Warden out of its misery so I could bring in a gun that would actually do something...

Dengar and Poe went after each other while Norra started storing eyeballs on Rey. As the Warden FINALLY went down, Poe and Dengar got in each other's arcs at Range 1, where Dengar took off Poe's shields, Poe killed Dengar, then Dengar's revenge shot left Poe at 1 Hull! Wow! Vader dropped in ready to chase down Norra, since she was the much bigger threat at this point.

Poe regenerated his shields, and Norra flew extremely well to keep Vader either at bay or in her arc. Finally, we all met in the middle, with Poe on Norra's tail doing some damage and Vader coming the other way. Norra managed to block Vader, which left him tokenless in front of Poe, but at Range 2 while Norra was at Range 1. Vader elected not to shoot Poe in the hope that Poe would shoot Norra, at the very least to maybe strip the Focus/TL she had on him before she fired back and killed him (he was back down to 1 Hull). Poe completely flubbed his shot, though, and got blown away.

And that's where we had to call it. Even without the extra game beforehand, EF can take a while to play! Vader was down 1 Shield but still had Prockets, and Norra had 2 Hull damage but a couple Focus still on Rey.

Mixing factions was just as fun as all-the-same-faction. This is a really great format that I look forward to sprinkling in from time to time for variety!