This thread is for ideas to help smooth Casual Epic play, or give FFG ideas to help make Epic play more accessible.

Here is my biggest one:

Only have 4 Pilot Skill Levels:

Low 1-3
Mid 4-6
High 7-9
Ace 10+

When dealing with that many ships, it helps to roll ships into the same turn, cutting down the time of play significantly.

Smaller ones include:

-Limiting to 2 or 3 unique pilots (Small and Large)
-Generic ships of the same type have to have the same configuration

Any other quick hints?

Rather than block PS together, I think an easier and just as fast thing to do is take note up front of all squad members of both lists, their pilot skill, and then build a "turn chart". Always look at the chart to determine who moves next, who shoots next, etc. Cross off names of those who are removed from play.

To speed it up, you can have "all rebel ps X" move at once. I wouldn't batch the ships beyond that.

Play with a huge ship as well.

5 hours ago, Jadotch said:

This thread is for ideas to help smooth Casual Epic play, or give FFG ideas to help make Epic play more accessible.

Here is my biggest one:

Only have 4 Pilot Skill Levels:

Low 1-3
Mid 4-6
High 7-9
Ace 10+

When dealing with that many ships, it helps to roll ships into the same turn, cutting down the time of play significantly.

Smaller ones include:

-Limiting to 2 or 3 unique pilots (Small and Large)
- Generic ships of the same type have to have the same configuration

Any other quick hints?

Essentially both those ideas create the same effect without changing the game mechanics. I do this all the time for my own personal sanity. If FFG wants to make this happen, it needs to

CREATE SQUADRON MECHANICS!!!!!

This may be too casual, but I often only set 1 dial for multiple ships. My opponent is OK with it.

8 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

CREATE SQUADRON MECHANICS!!!!!

This may be too casual, but I often only set 1 dial for multiple ships. My opponent is OK with it.

I'd be ok with that, if they all can do the same move at the same difficulty level (either by being a group of the same ship or by being two ships that have the same move available to them)

9 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

Essentially both those ideas create the same effect without changing the game mechanics. I do this all the time for my own personal sanity. If FFG wants to make this happen, it needs to

CREATE SQUADRON MECHANICS!!!!!

This may be too casual, but I often only set 1 dial for multiple ships. My opponent is OK with it.

I like the idea of squadron mechanics!

7 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

Essentially both those ideas create the same effect without changing the game mechanics. I do this all the time for my own personal sanity. If FFG wants to make this happen, it needs to

CREATE SQUADRON MECHANICS!!!!!

This may be too casual, but I often only set 1 dial for multiple ships. My opponent is OK with it.

I don't think you really need Squadron Mechanics. I think doing one dial for the squad is fine....or breaking it down for each one if it requires that. I mean.....use one dial for the regular moves, but when you start getting in close and all that, you can bust out as many dials per ship as you need. "this one for these 2 and this one for that guy on the corner". That type of thing.

Another very important thing is to spread out your ships for PS. In other words, if you are going to take 12 Tie Fighters into an Epic game.....DON'T TAKE ALL THE SAME PILOT SKILL. Yes, 12 Academy Pilots might be the best, but for flow of game, spread them out. 4 Academy Pilots, 4 Obsidian, and 4 Black Squadron. It will flow better.

Avoiding unique characters is a good thing, too. Avoid a lot of upgrades also helps.

I'm having a practice Epic match tomorrow (1v1) before a Team Epic game next week.

I have pretty much put a limit of 2 unique pilots (aces) and all generics are equipped identically. I too, do this for my own sanity in normal games - it doesn't sit well with me to have differently equipped generics

For this practice game especially, I'm keeping upgrades in general to a minimum, because weve never played Epic and it's a lot to keep track of.

As an aside; what's a good time limit to set on an epic game btw? Or do you all play elimination?

26 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

Another very important thing is to spread out your ships for PS. In other words, if you are going to take 12 Tie Fighters into an Epic game.....DON'T TAKE ALL THE SAME PILOT SKILL . Yes, 12 Academy Pilots might be the best, but for flow of game, spread them out. 4 Academy Pilots, 4 Obsidian, and 4 Black Squadron. It will flow better.

Avoiding unique characters is a good thing, too. Avoid a lot of upgrades also helps.

Nah. Great time for a potty break while your opponent moves.

Edit: I also like having all one pilot skill level. For me, it helps prevent bumping, because I can move them all at the same time, but in a logical order.

4 minutes ago, Tom1132 said:

As an aside; what's a good time limit to set on an epic game btw? Or do you all play elimination?

It really does work about to about 1 hour per 100 points. And by elimination, do you mean "to the death?" We will usually have one player concede at some point. Saves time, and in a certain way, feels right. . .when a commander is pretty sure the battle is lost, he's going to pull his remaining units out, not fight to total annihilation.

5 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

It really does work about to about 1 hour per 100 points. And by elimination, do you mean "to the death?" We will usually have one player concede at some point. Saves time, and in a certain way, feels right. . .when a commander is pretty sure the battle is lost, he's going to pull his remaining units out, not fight to total annihilation.

Yeah, to the last man.

I figured that in an epic game, once the tide starts turning, it snowballs due to all the firepower going around.

But a time limit is probably more fitting; especially given that I'm on a tight schedule tomorrow and can't be late because that ONE pesky A-Wing won't die :L

8 minutes ago, Tom1132 said:

As an aside; what's a good time limit to set on an epic game btw? Or do you all play elimination?

We go until one side calls it. Like Tom1132 says, you get to a point when you know who has won. When you are down to just a couple of ships you can just call it.

5 minutes ago, Tom1132 said:

Yeah, to the last man.

I figured that in an epic game, once the tide starts turning, it snowballs due to all the firepower going around.

But a time limit is probably more fitting; especially given that I'm on a tight scedule tomorrow and can't be late because that ONE pesky A-Wing won't die :L

Not necessarily; there is a lot of space to run around in, so swatting that last A-Wing could take several rounds of just dials. So, if surrender is not an option, a time limit would be best.

Here's a bunch of ideas we came up with after our last epic. It helps if a non player acts as a bookkeeper.

Have opposing sides submit their fleet info ahead of time. Print out the pilots, ps and upgrades on paper and cut out.

Attach with magnets to a dry erase board in order of movement. Use a token to represent the active ship. Also use the board to show stress, evades and focus. This keeps the info in front of everyone and limits the tokens on the table. Done this way the only tokens on the table are target locks and critical hits. And now tractor beam as well.

Each player has his pilot and upgrade cards in front of him and he can keep track of focus, evades and shields on his cards as well.

Use the blue target locks rather than the tombstone numbers for ships that have the target lock action. Speeds up game.

Small magnets are cheap if bought in bulk. K&J magnetics is a good source. The magnets can be hot glued to the tokens.

We played a 1200 point (600/side) and found chasing tokens on the board a pain in the butt. We had used the dry erase board to setup pilot order so that was a big help.

We have a squadron mechanic. Basically you set up all small ships except phantoms in units of 3 or 4, with maximum 1 ace.

You can mix certain ships, especially vader+2 tie/ln. Biggs counts as generic.

You only set one dial and move when the ace does. You then move and do actions with your ace. You cant use 2 reposition actions unless all generics can, say via ptl royal guards. If you focus or evade, all generics benefit from your first such action as well. You then attach the generics to the side (and maybe back) of your ace. If that produces bumps... wiggle.

Shooting as usual. Aces cannot be targeted until their wingmen are dead.

A squadron counts as stressed when it has as many or more stress markers than members. If you do a green maneuver with your ace, every squad member sheds one stress.

If you equip tie mk2 or r2 etc on your ace, all members must have it. Exception: vader and tie/lns.

Loads of fun and really speeds up things.

120 min time limit seems about right. Any longer and it can get really tedious.

For squads of generics, I've used printouts from online squad generators. I attached the 8.5x11" printout with one group of generics to a clipboard. Use a marker to cross off shields and hull, and eventually ships. One sheet with a marker is much simpler than eight or twelve pilot cards with shield tokens and upgrade cards.

We often stick with the normal cards and tokens for aces and epic ships, but aces should be employed sparingly if you're trying to keep the game going.

The greatest benefit was seen from the already mentioned printed turn order. I taped it to a metal sheet and propped it up at one end of the table. Having the active player move a magnet to the next group of activated ships to signal that they were done was a great way to keep things moving.

One idea we used when we did the Battle on Endor scenario was to make all critical hits = direct hit. With so many ships flying around, it really streamlined keeping track of critical hit effects. It also made proton torpedoes very deadly!

19 minutes ago, BlodVargarna said:

One idea we used when we did the Battle on Endor scenario was to make all critical hits = direct hit. With so many ships flying around, it really streamlined keeping track of critical hit effects. It also made proton torpedoes very deadly!

That's a great idea, although I might choose to implement it slightly differently: count all critical hits as direct hits for generic pilots (the ones I'm already tracking only with a printout). Use the damage deck as usual for aces (and of course for the epic ships as well).

2 hours ago, J1mBob said:

For squads of generics, I've used printouts from online squad generators. I attached the 8.5x11" printout with one group of generics to a clipboard. Use a marker to cross off shields and hull, and eventually ships. One sheet with a marker is much simpler than eight or twelve pilot cards with shield tokens and upgrade cards.

That's really cool. I like to have a good number of people for the bigger games. I have printed out little sheets for each ship. I would have to break them into squads for people to use, but it's the same idea overall. I often have new people get in on the game and they need to look at the sheets.

1 hour ago, BlodVargarna said:

One idea we used when we did the Battle on Endor scenario was to make all critical hits = direct hit. With so many ships flying around, it really streamlined keeping track of critical hit effects. It also made proton torpedoes very deadly!

Pretty cool! I like that. I might use that.

8 hours ago, ScummyRebel said:

Rather than block PS together, I think an easier and just as fast thing to do is take note up front of all squad members of both lists, their pilot skill, and then build a "turn chart". Always look at the chart to determine who moves next, who shoots next, etc. Cross off names of those who are removed from play.

To speed it up, you can have "all rebel ps X" move at once. I wouldn't batch the ships beyond that.

Agreed. A spreadsheet works beautifully for this.

I find for newer players, to have a large game (>1k) where everyone can keep tab:

Wings of ships with the same upgrade.

Limited pilot abilities and/or upgrades per squadron

4 hours ago, BlodVargarna said:

One idea we used when we did the Battle on Endor scenario was to make all critical hits = direct hit. With so many ships flying around, it really streamlined keeping track of critical hit effects. It also made proton torpedoes very deadly!

This is a great idea.

Team Epic actually helps a lot. Assigning each player 150-200 points splits up the complexity quite a bit and speeds up setting dials. Also, making sure each side has at least one huge ship helps a lot, even if its just something like the transport. They activate very quickly for their points for the most part. I personally have a prebuilt 100 point list for the transports and 200 point list for the corvette and then append standard 100 point lists from there when I play most of the time. The prebuilt lists mostly contain generics so when players bring their standard lists they tend to fill things out with aces and the like pretty nicely. And seriously, set up your cards in PS order. It saves an incredible amount of time.

Well huge ships are the way to go to make Epic play more accessible as buying one of those expansion packs would be cheaper than buying an additional 200 points of small and large ships. However for many people they often end up with 300 points of given faction if they have collected for over a year.

As far as FFG the best thing FFG can do is give it more exposure, and FFG does that through their Organized Play. However Organized Play focuses on the competitive scene as that has been proven to bring in the most exposure and raise popularity. There is no casual E-sports, high school and minor league athletics while still can be entertaining does not have the marketing power in the same way as professional or college athletics which is all about competitive play.

The casual Epic stream is nice and in a way CC was more of a casual streaming series for Armada. So I would just say go for it it won't hurt at all and every bit helps. However if you are trying to get more exposure, well it is clear you don't want competitive so the next best thing would be narrative. So you could take a shortcut and use the huge ship campaign, but I find those rather boring and doesn't exactly allow for more than one side to have a huge ship. So I guess if you have time try to make your own Narrative campaign. Either by combining the narrative from two different huge ship books (the ones you are playing) or make up your own from scratch.