I will be running a tournament later this month. But I think the next one I will run will be the escalation format. Haven't actually played this format but I was wondering if it's fun to play. Anything you did/didn't like about it?

It adds a novel way of list building which i like. its not your standard 100/6 which i also like lol.

I'm a fan! it is good fund and brings some weird and wonderful stuff to the table

That's what I like to hear. Non meta is fun and gets some more of the casual players able to compete.

It's fun. There's no meta at 60, 90, 120, and 150 points. List building restrictions can trip people up though and it can be hard to run two fat ships since you add things in 30 point chunks.

Sounds really fun to me. Start with Omega Leader :]

Our local store regularly runs Escalation events - it's a nice change of pace and requires different list-building and flying skills. Go for it!

Very expensive ships are a lot less effective as they are hard to fit in, or if they do appear they lose out on a lot of options in the earlier rounds. Arc-dodgers and high-defence ships do very well in early rounds (a tooled Soontir Fel at 60 is a beast) but lose out later as there are more ships and arcs on the table. Conversely straightforward jousters do better in the higher rounds where any individual enemy ships is less of a problem to handle. A beginner's mistake is to start at 150 and try and cut thing out - instead it's best to start from the bottom up - remember that every list has to be viable!

16 hours ago, Hedgehogmech said:

Our local store regularly runs Escalation events - it's a nice change of pace and requires different list-building and flying skills. Go for it!

Very expensive ships are a lot less effective as they are hard to fit in, or if they do appear they lose out on a lot of options in the earlier rounds. Arc-dodgers and high-defence ships do very well in early rounds (a tooled Soontir Fel at 60 is a beast) but lose out later as there are more ships and arcs on the table. Conversely straightforward jousters do better in the higher rounds where any individual enemy ships is less of a problem to handle. A beginner's mistake is to start at 150 and try and cut thing out - instead it's best to start from the bottom up - remember that every list has to be viable!

Interesting, thanks for the info.

I just recently played an escalation tournament. Ton of fun, and not just because i won. Especially nowadays, when youre usually better off substantially buffing 2 or 3 expensive ships, one of which is a large ship, it forces you to reconsider your normal auto-add pilots and upgrades and allows for a breath of fresh air. Scum players especially get hit hard by this, as they can't just throw their usual jumpmasters and shadow casters on the table, at least not without the rest of their list suffering as a result(however attani mindlink with 5 ships on the table is borderline broken lmao).

Definitely go for it.

I did one recently ! It's a really fun format !

Forget what you have learn from the standard 100/6. Play what you want ! Pocket ace is a thing !

N'dru, Inqy and Jake do well in this format! a lot of people put their big ships in first as you cant really get away with sticking them in later and it means they'er parred down for the first round.

i'm tinkering with a 2Xb and an a wing as a starting list then adding pocket aces in (might save points at 60 and stick etahn in for a bit. i love me some crits!!)