In my group it is quite normal to play with Face Down Torps, Missiles and Bombs/Mines. Last weeks going forward with this variant, also Face Down Droids and Crews/Teams. 100% casual and homebrewed.

When we started to play with FD Ordnance it was love at first glance. Really a boost to make Ordnance more viable circa 30 months ago. I can only say good things about this variant. Now perhaps even better as there are many, many new options. You only know that the other side expended xx points in this upgrades. Assault Misiles or Cluster on that ship?

Mk II is a little bit trickier. You only reveal Droids and Crews/Teams after "using" it. Not to everybody's taste. We are six habitual players and four (me included) likes this. Remaining two players think that this variant is OK but only during Scenarios that beneficts from hidding those cards or as a variant to be employed from time to time.

Face Down R3 Stressbot or Tactician, Kanan, etc, can be quite nasty. Doc Surprise my friend. But also adds a new aspect to the game. Perhaps better to keep Face Down that card and loose a minor bonus to gain surprise later. You are "honor bound" to reveal the upgrade if needed (like Greedo)

These August sunny afternoons I am playing 100/6 more often than usual. Yesterday one more playtesting sesion. Rebel player equipped Prockets for his Green Sqdrn. (quite standard) plus Seismic Torps in his ARC. As usual this are by far much better if hidden. Nothing new. R7 T1 surprised me a lot when revealed and hit the nitros. Jan Ors revealed during the game and my opponent loves Jan plus ARC so not a surprise.

As Scum I equipped Old Teroch with Advanced Protons. Quite expensive upgrade but of course better if your rival is unaware of them. Bossk in a Lancer was a nasty surprise when revealed mid game.

Again +1 to Face Down ordnance. In this particular game Face Down Crewmembers made little or no diference. R7 T1 surprised me but nothing critical.

Will continue testing new ideas. Precise fly, gentlemen.

It's not a bad idea.

I have many bad things to say about the early waves of Star Trek Attack Wing game (balance, miniatures, organised play prize support including unique ships, essentially being a chop-shop job of X-wing with all of the problems and few of the benefits) but one of the things from the early waves that I did like was Captain Kirk, who did something very much like this:

Quote

Any Federation (Captain) Upgrades you purchase for Kirk cost exactly 3 Squadron Points and are placed face down beside his card. Each Upgrade remains face down until you decide to use it, and then it is turned face up for the rest of the game.

This made for a very unpredictable ship that could at a moment's notice turn out to be able to do exactly the wrong thing for you; a perfect match for Kirk as a captain and a very nice rule.

I'm not convinced face-down ordnance works as well because it has different points values, but I could definitely see 'blind' X-wing working. For that matter, a pilot who can chop and change elite upgrades and pull them as a surprise would be rather nice. Thweek is a step towards this, I guess.

I've played with face-down upgrades ( all of them, until used) a couple times and it's always fun.

I like this idea because it adds more strategy to the game - you can't just look at your enemy's upgrades and know how to deal with him, you need to make an educated guess and change your tactics on the fly.

I also like the thematic aspect. After all, how on earth would your squadron know exactly what the enemy ships are equipped with every single battle?

Really great idea. Would certainly make ordinance like Assault missiles more playable.

OH **** THEY'VE GOT ASSAULT MISSILES. BREAK FORMATION BREAK FORMATION

The competitive problem with this though is that X wing is a very social game. After you finish your round, you watch another game. If this was to become an actual aspect of the game, you'd be forced to not watch others play (like in Magic). Furthermore, there's no way to not know based off of the guys at the table next to you - which becomes increasingly more helpful as the rounds go on. Finally, the TO is at a huge advantage since they can look at the lists beforehand and know what everyone has :).

I think this is a really cool idea for a small, casual group. I like running TIE Bombers and Punishers and it makes some sense to me, since unless someone has really good scanners (a homebrew Upgrade opportunity?) they likely wouldn't be able to figure it out until the ordinance was already flying.

Did you use this with Cannons or Turrets? It seems to me that this would be okay to leave face-up, thematically speaking.

I'd say kep all upgrades facedown, and add a "Identify" action, range 1-3, that reveals all upgrade cards of its target. Should be fun enough !

2 hours ago, Khyros said:

The competitive problem with this though is that X wing is a very social game. After you finish your round, you watch another game. If this was to become an actual aspect of the game, you'd be forced to not watch others play (like in Magic). Furthermore, there's no way to not know based off of the guys at the table next to you - which becomes increasingly more helpful as the rounds go on. Finally, the TO is at a huge advantage since they can look at the lists beforehand and know what everyone has :).

No TOs or playing several games with the same list. We are more interested in Epic Play. So one game per day maximun. This variant is DOA in Tournament type environment.

Cannons, Turrets, Ilicits and Mods MK III. Sometimes (3 or 4 times) we flew with hidden Ilicits (Glitter, Hot Shot Blaster...). But first we want to continue playtesting Mk II.

8 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

It's not a bad idea.

I have many bad things to say about the early waves of Star Trek Attack Wing game (balance, miniatures, organised play prize support including unique ships, essentially being a chop-shop job of X-wing with all of the problems and few of the benefits) but one of the things from the early waves that I did like was Captain Kirk, who did something very much like this:

This made for a very unpredictable ship that could at a moment's notice turn out to be able to do exactly the wrong thing for you; a perfect match for Kirk as a captain and a very nice rule.

I'm not convinced face-down ordnance works as well because it has different points values, but I could definitely see 'blind' X-wing working. For that matter, a pilot who can chop and change elite upgrades and pull them as a surprise would be rather nice. Thweek is a step towards this, I guess.

This would be an awesome ability.

A fun XWM variant might be to chose 3 EPTs. When you use one, flip it face up. If you chose, discard a revealed EPT and flip the next to be revealed. Because a pilot with 3 EPTs all active in XWM might be a little too cool.. . .

Interesting hidden information mechanic. Reminds me of scanning a ship in X-wing games. MAybe you could do the spend a TL in the end phase to reveal a hidden upgrade or things like that.

9 hours ago, Darth Meanie said:

This would be an awesome ability.

A fun XWM variant might be to chose 3 EPTs. When you use one, flip it face up. If you chose, discard a revealed EPT and flip the next to be revealed. Because a pilot with 3 EPTs all active in XWM might be a little too cool.. . .

Indeed. We've already got upgrades who can chop and change crew or illicit upgrades mid-game; a pilot who could chop and change their elite upgrade mid-game could be very powerful (depending, of course, on the timing restrictions and what the activation cost for the ability was).