Haven't seen this variant proposed yet so here goes. For a fun house rule, why not make all faceups hidden to the opponent. During play, keep a token/dice/marker/something on the stack of dmg cards assigned to a ship that are supposed to be face up, with the stack face down instead. Only the owner of the ship may see these cards at any time. Perform everything else as normal, without having to announce to your opponent the type of critical suffered/suffering.

The idea would be to simulate real combat where the captains and crew of opposing ships cannot see the extent of damage that their opponents are suffering from. They can still see the effects(i.e. one extra card drawn from structural, ship is not using its command dial, etc.) This means admirals must guess at how the enemy ship(s) are doing based on how their opponent behaves and commands them.

Thoughts?

18 minutes ago, Muelmuel said:

Haven't seen this variant proposed yet so here goes. For a fun house rule, why not make all faceups hidden to the opponent. During play, keep a token/dice/marker/something on the stack of dmg cards assigned to a ship that are supposed to be face up, with the stack face down instead. Only the owner of the ship may see these cards at any time. Perform everything else as normal, without having to announce to your opponent the type of critical suffered/suffering.

The idea would be to simulate real combat where the captains and crew of opposing ships cannot see the extent of damage that their opponents are suffering from. They can still see the effects(i.e. one extra card drawn from structural, ship is not using its command dial, etc.) This means admirals must guess at how the enemy ship(s) are doing based on how their opponent behaves and commands them.

Thoughts?

Very interesting. It may go well with that 'Hidden Armada' game suggested a while back, where the upgrades are kept secret. It would really add to that game-play.

It would make it tough to resolve things like projector misaligned and comm noise which require opponent interaction... plus it would make it too easy for the less moral to "cheat" and say they got a harmless crit rather than what they actually pulled.

Hidden armada works, I don't think hidden crits will

4 minutes ago, MandalorianMoose said:

It would make it tough to resolve things like projector misaligned and comm noise which require opponent interaction... plus it would make it too easy for the less moral to "cheat" and say they got a harmless crit rather than what they actually pulled.

Hidden armada works, I don't think hidden crits will

You could keep the crits in a separate pile, so it is easily verifiable what exact crit was gotten. I agree about it being difficult when it comes to the ones with the other player also deciding things. I guess in those cases they would just have to be revealed. There are, after all, exceptions to the rule.

People cheating is a risk in any double blind game. You have to have a third player - the observer - to enforce that each player isn't cheating.

Or you know, just play with friends who won't cheat at a game mode like that.

8 minutes ago, MandalorianMoose said:

It would make it tough to resolve things like projector misaligned and comm noise which require opponent interaction... plus it would make it too easy for the less moral to "cheat" and say they got a harmless crit rather than what they actually pulled.

Hidden armada works, I don't think hidden crits will

While I get the temptation aspect, I hate to think cheating is that common. In friendly games, I don't think you need to worry about cheating, as much as forgetting an ongoing critical effect if it is face down. It does sound fun, but may work better if each player used something like scramble stands so the crits were only visible to the owner.

To add another layer to this... maybe allow crits/upgrades/hidden info to be seen once you close to distance 1. Represents the ability of scanners to punch through the general battlefield ECM that seems to exist in the Star Wars universe. Or conversely indicates they have closed enough to get detailed info.

13 minutes ago, Church14 said:

People cheating is a risk in any double blind game. You have to have a third player - the observer - to enforce that each player isn't cheating.

Or you know, just play with friends who won't cheat at a game mode like that.

I like the idea, though I do recommend the suggestion of Church14 here. Have an independent arbitrator to make sure all is kept honest and fair. Or just game with your good friends.

Of course, I usually aim to obliterate a ship so my opponent might not get a chance to hide crits.....'cause they'd be dead.

I very much like the double-blind idea. I like to think that the folks that I would play would be honorable enough to play the game properly for everyone's enjoyment. One could also hide actual ship and squadron cards, too, so as to leave things ambiguous as to what variant a given ship is or if a unit is a luke, wedge, biggs, rogue, or just another xwing.

1 hour ago, MandalorianMoose said:

It would make it tough to resolve things like projector misaligned and comm noise which require opponent interaction... plus it would make it too easy for the less moral to "cheat" and say they got a harmless crit rather than what they actually pulled.

Hidden armada works, I don't think hidden crits will

Crits that require player interaction can be revealed, or resolved, just by saying something to the effect of "I need you to do this to my ship as a result of one of my crits"

1 hour ago, TheBigLev said:

To add another layer to this... maybe allow crits/upgrades/hidden info to be seen once you close to distance 1. Represents the ability of scanners to punch through the general battlefield ECM that seems to exist in the Star Wars universe. Or conversely indicates they have closed enough to get detailed info.

I did consider this, could be another variant Little issues with this would be the need to rmb to flip the crit cards back down as a ship leaves another ship from distance 1, if there are then no ships currently at distance 1. Also what distance is tactically flavourful/fun to reveal "face up" damage cards?(distance1/close/med/long) have not yet playtested so not sure

1 hour ago, cynanbloodbane said:

While I get the temptation aspect, I hate to think cheating is that common. In friendly games, I don't think you need to worry about cheating, as much as forgetting an ongoing critical effect if it is face down. It does sound fun, but may work better if each player used something like scramble stands so the crits were only visible to the owner.

sirwillibald's command bridge lend well to this idea as the damage cards can be stuck into the slots with the "face up" facing the owner. I agree that the remembering might be an issue so scrabble stands and the like might be useful for forgetful admirals.

52 minutes ago, Muelmuel said:

Crits that require player interaction can be revealed, or resolved, just by saying something to the effect of "I need you to do this to my ship as a result of one of my crits"

I did consider this, could be another variant Little issues with this would be the need to rmb to flip the crit cards back down as a ship leaves another ship from distance 1, if there are then no ships currently at distance 1. Also what distance is tactically flavourful/fun to reveal "face up" damage cards?(distance1/close/med/long) have not yet playtested so not sure

sirwillibald's command bridge lend well to this idea as the damage cards can be stuck into the slots with the "face up" facing the owner. I agree that the remembering might be an issue so scrabble stands and the like might be useful for forgetful admirals.

I'd suggest that once info is known, it is known forever. Thematically just imagine the bridge officers recording this info down as it comes in. Once the ships are further apart again any new info would once again be hidden.

I like this idea, but what if Dodonna is in play? Would you instead take the top four damage cards and randomly choose the crit, or would you still use his ability as written?

As written, but the crit gets hidden after it's applied. If you can actually remember what ship get's what, then good on you.

It's actually a slight buff to Dodonna if anything, letting you have access to more info. Kind of fits with him thematically too; in lore he was one of the first commanders of an ISD in the Imperial Navy before defecting later. Maybe he has schematics for various Imperial ships and is aware of what critical components get damaged when certain areas of the ship get attacked.

I kind of like being aware of what damage effects the enemy is currently suffering. It sounds straight out of Star Wars: "Sir, the enemy frigate is venting plasma from a thruster fissure."

I like the idea, but I wonder if it wouldn't cause problems. I see crit effects getting ignored a lot, not intentionally, but because we don't build around them. Someone with Thruster Control Malfunction can easily forget about the effect after they play the dial, tokens, attack, and then finally pull the maneuver tool. I find the opposing players half to remind the other player of crit effects from time to time.

If I had to hide my crits, I'd likely forget about them. And I'd likely forget what enemy units had crits.

Again, I love the idea. Hidden info like that is cool, but I just don't think it would work for myself and my group.