The big alternate formats thread!

By gadwag, in X-Wing

Locked Out Furball:

Standard furball set up to individual flavour:

example 40 points, small ships only, etc...

Special Rules:

After an attack from a player's ship hits an enemy ship, assign a red target lock to that ship and a blue target lock to your own ship. You cannot attack any ship that you have a target lock on. This way you have to keep engaging different players and target locks are out of the game. First ship to score 2 kills wins.

Crescent City Corsairs down in Greater NOLA area will be doing a "Lotto Tournament."

Everyone brings a list of 100 points. They will be numbered based on how many people there are. Lowest seed (or random selection for first round) gets to choose a number first. That will be their list for that round. Next round, lists are again shuffled and numbers drawn.

The judge will have the say on whether a list is too gimpy (such as 2 academy pilots). If he rules a list is not suitable, he will replace it with one of his own he will have.

There will also be a prize for the list that does the best, so an incentive to bring a list that can be used by anyone.

I'm looking forward to this as something new.

I liked a couple of the ideas suggested recently - Deuces Wild (no pilots above PS2) and the drinking game on S&V's latest - shot glasses on asteroids, with as many tractor beams and ion cannons in play as possible

I want something that could potentially replace the 100/6

I really loved the simple 3rd victory condition in the old mechwarrior dark age game.

It was points killed, points remaining/catured, and points for getting inside the enemies deployment zone.

I'm going to think about this more in the shower and come back

I've been thinking of a Canyon Bombing Run format, based on the attack on Eadu in Rogue One.

3x4 board, Rebels get 150 points of ships to equip as they see fit. Imperials get 4 x Academy and 2 x Alpha Squadrons Pilots.

Set up the board with canyon walls along the long board edges, and rock formations in the middle to create a maze of narrow canyons. A turbolaser emplacement is placed on each long board edge (2/0/5/0) and a bunker on one short board edge (0/0/10/0). The rebels start at the opposite board edge. Objective for the Rebels is to destroy all three emplacements, objective for the Imperials is to wipe out the Rebels before that happens. Overlapping a rock formation for either side is instant death, and Imperials get reinforcment ships of the same type from any board edge, joining the battle the turn after a ship is destroyed.

Needs refinement, but that's the general idea.

Blind Strategy

100 Points as normal game, but upgrades are not revealed until used. The cards are placed face down next to the ship so your opponent can see what upgrade categories are used, but not know what they are. In theory, the pilots wouldn't know what the other ships had equipped ahead of time. This adds a little more strategy to the game with when you want to reveal your upgrades.

Let's say I have a torpedo upgrade, maybe it is a proton, maybe adv proton, maybe a seismic; the opponent doesn't know until I flip it to use it. Maybe I have a bomb too; is it a conner net, cluster mine, or a bomblet generator? Once a card is spent, it would be moved underneath the pilot card or otherwise discarded as not to confuse it with other cards that haven't been revealed yet.

Anything that has an effect at the start of play such as veteran instincts, a score to settle, or Agent Kallus, would obviously be flipped as soon as it becomes relevant.

The mystery would lose some of its effectiveness in a tournament setting where players can see their neighbors' ships playing or spectating after their match ended, but it could be fun to try. Alternatively, the written list could have some alternative upgrades to allow the players to swap upgrades between matches as long as the pilots stay the same and points don't go over 100.

Regarding tournament formats, we discussed some of these on our last episode of SoT, including the draft format that I made a google doc for. It may not be exactly how FFG did it at the Coruscant Open, but it is setup similarly and makes each player consider how many points they will initially spend. Do they spend them all and draft some default 23 point ship who may not interact well with the squad? Or bid extremely low and get the first draft and find a ship who synergizes perfectly with the squad? It also includes the pre-assembled draft ships from 23 to 28 points. Here's the link since the doc is too long to post:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12AtHzfqPAN-QiNmklJENYGencXEbJ9zMAUbEjL0TyJg

Also, because I was bored at work the other day, I came up with another interesting tournament format which may combat your current-meta blues. It's called a Pilot Skill Restrictive Tournament. But it's not like what it sounds. What I found from looking at some of the biggest national tournaments lately (US, UK, Polish, and NA champs) was that the average total PS was 18 and only 8 out of 64 were at 14 or below; two of those were trip scouts. Most of these lists also included only 2 or 3 ships. This format would break almost every list from these tournaments and require players to critically think when list building to adhere to these restrictions.

Pilot Skill Restrictive Tournament (Created by Stay On Target X-Wing Podcast)

100 point squad
4 or more ships
All pilots are unique (i.e. cannot bring two Bandit Squad Z-95's, etc)
Maximum combined pilot skill cannot exceed 12

For this tournament, you will be required to bring a list that is restrictive in three different ways: point cost, ship count, and combined pilot skill (PS). The maximum squad point total is 100 points. The minimum number of ships you MUST put into your squad is 4, and the maximum number that can possibly be put into your squad within this format is 7. When adding PS from your ships, both Veteran Instincts and Adaptability are taken into consideration. Veteran Instincts adds a value of "2" to your ship's PS and Adaptability adds a value of "1" to your ship's PS, no matter which side of Adaptability you use [during the ‘place forces’ step]. The total PS from your ships' pilot cards, plus the PS modifier from Veteran Instincts and/or Adaptability if you have them in your squad, CANNOT exceed a value of 12.

Google doc version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12dNaRl1Wsf-PFvAFVKUV47W9MgeF6GBUxUbh7jGLMyU

I'd like to hear your guys' feedback on this format, thanks!

I really wish FFG would improve Mission Control usability and keep it updated.

I'd love to see a Corellian Conflict like campaign box set.

I would also like an official HotAC AI type solo play guide.

Ok if we are looking at something that could potentially be adopted and maybe even be an alternative to 100-6 or at least be able to run as side events like hanger bay. By the way I think using side events to test out the best ideas is a good way for FFG to trial them.

Criteria that would need to be met - games 60-75 mins to keep tournaments manageable.

Encourage more variety - otherwise why bother!

So basic idea:

Each player builds a 250 point squad, at least 125 points must be generic ships.

During Swiss - 60 min games with 5 min pre game ship selection time (total 65 mins)

Each game a player drafts 90 points to use in the game.

If a unique pilot is drafted it cant be drafted for the following game. Each player can keep a game list sheet that they fill in during the day with just the names of the pilots used in each game. This means that your next opponent will be able to see what you used in the previous game. Players will have to write down what ships / pilots they are going to use in each game before they see what their opponent has decided to use. They may look at their opponents 250 point squad sheet before they pick which ships to use in that game.

During Cut - 75 min games

100 point squads. If a unique pilot is used it may be used in the following game also. However any unique pilots that are killed during a game are removed from the 250 point squad list of that player, thereby limiting choices as they get further into the cut.

Final Game - 120 mins with 125 points

This format should be easy to adapt to from current formats, from an event organisation point of view. Next you will have variety in what you fly from game to game. Can shave a little time off the swiss part of the day to help fit regionals into 1 day. You should face a greater variety of ships from game to game, you will also use and fly against generics more than we currently see. Aces will have to be used selectively to balance them between games. During the cut your aces become very valuable as they can be permanently lost, however you will always have enough generics to for the squad if needed.

Interested to see what peoples thoughts are on this?

Edited by Storgar

The shuttle tydirium holodrive is a google drive folder we've been putting all of our original mission content into. It has several missions, alt formats, and the Grayskull narrative campaign

2 hours ago, Bullox said:

I really wish FFG would improve Mission Control usability and keep it updated.

Judging by the posts on the subforum, there's a lot of players outr there who don't actually know what Mission Control actually is...

1 hour ago, FTS Gecko said:

Judging by the posts on the subforum, there's a lot of players outr there who don't actually know what Mission Control actually is...

I'm not sure FFG remembers what it is, either...

Look. I am ALL for this.

I recently moved to an area where I have little access to new ships or competitive play. Basically, playing with the 30+ ships I have is up to me to teach people in my remote area how to play the game and keep them interested in it, since it'll be rare (if at all ever) for us to get to a store tournament... let alone regionals, let alone nationals...

So I have been crossing my fingers (and toes) and praying to the Gunboat Gods for the release of something like Armada's Corellian Conflict for X-Wing. Something that's narrative-driven, something that 2-3 players won't get bored with in two months' time, something that the three of us can leave on the table and come back to tomorrow, or next week. Has anyone played Risk Legacy? Twilight Imperium? Axis & Allies? Something that builds X-Wing into a bigger-scale, longer-term format.

I've been working on something myself, but it's slow to develop because I want it to be not just for my own immediate group of friends, but something I could proudly share with the interwebs and you guys could use, too (so I have to take into account the use of ships I don't own, like the Decimator or the TIE Punisher). Ultimately, if FFG released a Corellian Conflict that was built for X-Wing, I'd be the first person in line to buy it.

I too would think a campaign mode would be great. It can be based off of any number of ideas.

An obvious one would be a bounty hunter campaign with various missions and win conditions. Say ionize to incapacitate and have a boarding card. Or capture a ship via a tractor beam mechanic, etc etc.

Another campaign idea would be to scout and escort fleets either seen on the table or off table.

The campaigns would have a starting pool of ships and points and as you progress you can buy move from awards points but one spent that it’s and one something is destroyed that’s it too unless there is a repair or rebuy mechanic.

Ace of Aces builds are fun. We even had a 2 ship tournament. Once you lost your first ship you placed your second ship in the same area as the first. It was TONS of fun.

Our local community has been running Original Trilogy X-wing (OTX) tournaments which ONLY allow ships from the original trilogy and with 2 simple rules on building squads: no double falcons, and no TLT. All other upgrade cards are allowed. You had to bring a rebel list and an Imperial list. There were rules on how you determine who plays what, but every game was rebel vs. imperial.

I enjoyed it for the most part, but some people brought tie swarms. So one rule I would put in is that you can't bring more than 2 of the same ship. I had to play tie swarms twice and this OTX tournament felt like a "let's play like wave 3 hasn't arrived in stores yet" tournament. Here was a chance to dive in a try the ships you can't play at a competitive level and these people brought generic ship swarms? WTF?

Edited by NeverBetTheFett

Sorry folks, haven't had time to curate and update links in my first post. I'll get around to it. In the meantime, here are some more formats that our local league uses:

ShuttleJump: every list must have a certain ship (depending on faction). Initially this was a lambda for imperials, U-wing for rebels and quadjumper for scum, but it changes up every league. Punishers, rebel hwks and pre-buff starvipers have all had their time in the sun.

Firing arc focus: no primary weapon turrets, secondary weapon turrets, or bombs. Your list may contain one extra arc.

8 hours ago, Ziusdra said:

Look. I am ALL for this.

I recently moved to an area where I have little access to new ships or competitive play. Basically, playing with the 30+ ships I have is up to me to teach people in my remote area how to play the game and keep them interested in it, since it'll be rare (if at all ever) for us to get to a store tournament... let alone regionals, let alone nationals...

So I have been crossing my fingers (and toes) and praying to the Gunboat Gods for the release of something like Armada's Corellian Conflict for X-Wing. Something that's narrative-driven, something that 2-3 players won't get bored with in two months' time, something that the three of us can leave on the table and come back to tomorrow, or next week. Has anyone played Risk Legacy? Twilight Imperium? Axis & Allies? Something that builds X-Wing into a bigger-scale, longer-term format.

I've been working on something myself, but it's slow to develop because I want it to be not just for my own immediate group of friends, but something I could proudly share with the interwebs and you guys could use, too (so I have to take into account the use of ships I don't own, like the Decimator or the TIE Punisher). Ultimately, if FFG released a Corellian Conflict that was built for X-Wing, I'd be the first person in line to buy it.

I, too would rush to purchase this. I like that they include missions with the large ships, but a longer campaign would really be great.

The tydirium guys ran a campaign called "greyskull base" or something recently, but it needs a lot of players so they can make the pilot draft work (minimising OP lists) and randomise which missions are assigned between players.

http://slingpaint.com/grayskull/

They have said they are planning to release an update to the rules in fall

7 hours ago, NeverBetTheFett said:

Our local community has been running Original Trilogy X-wing (OTX) tournaments which ONLY allow ships from the original trilogy and with 2 simple rules on building squads: no double falcons, and no TLT. All other upgrade cards are allowed. You had to bring a rebel list and an Imperial list. There were rules on how you determine who plays what, but every game was rebel vs. imperial.

I enjoyed it for the most part, but some people brought tie swarms. So one rule I would put in is that you can't bring more than 2 of the same ship. I had to play tie swarms twice and this OTX tournament felt like a "let's play like wave 3 hasn't arrived in stores yet" tournament. Here was a chance to dive in a try the ships you can't play at a competitive level and these people brought generic ship swarms? WTF?

Great format. Only event I’ve ever won.

What’s wrong with TIE swarms? Classic Star Wars. Seriously though, have they won an OT only yet?

Great thread, and way to step up to the plate!

Here's the bit list of alt formats I collected for Episode 57 of the Scum and Villainy Podcast . There's a bunch of them that have already made it into this thread, and a bunch that haven't, if some good soul would like to spam its contents onto this thread to boost page count :-)

We then had a big contest for alt formats, and collected a bunch of new ones !

Oh, finally I recently took the #2 winning submission, "A-wing Soccer", and have been working with Christian Billman and some Vassal league folks to work out what would happen if Rocket League and Blood Bowl had an X-wing baby. You can find version 0.3 of the A-Wing soccer format here !

Thanks! I'll add that to the list of links to update in my top post when I'm back at my PC!

Top post updated with links that you have all posted, such as a-wing soccer, tydirium holodrive, x-wing vs TIE fighter and more. I'll continue curating the list as I have time. Meanwhile, please keep posting links and ideas here. This is great, and I love all these fantastic gamemodes.

My general $0.02 (in aid of getting more pages!) is that the best thing that could happen to X-wing is a campaign in the style of the Correllian Conflict for Armada. The dominance of 100/6 can start to drag eventually, but some people (ie me) shy away from "unsupported" or "unofficial" formats and so its often hard to find something beyond 100/6 or SOMETIMES epic. Getting a proper, FFG developed campaign would be my dream come true for the game, whether co-op or not.

once again my 2 pence, is i think the best alt mode i would love to see is also an X-wing is a campaign in the style of the Correllian Conflict for Armada.

On 10/17/2017 at 11:23 PM, FlyingAnchors said:

You forgot to link the fore runner of alternative play! ( okay not really, but the most popular scenario house rules to be sure. I mean when Hotac adopts it for their use you know it's good)

Dagobah Daves trench run!

(would link but can't find it in the forums atm. I know it was on boardgamegeek ?)

3 versions and 1 variant of his Trench Run are available in the Shuttle Tydirium Holodrive (find the link on the original post).

Edited by Biff
Sinplification