What I love about playing casually is how often we (in my group of friends that play) and the community (all of you inventive people) come up with different ideas to stretch the game into being more. Case in point;

THESE GO TO 11

--111 Point Squads

--No more than 11 points of upgrades TOTAL, and no duplicate upgrades

--No initiative bid allowed, because, well, THESE GO TO 11

This variant certainly reduces ordinance / alpha strikes, TLT, Attanni and places more emphasis on Pilot abilities, pilot skill and piloting overall. It has made for some wildly different games then our norm.

Last Picked For Dodgeball

--Each player chooses 1 pilot. Their opponent MUST use the pilot in their list.

--Each player chooses 1 non title upgrade. That upgrade must be used by their opponent in their opponent's list, but can be used on any ship.

--In subsequent matches, that Pilot can no longer be used if destroyed. If that pilot survives, they must be used in the next game.

Using this variant, Eaden Vrill actually made the table. Imperial Kath was outfitted with Experimental Interface (which sucks on every other imperial ship!) IG88D was in another list that had to use Swarm Leader...

Both of these recent variants were really entertaining. It almost felt like playing the game again for the first time. Added some tweaks as it went along.

Sometimes you just gotta think outside of the (Core Set) box....