Hi Everyone!

A little background first - I own all of the IA stuff for our group, which is fine when we do camapign. It's also been fine for doing 2 player skirmish since I have enough cards to make 2 or 3 distinct decks without anyone feeling shafted by missing a key card or two. However, we are about to try 4 player skirmish, and I simply don't have a large enough card collection to support everyone having a competitive deck.

In addition, this will be with new players who are just going to want to grab the cool characters they know and throw them into a list (and probably try new ones after each match), so flexibility is key and it's hard to prepare decks around that.

I don't want to entirely negate abilities that revolve around cards, or make strain abilities too strong, so here was my idea:

Players still draw cards as normal (or even tokens), but they don't play them as they read. So any 15 cards will do. Instead, at any time a card may be played to give a model one of the following:

• +1 block
• +1 evade
• +1 damage
• +1 surge
• +1 movement point (this one can only be done during the model's activation)
• Recover 1 damage (again, only during activation for this one as well)

I am thinking that still makes collecting cards worthwhile, but cuts out a ton of list-building time and makes the board fairly equal. This would hurt abilities that let you draw/discard, but minimizes other disruptions.

My only concern is the movement points. I am not sure if I should limit that to 1 per model per turn or just let players go crazy.

Anyway, thoughts on this? Or other ideas to solve my multiplayer prep issue? Thanks!

My girlfriend hates the process of picking and dividing command cards. So we just been playing without, we had fun doing it, only problem has been the incentive to go certain places (where the terminals are). I do prefer playing with command cards though.

I like the idea of replacing your command deck with generic command tokens if you don’t have enough cards for everyone or if you find the fiddlyness of them annoying.

I like command cards as they really add a whole lot of character and narrative to a match.

Or try to find a used core set on the cheap. It’s very nice to have a set of kit organized for campaign play and another set organized for skirmish. Print the skirmish maps out to reduce set up time. Or keep the tiles for a map bagged up.

If I were you. I would at least try to provide players with command cards. In my opinion, they are essential part of playing experience.

IMO, it could be possible to create four decks, maybe with 10-12 cards instead of 15, which are playable. Not necessary very good, but if you create four average, but similarly powerful decks, gaming experience should be great.

of course, its your game, and your preferences may be different than mine

18 hours ago, DKNecrosis said:

My girlfriend hates the process of picking and dividing command cards. So we just been playing without, we had fun doing it, only problem has been the incentive to go certain places (where the terminals are). I do prefer playing with command cards though.

could get additional victory points for being in control of a terminal

50 minutes ago, Spidey NZ said:

could get additional victory points for being in control of a terminal

Yeah, I almost added +1 VP to the list of uses but wasn't sure if that would be overpowered.

In a similar situation (4 players map) we put all the command cards into one deck and place it in the middle. So, everyone drew from that stack: if someone drew a card that not matched any of her deployment cards she may drew another one until found a usabe card. And so on.

57 minutes ago, raves said:

In a similar situation (4 players map) we put all the command cards into one deck and place it in the middle. So, everyone drew from that stack: if someone drew a card that not matched any of her deployment cards she may drew another one until found a usabe card. And so on.

That's a good idea! Even though you can run into cases where one person draws some really good cards and another draws really bad ones, but that can happen even when each player has their own deck so that's probably fine.

3 hours ago, raves said:

In a similar situation (4 players map) we put all the command cards into one deck and place it in the middle. So, everyone drew from that stack: if someone drew a card that not matched any of her deployment cards she may drew another one until found a usabe card. And so on.

I had considered that, but it kind of takes the bite out of Strain inducing abilities. I have a lot of bounty hunter fans so I didn't want to neuter those too badly. Still, it would keep the variety of effects fresh, so I'll definitely keep that in mind as an option.

you could limit player's discard pile and hand size. so if they discard for strain they still eventually deck themselves.

On 10/28/2017 at 7:38 PM, LegoMech said:

However, we are about to try 4 player skirmish, and I simply don't have a large enough card collection to support everyone having a competitive deck.

You can always proxy command cards if you have protective sleeves:

1) print (or quickly write up) the duplicate card on a piece of paper

2) When you're cutting the duplicate card, make sure it's a little smaller than the actual size of a command card (that way no white edges stick out, tipping off the other players)

3) Use the backing of a command card not being used

Voila! 4 player skirmish. No alternate rules, no card drawing system:

That's a great idea!

if you want to print the actual images you can get them at cards.boardwards.eu

Proxy the cards, I see no problem to do that. So you will not need to change the rules.

I think, playing without Command Cards makes a whole different game. E.g. knowing, that the opponent cannot play Take Initiative is VERY strong ...

4 hours ago, Hijodecain said:

Proxy the cards, I see no problem to do that. So you will not need to change the rules.

You won't even need to reference the original cards. Print out a template of fifteen cards per player and have them reference the Startactics app to build their army (or cards.boardwars.eu). Then they can all write in the abilities, cut out the cards, and just draw them like that. For added niceness, slip them into sleeves with actual cards as shown above.

28 minutes ago, DerBaer said:

I think, playing without Command Cards makes a whole different game. E.g. knowing, that the opponent cannot play Take Initiative is VERY strong ...

Takes Initiative isn't a problem in 4 player due to how it works there.

Maybe just give each player a deck of 5-10 cards? Playing skirmish without the command cards is kind of like playing campaign without the XP and item cards.

Proxies, as mentioned above, are great.

There's also some difference between competitive decks that are the best you can build and decks which are competitive relative to each other.

We often play 4-player skirmish, and have always just dealt all of the command cards out. The 1/4 you receive is the one you get first pick of 15 cards from. After everyone has chosen precisely 15 cards (regardless of cost initially), then all other cards are passed to the person on your left. Repeat until everyone is satisfied with their deck and has also satisfied the cost requirements.

It works fine, although we could probably do with another copy of Element of Surprise and Assassinate...

I mean, as long as it's a friendly match, I think this should work. It's not super deep or anything, but if it gets the minis to the table and you guys are having fun, you can't really complain.

If you have enough, maybe consider strain tokens instead of cards? That way, you don't have to worry about being distracted by text that won't really affect you anyway.

3 hours ago, subtrendy2 said:

I mean, as long as it's a friendly match, I think this should work. It's not super deep or anything, but if it gets the minis to the table and you guys are having fun, you can't really complain.

If you have enough, maybe consider strain tokens instead of cards? That way, you don't have to worry about being distracted by text that won't really affect you anyway.

Yes I agree, if I use my idea I'll go with tokens over cards. It seems that a lot of people are recommending using cards, so I think first I'll see how many generic cards I can find that would be usable by the majority of figure types and see if I can make 4 decks or 1 giant deck, then go with the generic token option if the decks don't seem to be working out.

None of these players will be interested in deck-building. They just want to throw down with iconic characters and get to the action, so any prep-work will be my responsibility. The idea of the single deck is probably most appealing as it provides all players an equal chance to pull those clutch cards, and it will probably be the least work for me

I think the best idea is to do what Armandhammer suggested, and print out proxy cards. Simple and clean, and you actually get to experience the full game.

But if you don't want to include the full complexity of using actual command cards, then I really do like the generic "immediate Power Token" idea that you described in the first post. That adds something to the game but still keeps it simple and easy.