I've only played a handful of times, so I'm trying to make sure I understand the rules correctly.

- Do XX-9 Turbolasers make 2 crits be dealt faceup, or does it cause 2 damage cards to be dealt faceup?

- What would allow an engaged squadron to disengage/move? In the last game I played 4 of my X-wings got tied up by a handful of Tie-Fs, so they couldn't attack an ISDII like I wanted them to. If I wanted to field some Tie Bombers, what would I do to keep them from getting stuck being engaged with enemy squads?

- Objectives kind of make life complicated. We just want to field ships and fighters and blow each other up. Any house rules that would help with this? Rebels seem to have a hard time going toe-to-toe with Imps without objectives though. Motti makes it almost impossible take down an ISDII in 6 round.

Not sure if this helps, but I have 1 ISD, 2 VSD, Imp squadron expansions 1 and 2, 1 Raider, 1 Gladiator, 1 Arquitens, 1 MC80 (not ackbar), 1 AFM2, 1 neb B, 2 corellian corvettes, 1 mc30, 1 gozanti, 1 rebel transports, 1st rebel squadron expansion.

Xx9 -. Crits are either what they say on the card OR the default one of first card dealt is face up. XX9 crit says the 2nd card is also face up

intel gives enemies heavy (can't engage you), dead fighters can't engage you so have Toyrn close(ish) by for re rolls. Spread you fighters out as they only engage you at range 1, so you have a 2 v1 situation when you activate so the first sqn frees the 2nd to go where you want.

Objectives game wise the 1st player picks 1 from the 2nd players 3 (one of each colour) if your finding one or two objectives are ruining the game for you pick one of the others. Or if it's the same people playing the have one deck shuffled and pick one card to play, then the next game don't return it to the objectives deck till you've played over half of them (that 9 games or so)

59 minutes ago, Thrawn86 said:

I've only played a handful of times, so I'm trying to make sure I understand the rules correctly.

- Do XX-9 Turbolasers make 2 crits be dealt faceup, or does it cause 2 damage cards to be dealt faceup?

- What would allow an engaged squadron to disengage/move? In the last game I played 4 of my X-wings got tied up by a handful of Tie-Fs, so they couldn't attack an ISDII like I wanted them to. If I wanted to field some Tie Bombers, what would I do to keep them from getting stuck being engaged with enemy squads?

- Objectives kind of make life complicated. We just want to field ships and fighters and blow each other up. Any house rules that would help with this? Rebels seem to have a hard time going toe-to-toe with Imps without objectives though. Motti makes it almost impossible take down an ISDII in 6 round.

Not sure if this helps, but I have 1 ISD, 2 VSD, Imp squadron expansions 1 and 2, 1 Raider, 1 Gladiator, 1 Arquitens, 1 MC80 (not ackbar), 1 AFM2, 1 neb B, 2 corellian corvettes, 1 mc30, 1 gozanti, 1 rebel transports, 1st rebel squadron expansion.

XX9 is a special crit so you must choose which one you want to resolve: default or xx9. If xx9, the in the case that you deal damage cards to the enemy ship the first two are face up. It happens that it is similar to the default critical effect but it is not so contain doesn't work on xx9. Note that if the attack doesn't bypass the shields any card is dealt so any of them is face up.

Kill the engaging squadron; also obstruction (if the los between those squadrons go through an obstacle or a ship; grit; intel; Chireneau; cloak. Note that only the two first actually prevent engagement. Grit doesn't prevent engagement but allows movement under certain circumstances, intel provide heavy to enemy squadrons but doesn't remove engagement, it just make that engagement didn't prevent you from moving or shooting ships (like not being engage but you are for other purposes like escort or swarm. Chireneau and cloak don't remove engagement neither but they allow you to move regardless engagement.

If you want go ahead but remind to switch the initiative each round to balance the game. Objectives provide tactical deepness and some fleets are built to take advantage from them against other fleets don't prepared for that challenge. Objectives helps second player against the first player shot advantage. But at the end they doesn't change the game. They work as alternative score sources (contested outpost), special setups (fleet ambush) or free upgrades (advance gunnery).

Your rebel collection has not much firepower with only one powerful ship. Without Ackbar or objectives it is normal Motti could seem impossible to destroy at a first glance but he is not. 6 rounds are enough with what you have. Yavaris and squadrons will show you the easiest way I think. xi7 also helps as the mc30 with activation advantage. However the mc30 changing the initiative each round (without objectives) will require more skill than it usually asked for.

Useful stuff here, thanks!

About switching initiative each round, is that in the rules? Massive oversight on my part, because we've been having one player start every single round.

I tried using squadrons (300 pt list, 3 x-wings+wedge) today, but they got bogged down by 5 tieF squadrons and Howlrunner the whole game. Part of the problem is that I had all of them bunched together, so I need to try and make sure to stay on the outskirts of range 1 so that 1 ship like howlrunner doesn't have every single x-wing engaged.

I'll look into Yavaris and Toryn next game for the rebels, and maybe make the Imps not have Motti.

Switching initiative is a common house rule

1 hour ago, slasher956 said:

Switching initiative is a common house rule

It’s also referenced in the rules reference as an option rule for “death match” play where there are no objectives or turn limits.

10 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

It’s also referenced in the rules reference as an option rule for “death match” play where there are no objectives or turn limits.

forgot that part.... ooops

4 hours ago, Thrawn86 said:

Useful stuff here, thanks!

About switching initiative each round, is that in the rules? Massive oversight on my part, because we've been having one player start every single round.

It is.

4 hours ago, Thrawn86 said:

I tried using squadrons (300 pt list, 3 x-wings+wedge) today, but they got bogged down by 5 tieF squadrons and Howlrunner the whole game. Part of the problem is that I had all of them bunched together, so I need to try and make sure to stay on the outskirts of range 1 so that 1 ship like howlrunner doesn't have every single x-wing engaged.

Try a couple of a-wings with a bomber wing of x-wings for example. The speed 5 will allow you to engage them before they engage you. A-wings will die propably but they will buy you time and counter will put sole damage on those weak ties. Tychoo is great cause he can go wherever you want whenever you want and his scatter token keeps him alive longer.

7 hours ago, Thrawn86 said:

About switching initiative each round, is that in the rules? Massive oversight on my part, because we've been having one player start every single round.

For normal play, no, it isn't. The player with the lower points value picks who has first player (all game), and first player picks one of second player's 3 objectives.

You're asking specifically about playing without objectives, where it is in fact mentioned as an optional rule.

You should give objectives a chance, though! They open up new fleet builds designed to leverage going second with favorable objectives, to balance against the strength of going first; and they add a lot of variety to keep the game fresh and interesting. And if you ever venture out into the community at large, the people you play with are going to be using objectives.

I totally get playing death match if you're still learning the rules, but moving to objectives adds a lot of fun to the game. You really ought to reconsider them as you expand your collection and move up to 400 point games!

Don't remember coming across "Death Match" in the core set rule/playbook. Maybe my reading comprehension is lacking

Maybe what I'll do is look through what objectives look interesting, and go from there. I haven't played too many games, so I'm still figuring out all the rules, but I can probably handle a handful of objectives now. Using objectives and sticking to 6 rounds would probably take less time than chasing down a bunch of ships in a 400pt death match.

Is there a pdf rulebook somewhere that's more up-to-date than the original core playbook?

55 minutes ago, Thrawn86 said:

Don't remember coming across "Death Match" in the core set rule/playbook. Maybe my reading comprehension is lacking

Maybe what I'll do is look through what objectives look interesting, and go from there. I haven't played too many games, so I'm still figuring out all the rules, but I can probably handle a handful of objectives now. Using objectives and sticking to 6 rounds would probably take less time than chasing down a bunch of ships in a 400pt death match.

Is there a pdf rulebook somewhere that's more up-to-date than the original core playbook?

Optional rules at the back.

Specifically, page 14, unlimited rounds.

and no. The rule book is the rule book.

it is modified by the FAQ document, and supplemented by new rules in the corrllisn conflict box - but you don’t need those unless you, of course, have the box... ergo you have the rules... same as contain and irregular squadron.

13 hours ago, svelok said:

I totally get playing death match if you're still learning the rules

And I caution against playing death match for too long. Too many 4-5 hour games where the last hour was just flying in circles and doing virtually no damage. 6 rounds really is just about enough.

10 hours ago, Thrawn86 said:

Maybe what I'll do is look through what objectives look interesting, and go from there. I haven't played too many games, so I'm still figuring out all the rules, but I can probably handle a handful of objectives now. Using objectives and sticking to 6 rounds would probably take less time than chasing down a bunch of ships in a 400pt death match.

I'll go ahead and agree with most others here on the deathmatch vs objectives thing. In general, I'm the kind of player you are vis a vis deathmatch vs points in games: if I'm showing up to fight a fleet, I'm there to kill his dudes, not to dance around tokens or whatever.

But it quickly becomes apparent that not only is this game really balanced around the objectives, but they really do a lot for the replay value. There are even ships in the game now (specifically thinking of the Interdictor, Lambda, and VCX) that are really substantially diminished without objective play.

A smaller deathmatch game is fine for your first couple of learning games if you don't have an experienced player to help teach you the rules, but I think you will probably want to quickly either move on to objective play, or implement some house rules to balance a number of things out.

14 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

it is modified by the FAQ document, and supplemented by new rules in the corrllisn conflict box

And some expansions as MC80, ISD, flotillas, arquitens, dictor, pelta, rogue&villains, rebel and imperial squadrons II. Not sure if something else.

2 hours ago, ovinomanc3r said:

And some expansions as MC80, ISD, flotillas, arquitens, dictor, pelta, rogue&villains, rebel and imperial squadrons II. Not sure if something else.

I did mention contain and irregular squadrons.

the important part of my point being, you get the rules with what has them - basically, as a new player, you don’t need them until you have something with them.

if your opponent has them, then they have the rules ?

Oh, another question. When a ship chooses to repair damage (instead of recover a shield), can they get rid of a flipped up card (critical hit)?

2 minutes ago, Thrawn86 said:

Oh, another question. When a ship chooses to repair damage (instead of recover a shield), can they get rid of a flipped up card (critical hit)?

Yes.

On 12/19/2017 at 6:56 AM, svelok said:

I totally get playing death match if you're still learning the rules, but moving to objectives adds a lot of fun to the game. You really ought to reconsider them as you expand your collection and move up to 400 point games!

Def. Try to play with the Objectives, even if you dont do it 100% correct. I wish I had done that when I first started playing. It totally changes how you build your fleet and how you command it.

I was asking all these same questions this year. I added rules incrementally: played 180 pt Core Set death match games to start, no objectives or obstacles. Then 300 pt games, no objectives or obstacles. The 400 point games, no objectives or obstacles. Then finally full 400 point games.

And our games still take 4-5 hours. Trying to figure out how to cut gameplay in half to get to Tournament speed. And maybe get two games in a weekend.

Keep playing. Try new ships and upgrades. Keep asking questions and re-reading rules and faqs.

1 minute ago, ShoutingMan said:

And our games still take 4-5 hours. Trying to figure out how to cut gameplay in half to get to Tournament speed. And maybe get two games in a weekend.

You are correct, playing new things helps as you dont get suprised by new interactions as often if you do this.

The biggest difference is to start recognising when in game decisions arent important and making quick judgements rather than deliberating on every decision. Its not easy, but this is the cultural change required to speed up that much.

51 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

You are correct, playing new things helps as you dont get suprised by new interactions as often if you do this.

The biggest difference is to start recognising when in game decisions arent important and making quick judgements rather than deliberating on every decision. Its not easy, but this is the cultural change required to speed up that much.

Yes. As my wife often points out, I’m a chronically slow gamer I need to learn to speed up gameplay decisions.

I would play faster if I replayed fleets and knew their upgrades and interactions well. But I fly a diffferent fleet every time still. Too many ships, and not enough games to know them well. (And my buddy doing something new and surprising, and ask him to walk me through it.)

And then continuing to build intuition on the navigation. There’s a lot of time spent fiddling with the Nav tool, to figure out what course will work out, and trying to accomplish dual firing arcs (or a Demolisher triple arc), and avoiding being targeted by same.

It’s a process. There’s a lot to learn in this complex game with seven upgrade waves out and the eighth due son.

On 12/30/2017 at 7:06 AM, ShoutingMan said:

There’s a lot to learn in this complex game with seven upgrade waves out and the eighth due son.

Yeah, I don't envy the learning curve new players have to go through who are just picking up this game now. It was easy coming in at W1 and learning everything bit by bit as it came out, but trying to digest all the stuff at once is a lot.