***Updated after play test!***

So I got to at least play test this game mode the other day at game night. We had five players with the Rebels flying Gold, Green, and Red Squadron. The Imperials brought Saber, Scimitar and Inferno squadrons

We decided to setup on opposite diagonal halves of each mat, and battle lines formed.

Soon the battle was joined, Scimitar Squadron took the initial blows from Red, and Green Squadron traded plinks with Inferno Squadron.

In the final rounds Saber Squadron destroyed half of Red Squadron, who called in reinforcements just in time to catch Soontir Fel off guard. The Debris Fields started piling up and adding to the chaos. Switching those to having the defender place them helped make up for losing ships.

We only got three or four rounds of combat, before the shop had to start closing. That was mostly due to a late start and slow setup though. Once we were playing, the rounds were moving along pretty fast.

Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, but agreed that it would be better to have more time and really get into it.

Original Post

So I’m getting ready to move out of state at the end of the month, and I’d like to get one big game of epic X-Wing in before I leave. I really want to recreate one of my favorite starfighter battles of all the films. The Battle of Endor. (Obviously, you read the title of the thread right?)

The short and sweet version is this:

1. Two teams, Rebel vs Empire, 2-10 players.

2. Each player chooses a different squadron list from the prebuilt options below. They range from 240ish to 260ish, and each includes a unique squadron leader plus generics from that squadron. Squadron leaders can share their initiative to their squadron mates at range 0-1.

3. As ships are destroyed reinforcement generics are called in from off the board. Reinforcements can only enter in pairs. Each squadron has a set amount of reinforcements, for the majority of them its twelve total ships.

4. There are no obstacles to begin with, but as ships are destroyed more and more debris tokens are added to board.

5. “Command” Squadron ships of all types can share their initiative value with any friendly ships.

The Squadrons:

(I built these based on the wookiepedia page and the movie. The informantion for the Empire was a little sparse when it came to fighter squadrons, so I fudged it a bit for them.)

Rebels

Red Squadron X-Wings lead by Wedge.

Blue Squadron B-Wings led by Ten Numb

Green Squadron A-Wings lead by Arvel Crynyd (I’ve added Homing Missiles to all of Green Squadron.)

Gray Squadron Y-Wings lead by Horton Salm

Gold Squadron Lando in the Falcon leading Y-Wings. This Rebel “Command Squadron” can share initiative with any friendly ship.

Empire

Saber Squadron. TIE Interceptors lead by Soontir Fel

Scimitar Squadron TIE Bombers lead by Major Rhymer

Obsidian Squadron TIE Fighters lead by Howlrunner. This squadron gets an additional 6 reinforcements.

Inferno Squadron All of Inferno Squadron’s unique pilots are “Squadron Leaders.” (Please pretend Black Squadron Ace says Inferno Squadron Lackey.)

Rho Squadron RAC leading a squadron of Gunboats. This Imperial “Command Squadron” can share initiative with any friendly ship.

Scenario Rules

(Sorry for the formatting, this was copy pasted from my phone note pad.)

Each player chooses a pre built squadron list. Each squadron* has a unique pilot, who is the squadron leader. Each squadron leader starts the game with two recurring “leadership” charge tokens. At the start of any phase, if a squadron leader spends two leadership charges, any member of their squadron within range 0-1 must treat their initiative value as that of their squadron leader’s for the duration of that phase.

*”Command” squadron pilots (both unique and generic) can share their initiative value with any friendly pilot at range 0-1, following the same rules as generic pilots with their squadron leaders.

Each squadron** starts with reinforcement charges equal to twelve reduced by the amount of ships in the starting list. During the planning phase, a player may expend two or more charges to replace one lost ship per charge expended. Reinforcement ships are identical to the generic ships in the starting list, and a player may never have more ships in their squadron on the board than when the game began. Reinforcements must enter the board within range 1 of that teams board edge and beyond range 3 of any enemy ships.

**Obsidian Squadron starts with an additional six reinforcement tokens.

No obstacles are placed at the beginning of the match. When a ship is destroyed, if it has a face up Ship damage cards, the defending player places a debris cloud at range 0 of the destroyed ship before it is removed from play. The debris cloud cannot overlap any object on the board. If the obstacle cannot be placed without overlapping, then no obstacle is placed.

The Empire begins the game with the first player token, and it is passed to the opposing team at the beginning of every Planning phase.

The planning phase will not take longer than 3 minutes, and no one may share dial information with anyone else to include their own team. The team captain may assign tasks to each squadron, such as “Destroy the YT-1300” or “Mine the right side” but cannot give specific dial instructions such as “do bank in and then a k-turn.”

Give me feedback:

I’m interested in any constructive feedback. I tried to keep the additional rules simple. Initiative sharing is supposed to add some strategic and tactical complexity, plus help turns before combat be a little easier.

I’m not worried about capital ships, although they’re awesome, I want to keep the extra rules simple.

This is a thematic, cinematic game but I still tried to make the lists relatively balanced. How did I do?

Did I miss anything egregious?

Interesting idea... though I’d suggest using the huge ships as obstacles considering most of the battle took place right among the capital ships. Just use them as obstacles, no special rules otherwise, and it even cleans up the scenario rulesheet.

1 hour ago, Phelan Boots said:

No obstacles are placed at the beginning of the match. When a ship is destroyed, the attacking player places a debris cloud at range 0 of the destroyed ship before it is removed from play. The debris cloud cannot overlap any object on the board. If the obstacle cannot be placed without overlapping, then no obstacle is placed.

This is a nice idea, but I think you'll find it really difficult in practice.

There's no upper limit there, so you're asking for a lot of debris tokens. It's less of a problem with the Rebel lists, but between the base numbers and the reinforcements, I'd see your Imperial players struggling with it a lot more.

Also, it's extremely punishing to swarms. Shoot the first ship in a block, and you've just guaranteed a stress for the rest of the ships next turn.

If you don't feel like pre-placed obstacles are thematic, then I'd suggest using the huge ships as obstacles, as @LagJanson says. You could also limit the debris cloud spawning to large or medium base ships?

Or maybe just allow each player to place one debris token in the end phase if at least one ship has been destroyed? Not every fighter explosion produces noticeable debris, otherwise Endor would have been absolute carnage.

The Initiative sharing is also an interesting idea, but I'd be very careful about when you apply it. Red and Saber Squadrons could potentially be very powerful with their respective alpha and arc dodging abilities.

I'd seriously consider making it more like free Swarm Tactics and limiting it to one ship and the engagement phase only. Or maybe make it charge base and allow it during any phase. This would make it once per round, but allow you to choose the phase.

The ship lists look good, though there's a bit of a points range there. As you're alternating first player, there's no benefit to a 'bid'. I feel like Green Squadron comes out very hard done by next to Obsidian Squadron. I'd suggest at least bringing in a hard cap somewhere. 250 points looks manageable, but if that kills too much of the theme of one or two lists then maybe go to 260.

In terms of the squads, I'd suggest adding Turr Phennir to Saber Squadron if you can. Should keep them under 250 points still, and Turr flew as Saber 2 at Endor.

You could also add Jake Farrell in, either in Green Squadron if you're going for a Legends line up (would also buff Green Squadron, which is a bit light on points) or Gold Squadron if you're going canon.

How fixed are you on giving the X-Wings R3s? With so many targets, the extra lock doesn't really expand their choices or improve their economy all that much. You might find R2 a better way to balance them as it would allow them to withdraw, regen and come back in. X-Wings really don't have all that much longevity in Epic battles. Especially as they're your heavy hitters here, I'd say the X-Wings represent a target priority to the Imperials.

Might want to check this out for some inspiration

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZhSyBdyUG8

Also, does anything bad happen to the squad as a whole, if the leader's killed?

And what size map would this be used on??

9 hours ago, GuacCousteau said:

Stuff about debris spawning

That’s a good point. Maybe I’ll have a pool of debris tokens that they choose from and when it runs out, it’s out. Between playing on a 3x6 board and not being able to place if it overlaps I’m hoping that self regulates a bit. I imagine Endor probably did have some real carnage afterwards. That said, space is bigger than it looks and stuff tends to float away from an explosion.

Additionally, I’d actually like to see the squadrons break up in to different directions and lots of little fights break out.

9 hours ago, GuacCousteau said:

Stuff about initiative sharing

I like the idea about a charge token, but I’m inclined to try it my way first for two reasons. Using it during the activation phase should make moving a big block of ships at a time a little faster. Also, I’m hoping once the initial contact happens, squadron leaders will be destroyed or forced to separate from their squadron. We’ll see how this one goes, an Initiative 5 HowlSwarm sounds scary, especially since her ability works on all Empire ships near her.

10 hours ago, GuacCousteau said:

Stuff about Squadrons

I tried to keep them all around ~250 but also keep the 12 ship squadron point costs around similar levels as well. It does get wonky when you’re trying to make all the genetics identical. I’m a little bit inclined to give the Empire a slight advantage both because they could be potentially adding damage to their own ships with Ruthless and the obstacles probably effect them more.

• You’re right about Green Squadron though, I might give them all a missile and call it close enough.

• I didn’t know that about Turr, he’s definitely getting added then.

• I actually had Jake initially slotted in where the generic is in Gold Squadron, but for ease of rules swapped him out.

• I thought about R2, but I’m not sure they’ll even last long enough to get any use out of it. I figured R3 could let them shoot at a secondary target if the first one is destroyed before they can fire.

I’m considering giving the B-Wings Torpedoes instead of cannons, but with such a target rich environment the HLC is probably an actual monster.

3 hours ago, LTuser said:

Also, does anything bad happen to the squad as a whole, if the leader's killed?

And what size map would this be used on??

No ill effects on the Squadron except they lose the initiative bonus.

Im envisioning 3x6. I happen to own an Endor mat and a star field mat.

I feel like quick builds would be the ideal way to balance this at least at the start. Keeps things reasonably balanced without getting too much into the weeds. Each squad being about 12 threat makes sense to me for a start, and you could use that as a way of measuring reinforcements too. Might make for a more balanced experience.

***All of this has been updated in the OP.***

So I got to at least play test this game mode the other day at game night. We had five players with the Rebels flying Gold, Green, and Red Squadron. The Imperials brought Saber, Scimitar and Inferno squadrons

We decided to setup on opposite diagonal halves of each mat, and battle lines formed.

Soon the battle was joined, Scimitar Squadron took the initial blows from Red, and Green Squadron traded plinks with Inferno Squadron.

In the final rounds Saber Squadron destroyed half of Red Squadron, who called in reinforcements just in time to catch Soontir Fel off guard. The Debris Fields started piling up and adding to the chaos. Switching those to having the defender place them helped make up for losing ships.

We only got three or four rounds of combat, before the shop had to start closing. That was mostly due to a late start and slow setup though. Once we were playing, the rounds were moving along pretty fast.

Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, but agreed that it would be better to have more time and really get into it.

Awesome! Txs for sharing!

Sounds like it was a blast.