9 minutes ago, wurms said:

80 is fine for first games. Lots of fun builds. 75 works too if you want to keep ensnare sun fac out

I've also been thinking about 50 too, for some variety.

8 hours ago, Do I need a Username said:

Not to mention the Jabba Rigged chute nightmare ship blanketing the map in debris - take Trickshot and BT-1 on bossk for extra fun.

Scum Han wants to know where to sign up.

2 minutes ago, ClassicalMoser said:

Scum Han wants to know where to sign up.

oh that's probably way better. Just gotta get a lot of debris tokens.

6 minutes ago, Do I need a Username said:

oh that's probably way better. Just gotta get a lot of debris tokens.

Because who needs actions when you're throwing 6 red dice?

Han Solo (Scum) (54)
Trick Shot (4)
Jabba the Hutt (6)
Greedo (1)
Rigged Cargo Chute (4)
Shield Upgrade (4)
Lando's Millennium Falcon (6)
Total: 79

Just pepper the map with debris. If you get actions to focus and drop more debris, great! If not, just enjoy the many turns you get to throw 2+1+1+1+1 dice (Basic + Han + Trick + Title + Range).

And laugh at the fools who are naïve enough to get on your tail at range 1.

Though this could be equally fun:

Hera Syndulla (VCX-100) (73)
Intimidation (3)
"Zeb" Orrelios (1)
Shield Upgrade (3)
Total: 80

8 hours ago, Do I need a Username said:

Not to mention the Jabba Rigged chute nightmare ship blanketing the map in debris - take Trickshot and BT-1 on bossk for extra fun.

😁 If you like the smaller Debris Clouds and don't mind a bit of setup between drops. Not sure where Chopper gets all the stuff they toss out.

I had a player in a recent game run Miranda with prox mines and every time she respawned dropped a mine on the entry point

Super fun troll build:

Padmé with Chop (flavored to taste with Juke, Passive Sensors and Protons)

Because anytime anyone in your arc shoots or gets shot at, they can only modify one focus result. Which is hilarious.

C1-10P to throw jam tokens around for giggles.

Apologies if I'm missing something obvious, but how does initiative work in this format, particularly when there are ships with the same IN and points cost?

Our local game night next month will be Aces High, which seems like a lot of fun. I'm thinking of running this (we're planning on 75 points I think):

Kavil (43)
Expert Handling (2)
Dorsal Turret (3)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (6)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)
R4 Astromech (2)
Proton Bombs (5)
Deadman’s Switch (2)
Shield Upgrade (4)
Total: 75

On 10/31/2019 at 5:53 AM, bitsai said:

Apologies if I'm missing something obvious, but how does initiative work in this format, particularly when there are ships with the same IN and points cost?

So one way to do it is Random,. Bid(s) gets to pick first, but the rest have random initiative. Another way was rotating, every round first player passed the first player token to the left and initiative carries on clockwise.

I have heard that there is a 'proper' way to work out 3 player+ initiative from the Epic Battles expansion. (seeing as that is the multiplayer add on, makes sense).

21 minutes ago, Sk3tch said:

So one way to do it is Random,. Bid(s) gets to pick first, but the rest have random initiative. Another way was rotating, every round first player passed the first player token to the left and initiative carries on clockwise.

I have heard that there is a 'proper' way to work out 3 player+ initiative from the Epic Battles expansion. (seeing as that is the multiplayer add on, makes sense).

Via Epic Rules Reference (basically Random once bids are going to be taken into account makes sense):

F ree - f or -A ll

To determine player order, each player is assigned a player number arbitrarily. To do this quickly, take numbered ship ID tokens with numbers corresponding to the number of players (e.g. if there are four players, use ID tokens #1, #2, #3, and #4). Randomize them in a cup or hand, then give one to each player at random. Then, players should arrange themselves around the table by their number as the scenario setup diagram dictates.

Additionally, in Free-for-All scenarios, effects are resolved in descending player order.

On ‎10‎/‎30‎/‎2019 at 5:03 AM, Do I need a Username said:

I've also been thinking about 50 too, for some variety.

50 makes for surprisingly fun games.

I'd recommend (or warn you about, as appropriate!) Lone Wolf/R2 Astromech Anakin Skywalker - that kid just WILL NOT DIE; anyone bringing a ship with only a 2-dice primary is likely to regret it.

The one exception (though he draws the grief you'd expect from everone else) is Midnight; watching lil' Annie get locked and realise all those charges and green tokens do NOTHING WHATSOEVER is rather satisfying.

We've promised to try the 125 point 'heavyweight' category next. I'm expecting to find myself staring across the table at at least one excessively portly Resistance Bomber.... I'm thinking of going for the Dauntless (Rear Admiral Chiraneau commanding ) for the proper Imperial Navy treatment.

On ‎10‎/‎30‎/‎2019 at 5:23 PM, Croisis said:

I had a player in a recent game run Miranda with prox mines and every time she respawned dropped a mine on the entry point

Cheap and nasty, but she doesn't actually get any credit for it - only kills from attacks count for victory tokens.

On a related note, since you get 'first blood' when you damage a previously full health target, take shield regen effects with care lest you hand out first a blood victory token several times!

30 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

We've promised to try the 125 point 'heavyweight' category next. I'm expecting to find myself staring across the table at at least one excessively portly Resistance Bomber.... I'm thinking of going for the Dauntless (Rear Admiral Chiraneau commanding ) for the proper Imperial Navy treatment.

Yeah that category is going to have some beastly heavyweight ships. I'd probably bring a kitted out Marauder Boba. Eg:

Boba Fett (85)
Crack Shot (1)
Jamming Beam (0)
Maul (12)
Proximity Mines (6)
Deadman's Switch (2)
Marauder (6)
Han Solo (Scum) (12)

Ship total: 124 Half Points: 62 Threshold: 5

Total: 124

On 10/30/2019 at 5:23 PM, Croisis said:

I had a player in a recent game run Miranda with prox mines and every time she respawned dropped a mine on the entry point

51 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Cheap and nasty, but she doesn't actually get any credit for it - only kills from attacks count for victory tokens.

I'm allowing payload kills and damage points for our tourney, But I think reading this I might say Payload drop is not active until you reach speed 4 away from the hyperspace space token (if you bomb a hyperspace token later fair enough, but I done see it being too bad)

Quote

Boba Fett (85)
Crack Shot (1)
Jamming Beam (0)
Maul (12)
Proximity Mines (6)
Deadman's Switch (2)
Marauder (6)
Han Solo (Scum) (12)

Ship total: 124

Stealing, but will change Deadman's switch out to contraband I think.

Our Wednesday beer-Wing group has been doing Flight School for...oh, years. Usually because we have trouble getting any more than the same three regulars in, and furballs are better when there are fewer ships. We used a slight variant on the Aces High last night, and found the scoring and passing initiative to be improvements over our "standard" flight school furballs. We ran 100 points last night - one FAT Poe, one Rexler, and I ran a janky Rey. We usually run 50-75 points, and the fat builds were a hoot! I can also recommend running Aces High with the Asteroid Storm environment. Again, a hoot! We didn't really have too much trouble with anyone feeling inappropriately ganged up on - all three ships were highly maneuverable AND tanky, though, so there is that. There have definitely been occasions where one person getting caught in the middle was less okay - especially frequent when we've run three-way full 200 furballs. I might have to set this up for a tournament soon, myself.

going against the grain here.... I really like Outmanuever, predator, Proton Rockets Jake

So we played a 10 player Aces High game at the the shop at the end of the night last night. I suggested splitting up into 2 groups of 5, but the majority voted to have 1 large group instead because it would be more fun to have everyone playing together, which was fair. Pilots used were Wedge, Luke, Vader, Whisper, Kylo, Wulfwarro, Vynder, Wolffe, Latts Razi and Heff Tober. We played on a single 3x3 mat, which worked out well and kept the engagement level consistently high.

We handled the initiative issue by basically having all the matching pilots high roll to determine what order they activated in, and then writing everyone's ship down in order. Ships would then activate according to the normal rules, so low I pilots move first, matching I pilots move according to the predetermined order, and same thing for shooting but with higher initiative shooting first and "first player" within an initiative bracket shooting first. Personally I think this is the way to go because otherwise choosing your maneuver during the planning phase will be very annoying when the order in which ships are activating is constantly changing from turn to turn. When I was setting my dial as Wolffe, I knew that Wulfwarro and all the I3s and I2s would be moving before me and everyone else was moving after me and thus I could setup my activations to block or avoid blocks with confidence. We had one player volunteer to call out activations and keep score and that helped a lot with keeping up the pace of play and reducing the amount of downtime each player had to wait through.

The game was quite fun, although I think the players that were flying the more maneuverable and higher initiative ships were having more fun than the rest of us. Nobody had bombs, Deadman's switch or Carge chutes so we didn't have to deal with anything crazy like that. The only ship present that was able to self-damage to deny points was Wulfwarro with Saw Gerrara, but that meant the I5s and I6s could still take the first blood point off of him before he attacked. A lot of people started resorting to flying over asteroids after they respawned to deny other players points, which I thought was interesting. Because there were 10 of us around the table, we all had to deploy fairly close together which created some awkward turn 1 maneuvers and combats where people were already getting flanked and attacked from the get-go. There was some politicing that went on with the Latts Razi player and 000, but other than that people were just kind of playing their own game and not making any deals or anything.

Wedge with Outmaneuver afterburners and torpedoes was very strong and ended up winning the game. Being able to shoot first each combat is super powerful in this format because that player gets first crack at whatever ships are going to actually give up points when you attack them, and moving after other ships is also quite powerful, not so much because you get to arc-dodge but because you get to position yourself to have an attack on a ship that's actually worth attacking. Wolffe and Wulfwarro also did quite well because we were throwing heavily modified attacks out of multiple/wide arcs. Wolffe had 3po, ahsoka, lone wolf and R4-P17, and Wulfwarro had Saw, Magva, Hull and Trick Shot.

And that gets me into the main problem I had with the format, which was the disincentive to attack otherwise healthy ships that are only slightly damaged. Once the I6s and I5s have activated and gotten all the first-blood points available on the table, the mid to low initiative pilots basically only get to shoot at ships that are slightly damaged but not damaged enough to be taken out in one shot. But the problem is that if you do decide to just take a shot at somebody that doesn't kill them, you're just helping the I5 and I6 players kill that ship on the next round and score 2 points. This creates 2 problems. First is a balance problem where getting to shoot first is a huge advantage. But more importantly is a fun factor problem, where players are discouraged from performing an action that they otherwise want to do and is fun to do, which is attacking. Playing an I4 pilot on a table with 6 other ships shooting before me, I felt like got harshly punished for attacking a ship and not killing it when another player got to reap my reward, and realized for the rest of the game that if I couldn't attack a ship that was at full health or 3 health, I just shouldn't attack at all, which kind of sucked when you're in a target rich environment and everyone else is attacking and scoring points.

I realize that some of this might just be because we had so many players in our pod and maybe the average pod won't have so many I6s and I5s, but I still feel that the current rules disencentivize attacking and are too rewarding to I6s (and Heightened Perception) that can shoot first. I heard a lot of people saying that that is the reason to not follow printed initiative on the ships but do some kind of rotating initiative, but I think for one thing that makes it really hard to keep track of which ships are activating in which order when you are trying to set your dial and will lead to feel bad moments when you get blocked by a ship that you thought was going after you, and that also doesn't fix the problem where the people who are shooting last in the turn feel like they are going to get punished if they shoot at someone that they can't actually destroy.

I think the much easier solution is to just add a rule that says you also score a point if a ship is at half or more health after you attack it. Everyone has already been using the half-points system for over a year now, it just feels natural to score something after you take a ship over the half-damage threshold. Also I think its stupid that you don't get points from dealing damage with bombs, since it's easy to say "that's my bomb, so my point", makes them kind of pointless except to damage yourself, which I don't like, but that was a secondary issue.

Notably, I don’t see anywhere in the rules that say you can’t bring a huge ship...

18 minutes ago, Tvboy said:

And that gets me into the main problem I had with the format, which was the disincentive to attack otherwise healthy ships that are only slightly damaged. Once the I6s and I5s have activated and gotten all the first-blood points available on the table, the mid to low initiative pilots basically only get to shoot at ships that are slightly damaged but not damaged enough to be taken out in one shot. But the problem is that if you do decide to just take a shot at somebody that doesn't kill them, you're just helping the I5 and I6 players kill that ship on the next round and score 2 points. This creates 2 problems. First is a balance problem where getting to shoot first is a huge advantage. But more importantly is a fun factor problem, where players are discouraged from performing an action that they otherwise want to do and is fun to do, which is attacking. Playing an I4 pilot on a table with 6 other ships shooting before me, I felt like got harshly punished for attacking a ship and not killing it when another player got to reap my reward, and realized for the rest of the game that if I couldn't attack a ship that was at full health or 3 health, I just shouldn't attack at all, which kind of sucked when you're in a target rich environment and everyone else is attacking and scoring points.

I realize that some of this might just be because we had so many players in our pod and maybe the average pod won't have so many I6s and I5s, but I still feel that the current rules disencentivize attacking and are too rewarding to I6s (and Heightened Perception) that can shoot first. I heard a lot of people saying that that is the reason to not follow printed initiative on the ships but do some kind of rotating initiative, but I think for one thing that makes it really hard to keep track of which ships are activating in which order when you are trying to set your dial and will lead to feel bad moments when you get blocked by a ship that you thought was going after you, and that also doesn't fix the problem where the people who are shooting last in the turn feel like they are going to get punished if they shoot at someone that they can't actually destroy.

But seriously. Rotating initiative solves all of those problems. Seriously. Roll for the very first First Player of the game. Put a token next to his/her ship. Pass the token to the next player clockwise, and move the token to that player's ship. Ignore printed Initiative for the whole of the game. No more does it feel like a desperate waste to fly an i3 or i4 ship; you just get that **** cool pilot ability and know that everybody is laboring under the same weird activation choices. Try it out. You will like it.

1 hour ago, Kleeg005 said:

But seriously. Rotating initiative solves all of those problems. Seriously. Roll for the very first First Player of the game. Put a token next to his/her ship. Pass the token to the next player clockwise, and move the token to that player's ship. Ignore printed Initiative for the whole of the game. No more does it feel like a desperate waste to fly an i3 or i4 ship; you just get that **** cool pilot ability and know that everybody is laboring under the same weird activation choices. Try it out. You will like it.

That is the easiest way to do it. Since the initiative/bids don’t matter in this case, if anyone brings Lone Wolf in their list then everyone gets Lone Wolf.

2 minutes ago, pakirby said:

Since the initiative/bids don’t matter in this case, if anyone brings Lone Wolf in their list then everyone gets Lone Wolf.

Ehh, I don't think it's necessary to reduce Lone Wolf in such a way. Lone Wolf still gives you only a single reroll, and if there are four other ships shooting each turn, how much good id it really going to do? I mean, I'll grant no one in my group has used it in the longest time - because we were NOT using rotating initiative before this and Lone Wolf was banned as being too strong, too easy. I think now it would probably be fine. Needs more testing. I guess.

1 hour ago, Matanui3 said:

Notably, I don’t see anywhere in the rules that say you can’t bring a huge ship...

Yepyep! And of course, just casual beer-Wing? Do whatever the h3ll you like! I've already threatened a fully loaded C-ROC.... Mwahahahahaha!

2 hours ago, Matanui3 said:

Notably, I don’t see anywhere in the rules that say you can’t bring a huge ship...

Kinda the part where it says standard ship, that would be an epic ship. So it is quite literally in the rules.

Also I think I was either 5th or 6th on the Friday aces high at worlds with 4 lom. Great little ship. Creates a neat meta game interactions with him.

On 11/1/2019 at 5:03 AM, Cerebrawl said:

Yeah that category is going to have some beastly heavyweight ships. I'd probably bring a kitted out Marauder Boba. Eg:

Boba Fett (85)
Crack Shot (1)
Jamming Beam (0)
Maul (12)
Proximity Mines (6)
Deadman's Switch (2)
Marauder (6)
Han Solo (Scum) (12)

Ship total: 124 Half Points: 62 Threshold: 5

Total: 124

Would a docked Phantom count as an "Upgrade" for a superheavy Ghost?

I see this as the answer to the Debris drop han.

New Squadron

(63) "Blackout" [TIE/vn Silencer]
(4) Trick Shot
(5) Pattern Analyzer
Points: 72

Total points: 72