More action in to Epic play

By Mattiasw, in X-Wing Epic Play

Posted at

Hi!

Edit: I broke down the original post to two threads. Please try and comment ideas below.

I would like to give the Epic games a bit more action. This Thread suggests a rule to speed up planning phase and a proposal for giving the Epic ship more meaning and a central role on the battlefield.

”Timed Planning”

The length of planning phase is determined of the quickest player or team. When the first player or team declares ”set”, the timer goes of. 30 seconds left of planning if the remaining player or team got fewer ships on the mat. 60 seconds if the remaining player or team got more ships. All unassigned ships are assigned with a straight white speed two per default. An hourglass is a Good timer to use for this.

This rule is great to have Players more alert/quick.

”The epic commander”

This rule I haven´t tried. The idea is to make more use of the huge ships and also make them a more prioritized target. And to get more low cost generics/squads in play to create a more cinematic feel to it.

The epic commander coordinates the assault for example all generic pilots with PS 2 or lower and with a total cost of 20 or lower. As long as the Epic commander (the huge ship) is alive and kicking, the commander turn all blanks to focus.

I don’t think the Huge ships need that much more of options or crew. Its busy as it is with all the stuff going on. I would like to see more inbuilt functions like this “Epic commander” rule. Different pilot skills could also work here. What do you think? Is it too strong? Could there be another function for the ”Epic commander?


happy New year ☺️

Edited by Mattiasw
Made two threads of orginial one.
Posted at

Are you you playing first edition or second edition. I only ask because honestly the Epic Battles expansion for second edition really does a good job of speeding up big point games. You could add to this by insisting every list includes Wings and/or huge ships. Wings in particular are pretty awesome in getting to the action. Also second edition huge ships are more elegantly designed and faster to use.

My questions would be:

Timed planning... Having the threat of timer in the planning phase would possibly take away from being strategic. How can the second player think strategically if they have 30-60 seconds available? How do you balance a smarmy Imperial list vs a Rebel list? What if one person takes a Raider or Corvette armed to the teeth... they are going to be “set” well before the other side has finished. I’ve been in situations of waiting for the other players and being waited for... honestly being on a timer would just take the fun out of antagonising the other player when they are behind.

Huge ship jump... ramming becomes an even worse part of epic.

Epic manoeuvre... The problem in first edition was moving ships individually took a long time with no action and this has been rectified by Wings in second edition which speeds up the time taken to the initial engagement.

Epic commander... generics are already very good in either edition in epic games environments. I rarely took aces in first edition epic. In second addition Wings mean I take aces more often as they have some protection of (usually) a bunch of generics

TLDR On balance just go second edition and stick with the Epic Battle rules. It works well and you can get down to playing instead of testing.

Posted at

Yes, you’re right, I’m still on First edition. The Epic play in my town is struggling. The testing is to hopefully lure some of the dogfighters to the big table. But I hear, I need to go update and check the second edition rules.

Thanks for reply!

Posted at

They just recently came out with rules for Huge ships with a $25 conversion kit. It's actually very good. Another $25 box is called Epic Battles and introduces Wings of small ships (as well as scenarios to play). These updates really make Epic and Huge ships a lot better.

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Epic 2.0 is just the best. It improves 1.0 on every level.

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Epic 1.0 was convoluted and wasn't very intuitive. Between the new huge rules and the scenarios and wings, 2.0 is really great and keeps the action moving really well.