Intel Pickup has up to 4 players with 500 squad points each. That seems high... has anyone played it and were there too many ships on the map?

5 minutes ago, Jayne Starlancer said:

Intel Pickup has up to 4 players with 500 squad points each. That seems high... has anyone played it and were there too many ships on the map?

Yes. It was crazy, but not too many ships. It tends to square off into two different 1v1 matches, but when you stake out your satellite, you have no idea when it will be ready for pickup, which makes things really fun.

You end up scrambling to stop people from picking up satellites by diving into range 1 - SLAM ships are helpful here. Trajectory Simulator also works really well if you're playing with 4 players.

When we played, one guy got lucky and had satellites become active just as he destroyed nearby enemy ships, leaving his huge ship able to pick up one after another. Most of the time that won't activate in a linear fashion across the mat, so that was kind of an anomaly.

Strategy is interesting because you can't just destroy the opponents - that give you no points. The objectives are the only way to score, but the fewer ships they have, the less options they have for picking up satellites. A satellite that accrues intel over several turns becomes more valuable, so if you've got one surrounded you could open to protect it instead of picking it up right away to rack up some major points. Unless your opponent chooses to destroy the satellite. So many meaningful choices!

I don't know if it's better to split your forces it to focus on one opponent. You kind of have to gauge the field and see what looks best.