Playing the game at greater point levels than 100. Balanced?

By Quiben, in X-Wing

Hey guys,

I was wondering your thoughts on playing the game at point levels greater than 100 points. Say 200 or even 500. Do you guys think that the game works well at these higher points levels or that it becomes too unbalanced? I have yet to do any experimentation myself, but I was curious what your experiences were.

Hey guys,

I was wondering your thoughts on playing the game at point levels greater than 100 points. Say 200 or even 500. Do you guys think that the game works well at these higher points levels or that it becomes too unbalanced? I have yet to do any experimentation myself, but I was curious what your experiences were.

Theoretically it should work since all the ships are balanced on points. I've never played a game over 200pts myself, but that felt just as good as 50, 75, and 100pts do.

I think you could make an argument either way about which side would benefit more from the higher points, which to me means that it is likely a wash point for point. Rebels have more hit points and attack, while Imps get more ships, agility, and maneuverability. Really I think any perception of imbalance in a given game of this size could be traced back to dice rolling to some degree. Besides, if you are playing a game of this size, does it really matter? This is clearly not meant to be competitive.

I would be much more concerned about the time needed to play such a large game, since the time needed goes up exponentially the more points you add. I could easily see just choosing maneuvers each turn taking 30+ minutes by itself until a good amount of ships were killed.

We play quite a few games at 150 and the balance still seems pretty solid at that level. Admittedly, no one has tried 12 Academy Pilots yet at 150.

A friend and I are playing a 500 point per side game this Saturday so I'll be able to comment on that size afterwards.

Jim

I'd say the most imporant thing to do would be consider the size of the table. 100 pts of Tie Fighters on a 3x3 table is one thing, 200 or 500 points would be something else all together.

In theory at 500 points you could field 41 TF's that many on a 3x3 table just would not work. :)

We are going to use a 4'x6' table for our 500 point game.

Jim

I want to fly the whole of Black squadron as it would have been at the Battle of Yavin. That makes Vader plus 8 Ties. I think I'll try that on a 4x4 table.

Balance wise, this game seems to scale well.

Yes it is balanced. However, you will find that elite pilots are less cost effective as the game grows. It becomes progressively easier to focus down single ships with more ships shooting.

We fairly regularly play 2v2 150 per person, 300 per side and it is very balanced. We play it on a 4x8 table but the fight inevitably condenses into 3x3 or smaller.

It looks quite well balanced at higher points, more than a lot of games. However, I wonder if the best way to balance it even more is to look at objectives, if there are multiple objectives in different parts of the board you can't just focus everything in one part of the board.

Imagine you play lengthways on a 4x6 board... Each of you set up a satellite 1.5ft in from the your end in the middle of the board width, with something like 15Hull, 10 Shield. possibly a 360 defense lazer with 3 Attack, 0 Agility.

Score 2pts for destroying the enemy Satalite. 1pt if your satellite is over 50% hull. 1pt for destroying your opponents most expensive fighter.

This way you would have multiple objectives and couldn't all clump.

Edited by Rodent Mastermind

We fairly regularly play 2v2 150 per person, 300 per side and it is very balanced. We play it on a 4x8 table but the fight inevitably condenses into 3x3 or smaller.

I'll second that bigger games usually end up on a normal, or smaller, section of the board.

We fairly regularly play 2v2 150 per person, 300 per side and it is very balanced. We play it on a 4x8 table but the fight inevitably condenses into 3x3 or smaller.

I'll second that bigger games usually end up on a normal, or smaller, section of the board.

yeah, I think some sort of objective would help. Maybe each side has to defend a cruiser or something.

Quite well-balanced. And the larger the battle, the less important it is that the points even match up exactly.

For mid-sized and large-sized games, doing scenarios with multiple objectives keeps the action spread across the table. Take any 2 scenarios and moosh them together!

350+ points game here: http://goblinhall.com/2013/08/26/1st-big-squadron-game/

Red, now I understand your post here http://boardgamegeek.com/article/13320253#13320253.

I was trying to guess why you wanted 6 HWK and 6 Bombers...

I'm debating on buying 2 or 3.

I'd love to get into a big game.

We have had positive results up to 600 +/- point range games. This Sunday we are having a mega battle and are expecting to have up to 1,000 points on the table.