My FLGS Facebook group tried 300 point games the other day. They took a long time, and felt unfocused(or at least the other group felt so. My group finished up far faster.)

This prompted a discussion on how to make higher point games more time-friendly than 4 hours of straight play.(My table, the other table still had half their ships left.)

The first idea was military victory-having killed a sizable enough percentage to force a retreat-probably around 1/3 of the total force.

The second was to have a list of mission cards to be drawn from, with a psuedo obscure goal each side would be working to complete while engaging in battle.

The ideas so far were

Military Victory-as above.

Target Elimination-Destroy the two highest point ships on the enemy force.

Data Recovery-Land a ship on the largest Asteroid Token. Reveal this card, then retreat that ship off the battlefield on your starting side. If the largest Asteroid is within range 2 of your starting side move to the next closest Asteroid. Any ship that lands on the chosen Asteroid aquires the Data. (Cards would be drawn after Asteroid placement.)

It was later determined that some cards would need to be revealed. Things like,

Courier, Choose a small ship(If no small ships are possessed redraw). If that ship is destroyed the game is lost. The game is won when that ship flies off your opponents starting side.(This would be an extra short game.)

I would like probably 10-20 of these scenarios. What are your thoughts? Anything that requires game memory needs to be revealed(destroyed ships aside as that's easily countable.) Anything that is revealed should be a little easier to accomplish because your opponent can work against you more easily. The should be playable at any point level(Use percentages, not point numbers), but are meant for larger games.

Lastly I am aware that this adds another element of luck, but picking which card would be just as strategic because in theory a big part of the game would ideally be trying to guess your opponents card while keeping yours secret. I feel like it has a fun military feel to it given that there aren't many military battles that are just-destroy them all.

Also, apparently Risk did this first, That's cool.

Here's the simplest form of morale rules I can think of, more or less borrowed from Cold War Commander:

Each side keeps track of the ships they've lost. Once you've lost 50% of your original strength, you start checking for broken morale. Not exactly sure how you'd do that with the X-Wing dice, but who doesn't have some D6s or D10s around? Anyway set a starting check level (maybe only on a roll of 1) and then increase it by 1 for each ship beyond 50% that is lost. You check once per turn in the end phase. If your morale breaks, your ships must immediately flee toward your table edge (or, for simplicity, you just lose immediately).

With multiple players per side, you could do this either for the entire force, or per-player. Per-player sounds more fun to me, as it would encourage allies to help each other out and make sure their allied squads don't break. But, it would also mean that any one player might be sitting out of the game for some time while the others continue.

Morale in SW is rather bad choice fluff-wise. Rebel Alliance pilots almost always were against the odds, with most missions being rather suicidal (or heroic, it depends on the outcome): "they have fully operational Death Star and superior fleet ...but concentrate fire on that Super Star Destroyer". And for the Empire, we all know how it valued its pilots lives and how it trained them to do the same.

The idea of missions that are secret until fulfilled is very good. There can be a lot of types of play, for example:

1. every side choose 3 missions from its own secret mission deck (same for both sides or faction specific).

2. every side random draws 3 missions from its own deck.

3. every side random draws 3 missions from one deck, drawing consecutively

4. every side random draws 1 primary objective and 2 secondary objectives (easier but less significant in rewards)

The missions, objectives, etc can be the same for both sides, or we can have faction specific ones where Empire would operate on intimidation, kidnapping, military might and law enforcement and Rebel Alliance would be more on the side of espionage, contraband smuggling and rescue missions. Anyway, it can be a lot of fun.

Well, playing giant games until the last ship dies is also a rather bad choice. So I personally am not going to make my gameplay choices based on how the movies chose never to show anyone running away. I mean, the movies also very rarely show anyone executing any kind of intelligent strategy, but we don't let that stop us, do we?

You've brought up an interesting point, though: as you scale up battles in X-Wing, unique pilots become less and less valuable because it becomes easier to kill them. Giving them exceptional – even unbreakable – morale would be one way to balance that.

Agreed on the difference in Rebel and Imperial mission types. Could any of the existing scenarios act as template for a victory condition in a high-limit game?

why not just use a D10 and roll equal to or under the highest skill level once reduced to 50% or less. that way special characters have an increased worth in large point games, and you have a greater desire to not throw them away or put them in positions to take a beating at any point. little more strategy.

or roll for each pilot in this manner, if he fails he must try to fly off his table edge as quick as possible. while doing this he is more focused on survival than actually fighting anymore, so he gains a free evade action after moving but cannot attack.

then you could add that if he is within a certain range of a pilot with a higher skill level that he can make another roll to see if he regains his nerve.

the second of these 2 requires alot of die rolling and keeping track of what ship is doing what, so i would go with the first example. i will try this this weekend.

thanks for the good idea guys.

Let's not worry overmuch about Morale rules. That's just a way to shorten long games and a simple percentage is more than enough. Secret and not so secret mission ideas is more what I'm looking for.

I like the special missions ideas, definately has merit and caught my attention. Though my thoughts on large scale fleet battles:

Unfortunately the problem lies in the game mechanics. It is way to tedious with large amount of ships and points to calculate PS between the number of ships / pilots you have on the table at any given time. Don't get me wrong, i love how it works with 100 point games, anything over 200 it quickly becomes to cumbersome. Not to mention keeping track of pilots, ships, and thier upgrades respectively.

Some quick and unrefined ideas on how to fix the speed of a large game, which do not have to be used in conjunction:

Hard core mode

Successful hits deal double damage to shields / hull. This simple adjustment would cut half the dice rolls and speed up the loss of ships, thus less moving and less PS caculation each ship move throughout the game. This might not be super balanced with all the heavy hitting ships in the last few waves, though what fighter would survive a successful proton torp anyways..

Classic mode

Players can only choose basic squadron pilots and they must all be the same for their respective fighters. For example if i choose to have 8 b-wings, i have to choose either all dagger or all blue. Additionally all upgrades for each same type of fighter must be identical. Could take more time finding the right combination for building your lists, though this list building restriction will greatly simplify the PS who goes next list and also reduce any confusion on which ships have what upgrades. This also makes for sense for large scale battles, I have green and red squadron against 3 squadrons of academy pilots and black squadron for example. You could even go so far as to having to select a squadron leader (like luke) and all ships in his squadron gain his bonus ability (make your squadrons more fluffy and survive / kill better).

Space hammer

This one is a stretch, might at least be amusing: Using the Classic mode, buy squadrons of 6 fighters for their combined point total. Add up all of their stat points. Move the entire squadron with one movement dial, moving loosly like 40k warhammer. When attacking, roll your combined attack points. Defender rolls their combined defense dice. Remove casualites from the front. Rinse, repeat as needed.

Just a few ideas, you know to keep the ol hamster turning.

I'm personally in love with this idea!

Here are some which are inspired by my experience with X-wing (the computer game). These do their best to assume that you have already selected a list of fighters and then maybe throw you a curve ball or two:

1. High-Priority Inspection Get three flybys of the highest PS pilot on the other team to determine if they're carrying (stolen Imperial equipment/juicy new equipment to steal) at range 1(i.e., end three turns with your ship at R1 to the enemy ship). You must do this with the same pilot all three times, and if he's destroyed the data is also lost and you must begin again with another ship.

2. Mine-layer Pick a Large Ship or Bomber* from your squadron. If neither option exists, utilize the largest ship you have. It must deploy ten static mines at range two-three. Each round you may deploy one mine, but if you fire primary weapons the energy emitted by them fries the remaining satellites and you lose. *Bomber in this context is any ship capable of carrying a missile weapon.

3. Space Superiority Eliminate all enemy space superiority fighters: X-wings and A-wings for the Rebels and TIE Advanced and Interceptors for the Empire.

4. Asteroid hunter Fly by as many asteroids with as many ships as you can and scan them by rolling the attack die. Critical Hits reveal rare minerals needed by the (Empire/Alliance). Once the field is all inspected, you may jump to hyperspace, but if you fail to reveal more than five Rare-Mineral asteroids you must re-inspect the ones that yielded nothing in case they might not have shown correct readings.

5. High-Priority Target Protect your highest PS pilot for five rounds.

6. Protect the Rookie Protect your lowest PS pilot for five rounds.

7. Ace-in-a-day Get five kills with one pilot of your choice. If there are fewer than five enemy starships, then this pilot must eliminate all opposition.

8. Four-of-a-kind Eliminate one of each kind of enemy starship in the opposing group. If only one exists, get three kills.

9. Fake the Transponder Choose the lowest PS ship and give him a unique pilot card which isn't shared by another ship. He must make it across the map without getting closer than R3 to another ship. If he is found out, mission is a failure.

10. Precious Cargo Choose one ship to carry a piece of extremely delicate special technology. If this ship is attacked and damage inflicted on the hull, the technology is ruined and the mission has been failed.

I like those, although many of them sit outside the difficulty curve I'd look for.

1: High priority Inspection. Reveal this card at the beginning of the game. Collide your highest pilot skill ship with your opponents highest pilot skill ship. Add the transmit data action to your action bar. Upon performing this action you win.(Note that the highest PS ship colliding with you does not count.) If either pilot is killed move to the next highest pilot skill.

This should turn into an amusing game of tag.

2: Mine Layer. Add the lay Mine action to the action bar of your Highest Hull ship. The ship with the lowest shield count wins ties. Reveal this card the first time this action is completed. Lay 3 Mines, none of which are within range 2 of each other.

Lay mine action works like laying a proton Bomb, but they don't explode until activated at the end of the game(IE not in the game.).

This makes it 6 turns for most possible ships. and prioritizes Tie Bombers, falcons, Firesprays, and Y-wings which make the most sense.

3: Superiority Complex. Destroy all hull and shields or 18 Hull and shields(whichever is lower) of the type of ship your opponent has the most Hull and Shields of. If this number is less than 9 reveal this card. Recovered shields do not add to this total.

This makes it work even if your opponent has none of the listed ships. It varies based on your opponents build but tries to make up for it. It does nullify the original concept, but I'm having trouble adapting it... Perhaps something about highest agility/primary Weapon Total...

As for the morale, one idea that came to my mind is to make it totally random: a veteran can be cautious or with serious PTSD, rookie can be impetuous and hot headed, anyone can be on stims (like pilots in BSG) ...or can hear mysterious voices

The mechanics are quite simple:

Add all hull points and shield points in your squad. When you loose 50% of the total you roll one red die for every pilot and fail morale test on a critical. When you loose 75% you roll again one red die for every pilot but this time you fail morale test on hits (but not crits). Pilots that fail morale can act in one of two modes:

Easy mode: turn your ship so it's facing your faction board edge and fly 2 straight white, repeat every turn, no hindrance to actions or attacks.

Hardcore mode: roll again a red die:
1) on a crit your panicked pilot attacks with primary weapon one nearest ship in his primary weapon arc (friend or foe), if there are no targets he acts as in point 3), roll again on the next activation of this ship,

2) on a hit your not so brave pilot starts to run away, acts as in easy mode,

3) on a blank your pilot freezes with fear, make 0-red move (stay in place),roll again on the next activation of this ship.

4) on an eye your pilot doubles his efforts against the odds, consider his morale test passed but he takes one stress token and one focus token, otherwise he acts as normal.

Your pilot, after the first turn he failed his morale test, can try to get to his senses by rolling one green die at the start of his ships activation, and he passes this regroup test on an eye. Pilots with Elite Pilot Skill slot pass regroup tests on evade.

Space hammer

This one is a stretch, might at least be amusing: Using the Classic mode, buy squadrons of 6 fighters for their combined point total. Add up all of their stat points. Move the entire squadron with one movement dial, moving loosly like 40k warhammer. When attacking, roll your combined attack points. Defender rolls their combined defense dice. Remove casualites from the front. Rinse, repeat as needed.

Just a few ideas, you know to keep the ol hamster turning.

I like this one, maybe because I like WH40k, but also because I think that the total of time will be reduced a lot if similar fighters fly as squadrons.

The Hammer rules would be really awkward with Asteroids and collisions. Especially because depending on setup collisions on banks would be almost unavoidable.

Space hammer

This one is a stretch, might at least be amusing: Using the Classic mode, buy squadrons of 6 fighters for their combined point total. Add up all of their stat points. Move the entire squadron with one movement dial, moving loosly like 40k warhammer. When attacking, roll your combined attack points. Defender rolls their combined defense dice. Remove casualites from the front. Rinse, repeat as needed.

Just a few ideas, you know to keep the ol hamster turning.

I like this one, maybe because I like WH40k, but also because I think that the total of time will be reduced a lot if similar fighters fly as squadrons.

I really think if we put some more thought into it, we could make it viable. You are really only multiplying everything you are playing with plus some extra math while figuring out dice results (not to mention needing more dice, a lot more dice). Much bigger games in a comparable amount of time, especially if you use the hardcore mode where everything is taking double damage from hits. Its funny but most squadrons in star wars are usually made up of all the same type of fighters (besides red squadron) so space hammer would work out well for large scale battles. I think i might whip up a google doc with some initial ideas on it and play test to see if it works. To many good ideas are generated in forums only to be lost to time, I suggest Aminar takes all the special mission ideas and document them before they are lost too.

The Hammer rules would be really awkward with Asteroids and collisions. Especially because depending on setup collisions on banks would be almost unavoidable.

I would choose to play with less asteroids, if at all. Once you go from playing with 3-8 ships per player to 20-30 ships plus the emphasis of the game turns away from avoiding asteroids to a lot more ship blasting action. Especially if you are using a rebel blockade runner, how are you going to avoid asteroids with that?

I have quite a bit of ships (6 ties, 2 tie advanced, 2 tie bombers, 2 tie interceptors, 1 shuttle, 4 xwings, 4ywings, 2 a wings, 2 b wings, 1 falcon). If i pick up some more imperials I might give it a go and see what happens.

I made the missions above into cards to use. We will be testing them tonight to see how it all goes.

Wow they look gorgeous! I like all these scenario ideas very much. I find that for me the nicest aspect of X-wing is the fact that the scenario driven gameplay always leads to games with a clear winner and loser: I hate draws.

Another possible way to do morale would be to roll Defence dice equal to your pilot skill. If you roll an Evade, you stay in the fight. Otherwise you run for the nearest table edge by the shortest possible route.

I think the biggest problem with morale is it's not fun. No one wants to lose a game- or even a ship- because a rule forced them to run off.