So I was remembering a fun thread that we had mentioned on this forum a while back of the Furball variant of the game, in which there are several players, each with a single 35 point ship, last ship standing wins.
And that thread made me really want to play the variant, but I don't have that many people who play in my area, so I started to play around with it.
Eventually, I came to the design posted after the break. Before I invite my fellow X-Wingers over to playtest it, I was wondering if you lot can find some unexpected mechanic interaction that totally ruins the game, and rule suggestions to prevent it.
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Tag-Team Furball
For 3-6 players.
Set up on a circular play area. Radius should be at minimum 20 inches to approximate the traditional 36x36 square. The Radius may be expanded to allow for more room, as the number of ships and asteroids increase with the number of players.
Starting positions are equidistant around the edge of the playing field, and will be marked with a tracing of the rear nubs of the starting vehicle, which will be tangent to the outer rim of the play area. This means that the rear corners of the ships will start out of play.
Asteroid placement restrictions are merely that they cannot overlap other asteroids, and they cannot be placed within Range 1 of a Starting Position. Each player may place 1 large and 1 small obstacle each, in order of their initiative.
Each player builds two different ships of 35 points each. They may elect to build to fewer to gain initiative. They may not trade points between each other (e.g. You may not have a 50 point ship and a 20 point ship). The ships must be of the same faction, and your two ships cannot share unique upgrades or pilots with each other.
When your first ship is destroyed, your second ship spawns at your stating location. If an enemy ship is overlapping your starting location at this time, shift it closer to the center of the table until it is adjacent to your ship, then roll 1 attack die. It suffers any damage rolled this way.
Your ship may attack and/or move the turn it spawns, assuming that it's position in the pilot-skill/initiative order has not yet passed. (E.G. If your first pilot is shot down by a level 6 pilot, and your second pilot is a level 4, then your level 4 pilot may shoot, if he has a valid target).
In the event of piloting your ship off the edge of the map, it is considered destroyed, and your other ship spawns. It may move if its turn has not yet been passed (E.G. If you drove a Level 4 pilot off the edge of the map, and your second ship is Level 6, then it will be able to move when it is time for the Level 6 pilots move. If they are the same pilot skill, you may move your second ship immediately.).
If you still have another ship intact when you fly your ship off of the map, it is not permanently destroyed: it is merely put in waiting. While in waiting, add counters of temporary damage to it, sufficient to have destroyed it. After the attack phase, remove one counter of that temporary damage. When the ship spawns again, deal it a number of face-down damage cards equal to the counters left on it.
If you are waiting and have no counters, you may flip a face-up damage card face-down instead.
(Example: a B-Wing that has gotten a Direct Hit! from a Proton Bomb, and also has lost two shields, knows they have an X-Wing in waiting, and so they elect to fly off the map. It receives 1 counter of temporary damage. The X-Wing survives for 5 turns of combat before being destroyed. The B-Wing respawns with 2 missing shields, and one face-down damage card.
Had the X-Wing died immediately, the B-Wing would return to the battlefield, received 1 face-down damage card, and would also be destroyed.).
The last person with a surviving ship wins the match.