So, tonight I managed to convince my local league to try an X-Wing Variant I designed.
I call it a Tag-Team Furball, and have tweaked the rules a bit from the post I made when setting it up a while back on here.
Basically, each person (3-8 people) builds two 35 point ships, but only one of them can be on the field at a time. If your current ship flies off the edge of the world or is destroyed, the other spawns. The last person with a living ship on the board wins!
Flying off the edge of the map does NOT insta-kill you like in a regular game: it merely places you as the waiting ship
To prevent abuse of this mechanic (e.g. Coming in and leaving in a loop to prevent folks from shooting at you), and also to foster tactical combo-shots, the following rules are in play with them.
- When a ship flies off the edge of the board, place a numbered die on it, with the number equal to the ship's remaining hull showing.
- After combat/before movement, roll the die down to the next lower number (until the die reaches 0, and is removed).
- Ships that re-enter with the die still showing are dealt that number of face-down damage cards (so a ship that re-enters the turn it left will die instantly, a ship that re-enters the turn after it left will have 1 hull left, et c. up to their remaining hull value)
- Your ships enter the field touching one specific point on the edge of the play area, facing whichever direction you wish.
To encourage the tactical nature of this mechanic, when a ship enters the battlefield, if it would not have moved yet in the normal pilot skill, you may immediately set it's maneuver dial, and let it move as normal.
Similarly, if a ship enters the battlefield during the attack step, and it would not have attacked yet, it may still attack.
To clarify, tonight I played with an Omicron Group Pilot and Darth Vader. When my Shuttle flew itself off the field, I placed Vader immediately at my spawn-point, set his dial, and was allowed to move him.
Later in the game, when Vader got blown up by another pilot, my Shuttle was allowed to attack that turn, as the level 2 pilots had not yet attacked. Unfortunately, he had left the turn prior, and respawned with only 1 health.
Asteroid placement rules were also tweaked: Range restrictions simply became "You cannot place them overlapping each other, overlapping the edge, or within Range 2 of a spawnpoint". Given that we were playing on a round table, this allowed for a very interesting asteroid structure, which greatly shaped the play of the game!
For pilot abilities that effect allies, you may choose to use them on any other player, if you wish. However, that player is not obligated to do anything specific with it, which can definitely lead to betrayal (Rebel Scum!)
Because we were able to play on a round table, and had no team allegiances, this format easily accommodates odd numbers of players as well, and as each person is only moving one ship at a time, significantly more time is spent playing the moves than planning the moves.
My playgroup will definitely be playing this format more often!
Tonight we ran the following ships:
Player 1 "The Betrayer"
Outer Rim Smuggler (4th Killed)
+ Saboteur
+ Mercenary Co-Pilot
+ Millennium Falcon Title
[32]
Jan Ors (3rd Killed)
+ Blaster Turret
+ Recon Specialist
+ Moldy Crow
[35]
Player 2 "Slightly confused about the fleet building, but we let it slide"
Horton Salm (1st Killed)
+ Ion Cannon Turret
+ ??? (I didn't notice this upgrade, but it was 4 points)
[34]
Bounty Hunter (Won, with 2 hull left!)
+ Anti-Pursuit Lasers
[35]
Player 3 "Accidentally left the intended ship-build at home"
Wedge Antilles (2nd Killed)
+ R5-D8
+ Marksmanship
[35]
Tycho Celchu (7th Killed)
+ Assault Missiles
+ Push the Limit
[34]
Luke Skywalker (which he intended instead of Wedge)
+ R2-D2
+ Expert Handling
[34]
Player 4 "Me"
Omicron Group PIlot (6th Killed)
+ Fire-Control Systems
+ Gunner
+ Rebel Captive
+ Engine Upgrades
[35]
Darth Vader (5th Killed)
+ Elusiveness
+ Engine Upgrades
[35]