On the Mynock Squadron Podcast the hosts discussed an alternative play format where each faction has one ship on the board and they all face off against each other to score points to see who would come out on top. The idea sounded fun, so at a league night I decided to try it out. Everyone was excited to dive in.

I set up one ship for each faction, with the idea being everyone has some tricks and we’re not bringing the usual pilots. So no Vader, Anakin, Luke, Wedge, Kylo. I wanted to make everything small base to keep everyone balanced there.

Our winner ended up being the player who picked (randomly) the TIE Silencer. I don’t think it had anything to do with the Silencer being unbalanced. The player took things cautiously, putting himself further from everyone at the start and slow rolling in. I was flying Mace and beelined after Palob, hoping to chew through the vulnerable HWK. Unfortunately, my dice, with Lock rerolls, didn’t cooperate and only took off a single shield by round two. Then Grievous blasted across the board and Outmaneuvered me down to a single hull in one attack.

Overall the match was a blast for everyone. All the different factions had their own feel and being able to come back in after dying but with a different ship kept anyone from feeling trapped in a ship they didn’t like.

One of the things we really liked was the rotating initiative token. This kept anyone from having a huge advantage and it allowed you to try and time your moment. Get into position when you’re first player and then arc-dodge everyone next round when you’re last. Or try and get that kill steal when you go early.

Changes

The next time we do it, and we will do it again, we’re probably going to make some changes. First, I’m going to select far more fragile ships. I went with beefier ships to avoid people from getting one-shotted. But this is a deathmatch furball. There needs to be more carnage. Next time, we’ll do some of the three or four health ships. To keep things balanced, we’ll try and stick with all 3-die or all 2-die attack.

Second, we’ll juice up the point options. Instead of just getting a point for a kill, we’ll do points for doing a damage (any damage, not just on the round a ship dies) and a point for shooting in a round but not dying. The idea here to encourage players to fight instead of bide their time and wait for an opportune attack. This might not be necessary if we play with just fragile ships.

If we do this, the players who have to sit out at first will start with the same number of points as the lowest point earner. That way they don’t have a huge disadvantage in points on top of not getting to play for a bit. That first player to sit out is the one who has to wait the longest for a slot to jump into.

In fact, if we have 7 players again, I think what we’ll do is have everyone in on the start, but once you die, you’re out until a second player dies and then you take over their ship and the next player waits for the third death. That way everyone’s playing at game start. This only works if you have the exact or under though. If you have over, someone will have to sit out at the beginning.

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