Well, we played EPIC at our venue last night (Boris' format: 500 points, 16 pieces limit, 3 CEs, etc.). Was pretty fun. Since we play on a weeknight, we've had trouble getting in enough games in the past when we've tried EPIC, so we decided to introduce some new rules to help everybody play faster.

1. Gambit counted for 25 points per round instead of 5
2. We determined winners at the end of the night strictly based on points earned in the games, regardless of record (for instance, one of the undefeated guys last night ended up in 3rd, and a 2-1 guy got 2nd, because he had more points).
3. When time was called, you had 10 minutes to finish the round. At the end of 10 minutes, play stopped at the end of the turn for whichever character was currently being activated.

This seemed to work pretty well, since we wanted to get in 3 games, and only have about 3 to 3.5 hours to play on Thursday nights.

I ran the following squad:

Kazdan Paratus
Master Kota
Maris Brood
Aurra Sing
Jango BH
Boba Merc
Quinaln Vos
Qui-Gon JM
X-1 Viper Droid
Lobot
Lando DS
Mas
R2-Astromech
Aqualish Assassin
Ugo x2

Rancor Pit was my map of choice, though I only got to play on it once for the night. In each game I brought a MTB and 4 Ugos for reinforcements.

First match up was against a guy running Han Stormtrooper, Leia Hoth Commander, Luke's Snowspeeder, a Golan Turret, one Ugo, and like 9 or 10 Rebel Snowspeeders. Was a crazy game, and we had to play on his Throne Room map. He managed to make 5 Snowspeeder saves with Leia's CE throughout the game. I couldn't believe it. And I screwed up some placement at the end of a round, and let a door close that I needed open so Boba could Intuition through it. If I'd not screwed that up, I could've killed his Leia with Boba's Double/Cunning. Luckily, using some Override, and funnelling several of the speeders to deal with my X-1, I was able to do enough to come out on top with about 260 kill points.

Second game was the toughest, though I won map and side and took the nice side of Rancor Pit, setting up the X-1, and all my power shooters in the room. Opponent had a Rebel squad with 3 Golans, Han Scoundrel, Leia, Luke HPU, VAR, Aurra, Boba BH, Lando DS, Kota, R2, Lobot, Yoda of Dagobah, and filler. I was stupid and didn't put any Ugos in the pit room, so I had to play some Override games the first round in order to get shots off. Opponent used Light Tutor on one of the Turrets, and so I was able to pound it into oblivion pretty quick with Jango and Aurra. I managed to get both his Lobot and R2 early on though, so the X-1 had it's way with the Turrets and Luke HPU and VAR both hit it with Push 4 in one round, and killed it. I responded with a towed Kota Bomb that killed Leia and a Turret, and put 50 on his Kota and 40 on the other Turret. That move also effectively locked Han into the side room, as Leia was the only other piece with him in there at the time, so he had to open the door himself later. Even though I lost Kota after that, Boba and my Jedi Hunters cleaned up his Kota and VAR. I came out on top of that one with about 350 points.

Final round was against one of the younger guys in our group, running a NR squad. We played on Throne Room once again. His squad was Luke JM, Mara, Jacen, Jaina, Han Scoundrel, Princess Leia (he didn't realize her CE didn't work), Kyle Katarn, Maris Brood, Garm, Corran Horn, Med Droid, MTB, Gonk, and then a bunch of MCTS and Troopers for Reinforcements. This game was pretty one-sided from the start, especially since he didn't realize until then that he couldn't use Leia's CE to give anybody extra attacks. He rushed my X-1, trying to stay away from the rest of my shooters. I killed Jacen in the first round with a Towed Boba Double, and then a follow-up with Aurra. I pounded Mara early on as well, and used the first of a Double Attack from Jango to finish her off. However, she was adjacent to the Med Droid, and made her save. So, I had to use Jango's Double to finish her, and that time she failed the save. The others fell quickly following that, and he was left with Luke, Garm, and his filler at the end of the game. With gambit, I scored about 475 points.

So, I came out 3-0, and with the most number of points (a little over 1000). My opponent in the 2nd round got 2nd place, only behind me in points by about 40 or 50.

I think these special rules we set up really made a big difference. The couple of people at our store that sometimes have trouble finishing games really did try to play faster, but it still showed, as the one guy (as I mentioned above) was also undefeated, but had about 150 less points than I did, and ended up in 3rd.

I don't remember the other squads exactly, but there was one with several Sith (Revan, Kun, Bane, I believe) and Boba BH, and then there was one with a slew of Mandos and Basilisks. There were also two others using variants of Han Cannon squads with other beatsticks mixed in.

I'm glad you did well

This sounds like a blas of a game-

I talked to Creehan- he said you almost had to D/Q a few of the younger fellows...
and "you-know-who" cried sour grapes as usual... "... oh!, if I only had one more round, I would have beaten you...!"

man, I hate missing game nights like this...

How many recon reinforcements did you make?

That sounds like a lot of fun to play 500 point games. Congrats on winning the tourney.

Heh...yeah, three of the younger guys were being exceptionally noisy, and for no reason. Apparently at one point, Bryce was trying to figure out what to do and Joshua was just egging him on to move something (not like it mattered, since Josh slaughtered him). Then later, Bryce made a move that Joshua apparently thought was really dumb, and tried to convince Bryce of that. When Bryce didn't want to listen, they got loud again. I just told them "Look, I don't care what's going on...Let Bryce play the way he wants to." Oooh boy...yeah. Was about 2 seconds away from making them all sit down, lol.

Uh...I got a total of 4 reinforcements the entire night. And none of them really made any difference at all. Getting the BDO and BGD in the 2nd game against Josh M. helped a little, but he had 3 Golan Turrets, and kept abusing the fact that some of my pieces were clumped together. So, the BGD was down to 10 or 20 HP before it really got into the thick of things anyways.

Cool. Glad to see the format is being played, and sounds like someone besides me is having fun with it. I have GOT to get back to high-point games, that is where the most excitement is.

Maybe one day I will come up there again and try to redeem myself. No sealed proxies, please.

this format sounds like a lot of fun, where are the rules posted?

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=844077

EDIT: Here are the basic rules.

500 pts. Normal faction rules apply. 16 characters maximum (though normal rules apply, so reinforcements and reserves let you break the number limit). No more than 3 commanders per squad. Only 200 pt. legal maps are legal for this.


For those playing Gambit, the center gambit area scores 25 points each round instead of 5.

Boris, have you changed the rules to be '3 commanders' instead of '3 commander effects'? For instance, having 2 BBSVs in your squad would only count as having 1 Commander Effect. Doesn't make much difference to me, just curious.

Sounds like a bunch of fun

It's always been 3 commanders. I never really thought about it being "commander effects." To be honest, that just sounds confusing to me.

it is-
it's by far one of my "new" favorite alternate build ideas

as far as the CE "Effects" go-
I just figured that was to help out factions who couldn't benifit from Mas..
like the Rebs- you could have 2 BBSVs to help out the Rebel stealth characters with Evade

the only thing I thought that might be a little abusive was the RBSV.. but then at 24 points and having to roll exactly 11- you really HAVE to run a recon piece to make it worth having more than one....

Epic is a ton of fun and the extra rules we put into place I think helped even though I was one of the guys who did very well with Wins/Losses and came in lower than I would have because of points. Not complaining mind you - my Mando squad was designed specifically to rack up points quickly (3 Basilisks with momentum can do that). We just have some very competitive people.

With the higher gambit being used, I wonder if those points would make the wins/losses just as accurate rather than going by total points. Something to think about down the road I guess.

Love the format though. It great to have the means of loading in a bunch of characters that normally wouldn't come close to fitting in a normal squad.