Hey guys,

I wrote a report on my first Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game tournament on the Fantasy Flight Games forum and I thought I'd post it here as well in case anyone was interested. I don't know how much sense it will make, as it was written for players and I'm not sure how clear the writing was, anyway, but here you are. I'll just quickly explain a bit about the game before I paste the report.

X-Wing is a miniatures combat game where you maneuver 'squads' of usually two or three small ships, sometimes more, using maneuver templates on an unmarked board, around obstacles and with the goal (basically) of getting your opponent's ships in your firing arcs and yours out of theirs. Maneuvers are selected secretly all at once and then executed in a certain order. The game uses dice for attack and defence and various 'actions' to manipulate the odds. Different ships have different stats and maneuvers and actions available to them, and various named pilots have unique abilities. Each pilot contributes a certain number of points toward a maximum of 100 in a squad, as do the numerous upgrade cards you can equip to your ships to customize their traits and abilities.

I've never really played (as in gotten into playing) a miniatures game before, and this was my first 'event' (though obviously not my first set of matches). Here is my report, in all its purple prose:

    To the men of other arms we are faceless and unemotive, as they are to us, but behind the ebon masks our comm channel is filled with chatter and guffawed camaraderie — for we know that before the day is out half our ranks may be trailing frozen blood through space.
    We are TIE pilots, and today the security of this great Empire rests on the shoulders of our panelled wings.
    Ours is a mixed squadron, the 3/237th, composed of fresh-off-the-racks TIE fighters and more advanced Interceptors cast off from a half-a-dozen units, some painted irregularly. These are lean times, since the death of the Emperor, and commands scrounge where they can. The lack of uniformity has its benefits, however: our ships have been custom-fitted with light shield generators and superior targeting arrays.
    But a faint shield is little solace with a wafer-thin metal frame between you and the void. We are TIE pilots, and we know that we live or die by the trigger-twitch of our reactions and the sudden speed of our craft.
    And before every battle, to belie the guffaws, we still shake and quiver beneath the gloves and behind the mask.
    —Flight Lieutenant Jan Abel Urbeyn, 3/237th Fighter Group
 
    Hi. You may or may not recognize me as a new player and poster on these forums. I’d like to present my report of my first X-Wing event, a three-round, 10-player casual tournament held at Phoenix Games & Hobbies in Kitchener, Ontario.
    Coming into the event, I was not expecting to do well, as I was flying essentially the cheapest list I could assemble (two ships purchased outside the core set), and was mostly hoping to have fun and gain some cockpit time. My list was as follows:
 
Carnor Jax (26)
    8 / 3 / 3 / 3 / 0+1
    Royal Guard TIE (0)
    Push the Limit (3)
    Shield Upgrade (4)
    Targeting Computer (2)
    (35)
 
Tetran Cowall (24)
    7 / 3 / 3 / 3 / 0+1
    Royal Guard TIE (0)
    Push the Limit (3)
    Shield Upgrade (4)
    Targeting Computer (2)
    (33)
 
Zeta Squadron Pilot (16)
    3 / 2 / 3 / 3 / 1
    (16)
 
Zeta Squadron Pilot (16)
    3 / 2 / 3 / 3 / 1
    (16)
 
    (100)
 
    It’s just the best two pilots I own with all the upgrades I have to stick on them and the highest-skill generics I have on-hand to fill out the list. Two ships past the core set!
    I used the two biggest asteroids I had and the one my first opponent called the ‘middle finger,’ and set them in the middle of the map, as that’s what I’d read online my Interceptors would benefit most from.
    All my opponents were pleasant fellows, and I explained to them I was new to the game. I apologize to them, if they are reading, that I don’t remember their names. I didn’t pause to write down their lists at the time, so I will try to remember them as best as I can.
    My first opponent assigned me initiative, then set down Vessery and Stele, one behind the other in the middle of his edge, and Backdraft close by to their right.
 
Colonel Vessery (35)
    6+1 / 3 / 3 / 3 / 3
    TIE/D (0)
    Adaptability (0)
    Tractor Beam (1)
    (36)
 
Maarek Stele (35)
    7 / 3 / 3 / 3 / 3
    TIE/x7 (-2)
    Juke (2)
    (35)
 
‘Backdraft’ (27)
    7 / 2 / 2 / 3 / 3
    Special Ops Training (0)
    Fire Control System (2)
    (29)
 
    (100)
 
    I had placed the two Zetas a ship-width apart looking down the open left side of the board, and spaced out Carnor and Tetran in the middle and middle-right to weave around asteroids. I did five-straights with all my ships as he came down the centre, then turned in the /fos and banked Tetran around a rock into what I thought was shaping up to be an excellent crossfire position. Carnor, though, I misjudged,  and two-banked into the big ’roid I had placed dead-centre on the map, directly in front of that Defender stack. Plasma spun and he glittered, red metal globules. My TIEs fired, the /fos on Backdraft and Tetran on one of the Defenders, to no effect.
    My /fos screamed after Backdraft, swivelling away, but I took account of where he would be and not where he was, and they piled into each other. Tetran’s approach had promised much, but he had no good moves now and flew into the Defenders’ K-turn track, to be shot apart. The /fos were picked off by spits from Backdraft’s aft and fire from the returning Defenders, and this flight was dust and flame-streaks. We shook hands and he leant me one each of his dice to supplement my trios for the rest of the tournament.
    My second opponent was a blind man who plays X-Wing as I imagine one plays Chess aloud: in his mind’s eye. I actually wasn’t surprised by this, as I’d read of him in another report on an event held in my area (http://dockingbay416.com/the-battle-of-waterloo-2015/). He had me guide his fingers over the ships, to recall their locations, and execute the maneuvers. He ran a lean pair of aces:
 
Rexler Brath (37)
    8 / 3 / 3 / 3 / 3
    TIE/D (0)
    Calculation (1)
    Tractor Beam (1)
    Cluster Missiles (4)
    Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
    (44)
 
‘Whisper’ (32)
    7+2 / 4 / 2 / 2 / 2
    Veteran Instincts (1)
    Sensor Jammer (4)
    Advanced Cloaking (4)
    (41)
 
    (85)
 
    Yes, 85. He put them in his right-hand corner, facing my Zetas with the Interceptors off to the right again. Whisper hovered around the back of the board before diving in, while Rexler swept back and forth, raking fire across my hulls and throwing a /fo into the rocks. The action was fought with the ships almost smack against the left side of the board; we didn’t use half of it. He downed Carnor and one of the generics and had the other on one hull by the time the round was called. I stripped his shields.
    After the game he advised me to stack my ships in a square or inverse pyramid, with the /fos up front. This I did for the final match, losing initiative and setting up in the right-hand corner, opposite my opponent on the diagonal, also in square.
    If the last match had felt like playing against a Force adept, this felt like the Force was flowing through me. Suddenly I felt I could predict my counterpart’s moves, those paired A-wings and X-wings, flying in formation.
 
Biggs Darklighter (25)
    5 / 3 / 2 / 3 / 2
    R2 Astromech [?] (1)
    Integrated Astromech (0)
    (26 [?])
 
Green Squadron Pilot (19)
    3 / 2 / 3 / 2 / 2
    A-wing Test Pilot (0)
    Juke (2)
    Snap Shot (2)
    Chardaan Refit (-2)
    (21)
 
Green Squadron Pilot (19)
    3 / 2 / 3 / 2 / 2
    A-wing Test Pilot (0)
    Juke (2)
    Snap Shot (2)
    Chardaan Refit (-2)
    (21)
 
Jess Pava (25)
    3 / 3 / 2 / 3 / 3
    Swarm Leader (3)
    R2-D6 (1)
    Integrated Astromech (0)
    (29 [?])
 
    (97 [?])
 
    (I’m sure I forgot something here.)
    His ships turned left out the gate, skimming an asteroid, while mine screamed forward. He banked down around it, but fouled his formation and bumped. I mixed turns and banks head-on toward him, but misjudged and landed a /fo on the top-right rock. I was able to boost Carnor, below it, onto the edge of range three, with Biggs in arc but Jax just out, with Jess’s shot obstructed and one of the Greens out of range, which I felt particularly proud of. Tetran, though, I had to barrel down around the bottom-right rock to miss it and avoid massed fire, and he meandered into the fight after.
    The clashing flights now came crashing together in the top-centre of the board, amid the asteroid belt, jamming up against each other and facing every direction. Biggs shot out around the top-right rock, and Carnor past the top-left that my opponent had first banked past, and circled up. The A-wings split through the tumbling maze, one down toward me, K-turning, and the other after Carnor, while Jess Tallon-rolled to the centre of the board. When the /fos emerged, one was in flames with his wings falling away.
    At this juncture I should note that to at least the middle of this game, my opponent had the most rotten luck. Snap Shot was a craps shot, and a five-dice from a Swarming Pava rolled one hit.
    Tetran swung in from the right on the K-turning A-wing, who retraced his path while the Imperial ace peeled off up and right toward Biggs. looping down the edge of the board. Carnor hurtled clockwise round the top-left stone and K-turned past it, and the TIE/fo came counter-clockwise and rolled past him as he jetted back. They were panel-to-panel, facing the other A-wing, who had K-turned on the left side of the board: it and the TIE/fo were out of arcs, so Carnor traded shots.
    A hiss of cannon, and Biggs drank vacuum, and the wreckage glanced off Tetran’s wings. He slashed around the top-right stone and onto Pava’s tail as she dashed toward the embattled A-wing. He shot past it and onto Pava’s guns: and the other other A-wing blazed in at Tetran. Time in the round.
    Tetran’s thumbs danced upon the stick-tops and laced the snub-jock’s canopy with flame. The A-wing fired aimlessly.
    Victory.
 
    I had fun today, and performed better than I’d expected to by the end of that last match. My opponents and the other players were all enjoyable and helpful, and I learned some things.
    I hope this report was somewhat comprehensible (I can see it so much more clearly in my head!) and entertaining. Signing off!
 
    A string of combat deaths and ejections into captivity, with the engine-glow of warlord TIE Defenders fading behind, left the unit’s morale shaken.
    Did the Emperor’s force of will alone impel the men to fight?
    But Imperial discipline does not permit a loss of focus.
    Today, in the stars above a nameless world, we have won our first victory against the Rebel Alliance, and repelled the tide of traitor discontent a time.
    I didn’t down any of the snubs: my wingman shot one off my back after running down a second, but the A-wings fled at routing speed and it was all our victory.
    This Imperial edifice shall not crumble, so we swear, not with our bodies as its bastions, our blood its ferrocrete, and the shattered husks of X-wings its shoring beams.
    We are TIE pilots, and today the chatter is no lie: today, we take off the masks, and smile.
    —Flight Lieutenant Jan Abel Urbeyn, 3/237th Fighter Group

Hope you enjoyed it!

Edit: Apologies if the text colour is wrong for your theme. I had to manually set it due to pasting the text from the other forum.

Any interest in playing a PBEM with CIV VI?

My solution with the mediocre AI with V was playing MP with friends and it was a lot of fun. I think VI should be a blast if we get 4-5 players together and give this a whirl.


Anyone up for it?

I put the results of the Epic One competition into our running Google Docs spreadsheet along with the results from Adventure One and Two. Thanks to all of our competitors, and special congratulations to our winner timmy827!

On a scheduling note, I have most of the design ready for Epic Two, which will be another archipelago map setup using India and focused around trade. There is another patch coming in the near future, and I will likely open the game after that patch releases. I haven't created a starting save file yet in case anything major would change in a new patch. In the meantime, Adventure Three is still open, and TheArchduke has posted a Gorgo Hilly Challenge savefile that might be interesting to take a look at.

Right now, we have a relatively small group taking part in these Civ6 events. It actually reminds me of the start of the Civ3 Epics, when we never had more than a dozen people taking part in any of the games. I hope that more of the community will join us in time, but in the meantime, everyone here seems to be having fun, and that's plenty for the time being.

The city naming themes will be the problems I have with civ6.

pass

Been awhile since I've done one of these things.  Hopefully I still remember how.  

We're playing random civs and leaders here, no pick process. Commodore is handling that along with the map, so that will be nice. He's made some great maps, and I look forward to seeing what civ I get.

Here's the significant settings.

BTS, no mods.
Quick speed
Scout for all (I like this)
AI Diplo, no communication
all random events off, elephants banned etc, standard stuff


Final player list;
1. Retep
2. Alhazard
3. Aurorarcher
4. Me
5. Thoth

I don't know a single thing about any of these except for Retep, who played in PB13 with me. he didn't get much of anything done in that game. I don't remember exactly what happened to cause it, but he was always substantially weaker than his neighbour, WilliamLP, and never really got beyond that, eventually being swallowed up.

That can happen to the best players, so I can't draw too many conclusions for that. 

Maybe I'll go hunting in some recent MP games to see what I'm facing. Or maybe I won't, we'll see.

What's my civ gonna be

Some poor civ would be nice to give me an excuse for playing bad 

OK, I came back to the site in hopes to sign up for a Civ4 pitboss and what I see? Only 2 PBs are currently played and the whole first page of the general forum is spammed by Civ6 related threads. Am I correct that a place where I always could play an MP civ game no longer exists? Or am I wrong?

Seriously, would be happy to play a good old standard format pitboss game. Anyone else interested?

I've been thinking about this for a while and I think a new system that follows these rules might be better :

-Growth is not random : A set amount is added each turn based on terrain, race, etc, the same factors that decide growth now.
-Shrinking is limited to medicore or bad terrain : Shrinking can happen if the max pop of the area is 0-13, or the city is cursed ONLY. Pop 14+ spots don't shrink.
-Shrinking chance is based on terrain : A pop 15 place has minimal chance to shrink, while a pop 5 has high.
-Shrinking is random : If shrinking happens X houses worth of population is lost. (X should be around 2)

The main question is, what numbers we want, if we go with the above system?

-How many turns should it take to complete the city for an average race and place (20 pop and Klackons/etc)?
-How many turns slower the worst, and faster the best race should be? (Lizardmen, Dwarves)
-How many turns faster it should be if the spot is 25, or slower if 15?
-At which max pop should the breaking point (where shrinking is equal to growth) be for the slowest, and fastest growing races?