Stalling/Fortressing

[Raph]

(My preemptive apologies if this forum is not the correct place for Tournament Regulations questions. If there is somewhere else this should go, please let me know.)

 

The rules for stalling/fortressing in the Tournament Regulations are as follows:

Quote

The criteria in the game state for fortressing are as follows:

• Due to the maneuvers that a player has selected, all of that player’s ships have overlapped one another in such a manner that none have changed positions on the board for two or more consecutive rounds.

• That player could have selected maneuvers that did not result in the same game state.

However, this is not how stalling/fortressing has been consistently ruled at many events all the way up to the highest level for the past few years. For most judges, the "none have changed positions" clause has effectively been ignored in favor of judgement calls, though even this is by no means uniform. Some judges rule stalling/fortressing only per the above text as quoted, and some rule any instance of avoiding direct engagement as stalling/fortressing.

As there is no "Judge Academy" for X-Wing that would provide consistency between judges, these "unwritten rules" and the "you know it when you see it" rulings around stalling/fortressing lead to confusion and inconsistency between events. What is legal in one event might not be legal in another event the following week, with no change in written rules anywhere, which is unfair to players.

Can we get an official and specific set of rules for what stalling/fortressing in this game means, so that rulings do not vary wildly from judge to judge and event to event?

[AMG_Plummer]

Thank you for your concern! Unfortunately, issues of "stalling" and "fortressing" are instance-specific and impossible to adjudicate in a vacuum. Players should resolve the issue between one another, or call for adjudication in a tournament or event setting.