X-Wing

[The Silver King]

I had my 2nd ever X-Wing Session yesterday.

On our first ever session, me and my gaming group only had the Force Awakens Core Set to play with, and I won 3 out of 3 games, 2 with the T-70 and one with the TIEs. We all had a lot of fun and decided to spurge on more ships. We got the Rebel Aces, the Imperial Aces, a TIE Advanced, a Y-Wing, a X-Wing, a TIE Interceptor, a TIE Phantom, and an E-Wing, tho the E-Wing and TIE Phantom didnt arrive in time for our 2nd session.

We played just two games yesterday, but they were 2 hour games a piece. In the first game, I played Soontir Fel with Push the Limit and the Royal Guard Tie title, allowing me to put on a Shield and a Hull Upgrade on him, as well as Darth Vader with Expert Handling and Turr Phennir with Push the Limit and a Shield Pugrade. My friend used an A-Wing, a B-Wing, a Y-Wing, and a X-Wing. I forgot what upgrades he put on them, as well as his pilots, except for Jake Farrell on the A-Wing, who was a thorn in my side. I used my pilots in a tight formation, focusing down his ships one by one, starting with the B-Wing, which my friend left way too far ahead of his other ships. My ships took down the B-Wing quickly, in one round, then dodged the A-Wing and Y-Wing's arcs to focus down the X-Wing. My ships took down the X-Wing in 2 rounds, while dodging the Y-Wing's arcs and taking no damage from the A-Wing's attacks. The A-Wing and Y-Wing proved to be more of a challenge, taking 3 rounds to destroy due to some great piloting of the A-Wing by my friend and some bad attack rolls against the Y-Wing. I also lost Soontir Fel by boosting when I shouldn't have, resulting in him being under both the Y-Wing and A-Wing's firing arcs but not being able to fire upon either of them. Vader avenged him by finishing off the Y-Wing and Turr took down the pesky A-Wing for the win.

In the 2nd game of the night, my other friend arrived and we decided to play a 3-man game. We also decided to ignore the usual factions due to our limited number of ships and just pick up whatever ships we wanted. I winded up with the last choice of picks, and ended up with the A-Wing, the B-Wing, and a TIE Interceptor, as well as all Level 7 pilots. One of my friends had Wedge in the T-65, Soontir in the Interceptor, and Vader in his Advanced, all Level 9s. The other friend had Salm in the Y-Wing, Carnor Jax in an Interceptor, and Poe in the T-70, all Level 8 pilots. As you can probably guess, I lost badly, only managing to kill the Jax Interceptor due to all my pilots shooting last. My friend with all the Level 9 pilots won.

That leads me to a question I wanted to ask. What would be a good way to do draft pick for 3-man games? I don't think picking the ships, then the pilots, then the upgrades in that order worked out for us, cuz while I did get 2nd pick with an TIE Interceptor during the ship picking phase, I ended up with just Turr Phennir in that Interceptor cuz of getting last pick during the pilot picking phase. Maybe we should draft the ships and pilots at the same time?

[Porkins]

Originally Posted by rym

lol, that's why Porkins died so early in the movie. He just couldn't handle it,

Yeah, I'm pretty disappointed that my pilot card sucks so badly...

[caps]

If I were doing furball I would pick pilots first--then the ships are implied. I also wouldn't let one player pick all their pilots at once--I'd do it in a rotation. Once your collection gets a little bigger you might be able to get away with letting everyone pick simultaneously and rolling off when there's not enough of something that two or more players want.

I also think you don't have to do furball with an odd number of players--just let the players team up. As long as no side has more points than the other it should still be balanced.

[The Silver King]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

If I were doing furball I would pick pilots first--then the ships are implied. I also wouldn't let one player pick all their pilots at once--I'd do it in a rotation. Once your collection gets a little bigger you might be able to get away with letting everyone pick simultaneously and rolling off when there's not enough of something that two or more players want.

I also think you don't have to do furball with an odd number of players--just let the players team up. As long as no side has more points than the other it should still be balanced.

Thanks for the advice, I will try the picking process you mentioned, as well as doing 2 v 1 with equal points.

[caps]

Is 2+ hours for a 100-point skirmish a normal game length? Can I expect to finish faster as I get more experience?

Just played two games vs. my brother, losing both times.

First I played
Soontir Fel, Marksmanship
Mauler Mithel, Engine Upgrade, Veteran Instincts
Epsilon Leader, Targeting Systems
Epsilon Squad Pilot
Academy Pilot

vs. his
Tycho + upgrades I forgot
Tien Numb + upgrades I forgot
Poe Dameron, R2-D2

Things actuality went pretty well for me as my swarm held out a long time and tended to outmaneuver him. Knocked out the shields on his B-Wing pretty quickly, followed by the shields in his A-Wing. Eventuality took down the B-Wing and X-Wing at the cost of about half my swarm. Soontir and a couple of TIEs faced off against Tycho and the frailty of the TIEs finally caught up with me--a few solid hits from Tycho and my squad was gone.

Second game was Fennir + Marksmanship and Mauler Mithel + Engine Upgrade and Wired vs. Rookie Pilot w/upgrades and Arvel w/missiles. Missiles made short work of Fennir and the game was over quick after that.

I dig the interceptor but TIEs are meh.

[The Silver King]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

Is 2+ hours for a 100-point skirmish a normal game length? Can I expect to finish faster as I get more experience?

I would like an answer for this too. I had heard that this game's gameplay duration was 30-60 mins, with BGG saying 30-45, and every one of my 5 games went over 90 minutes, and 2 of those approached 150 mins. Tho there were a lot of snack and bathroom breaks in those game sessions.

Not that I mind or anything, my Heroscape games last 3-4 hours easily and I have never had a problem with that, nor have the people I play with.

[rym]

I think 60-90 minutes is much more realistic as far as time goes. I don't think I've ever had a game play under an hour very often.

And if you factor in setup time, that's usually another 10-15 minutes easily. Yeah, it's hard to play an X-Wing game in under an hour if you're both playing 100 points. And yes, Capsocrates, that number will drop as you gain experience and get better at it.

[Hahma]

Are you guys including the choosing of your units and upgrades and other setup type stuff in the times you are saying?

From experience with a great variety of games, I find that the listed gameplay times don't include setup or clean up. Nor account for pre-game army drafting. Also, listed times generally consider experienced players, and not people having to heel reference the rulebook.

Also, some people are more AP prone, so that isn't likely accounted for in listed times.

Depending on the type of game, I know to figure in a certain amount of extra time for the first couple plays, and/or pre-game army building.

[caps]

Right, I meant from when we first started setting maneuver dials to when one squad was wiped out.

A 2-player game of Heroscape, even with 600 point armies, can be over in under an hour if both players know what they're doing. I think I expect something similar from this game.

[MegaSilver]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

Right, I meant from when we first started setting maneuver dials to when one squad was wiped out.

A 2-player game of Heroscape, even with 600 point armies, can be over in under an hour if both players know what they're doing. I think I expect something similar from this game.

The 30-45 minute window is for the starter set points, which hovers around 50pts. Most games will take 60-90 minutes, unless you have some tanky ships out on the board, which can take longer.

As to your ships, caps, what is Targetting Systems? Do you mean Targetting Computer? The TIE/FOs already have a TL icon. And Fel loves Push the Limit. If you have a lot of ships on the board, games can take longer too due the number of ships on the board.

[caps]

Originally Posted by MegaSilver

The 30-45 minute window is for the starter set points, which hovers around 50pts. Most games will take 60-90 minutes, unless you have some tanky ships out on the board, which can take longer.

As to your ships, caps, what is Targetting Systems? Do you mean Targetting Computer? The TIE/FOs already have a TL icon. And Fel loves Push the Limit. If you have a lot of ships on the board, games can take longer too due the number of ships on the board.

I meant the upgrade card that came with tFA:Core Set that lets you reroll a blank die by spending a focus die--or something like that. I didn't have it in front of me when I wrote the post.

--

I'd love to have Push the Limit on Fel. Marksmanship was pretty good on him too.

[NecroBlade]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

I meant the upgrade card that came with tFA:Core Set that lets you reroll a blank die by spending a focus die--or something like that.

Weapons Guidance! You can turn one blank into a hit by spending a Focus.