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X-Wing

I'm really curious what the big changes are. I read the product description and it looks like it's the same as v1 except now pilots can have force tokens.

I also see they're making the new S-Foils upgrade part of the original set. Mostly it just seems like an opportunity to rebalance all the ships in a less ham-handed way than the new Saw's Renegades set (I mean, I love X-Wings so it's an exciting set, but...).
 
I'm really curious what the big changes are. I read the product description and it looks like it's the same as v1 except now pilots can have force tokens.

I also see they're making the new S-Foils upgrade part of the original set. Mostly it just seems like an opportunity to rebalance all the ships in a less ham-handed way than the new Saw's Renegades set (I mean, I love X-Wings so it's an exciting set, but...).

This is what ffg always does. AGoT and Netrunner both got 2nd editions.
 
After a certain point it does usually make sense. Pathfinder is getting a 2nd edition. Next year (when the edition will actually release) will be the 10 year anniversary of the 1st edition.

Is X-Wing really that old? I guess it could be.
 
I'm all in. If you don't play competitively, stick to 1E; it's a good game.

If, however, you play competitively, this is AMAZING. All of the changes are great for the game. I'm extremely excited, and the cost is relatively cheap. Each conversion kit, which will update most of each of my factions (and I'll trade with some buddies to get more of what I need), costs less than three small ship expansions. That's a bargain when you're getting a much better game for competitive play as a result.
 
I'm really curious what the big changes are. I read the product description and it looks like it's the same as v1 except now pilots can have force tokens.

I also see they're making the new S-Foils upgrade part of the original set. Mostly it just seems like an opportunity to rebalance all the ships in a less ham-handed way than the new Saw's Renegades set (I mean, I love X-Wings so it's an exciting set, but...).

There was no where else for them to go design-wise, and the result was showing up as such in the tournaments. Lately, the only time there's been any kind of excitement has been after either a new wave release or a FAQ change as people try to discover what is good/competitive. Once the meta becomes solved each time, it's the same stuff showing up over and over again and a lot of it was SUPER broken. Sounds familiar. But, unlike Heroscape, where we at least have different rulesets and point costs for our tournaments, X-Wing suffers from the same event format every single time (100 point lists and six obstacles) and FFG hasn't really done much to change that. They do have a bring-two format, called "Hangar Bay", but it's often just a side event as something to kill time once you've been knocked out of the main tournament.

Now they plan to have an app that determines the point cost of each ship and upgrade, so the balance has become completely separate from the design. If a feature becomes too powerful and hence too common? Just raise the cost. It gets done whenever they choose to upload the values to the app and it will be instantaneous. No more people showing up to events not knowing of FAQ changes/nerfs. And they've said the app will be the means through which they introduce different kinds of events as well, specifically mentioning how they plan to target the casual and thematic players, as well as the competitive. This way everyone can show up to the local store and have a chance or play what they're the most interested in.
 
@Deroche, you should put that in a podcast or something.

I really like the idea of events with different rule sets, because I've always enjoyed the challenge of adapting both build and play style to different circumstances.
 
I do like how they are describing the changes and the control they will have over balancing the game. What will determine if I buy in or not (besides budget) will be how many local players buy in. We have a decent group at our local shop, but many are newer, just getting into the game within the last year. It will be interesting to see how 2.0 is received locally. I won’t invest a lot into converting all my current stuff and buying a new core set if there are not enough local players supporting it to make it worth my money.
 
Ohhhhh. I missed that the point costs are defined by the app. I thought the app was just a convenience thing. I can't say I like that idea very much... especially for non-competitive play. If I have my snowflake build that works fine when I play with my brother but suddenly I can't afford it anymore because competitive players found away to break one of the cards... yick.

How many games outside of Heroscape turn to alternative formats in order to mix things up? FFG apparently doesn't do it. I've seen Summoner Wars do it.
 
From what I heard, competitive isn't a big percentage of the money for X-Wing. But perhaps the competitive players spend more per person, but as a whole, still a small percentage. I don't know for sure. But it seems like FFG deems them important enough to overhaul and perhaps lose some casual game customers.

Though, perhaps they are smart to do this for people that will be getting into the game from here on out, ones that will start from scratch with 2.0. But if they go 3.0 in a few years, that would be a real F you to customers.
 
From what I heard, competitive isn't a big percentage of the money for X-Wing. But perhaps the competitive players spend more per person, but as a whole, still a small percentage. I don't know for sure. But it seems like FFG deems them important enough to overhaul and perhaps lose some casual game customers.

Though, perhaps they are smart to do this for people that will be getting into the game from here on out, ones that will start from scratch with 2.0. But if they go 3.0 in a few years, that would be a real F you to customers.

I do think the game is in need of a re-balancing. Our group does tournaments every month, but I don’t see anyone flying the current meta lists. They build what they want to try and what they think can win. Even in a less competitive environment many of the early ships are just obsolete compared to the most recent waves.

My friend has the same concern you just voiced though about this being a recurring issue. Will the game be right back to where it is now in 3-4 years? I think the app driven costs and upgrade slots will help for sure. It’s almost as if they are turning the competitive scene into a large playtest group. Design, test, release, see what’s broken and adjust via the app.
 
It’s almost as if they are turning the competitive scene into a large playtest group. Design, test, release, see what’s broken and adjust via the app.

It's not almost, that's exactly what it is. They'll test and balance as best they can before release, but they won't get it right every time. Widespread use will show one way or the other if they had the right values and if proves they didn't, they now have the means to adjust it in a far far far more efficient manor.

"Beta test" at times has become synonymous with negative connotations, but I don't think that's the case here, if only because we'll see corrections at a much faster rate than before.
 
I don't understand how they are doing upgrades. So suppose I have a lot of 1.0 Rebel ships and I buy the conversion kit for Rebels. This gives me a bunch of maneuver dials. Does it also give me the upgrade cards for the ships that are not yet released in 2.0? I'm assuming not since they are probably not balanced and tested. So now I need to buy those ships in 2.0 when they are released to get the upgrade cards anyway??
 
Individual 2.0 ship packs for ships that are in the conversion kits should not have cards that are not also in the conversion kit, I don't believe. So the X-Wing pack, for example, will have only cards that are in the Rebel conversion kit, since the Rebel conversion kit includes X-Wings.

The only other thing you need to buy is the Core, since it will include cards that are not in the conversion kits, and you'll need the damage deck (and rules and lined templates). Pre-ordering the Core through FFG also gets you a second, sweet alt-art damage deck.

Any new ships may of course have new cards.
 
The only other thing you need to buy is the Core, since it will include cards that are not in the conversion kits, and you'll need the damage deck (and rules and lined templates). Pre-ordering the Core through FFG also gets you a second, sweet alt-art damage deck.

Any new ships may of course have new cards.

This was my biggest disappointment with the announcement. I already own 3 core sets and really don’t need or want more TIE, X-Wing models, let alone dice and templates. I have to pay another $40 to get a damage deck, new templates, and whatever new tokens I’ll need for 2.0 with maybe a few pilots and upgrades that aren’t included in the conversion kits.

I know they have price points and probably didn’t want to go above $50 for a conversion kit, but I’d pay a little more for the conversion kit to include another sheet of cardboard with templates/tokens and a damage deck to not have to repurchase models I don’t need.
 
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I don't need the extra models or dice either, but at least I can sell off extras (of either the new or old stuff). There are probably more players that would be turned off by an above-$50 conversion kit, though. At any rate, it came down to FFG trying to decide how best to suit as many players (new and old, casual and hardcore collector) as possible.

my Heroscape play has suffered greatly for it

I wasn't aware it was possible to roll more shields on offense with a pissed-off Krug.
 
I just read some posts on this forum. And have read a little on what 2.0 actually is.

So as a casual x wing player my 2 cents is I'm not really excited about spending more money on this game that already has so many ships I don't own. My local group has a good amount of consistent and interested players both young and old to the game. But for me as someone who has a smaller to average collection what incentive is there to buy all the new 2.0 things?

Also my local stores may not get the 2.0 xwing as soon as it comes out. Anyone else have that, their stores aren't rushing to get new waves of x wing right away? Curious to see how that will effect the transfer over from 1.0-2.0.

I'm honestly considering selling my whole lot because it seems I now have to "re purchase" all my ships.

What's the consesus here? Worth learning all the new changes and buying everything, or just letting it go?
 
I'm not sure if there's any delay getting 2.0 locally, since my local-ist store shut down and I don't really frequent the others or know the owners as well.

If there's enough interest in your area to keep playing with the "old" 1.0 stuff, I'd suggest just hanging onto your stuff and continuing to play that. I would recommend trying a couple games of 2.0 anyway, though, since it will be an improved game.

You don't have to "repurchase" any ships, though you do need the conversion kit(s) and Core Set, which is probably what you meant. They tried to do their best to appease the most players by sort of splitting the difference with the conversion kits: enough ships so you can start flying with whatever you have, but not so many that more casual players aren't being taxed for hardcore fans' massive collections. That said, there are of course reasons to be disappointed no matter which camp you're in.

That said, it sounds like you have a number of players in your area, and if enough are even partially interested in 2.0, you should absolutely discuss splitting/trading conversion kit contents. For example:

Players 1, 2, and 3 each buy an Imperial conversion kit.
Player 1 really wants to play an 8-TIE swarm but only got 4 TIE Fighters worth of stuff.
Player 1 trades an extra Gunboat for 2 TIEs to Player 2, who really likes ordnance. Now player 1 has 6 TIEs and Player 2 has 3 (I think) Gunboats.
Player 3 loves "aces" and trades 2 more TIEs to Player 1 for an Interceptor. Player 3 has 3 Interceptors and Player 1 has 8 TIEs.

And so on and so forth so everyone has the ships they really want to fly without anyone having to buy extra kits. There's already lots of discussion/planning happening on the FFG forums and probably Facebook and local groups.

It really is the smart way to go if you do want to get into 2.0 "casually"; for $90 (MSRP; discounted almost everywhere I'm sure) you get the Core Set (new damage deck, new templates) and 1 conversion kit, which you can use to trade for exactly the ships you want to fly.
 
Thank you.

Yeah I have heard of people in my group talking about splitting conversion kits. That seems like the best way to go especially if you have a good network of x wing players. Those are good tips to get the most bang for your buck, trade for what you want and give away the stuff you don't.

Another question here, whats the bottom line for the game? You said it will be an improved game. How so, will they just reprint every pilot with lower pilot skill? What is really improving the game? Streamlining it and getting rid of upgrade cards?

Thanks
 
Part of the reason why I think they are rolling out 2.0 is that they never expected the game to get this big and ran out of design space. So instead of fixing the original problems, they have added patch upon patch (turrets too powerful? Add autothrusters! Now arc dodgers are too powerful! Add TLT! Now turrets are overpowered. Add 4 dice attacks with Harpoons, etc, etc).

Also, FFG sells millions of dollars worth of product but, if you look at their design teams, they are acting like small company. I think there are only a handful of guys actually designing the game - even the actual play testing is completely done by volunteers. I believe that X-wing was a surprise hit for FFG and they never expected it to grow as exponentially large as it did. Some great examples are the supply issues they've had (remember when used K-wings were going for $50+ on eBay?!?!?). So this allows them to add some more design space and 'fix' some of the original mistakes that they made. On top of that, the new ships they are designing right now won't be released until 1-2 years so it's hard for them to really know how new ships affect the meta.

Additionally, using the app for points allows them to essentially ban combinations of cards that were unintentionally overpowered. Before this change, they had to go to Disney (who is very protective of the Star Wars license) for any modification to any of the 'text' because Disney was afraid of lore changes affecting the Star Wars franchise. With an online point system, they can right size the upgrades on the fly quickly (and fix their own oversights and mistakes) and without going to another organization.

As for myself, I still enjoy the game and expect a second-hand market to pop up where people are swapping conversion kit pieces. I know $90 is a lot of money and am not super rich, but, for me, it's honestly a price I'm willing to pay (I shudder when I think of how much I've spent on Heroscape). On top of that, compared to other miniature games (Warhammer 40K, I'm looking at you), I've found X wing to be much cheaper.

If you want to read more, here's a decent article talking about the changes:

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2018/05/ffg-star-wars-x-wing-2-0-announcement-interview.html

Here are a bunch of video interviews with the developers for our visual learners:

https://teamcovenant.com/learning/s...ing-need-know-x-wing-second-edition-x2-reboot

Finally, I sincerely doubt the viability of this guide because he doesn't have the point values, but here's a way-too-early buying guides. I like this guy's blog because he has some decent strategy articles, particularly his one about dice variance.

http://stayontheleader.blogspot.com/

Hope this helps! And fly casual!
 
Part of the reason why I think they are rolling out 2.0 is that they never expected the game to get this big and ran out of design space. So instead of fixing the original problems, they have added patch upon patch (turrets too powerful? Add autothrusters! Now arc dodgers are too powerful! Add TLT! Now turrets are overpowered. Add 4 dice attacks with Harpoons, etc, etc).

Also, FFG sells millions of dollars worth of product but, if you look at their design teams, they are acting like small company. I think there are only a handful of guys actually designing the game - even the actual play testing is completely done by volunteers. I believe that X-wing was a surprise hit for FFG and they never expected it to grow as exponentially large as it did. Some great examples are the supply issues they've had (remember when used K-wings were going for $50+ on eBay?!?!?). So this allows them to add some more design space and 'fix' some of the original mistakes that they made. On top of that, the new ships they are designing right now won't be released until 1-2 years so it's hard for them to really know how new ships affect the meta.

Additionally, using the app for points allows them to essentially ban combinations of cards that were unintentionally overpowered. Before this change, they had to go to Disney (who is very protective of the Star Wars license) for any modification to any of the 'text' because Disney was afraid of lore changes affecting the Star Wars franchise. With an online point system, they can right size the upgrades on the fly quickly (and fix their own oversights and mistakes) and without going to another organization.

As for myself, I still enjoy the game and expect a second-hand market to pop up where people are swapping conversion kit pieces. I know $90 is a lot of money and am not super rich, but, for me, it's honestly a price I'm willing to pay (I shudder when I think of how much I've spent on Heroscape). On top of that, compared to other miniature games (Warhammer 40K, I'm looking at you), I've found X wing to be much cheaper.

If you want to read more, here's a decent article talking about the changes:

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2018/05/ffg-star-wars-x-wing-2-0-announcement-interview.html

Here are a bunch of video interviews with the developers for our visual learners:

https://teamcovenant.com/learning/s...ing-need-know-x-wing-second-edition-x2-reboot

Finally, I sincerely doubt the viability of this guide because he doesn't have the point values, but here's a way-too-early buying guides. I like this guy's blog because he has some decent strategy articles, particularly his one about dice variance.

http://stayontheleader.blogspot.com/

Hope this helps! And fly casual!
Hey Jet!

Thanks for sharing SotL's blog, I hadn't read his articles on variance but they're well written. I think a big problem in the HeroScape community is how many people blame dice when they lose. Major Q23 said it best: "In only 1% of losses did dice make it unwinnable". Note that this doesn't mean that 99% are skill, as some games are unwinnable due to the matchup (fairly common), map (much less common), or glyphs (very uncommon).

Funnily enough, your loss to me at IslandScape was the 1%- you rolled how many 1-4's with your Stingers in a row, 6? Absolutely absurd and nothing you can do about that. I genuinely felt bad about that game; three 3v5s are ridiculously bad odds vs Nilfheim when he's chucking three 4v3s.

Although I initially was all in on X-Wing 2.0, I've decided on holding off for at least a while seeing as I've stopped playing at my FLGS. Been playing D&D, Mice and Mystics, and Mage Wars Arena with my buddies instead.
 

This guy X-Wings!

SotL just posted on the FFG forums that he's not interested in 2.0 at all because it "doesn't look like a game he'll enjoy" so I wonder (and have asked) what makes him feel that way, since he's posted a lot of good blog content on 1.0.

As for what will make 2.0 a better game, aside from the points being on the app and similar "balance" changes... a lot!

  • Firing arcs are emphasized again, including but not limited to no more full 360 turrets, and everyone has a bullseye are that will be used to trigger a lot of abilities (in lieu of the full arc), etc.
  • Pilot skill (now Initiative) has been condensed from 1-9 to 1-6, meaning the stuff in the middle actually matters
  • Fewer upgrade cards because some have changed roles, fixes have been rolled into ships, and some powerful cards have disappeared altogether
  • Ship roles are more specialized, like only the TIE Bomber inherently being able to "bend" bomb drops, only the Kimogila having a native use for the bullseye arc, etc.
  • Factions have identities; Imperials have the most specialized ships and focus on aces and swarms, Rebels have loose groups with high synergy, Scum are tricky and willing to self-harm to come out ahead; First Order and Resistance will be their own factions with their own identities
  • Stacking tokens and/or dice modification is a lot more difficult
  • Similarly, extra attack/defense dice are rarer and Evade changes a die instead of adding a result
  • Etc, etc...

Basically, just about every complaint that's been issued about 1.0 over the years has been addressed... I'm highly looking forward to it!
 
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