X-Wing Homebrew

The FFG forum is a good place for serial complainers, like me. One of the ideas that has struck me recently is the gripe that recent X-Wing Miniatures Game releases have been poorly executed.

FFG wants (rightfully so) to get on the new movie band-wagon as soon as possible. However, they are not industry insiders enough to actually get real details about the ships, capabilities, and pilots they include in these slap-dash expansions.

A few examples are in order. For The Force Awakens, FFG decides to make a new starter set featuring the Resistance T-70 and the First Order TIE fighter. Sounds OK. I don't particularly like the idea of two starter sets for sale at the same time, but whatever. They also add both ships (in stand-alone form) as late-comer additions to the not yet released Wave 8. Strangely enough, these two add-ins are released before the rest of Wave 8, right around the time of the movie. (They weren't really members of Wave 8, were they?).

Anyway, on the T-70 side these brand new expansions feature such thrilling pilots as: Poe Dameron (makes sense), Blue Ace (as a "unique" pilot name), Red Ace (also unique...), and Ello Asty. The First Order side (like many Imperials before them) are less individualized and go for unique pilot cards with names like Omega Ace, Epsilon Leader, Zeta Ace, Omega Leader, Zeta Leader, and Epsilon Ace. Not very personable. What does this tell us? That FFG doesn't have any real info about who should be flying which ships. The Heroes of the Resistance pack, released later, brings in the other unique, named pilot cards who fly with Poe: Nien Nunb, Snap Wexley, and Jess Pava.

Ok. FFG can be forgiven for not being in the inner circle of developers on TFA. Understandable. I wish they'd had the ability to give two unique named T-70 pilots in both the TFA Core set and the T-70 expansion. That would've been better.

Next example. Another FFG attempt to strike while the iron's hot. This time we're awaiting the three ships of Wave 10 when they spring a pair of late entries on us. Again, two movie tie-in ships that pretend they were part of Wave 10 all along. These also arrive before the rest of their Wave counterparts (hint, they weren't really part of Wave 10). In this case, Rogue One is the movie that makes the dollar signs dance in front of FFG's eyes. Here their errors are arguably worse. The U-wing they design has a boarding ramp instead of a clear glass window (probably a last minute change by the film producers, but one that did not catch Lego unawares, just FFG in both the ship model and their art work).

The boarding ramp FFG thought was on the U-wing

The pre-movie release concept art that suggests, perhaps, said boarding ramp

The Rogue One Ultimate Visual Guide that shows the film-correct ventral viewport

The Lego U-wing is film-correct "transparent cockpit floor"

The U-wing expansion doesn't include pilot cards for fan-favorite and show stealer K-2S0, and it does include a pilot card for Bodhi Rook (who is neat, but never flew the U-wing). It also include a crew member, Bistan, whose scenes were cut from the movie altogether.

The other ship in this ill-fated Wave, the TIE Striker, also strikes out. In this case, the ship (as seen in the Ultimate Visual Guide) is a light bomber with a crew of two. Oops. Not communicated to FFG, apparently.

Which brings us to the latest edition of FFG rushing to print: the two Last Jedi tie-ins nominally called Wave 13 (which have SKU numbers lower than Wave 12). The TIE Silencer (which they designed without knowing what it does and who, other than Kylo Ren, might be a good named pilot for it) and the Resistance Bomber, about which FFG apparently knows even less. Such inspiring unique pilot names, here: Crimson Leader, Crimson something else, and one other name in quotes, meaning it isn't an actual character's name, just some sad words suggesting they don't know any more than the rest of us do about these things.

Long story short: I think it's past time for me to work up stats to re-configure this game, Homebrew style. I will be working on this for some time to come, and posting my ideas here. All with two guiding principles in mind:

1. Fluff rules. I care about game balance only as a distant secondary concern. And I would hope I need only care enough to worry about points costs.

2. Enough with the cards already. Playing this game is very messy. Plus the cards have all sorts of errata to them, meaning the printed copies aren't necessarily correct. My version will use an RPG-like character sheet, considering the upgrade cards to be like a list of Feats for d20 RPGs. Some have pre-requisites, etc. A clean and accessible game where all upgrade cards are always up-to-date because they are just text entries in a list.

We'll see where this takes us over the coming months...