X-Wing Second Edition

Well, the Second Edition of the X-Wing Miniatures Game from FFG has been out for awhile now, and I have still not played a game under the new system.

I have, however, purchased a bunch of stuff and converted my collection over, more or less. I bought one copy of the new Core Set, one each of the Conversion Kits (Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, and Scum and Villainy), and a copy of the Lando's Millenium Falcon expansion.

The Good
I like the comprehensive approach they took to re-balancing the game. Over the course of 14 waves of expansions, many new mechanics and rules subsets came into being. Much of this additional material had the seeming effect of crowding out the earlier ships. Starting over with the whole lot of them at once can't help but be an improvement, to my mind.

I do mostly like the Conversion Kit concept. They attempted to help a person like me, with 100+ ships, convert as painlessly as possible. I was able to use most of the kit contents, and sell the rest on eBay. I came out very well, in the end.

The Force. I like that they built a new mechanic to allow the Force, a key element of Star Wars, to play a role in this game.

The variable points costs and upgrade bars. The new game does not have points values printed on the cards directly, nor do the ship cards have the upgrade icons printed on them. These are controlled in an app (or a series of downloads), which theoretically allows for the game designers to tweak the game, as needed, to achieve a sustainable balance moving forward. The game has a smartphone app; but you don't need to use it, as their are PDF versions of the points lists.

The Scum and Rebel astromechs now live in harmony, together. No more silly "Salvaged Astromech" distinction. Bad guy astromechs now say "Scum only", like they should (like Crew upgrades do to define their affiliation, if needed).

I think I might like the new movable firing arc idea added to some ships.


The Bad
The game has an app, but that app is bad. I need something that I can enter my entire collection into; including one-off eBay purchases of single upgrade cards, etc. I also want to configure a custom universe of just the ships and upgrades I own and not have to fuss about with the ships I do not. This isn't too terrible, as the app can be completely ignored.

Here they were, with a golden opportunity to do whatever they wanted, pilot-wise. The Conversion kits were a blank slate. They could fix the error of their ways, correct the mistakes of their youth. But NO! They still didn't create K-2SO as either a U-wing pilot or a crew card. Drop ball, much, FFG? (don't answer that; we know you do).

Speaking of that, they took one step forward in an area I've been advocating for, then two steps back, stylistically. That area? The Y-wing. I have long said that the Y-wing cried out for a way to make a two-seater version (the BTL-S3). Well, they did it, mostly. Instead of giving the Y-wing a Crew upgrade slot, they made a new upgrade type, called Gunner, and granted the Y-wing the ability to take it. Yahoo! Then they stepped on the touchdown call by labeling all Y-wing pilot cards "BTL-A4 Y-wing" (the one seater version). Boo! They still need to make the Y-wing pilot Wes Janson and the Gunner upgrade Hobbie Klivian. Or I'll quit.


The Ugly
The Conversion Kits were a good idea, mostly. But they skimped in silly areas. Not enough generic pilots. Not enough base tokens to run all the ships the kit said it would convert. I realize it would be difficult no matter what they did, but the kits are not ideally situated to actually convert large collections efficiently.


In Conclusion
As I have said before, FFG loves to sell "stuff". Plastic pieces, cardboard up the wazoo, custom dice, etc etc etc. I have been daydreaming about a way to jail break this game wide open. I don't want to be limited by their "stuff". The main issues are, of course, the maneuver dials (need 1 per ship) and the base tokens. I would like generic base tokens with just arcs printed on them. Not sure how to replicate a bunch of maneuver dials easily. I guess I can verify whether the 1st Edition dials are, in fact, different. I would guess so, because FFG wants to sell me new stuff while seeming like it wants to help me convert old stuff (inefficiently and expensively). I do suspect that, barring some few ships here and there, I am done purchasing for this game.

Now to actually play a few games sometime soon.


Oh, Nate!