Was a staunch 40k player in my teens, then sort of fizzled out due to budget restraints becoming a student. I've always known X-wing's been around having been a big lover of fantasy flight but wasn't too keen on getting back into miniature gaming. I got more interested when the Phantom for Rebel Aces II came out but still wasn't sure.

Then a few weeks ago, a UK online store was selling the core set for a discounted price and my friend and I both decided to take the plunge. Since then i've bought the y-wing, b-wing and a-wing...this is why I was worried! I have no regrets though. To put it simply, X-wing is easy to learn, fun to play, relatively cheap to set up and most importantly its Star Wars. What's not to love?

I see alot of us have fled GW then, no wonder x-wing is doing so well it's getting all of us fed up 40k players, well GWs loss is ffgs gain.

Star Wars + Miniatures = Shut up and take my money

I was pretty much born and raised to like Star Wars (no problem there).

I was pretty much growing up with Warhammer 40k, but the game got way too stupid and expensive (huge problem here).

X-Wing is a cheap table top game with no time wasted on aesthetics and less than half the cost of GW.

And I love blasting little plastic ships and rolling dice.

I see alot of us have fled GW then, no wonder x-wing is doing so well it's getting all of us fed up 40k players, well GWs loss is ffgs gain.

I've played GW games for more than 20 years, but not the mainstream. Didn't get into 40K. I play Epic, Blood Bowl, Mordheim, Battlefleet Gothic, Pit Fighter (download game they did briefly), but when they axed the lot, they lost more than a few of their long time gaming customers. I just don't understand how they can put the knife into the older gamers that have supported them for so long. If they don't want my money, they don't get it then.

I see alot of us have fled GW then, no wonder x-wing is doing so well it's getting all of us fed up 40k players, well GWs loss is ffgs gain.

I've played GW games for more than 20 years, but not the mainstream. Didn't get into 40K. I play Epic, Blood Bowl, Mordheim, Battlefleet Gothic, Pit Fighter (download game they did briefly), but when they axed the lot, they lost more than a few of their long time gaming customers. I just don't understand how they can put the knife into the older gamers that have supported them for so long. If they don't want my money, they don't get it then.

Some bright spark said "specialist games are taking money from our main games" staggeringly stupid as money going to GW is money going to GW, then that same genius said "older gamers spend less than kids so let's get rid of vets and focus on new players" not realising kids have no money and persuading parents £500 for toy soldiers is reasonable is pretty impossible.

They threw us away to make money then got surprised when we stopped buying their over priced models.

Very well, where do I begin?

I watched Star Wars as a young boy. My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Some times he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament.

I owned the entire Kenner Star Wars action figure collection, at one point, as a youth. My childhood was typical, summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds, pretty standard really. At the age of 12 I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum, it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.

I play 40K and had been eyeing X-wing for a little bit. The fact that everything came pre-assembled and painted let alone came with everything needed to play it, when you picked up a core set as well, I found a nice change of pace from building and painting kits from 40K. I was also reasoning that each ship came with the stuff to use it for only $15! Could buy 2(at least) for what 1 kit from 40K cost for the most part and when you generally only use between 3 to 7 or 8 ships depending on the side you play, it looked like a cheap way to have some Star Wars fun. Been playing 40k since the mid '90's so have $1000's dumped into it but only about $500-600 + a couple Plano boxes into X-wing, still no Rebel Transport, and I'm content with that.

Only problem was that no one played it except the guy that demo'd a couple games with me before I pulled the trigger. No one showed up to tournaments despite hearing of a group that came into the store often to buy stuff just to play each other at home. A few people have been showing up to the last couple tournaments but not those guys yet. If everyone in the area showed for 1 tournament, there could be between 10-15 players that I can think of.

Not usually a miniature gamer but I stumbled upon the Tabletop episode and was hooked. I enjoy thematic builds that "make sense" and I'm fortunate that I can still have fun even when losing. I play at home only, versus my friends, so the majority of my games are super fun.

Glory to the Empire.

-Cal

I saw a picture of the Millennium Falcon and said WANT.

Then I noticed the game and felt respected with the depth it took things to.

Saw X wing when it came out and said "it's probably going to suck" and used warmachine to fill my 40k addiction. Now I'm done with 40k and warmachine now ebay in stuff when I can and I am planning on getting everything for X wing.

I loved star wars as a kid and to this day episode 5 is my favorite. I need to get my hands on some snow speeders....

The small city I live in has a population of roughly 70,000 and only a handful of X-Wing players. We have a small liberal arts university and a community college (technical college is the US term I think?) that will inflate the city population by almost 10,000 once September arrives.

I'm curious, and looking to also try to build up my local community of players, so I'd love to hear what it was that brought you to actually take the financial leap into playing X-Wing. Was it a love of the movies - original trilogy or prequels, or both? Was it a love of the comics? The books? The Empire Strikes Back bedsheets that you had as a kid (and may still have now)?

Did you play WH40K before? Or another major system? What steered you into the ways of the Force, or of crushing the Rebellion, or of freeing the galaxy from the yoke of tyranny?

Been more of a "casual" Star Wars fan (more of a Star Trek person, but Attack Wing looks so ugly ) and initially discovered the game when I bought it for a Star Wars fanatic friend of mine just for the miniatures (he's not a gamer). Heard a lot of good things about it, but as a former 40K player, I didn't understand how the game could be played:

1) with 1 X-Wing vs 2 TIE fighters and be considered fun,

2) Really wanted to find time to get back into 40K,

3) the 2 player aspect of it (before I discovered it pretty much can be any number of players as long as you have at least 1 ship per person)

So I let 18 months pass until I accidentally discovered the game in a massive 15 person game (controlling 20 ships) at a convention, and realized how fun it was. 2-3 months later, I'm hooked and love the game because of:

1) How easy it is to teach even non-gamers (15 min max for basic rules)

2) How it adapts to team play (played 1 vs 1 to 3 vs 3)

3) How "cheap" it is (compared to 40K), but seriously, $100 can get you enough ships for one faction to make a few good lists, $300-400 can get you at least 1 of every ship in the game and enough combinations for both factions you won't have time to try them all. And then you can spend however much you're comfortable with in between.

4) NO PAINTING NO GLUING

5) Can carry my entire army in an Army Transport Platoon, though I may have to use my old full size one soon with Wave 5, Rebel Aces, and the impending Imperial huge ships (hopefully).

6) standard 100 pt games can be finished in about an hour, so multiple games in one night in less than the time to play one 1500 pt game in 40K

Great that you're building your local community. I would just start with "demo games" where you create 35-40 point ships with named pilots and maybe at most 1-2 upgrades each, and just have people pick one that they fancy playing, and have a quick 30 minute tutorial game. Pretty much everyone I've shown this game to via that method has asked for a rematch or to try another ship, and then a 75 pt game, and then a full game.

The other thing, if your finances allow, is to spend $200-300 and buy both factions (1 of every ship, more of certain ones like TIEs, interceptors, X-Wings, Z's, etc...) and then it becomes more like a "board game" where people can come over or you can bring the game and have up to 6 people (3 vs 3) play regularly without spending a dime. That works well with the board game folks since they don't expect to each have a copy of a board game when they play and usually people expect to play someone else's copy.

Hope that helps and let us know how the community building goes!