http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5179

FIRST OF ALL - This has no affect on X-Wing, as X-Wing is not a LCG.

But X-Wing is similar to an LCG in that the both have in common: base sets and expansions, no blind buys, a growing card pool, and both experience power creep.

I believe the points made by FGG can also apply to X-Wing:

• An overwhelming card pool intimidates and turns away players who may otherwise be interested in the game.
• As a game's card pool grows unchecked, its metagame begins to stagnate, and the game falls apart under its own weight.
• Players aren’t the only people who are impacted by large card pools, and as retailers need to carry more and more products in order to support a game, it becomes harder for them to do so.

Does anyone see X-Wing adopting similar (but not identical!) guidelines for tournament play within the next 2-3 years?

I imagine it would be something more akin to the GoT LCG, where they just hit a reset button and start over.

Though hopefully they will let us re-use our mini's

Something where all of the plastic bits are still functional, but all the paper bits get switched out. So when I buy the version 2 x-wing, I get everything to play with a version 2, but I can also run the extra paper bits with my old plastic ship and base.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5179

FIRST OF ALL - This has no affect on X-Wing, as X-Wing is not a LCG.

Well, not much reason for it to be here, huh?

Anyways. I don't think X-wing suffers too much from power creep. It's certainly there, in the form of new abilities and the ever-changing meta. I think Phantoms, above all else, have really screwed over the meta. 3P0 certainly didn't help either.

Now, this rotation idea...I think it could work with X-wing, but it also may not.

First, we've had waves that were all nice and movie-based, but also some that were pure EU. Seeing the common ships we all know and love is great, and new players can often recognize them instantly. But when those cycle out and we're left with HWKs and Phantoms and Scyks? Well, then we have a problem.

Second, there's the pricing issue. Certain ships, most iconically the A-wing and TIE Advanced, were overcosted or virtually useless. If these ships are in, while their fixes are cycled out, then we're left with crap ships and the meta becomes stale again. You'll fight the same lists again and again because of the limits on what you can use.

Third, I'm curious as to how the rotation would work. Cut off one wave at a time? Do the upgrades go with that? How would it affect wave 6? S&V only playable at a certain point in the cycle, then suddenly not at all? Losing the entire faction would suck.

I would love to see a return to some of the older ships. I'm super happy the Y-wing is getting some love. The A-wing is significantly more viable now. I honestly hope they stop diluting the ship pool, and keep throwing repaints at us with various fixes for broken ships.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5179

FIRST OF ALL - This has no affect on X-Wing, as X-Wing is not a LCG.

Well, not much reason for it to be here, huh?

Anyways. I don't think X-wing suffers too much from power creep. It's certainly there, in the form of new abilities and the ever-changing meta. I think Phantoms, above all else, have really screwed over the meta. 3P0 certainly didn't help either.

Now, this rotation idea...I think it could work with X-wing, but it also may not.

First, we've had waves that were all nice and movie-based, but also some that were pure EU. Seeing the common ships we all know and love is great, and new players can often recognize them instantly. But when those cycle out and we're left with HWKs and Phantoms and Scyks? Well, then we have a problem.

Second, there's the pricing issue. Certain ships, most iconically the A-wing and TIE Advanced, were overcosted or virtually useless. If these ships are in, while their fixes are cycled out, then we're left with crap ships and the meta becomes stale again. You'll fight the same lists again and again because of the limits on what you can use.

Third, I'm curious as to how the rotation would work. Cut off one wave at a time? Do the upgrades go with that? How would it affect wave 6? S&V only playable at a certain point in the cycle, then suddenly not at all? Losing the entire faction would suck.

I would love to see a return to some of the older ships. I'm super happy the Y-wing is getting some love. The A-wing is significantly more viable now. I honestly hope they stop diluting the ship pool, and keep throwing repaints at us with various fixes for broken ships.

I was thinking about a rotation system that that reuses the old ship models but introduces new and updated versions of the pilots and the upgrades. Version 2 of the A-Wing could be properly priced and we might finally see a useful TIE Advanced pilot not named Vader.

I'm guessing any rotation system would need to place a revision number or expansion marking on the card. The LCG Rotation is the core set, all deluxe expansions, and the latest 5-7 monthly packs. Something similar could be done with X-Wing with the aces sets or large ships counting as deluxe expansions and waves taking the place of monthly packs.

Rotation is all about quantity. X-wing is only now starting to hit the quantity of cards/abilities that most LCGs see in their base set. The release rate for X-wing adds 20 or so new abilities every 3-6 months, depending on bonus waves. The LCGs do that monthly. So the best comparison right now is Conquest, which just released (and actually still has a 50% larger ability pool than X-wing) and won't see rotation for the next 4 years. With X-wing's release rate, that's somewhere around 12 years before it becomes an issue for X-wing.

So no, we won't see rotation in X-wing any time soon, and we're far more likely to get a v2 full refresh than just taking old ships/pilots/cards out of circulation. There's really no way you could put every named and known Star Wars character in the game on the shelf without instantly replacing them anyway.

I would go further and say that the rotation unfairly hurts the LCG. SWLCG is a different beast in terms of deckbuilding. Only 8 cycles and whatever big boxes? That is a tiny, tiny amount of deckbuilding choices. But, I guess it's better to have all the LCGs be uniform.

As for rotation for X-wing, we are so, so, so far away from even being close to what an 8 cycle LCG would be like. Now, that isn't to say that FFG hasn't talked about it. But a miniatures game is a different beast from a card game. I've seen how unwieldy AGOT got, which is why they are bringing it up for the other LCGs now, rather than wait. Plans could very well change in the next two years.

We don't even really have a set schedule, unlike the LCGs. Let's talk in 5 years.