Is it just me?

By KILODEN, in X-Wing

Ok, I go to the News page every day and when I see news for another game I'm like, really, why do they bother making anything else?

I don't truly feel that way, but the thought has gone through my head, like I'm the only one they should be concerned about making happy. I have to remind myself, other people play other games that are important to them.

Its been almost a year now since I started my boycott of Warhammer 40K. and my friends who still play keep on telling me about all the cool stuff they are doing now, but I don't really care, x-wing is where I'm at and I think I will be here for awhile.

Now all that being said, I was wondering if any of you had felt the game getting a little stale as far as play. the only real twist we have had is that we can now use debris fields. do you think they will be likely to add new terrain elements, or throw in a new play style? I guess you can count the hounds tooth and the pup as a new twist to game play.

Doesn't feel stale to me personally, but can't speak to your feelings.

I guess where I'm going is other miniatures games have battlefields littered with terrain. can we not get something similar, or even battlefield effects that are global across the mat?

I'm in no way advocating this, but it might be interesting if destroyed ships, when removed from play, were replaced with a debris field. Just my random thought for the day.

You can use epic ships for terrain to spice things up, real epic play is around the corner we have tons of scenarios these days and we just got a third faction seems like we've got quite a bit to work with.

every time a turret hits the table against, my will to continue playing erodes a bit more

otherwise, every game becomes stale if you play it too often. take a break, re-charge, come back when you feel like it

having other hobbies/games (armada :)) to occupy you also help keep things varied and interesting

Try mission play, and epic play.

Many missions introduce the (many) diverse 'terrain' effects you are looking for.

You can just invent new terrain for casual games if you fancy a change.

I designed a bunch of crazy stuff for a map based campaign I have been writing. You are trying to expand and control territory and each sector on the map has different characteristics. So far I have comets, gas clouds, nebula effects and gas giants to name a few. Normal space I am treating as 6 asteroids but I have heavy asteroids (12) and empty space (no roids) too. Ive had to make my own templates for some stuff and invent rules from scratch. Its not that hard and there is no 'right' answer.

Im all for keeping things interesting and making your missions mean something. Im reading Gadge's thread on his narrative campaign with interest, as I think that kind of thing can be great fun. You just need a little DIY attitude :P...and some playtesting.

Until FFG make campaigns, more mission types and other terrain official we can make our games as interesting or by the book as we choose.

Edited: Neeeed more coffeeee.

Edited by phocion

Least stale it has been so far.

I guess where I'm going is other miniatures games have battlefields littered with terrain. can we not get something similar, or even battlefield effects that are global across the mat?

The thing about space is that it's really big and really empty.

A buddy and I were talking about this last night. Not stale as far as options, but I haven't had a list or ship that I've played that REALLY grabbed me (us) in awhile. I've enjoyed AT Soontir and Dual Aggressors, but they are so common right now, it's hard to get that invested. The other part is that with so much internet chatter about the game, it's hard to find unique lists that you can take some ownership in and get excited about. Probably just need a break for a couple weeks.

I'm in no way advocating this, but it might be interesting if destroyed ships, when removed from play, were replaced with a debris field. Just my random thought for the day.

Been doing this for casual play and it's awesome! Only thing is we use 3 asteroids to start instead of 6 because things get crazy in a hurry with 6 asteroids and debris fields from ships

problem with the replaced ships is that it unduly punishes swarms

then again, casual play. Fun will beat the **** out of competition and take its lunch money while wearing a nice shirt and jeans

The whole continuing focus on 1v1, 100 pt, 6 asteroid (or debris), fight to the death for no other reason than that "they" are the "Bad Guys" and "need to die" tournament play is (continuing) to get old in my opinion... but seems to be very popular with others. *sigh*

If you're only playing X-wing, (or any game exclusively) then it's going to start feeling stale after a while, especially if you're only playing 100 point dogfights. Try some Epic or more missions to change things up. I did feel things got pretty stale durring wave 4-5, but it's changed so much since then that I think it's the most interesting time for the game since the early days.

That said, I just got into Imperial Assault and I'm loving it so far. It kind of bridges the gap between X-wing and Edge of the Empire (or Age of Rebellion). It's a nice change of pace.

Agreed. The scenarios are great fun. Especially if you scale them up. We had a massive epic-scale dogfight a while back using multiple shuttles as protectees.

I'm planning on running a 'campaign day' some time soon - essentially a game night event, but each game being a different mission rather than a straight dogfight.

I think campaigns are probably the best way to get people involved in their games, as each battle means something in the bigger picture, or is a step towards the endgame. A narrative campaign is one way to do this. I prefer something with more choice - my rules are effectively freeform. Players can choose to do what they want with their forces on the map. However they have to be aware of what the other players might do as well.

so I just purchased imperial assault and all current expansions, as well as 2 base sets of armada, haven't played armada yet, probably Saturday, still waiting for imperial assault to show up.

no, im not rich, sold a lot of old 40k stuff on ebay, still selling as a matter of fact.

I am relatively new and lucky to get in a couple of games a month. With the continued addition of ships for 3 factions, there are so many different squads to run that I'm not sure I will get bored or it will feel stale for quite some time.

I'm not too interested in learning different games. There are likely a lot of games with good merits, but there is still so much to explore here for me and additional ships I would like to obtain that I don't think it will get stale for some time.

The only thing that may get stale is if I have problems finding a way to get in games. The closest comic/game shop is an hour away and our local group is only about 6 players. We all have kids, so our lives tend to have busy schedules and it can be hard to meet on a weekly basis.

I'm in no way advocating this, but it might be interesting if destroyed ships, when removed from play, were replaced with a debris field. Just my random thought for the day.

We play this as a house rule.

Dont be straight jacketed by the boring constraints of 6rock100pointdeathmatch.

We do the following to keep the game exciting

epic game - ships get to find their niche

Scenarios

House rules like the debris from dead ships

'set battle' like 'only ships and pilots at Yavin'

Team games with an overall commander who gives 'orders' but doesnt move the ships... has to hope their 'wing commanders' do what he hoped they would do.

etc etc etc

Having something as cool as xwing as a game and only playing 100 point 6 rock games is like owning a paint set and only using green to paint everything.

I guess where I'm going is other miniatures games have battlefields littered with terrain. can we not get something similar, or even battlefield effects that are global across the mat?

The thing about space is that it's really big and really empty.

No but i get his point.

You could have rules for a 'nebula' area that obscures shots, or allows your opponent to set you dial when you fly out of it but you cant be shot in it. or it could be 'global' and has minor effects but affect all ships to alter the play.

Thinking 'outside the rocks' when it comes to 'scenery.'

The whole continuing focus on 1v1, 100 pt, 6 asteroid (or debris), fight to the death for no other reason than that "they" are the "Bad Guys" and "need to die" tournament play is (continuing) to get old in my opinion... but seems to be very popular with others. *sigh*

100% agree on this. There are a ton of great scenarios and epic is a hell of a lot of fun. Whenever I try to get anyone else to play those though, it's always, "Nah, let's just do a 100 pt battle."

Without a doubt the best games of xwing i've played are always epic or scenarios.

6rock100point? If i have to but i'd rather play something deeper.

100 pt deathmatch fills the time, its alright its pretty good fun but its a shadow of epic or scenario play in terms of depth.

The main killer in 100pt games is same faction matches. I just cant get into those. To me 'star wars' is about a war between two sides in the stars. call me old fashioned like.

If you dont have *story* behind it its just a maths exercise pushing bits of card and plastic around :)

Edited by Gadge

I only play campaign at my table for x-wing. way more fun that 100/6

100/6 only comes out if there is a tourney approaching and we want to practice.

Other than that... we play fridays, friday is games night.

Games night is either:

X-wing - ongoing campaign, on hold for a second while i get **** done, cause theres this one guy who realllly wants to play infinity.

Infinity: I'm painting up some Dreamforge games Eisenkern to make stormtroopers to sub for PanO.

Exalted: biweekly, friend of mine DMing an exalted game. I intend to be a ruthless bastard, i'm an abyssal with an army of ~10000 to start with :-)

So based on that, x-wing is probably a once a month thing now :-(

On top of that, videogames.

On an old XvT install on an old hard drive i found, i found an XvT campaign i made in 1999 for Gray squadron and have been playing that. I am superexcited. It's rebel faction, lots of A and B-wings, is plot driven, lots of pilot chatter (if i did it again i'd put more in, spacing out better). Still. this is a 15 year old campaign which I am treating as a forgotten holy relic.

Edited by DariusAPB

We actually had a blast yesterday very much along these lines; a massive charity game at our FLGS* - evacuation of Hoth, complete with assorted shennanigans** occuring at moments garuanteed to cause stress amongst both pilots and players.

* Free to play, but with a reroll bucket and a swear bucket (donations to the latter usually preceding donations to the former)

** Examples include everyone being forced to do a barrel roll - including (disturbingly) the transports, a 'blind luck' round of setting your dial without looking at it, and assorted other ridiculousness. Blind X-wing was actually quite good fun.

Edited by Magnus Grendel