As someone who comes from Warhammer 40k, a $15-20 rulebook every few years is something of an understatement. The books are more expensive, you buy them more often and you normally buy two or more depending on your number of armies.

Yes, if you play multiple armies in 40k, then your expenditures are potentially infinite. But I'm not talking about playing multiple armies, just like I was talking about people who don't want to play multiple factions in X-Wing.

And no, if you play one army, you AREN'T buying a new rulebook more often then every few years. You buy a rulebook once per edition. You buy the codex for your army once per edition. And these two books contain every upgrade your army can possibly have for that edition.

Whereas, every time X-Wing releases a new model, it comes with upgrades usable by other ships. It's like if I was a Space Marine player, and Gamesworkshop released an Eldar Guardian, but oh wait, it's got wargear with it that your Space Marine can use.

Sorry, Gamesworkshop way overcharges for their miniatures, but their actual system is way less bull**** than FFG's. At no point does GWS require you to buy miniatures you don't want to get upgrades for the ones you do want.

Well, not at no point. Sometimes, you need a certain bit from some model in order to model a weapon option on a model that may not have come with it's model kit(although that's much less a thing these days than it was in the past). But you know what GWS lets you do? They let you order just that one piece from their catalog. FFG DOESN'T let you do that with their upgrade cards.

*sigh* I dunno. I wouldn't mind this if the secondary market wasn't such a ripoff. If upgrade cards were going for like 2 bucks, it wouldn't be so bad. But when things like Autothrusters are going for $15, which is as much as the ship that comes with TWO of them costs brand new, and dip***** are obviously paying that, or else they wouldn't be charging that much, it makes me want to scream.

Er, gw don't offer a bits service, and haven't for a long long time, and your £50 rule book and £30 codex doesn't give you access to every 'upgrade'. For that, add the £45 apocalypse supplement, the £30 escalation supplement, and throw a few quid, (say a conservative £20) on the 'data slates'. Hope you already have an iPad!

Oh, and buy it all again every two years. £175, every two years, just to have all the rules, before you even buy a miniature? I'll stick with ffg.

Don't forget the GW dataslates you can only get buy buying formations from their store at full retail.

Want relentless deverstators then you buy from GW or play at a disadvantage, assault marines that can deep strike then assault that's £50 for ten guys.

They did a knight one and I did the maths that free data slate cost £91 by buying from the web store instead of a discount site.

Don't forget, the Punisher and K-wing were victims of their own design: They're absolutely overwhelmingly loaded with upgrade slots, and their shiny new upgrade card needs a token for each slot.

There just ain't enough cardboard, folks!

I'm not one to rush out and buy 4 copies of one ship. I don't play rebels so I really hope to not buy a K wing as I hate the look of it.if I'd have know the Houndstooth was coming with Engine Upgrade id have never bought a Falcon. Point is I don't like to buy ships just for upgrade cards. I don't think I'm alone in this.

Munitions carries don't get played because they tend to be inefficient,extra munitions cards go a long way towards rectifying this and possibly leading to more sales of the Y- wing and TIE bombers.

How many of us had a TIE Advanced that sat on the shelf until the raider came out...with 2 advanced upgrade cards....

Hey I'm the same way, except I started a small Scum and Villainy fleet because I didn't want to buy ships just for upgrades. Now I'm debating whether or not to get a 2nd Starviper for 2 more Autothrusters.

And the Imperial Raider came with four copies of the X1 title, and four copies of the Advanced Targeting Computer.

Worked out fine, I already owned 2 Tie Advanceds, and my brother has 1, with the Raider we have 4.

As a casual player I would, and did, buy a second Star Viper. I found a list somewhere with IG88b and 2 star vipers I want to fly once.

Back on topic, my bottom line is that FFG could have thrown in one more copy of Extra Munitions in the Punisher and K-wings easily enough.

If you're only ever buying ships for cards that upgrade "your" faction, I can see it getting frustrating. I look at it in 40k terms as if I'm building a new army, but I get some cool things that I can use in my current army. Com poo are this with 40k,where that decision required substantial financial planning over the course of months.

Er, gw don't offer a bits service, and haven't for a long long time

Really? Fair enough. I haven't played in awhile.

I'm not one to rush out and buy 4 copies of one ship. I don't play rebels so I really hope to not buy a K wing as I hate the look of it.if I'd have know the Houndstooth was coming with Engine Upgrade id have never bought a Falcon. Point is I don't like to buy ships just for upgrade cards. I don't think I'm alone in this.

Munitions carries don't get played because they tend to be inefficient,extra munitions cards go a long way towards rectifying this and possibly leading to more sales of the Y- wing and TIE bombers.

How many of us had a TIE Advanced that sat on the shelf until the raider came out...with 2 advanced upgrade cards....

Hey I'm the same way, except I started a small Scum and Villainy fleet because I didn't want to buy ships just for upgrades. Now I'm debating whether or not to get a 2nd Starviper for 2 more Autothrusters.

And the Imperial Raider came with four copies of the X1 title, and four copies of the Advanced Targeting Computer.

Worked out fine, I already owned 2 Tie Advanceds, and my brother has 1, with the Raider we have 4.

As a casual player I would, and did, buy a second Star Viper. I found a list somewhere with IG88b and 2 star vipers I want to fly once.

Back on topic, my bottom line is that FFG could have thrown in one more copy of Extra Munitions in the Punisher and K-wings easily enough.

Which bombs should they have omitted? Each copy of that card needs its own little pile of cardboard chits, and there's only so much room on that cardboard.

I don't feel the GW comparison works. Warhammer Fantasy and 40k have many more factions, so the new rules for each faction could be spread out over a few years (Ideally the game stays fresh for players in between releases for their faction because new releases for other factions force you to change the way you play). In order for X-wing to keep up a similar release schedule (Which FFG seems to want to do), they'd have to frequently release new rules for each faction. I see two ways they could do this;

1) Each wave is accompanied by a $25 rulebook with rules and fluff for the new ships as well as rules for new upgrades that existing ships can use. Aces packs would be rolled into waves.

2) Each year, FFG releases a new edition of the rules (Estimated rulebook price $60). Obviously, this makes last year's book obselete.

Option 1) would, as it stands, mean you needed $75 in rulebooks to play the most popular build of Soontir Fel (book II for Fel and Stealth Device, book IV for Royal Guard Tie, book VI for Autothrusters). Large ships that draw from even more waves would be worse off. Option 2) means we'd be on X-wing 3.0 and most of the people here would have 1-2 obselete rulebooks sitting around collecting dust.

So, both options mean staying competitive requires a significant investment (This is true of any game that is continually updated unless rules updates are free*). As it stands, a player who wants to play Soontir Fel competitively can do so, but has 2 more interceptors, a Starviper, and a Firespray or Scyk (Add in most Wanted, and they've got a small Scum fleet. Which I'm pretty sure is FFG's plan). With option 1, the player has 3 rulebooks with upgrades in them, the relative value of which is dependent on how many different ships they have (more ships= more use for different options). With option 2, a long term player has two expensive paperweights. I personally prefer FFG's current strategy. And it's not like the factions are so radically different you can't enjoy playing a different one, is it?

*While Age of Sigmar is currently using free PDFs to update old armies, I find it unlikely FFG could use a similar strategy to release upgrades for X-wing simply because FFG has an extra cost to cover licensing fees to Disney in addition to the cost of designing new rules.

There could be a multitude of reasons why there isnt an extra card in the packs. Just keep in mind, FFG is a business and in order to succeed, all businesses must maximize profits!

Spoken like a true Ferengi!

I have to agree with some of the others' comments. FFG has been great with everything this far, but including only one new bomb with a card that basically gives you the ability to use two seems a little incomplete to me.

I'm not one to rush out and buy 4 copies of one ship. I don't play rebels so I really hope to not buy a K wing as I hate the look of it.if I'd have know the Houndstooth was coming with Engine Upgrade id have never bought a Falcon. Point is I don't like to buy ships just for upgrade cards. I don't think I'm alone in this.

Munitions carries don't get played because they tend to be inefficient,extra munitions cards go a long way towards rectifying this and possibly leading to more sales of the Y- wing and TIE bombers.

How many of us had a TIE Advanced that sat on the shelf until the raider came out...with 2 advanced upgrade cards....

Hey I'm the same way, except I started a small Scum and Villainy fleet because I didn't want to buy ships just for upgrades. Now I'm debating whether or not to get a 2nd Starviper for 2 more Autothrusters.

And the Imperial Raider came with four copies of the X1 title, and four copies of the Advanced Targeting Computer.

Worked out fine, I already owned 2 Tie Advanceds, and my brother has 1, with the Raider we have 4.

As a casual player I would, and did, buy a second Star Viper. I found a list somewhere with IG88b and 2 star vipers I want to fly once.

Back on topic, my bottom line is that FFG could have thrown in one more copy of Extra Munitions in the Punisher and K-wings easily enough.

I flew an IG88-B with two black Suns at the Chicago regional and went 4-2. Starvipers are under appreciated