I always try to consider other points even if I don't agree... and I really see how it might be a problem for some, I mean... I started playing X-Wing a year ago and I was overwhelmed at first. I believe that if I didn't have guidance of a friend already in the game I'd have a really hard time figuring out all the upgrades, out-of-faction purchases and stuff like that. And the game only grew bigger. It's like getting into Magic: The Gathering without someone to guide you, although on a much smaller scale. I also understand the point about the inevitable optimization archetypes. Yes, it is inevitable - it's obvious that some combos will be better than others and it's only natural, that's how the world works and if you want to play competitively you're most likely to take the best combo (or the one you can beat it with because it's a meta breaker).

But then look at X-Wing in it's current state. There are -very- few outright bad ships and they get fixed with future releases should they fall too far behind. The rest has it's uses and, hell, look at how many lists are playable! Look how many various lists make it to the worlds, how many different lists take tops in regionals! As the game is now, it's still opportunities and you can basically run anything you want and have more or less fun, as it's still more skill-based rather than solely focusing on the ships.

I will take me as an example. I am a hopeless plastic crack addict and miniature collector. I collect all 3 (5 soon?!) factions and recently wanted to experiment with various lists based on totally different principles as before that I've been running either RAC + Soontir or autoceptors.

So I grabbed a Raider, dusted my Advs and ran a Vader-Juno-Stele list. It was a blast - it plays totally different than autoceptors, it puts emphasis on totally different aspects, it's just... totally different.

Then I played Palpatine + autoceptors. Then Palpatine + Whisper and Juno (I believe). Then Palpatine + Vader and Juno. Same archetype, right? 2 aces + palpshuttle. And yet all play... yes, you guessed it right, totally different! Each ship thanks to it's maneuvers, strengths and weaknesses really stands out, so even in those "limited meta archetypes" you get a lot of flexibility.

But I didn't stop there, I thought that maybe I was just biased towards imperial side and maybe Rebs suffered from the issue... and yeah, there's little difference between BBBB and BBBBZ, although FCS changes the way you fly your cows. And then there's Falcon. And Dash. They play quite differently. They can play together, they can play solo, supported by... yes, exactly - mini-swarm of Z's, Dagger Squads, aces (Corran? Poe?), TLT's... and there's the TLT itself - it also either spams itself or supports other lists with reliable damage.

Funnily enough the only side that seems to be limited in it's choices... is Scums. And it's literally because they have fewest options available for them, so they are somewhat forced to optimize at the cost of variety, although it'll change with next wave. With all those big ships (from which each plays different) we'll have options to have so many different lists you will never get bored. You can pair the bounty hunters with each other, support them with other ships, give them Z swarm retinue, wingmen... Despite some claims and glaring examples like T-65 the game is one of most balanced and while the worlds tournament meta will always be fairly narrow because those players go for top 10 absolutely optimized lists you can still play -very- competitively a couple dozen games of X-Wing with a new list each time.

So yeah, the claim of overbloated game may be true once they start releasing more stuff that doesn't change anything and/or is useless, but as it is now it only makes the game a richer experience.

I have been collecting into all three factions from the beginning, but focused on my preferred ships and style.

Any card I need/want that is with a ship I don't need/want will be proxied to keep it affordable as I simply can't buy into everything, let alone multiples of each expansion. I have a decent amount of ships (between 20 and 25) and to top off a balanced collection I will probably overshoot the 25 and end up between 25 and 30.

The game is very balanced and has so many options, if you allow yourself to use any possible upgrade card with your prefered ship(s), then by now you can be competitive with the ships and style you like, better than going for some archetype squad that someone else cooked up for you. Brilliant game!

"Needing/planning for":

- An extra T-65 with new pilots and stuff to buff it up; I could buy the transport, but honestly I will never use the transport

- An extra TIE/sa Bomber with new pilots and stuff to buff it up; incomming with Veteran Aces! What I will do with the Defender? Don't know yet

- An Imperial large; currently sharing the Firespray with Scum and Rebels have the Millenium Falcon. I am considering the Shuttle and the Decimator, but also white a while longer to see what FFG comes up with. Maybe a large with Admiral Thrawn?

The TIE Advanced Prototype and Mist Hunter look nice too