I brought this question up in another forum and I'd like to increase the sample size of responses as I find this an interesting topic of discussion.

What are the challenges you feel strongly on in this beloved hobby of ours?

- Costs?

- Lack of locations to play?

- No community presence albeit store availability?

- Time investment required?

- Other reasons?

Gamers, Hobbyist and Brick & Mortar Owners are welcome to answer this question.

I am very interested to know this and I would also take this opportunity to voice out your thoughts because from what I understand, game companies do reads stuffs like these in forums. Chances are, they might even address it!!

Costs - I'm lucky enough to be able to afford everything I need and want to play.

Lack of Locations to Play - Not at all. I have a 2 FLGSs and a gaming centre all of which heavily support X-Wing within 10 miles of where I live and several more within an hours drive (Doncaster UK)

Community Presence - As above, a large community close by.

Time Investment - This is the killer for me. I've got a 3 hour commute each day (there and back) and I get up early to get to work. My partner is happy for me to play a couple of evenings a week and a day for tournaments most weekends, but the fact is that that I sometimes don't feel like it after being at work all day and then driving home. Should I ever win the lottery and no longer have to work then I'll play a lot more and Paul Heaver better watch out ;-p

Well....I've already spent a good amount of cash on this game and only need to get about one more of each ship per wave to really continue. I can swing that if I plan my purchases throughout the year. I'm holding onto some Xmas cash until Imperial Vets come out.

I've got a GREAT local store and about 3-4 more in the greater metro area that play X-wing. I've got a good group of people to play with. I've built the Facebook group up to over 110 people. Thursday nights has long been my game night. Yes, family stuff does kill it occasionally, but I'm usually good.

The biggest challenge for me? Well.....two part.

1) Storing all these dang minis! I've got one of the big Planos and it was great for a few years, but now that multiple Epic ships are out, it's gotten hard. I think I've found my solution with a specific Plano case that holds the Plano tray that I put my Epic in. It's $20 and I'll have a total of 2 big Plano tackle boxes to hold all my stuff. It's a lot. Just playing around with what I can store is difficult. I almost hate new waves at this point.

2) Finding the right people to play the right type of game. I have given up on tournament play and want to play casual X-wing from now on. I've been wanting to play the missions from the Jumpmaster and Ghost and can only find some players who want to bother. The rest just don't care. So, I do have friends, but sometimes they aren't around to play in those games. I have been doing the HotAC campaign and I never have a problem finding people to play that. It's more in trying to fit all the people who want to play into neat groups.

Time. Two kids under three will do that to any hobby.

Definitely time, I have a 3 year old daughter and finding time to play is probably the biggest challenge.

Playtime. I get at most 2 games a week, unless I get to a tournament. VASSAL doesn't really appeal to me. I work on a computer 40 hours a week.

What are the challenges you feel strongly on in this beloved hobby of ours?

- Costs?

- Lack of locations to play?

- No community presence albeit store availability?

- Time investment required?

- Other reasons?

Cost is negotiable with me. There are times when I have a bit of extra money that I can sink into a hobby, and there are times where even my budgeted amount gets pulled back into home / car repairs. I have been buying steadily for over a year and can field a variety of lists for multiple people. The biggest factor here is understanding your budget and sticking to it.

Lack of locations: Huge one for me. Until recently it was over 75 miles to the closest game store. Now I have one about 30 miles away, which is better, but I have nothing in my town to build a community around. In time, I expect to change that...

Time Investment: Comes and goes. Local theatre can interrupt this several times per year. Other than that, I am fairly flexible and would easily be able to accommodate other people's schedules.

Costs- I'm OK with this, and I came from GW so that doesn't matter because of the sh*tty way they run their company.

Lack of Locations PEOPLE to Play- There's only so many times you can beat your brother and then deal with meltdowns when he loses.

Community- I got you folks, but not much else.

Time- This I have in Spades.

Other- Storage is not an issue, FFG already gives you **** convenient packiging, I carry all my sh*t in a cardboard box in a shopping bag and an Easter basket.

1. Is finding a group to play with. There are a few, but one is an hour drive on a Tuesday, the other is 40 minutes on a Thursday night. Most of my friends arent into miniatures.

2. Cash to afford the ships I need/want. I can afford to buy 1-2 a month but not to buy the epic ships.

3. Time to play. My wife enjoys playing (usually smashes me) but neither of us have a lot of time. My daughter is still learning the game but she has difficulty processing information so it is a little complex for her

4. Place to store/display the minis

Finding time and restraining us to not buy more than one ship per week on average.

So far we actually buy two to three ships each weekend. Plastic crack. FFG is not releasing them fast enough and just buying all at once would spoil the fun of starting the collection imho. And it would blow away all the "waste money for toys" budget for sometime, which would be a silly thing to do. It still tempting each weekend to take a few extras. But hey, so were most lol skins too, there is always something silly and entertaining to spend your budget for.

What is a little bit annoying are those huge ships. We just started playing last month, a palp aces list with vader would be interesting, and my wife loves the MF, which would profit greatly from C3PO and BAM 140 bucks for huge ships when you just need two cards from them. Another 60 bucks in Tournament fees. That is a lot money for very little practical value for us. It's not like those ships are not cool, it is not like that TOs should not be able to break even or even make some profit, but it's still basically 200 bucks for the ability to use 4 cards in a few tournaments in april. Money that would yield be better spent on first getting more small and large ships, instead of two huge ships and balance patches. Alas that is the way FFG decided to publish. I have other options beside Vader, my wife can use a TLT List, which should be more competitive than a fat han list anyway, and I am willing to wait until FFG distributes at least the TIE/advanced fix somewhere else to buy those epic ship (useless harping on about principles, ik), so this whole little rant is really a case of #firstworldproblems … still it annoys me to no end.

Winning.

Asking permission from supreme minister of housekeeping to assume position as fleet officer is harder than launching a full-scale trench run assault to fire torpedoes inside the small thermal exhaust right below the main port of the death star. True Story I brick you not

Asking permission from supreme minister of housekeeping to assume position as fleet officer is harder than launching a full-scale trench run assault to fire torpedoes inside the small thermal exhaust right below the main port of the death star. True Story I brick you not

Go on...

With all due respect sir, I am not authorized to disclose further details of the modus operandi here. Not in this unsecured channel. Otherwise the Galactic Empire will issue a warning for first-degree insubordination.

Income. Decent job, single, no problem investing in hobby. This is my hobby. Wargaming. No sport car or boat.

Location. Ample space at home devoted to wargaming

Community. Group of devoted wargamers who live in a 10 min radius, and a LGS 15 min away.

Time. Single, I can dedicate much more time ro x wing that my pals. So I write scenarios, house rules and set up the scene.

Main concern. I am much more a 300 pts scenario player than 100 pts six rocks. The game is oriented towards tournament play, so I must work a little.

Time. Two kids under three will do that to any hobby.

Well, just wait until they start getting old enough to do activities. You think you are busy now, but you are probably just hanging around the house doing what you want while you make sure they don't hurt themselves. Soon, you turn into the chauffeur and spend all your time driving them to and from activities. That's usually when you get back into reading a lot more as you find yourself with the other parents just waiting until event is over.

Lack of Locations PEOPLE to Play- There's only so many times you can beat your brother and then deal with meltdowns when he loses.

I'm going to go on a limb and guess you are under 18 and living with parents. If so, the idea is to try to find an adult that might be from my generation and loves Star Wars. They usually have the time to play and won't bug out when you beat them. Either that or try to find out which other local kids liked the latest Star Wars movie and go from there.

Good luck!

Asking permission from supreme minister of housekeeping to assume position as fleet officer is harder than launching a full-scale trench run assault to fire torpedoes inside the small thermal exhaust right below the main port of the death star. True Story I brick you not

I've found it's good to establish one night of the week that is your night to go out of the house. Sure, events pre-empt you when family calls for that one thing that is on your game night, but setting up something on a regular basis is a good way to do it. Never mind the fact that my wife goes out 2-3 times a week. I at least have my one night.

The lack of people to play with... And because I also suck at it. That's why I'm making an X-Wing RPG lol.

I just found this game a month or so ago and love it already. (700 dollars or so of love) My challenge is that I am a trucker and am only home for two days every two weeks and don't always know exactly when I will be home. Hopefully that changes here soon, but until then I will spend every hour possible playing when I am at home.

Space*

For me it's getting enough closet space to store all my stuff. (Buy less stuff, you say? Not an option! )

And I'd like some more time to game with my group. I'm not unhappy with the amount of gamenights we get in a year, but I wouldn't mind a few more. (Still got several games in our backlog that need to be played.)

* Or as you prefer: "SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!!!"

@Heychadwick

Yeah. I suppose in the end this is how it goes for many of us. I've made a blood pact to play once a week during weekdays after working hours and up until 10 PM. So in a week I get to play two games in general, three if I can rush my opponent to play faster.

Aside from this issue though, I am blessed with a local community that is ever growing, very active and maintains the fly casual attitude during casual and competitive events. My only gripe is that FFG stops supporting organized play on this side of the world at the moment due to issues with big brother and big boss. 2016 OP kits are nowhere to be seen.

The lack of people to play with... And because I also suck at it. That's why I'm making an X-Wing RPG lol.

Have you seen the "Heroes of the Aturi Cluster" fan made campaign? You might want to take a look at it. It could help you out. It is also very cool.

I just found this game a month or so ago and love it already. (700 dollars or so of love) My challenge is that I am a trucker and am only home for two days every two weeks and don't always know exactly when I will be home. Hopefully that changes here soon, but until then I will spend every hour possible playing when I am at home.

Hmm....that is a big challenge. You ever get time to yourself on the road? Maybe catch a game where you are at? Or maybe get on Vassal to play a game online (though, I couldn't figure it out)? Well....I hope you get to! Maybe you can get one of those magnetic boards and magnetize your bases to take on the road? Or just get a 3x3 sheet of metal and paint it like stars. I wish you luck!

For me it's getting enough closet space to store all my stuff. (Buy less stuff, you say? Not an option! )

No one here will ever tell you that. You are amongst friends.

One challenge I have (not the greatest , but noteworthy) is that waves are being released faster than I can field all the ships that I already have already purchased.

It takes time to build squads, and try out new combos, etc. My fleet is large enough now that I haven't even played half of my ships yet, and I am already buying new ships to "stay competitive".

I recognize that this is really unavoidable. As the game expands, the variety of squads increases exponentially, and subsequently, it is harder to play all the possible combinations before then next wave hits, and adds even more to the mix.

Competitive play requires one to keep as many options open as possible - and that means making sure you aren't missing any of the new, cool upgrades, etc. So you're constantly buying every wave, even if you don't have time to play any of the ships you've purchased. If you didn't have enough time to play all the ships you bought in your last purchase before the next purchase comes, Congratulations! You're already behind the curve. What happens from that point on is you buy new ships, but won't play some of them in time for the next new purchase.

That is a challenge for me.

I get discouraged when the meta is moving faster than my own pace - which is admittedly slower than most. I wouldn't expect or suggest that the meta slow down for people like me, but that does end up being a challenge for me.

For me the challenge is time to play and location to play.

All the places that host x-wing games are either on hours/days that cannot work for me or over the bridge (and a little too far away).

Having little ones has really cut down on my gaming over the years.

Of course, their time will come, i'm already introducing them into 40k. When their hands are not so grabby they will be ready for the more fragile x-wing minis...

My biggest challenge is understanding half of the slang that appears in some threads!

My biggest challenge is understanding half of the slang that appears in some threads!

Well, ToG off the AVR.

I just made that stuff up