Gawd, I hate to even mention Magic, but what are peoples thoughts on having an upgrades sideboard like MtG 15 card sideboard? Sort of along the hanger bay idea but less severe than a full different squad. So you bring one squad of ships with a limited number of different upgrade cards. Say 1 for small ships, 2 for small ships with ordnance, 3 for large ships. You put your ships on the board minus the upgrades with options then each player picks the cards from their sideboard without the other player knowing until the game starts.
Upgrades sideboard thoughts
I've toyed with the idea of a game night with an idea along these lines. The idea has merit, but one thing I love about this game is the simplicity.
I really like the idea of making ordinance a little more flexible. Hadn't considered that before. Even makes sense thematically (somewhat).
No.
If you want "sideboards" I do think that the new Dual Upgrades would serve a very similar purpose going forward allowing you some last minute tweaks to your squadrons.
If not that then I say go with games where you can bring two different squadrons, show them to your opponent while he shows you his, both secretly pick which of his own squadrons to play, and then simultaneously reveal actual squadron selections. The only troubling thing here may simply be how "different" the two squadrons are as they could be completely different or the could be nearly (or actually) identical.
I've toyed with the idea of a game night with an idea along these lines. The idea has merit, but one thing I love about this game is the simplicity.
I really like the idea of making ordinance a little more flexible. Hadn't considered that before. Even makes sense thematically (somewhat).
Yeah I mean how often in war do both sides know exactly what the other side is bringing to the fight
I think X-Wing is a much better game, but I do play Attack Wing, and something Attack Wing has that I'd like to see at least attempted in X-Wing, is resources. The idea is that you spend a certain number of points on a card that can allow a ship or any ship in your fleet to get benefits. Some noteworthy examples:
Elite attack dice - It was a dice with no blanks, the blank sides was replaced by a double hit, an extra crit, and battle station (focus) result. It cost 5 squadron points and only one ship could use it once per round, it replaced one of the attack dice you were already using.
Counter Attack dice - Like the Elite Attack Dice, this die can replace one defense dice of your choice per round. It had all the normal sides of a defense dice with the addition of an extra battlestations (focus) result, an evade result, and two hit results. The idea is that if you roll the hit, your opponent takes a single damage (no roll for defense). Cost 5 points.
There are also resources that allow you to double up on tokens. One even has you place 5 auxillery power tokens (stress tokens) on the card, and you can cancel a hit or crit by taking one or two of the tokens off the card respectively and putting it beside the ship that cancels the hit/crit. However once all 5 are spent, that's it.
Or there's the larger card ones such as the 'Flagships' and 'Fleet Captains'. The Flagships increased 3 of the 4 stats (based on faction) by 1, granted a couple of extra upgrade slots depending on the faction, had a faction ability, and a single action on its own action bar. If she ship did not have that action on its action bar it gained that action, if it could already do that action, it meant you could do it as a free action. However these did cost 10 - 15 points.
https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic2791311.jpg
As just examples.
I am not saying it would work for X-Wing, but I would be interested in seeing it trialed by the game, I think it could add another tactical layer. Plus most of the time these resources were given out as participation prizes in OP events.
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Yeah I mean how often in war do both sides know exactly what the other side is bringing to the fight
That all depends on how good your intelligence is.
When it comes to varying ordnance loads I REALLY hope that FFG will be using Dual Upgrades for many types of ordnance going forward. You could have analogs of Assault/Homing Missiles, Prockets/MagPulse, Concussion/Cluster Missiles, and should be able to find something for torpedoes and also bombs.
This is literally what Dual Cards are intended to represent - the ability to pick & choose squad composition elements at the time of play, rather than the time of list-building.
It's an elegant way to incorporate such concepts if you want 'em, without fundamentally changing the game structure or impacting different squads in differing ways (8x TIEs, quad TLT, Palp Aces, or Brobots, all have very different 'sideboard potential', y'know?).
I think X-Wing is a much better game, but I do play Attack Wing, and something Attack Wing has that I'd like to see at least attempted in X-Wing, is resources. The idea is that you spend a certain number of points on a card that can allow a ship or any ship in your fleet to get benefits. Some noteworthy examples:
Elite attack dice - It was a dice with no blanks, the blank sides was replaced by a double hit, an extra crit, and battle station (focus) result. It cost 5 squadron points and only one ship could use it once per round, it replaced one of the attack dice you were already using.
Counter Attack dice - Like the Elite Attack Dice, this die can replace one defense dice of your choice per round. It had all the normal sides of a defense dice with the addition of an extra battlestations (focus) result, an evade result, and two hit results. The idea is that if you roll the hit, your opponent takes a single damage (no roll for defense). Cost 5 points.
There are also resources that allow you to double up on tokens. One even has you place 5 auxillery power tokens (stress tokens) on the card, and you can cancel a hit or crit by taking one or two of the tokens off the card respectively and putting it beside the ship that cancels the hit/crit. However once all 5 are spent, that's it.
Or there's the larger card ones such as the 'Flagships' and 'Fleet Captains'. The Flagships increased 3 of the 4 stats (based on faction) by 1, granted a couple of extra upgrade slots depending on the faction, had a faction ability, and a single action on its own action bar. If she ship did not have that action on its action bar it gained that action, if it could already do that action, it meant you could do it as a free action. However these did cost 10 - 15 points.
https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic2791311.jpg
As just examples.
I am not saying it would work for X-Wing, but I would be interested in seeing it trialed by the game, I think it could add another tactical layer. Plus most of the time these resources were given out as participation prizes in OP events.
This could be a good idea. I like it on the surface. But I really think it would be better in a casual game than a tournament. I actually wish we had a lot more "casual game only" rules. It would make the game so much more fun and divorce it from the "100 point death match tournament" mindset. I feel like FFG passes on or simply doesn't even consider some ideas because they would not be balanced for tournaments. But if you made an entire game mode called something like "Thematic" or "Games of Lore" or something and focused on giving each side it's canonical advantage/disadvantage it could be really cool.