Ok so after looking at this Heroes of Aturi Cluster I just can't figure out why FFG hasn't done something similar to rake in the dough?

This has a huge appeal to the crowd that also wants to play a game cooperatively with friends, which is a growing market for sure. If this was legit I would pay for it, but I will gladly take it for free.

Wake up FFG! THIS is the kind of thing that gets me into the game... unfortunately this campaign seems to require a large number of ships and therefore is not as appealing as it could be.

If FFG could do a mini campaign with a core box set, more than the 3 ships in their existing one, it would be a lot more appealing to the casual gamer. But I guess I am not their target audience.

As I think Imperial Assault can attest to, trying to split your limited focus and manpower on two separate goals does not tend to result in a totally equal game.

The thing about IA that chaps my hide is the requirement for tournament players to buy all sorts of campaign heavy stuff and expansions that they don't want or need for their squads to be able to play. With X-Wing if you show up at a tournament with a squad you bought back in wave 4 you might not have all the newest toys but you can still play. I bought the first couple of waves of IA and I can't play in tournaments because I don't have all the map tiles and mission cards that have been in their recent boxed expansions. With the current maps in the tournament rotation, I think I'd have to spend close to $100 just to show up and play a squad that I already own.

People are reading WAY to into this... here's what happened:

....wait, we have a Gadge AND a Gadgetron now?

I've been playing since Wave 2. I have yet to play a tournament. Most of my friends who play are casual players. For me, I needed this article. I needed it mostly because of the attitudes being displayed in that "other" discussion thread . I needed a nod from the game manufacturer that they are listening and want my business. If they released a campaign book or other material that wasn't a ship, I would be happy.

Just my two credits.

I do think FFG needs to start doing something for the Casual gamer. I did just put in a suggestion for Mission Control that would be incredibly helpful. They need to have some sort of tagging system for the missions. I need to be able to search on them with particular parameters. If I want an Epic scenario, I want to be able to search through them all and find my options. If I find myself with an extra player at the store, I want to quickly search for all 3 player scenarios. I don't think it would take that much effort to put that in the current system. It would go a long way to having those missions be used more.

Much like my Armada games, I wanted this one to be beer and pretzel. Every single player I ran into in my gaming community was constantly testing for tournaments. That wasn't what I wanted to do, so I moved on. Fortunately Armada has been a bit of a different experience for me, and much more enjoyable. Also a lot less being called an idiot or a noob for not playing the best of the best. I think I would rather win in my life, than a plastic toy game.

My favorite version of X-wing is easily Team Epic. It opens up the squad building space to do really fun things, you start off focusing on flying multiple squads or capital ships and several turns in you are bloodied but the match is far from decided. Tournaments are fun but Team Epic is amazing. You find out things like a Tie Defender cannot stay our of rear arc of a Corvette no matter how hard he tries. Or that position was a really bad choice and all the sudden a raider runs over a K-wing and a Decimator.

People are reading WAY to into this... here's what happened:

FFG online editor Jim: Hey Tom, where's that new spoiler for X-WING?

Tom: ummmmm... huh? I thought Sarah had the topic today...

Jim: No, she's out sick, we emailed you last night!

Tom: DAMNIT.... I don't have anything...

Jim: How about that Armada topic revealing that wave IV is just an updated movement tool?

Tom: No... I have that crappy sportsmanship topic we nixed a few weeks ago?

Jim: That pathetic thing? Didn't you write that as a joke?

Tom: Yea? So? They won't know the difference...

Jim: Yea, alright, post it...

I don't think it's quite that cynical, but I've written that exact article several times for Magic: The Gathering and the now-defunct World of Warcraft TCG. The website has to deliver something for everyone and support/encourage everyone in the hobby. Elite tournament gamers really are only the tip of the iceberg and they tend to be overserved by content.

Much like my Armada games, I wanted this one to be beer and pretzel. Every single player I ran into in my gaming community was constantly testing for tournaments. That wasn't what I wanted to do, so I moved on. Fortunately Armada has been a bit of a different experience for me, and much more enjoyable. Also a lot less being called an idiot or a noob for not playing the best of the best. I think I would rather win in my life, than a plastic toy game.

I do think that a lot of tournament guys just don't get how difficult it can be to find casual gamers in your area. I do think you have to put some work in, but it's not a hopeless cause. I've been able to do it in my area, but then again, I kind of built it. It was just me and one other guy to start with and now our area has 178 members in our Facebook page. I know not everyone is on that, as well.

I started my podcast to encourage Casual X-wing, but I think we might need to do an episode on how to actually find other casual players or get others in your store into it.

Much like my Armada games, I wanted this one to be beer and pretzel. Every single player I ran into in my gaming community was constantly testing for tournaments. That wasn't what I wanted to do, so I moved on. Fortunately Armada has been a bit of a different experience for me, and much more enjoyable. Also a lot less being called an idiot or a noob for not playing the best of the best. I think I would rather win in my life, than a plastic toy game.

I do think that a lot of tournament guys just don't get how difficult it can be to find casual gamers in your area. I do think you have to put some work in, but it's not a hopeless cause. I've been able to do it in my area, but then again, I kind of built it. It was just me and one other guy to start with and now our area has 178 members in our Facebook page. I know not everyone is on that, as well.

I started my podcast to encourage Casual X-wing, but I think we might need to do an episode on how to actually find other casual players or get others in your store into it.

The lack of casual players is a big reason why I stopped playing last year. Just sick to death of 100 point deathmatches. A big push towards casual play may cause me to come back...

I started my podcast to encourage Casual X-wing, but I think we might need to do an episode on how to actually find other casual players or get others in your store into it.

The lack of casual players is a big reason why I stopped playing last year. Just sick to death of 100 point deathmatches. A big push towards casual play may cause me to come back...

Yeah, I really need to do that episode of How to Build Casual X-wing Scene.

I will say that Heroes of the Aturi Cluster has gotten LOTS of great press. Most people have heard of it and heard good things. It really is fun. I've found a number of people that have basically quit the game and gotten them back into it.

I've got one friend that is a cop and works 3rd shift. The only time we get to hang out is at the summer at neighborhood pool watching the kids. I'm thinking HotAC might be perfect for him to play again!

"Just as you might self-ban turret weapons and auxilliary firing arcs if you want to focus on maneuvering, you and your opponent might choose to ban certain ships, pilots, or upgrades from your squad design in order to promote new squad designs. You can do this easily at any squad-point value, including Epic"

~in other words you can pretend we never invented this stupid s#it.

Ok so after looking at this Heroes of Aturi Cluster I just can't figure out why FFG hasn't done something similar to rake in the dough?

This has a huge appeal to the crowd that also wants to play a game cooperatively with friends, which is a growing market for sure. If this was legit I would pay for it, but I will gladly take it for free.

Wake up FFG! THIS is the kind of thing that gets me into the game... unfortunately this campaign seems to require a large number of ships and therefore is not as appealing as it could be.

If FFG could do a mini campaign with a core box set, more than the 3 ships in their existing one, it would be a lot more appealing to the casual gamer. But I guess I am not their target audience.

As I think Imperial Assault can attest to, trying to split your limited focus and manpower on two separate goals does not tend to result in a totally equal game.

Imperial Assault is starting to hit it's stride now. They are figuring out the point cost structure, and it is really wide open now. The statement above was true a year ago, I would say it is much better now, and especially after the Bespin release.

Yes IA's skirmish is severely hampered IMO by the buy in price just for map tiles. Right now you need the core, Twin Shadows, Return to Hoth, Princess Leia and Storm Troopers blister packs. That is about... $220ish USD pre tax, regular price. Or for us Canadians, well over $300. That is stupid. They need to address that for sure. And even with that you won't be running the most competitive lists.. but still a pretty solid one. Most stores just let you bring printed maps (technically that is illegal I guess?) or they make sure ahead of time they have enough tiles to go around. But it is still a problem. How much would it cost you to buy in to run a competitive list with X-Wing right now?

That being said, you also get a kick ass campaign to go with it. So that is why anyone who wants the pure 1v1 goes to X-Wing and I think most people who want the campaign go to IA. The problem is you shouldn't have to pick either or, what if we want to play both? Or as this article says integrate them together? That is my main goal, I would love to be able to weave IA and X-Wing into a smaller RPG campaign to play over many sessions, but as it stands right now it just isn't feasible without some sort of official FFG support.

Again, all that being said, the IA skirmish has seen a massive flourish over the past year, especially since they nerfed the 4x4 format and it really opened the game up to a ton of lists. Trooper swarms are still pretty popular but the 'meta' fluctuates from region to region. On top of that with the recent announced expansions and figure packs they are seriously attempting to balance things out for hero heavy lists, which will basically make anywhere from 10-15 lists viable for championship level play. Does X-Wing have that much balance or variety at the highest level?

Much like my Armada games, I wanted this one to be beer and pretzel. Every single player I ran into in my gaming community was constantly testing for tournaments. That wasn't what I wanted to do, so I moved on. Fortunately Armada has been a bit of a different experience for me, and much more enjoyable. Also a lot less being called an idiot or a noob for not playing the best of the best. I think I would rather win in my life, than a plastic toy game.

Because the two are mutually exclusive right?

I really wish that there was a book you could buy with certain missions planned out in it. It could have predetermined placing for your asteroids, maybe a wrecked shuttle somewhere on the map and a points per team or maybe even predetermined teams set into it. It's really hard to find people to fly casual with when everywhere you look you see optimized 100 point lists made and people meta gaming all over the internet.

I think some not all of this forum needs to change a little bit as well. Whenever I see people asking about a list they are usually met with Well this is better or that needs to be fixed before it is even viable. I would really like to see a split between people promoting casual gaming and tournament gaming alike.

How much would it cost you to buy in to run a competitive list with X-Wing right now?

...

Does X-Wing have that much balance or variety at the highest level?

If you were trying to get into competitive X-wing and going for the cheapest list possible, I think you can spend less than $100 for a decent list. There is the chance you might have to buy 1 or 2 upgrade cards on ebay. I'm thinking of Bro Bots here. Do some people end up spending a lot more than that to build competitive lists? Of course, but you don't have to. Often, if you are going to big events, you usually borrow stuff you don't have from friends. So, it's not that bad. Also, people in X-wing tend to generally like to buy lots of minis and spend more. If you really try, though, you can have decent lists for not so much.

The variety question is harder to answer. The game has been plagued with a lack of variety at the upper levels for a couple of years. I will say that there has been a large amount of new products in the past year that have really opened up the possibilities. What you don't see is a lot of people actually trying different lists. Netlisting is rampant and leads to some pretty monotonous tournaments in my humble opinion. Still, there is more variety now than there was a year ago. It's not that you can't write a unique and effective list, but most people don't want to take the time to do it.

Also a lot less being called an idiot or a noob for not playing the best of the best. I think I would rather win in my life, than a plastic toy game.

Completely with you. There is some user whose only comment is constantly, if you don't like the game "git gud." It's like saying the only way to enjoy aviation is to be a cutting edge, mega-ego jet fighter pilot jumping off carriers. The truth is, they are WAY more people who can climb into a Cessna on a pretty day and enjoy the hell out of aviation without the benefit of GLOC.

Also a lot less being called an idiot or a noob for not playing the best of the best. I think I would rather win in my life, than a plastic toy game.

Completely with you. There is some user whose only comment is constantly, if you don't like the game "git gud." It's like saying the only way to enjoy aviation is to be a cutting edge, mega-ego jet fighter pilot jumping off carriers. The truth is, they are WAY more people who can climb into a Cessna on a pretty day and enjoy the hell out of aviation without the benefit of GLOC.

P1) X-Wing is life

P2) He is a winner at X-Wing

C) He is a winner at life

"Show me a gracious loser and I'll show you a bus boy" - Woody 'Soontir' Hayes

I play IA but honestly enjoy the Campaign mode more than Skirmish. Objective-based missions add variety to the standard shoot-you-in-the-face dogfight matches. I've played most of the X-Wing expansion missions but they vary wildly in quality. Well thought out IA-style campaigns for X-Wing with branching storylines would be a welcome addition.

I play IA but honestly enjoy the Campaign mode more than Skirmish. Objective-based missions add variety to the standard shoot-you-in-the-face dogfight matches. I've played most of the X-Wing expansion missions but they vary wildly in quality. Well thought out IA-style campaigns for X-Wing with branching storylines would be a welcome addition.

You should try the fan made Heroes of the Aturi Cluster. It's excellent. Those from IA would probably love it.

You should try the fan made Heroes of the Aturi Cluster.

I'd agree, if you're looking for something more narrative focused that system is about as good as you're going to get.

You should try the fan made Heroes of the Aturi Cluster.

I'd agree, if you're looking for something more narrative focused that system is about as good as you're going to get.

Yep. I'd also recommend looking up 'battle for Ord Calda" if you want a PvP narrative campaign

Also a lot less being called an idiot or a noob for not playing the best of the best. I think I would rather win in my life, than a plastic toy game.

Completely with you. There is some user whose only comment is constantly, if you don't like the game "git gud." It's like saying the only way to enjoy aviation is to be a cutting edge, mega-ego jet fighter pilot jumping off carriers. The truth is, they are WAY more people who can climb into a Cessna on a pretty day and enjoy the hell out of aviation without the benefit of GLOC.

P1) X-Wing is life

P2) He is a winner at X-Wing

C) He is a winner at life

"Show me a gracious loser and I'll show you a bus boy" - Woody 'Soontir' Hayes

Is this supposed to be funny? Are you telling me I am worthless because I play for fun and don't mind losing?

You should submit a custom card or two in the Custom Card League . I think it would be awesome to have a scum Han, or a Rebel shuttle pilot or two. Could be very interesting.

I have been working on my 12-card squad idea. . .

On second thought, I think I'll keep my ideas to myself. I tried that once (see the Heavy Chaingun thread), and basically got nothing back but criticism.

The other "Fly Casual" thread has really finished me off for these forums. Most of the info here does not relate to me, and I really am already tired (in less than 5 weeks) of people complaining about FFG, the meta, and each other. I'm sure I'll check back in a few months, but mostly I hope to get my info from the crew at Shuttle Tydirium and FFG's main page. With any luck, I can be surprised to discover that the forums have morphed into a site for camaraderie, assistance, and fun over a shared passion for a game.