It's weird. This game would still be as mechanically fun, but it wouldn't be as _awesome_ without painted minis.

And let's not kid ourselves: 90% of people wouldn't paint their minis. Which means that when people go into stores and see people playing, the game just looks a lot less interesting. Because of that, I think it might actually hurt sales of the game overall.

True. The models serve zero purpose apart from being 'shiny'. If we take a step further back and ask if people would still play if this didn't come with minis at all. It's still mechanically the same game. I'm sure we'd hear a resounding "No!"

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I argue the ships make the game feel like SW (clearly) and most of us initially got into this game because of that reason. Removing the ships has an obvious negative effect. But further to this, the colouring of the ships also plays a part in that recognisable 'Star Warsy' design aesthetic.

Where it gets interesting for me is watching FFG continuously produce and create ships that fit into most of our personal SW canon and design space .. given they exhausted most of the 'official' recognisable stuff in early waves.

Probably not getting into the game. I did it mostly cause my children wanted to play this rather than Man o'War.

The factory paintjob is amzing at the price, also feel like it got better recently as costumer base jumped to new heights.

If unpainted, if gotten in the game at all, I would buy at a slower pace, and certainly not for the price.

I do like painting, and I have/am repainted/ing quite a number of my ships, but that's voluntarily. Having a bunch of ships standing that i MUST paint in my restricted free time would give me bad vibes/conscience about just not managing to finish them in months.

Also, as already said,

-much less fun facing unpainted or only black primed squads (with the excuse like "that's my black 8" or similar comments )

-much smaller player base (many do not want to paint, extra cost in time and in money for paints and pencils)

I am not too sure.. these days I don't really have the energy or time to paint models. It took me long enough to paint my BFG fleet!

Painted models are so much better for this game because you can firstly just immediately play with the new model you just received in the post. Most ships should only be painted in a certain way, ie tie fighters are pretty much bluey or grey and most people would probably paint it as such.

The quality of the pain jobs is probably better than what I could achieve on my own.

I hate playing against unpainted models, and thankfully that doesn't happen in x-wing.

Lastly you always have the option to easily repaint the ships.

Almost certainly no. The models being painted collapsed a big hurdle for me getting involved in a minis-based game again. I enjoyed playing 40k and associated games like BF:Gothic and Gorkamorka back in the day (before it went bananas. I got in during first edition, and out by fourth), but I hated having to paint the models before actually playing. After I got out, I swore I wouldn't fall into that style of game again (made all the easier by the release of Dawn of War), so X-wing was perfect for me.

No I would not buy this game if it was unpainted. I don't play Armada because not all of the ships are painted. FFG missed out on a lot of sales as far as I'm concerned.

That bugged me at first too, but honestly, you tend to look right past the unpainted squadrons really quickly. The details on them are so small that I forget they're not painted during the game.

Depends.

If official tournaments enforced some kind of 'must be painted' policy then definitely not. I suck at painting, don't like it (so no interest to learn) and I'd rather not have to do it (nor pay somebody to do it) just so I can play in tournaments.

Otherwise sure, but I'd probably keep my whole collection unpainted.

I have played a couple of miniature games with the best of intentions of painting them, but rarely get around to it, and even when I did because I hadn't done much before I was rarely happy with the standard of finish. So I'm very happy that these are pre-painted.

On top of that I am certain that the group of friends I play with would never have gotten into the game as much without them being pre-painted.

What is impressive about the painted miniatures is the standard that they get painted to. The level of detail really adds to the game and makes it much more of a pleasure to both play and just look at.

No. I want to play a game, not sit on my own with a tiny paintbrush getting frustrated over the number of unpainted models I still haven't finished. The fact that they're painted is one of the main reasons I play X-Wing over 40k.

Only if painting wasn't required at tournaments, and even then, maybe not. A big draw of it for me is that it's playable and looks good out of the box, but I can still repaint if I want to.

Probably not.

Although I'm actually a reasonably good painter (I played 40k for a long time so I'm well practiced) and have repainted all of the ships I own, I still think the painted ships out of the box is a good thing.

Without trying to sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet, I do think my repaints are an improvement on the vanilla (there's also an extra attachment you get to the squad when its recognisably yours), but the factory paints look great so when you play a game its a good visual experience. When I compare that to some of the games of 40k I've played against grey plastic hordes or 3 colour minimums...

Nope. I played 40k for years with a completely unpainted army. Painting does not interest me in the least.

The painted models were what attracted me to this game.

Under half price, maybe... Wouldn't have bought as much since i'm not very motivated to paint right now

Definitely not. I was looking at different miniature games and I have had always an issue with the fact that they are not painted anyhow and that you need to mount everything together to be able to play. I am a father of two kids and spare time is precious, I do not want to waste it for painting / gluing if I can simply play.

It's a bit of a double edged sword for me. As of now; I would. However; I would have never got into X-Wing or back into wargamming/modelling in general if I hadn't been able to get my toys straight out the box and play. I'd be happy to paint all my minis these days but really wasn't after not playing/painting anything for nearly 20 years.

Question is in the thread title: Would you still buy and play X-Wing if the ships came unpainted?

Not to put too fine a point on it but... No I would not buy or play X-Wing if the ships came unpainted! I do not paint, I do not model and I do not care to do either.

Perhaps I'm one of the odd ones but I bought my first X-Wing ship because it was painted and highly detailed. Yes that is true I didn't even have any intention of actually playing. I walked into an LGS and saw the Millennium Falcon, called my wife and told her I was buying a new game and didn't know or care if I would play it. But I at least was going to get a few miniatures.

Now I have at least 2 of every small ship. Four or more (Except TIE Advanced only 3) of every Imperial and Rebellion ship, 10 TIE L/N, 8 TIE Interceptors. One of every large ship except for 2 Lambda Shuttles and soon another Falcon. One of every Epic ship. I can easily field two 400 point Epic squads without using aces or Epic ships. Is iy possible that I have too many?

Nevertheless I would not have purchased a single ship had they not been painted well and came highly detailed. That is how I got into this game.

I do/have painted minis (still got zombicide minis to paint) and I would consider myself decent. But I am over it. Just opened the Arc 170 today. Such a beautiful model. no warpage, everything aligned perfectly, and a paint job I would be happy with. Sure I would do more washes and weathering. But the rebel logo I couldn't do. If the models came unpainted and i tabled what we are getting out of the package... I would be proud. So no, I would not be invested in x-wing if they came unpainted.

Yes if they were unpainted. No if they came in pieces you'd have to cut, sand and assemble.

Been there, f*** that.

Yeah, the main reason I got Wings of War a decade ago was because I had access to the official painted minis of a Sopwith Camel and Red Baron. Flying around with paper cards was never fun, now flying around the dining table with 4 Wave 1 WW1 planes was friggin awesome.

Star Wars: X-Wing and Wings of War/Glory awesome.

I just need to find closer players.

I have to admit I'm surprised, nearly 100 posts and I'd guess 90% of them are no.

A big draw of it for me is that it's playable and looks good out of the box, but I can still repaint if I want to.

Same here. I enjoy painting and am fairly good at it. But I agree that a big part of the draw of X-Wing is that it's playable out of the box and I'm not sure I'd bother picking it up myself if I had to paint it.

Probably not.

The models on their own are great, but i was reluctant to get into another tabletop game because painting over 15000pts of orks and tau, painting ~1200pts of Warzone Imperials, and a decent chunk of trolls for Hordes before i sold them really burned me out on painting. Xwing/Armada doesnt make me paint them, so i was very happy to get into not only a great game but a somewhat cheap game i dont have to paint either.

My artistic edge is slowly showing its face again, it tends to disappear for 4-6 months and i dont wanna do anything artistic, but im not sure if i want to repaint any of my ships.

I wouldn't have gotten in during Wave 1 had they been unpainted, I'm sure it would have worn me down eventually but I wouldn't have the 100+ ships I have now. Prior to X-Wing I never painted miniatures, because of X-Wing I dabble in painting. I am so glad I don't have to paint all the ships though. Pre-painted miniatures of this caliber certainly has earned FFG a ton of my money.

Nope.
One of the selling points for me was that the miniatures came prepainted.

The fact that IA is unpainted and Armada hs unpainted squadrons is the reasons I choose X-Wing when I entered the hobby.

No. If I had to paint everything I would have never gotten into the game and spent the $100 of dollars I have already spent on ships. Even if they decreased the price a huge amount, to something like 5$ per expansion.... highly doubt I would get into the game even then.

I probably wouldn't have started playing. My painting skills are ancient and I would have doubted my ability to do the ships justice.

Now that I've repainted a few and enjoyed the results, I wouldn't have an issue, if they were a tiny bit cheaper to make up for it. I mean, I don't have any more unpainted dial covers, and I bought extras just to paint them, so I know I would just buy them anyways

I enjoy building and painting models, so yes, I'dve still bought them, perhaps expected a small price drop