I know HotAC is quite popular in terms of cinematic/mission-based play. I am very intrigued by it, but I'm not sure that my group would have the patience for the continuity aspect of it and the AI ship management (although I would very much be fine with that). I may just have to Solo it if I want to try it
But are there any standalone missions any of you guys have come across that have been a lot of fun?
For a while, the Political Escort mission in the Core Set was fun, but then new ships came out and sort of unbalanced it (x7 Defenders). Something in that vein would be cool, although maybe using an *actual* ship instead of the Senator's Shuttle token.
I took a stab at this a while ago in Mission Control. I haven't had a chance to test it yet, so I'm not certain how balanced/fun it would be:
https://tools.fantasyflightgames.com/xwing/home/6937/
My gaming group doesn't play X-Wing that often (they're not as invested as I am), but I think a few cool/thematic scenarios would suit the group better than more competitive games; where they don't have in-depth knowledge of synergies/builds. Perhaps something involving Epic ships; I do have the Raider and the Tantive IV.
Thoughts on missions?
Favourite Scenarios/Missions?
Hi Tom!
Personally, I love missions and campaigns and such. I'm such a fan of the Casual X-wing scene that I started a podcast about it. We talk about all sorts of missions, HotAC, and epic games. We have reviewed a few missions from the various products, but still have a lot more to try out!
http://shuttletydirium.podbean.com/
Right now we are going through all the missions in the CR-90 campaign. If you are going through them, you might want to take a listen to those particular episodes. We go over each mission on it's own for a good 30-60 minutes. The overall consensus is that it's heavily tilted against the Rebels. There are a number of tweaks overall we recommend or for each particular mission as it seems a bit clumsy in some of the rules for the mission. The Rebel player usually needs some help....and I'm the Imperial player! I'd say that either letting them take one of the Modifications that came out in the Gozanti (you can proxy them), letting them pick their own equipment, or tweaking each mission a little would be advisable. Oh, the first mission is usually won by the CR-90, but we have chalked it up to first time playing against it.
Oh, we haven't reviewed all of them yet. We just finished 3A....which leaves us with 3B and the final mission 4. If anything, we have one of our guys read the intros in a dramatic voice and it sounds really really cool.
Mission Control is a mess when trying to search for stuff. Everyone agrees on that. I will say that there is one guy who writes great missions. They are balanced, fun, and thematic. Babaganoosh is his handle. I started looking for his missions above all else. With full disclosure, I did like his missions so much that I invited him to be co-host of my podcast. So, I know him now, but I didn't know him when I asked. I asked because his missions were always very cool. His missions are still cool. He has a lot of them.
My favorite mission from Babaganoosh is actually a 3 person match. The Imperials start off with more points than anyone. The Rebels want to steal something from them, but don't have enough points. They higher the Mercenaries (Scum) to help them. The Scum figure out what it is and want to steal it for themselves. So....the Rebels and Scum combined have more power than the Imperials. At some point, the Scum is going to turn on the Rebels and try to take the object for themselves. Together, they can defeat the Imperials, but both of them know that the game will turn into Rebel vs. Scum, so no one really wants to commit their forces to fight the Imperials. It's a very interesting mission and quite fun.
I would also recommend trying Heroes of the Aturi Cluster. The only person who had a negative play experience with it was due to the group he was with. He tried it again with a different group and had a great time. We did a few episodes on HotAC and even interviewed the creator. The AI isn't really that hard to control once you figure it out. We always split up the control of it. One person had the Tie Fighter card. Another rolled the dice for each ship. The card reader read out what it was. Someone else then usually moved the ship (whomever was closer). Once you get the hang of it, it's not too bad. You might be surprised by how much your local game likes it. The chance to improve your pilot is a strong draw for a lot of people. Oh, the one thing I would recommend to change is to pool your XP instead of just having a few glory seekers hog it all. It's a much better and cooperative game that way.
I admit that I haven't gotten to the Raider missions yet. I've flown one or two, but that's it.
Wow, thanks for all that!
I will definitely be listening to these episodes of the podcast this afternoon while I work; the mission side of X-Wing is something that I don't see get a lot of coverage so it will be a nice change.
I think you have twisted my arm on the Heroes of the Aturi Cluster; it's too cool of a concept to pass up. Guess I'm reading that PDF again tonight!
I've played the first mission of the Raider campaign; I won as the Rebels the first time, using Wedge Antilles and 3 Rookie Pilots. After that playthrough it was plain to see *why* FFG specified 'no A-Wings' for the Rebels. It didn't take me long to kill one of the TIE Advanced Prototypes and at that stage you're good to leave your board edge to win the mission; A-Wings could have evacuated SO fast
The second time, I was the Imperials and narrowly missed out on killing the last escaping ship.
A fun mission though. And a few of the future ones that I've read about *look* fun; particularly the one where the asteroids actually move across the board!
I played the first mission once with a guy who didn't know epic too much (J-bot from the show). He ended up going too fast with the Raider and then couldn't fire at anything. So, I lucked out and was able to get away! It was more user error with the Raider than my good flying.
My favorite mission is the standard game. Been playing it since wave 1 and still having a blast.
I will totally second HotAC, though. If you can find the group and the time, it's definitely a fun thing to do.
I like the standard game, but I like to shake it up a bit, as well. It can get a bit dull for some people if you only do 100/6.
Here's a few fun scenarios to try:
Generally, the FFG scenarios are fine if you play them at a casual level, but fall apart if you play them with a competitive attitude. They also get a little goofy sometimes. I try to build scenarios to be very thematic and balanced with competitive play in mind. A lot of these missions were written a while back and I probably need to go back over them and re-check the balance, but inertia is a thing when you have as many missions as I do.
Hey!
My advice is ....try em all!
my fellow players and i come from a tabletop rpg/wargaming background so to us a decent scenario is a very important thing (like a corner piece in a jigsaw).
Having played almost all of the published scenarios i can say my favorites are the three way which is in the aggressor box (though in my case it helps that the three of us all play different factions) the hyperjumpy one that comes with the jumpmaster which is normally hilarious and above all others, the glory that is the Imp vets "im gonna start throwing bombs around" one (though saying that ive been flying tie bomber only lists since the ship was released..im kinda obsessed).
Babaganoosh raises a good point, the published scenarios dont lend themselves to a playstyle that is cutthroat but certainly they can be very very good fun (ps shout out to the tydirium crew, been listening since ep1)
on the subject of epic play......in our group its the preferred game style if we`re not doing a scenario though we`ve played all the campaigns which come with the epic ships and have found them all to be pretty decent, though the CR90 one is probably best overall.
Cant say anything about HotAC yet as we`re only just starting it next week.