On 3/2/2017 at 8:18 AM, heychadwick said:

NEW YORK CITY ?!?!?!?!?!?

I just about fell out of my chair laughing! Those commercials were so silly. Man, this got my day off to a great start.

Interesting episode!

-As for "time-window"-sessions: What do you do with upgrade cards and categories? Excluding <Tech> from a ANH-timed scenarion/campaign is relatively straightforward. Same for certain named ship titles. Other stuff can get more complicated, do you allow ALL turrets, bombs, systems etc? What to do with the retcons (when do A-wings and Defenders appear, conflicting between old SW lore and the new canon) or characters hanging in a limbo right now ("purged" EU)? Or characters, like e.g. Ventress is long dead by the time almost all X-wing ships are valid time-period-wise (exceptions maybe ARC, YT, Z95, Ywing)?

As said above TFA-dated scenarios/missions/story arcs suffer from the Rebels and Scum having almost no ships.

What I would like to do, but lacking time, is write and playtest a series of Scarif battles.

-Gencon event: Are titles for ships allowed (e.g Misthunter?). Assuming these are then drafted as well, and gone when the ship is destroyed? Ships earning a name (maybe not fighters but "old faithful" support ships/bombers)?

41 minutes ago, Managarmr said:

Interesting episode!

-As for "time-window"-sessions: What do you do with upgrade cards and categories? Excluding <Tech> from a ANH-timed scenarion/campaign is relatively straightforward. Same for certain named ship titles. Other stuff can get more complicated, do you allow ALL turrets, bombs, systems etc? What to do with the retcons (when do A-wings and Defenders appear, conflicting between old SW lore and the new canon) or characters hanging in a limbo right now ("purged" EU)? Or characters, like e.g. Ventress is long dead by the time almost all X-wing ships are valid time-period-wise (exceptions maybe ARC, YT, Z95, Ywing)?

As said above TFA-dated scenarios/missions/story arcs suffer from the Rebels and Scum having almost no ships.

What I would like to do, but lacking time, is write and playtest a series of Scarif battles.

Actually, timing windows aren't as bad as it sounds. As you are writing the scenario, you define which ships are available. Appropriate comes with some leeway. Sure, the TIE Phantom was noted as being in the classic Rebellion era, but if it breaks the scenario it's easy to say they weren't available at this particular sector. Star Wars has a pretty good history, but it doesn't have core books noting which ships were available in which sector. Short answer - if the ship breaks the scenario - it shouldn't be available. This is where testing your mission several times with different combinations comes in.

I'm not very big on podcasts, but I listened to this episode to hear your take on what many seem to be frustrated with at the moment. I was a little surprised that you focused on the complexity, the layered interactions, distribution of the upgrades and the obscurity of the current ships seeing the most play in competitive environments.

What I had kinda expected to hear was frustration that the game has made pick up games more frustrating because of the wider gaps in list power these days. It reminds me of 40k in that you need to have a conversation about what kind of list you're playing and what kind of game you're looking for so that one or both of you don't end up wasting your time. Gotcha 40k was a thing. Now it happens in X-wing.

Gotcha X wing! I love that term. I got sucker punched in a "casual" scenario the other night by a total gotcha list.

16 hours ago, Arschbombe said:

Gotcha 40k was a thing. Now it happens in X-wing.

15 hours ago, BlodVargarna said:

Gotcha X wing! I love that term. I got sucker punched in a "casual" scenario the other night by a total gotcha list.

Just to be the noob, what does this mean, exactly? That you come ready for casual, and you opponent comes for tourney meta?

No, not exactly. It's just a surprise mismatch. 40k had the problem because the rules were spread across 16+ factions and sub factions each particular rules. Few players had command of all of them. So you'd have players making decisions in game without understanding what the other side could do and getting surprised by unexpected capabilities and combinations of abilities.

40k had huge power gaps between the various factions. X-wing has lesser gaps, but it's still possible to have a complete mismatch that you get surprised by during the game.

On ‎3‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 7:57 AM, heychadwick said:

I was a little hesitant to do this episode. I was worried about being too negative. I wanted to let people vent and complain for a while and then pull it back to "but we play casual!" I think I let the venting go on for too long. Personally, I think it's a great time to play Casual X-wing. There are a ton of ships and a ton of ways to play the game. You don't have to fall into the trap of power combos. Just have fun with it.

Let me know what you think!

Personally, I think all of this "muttering into our beards" (as my wife likes to call it), is great for the game, especially if FFG is listening. I think a lot of people who felt "hey, look at this great Star Wars game," and are now saying "this game is great, but where did the Star Wars go?"

Unlikely you guys, I'm not disappointed about the loss of simplicity; in truth, I feel like the game just got interesting about 2-3 Waves ago. OTOH, I can't argue with your New/Old Testament comparison; there is a definite rift between early ships (unfortunately the "classics") and the current ships. Still, I can drop a FO TIE (or even s/f) and still be just as happy seeing it zoom around as a TIE/ln. I don't care that Kylo can fly with Vader and fire at Anakin and Leia all in the same battle. I miss my squints, though. Still, a very simple option (as I think you pointed out) is to use the SW timeline to get what you want: "for the next 6 mos, we'll only play OT ships."

I was a bit surprised at the "hate" on the Raider. I thought it was kinda cool that FFG got to "make" Star Wars rather than "steal" Star Wars. I was trying to figure what FFG might make into a Huge Imp ship, and the only ship really small enough in the lore was the IPV Patrol Corvette (which, in truth, the Raider resembles a little). I don't think they should do this regularly (especially with Starfighters; there are just so many), but every company that has had the license has been able to add to the IP, so I think FFG/X-Wing should get its chance.

Another thing I found "amusing" (for the lack of a better word) was someone's OCD notion that if they didn't keep up with all the current stuff, then they weren't really playing the game. All I would say to that is that you play with new and old, yet forget about cutting edge. (Which you guys did touch on.) For example, stick with wave 1-4 "classic" ships, but feel free to tap all the new upgrades that could go on them. Autothrusters and Squints are like bread and butter, and I don't think would ruin a Early Ships Only "meta." X-Wings get barrel roll, too. Conditions too complicated and fussy? Forget about them!

Anyways, I think it is great you guys are carrying the baton from where Mynock started, if only to show FFG that the folks at Mynock are not an isolated incident. In thruth, my biggest complaint about X-Wing is that I don't get to play enough .

10 minutes ago, Arschbombe said:

No, not exactly. It's just a surprise mismatch. 40k had the problem because the rules were spread across 16+ factions and sub factions each particular rules. Few players had command of all of them. So you'd have players making decisions in game without understanding what the other side could do and getting surprised by unexpected capabilities and combinations of abilities.

40k had huge power gaps between the various factions. X-wing has lesser gaps, but it's still possible to have a complete mismatch that you get surprised by during the game.

Ah, then I am in fact guilt of this. . .my brother doesn't keep up with the game as much, so I drop Fenn, and "Gotcha X-Wing!"

1 hour ago, Darth Meanie said:

Ah, then I am in fact guilt of this. . .my brother doesn't keep up with the game as much, so I drop Fenn, and "Gotcha X-Wing!"

That's where it has the most impact and does the most damage with the casual players who don't keep up with the FAQs and the bleeding edge of shenanigans.

Just completed the episode - it did get a bit much on the down side in the middle somewhere but the episode finished in a good place. Didn't agree with everything but increasing complexity can be a barrier to some and especially new ones. I do think you can use quite a variety in the current meta though and still do well and have fun with it.

Really liked the idea of thematic tournaments officially supported based on set eras, FFG could release a tournament kit that is based on an era, list ships allowed, then which pilots or upgrades are not allowed for that tournament so its thematic. There will still be top lists as in tournament play at the moment but it will increase variety, players would use different ships without having to buy new ones to keep up.

Really looking forward to the release of your campaign, I will definitely try this out with a group when its done so please make it as readily available as poss, maybe post files on BGG for us to download.