Medium Bases ... Again

By Omnitron310, in X-Wing

I realise this is a topic that has been brought up numerous times before, but I think it's worth re-iterating, because it only gets more relevant as more ships are released. Namely: why is there not a 'medium' ship base size in this game?

As more and more waves get released, we're seeing more and more ships which don't neatly fall into the 'small' or 'large' categories. Yet because of the lack of medium base, they're forced into one of those archetypes, and usually which way they go seems pretty arbitrary. Can anyone explain why the U-Wing is large while the ARC is small?

Here's a list of ships which I think should fall into this category:

  • ARC-170
  • K-Wing
  • Scurrg H-6 Bomber
  • U-Wing
  • TIE Punisher
  • Aggressor

I think corner case arguments could also be made for the Firespray and G-1A, but they're not quite so cut-and-dried. Now, the obvious question, is what would this add to the game? Well, I think in general, more variety and design space to play around with is good. And unlike lots of other additions to the rules, this one really adds no extra complexity. Small ships and large ships already work exactly the same mechanically (of course there are differences in how they fly because of the extra distance covered and space taken up by larger ships, but the actual rules for them are identical) so there would be no confusion or awkward rules patching necessary if a new base size was introduced.

It seems like even FFG agree to a certain extent because when they made Armada, they specified right from the start that there would be three ship sizes. Obviously, Armada is a very different game to X-Wing, but it's clear that they took a lot of design lessons they'd learned from X-Wing and applied them when they made Armada, to try and avoid making some of the same 'mistakes'. I realise it's probably too late now to retcon a bunch of ships in X-Wing into a new ship size, but don't people think it would have been a good idea? Maybe if/when X-Wing 2.0 comes out.

Edited by Omnitron310

I hope not. Because changes about Bases can be hellish. Square base to Round base... NOOOOOO. No big problem about Bases. To my taste of course

Nah, half base length measurements would screw up formation flying. The current system makes it always possible to line up th front of your ships, with medium bases that would only be possible every other turn. I wouldn't like that.

I'd be all in favor. Your list looks solid. Theres an argument to make about the Misthunter, too.

The biggest issue at present is what do you do with the barrel roll?

That said I totally agree that medium bases would be beneficial to the game. Visually the game looks really strange with some of the ships. The Scurgg is just the latest of these.

I think we should have medium bases -- in two forms: a "long" form 1x small base by 2x small base, and a "wide" form 2x small base by 1x small base.

U-wings & Aggressors get "long", while ARCs, K-wing, Scurrgs, TIE Punishers get "wide".

The odd shape to the base will make for interesting shifts to maneuver dynamics and arc choices.

45 minutes ago, Hawkstrike said:

I think we should have medium bases -- in two forms: a "long" form 1x small base by 2x small base, and a "wide" form 2x small base by 1x small base.

U-wings & Aggressors get "long", while ARCs, K-wing, Scurrgs, TIE Punishers get "wide".

The odd shape to the base will make for interesting shifts to maneuver dynamics and arc choices.

And this avoids any issues with formation flying.

Maybe in X-Wing 2.0, you can't add that now or retro other ships. And aggressor is definitely not medium, thing is tiny.

1 hour ago, Hawkstrike said:

I think we should have medium bases -- in two forms: a "long" form 1x small base by 2x small base, and a "wide" form 2x small base by 1x small base.

U-wings & Aggressors get "long", while ARCs, K-wing, Scurrgs, TIE Punishers get "wide".

The odd shape to the base will make for interesting shifts to maneuver dynamics and arc choices.

I like how this makes the Agressor and U-Wing sufficiently fast while keeping the heavies at standard pace.

Too late.

14 minutes ago, migs6000 said:

Maybe in X-Wing 2.0, you can't add that now or retro other ships. And aggressor is definitely not medium, thing is tiny.

We are talking bout the IG Agressor.

I'd agree. If x-wing were to come out now, with the benefit of hindsight, there would be a medium base.

There is a (small) hope that any x-wing revision Upgrade box also includes a bunch of bases of medium size, to go along with the new dice types they introduce.

See my "wide" and "long" comments for the past...7 waves or so.

6 hours ago, migs6000 said:

Maybe in X-Wing 2.0, you can't add that now or retro other ships. And aggressor is definitely not medium, thing is tiny.

Aggressor, not TIE Aggressor.

There aren't going to be any "medium bases" until the sky falls and an X-Wing 2.0 emerges from the wreckage. That ship sailed a long time ago and to introduce that size base now would be nothing but a headache for all of those older ships that really .

A question I have with medium bases is how big are you going to make them? Are you going to make them a size between small and large? Is that going to be by side dimensions or area as it really makes the most sense?

I used to be against Medium Bases.

But honestly, I think it would be a good idea. Just as well, I know it **** well isn't gonna happen for X-Wing 1.0.

I want a medium base that's 1 wide and 2 long, and has nubs on all four sides, and ships that are long and narrow can get fast forward movement but slower turns, and vice versa. It would be great. But it would probably need a full re-write of the rules.

33 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

I want a medium base that's 1 wide and 2 long, and has nubs on all four sides, and ships that are long and narrow can get fast forward movement but slower turns, and vice versa. It would be great. But it would probably need a full re-write of the rules.

Not a full rewrite, just a couple paragraphs on a card. B-rolls don't work too well with nubs in the way tho.

I love the implication of medium long vs medium wide ships. Medium long get extra distance maneuvering and medium wide have larger firing arcs. Considering the ships that would fall in each category it really seems solid.