31 minutes ago, DariusAPB said:

FWIW I think the game has gotten a bit more bloated than I'd like rules-wise too, X-wings beauty was it's simplicity.

I personally wouldn't correlate rule simplicity with enjoyment of the game however. The most enjoyable times of the game were wave 4 when I jumped in to wave 6 and wave 9+

Even if I bring a list that gets countered now, I can still aim my guns at a ship and get excited when I shoot. There was a period of the game where even though the rules were much more complex, anything that I enjoyed playing could never get a shot on target and in the offchance that it did, it had little chance of doing damage.

The fundamental 'problem' is, for new players, the game is not the game it appears to be. When you start you enjoy flying round your small fighters, planning and predicting the moves of your opponent... it's really fun. Both of you have your front facing arc and that's it. If you need to turn, it's a burden because you become stressed. I was almost amazed by the fun mechanics of the game when I started, I couldn't get enough.

Then when you venture out of that, which is pretty soon because you enjoy the game so much, you get a massive shock. There are ships with three actions, ships with 360 arcs, ships with such combinations of upgrades that it hardly seems like you're participating in the game at times.

That's not a complaint, but I think it's important to understand that newbie shock. I've got to the point where I'm still going to play the ships I like but try to adjust them as much as possible for 'the meta'. It gets a little annoying when people ask you things like why on earth you're playing rebels without Biggs, but for me it feels better to be playing my favourite ships but still competing to a certain extent.

I lose maybe 70% of my games now, instead of 90%, but the losses themselves have become more fun. If you're a more competitive person I guess the effect is even greater.