My son(s) and I started with the TFA core set and whenever I've wondered about whether the game is fun, I just look at my oldest (8) having a blast no matter what he or his opponent are flying and I think it'll be alright.

Earlier this year, between a 9-round day at a regional (dice were my far fetched stretch goal, making it to the final table to play against a great guy was just bonus), and a 7-round Naboo a month later, I was feeling really burnt out. I couldn't fully enjoy the PTL Open another month later due to that.

It took me a long time to realize my issue wasn't with X-wing, the meta, or the competitive side of it, but just the sheer ridiculousness of playing a game for that long back to back. I'm having fun organizing 3-4 round tournaments now, where most people are actually happy to be done by 3:30-4pm to go do something else with their day.

I'm back to thinking I'll keep an eye on regionals close to home, my son will actually get signed up to play this time!

Pre-Phantom/CR-90.

Back in the day where pretty much every ship you'd see on the board you would have seen in the OT.

1 hour ago, Darth Meanie said:

Sometimes I think that this game is mostly played by statisticians. . .

You know what, it is a huge part I love about this game:
X-Wing prompted me to learn and do all kinds of new things outside of playing!

Graphs and statistics are part of the fun for me. I understand very well that many don't share or even understand that part, but **** I love it!

21 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

You know what, it is a huge part I love about this game:
X-Wing prompted me to learn and do all kinds of new things outside of playing!

Graphs and statistics are part of the fun for me. I understand very well that many don't share or even understand that part, but **** I love it!

Oh, I certainly get it. I used to use something called the Builder's Old Measure to come up with HP and movement stats for age of sail ships for a pirate RPG campaign I was running.

The XWM meta is just too ephemeral for me to bother. Kinda like meteorology. . .if you don't like the weather, just wait: it will change.

Edit: HA!! Here's the old thread of me gettin' mathy:

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=70306

Wave 3.

This was exactly when I joined the game, and I feel like part of it is just being nostalgic about the feels I had when first playing xwing, but at least in my mind, it was far and away the best time to be playing xwing.

Everything had a place, or so it seemed. Maybe the Bwing outclassed the Xwing a tad, but it never felt as though it was such a huge gap that you couldn't take an xwing in place of a Bwing. The only things that felt legitimately underpowered was the Tie advanced, the Tie Bomber, and at times the Awing. Even so, they weren't heavily outclassed by something else and at least largely performed unique duties.

The lists always felt good to look at too. It felt like Star Wars through and through. A tie swarm. The falcon with bwing, ywing or xwing support. Mini swarm of Ties with an interceptor or two. Stuff was sweet to see on the table. None of this 2 ship stuff. Well, mostly none...

Yes, there were some odd ball stuff, like 3 lambdas and Soontir, or double YT-1300s, but even the funny, off the wall builds were enjoyable.

And best of all, the best stuff never felt like it was so good you couldn't touch it. You blew up ties in a tie swarm. You trapped Han or Soontir with a nice block and made them pay for falling into your trap. Biggs was great in the hands of a dedicated player, but even then you knew you were at a disadvantage because that player handled the engagement better.

The play experience was great. The Falcon was a bit of a headache and introduced the "chase me" mechanic, and I would say if the Falcon was introduced without a full 360 degree arc and instead had something similar to the Shadowcaster, the game may be perfect in my mind during the time.

There is a reason the world championship between Dallas Parker and Paul Heaver is often referred to as the best game of xwing ever played. I choose to believe it is largely because they had the best game of xwing ever TO play.

Either wave 6 or 7, when scum dropped and got some options. I dislike how the new options in later waves seem to have turned Scum into the ever-present OP bogeyman faction. Ever since they were announced they've been my favourite faction to use for purely thematic reasons, even though the galactic civil war is massive there's more to the Star Wars universe than just that. People surviving on the edge of the law, with cobbled-together fleets and civilian vessels turned to piracy or enforcement of local laws. The smugglers, pirates and people just making their own way all got their own faction, and I thought that was a wonderful idea. I still do main line Scum, but I can't remember the last time I used a Jumpmaster.

My answer's a weird one:

The first third of the (still-ongoing) arc of the ridiculousness of JM5Ks.

Why? Because I built a list that was actually extremely effective against them, and could do well against other lists, too. I'm not an innovative list-builder, so that might be my favorite accomplishment (among a few very, very modest accomplishments) in X-Wing.

When I was unemployed for a few months, and was playing every week two to three times a week; in addition to riding my bike to the dog park every few days.

23 minutes ago, stuffedskullcat said:

When I was unemployed for a few months, and was playing every week two to three times a week; in addition to riding my bike to the dog park every few days.

This is funny, but I also think I was enjoying the game the most before I had a full time job. It's the paradox of money. You need money to spend your time as you wish, but you use that time to make money.

Sigh...

I'm in a bit of a quandary on this one.

Because it's a mix. When I play a game with no turrets, and no large ships, this is the most fun I've had in X-wing, period. There's just so much cool stuff to play and try and experiment with.

Whenever I play a game where my opponent has a large ship, or a a turret of literally any kind, (exacerbated if they have k4 security droids) my enjoyment has the potential to, and 90% of the time drops significantly, to the point where two or three or four of these games back to back makes me feel like I need a break from X-wing, often for a week or weeks.

Turrets are just not very fun. I'm making no claim against them being easy or hard. They just aren't fun to play against, and they never have been. You know what I would do, I would replace all 360 degree arcs with the following: a range 2-3 snapshot ability. It would feel SO much better. More thematic, and just a heck of a lot better.

I played a game the other day against someone running 5 interceptors, I had a swarm of strikers. It was completely bananas, and ludicrously fun. And everything that I wish X-wing was all the time.

Wave 9, when the ARC-170 came out and then a bunch of stuff got nerfed. I felt as if there wasn't anything i liked that i couldnt play, it was great.

Wave 7, 8, and current meta are definitely my least favorite. The current meta is so boring and uninteresting that i've actually stopped playing.

The magic for me started fading after the release of Wave 8. The boost in the action economy, alpha strike, bombs, more cost effective ships (beefier in health and movement) , etc.

Last time I played, I beat Miranda + Dash. I dug dodging the bombs and walloping Miranda.

May I suggest @Kdubb that somebody beg Mu0n to make a YT1300 with mobile arc for Vassal and we run a tourney with only wave 1-3 ships. All upgrades allowed except the TLT and Falcon gets a mobile arc and the rotate arc action.

Probably after the next Vassal league season?

5 hours ago, Steelgunner said:

Just got introduced to this game a few months ago, and have had fun in every single match, so it's all been gravy.

I was enjoying it more until you started beating me every match.

1 hour ago, Pooleman said:

I was enjoying it more until you started beating me every match.

The student becomes the master... and such.

I joined just before Wave 4 landed (in fact, the Assault at Imdaar Alpha launch event was my second X-wing tournament). However, my favourite time to play was Wave 7, or more specifically in the 3-month window between the T-70 and TIE/fo expansions landing and the release of Wave 8. It was the last time I can remember being almost entirely free to fly whatever I liked competitively, and in fact made the cut at a SC with each faction that season. TLT spam was a problem, of course, but nowhere near the level of the current meta problems, and multiple lists could deal with them without having to suck against everything else.

Then Wave 8 came along with its stupid Jumpmaster and ruined it all. The game's never recovered, IMO.

2 hours ago, gamblertuba said:

May I suggest @Kdubb that somebody beg Mu0n to make a YT1300 with mobile arc for Vassal and we run a tourney with only wave 1-3 ships. All upgrades allowed except the TLT and Falcon gets a mobile arc and the rotate arc action.

Probably after the next Vassal league season?

If you go and make allow all upgrades you're already nerfing those out-of-arc attack possibilities. It could just be me but if you only take the early wave ships but allow all the upgrades except for Falcon it seems to me most of the BIG upgrades are to the benefit of the Imperials even if they seem to have fewer upgrade opportunities. Besides that a nerf on R3 turrets only hurts the Rebel in that scenario while also effectively boosting TIE Interceptor who would now have very little reason to take Autothrusters.

11 hours ago, Skargoth said:

Wave 7/TFA Core.

Just before Jumpmasters released (no real grudge against them, just mentioning as a point of reference). I remember really hating the Imp Aces builds then, but back at this time all three factions saw good use (Inq wasn't out yet). Poe showed up and I loved him, but my own personal gem was Brobots. K-wings existed, but they hadn't really been tapped yet (good thing, IMO).

Same. I placed at a store championship with a Drea Renthal torpedo boat before guidance chips dropped, because she could force palpaces to reroll their defense against a 4 die with reroll and focus-to-crit attack.

Every single match I play. Seriously. It's the quiet joy of not playing the tournament scene at all.

Casual play. It's the best play!

I think the game was at its peak just before the Phantom debacle. After that Scum and Villiany ruined it for me. OP ships with little or no connection to the movies (not all of us have the time for or interest in the EU) turning the game into a collectable card game with a Star Wars skin, often even that isn't recognisable as such.

You don't see the ship the game is named after these days but Manaroo, whoever the **** THAT is supposed to be, is everywhere!

I asked my gaming buddy if he wanted to play X Wing last week. His response was that he had lost interest and wasn't really bothered if he didn't play ever again. We had a great game of Armada instead. Doesn't that just sum it up?!

I would rather have seen a set up when Scum could form a third of an Imperial squadron or Rogues like Han or Dash Rendar could be a third of a Rebel force. Surely it would be better than the obscure ship, overpowered Death Faction that has ruined the game for so many of us? Whilst we're at it, and I may have brought this up before, on the occasions he is used why does Darth Vader get to fly with First Order wingmen? Surely he's been dead 40 years? People are free to fly what they like of course but isn't there a case for a bit of common sense and logic even in a fictional universe? Surely it's better all round if Rebel Alliance fights Imperials and Resistance fights First Order.

I've made some of these points before I accept but I don't think my experience is unique.

Casual play - everything is still awesome

Competitive play - frustrating to have to catch up with the meta if you're a staunch Empire player like myself. Feels like everything went to heck after JM5k.

8 hours ago, StevenO said:

If you go and make allow all upgrades you're already nerfing those out-of-arc attack possibilities. It could just be me but if you only take the early wave ships but allow all the upgrades except for Falcon it seems to me most of the BIG upgrades are to the benefit of the Imperials even if they seem to have fewer upgrade opportunities. Besides that a nerf on R3 turrets only hurts the Rebel in that scenario while also effectively boosting TIE Interceptor who would now have very little reason to take Autothrusters.

Um... That's good? The whole point is to emphasize firing arcs again. The primary weapon turret mechanic was a huge mistake IMHO. TLT was a clumsy attempt to bring fat turrets under control that just made things that much worse. Expertise, Rey crew and a whole bunch of other upgrades have given red dice plenty of punch. TLT either needs to be banned or made unique in a wave 1-3 meta. It is just way too good in a way that nothing else available to those ships would be.

Wave 1. It had the best game balance and was utterly iconic Star Wars. You never knew what people would fly and it was fun to just show up and play. No one was utterly broken.

3 hours ago, gamblertuba said:

Um... That's good? The whole point is to emphasize firing arcs again. The primary weapon turret mechanic was a huge mistake IMHO. TLT was a clumsy attempt to bring fat turrets under control that just made things that much worse. Expertise, Rey crew and a whole bunch of other upgrades have given red dice plenty of punch. TLT either needs to be banned or made unique in a wave 1-3 meta. It is just way too good in a way that nothing else available to those ships would be.

So you're just a turret hater who can't deal with other people who still want to have fun and get shots off WITHOUT needing to do perfect maneuvers. A Wave 3 ship meta but with full upgraded and massive turret nerfs would likely be ruled completely by arc dodgers.