To try and bring this back a little bit from the arguments over which of the two games is more recognizably Star Wars (that merry-go-round could go forever)...

7 hours ago, Findariel said:

To counter this, FFG could as well design a few more campaigns using existing tiles and stuff, so just books.
Book 1: you need Core box, Gambit and Jabba units and tiles.
Book 2: you need Core box and Hoth.
Book 3: you need Core box and Twin Shadows and Empire.
New books would be a great and cheap way to increase the replay value of existing content without the need to design and playtest a lot of new stuff.
Although a new deck or single unit and a few cards to come with it would be nice, like Ewok troops with book 4: Endor.

This is literally what the app is but it's going to be better - because after the first main mission the app comes with, the app will be expandable to integrate with the components (boxes and ally/villain packs) that you own. Whether that's another game mode or only more new campaigns, who knows at the moment, but I don't see any reason for FFG to develop these books (no offense, which are a good idea) when they can on the run do it in the app (it's just a way better medium and customizable for every owner of the game to include exactly what they own into the app soup's options of throwing it into whatever mode they make to take advantage of older boxes/stuff). New Books The App is a great and cheap way to increase the replay value of existing content without the need to design and playtest a lot of new stuff (again, not trying to be mean or anything, your idea is good, the app is just a better method of accomplishing it, however FFG decides to do it).

1 hour ago, IanSolo_FFG said:

Also maybe the active forum members of IA are mostly the ones who own the game components. For campaign mode, out of 5 players, only one player (most likely the imperial player) needs to buy the game and expansions to run a full 5-player campaign. So out of those 4 rebel players who gather on game night to play IA but otherwise don't have the game component to study it, I suspect few of them are actually posting on these forums.

This is a big one. The IA forums are definitely smaller than they should be, because of a lot of people who play but don't necessarily own, not being here on the boards. I know I got into the game originally for campaign with my students (who don't own the game), but only about six months in we found it hard to get time for the campaign consistently with the exact same people playing each time, so we checked out skirmish (loved it) and found a local store that was having a store championship and monthly tourneys (haven't looked back ever since). So there's at least in my personal group 6 or more people that don't get on here and post and don't own the game (though two of them have since bought core sets to try and get other people to play with them). So yes, the forums on IA probably have a semi-real larger introductory curve to them compared to X-Wing - because of a disproportionate number of "players" to "owners" in IA. Very interesting point @IanSolo_FFG

18 minutes ago, qwertyuiop said:

However, and I do not ask forgiveness for the capital letters, YOU CAN'T EVEN BUY IMPERIAL ASSAULT ON THE FFG WEBSITE!!!!!

Does that stop anyone from buying the game? (not a rhetorical question)

There are a boat load of online stores that sell all of the IA stuff. I'm lucky enough to live in a big city that I can just walk into a number of stores and pick it up.

The not being able to buy it direct from FFG online is due to the licensing agreement with Hasbro regarding Star Wars boardgames. X-wing gets around it by saying they're a table top game. They were not immune to the mouse however. A few years back they had to slap the Disney logo on everything and upped the prices a bit.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong?

1 hour ago, NeverBetTheFett said:

Does that stop anyone from buying the game? (not a rhetorical question)

There are a boat load of online stores that sell all of the IA stuff. I'm lucky enough to live in a big city that I can just walk into a number of stores and pick it up.

The not being able to buy it direct from FFG online is due to the licensing agreement with Hasbro regarding Star Wars boardgames. X-wing gets around it by saying they're a table top game. They were not immune to the mouse however. A few years back they had to slap the Disney logo on everything and upped the prices a bit.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong?

May I direct you to my profile image?

1 hour ago, qwertyuiop said:

However, and I do not ask forgiveness for the capital letters, YOU CAN'T EVEN BUY IMPERIAL ASSAULT ON THE FFG WEBSITE!!!!!

Wait, you can't buy IA on the FFG website? Does that mean IA is dead?

19 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

Wait, you can't buy IA on the FFG website? Does that mean IA is dead?

I don't think I ever even tried to buy from their website. However, I do live in Canada so that might be why.

Shipping from the USA has become insanely expensive over the last few years. America needs to open their borders to shipping more Chinese made products from their country. #MAGA

If not, our sexy Prime Minister will write you a stern letter of apology.

2 minutes ago, NeverBetTheFett said:

I don't think I ever even tried to buy from their website. However, I do live in Canada so that might be why.

Shipping from the USA has become insanely expensive over the last few years. America needs to open their borders to shipping more Chinese made products from their country. #MAGA

If not, our sexy Prime Minister will write you a stern letter of apology.

Yeah, I don't know why that seems to be the first place people go to buy their games from. Outside of smaller companies, I don't think I've ever bought a game directly from a large publisher's webstore.

1 hour ago, NeverBetTheFett said:

I don't think I ever even tried to buy from their website. However, I do live in Canada so that might be why.

Shipping from the USA has become insanely expensive over the last few years. America needs to open their borders to shipping more Chinese made products from their country. #MAGA

If not, our sexy Prime Minister will write you a stern letter of apology.

Castro's son does seem to fit the TV portrayal of Canadians, so I don't doubt it.

1 hour ago, subtrendy2 said:

Yeah, I don't know why that seems to be the first place people go to buy their games from. Outside of smaller companies, I don't think I've ever bought a game directly from a large publisher's webstore.

You don't want to pay full retail PLUS shipping?

If only bashing the current state of X-Wing on an IA forum was the answer to IA's acquisition problem.

Some advice which probably doesn't need to be said, but for anyone trying to recruit x-wing players, don't try to do so by ridiculing their game. Despite how things might look by looking at their forums, the majority of people actively playing x-wing do so because they like the game. I only say this because I have literally had Armada players try to recruit me and others by talking smack about x-wing literally while we were playing the game, and it turned me off to Armada for a long time.

Yes this is an IA forum, but you can bet that any X-Wing players that are interested in IA and checking out the forums are going to be clicking on a thread titled "IA vs XW" and forming some opinions.

Yes it's true that competitive xwing is no longer a bastion for iconic ships from the film, but I will say that it has helped me to have a greater appreciation and exploration of the SW EU that I otherwise would have had no interest in and has expanded my tastes as a fan from just the films and tv shows. Its not like Imperial Assault can really claim that it's highest levels of competition is immune to this, currently being dominated by Ugnaughts Greedo and IG-88. Yes they were in the movies, so was Bo-shek and the YT-2400.

7 hours ago, Tvboy said:

I only say this because I have literally had Armada players try to recruit me and others by talking smack about x-wing literally while we were playing the game, and it turned me off to Armada for a long time.

I wholeheartedly agree - Imperial Assault is a great game on ist own merit, there's no need to belittle other games to make it look great.

To be fair, X-Wing is a pretty cool game, and I don't think we're bashing it- just the ridiculous notion that it alone includes iconic figures, while it's "hard to tell" that IA is even Star Wars.

48 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

To be fair, X-Wing is a pretty cool game, and I don't think we're bashing it- just the ridiculous notion that it alone includes iconic figures, while it's "hard to tell" that IA is even Star Wars.

I was thinking the same thing. X-wing is an awesome game. Just not my cup of tea at the competitive level (although I may use my Regionals bye for one last go). As far as trying to recruit X-wing players to IA, that just won't happen. So, that's definitely not my intention.

However, I will definitely defend IA to the death, so if people want to question it, be prepared to have sensible reasons why. This guy right here has no issue with trolling morons.

My general rule is this. If it's Star Wars, it's cool. The end.

Rather then try to drag X-Wing players into IA or IA players into X-Wing, let's promote simultaneous play! (We might have to mortgage our house to sustain both games though ) Let's have a 3' x 3' starfield mat with a IA map on one edge of the mat representing the docking bay of a Star Destroyer. The heroes need to escape the cruiser aboard their own ship but rely on a squadron of rebel ships to disable the tractor beam while imperial fighters try to repeal them. In the meatime the heroes can try to interact with the terminals to disable the powerful anti-starfigher turrets that also prevent the rebel ships to get an easy close range shot at the tractor beam device (so heroes (IA) needs rebel ships to escape (X-Wing) but rebel ships (X-Wing) needs the heroes (IA) to get close enough :

So the point was made with this custom mission, IA needs X-Wing and X-Wing needs IA so no need to denigrate one game over the other

If we're going to have a comparison thread about IA vs. X-Wing, it's pertinent to mention our criticisms and why we chose one over the other. I agree we don't want to ridicule other games and it's human nature to blur the line between belittling/bashing and constructive criticism. If anyone is reading this thread looking into IA compared to X-Wing, I hope you find useful criticism and information despite reading something that might come off as bashing.

I also started with X-Wing. I agree that it's a really cool game. I just had to purchase it after seeing the ships in the package. Flying squads of ships I strategically picked and playing the mind games of dogfighting was awesome!

However, I lost interest in X-Wing after seeing classic, iconic ships being outclassed and replaced by obscure ships with new bizarre game mechanics like tractor beams, movable firing arcs, etc. I also found rulers and templates to be a nuisance after playing IA. The disagreements about if there was a bump or if someone was in arc ruined one too many X-Wing games. I never went to tournaments because if I had trouble just in my store leagues (which was considered casual compared to others in the area) with these problems, no way was I going to a competitive environment where opponents would be even less forgiving. I haven't played an X-Wing match in over a year.

Shortly after we started with X-Wing, my brother bought IA to play campaign with me. I got burned out after a couple core campaigns and starting a Hoth campaign due to mission balance and again, the lack of iconic characters. I wrote off the game and didn't consider skirmish because I was playing X-Wing at the time. My brother continued with the small IA skirmish scene that was present and helped with tournaments. Fast forward a year and I got super excited about skirmish when I read the HotE article saying they were fixing Han, Chewie and Vader. I dove into the skirmish scene and have been loving the last couple months of playing it. My newcomer view is the factions are pretty balanced after HotE, there's no experience-breaking, annoying game mechanics to the level of X-Wing, and I'm playing with actual Star Wars heroes I love from the movies and TV shows...and they're GOOD!

Summary: Will I still play X-Wing? Yes. Will I play it over a game of IA skirmish? Heck no.

On 11/27/2017 at 10:57 AM, The Cocky Rooster said:

Two words: Pre Painted After spending tons-o-cash to have IA professionally painted I'll be skipping Legion because the minis are unpainted.

Sadly, yes, it is this. The tell is how the game is marketed. FFG proudly displays their prepainted x wing miniatures in the blister packs and hides the IA ones behind artwork printed on paper. It maters, a lot.

Cost is important as well. X wing as others pointed out, is cheaper to get into. The the buy in is softer. I don't think one game is cheaper than the other when you really buy into both though. Armada has a similar problem with it's core set costing way more than x wing.

Game complexity is another issue. IA is a great game but the rule set isn't as accessible as x wing.

BTW, it isn't called land wars, or saber wars or even force wars, it is called Star Wars. If Lucas didn't go behind the studio's back and create the final death star destruction act in the original film, none of us would be here talking about star wars. I love the character as much as anyone, but it is about the stars and the wars.

3 hours ago, Mep said:

Sadly, yes, it is this. The tell is how the game is marketed. FFG proudly displays their prepainted x wing miniatures in the blister packs and hides the IA ones behind artwork printed on paper. It maters, a lot.

I agree the marketing scheme for X-Wing is much better. One sees an X-Wing pack and they are immediately drawn in by what they see while they could look at an IA core box and put it back on the shelf without a second thought. The pricing model is more enticing and the community is more visual with a large competitive scene.

3 hours ago, Mep said:

Cost is important as well. X wing as others pointed out, is cheaper to get into. The the buy in is softer. I don't think one game is cheaper than the other when you really buy into both though. Armada has a similar problem with it's core set costing way more than x wing.

I would really encourage people to look past the sticker shock a bit further. When all the ships for X-wing pile up, it's just as much and more than IA. I went to each of the games' respective pages on FFG and added together one of every unit. Here's the result (rounded to the whole number, of course):

IA: One core, one extra set of dice, one of each expansion and ally/villain pack, and one skirmish mat: $826 ($976 with all the other skirmish maps)

X-Wing: One of each core set, one of each ship including epic ships, and one mat: $1,745 ($1,355 without epic ships)

I understand this excludes a lot of factors (acrylic tokens, paint, other luxury items) so this may not seem like a reasonable comparison. But did we only buy one core and a few ships for X-Wing or did we start collecting more when we realized we wanted different lists, duplicates of the same ship and/or needed those upgrade cards? Did we buy a core IA and said we would hold off on expansions and blisters or did we want more once that first campaign ended? I would tell anyone to really consider how far down the rabbit hole they want to go before investing in X-Wing or IA. The odds are VERY likely that one will keep buying regardless of how soft the entry and the final bill may not be what they expect.

3 hours ago, Mep said:

Game complexity is another issue. IA is a great game but the rule set isn't as accessible as x wing.

I think the complexity is about the same. They're FFG games after all. One word of difference in the rules, a description, or an FAQ and the whole thing goes to shambles.

3 hours ago, Mep said:

BTW, it isn't called land wars, or saber wars or even force wars, it is called Star Wars. If Lucas didn't go behind the studio's back and create the final death star destruction act in the original film, none of us would be here talking about star wars. I love the character as much as anyone, but it is about the stars and the wars.

A valid point. I would say that if I walked up to a random person and asked what's the first thing that comes to their mind when I say Star Wars, they would say a character like Darth Vader, Luke, Rey, Anakin, Obi-Wan or something like the Force and lightsabers before they would get to X-Wings, the Millennium Falcon, or TIE Fighters. I feel it's still the characters who pilot those ships in the stars and their war stories that get us interested. But I love both and can't have one without the other, so yeah. Haha!