Are X-wing 2.0 large ship bases fixed?.. and other gripes.

By kevlor55, in X-Wing Mission Control Technical Support and Feedback Forum

With the rollout of the Second Edition.. are their plans to slow the Lambda Space Cow down to where an A-wing can catch it? The way it is now, large ships gain an entire base length on a fighter every time they touch a template.. so an engine upgraded Shuttle has gained 2 fighter lengths on the A-wing by the time they have both boosted, which means the A-wing with a top speed of 5 can't catch the Lambda's top speed of 3.

That's a tie between the fastest and the slowest.. and Correllian freighters shouldn't be able to leave Interceptors in the dust. A simple fix is for large ships to use the template one size smaller than shown on their dial. You could print a small sleek number on the fighter side and a big fat number on the other for large ships.

The extra base length is negated and then a dialed "Hard 2 turn" travels the big ship the same physical distance as a "hard 2 turn" does a fighter. A dialed "3 bank" on the Falcon uses the 2 bank template and then its Xwing escort can keep up. When a "1 straight" is dialed on a large ship you would simply slide the base forward its entire length along a straight template.

Of course, speed one banks and turns are the smallest templates we have so if you want to get away with not introducing new templates you could keep the big ship from getting a free length during a "hard 1" turn by using the same "hard 1" template as in the image below. You line up the template with the side of the ship token and the results are within a millimeter of a "hard 1" in a fighter.

I think it is a fundamental element of every aspect of maneuvering ships... and their relative roles tactically and strategically.. to have a fighter move like a fighter in relation to other ships. Escort and intercept scenarios would suddenly make sense, formations of fighters that have a minimum speed of 2 would then logically have to break off and come around for another attack run against a big ship dialed at speed one. As it is now, fighters that should be used for physically dominating the Playing field become relegated to carrying distance abilities and effects and long distance actions because they can't catch the big ships. Dogfighting is great between fighters but the illusion falls apart when large ships enter the fray. The fighters aren't physically superior anymore and their focus by necessity starts to shift to exotic weapons and linking abilities and action economy. If they were made the best at flying then people could just fly them. But if an A-wing can't catch a Shuttle.... over time it only gets used as an expendable delivery system for action combos or single shot mega damage attacks.... but you have a chance right now... to repair a fundamentally broken mechanic at the heart of the game. It is a very pilot/flight oriented move for the mechanics and feel of the game. Our group, after playing a short while with the speed corrected large ship maneuvers, we have found that it just feels right.... more like the movies.. it is more fun.. and it doesn't trigger my OCD.

Large ships just subtract one when they pick up a template.

Can you please comment on any plans to address this issue, or whether this has been seriously considered?

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Edited by kevlor55
Trying to make my ideas less of an incoherent mess..

Best Idea I've seen so far.

I think I'll be adopting this in home games, thanks for working it out.

im trying to figure out how you dont catch a lambda, ive never had that issue even if the lambda had boost it turns like a donkey towing a millstone, you literally sandwich it till it flys into a corner. or run 2 parallel ships at top speed as soon as the ship banks the obvious way your second ship will be right there, thats how it worked for me. . ive been flying against those ships for a long time

CushionRide....

Not in a game perspective, you could corner it for sure, but just the fact that a boosting lambda has the same top speed as a boosting Awing.

I dont know..... It's just bothered me for a long time and it is probably the theoretical part of it that gets me. I mean.. there is an argument to be made for sure that a big expensive ship needs that extra speed because the area two cheap Awings for the equivalent price can control is still greater. With the Second Edition coming out I am suddenly reminded of all the problems that have bugged me....

It feels out balance to me......

They took care of a lot of this by just removing Engine Upgrade. No more big base boosts (except for the Falcon, where it's on the action bar standard, but that makes sense).

Oh man. That helps quite a bit. That is awesome.

Changing gripes a bit ... I heard a podcaster say that when both players have multiple ships of the same initiative, they alternate back and forth activating the ships starting with the "first player". Like Armada.. which I think is better balanced in many ways. Does anyone know if this is true?

Edited by kevlor55
Bad speling