Does anyone on here know (or had past experience on) how easy it will be for a Gencon attendee to get the X-wing 2.0 expansions? Like how has it worked for new releases in the past? Can they sell out? I wouldn't want to get all the way there to find out I can't even buy X2.

They have gotten to the point to where you should be able to get something eventually.

Hope you like lines, though.

Good luck getting them. In 2016 they gave tickets to all of the people that played X Wing to pick up the X Wing stuff, which was nice, but they were only valid for that day, and you were playing in their tourney all day long. So you had to have someone else *cough* wife *cough* go pick them up for you. Which still requires standing in a LLLOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG line. They didn't repeat that in 2017. Which means the only way at all to get the stuff will be to storm the vendor hall doors at 9am when they open, and hope you're fast enough to be one of the people who gets in line before they run out of stuff.

The good news is that they set aside stock for each day, so if you're not there Thursday, you have a chance on Friday to get it, and if you don't get it Friday, you can try again Saturday. But unless they bring back the ticket thing, it's far from a guarantee.

They have x many sets per day. So, one day sellout means there will be more next day.

If you play in FFG event they sometimes offer to reserve you stuff.

There will be long lines.

I'm thinking of storming the gates when they open. Not sure if that's insane, but Thursday is my only day to wait.

8 minutes ago, Khyros said:

Good luck getting them. In 2016 they gave tickets to all of the people that played X Wing to pick up the X Wing stuff, which was nice, but they were only valid for that day, and you were playing in their tourney all day long. So you had to have someone else *cough* wife *cough* go pick them up for you. Which still requires standing in a LLLOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG line. They didn't repeat that in 2017. Which means the only way at all to get the stuff will be to storm the vendor hall doors at 9am when they open, and hope you're fast enough to be one of the people who gets in line before they run out of stuff.

The good news is that they set aside stock for each day, so if you're not there Thursday, you have a chance on Friday to get it, and if you don't get it Friday, you can try again Saturday. But unless they bring back the ticket thing, it's far from a guarantee.

They uh.. extended the one day thing in 2016 to be good the next day for the X-Wing players since well... the tournament went well beyond store hours and they likely heard about it... plenty. I do remember getting in that line at the lunch break - it was miserable and I left.

They did the ticket thing last year as well, but they brought much more stock so it really wasn't an issue. I finally threw out my unused ticket for product last month.

I expect they'll have plenty of product - though you need to be patient and schedule time to get to the cash register.

I'm expecting something as crazy as 2.0 to cause stock issues even during official release

But I'm anxiety-prone and paranoid

1 minute ago, LagJanson said:

They uh.. extended the one day thing in 2016 to be good the next day for the X-Wing players since well... the tournament went well beyond store hours and they likely heard about it... plenty. I do remember getting in that line at the lunch break - it was miserable and I left.

They did the ticket thing last year as well, but they brought much more stock so it really wasn't an issue. I finally threw out my unused ticket for product last month.

I expect they'll have plenty of product - though you need to be patient and schedule time to get to the cash register.

Herm... I didn't get any tickets for X Wing or Armada last year even though I participated in both. And that's news to me that they extended them in 2016. Don't tell the wife - she didn't like having to wait 2.5hrs for me to get shiny toys.

12 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

I'm thinking of storming the gates when they open. Not sure if that's insane, but Thursday is my only day to wait.

That's about the only way to get anything from FFG. If you have never been to Gencon before, there's going to be about 20k people standing outside the vendor halls waiting for those doors to open. If that's your plan, be sure to arrive PLENTY before 9am, and make sure you're at the right door so you can get to FFG quickly once they open them.

Being hearded like cattle and waiting for hours to buy at full retail price...no thanks.

It's adding insult to injury if you wait for hours only to be informed they are sold out.

I will gladly wait until 2.0 is available online and discounted off MSRP...as I have done for years now with x-wing.

Last time I waited in a line for something was Thanksgiving night at Walmart for an XBox One. I do so because it was $75 off, included games for free, and there was a guarantee if they ran out of stock...I would still receive one before Christmas.

That was the last time I felt motivated to wait for over an hour to buy something.

Do you need your conference badge to get in to the vendor hall?

1 minute ago, Mistborn_Jedi said:

Do you need your conference badge to get in to the vendor hall?

Yes

1 hour ago, heychadwick said:

I'm thinking of storming the gates when they open. Not sure if that's insane, but Thursday is my only day to wait.

Same here. I tried to leave Thursday as open as I could so I could wait in line.

I’ll be spending pretty much the rest of the Con with your crew.

My hope is that FFG will have copies available at the In-Flight Report Wednesday night.

Last year I played x-wing day two, they would not give me a presale ticket. The line was 3 hours long. I didn’t wait.

Gate Stormers FYI: Get there early, be prepared for a massive uncomfortable crowd, and watch out for unintentional bumps. I've watched from the inside as the doors opened... It's like a plague of locust descending upon the vendor hall.

The question of whether or not they have product isn't relevant if you aren't willing to wait in their lines to get it. My con time is typically far too precious to spend 2 hours in a line.

This year, I will drop by several times to see if I can get lucky and catch the line at a short point. But the line to get into their booth is the source of the bottleneck, not (generally) their supply. I shall try but again, I have to balance that against my wish to enjoy all the other stuff going on at the con. I have some gaps between events, so I am cautiously hopeful that I'll be able to get in there. If not, I'll wait a month to get it like the rest of the masses. And pay less to do it, too.

1 minute ago, skins1924 said:

Last year I played x-wing day two, they would not give me a presale ticket. The line was 3 hours long. I didn’t wait.

Huh. Maybe I got all of them from being in line? @Khyros you could have a better memory. I know I got a Guns for Hirer ticket when I lined up looking for a TIE Phantom in a mad scramble before the event, I handed that off to some player that day since they didn't have TIE Phantoms in stock. Got another one from not sure where, then. I could have sworn it was playing on the Thursday.

2 minutes ago, LagJanson said:

Gate Stormers FYI: Get there early, be prepared for a massive uncomfortable crowd, and watch out for unintentional bumps. I've watched from the inside as the doors opened... It's like a plague of locust descending upon the vendor hall.

Absolute fact. I've seen it from the inside as well, and also have watched the videos. Locusts isn't even a worthy comparison. It's a literal nerd stampede.

I will just echo - there will be tons of people. The lines will be long, uncomfortable, and you will miss out on the rest of the stuff at the convention. People will be grumpy and moody in line. It's not fun, and I choose to avoid it at all possible. Tried it once with a different game company and it is awful.

Also there are about 500 (maybe more, maybe less, not sure exact number) VIG that will be in the hall on hour before the rest of us. If a lot of them decide they want the game, they will already be in line.

I think FFG comes through the line and offers tickets if you want to come back later. But, if you come back later there will be a line and you may be farther back than before.

I hope this year they offer a presale for pick up. A lot of game companies are doing this now. It makes the whole convention more enjoyable. Less room is being taken up by people wanting to buy one thing, and people waste less of their time in line. Alternately, since the game comes out a month later, I would hope they bring lots of copies that will last the weekend.

All in all, just judge how many games you'll actually play of it from August 2nd through early September, and is it worth the wait in line?

5 minutes ago, cptmusket said:

I think FFG comes through the line and offers tickets if you want to come back later. But, if you come back later there will be a line and you may be farther back than before.

What does the ticket get you?

5 minutes ago, cptmusket said:

All in all, just judge how many games you'll actually play of it from August  2nd through early September, and is it worth the wait in line?

My incentive to wait in line would be more about eBay opportunities than actual personal use, but your point is still valid.

Last year was my first year at Gencon, when the Guns for Hire expansion was releasing early there.

FFG was sold out of that expansion within the first 2 hours of Gencon opening and were out for the entire rest of the convention. There was no stock set aside for the rest of the days, as I asked the workers at the FFG booth and they confirmed that they were completely out for all of Gencon on Thursday.

I would expect the same to happen for X-Wing 2.0 given how big a thing it is. So better get in waiting for the exhibition hall to open that Thursday as soon as physically possible then pray you're in that line fast enough.

2 minutes ago, Derpzilla88 said:

Last year was my first year at Gencon, when the Guns for Hire expansion was releasing early there.

FFG was sold out of that expansion within the first 2 hours of Gencon opening and were out for the entire rest of the convention.

I would expect the same to happen for X-Wing 2.0 given how big a thing it is. So better get in waiting for the exhibition hall to open that Thursday as soon as physically possible then pray you're in th  at line fast enough.

If that's how it goes, I'll wait a month. I have a Thursday morning event that is more important to me.

7 minutes ago, direweasel said:

What does the ticket get you?

The ticket is a reserved copy behind the booth for your purchase... though it does expire since they'd rather sell it than return to the warehouse with it.

2.0 release is HUGE. Surely FFG knows and is planning for this beyond just “get here early and stampede to our booth”

There are so many ways they could make it easy and even guaranteed.

For instance, they could have copies ready at the In-Flight Report. I think they have 500 tickets for that event so that’s 500 people that wouldn’t storm their booth Thursday.

They could create “Events” with a set amount of tickets for each time. You sign up for the “event”, show up at that time and get your copy.

3 minutes ago, drail14me said:

My hope is that FFG will have copies available at the In-Flight Report Wednesday night.

Don't count on that. They don't typically take cash registers into the inflight reports...