I've been thinking about doing some X-Wing related blog posts.... but I'm not really that great of a player, so I'm not sure I can create a compelling enough dialogue to be worth the effort.

Which brings the question: What would be compelling material for an X-Wing blog? Reactions/summaries of new waves/expansions? List building? Rules dialogue? Competitive scene? All of that mixed together?

You don't need to be good to write a blog look at oli

I like a blog.

To me, the actual subject doesn't matter so much (as long as it's X Wing ofc). If the writer has a decent view and is engaged with the subject (and isn't a miserable writer), then it will be an engaging read.

If you've got good memes, even better.

So maybe it's in a strange spot right now, since people with a view are probably feeling more engaged with 2.0 than 1.0. Only there's little to blog about if you can't actually play it. Or reveal how much you're playing it....

Whatever topic is on the board, there has to be good games to back it all up. If 1.0 isn't sparking interest, then the going is a bit thin for a few months. Once 2.0 is on the tables, what I'd like to read about is whatever really grabs your interest. I'm sure there'll be plenty.

I'm still hugely engaged with 1.0 so atm, Firespray Phil is my main ray of text sunshine. Since he clearly is too and plays plenty of games. I've enjoyed lots of others, very much including yours @SOTL , but even weekly new content is kinda slow for my liking

I started creating one last year, then just sort of stopped. Im getting back into it and going to focus more on strategy and tactics than Xwing news on the Newest Wave. Will still post some battle reports, and am hoping to film more matches.

I wanted a place where newbies can go and get beginner tactics, purchase information, etc, and where other vet players can go to read on strategy and tactics they may not have thought of. When there is a meta list dominating like Fenn Ghost or 100pt Miranda, my brother and I will only try different tactics against those lists, and then I can share what I find. Similar to a post I made about Nymranda a little while back using actual footage from top competetion.

Right now, I have a few blogs up for beginners like rule of 11, and discussing ship basics. I am working on a turn zero obstacle placement series. I dont think it can be done in one go because there is alot of information for turn zero, so I may make a few on it.

https://pilotskillzero.wordpress.com/ (work in progress, only Academy section has any content)

15 hours ago, SOTL said:

A question to the group: what type of things would you like to see blogged about anyway? I've probably meandered all over in my time, from big strategy bits to 'here's a squad' to community issues, to just plain cracking jokes.

What are you looking for?

I would be curious why you might not play 2nd ed. You have provided thoughtful analysis in the past and it seems like 2nd ed fixes some of the stuff you address in your blogs. For instance VI and PtL will no longer be auto include EPTs (they wont exist) and now other EPTs will get used, you seem to be a proponent of diverse lists. TLT which was so dominant is gone, I feel like you thought it was over used. Mobile arcs will replace PWTs, brings back a bit more skill which was lacking with PWTs. 2nd ed seems to be what you were asking for.

Is anybody interested in rants about Imperials? That's all I can provide, so I'm afraid I can't help much

9 hours ago, BenDay said:

I would be curious why you might not play 2nd ed. You have provided thoughtful analysis in the past and it seems like 2nd ed fixes some of the stuff you address in your blogs. For instance VI and PtL will no longer be auto include EPTs (they wont exist) and now other EPTs will get used, you seem to be a proponent of diverse lists. TLT which was so dominant is gone, I feel like you thought it was over used. Mobile arcs will replace PWTs, brings back a bit more skill which was lacking with PWTs. 2nd ed seems to be what you were asking for.

I've twice half-written then deleted the blog about my hesitancy, because I don't think anyone really wants to hear negativity about 2nd Edition.

The very short version:

1) I've been through an FFG 1st-2nd Ed changeover with AGOT LCG and if X-Wing changeover goes that way then it'll very quickly be as bad as/worse than 1st Edition. And I'd put decent odds on PTL being in Wave 3 (I wouldn't rule out TLT reappearing either) - there were game-defining cards left out of AGOT 2nd Edition when it launched but they appeared pretty rapidly once the expansions got underway.

2) I've basically stopped playing competitive x-wing entirely, and I can continue to happily play casual x-wing in 1st Edition. It really depends on what the casual players around me choose to do as they're all on the fence a bit at present. Nothing in 2nd Edition hype so far has convinced me I want to get back into competitive x-wing.

13 hours ago, jwilliamson12 said:

I've been thinking about doing some X-Wing related blog posts.... but I'm not really that great of a player, so I'm not sure I can create a compelling enough dialogue to be worth the effort.

Which brings the question: What would be compelling material for an X-Wing blog? Reactions/summaries of new waves/expansions? List building? Rules dialogue? Competitive scene? All of that mixed together?

Well, the guy who won the inaugural Gold Squadron best blog trophy this year just writes very regularly about the squads he plays, how he's done with them. Tons of enthusiasm, bit of humour, some explosions... just a guy slugging away with his favourite squads (and a slightly irrational love of dual Firesprays). He's not trying to redefine X-Wing strategy or teach everyone how to play, he's just taking everyone along with him on his journey in the game and it's obviously found a big audience who enjoy it!

Have any of you used Medium for blogging? I've dabbled with it for the past four years or so, however infrequent my blogs have been on it. It's a great platform, with a really simple and sleek look to it.

One cool thing about Medium is you can set up a publication. So we can collectively build a hub for all X-Wing related blog posts. You can post them through your other blogging mechanisms (tumblr,wordpress, whatever) but if you copy/paste them into Medium, you can backlink to the original post on your own blog to get some better traffic.

I can set up a publication for us if there is enough interest. Name suggestions? I don't want to take a name that's already in use.

First thing I thought of was The Mauraders.

14 hours ago, SOTL said:

And I'd put decent odds on PTL being in Wave 3 (I wouldn't rule out TLT reappearing either) - there were game-defining cards left out of AGOT 2nd Edition when it launched but they appeared pretty rapidly once the expansions got underway.

I really hope you are wrong, it would be very disappointing and unnecessary to bring back PTL with linked actions. I dont play competitive but my group has all decided to switch to 2nd ed... I guess we will just have to roll the dice.

4 hours ago, BenDay said:

I really hope you are wrong, it would be very disappointing and unnecessary to bring back PTL with linked actions. I dont play competitive but my group has all decided to switch to 2nd ed... I guess we will just have to roll the dice.

I can’t speak for AGOT, but even though PTL and TLT are “game defining,” for 1.0, they just don’t have a place in 2.0. PTL is basically cooked into the core mechanic with linked actions. TLTs served as a way to token strip, but with the lack of defensive stacking in 2.0, it would be considerably OP in 2.0 unless both attacks had to land to do any damage, or if they limited it to R2 or R3 only. I suppose they could make it a charged turret.

I much prefer reading as well. I can peruse, skim or skip whatever I want. It’s just much easier to extract the information that interests me while passing over what doesn’t. My attention span is limited and my free time is short. I won’t waste it listening to what typically amounts to a scant few minutes of worthwhile information sandwiched between a truckload of worthlessness banter.

6 hours ago, jwilliamson12 said:

I can’t speak for AGOT, but even though PTL and TLT are “game defining,” for 1.0, they just don’t have a place in 2.0. PTL is basically cooked into the core mechanic with linked actions.

This pretty much happened with AGOT. Valar Morghulis was gone and a couple of 'mini-Valar' options were in the new Core set which did the same sort of job but in a tamer way. Then within a year Valar was reprinted in full force.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1592811/valar-morghulis

Some reponses from that thread...

Quote

My first thought was "wow they sure went back on that primary design decision quickly"

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They said one of the primary design goals for 2e was to prioritze big characters, and Valar massively disincentivizes them. That's why our boardwipes out of core were the partially effective Wildfire (which lets you keep big dudes) and the tough-to-execute Varys. My concern is that this is going to disincentivize the big name characters like it did in 1e, and that the game will end up revolving around it...again...for what, six years til rotation?

Anyway as far as mortality we have a board wipe, two partial wipes and lots of targeted kill. This feels unnecessary, or at least too soon.

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Why bring this garbage card back? One of the joys of Second Edition was not having to deal with it anymore. There is zero need in the game for an unblockable board wipe.

Maybe X-Wing will be different, but my experience of AGOT 2nd edition from FFG makes me... cautious.

So where are we at now? SOTL is thankfully back in business. What else is out there?

There has been an explosion in blogging since Second Edition launched. I'm going to try and grab the ones that I'm aware of and blog a 'heres how to consume X-Wing' blog. But that may not be up for a week or so.

I've got too many **** ideas for blogs right now, and not enough time to write them all!

Oh wow! Didn't know these existed; all I really read was what was on the FFG website. For a person with limited time but wants to know more about X-Wing flying and tactics/strategy, which blog or two would you guys recommend?

2 hours ago, Games'n'Geeks said:

Oh wow! Didn't know these existed; all I really read was what was on the FFG website. For a person with limited time but wants to know more about X-Wing flying and tactics/strategy, which blog or two would you guys recommend?

The guy who commented right above you has one of the best:

www.stayontheleader.blogspot.com

Others include the X-Wing hipster , Spaceowls , and a newer but very good one is Starfighter Mafia by @Biophysical

Then there are older, inactive or reactivated blogs like articles on backtodials.com (reactivated), Blair Bunke's blog @blairbunke , or others like Poor Grey Pilot , articles on Team Covenant (still active but rarely so) like this excellent article on Turn Mapping , and my former favorite by @Tvboy but he stopped writing. There are several others that I don't remember off the top of my head.

Thanks!

I started a blog on my 2.0 exploits, findable at https://eruletho.wordpress.com/

On 7/19/2018 at 11:20 PM, jwilliamson12 said:

I can’t speak for AGOT, but even though PTL and TLT are “game defining,” for 1.0, they just don’t have a place in 2.0. PTL is basically cooked into the core mechanic with linked actions. TLTs served as a way to token strip, but with the lack of defensive stacking in 2.0, it would be considerably OP in 2.0 unless both attacks had to land to do any damage, or if they limited it to R2 or R3 only. I suppose they could make it a charged turret.

Not to mention PTL would almost completely invalidate force users as they are the true children of PTL but better. TLT may very well come back but with mobile turret mechanics it shouldn’t be as bad and there are already double tap gunners ? so the mechanic exists already there is no reason to bake it in a turret. Hopefully some middle ground can be reached.