New poll out! Sorry for the delay, busy month.

Today's question is "Where do you normally play x-wing, and how competitively". It's multi-select, both because I want to combine the questions of location and competitiveness, and since some people play in multiple places.

• At home or friends' homes, with friends and family
• At nearby game stores
• At long-distance game stores (travel 1 hour or more)
• At events and conventions, e.g. gaming conventions, PAX, Worlds, etc
• At school or other locations
• I play mainly casually
• I play mainly competitively
• I am a new player

You can view the poll on the wiki. If for some reason that doesn't work, you can try this direct link.

Last month's poll thread can be found here.

For me personally we have a great local game store... I tend to be semi competitive. Usually during League play outside of that it’s rather casual.

I used to be competitive. I've drifted more and more toward casual over time (driven partially by my distaste for how first edition's Triple Auzitucks felt for players I played it against; playing the meta against other players is often only fun for them if they can match its power), finally settling on "too casual to tournament my way out of a paper bag". Now I'm in real trouble when I want to play a tournament because I'm pretty bad at meta-quality stuff, and I think some of my skills have weakened considerably.

I play at local game stores, about 30 - 45 minutes away from home. For some reason most of the stores really close to me don't do x-wing. Bah.

I play at home pretty often, a (very nearby) store, and I'll travel to stores within an hour (by motorcycle or BART) for events. I very occasionally travel farther than that -- for example, I'm going to LVO -- but usually not just for X-Wing. (I visit Vegas often, to hang with friends, drink, and gamble, for instance; which I'll be doing in addition to X-Wing at LVO.)

I am a very competitive person, but with limits. I just can't bring myself to play the very worst of meta cheese. (There isn't too much of that in 2E, which is nice.) I pretty much never ride the wheels off a list ... I get bored long before I perfect flying a given squad. I will always allow rewinding for an opponent to fix something he or she has forgotten, unless (1) the game-state would make that unfair (the opponent has gained impactful information), or (2) the opponent has somehow indicated no desire to allow that. So ... I fly competitively casual? Or casually competitive? I dunno.

Darth Meanie has reminded me that I also love to play casual formats. I was a huge fan of HotAC, and will likely check out the 2E ports of it at some point (with trepidation and some distrust of non-Derksen playtesting). I love playing linked missions, like Shuttle Tydirium's narratively linked campaigns. And just last Thursday, two other players and I played a predator-prey game (200 points on a standard mat) that was very fun.

I play this game because it's Star Wars, and for that reason only. (Yes, OK, it has to be a well-designed game, too, or it wouldn't be fun.)

So, I'm 110% casual, and don't need all of my components to be tournament-capable. In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing some silly ideas (like On-Death abilities), and thematic things that are 100% SW but "break" the design rules of the game. For example, allowing the Rebels to use the Lambda as Shuttle Tydirium, if only as a single one-off mission.

I play the majority of my games at the FLGS where I’ve helped establish a base of operations. We play primarily casual xwing standard format, although when a local event is upcoming we sometimes have a few of us break off to practice. I practiced with several of them for a Hyperspace trial locally, for example (finally broke into top 16!!! Dice!!!)

Once epic is out, we plan to incorporate the scenarios into our weekly play plans. And we will for sure be playing with the new environment cards when they drop.

I do have occasional games outside of the FLGS, but that’s the minority at the time.

Ive got a few game stores within 30 minutes. Im mostly competitive, probably 90/10 of competitive/casual percentage.

At the various FLGSs in my city

Thanks everyone for the almost 200 votes so far!

At a FLGS, and casually.

Depends on what you mean by "competitively"

Here in NYC, we bring our favorite lists which are often built take on the creme de la creme

But we're not ***** it comes to exploiting unintentional mistakes or easy-to-miss interactions (for example, how you now have to dial in a blue for Hera to use Nien --> we'd explain, ensure understanding, and let the player change to the intended manuever)

Local Game store, and I fall in that grey zone between casual and competitive.

I don't really go to bigger events, but enjoy them when I do.

I usually don't allow myself to fly meta lists.

My LGS is only 15 minutes away by drive techincally, but the traffic on league nights makes it a 40 minute drive and I don't have a car so by public transportation it takes almost an hour to get there. I am a competitive person so I play competitively but I try to joke and make games fun for my opponents, I am often fine with take-backs if they're not abusive and will even let my opponent change a maneuver if they made an obvious mistake, and I try to force myself to try at least one new off-meta list each night. That said, I enjoy being the player who is known for playing a certain specific list that nobody else plays and being dedicated to it, I feel it gives me a nice niche within the community and increases my community engagement.

I will play at as many premiere events as I can when they are in the neighborhood, but I have never flown for an X-Wing tournament (though I have attended system opens while flying to attend events for other games). At most I will take a roadtrip to a neighboring state with other players to attend a high level event.

I think I have played X-Wing at home one time in 6 years of playing, which was teaching the game to my wife. She won and didn't like the game (not a star wars fan).

Hmm. Almost 3-to-1 casual.

It would be cool to see FFG put together a pure casual Card Pack that plays with things like ships/pilots out of faction (Poe in a stolen TIE}, faction-flavor busters (X-Wing Stealth}, or faction swapping cards (hiring mercs} that wouldn't be toura-legal and see how that goes.

To give another perspective.

I don't really care for Star Wars, it's a nice setting and all but I have others that I prefer.

I don't really treat X-Wing as a creative outlet, I paint miniatures as a creative outlet.

For me the most fun aspect of X-Wing is list building, finding that extra efficiency nobody else has found and getting as good as I can at flying. I'm happiest in games where both of us are cheesey degenerates throwing bended rules at each other. Thankfully I have a local community that doesn't mind, and naturally I tone it down for new players and people who do not share the sentiment.

But in short, I'm here for tournaments and high level play.

I play an even split between home and my local game store. I also go to adepticon every year.

In terms of casual or competitive it depends on how many games I can get in. If I'm only playing 2 or 3 games a month I'm strictly casual (run what you love flying). If I can constistently play 2 to 3 times a week for a few months I play competitively.

At home or friends' homes, with friends... there’s no real scene nearby for competitive play, and even if there was, I don’t know if I’d be sure enough about my qualities to join in. 😅

20 hours ago, Hobbyist said:

Local Game store, and I fall in that grey zone between casual and competitive.

I don't really go to bigger events, but enjoy them when I do.

I usually don't allow myself to fly meta lists.

Basically this, the perfect zone.

We're very lucky to have a great scene in SE UK, with store tourneys in 4 different FLGSs just ~30min drive away, as well as larger HS trial events and highly competitive scenes within an hour or 2. It means regular opponents, on both casual weeknights and local tourneys, that cover the entire range of ability. Everyone is lovely and a lot of us see each other often, so 'competitive' comes with a qualifier, games are nearly always casual in tone.

Additionally, my 10yr old son is a fan of the game, playing at home and wingmanning me at tourneys.

So basically the entire gamut of play experience for me.

I'm not hugely competitive, despite often playing people who are and are running meta lists they've practiced and taken to big events.

I like my squads to be my squads, but I do try to have them able to cope with what the best can throw at them. If i can fly it well, at least.... Saying that, I never really play a squad for more than a dozen games, mostly half that. I'll come up with something I want to try, I play it on one of my weekly casual nights and if it hits the mark, I'll take it it to the next tourney. Then I'll come up with something else to have a short run with.

At home, all the Scum nonsense comes out. Occasionally, Ill take something that has seemed fun and OK out on a weekday evening and get done over with it....

My son will no longer play against my favoured Imp squads, since that's where my small competitive streak lives and it only puts him off the game if I try it on

53 minutes ago, Cuz05 said:

I'm not hugely competitive, despite often playing people who are and are running meta lists they've practiced and taken to big events.

I like my squads to be my squads, but I do try to have them able to cope with what the best can throw at them. If i can fly it well, at least.... Saying that, I never really play a squad for more than a dozen games, mostly half that. I'll come up with something I want to try, I play it on one of my weekly casual nights and if it hits the mark, I'll take it it to the next tourney. Then I'll come up with something else to have a short run with.

Cool, this covers a lot of me too. I really like variety and I bounce around factions, ships, and squads quite a lot. If something is doing well I'll give it a longer run but eventually move on because I have so many other squads I want to try. I thankfully have a mix of casual and competitive opponents so I can generally dial in the threat level I'll face based on how casual I think the list is. Usually my stuff is very casual -- I favor the experimental & interesting over the powerful.

Everyone, thanks for sharing! I love hearing about how others play the game.

BTW, we've suddenly shot up to 300 votes! That's 100 new votes in about a day.

Because I was 10 days late, I'll let the poll run until the 10th to get a full month in. I'll have the next poll ready by the 15th.

Speaking of next poll... here are some ideas:

Which faction feels most neglected/nerfed/underpowered?

• Rebel
• Empire
• Scum
• Resistance
• First Order
• Republic
• Separatist

or

Hey Mr. Owl, how many shots does it take to get to the center of a Quadrijet?

• A One... Two-hoo... Three *bam crit crit crit*. Three.
• *dons sunglasses* ONE shot, ONE kill.
• Quadrijets are immortal gods, have you ever tried killing one on the last round of a tournament?
• NO! What kind of MONSTER would shoot a poor, innocent Quadrijet?!
• Who-hooo plays Quadrijets anymore?

Okay, that one may have been a little facetious.

What kind of a MONSTER would shoot at a poor, innocent Quadrijet?! (easy vote)

Maybe the next poll should be about the next big thing FFG is releasing. EPIC!

What are people most excited about?

• Huge ships
• Multiplayer modes
• Scruffy-looking Nerf-herders

Or maybe the new and coming card packs

Which card pack are you most interested in?

• Never Tell Me the Odds Obstacle Pack
• Fully Loaded Devices Pack (My personal favorite)
• Hotshots and Aces Reinforcement Pack

Or what ship needs new pilots released in a card pack to make it more viable?

I'm particularly interested to see how varied the responses would be for the last one. (Rebel A-Wing should be a clear winner)

Long distance stores. Closest FLGS to me is approx 1 1/2 hours away, each way.

That's one of the reasons I try my hardest to get to as many multi day events as possible as well. Don't mind the travel so much if I'm going to get plenty of games out of it.

You forgot to add Vassal.
Vassal is where I get most of my games in. But when life can swing it I go to a local game store an hour away. I think the point is important, because if not for vassal, I would have no reason to stick with keeping up with the game considering how hard it is for me to get to a local store.

17 minutes ago, Cr0aker said:

You forgot to add Vassal.
Vassal is where I get most of my games in. But when life can swing it I go to a local game store an hour away. I think the point is important, because if not for vassal, I would have no reason to stick with keeping up with the game considering how hard it is for me to get to a local store.

I didn't even think of Vassal! Sorry about that.

2 hours ago, dunhop said:

What kind of a MONSTER would shoot at a poor, innocent Quadrijet?! (easy vote)

Maybe the next poll should be about the next big thing FFG is releasing. EPIC!

What are people most excited about?

• Huge ships
• Multiplayer modes
• Scruffy-looking Nerf-herders

Or maybe the new and coming card packs

Which card pack are you most interested in?

• Never Tell Me the Odds Obstacle Pack
• Fully Loaded Devices Pack (My personal favorite)
• Hotshots and Aces Reinforcement Pack

Or what ship needs new pilots released in a card pack to make it more viable?

I'm particularly interested to see how varied the responses would be for the last one. (Rebel A-Wing should be a clear winner)

I know, right? Quadrijets are little angels, I can't imagine anyone shooting them.

I think I might do a combination of your first two suggestions:

Which upcoming product are you excited about?

• Huge Ships and Epic Play
• New Multiplayer Modes
• New Pilots in Hotshots & Aces
• K2-SO finally joining the game after 3 years
• New types of Obstacles
• New Bombs, Mines, and other Payloads
• Environment Cards
• Major Vonreg's TIE
• Fireball
• Wave 6 Ship Re-Releases (Saw's Renegades, TIE Reaper, Hound's Tooth, TIE Interceptor, TIE/D Defender, RZ-1 A-Wing)