I’ve waited a bit to ask this question so the new edition was more “broke in,” but does anyone have children that are playing 2.0? If so, how is it going in comparison to the first edition (if your kid played that edition)?

My oldest son and I were playing the first edition of X-wing pretty regularly over last summer (he was 8 at the time). I kept it simple at first and slowly introduced elements to the game. He got to a point where he enjoyed team building and as a parent I enjoyed the educational benefits of the game for him (math, strategy, creative thinking, etc). So how does 2.0 and the new app team building stack up against 1e?

My son is 6 and plays with a few select ships and very light upgrades.

He flies mostly bounty hunters, slavers and falcons. The turret rotation versus focus/TL choices he grasps pretty easily. Dice addition/subtraction is now much more straightforward(and a GREAT way to teach young kids math, by the way). Most of the built-in abilities besides defenders are a bit much for him.

I think linked actions and reposition actions are a bit harder to grasp than their 1.0 counterparts. But he was so young in 1.0 I couldn’t tell you if he would grasped them now.

He can’t read well enough to use the builder yet, but once he does I think it’ll be easy. These kids are all more tech savvy than us anyways.

My son is most of the way to 12 now.

He started competing by himself in official tournaments just before 1st ed finished, aged 10 and a half.

He now finishes above me some of the time.

He started playing single ships or smaller groups of ships when he was 8, progressing to running parts of our team epic lists, helping me in events by rolling dice on my behalf and moving the ships around, and then playing his own lists. He's been using online squad builders for over 2 years and has a good eye for what works.

He disliked having to learn the new ruleset, but found the transition no harder than most adults.

There are quite a few kids around his age who take part in tournaments we go to, but I'd say 10 is the youngest who should do so, because the 8 and younger ones struggle with the duration of each game and playing multiple games.

10 minutes ago, TasteTheRainbow said:

He can’t read well enough to use the builder yet, but once he does I think it’ll be easy. These kids are all more tech savvy than us anyways.

Right? I’m thinking the use of an App might put this game front and center.

7 minutes ago, Flavorabledeez said:

So how does 2.0 and the new app team building stack up against 1e?

You're not going to see much difference in the actual building of squads except for a few things:

• Points are not on the cards so you invariably have to use an app or computer unless you want to work off printed pdfs.
• There is less combo-wombo so many ships are very effective without upgrades or one or two.

Play-wise there are things to get accustomed to: barrel rolls are different, Turreted ships are no longer 360°, Reinforce is different, linked actions are a thing and you have to learn a handful of new tokens like Calculate, Force, Strain, Delayed Fuses, etc.

It should be an easy transition.

So, if you do most of the homework, and choose easy ships and upgrades, what is earliest age to introduce a kid to the game?

My girls are 32 months and 2 months old, so I'm not exactly in a hurry...

1 minute ago, LUZ_TAK said:

So, if you do most of the homework, and choose easy ships and upgrades, what is earliest age to introduce a kid to the game?

My girls are 32 months and 2 months old, so I'm not exactly in a hurry...

At 2 they can roll and count dice.

At 4 they can conceptualize what a dial does.

My oldest started playing in tournaments at 6.5, in 2016. He reliably hit the top half of tournaments in 1.0, even bigger ones.

2.0 is not working for him all that well for bigger tournaments. Way too many interactions and tokens to keep track of on the other side of the table (and more "gotcha" list building). There's just way too much content to be aware of and to understand in the 5 minutes you have to set up.

He said he has fun at both HST we went to (going 2-2 and 1-4), but he had a blank look on his face every time an opponent would start building an intricate ability queue that seemed to mean "yeah, whatever, let me know when we're back to dials".

He never liked combo wing or word salads, which 2.0 is actually worse at.

We'll stick to more casual tournaments for now. Or stay home, if that doesn't work.

Mine are 9 and 6 and I’ve just started a simple clone wars HotAC game, cooperative so there are no winners and losers to put them off. Not seeing any need to introduce them to “normal” games any time soon.

1 hour ago, drjkel said:

My oldest started playing in tournaments at 6.5, in 2016. He reliably hit the top half of tournaments in 1.0, even bigger ones.

2.0 is not working for him all that well for bigger tournaments. Way too many interactions and tokens to keep track of on the other side of the table (and more "gotcha" list building). There's just way too much content to be aware of and to understand in the 5 minutes you have to set up.

He said he has fun at both HST we went to (going 2-2 and 1-4), but he had a blank look on his face every time an opponent would start building an intricate ability queue that seemed to mean "yeah, whatever, let me know when we're back to dials".

He never liked combo wing or word salads, which 2.0 is actually worse at.

We'll stick to more casual tournaments for now. Or stay home, if that doesn't work.

I can definitely empathise with this.

My X Wing boy is 10. The other is too much of an individual to like the same thing, at 7...

He has drifted out of the game a fair bit. His interest remains but notsomuch in actually playing. Lots of factors... Pokemon, competitiveness....

The technicalities do seem to bore him now though, whereas they hadn't for a year of 1.0 and several 2.0 waves.

He does still really enjoy accompanying me at tourneys, but it's more a day out together now, he doesn't think about the actual games the way he did. Unless it's at a more straightforward level that he gets. He was very engaged when we flew Twin Sprays, for eg.

Tbf, he's never really liked my Imps that much..... Echo kinda broke him.

However, the digital side is second nature to kids these days. Launch Bay is really fun and clear to use. They love it.

You just have to watch they don't end up squad building on a screen the whole time, not even looking at a model....

2 hours ago, Cuz05 said:

However, the digital side is second nature to kids these days. Launch Bay is really fun and clear to use. They love it.

You just have to watch they don't end up squad building on a screen the whole time, not even looking at a model....

Ha! His younger brother and him love building lists in launch bay next!

The middle brother builds them for me as he only wants to fly fangs, they bring him joy. But they love discussing lists.

They had me fish all my 1.0 stuff from the recycle bin this summer so they could list build analog-style. So it's not just screens.

2.0 has one HUGE kid-friendly element that 1.0 never had: Quickbuild cards. List building is a lot to take in, especially for new/younger players, but with Quickbuilds most of the work is done for you. All you have to do is pick the ships/pilots you want to fly and then start flying.

My 12 yr old won a 10-person tournament... #dadbrag

On 10/12/2019 at 5:06 AM, Herowannabe said:

2.0 has one HUGE kid-friendly element that 1.0 never had: Quickbuild cards. List building is a lot to take in, especially for new/younger players, but with Quickbuilds most of the work is done for you. All you have to do is pick the ships/pilots you want to fly and then start flying.

That's neat, did not think of that.

Oldest child now 13, got me into X-Wing (having about 90 ships and 4 Huge ships in the family is entirely and solely that child's fault, I swear ) as he was 9. (Insisted showing up with Star Destroyers made out of Putty, when we were playing sailship battles in Man o War, so I finally gave up). Had no problem shifting over to 2nd, enjoys it, cause was clearly sawing how broken 1st ed was already 2 years before the end. Lately dropped off a bit from playing at the club due to lots of competing interests like scouts, playing music, singing in a choir, music theory course, hanging with friends; computer games a big time stealer, and also not enjoying the gotcha aspect of some of the newer 2.0 stuff. As well as too much Waac of some players there, child wants now mostly wants to play HotAc.

Second is now 10, started at 6.5, playing in the club at 8. Is really good flyer, but dislikes the too competitional atmosphere at the club. Paints ships, which the older is too lazy for.

Third started at 6, now 8, not that overly interested.

But enjoyed what the other 2 also enjoy most: everyone of us has one ship, flying as a group (ignoring faction restraints) together against ship sallad flown by theHotAc AI. Good way to learn flying and cooperative family activity.

The last one, now 6, is much more into playing with cars and the Gaslands templates

the game is way less people friendly in 2.0, but less kid friendly in particular.

At least with my family and friends kids the app based squad building is a non starter. you want toy ships and pew pews but its gated by a variable spreadsheet. 1.0s cards with costs system meant my god-son would rummage in the cards, lay em out, do some simple addition and we were done. it rarely took him more than 5 or 10 minutes to make a squad from scratch. we tried that in 2.0 and half an hour later he was just looking at youtube so we didnt play.

I discovered X-Wing online in a fall day a few years ago. So I did what any self respecting dad would have done: I bought a starter set and “gave it to my sons” for Christmas. One son played a bit and lost interest. The other begs me to take him to every tournament within 500 miles.

My experience is different from Vontoothskie’s. My son will sit with the list builder app for hours if I let him.

My kids started learning at 7. 8.5 now and are agitating for when they can do their first tourney. They're still a bit slow in moving through the game, and they are insistent on jousting even with ships that shouldn't, but they "get it". They transitioned to 2.0 no prob.

I have to pull the boy away from the squad builder. It's a game in itself for him. They love building squads.

8 hours ago, Old Sarge said:

My 12 yr old won a 10-person tournament... #dadbrag

My oldest's 1st tournament, when he was 6, was his best result (in pure ranking), coming 2nd out of 13. That tournament was also my best result to that point, I was 3rd #bittersweetdadbrag

He blindsided many people that day, they did not expect someone that young to be able to play that well.

Soooo, between 5 and 6 is a good spot to begin?

I have big plans in my mind about watching Rebels with the eldest and then popping the Ghost mini on the table...

I did had the chance to watch my wife reaction to the Luke/Vader scene in ESB.

5 hours ago, Vontoothskie said:

the game is way less people friendly in 2.0, but less kid friendly in particular.

At least with my family and friends kids the app based squad building is a non starter. you want toy ships and pew pews but its gated by a variable spreadsheet. 1.0s cards with costs system meant my god-son would rummage in the cards, lay em out, do some simple addition and we were done. it rarely took him more than 5 or 10 minutes to make a squad from scratch. we tried that in 2.0 and half an hour later he was just looking at youtube so we didnt play.

Allow me to quote myself:

13 hours ago, Herowannabe said:

2.0 has one HUGE kid-friendly element that 1.0 never had: Quickbuild cards. List building is a lot to take in, especially for new/younger players, but with Quickbuilds most of the work is done for you. All you have to do is pick the ships/pilots you want to fly and then start flying.

I started my son around age 6 with 1.0. I did all the builds. He got the mechanics down but losing ships was hard for him. We switched to Frostgrave a while back and he’s been taking losses much easier (both individual guys and bigger strategy collapses). I may bring him in to 2.0 at some point, but game time is limited. He really liked the Ghost and rebel As in 1.0 but I’ve not figured out a good build for him for 2.0. He only likes playing good guys. 😁

5 hours ago, Vontoothskie said:

the game is way less people friendly in 2.0, but less kid friendly in particular.

At least with my family and friends kids the app based squad building is a non starter. you want toy ships and pew pews but its gated by a variable spreadsheet. 1.0s cards with costs system meant my god-son would rummage in the cards, lay em out, do some simple addition and we were done. it rarely took him more than 5 or 10 minutes to make a squad from scratch. we tried that in 2.0 and half an hour later he was just looking at youtube so we didnt play.

Depends on the kid. I imagine the kids who are on their parents’ phones at restaurants could use the app fine. 😯

If a kid is to learn the mechanics rather than relying on the adult, 2.0 is a cleaner system and thus more kid-friendly once you have stuff on the table. That is my son’s strength, in 1.0 he was reminding me how things interacted!

On 10/12/2019 at 12:22 PM, Pewpewpew BOOM said:

Depends on the kid. I imagine the kids who are on their parents’ phones at restaurants could use the app fine. 😯

If a kid is to learn the mechanics rather than relying on the adult, 2.0 is a cleaner system and thus more kid-friendly once you have stuff on the table. That is my son’s strength, in 1.0 he was reminding me how things interacted!

couldnt disagree more.

On ‎10‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 4:06 AM, Herowannabe said:

2.0 has one HUGE kid-friendly element that 1.0 never had: Quickbuild cards. List building is a lot to take in, especially for new/younger players, but with Quickbuilds most of the work is done for you. All you have to do is pick the ships/pilots you want to fly and then start flying.

Not just kid-friendly; it's great for newer players, too.

So I tried with my now 4 year old daughter a couple of months before her birthday. She really enjoyed the tactile aspect of rolling dice, matching shapes, using the templates and seeing the ships move, but was obviously a bit too young to quite understand the dynamics of the game as a whole. Mostly she just wanted to do as many red manoeuvres as she could because red is her favourite colour

However it is a start that I intend to keep up!