Final word? How many X-wings and Tie fighters in the base box?

By jamesmhebert, in X-Wing

plokoon9619 said:

I. J. Thompson said:

Awesome. That gives me hope. While I admit that every ship you buy having a card for Luke, Wedge, Han, Chewie, Janson, Zev, and Bob The Guy Who Fixes The Photocopier could be a little tedious, knowing that there are at least two options for each ship eases my mind a bit. I do not want to have to buy Luke's X-wing, and Wedge's X-wing, and Biggs's X-wing, and Porkins's X-wing...

Your not going to get half the pilots you named like Porkins, Biggs, Janson, Chewie. Those generic named pilots we saw on the cards are actually using the appearance of named characters.

Assuming the cards we saw are the final product. Sounds like demo version of the game was not final, and there could be differences from what we saw in the demo and the final product.

plokoon9619 said:

Your not going to get half the pilots you named like Porkins, Biggs, Janson, Chewie. Those generic named pilots we saw on the cards are actually using the appearance of named characters.

Again, that suits me just fine, for the most part. Like, I consider myself pretty well-versed in my (movie) X-wing pilots - I can tell you who 'Dutch' and 'Pops' are, for instance. But those two dudes on the cards are unknowns to me. And using photos, they had to put somebody on the cards, after all. I'm cool with having a few options, but not every single guy in the movies. After all, how different could their stats be, anyway?

Regarding alternate color schemes Star Wars PocketModels actually set something of a precedent by using different colors and pattern overlays on many of the fighters. While these are not the best pics, I hope you can see the color patterns on these ships (or search for the Taanab Yellow Aces A-Wings or Nova Squadron B-Wings).

163868.jpgshipsv07c.jpg

I'm really hoping for at least 2 X-Wings and 4 Tie Fighters. That or there had better be a LOT of tokens and cards and a very nice playing mat because otherwise this doesn't look worth the money.

I really hope this game is awesome. *keeps my fingers crossed hopefully*

DragonWhimsy said:

I'm really hoping for at least 2 X-Wings and 4 Tie Fighters. That or there had better be a LOT of tokens and cards and a very nice playing mat because otherwise this doesn't look worth the money.

The WoW Deluxe Set includes 4 plane models and costs 70$ (and doesn't include a game mat).

Now guess, how many models the X-Wing box can realistically include!

You can't possibly have enough tactical variety with 1 X-Wing and 2 Tie Fighters. The quality of the miniatures had better be the best I've ever seen then because you almost HAVE to buy 2 starter sets.

That or Amazon had better have a really nice discount.

I honestly would be fine with a simple poster starfield. Or cardboard. I don't need a fancy mousepad type material.

DragonWhimsy said:

You can't possibly have enough tactical variety with 1 X-Wing and 2 Tie Fighters.

I'd say that depends on the impact of the different pilots. If the gameplay changes significantly if you replace the pilots, then it should be fine.

It probably also won't be long until wer see the first add-ons / new models.

DragonWhimsy said:

I honestly would be fine with a simple poster starfield. Or cardboard. I don't need a fancy mousepad type material.

I and others have said many times (but I want to say it again, in case any FF staffers are reading!), that they could include a simple, single-sided starfield poster map for the price of next-to-nothing. People who would buy the deluxe mat when it's available (people like me, 'cause I'm crazy like that), will still buy it anyway... because, again, we're crazy like that. But people who wouldn't buy the deluxe mat when it becomes available (because, like you, they simply don't want one) might decide not to buy the game at all - because there's no poster map included, and having to play on a bare wooden table makes them feel like they've been 'ripped off'.

Heed, FFG! cool.gif

I think we should spend a few dollar more for a good new miniature game with nice, detailed miniatures before we save a few dollars and get a class b product. If it isn“t worth the money ... we will see.

Actually im sure they will have pilot cards for rogue squad. Custom X-wings i doubt, I mean you only really need one X-wing model and the cards can be played to any X-wing so. If u want full rogue squad you will most likely have to buy more X-wing models. But I dont see any reason why they wouldnt include the pilot cards.

An idea that was pointed out to me, but I don't think has been posted on the forums yet, is that FFG could break away from the 2:1 ratio of TIEs to X-wings and maybe have 3:2 in the starter set. While the hp does suggest a 2:1 ratio is even, if choosing pilots makes a significant difference in gameplay, why should numbers of starfighters be dictated by hp? With 3 TIEs and 2 X-wings, you still have TIEs outnumbering X-wings, but the Rebel player still has some more tactical options by controlling two starfighters instead of just one. I think that's the real killer for me: as long as the starter set only comes with one Rebel fighter, I'll feel like its not really a starter set, more like a teaser set. I just really feel like both sides need more than one ship to start with. On the flip side, maybe that's why it's called "X-wing" instead of "X-wings.' (just kidding)

Budgernaut said:

I think that's the real killer for me: as long as the starter set only comes with one Rebel fighter, I'll feel like its not really a starter set, more like a teaser set. I just really feel like both sides need more than one ship to start with.

Full agreement here. New players need to feel like they have options to get interested. Otherwise it'll be like, "X-wing? Oh yeah, I played that one time. I got killed."

I was thinking about this this morning, and I agree. 3:2 ration in TIEs to X-Wings would be a really good idea, especially for a starter. I hope they do this.

Yes. Be a little generous in the starter. Because once people have bought it, they're gonna have a hard time turning down that $15 A-wing. And B-wing. And TIE Interceptor. And TIE bomber. And...

Right. And such an approach has many precedents; anyone who's been into gaming for any time at all knows that those Boxed Starters were the best deals in town! Rules, scenarios, counters (or minis, later), a big honkin' map, and they'd damned near give it away. The notion was, get 'em started, make it easy & fun, and make 'em DEMAND more. Suffer even a loss for the sake of investment.

Now, this is a different game. Spendy ships and all. Can't just give up the farm. I get that - but they still don't want to skimp on the Starter. ESPECIALLY with the pricing involved. A sucky, lame, weak Starter will make this game stillborn.

It also must be added that this isn't just a repop of D&D or something. WotC gave great starters, even with a solid core audience available (folks like me, who'd be like, "boo-yah! MAP! That's worth the price alone!") This is a totally new game, new rules, with no "free" fans except folks who just like Star Wars. So they'd best not go the cheap, greedy route. Just sayin'.

I really think the 3:2 xwing/tie would make a huge difference in peoples decisions to buy the game, I know most people posting on these boards are in no matter what but if some gamer sees the boxes on the shelf and sees 1 x-wing and only 2 ties I think they may hesitate to purchase it, that is barely enough to have an interesting battle even with different pilots. The bottom line it is still 1 ship vs. 2 even if once one is destroyed another enters play I cant see very many interesting scenarios revolving around 3 ships on the table at a time.

The starfield map is a great idea FFG could even print the starfield on one side and an ad for the game on the other so when we do buy the deluxe map, we would have a cool poster for the wall.

Yeah, it's a shame that they already released the price. I'd be willing to pay $50 for 5 ships, but I think that they'll really be hurting if they go the 3:2 route for only $40. But any other ratio of Tie's to X-wings just doesn't make sense as a starter set.

Parakitor said:

Yeah, it's a shame that they already released the price.

Agreed, that seems kinda backward. They could've announced the contents of the box and then read us all talking about how much we'd pay for that, and priced accordingly. I'd've gone $50 for five ships too, but $40 for three seems really **** steep. 'Specially if there's no poster map.

I would think that there will be several X-Wing models to buy/collect. While the model themselves would be the same, there paint jobs would be different and you can justify slight difference in performance because they all will have a unique R2 Unit. R2-D2 could repair damage done to your ship while R5-D4 could cause your ship to blow up after it's first move.

Anyhow just some thoughts I had.

-Jeff

Assuming that they follow the Wings of War formula, there will be subtle differences between the minis (as pointed out above - possibly different astromechs) and each will have a distinct paint job.

It ought to be cool.

I agree $50 for five ships seems very fair and worth it. $40 for 3 ships doesnt have the same appeal. Lets hope they read this and make changes, they wil get more customers that way.

SOUNDS great, but unfortunately we're generally expecting individual ships to go for $15 - 16 each, so a $10 set increase cost for $30 worth of ships probably won't happen. Y'all willing to pay $65 instead?

IG-58 said:

Y'all willing to pay $65 instead?

I guess not - I'd sooner spend that money on 'expansion' ships.

Hopefully the $40 is the 'suggested' retail price, and stores might knock it down a bit. Do you guys think they'll do that, to be competitive, or can we expect to be paying full 'cover price'?

I. J. Thompson said:

Hopefully the $40 is the 'suggested' retail price, and stores might knock it down a bit.

I'm confident that we'll see vendors selling for less than $40. I've found one site that sells for about $27 pre-order price, but when you add shipping it's $35, so almost the same. But hey, I'm willing to save $5 -- that's 1/3 the cost of a fighter, right? Some FFG games are also being sold on Amazon.com for less than FFG's listed price, so there is reason to have hope.

@IG-58, yeah, I know it's a little farfetched to expect $50 for 5 ships. Would I pay $65 for a 5-ship starter? Yeah, I think I would; I'd like to have duplicates of at least a few craft, and they'd be slightly discounted in the starter. Are they likely to hike the price up that much? Probably not.

I was thinking that including only 1 x-wing would reduce the excitement of scenarios, but I guess nothing is stopping them from including scenarios with more ships than are included in the starter -- it's been done before (like in Starship Battles).

I'd better start planning on buying the first wave of expansion fighters along with the starter.

IG-58 said:

SOUNDS great, but unfortunately we're generally expecting individual ships to go for $15 - 16 each, so a $10 set increase cost for $30 worth of ships probably won't happen. Y'all willing to pay $65 instead?

Right after I posted the 2:3 ratio idea, this is exactly what I was thinking. We can't expect the starter to be too cheap when we consider a $15 fighter expansion. I think it more likely that they'll tweak gameplay to make the 2:1 ratio more even, rather than keep the balance as it is and include more fighters in the starter. Not my preference, but that's what I predict.

Would I pay $65 for a starter that included 5 ships instead of a $40 starter with three ships? I think so. I'm willing to put money in to buy expansion ships anyway, so there's no reason for me to not pay a little more for the starter, if it includes more ships.