Upgrade pack?

By futurewolf, in X-Wing

Does anyone know if FFG has any plans to release packs of upgrade cards? I'm finding that there are a few upgrade cards that I would like to use on multiple ships, but I don't necessarily have enough copies of those cards to apply on each ship. I'm also splitting costs with a friend and we share ships, but that means limited access to upgrades if one of us is using an upgrade card that the other would like to use or doesn't have a copy of.

I would totally buy a set of cards that had 2-3 copies of upgrades that aren't limited to a single ship (or a single use per build).

I just stick it to the man by running stuff army list style. Write down what your upgrades are and can do, and you should be good to go, at least for playing casually. This game doesn't have a big enough fan base or tournaments often enough to really worry about the rules for them.

I don't think we will ever see upgrade packs. They want you to buy 4 of each ship so you have the cards you need for tournament play. Further, I don't think there will be packs with just new cards, I think we will most likely see repaints of the currents models with new cards, like a red Y-wing, Blue A-wing, Green CorSec X-wings, Red Imperial Guard Interceptors (that might have a slight mod to it), etc.

I think that we will see card upgrade grade. The non-collectible style selling format for their miniatures and card games (where you buy packs and packs of minis and cards blindly never knowing what's in each pack) suggests that FFG is more player-friendly rather than money-grabbing as we've seen from past mini and card companies.

We may even see new cards in card packs along we re-printed cards. New cards could be:

Shuttle Tyderium: (Unique - Ship Upgrade) Non-unique Lambda-class Shuttle only. This ship may be included in a Rebel squad and is treated as a Rebel ship. 0 points cost.

BTL-S3 Y-Wing: (Ship Upgrade) Y-Wing only. Use an action to attack with this ship's turret weapon (if it has one) as an additional attack. 4 points cost.

I don't think we will ever see upgrade packs. They want you to buy 4 of each ship so you have the cards you need for tournament play. Further, I don't think there will be packs with just new cards, I think we will most likely see repaints of the currents models with new cards, like a red Y-wing, Blue A-wing, Green CorSec X-wings, Red Imperial Guard Interceptors (that might have a slight mod to it), etc.

It's been said they haven't ruled out packs of just cards, with extra pilots and items etc.

It would be a great move to double up on characters with a ship etc.

There are lots of options for them to expand the game outside of buying ships. Essentually money being thrown at them for the minimal cost of production for small little packs of 10 cards they could sell for $8-10.

We've got lots of Yavin pilots to see and some other Imperials that already have ships out. Bounty Hunters galore that could be a main ship card and also a personnel upgrade.

The longevity of products for this game means they'll need to branch out into new territory for people to keep expanding the game beyond ship purchases.

Edited by Arthur Volts

Shuttle Tyderium: (Unique - Ship Upgrade) Non-unique Lambda-class Shuttle only. This ship may be included in a Rebel squad and is treated as a Rebel ship. 0 points cost.

BTL-S3 Y-Wing: (Ship Upgrade) Y-Wing only. Use an action to attack with this ship's turret weapon (if it has one) as an additional attack. 4 points cost.

This i like...

I think that we will see card upgrade grade. The non-collectible style selling format for their miniatures and card games (where you buy packs and packs of minis and cards blindly never knowing what's in each pack) suggests that FFG is more player-friendly rather than money-grabbing as we've seen from past mini and card companies.

I don't think they really are all that friendly, honestly. FFG may not do random packaging, but they're absolute masters of making you buy something you don't necessarily want. In their LCG's, it's faction spread across upgrade packs. In X-wing, it's upgrade distribution. Fel and Push the Limit is about the most obvious combo out there - but PtL doesn't come with anything but the A-wings, so an Imperial-only player is hosed. And you think it's accidental that the only ships with modifications - usable by any ship - are the large ones? Veteran Instincts? Large ships only. Most people would argue that the TIE swarm was dominant before Wave 2, and the Assault Missile seems to be aimed squarely at toning it down, so they made it easily available by packaging it with the A-wing. Oooh, wait - no, they didn't. Large ship only. :P

I'll be very surprised if we see dedicated card packs in the future. I DO think we'll see new pilots for existent ships - but they'll be packed with the ships in a new wave, perhaps with an alternate paint job. There's just too much in the current packaging that works to exploit it for me to think FFG will produce something to make it easy for players to get what they need without contributing the requisite pound of flesh.

If they released a pilot and equipment upgrade pack, you'd still need the miniatures to use those pilots. Something like Rogue Squadron Pilot (generic X-Wing with elite skill), Porkins, Corran Horn, etc might be packaged with Tydirum, some of the droids, and a few title cards to make a "Rebel Expansion Pack" specifically for rebel ships.

The Imperial one might have Steele on other kinds of fighters or better TIE Advanced options. Perhaps some title cards for them as well (Emperor's Sword, Emperor's shield), or other squadrons and their pilots (Mianda, Scythe squadron).

So you can land $15 USD for a pilot upgrade pack for one group of pilots, or it could benefit your enitre squadron if you have collected already. So long as these packs don't come with upgrades found in other expansion packs I think it's likely and possible.

Personally I'd like to see some form of program to use the proofs of purchase. Perhaps alternate card art only available through that program.

I doubt it though.

I threw all my proofs of purchases away with the rest of the packing. It would suck if you had to provide proof of purchase for those of us that did throw them away.

All of your proposes are very interesting, especially Norses with the Rogue squadron. And it's quite what the game would need. I hope this will be wave 4. No ships, just card packs. Or only 2 ships and the card packs for imps and rebels.

I think that we will see card upgrade grade. The non-collectible style selling format for their miniatures and card games (where you buy packs and packs of minis and cards blindly never knowing what's in each pack) suggests that FFG is more player-friendly rather than money-grabbing as we've seen from past mini and card companies.

I don't think they really are all that friendly, honestly. FFG may not do random packaging, but they're absolute masters of making you buy something you don't necessarily want. In their LCG's, it's faction spread across upgrade packs. In X-wing, it's upgrade distribution. Fel and Push the Limit is about the most obvious combo out there - but PtL doesn't come with anything but the A-wings, so an Imperial-only player is hosed. And you think it's accidental that the only ships with modifications - usable by any ship - are the large ones? Veteran Instincts? Large ships only. Most people would argue that the TIE swarm was dominant before Wave 2, and the Assault Missile seems to be aimed squarely at toning it down, so they made it easily available by packaging it with the A-wing. Oooh, wait - no, they didn't. Large ship only. :P

I'll be very surprised if we see dedicated card packs in the future. I DO think we'll see new pilots for existent ships - but they'll be packed with the ships in a new wave, perhaps with an alternate paint job. There's just too much in the current packaging that works to exploit it for me to think FFG will produce something to make it easy for players to get what they need without contributing the requisite pound of flesh.

I don't really think that. FFG is quite fair as a company for what i have seen. I have played Netrunner recently and all you need is Two base sets (maybe 3) and all expansions so you have everything of every faction in playset. No TCG

X-Wing has had such success that releasing a card pack (which is what lots of players would like to see) would just be fair towards their customers. We will see which kind of company they are i guess.

After all they are a card company mainly too... so card packs would make sense!

I'd really hope for a pack of cards rather than repaints of models including new cards. I can see why it makes sense economically to sell more miniatures but at the same time I think that people who already bought a lot of models would be mad to have to buy another bunch of models which they basically have.

So far I've been very happy with what's included in the packs. For example, I was glad (and surprised) to find that all ships came with at least 1 card for all their possible upgrades. When I buy a Y-Wing, I know that I'll be able to field one with everything without having to also buy another pack to get more proton torpedoes for example. A shame that they don't seem to have put 2 advanced torpedoes in the B-Wing pack though.

My wishlist for a card pack would be to have some new unique pilots of course but also reprints of upgrades that we would want to put on more than one ship without having to buy too many multiples. Again the advanced proton torpedoes. Maybe the blaster turrets, missiles, etc. And wishing here but it would be cool to have cross faction low-level unnamed pilots for the commercial ships (YT-1300, Firespray-31, HWK-290) and even the Imperial Shuttle. A card pack would also be a way to cheaply issue a Y-Wing that can equip bombs.

There's a reason you always keep your proofs of purchase and receipts instead of tossing them away.

Some of it is tax related and you never know what gaming companies will do as promotional programs.

It wouldn't be the first time a company gave away incentives with proofs of purchase.


I was actually surprised to see it on the cardboard sprue, so decided to plop it in one of the bags I store the tokens in.

Not only would card packs be in demand, they'd be cheap and quicker to production than the minis.

On a side note, I saw the FFG Star Trek miniatures game. I'm just a little concerned it's going to eat into the resources needed to keep up with demand for the Star Wars game.

Edited by RookiePilot

I was under the impression someone else was making StarTrek game and not FFG

We need FFG to remake the Battle of Hot game from West End Games. 3D miniature version.

Perhaps an Endor game, comlete with swarms of Ewoks on bases. AKIATA!

I may have mis-interpreted the packaging. It is Wizkids / Hero Clix, but the message on the packaging reads:

Star Trek: Attack Wing is a stand-alone game that is not compatible with other FFG Flight Path games.

The fine print at the bottom says the Flight Path system is used under license from FFG.

I'd love to see an Upgrade Card Pack. It'd be weird to get new pilots for existing models in a card pack, but that's not a bad idea either. I'd love to see more of Push the Limit outside of an A-Wing. As much as I want to run Push the Limit, I don't want to buy any A-Wiings.

I think we'll see more cards like the Luke Upgrade for the Falcon. We could very well see another Lando and possibly even a Fett as an upgrade while someone else is piloting. There is plenty of extended lore with Fett working with other Hunters.

It wouldn't be out of place to see some of the other Yavin pilots as a ship upgrade, but only for the Generic Red Squadron X-wings or Gold Y-wings depending on the pilot. I'm sure we'll also see more advanced versions of existing hero pilots, but I'd rather those be along the lines of an upgrade instead of an entirely new piloted ship card.

I think we can rule out EPTs and upgrades from special upgrade packs appearing in a card/pilot bundle. Buhalin has a point in illustrating that FFG wants to encourage sales of these fighters to gain the expansion cards in the pack. If you want to be tournament legal, you are encouraged to go the distance for that extra ship. It means in my case if I wanted that fourth assault missile I'll HAVE to buy another Falcon. It makes sense.

What the upgrade pack could do is make more out of what you already have. The Tydirium for instance could change that ship to a rebel affiliation. Or there may be Han/Chewie/Crix pilot cards for Tydirium specifically. There may be a Rouge squadron pilot and others. Nowhere will you see a reprint/redesign of Wedge, Luke, or Biggs as these cards can already be found elsewhere. You will not see an R2 unit in there either, but you might see R2-KT, R6 Astromechs and Mag-Pulse Warheads.

So the packs are useful for getting more things out for existing craft without needing to reissue models, and equipment that might not fit well with expansion pack ideas for the future. FFG still has a marketing advantage here because you'd be acquiring, say, pilot cards for A-Wings and B-Wings but you would need an A-Wing or B-Wing model to use them. This in turn encourages another purchase.

I think we can rule out EPTs and upgrades from special upgrade packs appearing in a card/pilot bundle. Buhalin has a point in illustrating that FFG wants to encourage sales of these fighters to gain the expansion cards in the pack. If you want to be tournament legal, you are encouraged to go the distance for that extra ship. It means in my case if I wanted that fourth assault missile I'll HAVE to buy another Falcon. It makes sense.

What the upgrade pack could do is make more out of what you already have. The Tydirium for instance could change that ship to a rebel affiliation. Or there may be Han/Chewie/Crix pilot cards for Tydirium specifically. There may be a Rouge squadron pilot and others. Nowhere will you see a reprint/redesign of Wedge, Luke, or Biggs as these cards can already be found elsewhere. You will not see an R2 unit in there either, but you might see R2-KT, R6 Astromechs and Mag-Pulse Warheads.

So the packs are useful for getting more things out for existing craft without needing to reissue models, and equipment that might not fit well with expansion pack ideas for the future. FFG still has a marketing advantage here because you'd be acquiring, say, pilot cards for A-Wings and B-Wings but you would need an A-Wing or B-Wing model to use them. This in turn encourages another purchase.

Also a big thing about this is if they make a generic pilot like a rogue squadron pilot or one of the upgrades really good all they need to do is put one in the pack and suddenly people are buying 4 so that they can have enough for a squadron. Easy $40 or $60 on an item that would be minimal cost to produce.

Say they do it every 4 waves, they could have 2or 3 new pilots for each ship (at least 1 generic) and some upgrades relevant to each ship. They spread it out so there are 3 ships in each pack, meaning 2 rebel packs and 2 imperial packs for the ships from the last 3 waves. This would give you probably 6 or 8 new ships and maybe 6 or 8 new upgrades in each pack, just a little more than what we get in a small ship expansion now. Charge $15 per and people will likely buy 4 of each pack for at least one of the generics or upgrades. Boom, the company sells as much as if it had been a normal wave of ships but spends less on production. The crowd gets what they want, well not pre existing things in packs but at least part of what they want, and FFG gets a good angle for some profit.

There is one guy Ive found thats specialising in selling Singles of the upgrades and modification cards. Has anyone found anyone else doing this?

I may have mis-interpreted the packaging. It is Wizkids / Hero Clix, but the message on the packaging reads:

Star Trek: Attack Wing is a stand-alone game that is not compatible with other FFG Flight Path games.

The fine print at the bottom says the Flight Path system is used under license from FFG.

"under license" is the key phrase. Wizkids is doing all the work to produce the Star Trek sets, they just paid FFG to use the Flight Path system.

Unfortunately I am a big star trek fan and it will be difficult to NOT buy into Attack Wing, but my fun money supply will hate me for it...