So tonight I tried to sell my WH buddy on X wing. It was a tough ask as he has no interest in Star Wars or sci fi in general but he is q gifted tactician and I thought the tactical nature of this game (which I rate over WH, which is a great narrative game but, for me, in no way competitive) would win him over.

To be honest I don't think he was sold. I think he got the idea of how it could be complex and fun but I don't think it inspired him, which is a shame.

I will still play and collect as my son loves the game and I can see my brother playing it casually from time to time but the real tactical stretch I was hoping for may be out the window :-(.

Anyone else had trouble selling this game?

People see us playing in the dorm and every time, they say it looks really complicated and they walk away. I think we can all agree it's a simple, yet fantastic game

How many ships did you use? I know trying to sell my buddy, I only had a couple at the time. He didn't bite at that time. Hopefully I can get him hooked

If someone says it's complicated, say "nah, c'mere I'll show you". Worth a shot. I've sold 3 of my coworkers on it (we're going to be playing during lunches once things slow down to a normal pace at the office), my wife, my father (who took to it like a fish to water- he's DANGEROUS). Next step is my friend, his wife and his son, when I get the time to get up there for gaming night. My coworker is going to try and get his son and his father into it, which will end up with us playing at Union Jack's ( a pub in the old town walking mall who's beer menu is thicker than its food menu and I'm pretty sure has tables big enough)

How many ships did you use? I know trying to sell my buddy, I only had a couple at the time. He didn't bite at that time. Hopefully I can get him hooked

I do first game at double the quick play rules: 2 rookie x-wings, 2 academy pilots, and 2 black squadron TIEs. During that game, I slowly introduce more things. Let them get used to piloting and shooting and turn order, then add actions, let them get used to that, then add stress and crits. Seems to work so far.

Second game depends on how the first one did. With my wife, the second was playing the Kessel Run lists. It got her used to larger ships, plus she REALLY wanted to use the Falcon. Next was back to smaller ships, but add in asteroids.

Sorry about the double post

I think I may have to 'expand' that way too, simply because he's sort of my major gaming buddy.

I mean luckily my son is Star Wars mad and, though only 7, amazing fun to play with.

Yeah I only had the ships that came with the game with me, I'm up again in a few weeks withy lad and should have a bigger three wah game which may help but I fear he is a lost cause.

I like WH but honestly it's probebly about my 3rd or 4th fave mini game, he just refuses to play anything else

I'm starting to get a bit bored of it's complex rules and the limited influence you can have with a d6 system etc.

The level it's bothered me is prob a good indication of how much I like this game I guess.

WH players are old school. They have often invested many hours in collecting and painting their army. It is a labour of love. I am not a WH player but i have friends who are.

X-Wing is fast paced with streamlined game mechanics to allow quick combat resolution when compare to traditional wargames like WH - which to me seem to be like epic grind-it out battles. X-Wing plays right out of the box which perhaps foreign to some wargamers.

I have played X-Wing games a handful of times at my local wargame club and there are always a few interested onlookers but sadly few that stick around to learn how to play.

I have had success selling X-Wing at a boardgames weekend where the 4 players i demoed the game with loved it and said theyd buy it.

maybe one selling point could for new players coming from WH would be the ability to repaint the models.

I actually sold the game with a pair of my friends by playing 5 games of a Saturday. I played imperial against 2 different opponents. 3 and 2 games, respectively. I ran a host of ties, a couple named, and a bunch of academy ties. I split the academy ones up with a pair of friends and I used the named ones.

After all of those games, they were hooked and bought into the system. My reasoning behind the academy choice, was it didn't matter what happened to them, and they moved first and if one got bad luck, there were others left. So by the end of the night, they felt the bug.

I found you need to get a player a taste of the game, and that will reel them in.

one intro game i played were 2 tie-fighters versus one x-wing. no upgrades

another intro game was an academy pilot + darth vader versus a rookie x-wing.

all games were close and the new players liked it enough to say they were keen to buy it.

Just yesterday I got really excited about this game. While I am a WH40K fan, and into the RPG's, Star Wars and Star Trek came first. So I already had a strong love for a galaxy far far away. Add to that being a boy with Star Wars toy, including an X-Wing, followed by many hours spent playing Star Wars Battlefront II when older.

But what were the selling points:

1) Very cool miniatures.

2) Very cool miniatures which are pre-assembled and pre-painted.

You see, my first reaction to the game was "how much?" 1 X-Wing costs £10.99 at Wayland Games, which is a discount store. But when you factor in the cost ( time and money ) of assembling and painting them, to the high standard they are, it suddenly becomes a bargain. Trust me, I can never paint that good.

Whether WHFB, WH40K, LOTR or Hobbit; GW games tend to need armies of, at least, several dozen models for a decent game. You turn up to a game with your mediocre paint job and your opponent smuggly scoffs as he puts down his army of awesomely painted models.

No such worries here. Fewer models needed with no work to be done to make them look good. So that is what sells it to me.