I have not played many games of X-Wing and I have not done it yet but I am wondering how well it plays without using any ship upgrades, just the basic ship cards. Is the game still well balanced?

Thanks for any insight on this.

Flux

Certain ships become well useless when you play without upgrades. For instance Tie Bombers without being able to take bombs are pointless. The Lambda shuttle becomes rather useless, and the HWK-290 becomes the most useless ship ever built.

That being said, certain things still work. 8 Academy tie fighters is still potent as well as a number of other ship builds. Long story short, certain builds still work just as well, whilst others become unworkable. Playing without upgrades would just limit the variety but create nothing new or interesting in regards to game play.

I think its good to start without upgrades and gradually introduce them. Its a lot to take in all at once.

I've got a few friends that enjoy the game, but still only play with non-unique pilots and no upgrades. It does negate the benefit of certain ships, like the TIE Bomber or HWK. Y-Wings are also fairly useless without the Ion Turret. But ships like the X-Wing and A-Wing are still fun, same with TIE Fighter and Interceptor.

It does make building a balanced squad more of a challenge.

Plays just fine without upgrades. For big scenario games, it helps to play without upgrades — except for munitions which are good. It's easier to run big games with lots of players and lots of ships by keeping things as straight forward as possible.

I've played a few games with 6-7 people, and we played without upgrades. It was pretty fun.

That being said, upgrades add a LOT to the game, and makes it pretty fun!

I'd agree with the sentiment that the game works just fine without upgrades, but there are good points about ships that just won't work as well. I disagree to some extent with the TIE bomber as it's six hull points make it a cheap tank, although it does lose some effectiveness, and the same is true of the Y-Wing to a lesser extent.

By basic ship cards, I assume you mean no named pilots as well? I think it's good to start out with the basic ship cards, add in pilots and then add other upgrades.

The only ship is the game you'd probably never run without an upgrade is the HWK although the Shuttle could come close. You may want upgrades on the Y-Wing and T/B but they can still function although not as well as other ships.

In terms of Factions the Imperials ability to run without upgrades is generally superior to the Rebel's ability. The lack of upgrade options on a couple ships should make this clear.

When I play Imperial, I prefer to play in numbers with no upgrades. I did pretty well when I have many tie fighters and an interceptor. When they swarm one rebel ship, it's dead or becomes close to it. Though it is a challenge to keep track of them. But be careful of loading up one ship with many upgrades as they make a big target and if they are destroyed, they weaken your squad if you depended on them too much.