No other game can keep me hooked, even when it is not being played much, like X Wing (Attack Wing and Armada included).
Some, but not all are available in the various forms of the game.
Please note, there is a ton of stuff on this site about X Wing all versions, but just because the “fever” has hit me again, I thought I would revisit them again.
I can waste a ton of hours, just analysing the 1e landscape, come up with alternate forms of the games rosters and hypothetical play styles. Therapy in frustration sometimes, but therapeutic none the less.
As things stand there are a ton of carefully “reduced” versions I have at hand, each aimed at a different level and/or feel of the 1e game. My intention is not to disrespect the game. The opposite is true. I love the clean logic of the X Wing 1e game, but wish to avoid the things that over time, changed this purety, especually the action layering that defined the late game. The designers found a need to replace the game with a second edition to address these issues, so how irrelelvant or irreverent is it to de-evolve it to a workable form instead?
The main culprits are Elite Pilot Talents, Mods and Titles. EPT’s are at odds with the actual pilot talents that are printed on the cards and are much better aligned with Star Wars canon. Mods are the same, changing the inherent character of the ships and Titles were either an artificial game based representation of a named ships “special” capabilities, or a way of fixing the problems the above contributed to.
Flight School. Using the TFA TIe/fo and T-70 with no upgrades, just pilots, this is a great tool to familiarise a new player. You have a great representation of the X Wing the core game concepts, with full cover of manoeuvres, pilot abilities and base actions. The ships are also pretty rugged, so ships (games) seldom implode in front of players’ eyes.
Classic. Sticking to the ships and characters from the original three movies, this is the next step and a personal favourite. I would have been totally ok if X Wing the original game had stopped right here, but money needs to be made, fans sated. If it had, it would have stayed balanced and probably died quietly in a dignified, proud fashion. No EPT’s, titles or mods are used, just pilot talents and Crew upgrades are kept to named characters and other upgrades pulled back into a basic envelope.
Skeleton Crew. This form has seven defining ships per faction, nothing repeated, sticking again to the basic four actions only. Each faction gets a decent spread of capabilities with the true flavour of each coming through. Again, no EPT’s, no mods, slightly stripped back upgrades make for a decent game with variety, that’s easy to teach and balanced.
Bare Bones. This is skeleton crew expanded to all ships with the core four action profiles. The spread is now uneven and there starts to be some repetition (Y Wing, HWK) and named titles are included for flavour. This is the mid point of this grand experiment and the one that started it all. The idea was to strip back the excess, all the things that unbalanced and over complicated the game for casual play, especially between experienced players and new comers, where a little knowledge swayed things far in favour of the better versed player.
Expanded Bare Bones. This includes the rest of the non TFA ships from 1e with all actions as well as the single card Epic ships, but still excludes EPT’s, Mods and generic titles, but most other upgrades are included and the Epic ships get their named titles in lieu of pilots.
Fight Club. When the “all upgrades” itch needs a scratch, but some control is still desired, the top five fighters from each faction are thrown into the arena with all upgrades available. Work done late in the game to balance out these ships is realised with S-Foil, Integrated mech, Renegade refit X Wings vs Vaksai Kihraxz or X1 Tie Advanced. This is late X Wing 1e at its best, as long as you know what you are doing.
Aces High. Same as above, but only three ships are used (X Wing, Kihraxz, Advanced), the work horse line fighter representatives of each faction with all upgrades. I really like this one also. The Droid supported Rebels, System enhanced Imperials and multi Mod and Illicit tricky Scum, who between them manage to support almost every upgrade outside of Crew. Represent! We also have a slightly simplified version using the Interceptor for the Imperials.
Bottom of the Barrel. This is Bare Bones Expanded, but Scum only. The Scum are broken up into factions (Black Sun, Binayre Pirates with Cannons instead of Missiles on their Z95’s, Tansarii militia and free booters).
The variations are limitless, so more may come.
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Attack Wing, the poorly named Trek equivalent gets similar treatment, but is more aligned to Era and scale (TOS, TOM, Kelvin, Enterprise, Delta Quadrant, TNG “Battle” and TNG “Skirmish”).
The only mechanical difference is to balance out my dislike of the Titled ships’ illogical difference to the generics (don’t like illogically semi “sentient” ships, so sue me).
I do two things here to mitigate my grumpiness.
I use the base ship classes only and secondly, but depending on the series used, allow the players to buy any upgrade types on the card (limited to one of each), up to the ships’ points value or from a pre-decided point “reserve”, but the player may only deploy the amount shown on the ship card (i.e. choose when you decide to use them, not lock them in before the game). This allows a budding “Kirk” to choose a surprise manoeuvre from any of those available to the period and when the time comes, rather than having to play to a pre-decided tactic.
This helps “thin” periods like the Kelvin or TOM series have that “surprise” factor, adding real tension and tactics. For bigger games like TNG Battle, just the base upgrade options are used normally, which are plenty in these bigger games. Some later inconsistencies like a choice of two Hydran Hunters or Gorn raiders are also fixed by simply removing the less likely ones.
My game, my way.