The recent demise of 2e X-Wing was on the cards, but a shame and the reasons for it are laid plain, nothing new to sell, a tournament circuit fractured and dwindling, constant rules changes and resistance, but mostly a lack of growth and new blood. It was also a victim of a time when gaming generally, especially big circuit gaming seems to be on the wane.
Second editions existence and the pain, or excitement it caused was felt necessary as 1e was deemed too “broken” to fix.
Broken?
Second edition addressed a few things, mostly to do with tournament play and natural mechanical evolution;
The game had left some ships behind, specifically the first ships you would think of in a Star Wars game. The reality was, the iconic names of Star Wars were mostly redundant in the tournament space, and often not fun casually.
Point values and upgrade options were printed on the cards, meaning needed changes had to be applied via existing means. These fixes had become habitual, standardised even, but the options available were often a stretch of the system or even player acceptance.
The elephant in the room of multiple time lines was becoming troublesome. The Prequels were never addressed and the sequels kept throwing up new ideas and hurdles (see mechanics above). That Star Wars Armada was doing a Prequel range only made this more obvious.
There were too many new ideas (mechanics) and the core concepts of the game were changing, game balance and play styles shifting. Builds were ever more dependent on Action chains and as more were introduced, it became more complex.
It is hard to un-make things once they are out there and equally, some older options simply never made it to the table*. The fixes were largely successful, if a little messy and all together too late.
The X-Wing, namesake ship of the game, by the end of the 1e game was nimble, strong, tricky and well priced with needed options available (though not really options). The Kihraxz, the Scum equivalent, is a chameleon with even more options and even the Tie Advanced had merit for pilots other than Vader.
It was a fun ride, in retrospect few would change a thing from the “golden” years of the game, but it was always going to end badly.
To be honest, the simple clarity of 1e is the major draw for me, later game hi-jinx accepted. I liked points on card and could live with either removing or modifying the bits that jarred. “Official” card reprints for the tournament circuit (like the Armada upgrade card box) would have sufficed for many and effectively “2e’d” the game, but it was decided to go further for better or worse.
Second edition did get a lot right.
Larger upgrade cards were nice for older eyes, no point or upgrade options printed on ship cards provided needed flexibility and cleaner cards overall. An up to dated and evenly balanced design space for all ships, new upgrade types like Force and Turret Gunner, with mostly rationalised upgrades, fewer power choices and some already experimental mechanics, like Turret rotation, were settled as rote.
Recently, finally looking closely at 2e, I really like what they did with Droids and Ordnance (fewer, cleaner and more logical), can even live better with EPT’s and Mods (most generic Titles are absorbed), appreciate the logical choices made for some upgrades and reject a few overly wordy cards as I choose. It is a better game, but is it a better experience?
Dials got generally more exciting, “power” upgrades were dumped, along with “duds”, wording was tightened up (bit legalese, but ok) and the whole thing felt slicker, if a little weightier.
There is more covered, so there is more going on. Sometimes things are evolved logically, other times like they “balanced it to death”.
Life is unbalanced and these unbalances make it fun. The rock-paper-scissors simplicity of 1e has been diluted, something that around here we deliberately reduce by removing the clutter.
What went wrong?
Timing sucked.
COVID put a dent in all things communal, even though it did boost board game sales overall. X-Wing had no real solitaire option, so online play was the go if that was your jam. If not, the flame slowly dwindled.
There were new ships to buy in the TFA and Prequel ranges, but many of the original ships were not reprinted. The Auzituck, Alpha Starwing (a ship I have never actually seen so I will assume peple are just making it up), Star Viper, U-Wing and many more were supported in upgrade packs (rarely in the right numbers), but you needed to be part of the 1e to 2e migration upgrade dynamic or miss them, so no joy for new players.
Even now, it is sometimes possible to find some 1e clearance ships more easily than 2e packs and rare ones are costing as much as entire collections.
More K-Wings? Seems not. My second one was a Spanish language print with sourced cards and tokens. Picking up a third may cost me the same as buying into an entirely new game system.
The game was more popular than ever on the tournament circuit in later years, but casual and club players were shifting away to new games, or just away from games generally. An interesting point is Armada and Attack Wing have stayed mostly unchanged (1.5e shifts, not wholesale changes) and have stayed relatively sound as a result.
The Ship and Upgrade cards with no printed point cost or upgrade bar are clean and flexible, but there was constant change, both in the costs and their whole delivery system. The tournament circuit was constantly changing, the casual player resorted to pre-built “quick pick” cards or just gave up.
I wonder if many card based games would survive if they required a separate list of costs and conditions to play.
The feel is different, it’s not the fun club game it used to be, more an exercise in math.
Can’t explain this properly, but the feel of 1e still excites. 2e is like the pub band that has gone on to a more polished experience, but lost that “special something” along the way and higher ticket prices are still giving you the same perceived value.
Hard to fault the majority of decisions made, but no matter how much is good, something was lost.
For me they missed the golden opportunity to separate Pilots from ships.
This would have solved a few problems and added variety as well as adding that “what if” element to the game. AW has its Captains and even Wings of War added Aces in the late game. Luke flew an E-wing in later fiction, he could have flown a Y-Wing, A-Wing or even the Falcon. Han could have flown an X-Wing or YT2400, many Rebel pilots were, after all, trained in a Tie. Why limit pilots to ships, then have them fly several other ships anyway (Hera, Vader). What about Poe in a F/O Tie, which actually happened?
Breaking with the old, then adoption of the new stifled by bad luck, resentment and confusion, some choices that split the field more clearly into the tournament and casual groups, then supporting only one of these properly, higher and limited entry costs, a feeling for new players of missing the “golden age”, then finally an older idea assailed by newer ones (Crisis Protocol etc).
People move on and nostalgia only satisfies a few, but if that is also gone with genuine change, then there is not much to hold on to for them.
For me a good game is a good game, so a reduced form of 1e is pitch perfect and a TFA period jaunt into 2e is developing.
Classic that uses all the ships in the original trilogy and optionally Rogue One. This has EPT’s and Titles, but these are assigned in Pre-builds that suit the Pilots to their roles in the movies (EPT’s sometimes as multiples). For example, Luke gets his classic alpha strike build of R2-D2, Deadeye and Advanced Proton Torps, Vader has Advanced Targeting Comp, Determination and Squad Leader and Han Solo gets the Falcon Title, Chewie, C3PO, Elusiveness and Trick Shot.
Training Day that uses the neglected TFA fighters only, some core upgrades, but with the addition of Tech.
Skeleton Crew that uses a small core of 6 ships per factions, no Actions outside of the core 4, no EPT’s, Titles, named Crew or Droids (and no FAA Droid), an optional small choice of Mods, but with ship specific limits (0 for light ships, 1 for most others, up to 2 for some large ones and the Kihraxz) and faction aligned crew and ordnance upgrades. The combat rules are also simplified with Critical hits going directly to Hull, no cards are used.
Bare Bones expands the core ships to all the ships with the basic 4 Actions, adds back in named Crew and Droids, damage cards are back, but all other limitations are kept from above. As a simple balance fix, 2e dials can be used, which makes most older ships less rubbish and tames a few outliers.
Legends. This is similar to bare Bones, except that it only used named Pilts, Crew, Droids etc. The idea being generics are taken for granted, named heroes and villains stand out from these. Apart from squad builds, who really wants to fly generics?
Everyday Heroes. If the answer to above was “me, I will”, then this one is for you. The rules change a little to a random turn order (rolled after dials are set), the PS of the Pilots now used to determine EPT allocation.
This is due in part to the imbalance of PS values across the generic ships (Rebels are screwed) and in part to their irrelevance. Royal Guard Pilots and Black Sun Aces and Assassins sit on top, but EPT’s are not free, so not too much.