It's A Wonder

Well, Meg and I have been through the usual suspects game wise, but one in particular has become a staple of our diet.

Seven Wonders Duel.

This is not a review or how to play, just us sharing our thought on the game.

The full game with the Pantheon expansion, which we feel makes the game deeper in several ways. The score cards are laminated for infinite re-use (you never know).

We have finally given it a go after a bit of a miss-fire early. I tried to teach it to Meg after a long day at work and failed to convince, although I got it better after reading the rules and playing through once, so I felt it was a “second go and it clicks” game.

A couple of dozen games of Catan, some Carcassonne, some with friends and we felt it was time to try again.

This time it clicked for both of us.

After a couple of weeks of three games a night when we can, both of us agree that it is clever, deep, tactical and decisive. We both have different styles. Meg tends to accumulate base resources and money, my path is less focussed, often trying various ways of winning (often at once), then generally achieving little. My preference was for the gold commerce-resource cards, which are great, if you have any money. We have had a couple of military wins, but no science wins and only I bother with progress tokens, much to my peril.

Even after a few games of the base set we had noticed a few patterns;

• Science victories are rarely worth the effort, most green cards being cashed in.

• So progress tokens tend to be ignored.

• Military victories were too telegraphed, making them a financial annoyance, but rarely decisive.

• The guilds did little for us, often being cashed in.

• When Meg won she usually had the most civil cards (blue) and money.

• When I won, I had usually denied her these.

• We both have favourite Wonders we go to again and again.

This in no way reduced our enjoyment of the game, but it did tend to make the games a little deterministic, rarely did anything stop the leader coming into the third age from winning.

*

Tentatively, we decided to try the Pantheon expansion.

The first game was a little confusing, but the core principles were still intact, so no harm done. I actually got 4 of the 5 theology triggers, putting the gods I liked where I wanted then promptly lost most to my better healed spouse who then won the game convincingly. She felt they did little to add to her win, I begged to differ.

Jury was out, but we chose to continue.

The next night and three longer feeling games later, we are converted!

*

What the expansion does, other than add some more wonders and progress tokens, is open up play style options. Last night (night three of the new game), we had 2 military and 1 science wins out of 4 games!

In three of the games, the winner of round two, did not win the game, in one game both a military and science win were on the cards and in another, a military win came from nothing in the last age.

For us the Pantheon offers the following;

• A turn order pause. Picking a God lets you strategically skip a turn. I actually did this buying a dead duck God in the one game, switching the order and then went on to win (my 1 game!).

• Access Progress and Military options in more dynamic and meaningful ways* and balance out the game’s weaker, less popular or more predictable elements

• Mess with the deck a little more, often duplicating existing effects (re-draw discards etc), but sometimes adding new options.

• Mess with your opponent a little more (take or trash a card/wonder, steal their favourite God out from under them).

• Allow several new tactics that are not game breaking, but are habit breaking, such as disabling your own Wonder to re-activate it or use the discards more aggressively.

• Generally make you think more creatively and with less complacency.

• Makes each Age distinctly different in dynamic with a new element in each and each Age can feel decisive.

• The Temples offer a more meaningful way of turning the game in the third round (21 possible points!), where the guilds generally did little, and they also make 1st Age selections more important.

• Lets you pre-plan a strategy with a little more likelihood of it coming off, but equally it may swing in your opponent’s favour. For example, if the Law progress token and Ishtar come up, I usually go for a science victory.

• Seems to make the game longer than just the extra elements should take, meaning we are thinking more!

• The game still feels clean and on point, helped by the made-to-fit board topper. It is clear that this expansion was pre-planned and made to fit a deliberate opening.

• It rounds out the economic/military/civil/science/religion aspects of ancient civilisations.

Perfect?

Nothing is, but the list of negatives is short and maybe a little picky.

• The God cards are huge, making the game physically bigger by half (5 French Tarot sized decks and the Pantheon “fan” do add up). This has been alleviated to some extent by us adding a three row card stand for the God decks and they look cool standing up there, looking down on us…. .

• There is a little more to do, but nothing that is not considered worth it in balance.

• More symbols, more options, more combinations. Both edges of the sword. A new reference sheet would have been nice, especially as our rule book and ref sheet from the base game are not consistent.

If you add this expansion, you cannot ignore it’s physical presence, but you can effectively ignore it mechanically just like any other element of the game. We played one game where only one God was taken and to little effect, but several games where they had a telling role and one where they turned the game completely.

You can also optionally use Guilds not Temples still or both for even less 3rd Age predictability.

A resounding yes to this, falling into the “the game is better with it” camp of expansions.

The Agora expansion does not appeal. Meg is in a very happy place with this game and so am I. The Agora expansion looks like an entirely different beast. If we feel like that game dynamic, I feel we would look at something else entirely. Possibly the Agora instead of the Pantheon expansion for a political/hard edged experience?

I also recommend the “Folded Space” insert that fits both perfectly (unlike my Wingspan one).

*For example, my taking Ishtar to pair for a progress token, which then makes another pair (Law token), which then allowed for a second token (Strategy), which gave me 3 Progress elements to go with my other 2 and an extra shield per War action (which was how I got both a Science and Military win options at once).

Another example was Meg taking Isis (from my side using a 4 coin offering), allowing her to build a Wonder she could not have previously, which then resulted in enough repeat turns and the resources to build two more, all in the third age, coming from behind to win.

Middle Of The Road Crossover

Last purchase made for Armada (until some more Gladiators turn up).

The Assault Frigate Mk2.

I must admit to having a bit of a crush on this one. It is the one that most often caught my eye when perusing the interwebs an even though it’s Star Wars pedigree is thin and acceptance mixed, it to me is the ideal “Angry Space Cow” to be the centre piece of my rag-tag Rebel fleet.

I really do not want, or even like the bigger Rebel ships*, nor the feel they give my game ideas, but the Frigate, being a small medium ship, actually shorter then the small base MC-30, still fits into my small vs big fleet. The smallest line ship in my Imperial fleet is the Gladiator, which is close to the same size, so big small overlaps with a bulbous but relatively small medium.

Role wise, it also fills a tactical gap. The “Ackbar” style fleet of long range broad-siders is a thing, but basically missing in my fleet. The AF2 adds just enough of that option to be viable, without influencing the feel of the Rebel fleet too much. It also supports squadrons, which as I have said before is why I am here.

The AF2 has unique stats, boasting the same shields an an ISD, but the hull of a smaller ship. It has good Engineering and decent overall performance and lots of upgrade options. The Pelta is more of a cheap command/carrier ship or even cheaper brawler, so they both have a role to play as needed, but I now have options.

As far as command pecking order, the Rebels now have several solid options. They can go for a solid fleet commander (Pelta), stand off brick (AF2) or elusive outrider (CR-90), or to honest any of the build not prone to getting too close to the big stuff and popping (Hammerheads/MC-30).

I just need another Gladiator or maybe the Interdictor to balance the fleets.

*Home One is a favourite, but the model is too small and the ship too big. The MC-75 was close, fitting the look best, but again not the size limit and the MC-80L does nothing for me. The Starhawk is cool, but completely out of the parameters set, seemingly only made for tournament balance. I have found Armada, much more so than X Wing, has allowed me to cut lose a lot of ships that just do not interest me.

*

On a side note, a trend I have seen while researching Armada is the familiar Title upgrade dominance of the meta.

Titles in Armada seem more in line with the overall ship/crew dynamic rather than the sometimes arbitrary bonuses to a ship only in X Wing, but I think for the first period of Armada, Titles will be avoided. They seem to make or break a ship’s build (more like EPT’s in XW), which is not what we are looking for yet (especially before the 1.5 card upgrade pack arrives) and the game’s depth is plenty for now.

On Bases.

Looking around for ideas, with a mind to removing the very obvious bases from view as much as possible, I have taken an idea from X Wing. I will be painting most of the bases black (some not, for use with orbital or terrestrial games), but leave the stems clear.

Black stems can stand out a lot, as do clear bases. With X Wing I now paint the base and the first stem black, but leave the second or third stems clear, enhancing the “floating” effect, while taking away the less than completely clear, reflective base edge. I forgot to black pen the front edge of the card, but you get the idea.

In Depth Look At Rebel Fighter Pilots In Bare Bones

Bare Bones 1e X Wing makes some game effects and mechanics more powerful by it’s very nature of reducing or removing other options. Take away Mods, EPT’s and Titles and suddenly base Pilot Abilities, Systems, Droids and Illicit upgrades have to do/be more, so they tend to become relatively more powerful.

A Wing Pilots

Arvel Crynyd has an ability less prone to big ship counter measures (Anti Pursuit Lasers), so the idea of bumping is not so risky and most ships are lacking the manoeuvre options to avoid that (stronger).

Gemmer Sojan. Again in a less manoeuvrable game Gemmer has a better chance of staying in range 1 and the effect of +1 agility in BB is exponentially more useful (stronger).

Jake Farrell. Jake’s ability makes him one of the few non Interceptor pilots who can Boost, Evade or Roll, but has Lock as well (stronger).

Green Squadron Pilot looses their EPT option, making them potentially less effective (weaker).

Tycho Chelchu. Tycho is a tough one. There are fewer ways to get stressed for A Wingers in BB, but also fewer ways to mitigate stress. In effect Tycho has the Defender’s white K turn ability with some extra uses (even).

The loss of Test Pilot, takes away the A Wing multi EPT action stacking, so Darth Vader and co have little competition, but the individual Aces are still strong.

X Wing Pilots

Luke Skywalker. The passive “Use the Force Luke” Focus to Evade is a little better, and many attacks are less potent, making this one pretty well balanced, probably closer to the developers intent (even).

Wedge Antilles. Fewer tokens and bonuses means taking away one agility is brutal by any measure (stronger).

Hobbie Klivian. Hobbie is also balanced by the sparser environment. Less stress, but fewer ways of reducing it (even).

Jek Porkins. Worth the risk more in BB? (even-stronger).

Tarn Mison. Tarn is pretty capable still and TL’s are still or even more important (even).

Wes Janson is like Wedge, stealing those ever more precious tokens (stronger).

Garven Dreis. Garvin is the true wingman/mentor, made rarer by BB (stronger).

Biggs Darklighter. Biggs has a tough time here. His ability is still strong, but ways of mitigating his risk are fewer. A good Droid and wingman are his only real friends (even).

Droids and Pilot Abilities are soo important to X Wing players. Without these, the X Wing is back to day one (minus Expert Handling etc), but so are most of it’s opponents.

B Wing Pilots

Ten Numb loses nothing in BB. The System slot gives B Wings a huge edge in BB, offering several benefits unavailable through missing Mods or EPT’s (stronger).

Ibtisam, unlike the X and A Wing pilots, B Wing jockeys can easily find stress in their dial, so manoeuvres with benefits are golden (stronger).

Keyan Farlander is much the same as Ibtisam, making the most of his dial’s strengths (stronger).

Nera Dantles. Nera has a strong ability and as Systems allows some of the very few Ordnance boosts in BB, she is less prone to wasting it (stronger).

The eternal optimist.

Y Wing Pilots

Dutch Vander. Dutch is similar to Garvin, but more Ordnance minded helping others with those twitchy Torpedoes. (even to stronger)

Horton Salm. Horton gets a re-roll in a landscape of few re-rolls, especially for Ordnance (stronger)

Neither Y Wing has an EPT slot naturally, but no Mods hurts some. Droids tend to give the main boosts to the point of being defining, so relatively stronger.

E Wing Pilots

Coran Horn. Coran has the benefit of his Droid and Systems slot, so much of his advantage is intact. This gives him a real edge over EPT or Mod reliant “Push The Limit” style pilots (stronger).

Etahn A’baht. Etahn still has his role to play, helping his boss and others land the killing blow. Again, with Droids and Systems included, there are plenty of options (even).

The System and Droid slots together, make the E Wing strong in contrast to other ships, which helps balance out their higher cost.

Z 95 Pilots

Airen Cracken. Airen’s wingman like ability makes his Z95 ideal as an escort…….or wingman. The Z95 is a bit of a brick without a Mod or Droid to help out, but is cheap enough on an even playing field (even).

Lieutenant Blount. Blount’s ability is often tied to “effects” based Ordnance, which helps a great deal in a less reliable delivery framework (stronger).

The Z95 like the X Wing is well nerfed without mods or EPT’s for re-positioning (the Scum Z95 has Illicit upgrades, making it more unpredictable), but the Rebels do have good pilots and should fly in teams. In Rebel hands, the Z95 tends towards cheap Ordnance delivery.

Sabine’s Tie and The Attack Shuttle

Sabine Wren (Shuttle and Tie) adds a Boost or Roll option before moving. This is useful two ways. Boost is now limited to Pilots only on Tie Fighters and she has it effectively as an Advanced Sensor slot (stronger).

Ashoka Tano (Tie). Tano is like many of the “wingman” pilot’s very useful in a reduced meta (stronger).

Captain Rex (Tie). Rex brings his own ability, "Suppressive Fire”. The lack of Mods, Crew, and Illicit reduces this ship’s other build options, but these were often not taken (even).

Zeb Orrilios (Shuttle and Tie). With no EPT slot to lose, Zeb is about as useful as before, maybe more so on the Tie with 1 more hull (even).

Ezra Bridger (Shuttle). Ezra gains some utility in this cleaner environment. Two Focus are hard to come by, but not so stress with a dial like the shuttle’s. Overall Ezra is relatively better (stronger).

Hera Syndulla (shuttle). Hera is always good. Deciding where to use her is the biggest issue. On the VCX she makes a difference, but the shuttle does allow her a change of scenery (even).

Sabine’s Masterpiece Title is one of those that is hard to ignore. One house rule is to allow the EMP Emitter (Illicit) in her build, but not other Illicit’s or the Crew option (pre-Masterpiece?).

The Armada Is Arriving

The Armada ships are arriving and I have to say, they are gorgeous.

A little smaller than I thought (which is good), they are as detailed and as well painted as the best X Wing ships. There is a lot more in the box, game and “bits” wise, and one ship goes further so the higher price is justified.

An X Wing in for scale, because I have found very few “Scale” helpful images on line, in fact there seems to be very few X Wing + Armada sites, most have chosen their flavour and gone one way only. All of these are small base ships, but the bigger ones of those. The still to arrive Imperial class Star Destroyer is 20cm long (for 1600m), roughly twice the length of the Gladiator (right) and many times it’s volume. The reality is it should be double that again, but FFG have managed to successfully fudge the scaling for practicality (like X Wing’s Huge ships) . Even the giant 2+ ft SSD is actually 16km long so it should actually be over 100 times the length of a 6cm (150m) CR-90.

Most of my collection will live here in common sense land, with the ISD and Onager noticeably-intentionally much larger. It seems the medium sized ships are fairly consistent with each other (about 1/3000 scale or so with the larger ones reduced and smaller ones (especially fighters) increased proportionately. The Death star would likely be the size of a soccer ball, way too small, but big enough for what it is.

The Invisible Hand (bottom) is a large base ship, but they are on taller stems, so I dropped it onto a smaller one for photography. Don’t let the kids near it!

The fighter detail is amazing. I appreciate the base colour as a good start for basic painting, but the moulds are deeply cut enough for another coat and wash.

Something that threw me was it’s card sleeve needs. The older ship cards are Tarot (70x120), the newer ones standard. The older upgrades are X Wing 1e sized (mini American), the later ones standard also and the card pack is all standard. If I had the original Core set (now coming*), I would need some square 70mm as well, so I’m glad I dodged that bullet (really don’t want a Victory class-ha ha, see below).

It will be a looooong week or more before the rest arrive.

Enough time to digest the rules.

*I went to get just the cards for Luke and Howlrunner, some more dice, a CR-90 and another Imperial Fighter pack 1 (just for the Tie’s) and realised I had spent more than half the value of a core set, without getting the other two ships, better fighter balance and all the other stuff. Nice one FFG, you win :).

Controlling The Feel Of Your Game

I am a completist, which is a sanitary term for an avid and blinkered, maybe even obsessive, collector. It is my blood (or neurosis). To combat this engaging, but often expensive compulsion, I try to have a plan. If I successfully get all my ducks in a row, then maybe, just maybe they will stay where they are put.

Plan 1.

Plan but do not buy. This is actually pretty satisfying, but has the obvious trap of “well you have sorted it, so why not just dive in”. This has been done, but has led a couple of times to “weak moment plunging”.

Plan 2.

Plan to control the collection, with logic, selecting the wanted items based on some sound criteria, such as “only what is in the movies” or “only what feels right”, or the ever popular “a good representation of the game mechanics/period/story, but no more than that”. Some areas of interest actually help out here. I hate cross-pollinating irrational interactions, so with a little knowledge, I can often draw some lines in the sand.

Plan 3.

Get it all, but have stopping points. Buy from the start with full intent, but with a limited level of collecting such as “one of each” or “X” number of points in a balanced fashion.

Ahh the good old days with only two of these four!

For X Wing, I started with the “one period” - TFA. This was impulse driven (5 very cheap core sets as 1e dries up) and in the hope I could contain it to just the ships from this period. As it turned out, this would have worked well with the almost perfect fit for the conversion kits and subsequent release of the 2e expansions and a decent increase of ships, but…….

Scum seemed like a safe addition, adding a variety of extra upgrade slots and ship types and blurring the timelines a little. This led to a small Imperial and Rebel showing (in fairness I was sent the wrong core box by mistake), then more , more again until the original period outnumbers the TFA. Epic fail, although just try and get that collection out of my hands!

Expanding to 2e has actually become a case of relatively safe 2e for TFA and 1e for early period and Scum for both, with the ability to upgrade all to 2e (conversions bought but not unwrapped), but no great compunction to do so. This has also allowed me to put the breaks on at new Rebel and Imperial ships not supported by 1e.

Not learning anything clearly from the X Wing experience, I decided to get just the Separatist and Republic factions for Armada. This had several benefits. The fleets were well matched, less big vs small like the first movies. The factions were known to me, but not well enough to feel the need to fill every hole and finally they are new, so I could literally get them all quickly, without fear of blow out in the early stages. In hind sight, I should have skipped these guys in favour of the earlier period, but I had the wrong plan.

So getting the last pack that my first distributer did not have, I purchased Imperial fighters #2 because it was in stock (rare at the moment) and cheap enough. Just in case I said, probably a waste I said. Makes good sense of the freight I said.

This of course led to a smallish purchase of original period ships, BUT this time i had a real plan and I really intend to stick to it……………seriously :).

Starting from the smaller Fighters and Squadron classed single ships, I decided to do only small ships for the Rebels, because it feels right and a mix of very large to big-small ships for Imperials, because again it feels right. The only fly in the ointment is purchasing the older Core at the very end, because it was way cheaper than another pack of fighters, a Corvette, a couple of separate Pilot cards and some other bits. I now have the Victory class that I did not want, but at worst I will spray it gold and present it as a trophy for something ;0.

Getting back on track, when it comes to collectible games, I think it is really important to take ownership of your version of the game. We are not collecting for the maker, or even for our friends, but for us to live out our table top imaginings. Make the game yours. You bought it, you own it, so own it.

Do I care if someone else is not interested in my take on X Wing 1e? FFG don’t even love it anymore, so who else matters? My toys, my investment. I am even working on a massed battle game using most of the collateral, just with simplified rules and a solo applicable turn sequence. Bare Bones feels right for my take on the game, while 2e is fine as is (X Wing advanced).

Armada for me is going to hero the smaller ships and the little skirmishes that make up the larger picture and it will keep the Imperial “Big Bad”, big and bad. FFG (Asmodee) has normalised epic battle between the Rebels and Empire, which is not accurate to the history of Star Wars, only for the needs of a healthy tournament environment and good sales.

In a much older post I asked whether the story or the game is more important. For me the story and simulating it is most important, so that’s where I go game wise. I cannot stand mixed timelines, blurred story arcs or inappropriate mating of A and X for a gaming edge.

So I don’t.

This has been a trend in my gaming life. I tried to give Flames of War a go once, but was put off by the odd scaling, need to own toys just to use them when realistically, they would be miles behind the lines. Then there came the problem of Brits vs Brits or Late war germans vs early war Americans and other inconsistencies. My own WW2 collection is period accurate, because I want to simulate the war’s different periods properly, not just win games with unlikely multi Tiger battering rams.

How do you go about collecting your stuff?

Armada Fleet Analysis (Rebel and Imperial)

So, looking at the Rebel fleet, with an eye to representing the tactical options available to the Rebels and the game as a whole, have I managed to come through (remember, very new player, skimmed the new rules, not received 90% of my ships yet).

Rebel

GR-75 Transports (2=4) Support Plot Driver

The GR-75’s (2 flotillas to actually look like a thing), are support only ships, pretty useless in combat on their own, but good for squadron or larger ship support and excellent scenario drivers (Hoth anyone?).

Hammerhead Corvettes (2) Striker Brawler

A versatile mini MC-30, working best in unison (3 or more). Great forward, weak everywhere else.

CR-90 Corvette (2) Flanker Sniper

Good long range ship with the best movement in both fleets. The Raider will not be added, allowing this ship to keep it’s place.

MC-30 Frigate Striker Brawler

This one is toothy, but can be fragile for it’s size and cost. The game ender, it has several shapes to it’s deployment, all potent. Looking at it’s base stats it looks a little like a mini Home One, side strong, but the black dice make it more of a close fighting Home One.

Pelta Frigate Command/Carrier Brawler

The Pelta is the most command capable ship available to this fleet, but it is also a carrier or can be a simple brawler, much like a tougher, slower, less toothy MC. It is slow, leaning it more towards the carrier/command application and is especially good with Squadrons.

Nebulon-B (2) Sniper Escort

The Nebulon could be used as a flak escort or a long range sniper. Good front and rear, weak to the sides, it’s almost the polar opposite of the MC-30. Both good options to have.

Fighters Versatile Tough Wildcards

The main reason I got into Armada was to use massed fighter’s and small ships. The iconic Rebels define all of the roles available, with the wildcards of YT’s, HWK, Scurrg, Lancer and VCX. House rule is the single ship squadrons or Rogues are exempt from the squadron limit.

The roles the fleet offers are comprehensive and versatile, but not overly deep. Lean towards fighters and you lose larger ship options. Get too focussed on long range sniping and close brawling will pay, but get too melee minded and you may not get the chance to do it. This means the Rebel player has to be tactically versatile, the Imperial player acting as the counter player.

There are over 700pts above, plenty to roll out various versions of a 300-500pt Rebel task force.

IF I go into bigger ships, the Assault Frigate and Home One would be the logical and favoured choices, but that us honestly, really, truly….yeah really, where I do not intend to go…really.

Imperial

Imperial Class Star Destroyer Intimidator Fulcrum

This is the crux of it. Incredibly versatile, powerful and a focus magnet, the ISD is the Imperial fleet. Everything else pivots off this. It can be a command ship, carrier, brute, super escort or a little of all of these at once. When the new card upgrade pack comes, this one will have more options available to it than pretty much any other ship in the game. Can one ISD be as powerful as it needs to be in this meta? Hope so, but if the feet is built to (1) support/protect that ship and (2) throw up some nasties that the big distractor hid, then fine by me. That is the idea. This is my big bad Death Star 1 scenario device.

Gladiator Class Star Destroyer Brawler Escort

Equally at home close to a friend or even closer to an enemy, the Gladiator has weathered the changes to Armada and garnered a solid reputation. I like this a lot more than the VSD, because it knows what it is and does not try to look like a poor mini clone of it’s big sister.

Onager Class Star Destroyer Super Weapon Second Fulcrum

I can play this as a secondary Imperial style flag ship, a scenario driver, long range sniper or fleet balancer. The idea of the “super weapon that has to be taken out before “X” happens” is as pivotal to my Star Wars ideas as the ISD menace above. This is my Death Star 2 or fleet exodus scenario driver.

Victory Class Star Destroyer. Gunship Escort Filler

The often maligned, but work horse VSD is getting added against my better judgement. The ship is annoyingly small for it’s form factor, but for practical reasons I am getting a Core set, so it is a filler, that I intuit, will grow on me and does add scenario and build options. Often the things I look forward to least end up being the best return.

Assault Carriers (1 = 2) Sneaky Flanker Support

These little ships do three things. Firstly they make the ISD look genuinely massive*, secondly they make a good fighter enabler and thirdly they give you a quiet, almost invisible little platform for your nasty electronics tricks. I might even try a little wide flanking bomber group.

Fighters Tricky Swarmy Mean Wildcards

Several Mercs, some unique fighter types and lots of cheap ones. Fighters and their bigger brethren are sooo important to my small scale game plans. The Shuttle’s Relay, the Decimator and Merc’s Rogue, the Ace fighters will all add spice and variety to the otherwise predictable fleet. House rule is the single ship squadrons are exempt from the squadron limit.

Like the Rebels, there are over 500 points of ships, with less versatility of roles, but more focus.

The little Raider, apart from being very hard to find does not appeal (odd as it is my favourite X Wing huge ship and truly gorgeous in both formats). It is a ship that offers Rebel-like capabilities to the Imperial fleet, which is something I am trying to avoid (role blurring). Each ship/fleet should have it’s own role clean and clear. When I start to balance out the capabilities of both fleets, I know the rot has set in (X Wing anyone?).

I have also read it is one of the toughest ships to master and when mastered, offers similar benefits to other, easier to use ships. Too much trouble to bother with. The two Decimators will play the role of light escort/close assault boat well enough and the Gladiator is the close in king.

What, no Raider? Sorry busy feeling like a big fish, hunting down Scum.

Choosing to keep flavour and role definition in hand has helped me build two decent fleets easily enough. Going bigger with the Rebels generally duplicates the smaller ships and escalates the scale of the conflict, which negates the menace of the lone ISD*.

Going into small ships for the Empire dilutes the differences between the factions and, if you look at the battle scenes in the movies, contradicts what you expect to see (rows of SD’s with shuttles and fighters flitting between).

The roles of close in brawler, fleet support, fleet command, tech and ordnance options, super weapons, broadside or nose strong, fast, slow, manoeuvrable, ponderous, big, small and those all important wildcards and characters are all represented, they are just not available in equal quantities to both sides. This is how it should be. The reality is, I am not playing in a large community nor competitively, so most games will be introductory, followed by some deeper exploration.

Mission complete.

The Separatist and Republic fleets are still a work in progress, so those I will leave for a while.

*I am trying on some level to retain the feeling of the massive ISD towering over all of it’s tiny enemies. The VSD is too small for the Star Destroyer look (it should be 6x longer than the CR-90, but is barely twice as long, while the ISD is 3-4 times longer which looks ok even considering it is meant to be 10x longer). I am more ok with the Gladiator, because it looks different and the Onager which is also quite obscure and big enough, but I am not keen on dwarfing or matching the Imperials big gun. It just does not feel right. The fighters of course are abstracted.

Ok, So This Happened

I came into some money from a photo job that I honestly thought I would never see, so I paid my bank account back for my recent purchases just as they started to arrive.

A clean account and actual ships in hand.

Lovely. My spurge seems to have been blessed, with sales and rare ships popping up fortuitously. I was even home when the posty came.

Armada is not just a different game to X Wing, it is a deeper and more mature game.

This is jazz where X Wing is pop (and Attack Wing Country-Rock?).

I can see why it is less popular. The higher entry point, deeper rules, more game time required, the less intimate scale and coming a distant second in the release race, but to be honest, if I had gone this way first, I would have likely stayed here at the expense of X Wing and Attack Wing (and likely Fed Commander). Remember also I am Trekkie at heart.

The maximum comfortable size for X Wing for most, this is two small pieces on the Armada map.

I love the Star Wars swarm against the capitol ship vibe and always have. It is Star Wars (actually in the name).

X Wing is sometimes frustrating for me because it cannot be played solo as is and is too small in scale to do big battles. I am less interested in Luke Skywalker’s one on one theoretical battles against a myriad of foes, than his role in bringing down the Death Star and Tarkin/Palpatine/Vader commanding a lowly X Wing Raider?!

All of the characters are there and in context.

Like X Wing, it has gone through some power creep and the problem of points printed on cards, which I like by the way, but for the price of one X Wing ship you can get (soon) the near 300 card upgrade pack that replaces all of the out of date cards and like Attack Wing, the builds seem a little squishier, less twitchy or potentially catastrophic. It is naturally more about the flying.

Also for the price of one X Wing ship you can get 24!

How did my resolve hold out?

Not well, but not too disastrous either.

I have easily limited myself to the smaller Rebel ships (MC-30 added to strengthen the fleet and complete the small ship offering), with a second Transport pack, because I am more interested in scenarios than tournament games. The bigger ships played an immensely important but climatic role in proceedings. The Rebels were best at and most commonly found executing raids, scouting missions, evacuations, etc. so a small ship, fighter heavy fleet makes so much sense.

I then added the Onager as a super weapon/filler and pre-ordered the last Separatist ship, because they looked a little thin one ship down (even with all those fighters). The Onager adds Super Weapon upgrades only leaving Experimental’s un-accessed. In some parts of the world, using 2-3 Super Weapon ships in a fleet is ruining the competitive circuit with boring and unfair long range sniping antics, but one against a fleet of small ships offers a tactical challenge, something for the Imperial and Gladiator to escort/protect and a scenario driver. The other reason for the Onager is I really only like the three Imperial ships I have (ISD, Gladiator, Onager) and the fighters, so I guess I would make a lousy Imperial tournament player.

Long term I can see Home One-maybe (although this would unbalance the fleets so maybe the Interdictor to round out the Imperials and Upgrade options), probably the Rebel Fighters II (Ghost), any new Clone wars fighters (Obi in an Eta-2 please) and maybe the Raider if I can get a reasonably priced one.

Longer term, TFA period would be an instant buy.

Ironically, the higher entry point disguised the lower end point for me.

One final point is the smaller range of ships seems to have been better supported by FFG. There are a few rare ships (Raider), but on the whole, you can enter now and get up to speed without issue. X Wing has still got some holes to be filled, forcing me to buy 2e or Spanish language ships and second hand cards or, in the case of the Star Wing, just give up.

Late Inclusion (Or Hello Cameron Diaz)

There are a lot of great Armada blogs out there. Reading them has bough to my attention that I;

• Don’t know enough about the game yet to make fully informed decisions

• I have underestimated the “layers” involved in this game. It is simply deeper than X or Attack Wing.

When building the Rebel fleet, I really wanted to keep it at “minnow” level compared to the Imperial whale (Killer Whale that is). I topped out at the Pelta Command/support ship, ideal for….command…and support, the Nebulon-B brawler, 2 Hammerheads and a CR90 butterfly (as fastest ship in my game). All of the little rogues and squadrons are also my secret crush, so lets keep sight of that.

I avoided the only other small Rebel ship available because, to be honest, it seemed too strong, specifically against a lone ISD build, making the Rebel fleet all about delivering this angry beast like a giant missile. The other ships I do have coming offer elements of an MC-30 (Hammerheads, Nebulon), but nothing is as brutal and down right mean. Nothing is as unbalancing.

This left a hole in my “representative of the Armada game” fleets and I have also become aware of failings in my plan to run huge swarms and a Star Destroyer only. Game mechanics flaws.

The ISD needs a support ship and the fleet/game just needs more depth.

The fix is elegant.

The Imperial Gladiator Star Destroyer (GSD) is a bigger than average, small base escort with several nice personality traits, like the Cameron Diaz Ogress to Mike Myer’s Ogre (see Ogre reference in previous post for a loose connection there).

• First up, it is well respected, balanced and lethal, even after several waves of game growth.

• It sits in the “much smaller than an ISD, but chunkier than my Rebels” camp, so it is still menacing.

• It has the MC-30’s strong side weaponry, but unlike the MC, it will actually have more ships to shoot at and does not unbalance either fleet.

• It is tougher than the MC-30.

• It adds tactical elements I am missing, It gives the Imperials some flank strength other than fighters.

• It looks like the mother to my little Decimator escorts (Ogrelings), as the ISD looks like their dad, aaaawww. I do not like the look of the other small, rounded off Imperial ships, happy to leave that shape to the Republic.

• It is a flak platform if desired, ideal for the scale and feel of my games.

• It is a mini carrier if desired, see above.

• It is a suicide fire ship if desired, see above.

• It is a delaying sacrificial escort if desired, see above.

• So it adds several scenario options.

• It allows me to field more Imperial upgrades and tactics (some actual synergy).

• It negates the need to track down the rare Raider, my intended escort ship.

Big by comparison, but dwarfed by the ISD.

Is this the end?

I feel not, but I like when starting something new, to have realistic feel-good end points in mind so I can stop contented at these points. Having no plan usually ends badly. As an example, I would have likely only done the early movie ships in X Wing 1e if I had seen the longer picture, leaving fewer TFA for 2e (only). This is roughly where I got, but with a lot of double dipping and blind purchasing. Alternatively, I may have simply done Armada!

The reality is, I often retrospectively see a better, cleaner path, but knowing myself, I do try to crystal ball the chaos, sometimes failing dismally :). See how my plan to do the Clone Wars fleets only failed within days of purchasing them.

Butchers Bill

So, after a flurry of activity, I have purchased the following;

For the Clone Wars I have two even forces coming in at 4-500 points,

• Both Base sets,

• A large flagship for each (Invisible Hand for Separatists). I have missed the second Sep. large ship as it unbalances the forces (they have more fighters) and for some reason it was the only one not reduced by the seller, so maybe it was a sign?

• The Pelta transport as a scenario driver and support ship (and balances out the fighters)

• One fighter pack for the Republic and two for the Separatists, to make a nice big droid swarm.

To me, the Republic are the elite straight guys, the Separatists are the swarmy back stabbers, but in battle they go toe to toe. This fits both the period and the game perfectly. I may add to it in the future, but to be honest, I know little enough about this period, so there is little compulsion to get obsessive, although second version fighter packs (Jango Fett, Naboo fighters etc) would be automatic.

*

For the original period, I have made very asymmetrical forces as I feel fits the period,

• Imperial class Star Destroyer (it’s bigger, meaner and fits the “big bad” role better). This ship opens the door to pretty much the whole Imperial cast and weapon arsenal and is tough.

• Pelta, Nebulon-B, CR-90, a pair of Hammerheads and Transports, making a neat and balanced little infiltration/strike/evacuation/outpost defence/decoy force with tons of options. All the ships are small base. There are too many for the ISD to take on single handedly (which seems odd to me, but it is what it is), but lots of ways of making a Rebel squadron for different tasks. I have only missed the MC-30, but the Hammerheads are similar in role and you get two for 25% more.

• Imperial fighters I and II and Rebel fighters I, with Rogues and Villains (4 for each). I have resisted the Rebel fighters II because I feel it is not necessary. IF2 gives the ISD a Decimator and Shuttle escort, with Phantoms and Defenders for more fighter options.

• All the major characters are represented (half in Rogues) and plenty of other upgrades, which is fine until the upgrade card pack is available*.

There is no base set, because I did not want the Victory class Star Destroyer (not mean enough) and with the other two base sets, I do not need the collateral. The newer sets (or online) also contain the up to date rules.

The scenario options are numerous, but themed specifically to fit the dark days of the Rebellion, usually comprised of a rag-tag fleet of small ships “on a mission” with a monstrous ISD and swarm of fighters to contend with. Nothing in the Rebel fleet is useless, but also nothing competes with the ISD’s table presence. It reminds me of the game Ogre from my past, with one modifiable brute (with aggressive fleas in this case) taken on by a variety of smaller adversaries.

As I have mentioned before, I fully intend to ignore the tournament rule limits on fighters and play the small ship heavy version of the game I want. To me, this is Star Wars.

*To round off this set i will get the card upgrade pack, which will allow me to field all of the available options in one set or the other. If something is un-usable, I may get a ship to serve, but probably not.

On The Horizon...Armada

I have been trying hard, without much success, to resist Star Wars Armada. I have plenty of other capitol ship games including most forms of Star Trek and Epic X Wing, but Armada has that elusive Gnats vs Elephant dynamic that so epitomises Star Wars and avoids the one ship only dynamic of the denser Star Trek games.

X Wing has become patchy. I bought the three new squadron packs, mostly to use the ships in 1e, but struggled to get excited about the Tie/rb and Guild Tie. My lean towards 1e for Empire era and 2e/Epic/Huge* for TFA period is not at all set in stone and I do have all the conversion kits, but I feel the Resistance and First Order will probably be on the on-going radar, but not the other factions.

Looking at the options, the standard core set with a handful of extras and some fighters would net me (with a smallish budget) a decent 400 point fleet for each, with some variation, but what to get?

This stumped me for a day or two. Getting some of the older ships and some popular packs was problematic and where and how I purchased them became messy. Splitting freight between six different distributors effectively cost e a ship.

Then a thought struck me.

The Clone Wars are a period I am aware of and even quite like, but have not touched in X Wing. The thought of hordes of “junk” Drone fighters is not appealing (I purchased most of my horde of Tie fighters etc cheap in 1e clear outs and do not want to dilute that good fortune with expensive and small cannon fodder), but in Armada a 150pt swarm comes in at the price of one X Wing ship. The reality is that the Clone Wars had a lot more toe to toe fleet battles than the Rebel or Resistance periods, so it even feels right.

The Separatist and Republic ships are gorgeous, the rules, cards and small ship sculpts are a cut above and the feel of this period is more even. I have the dual advantage of covering a neglected period and the system dynamic in one, reasonably contained fashion. It also helps that this period for me comes with a lot less baggage character and depth wise. The ships are even “generic” enough to be occasionally repurposed, something the distinctive shape of an Imperial Star Destroyer precludes.

Purchasing was a dream.

One supplier was having a clearance, netting me the two core sets, two flag ships and the Pelta, plus three fighter packs (two Droid to balance the Pelta), for a pair of 400+ point fleets with most characters represented, all at overseas prices and flat rate Australian shipping.

*

Then another insidious idea emerged. I have been looking at the other fighter packs for a tiny ship “Travel” version of X Wing (normal bases, little ships), but felt it was a bit much to buy a pair of packs just to use 4 ships from each. With an original Core set, four fighters (Rebel 1, Imperial 1 & 2 and Rogues- ironically some of the problem packs) and a few small ships, I can play a big bad, ponderous, Star Destroyer with a swarm of Ties vs the Rebel flea circus “Minnows” in multiple scenarios. I even get extra dice and movement gauges.

To me the original Rebel period lends itself (repeatedly) to a rag-tag fleet of small stuff vs the Imperial monster feel, so scaling down from my original idea (adding a huge Star Destroyer, Home One and MC-30), this will do the trick. I am fully aware that a fighter heavy fleet is not tournament legal and maybe even flies in the face of the Armada ideal, but having done it properly in the Clone Wars, I can now do small delaying action/hunt for the hidden base/decoy/base evacuation or raiding/strike party scenarios with;

A CR-90, Nebulon-B, Falcon, Outrider, Scurrg, 12 squadrons of fighters, maybe some Hammerheads and Transports vs a single Star Destroyer, 16 squadrons, 4 small ships, maybe a Raider, some Gozanti or a Light Carrier and some Scum Mercs. This makes two 3-400 point scenario friendly fleets (if fighters and Aces are allowed over the tournament limits - see Battle of Yavin, Evacuation of Hoth etc for precedent) from a Core set and a few cheaper packs and it’s all very Star Warsy. With the new upgrade card pack (which is hard to justify for Clone Wars alone), I can now get most options on the table with these few ships.

I also get to mine these resources for my mini X Wing set.

*Something I also would like to share soon is an idea I have for a solo X Wing massed battle game, using a card activation turn sequence and d6’s, but the X Wing ship stats and dials intact.

X Wing Reduced Upgrades: Empire

After analysing the Rebels in Bare Bones, we need to look now at their arch-enemy, the Empire.

I won’t repeat the logic or processes behind the Bare Bones idea as that has been done to death, so lets jump into the ships.

Tie Fighter (Cheap/pesky, fun)

The humble Tie, may seem to be a little barren in BB. With Mods and EPT slots gone you have a ship….and a pilot. Looking at the whole landscape though, Pilot abilities are now far more important on the scale of things because the layers of dice and action modifiers are gone, leaving the ship and pilot as the solid base, with occasional other upgrades available like System, Illicit, Crew etc. The Tie pilots, many of whom have quite potent abilities, are now very good “raw” bangs for you buck. Getting a bonus attack dice on a sub 18 point ship is better value than putting an expensive EPT on a dearer pilot, so the swarm is back and at 120 points it is even bigger! What is it they say about the size of a mosquito, “it is insignificant until you share your bed with one all night”, try 10! Youngster’s Ability is re-worded to “A friend at R1-3 may perform any Action as a free Action” .

Tie Interceptor (Strong, very fun)

In much the same boat as the Tie Fighter, the Interceptor plays the role of Yin to the X Wing’s Yang. Fast and with the best action bar in the BB universe, the interceptor revels in manoeuvre and so do it’s pilots. Only the Royal Guard (red ship) pilots have purely offensive abilities, the rest are arc dodgers extraordinaire. The Interceptor should strike fear into the hearts of it’s enemies and in the BB game, it is back to being the manoeuvre king, but not, as has been the case, a nearly untouchable one. There are only a very few ships that can Boost, Roll and Evade and these are exceptions to the rule and conditional (like Jake, R7-T1 on an E Wing etc), so the removal of Mods and EPT’s has re-empowered and reinforced the Interceptor’s role. It feels really good to know that ships like the Interceptor, A Wing and Viper are unassailed in their natural space.

Tie Advanced (Average, fun)

The Advanced has never really been more than a decent ride for Darth Vader. On paper, it is a more enjoyable to fly, defence over offence equivalent of the X Wing or Kihraxz line fighters, but like the X Wing, it fell into obscurity in the early days of 1e. Adding the Title still only seemed to see Vader used, but in BB, the Advanced may be slightly stronger than the base X Wing and Kihraxz. Pilots are mixed, leaning towards offence, probably in response to the 2d primary. In BB only 4 Imperial ships boast 3 Primary, so the Advanced is average. The base frame of the Advanced boasts Evade, Shields, Roll and Lock, which places it into the territory of true line fighters, with an Imperial flavour. As a house rule, the Advanced can take Advanced Targeting Comp (only) and at full price.

Tie Defender (Strong/expensive, fun)

The Defender, like the E Wing was accused early on of being too dear, so a couple of very strong Titles were added. These became mandatory. Removed, the Defender sits again at the top of the points pile for a small base ship, so what does it offer? The best balanced fighter, with a decent choice of pilots with Cannon and Missile options. What it lacks outside of pilots, are the Mods that allow it to turn better, which is it’s only real weakness. Again, a ship that has a flaw that cannot be easily fixed, giving it unique character.

Tie Aggressor (Versatile-unique, average)

With primary Turrets now weaker, upgrades are more potent. The Aggressor is the only ship that can take a Unguided Rockets and the only Imperial with a Turret upgrade, two upgrades it was packaged with, but rarely got to use. As the only true multi-role ship in the Imperial arsenal, the Aggressor sees a lot more table time. The generally bigger squads in BB can usually find room for some ordinance platforms and the Aggressor is a double win. It can snipe behind a screen of friends or swoop in and unload a decent payload.

Tie Bomber (Varied, dull)

There is no doubt that ordinance get the rawest deal in BB. Without Guidance Chips, Munitions Failsafe, Extra Munitions, or a Systems slot, the Bomber only has it’s and supporting Pilot abilities to fall back on to make the most of it’s load, so team work is vital. Ordnance is generally an all or nothing proposition in BB, but what it does add is Stress, Ion and area damage, all rarer and more important in BB. The value of ordance may be debated, but what is certain, is the Empire can always do with some decent killing power, which the Bomber (with support), can offer. Tomax Bren has a useless EPT tied ability, so a house ruled “May flip used upgrade” is used, giving him a soft Failsafe/Munitions option and Rhymer’s ability is slightly reduced without Long Range Scanners.

Tie Punisher (Alpha killer, dull)

The advantage the Punisher has over it’s smaller friend the Bomber, is a Systems slot, which aside from a Pilot ability, is the only real payload insurance available. The Punisher can be the mine field layer with Deathrain, and Trajectory Simulator/Mapper, or a launch platform with Accuracy Corrector and Redline or a bit of both with Fire Control System. The Punisher is the only ship of it’s type in BB and versatile by comparison, making it powerful for it’s surprise value alone and in the larger squads, always in the mix.

Decimator (Strong support-tank, ponderous)

Often called the Imperial Falcon (or un-fun party bus), the Decimator is cemented now into a role of support-tank. Like the Falcon, loss of Engine Upgrade and Title plus a nerfed Primary, does make it feel like a slow moving target blimp that relies on it’s three Crew slots, but Crew can be brutal. Ysanne, Mara, Palpatine, Rebel Captive, Vader all like this ride and up to three can take it. Surround it with a screen of fighters and let it do it’s thing.

Lambda Shuttle (Mixed, ponderous)

This ship a little sad without Mods, but it does have 2 Crew and a System slot. The Decimator lacks Systems, so the Lambda can eke out some relevance and for scenarios it is solid. Use it as a cheaper Decimator and maybe it can be of some use.

Tie Phantom (tricky, fun)

Only recently re-introduced to BB, the Phantom was too tempting to ignore. Reduced heavily without it’s Mods, the Cloaking ability is still potent, unpredictable and mysterious. Boasting a 4 Primary, Systems and Crew slots, it’s build is unique to any faction, let alone the Empire. Cloaked, it offers 4 Evade, one of only a few ways of getting that much defence naturally in BB. The Phantom is definitely reduced in BB, but in this nerfed environment, it plays the role of wild card for the Empire.

The Advanced Prototype

An early decision to remove the Rebels timeline has proven to be pointless and unpopular. Adding in the Ghost and co, means the Inquisitor is also back in the game. A variant/love child of the Interceptor and Advanced and adding a couple of capable pilots, the Prototype is a good way of mixing up a standard Empire squad without straying from it’s roots. It is also a ship that is relatively unaffected by the BB reductions, strong in it’s own right from the get go.

*

The BB landscape is a mixed bag for the Empire. The core strengths of the faction (agility, speed and Pilot abilities) are intact, so many ships are stronger by comparison (Int, Adv, Fighter, Aggressor, Punisher), where others are missing their Titles (Defender, Decimator) or Mods (Lambda, Bomber). As should be the case in BB, each ship has it’s place and all are relevant.

X Wing With Reduced Upgrades Long Review; Rebel

After a few months of sporadic Bare Bones* play and considerably more analysis, I feel it is time to look at the fleets and how they are stacking up, both in comparison to each other and to their “Full Noise” elder system sibling.

The Rebels first with (in brackets) their relative strength and flying experience.

B Wing (Strong, interesting)

Likely the toughest small base ship in this form of the game, the B Wing is mostly untouched from it’s FN version. The loss of EPT’s hurts most equally, but it can still access the Systems, Ordnance and it’s strong Pilots, which keeps many of the best builds largely intact. The System slot in particular becomes the Ordnance safety net with Accuracy or Thrust Corrector or Fire Control System. They are quite expensive, but make sense for the points and function well straight out of the gate (possible the strongest no extras ship in BB).

A Wing (Weak, fast and fun)

On the surface, A Wings without multi EPT slots may seem even more pointless than before, but remember, everyone is in the same boat. Gemmer, Tycho and Jake have strong pilot abilities, which without EPT’s or mods are now the dominant forms of action and dice control. The A Wing is the fastest ship in BB (Green 5 and Boost) and cheap enough for this form. Without Vectored Thrusters, only Jake can Barrel Roll, making him unique, which is fine.

X Wing (Varied options, average)

The poor old X Wing has lost the multiple ways it could re-position (FFA, Vectored Thrusters, Engine Upgrade, Expert Handling, S-Foils etc), so has to rely on squad tactics (wingman synergy) and unique Droid abilities. Again, most ships are in the same boat, so with a wealth of Pilots, and Droid options, they are still capable if a little dry to fly. In the realm of Star Wars Cannon, the X Wing was never a spry butterfly, rather a solid ride for good characters, so is it really far from the truth? If the A Wing is the light scout, the X Wing is the solid line fighter.

Y Wing (Strong, dull)

The Y Wing has no EPT slots to miss, but does feel some pain from missing Mods. Like the X Wing, it is a repositioning wasteland and needs it’s droids to either help with flying (R2) or shooting (various). Where it now shines again though is as a turreted gunboat in a less dynamic environment. Turret Primaries are nerfed in BB (R1-2, no mods), so Twin Laser or Ion Turrets on a Y Wing brings an old foil to the front of the line. Boring yes, but effective.The second build as missile carrier (or optionally bomber) fills a vital scenario or squad role, which is encouraged in BB.

E Wing (Average, fun)

The expensive and fragile E Wing most missed some of the defensive boosts Mods and EPT’s can offer, making the choice of Droid important. You can either go full bore offence or try for a balancing build like R2-D2, R5-P9, R5-D8 or R2-F2, but R7-T1 offers the Boost option. The Systems slot is generally Advanced Sensors, but Thrust or Accuracy Corrector could help offensively. Compared to the X Wing, they have more move options and the Systems slot. Compared to their full version, they feel more fragile and limited in options, but again, so do many others. BB squads are also often 120 points, so a 4 E Wing squad is possible.

Z95 (Weak-cheap, average)

Like the X Wing, the Z95 is in some pain without any repositioning options. The two pilots offer some small relief, but without Mods or EPT’s the humble Z95 becomes a well priced filler ship with the Rebels.

ARC-170 (Strong, average)

The ARC is already a tough and versatile ship. No Title reduces it’s Primary weapon strength, but not it’s dual arc usefulness and without the B Wing Title, it is the only Droid + Crew Rebel ship giving it several manoeuvre benefits over the similar Y Wing. This ship is still strong in this reduced meta, with some excellent pilots.

HWK 290 (Mixed, dull)

Like Pilot abilities, Crew float to the top as powerful dice and action modifiers. The HWK is not crippled without it’s title as it’s role as long range sniper and support is if anything, reinforced. The Rebels play team sports and the HWK is a great, economical scrum feed with highly thematic and synergic Crew (Jan Ors, Kyle Katarn), who can no longer bank Focus tokens. If anything Bare Bones puts the reins on over capitalising this real estate.

YT1300 (Strong, dull)

No “Fat Han”, but a reasonable “Dieting Han”. Losing the Falcon Title, Engine Upgrade, EPT’s and modified Turret Primaries*** leaves us with a tough ship, that can be made tougher, or supportive, but not a table dominating power house. C3-PO, R2-D2, Chewbacca, all make it tankier, while Leebo Crew can add a Boost (Engine Upgrade). Gunner and Luke make it toothier, but limited compared to FN builds, especially without the free defence mod of the Title. This is one of those cases in BB where incredible just becomes balanced goodness with a role to play.

YT2400 (Strong, interesting)

Much the same as above, with it’s native Pilot and Crew abilities at it’s core. Because of their cost, both of these ships tend to become squad defining, but their role changes to support/tank, rather than an unlikely uber fighter. The question is, does this reduce the game or enhance the story?

VCX-100/Sabine’s Tie/Attack Shuttle (Very Strong, very interesting)

The “Rebels” timeline was at first excluded from BB to keep the original movie only feel pure, but facing the facts that this is not realistic, it has been included again and with much happiness for all!! The Ghost, it’s crew and sister ships are a force to reckoned with out of the gates, so much so that BB probably makes them more powerful in their current company. No EPT’s, Mods or Titles do have an effect (especially to Sabine), but realistically, the power of this group comes from within. The Sheathepide is excluded in favour of the Shuttle, as the Shuttle is more relevant to the ethos of BB, early rules simple.

*

The game’s name-sake ship is the big loser here, going back to it’s originally boxed form minus included mods. More Pilots and Droids help, but it is now a fairly boring, medium tough ship. In BB though, it is not alone. Some ships (B, E Wing) are not effected greatly, some can even be built to optimum level with what is available, others become settled in a more defined role (A Wing, Y Wing, YT’s) and others (HWK, Z95) reduce the very real temptation of over spending on them, becoming fillers or reserves.

Bare Bones champions squad tactics, which it is felt plays more to the story than the game. Looking at the Battle of Yavin, individual ship antics played second fiddle to individual pilot characteristics in a squadron dynamic. All of the above perceived weaknesses (in comparison the full X Wing) lean towards that idea, so less is actually more. We feel it is in the interests of the spirit of the game, not just the game.

*

*Bare bones is 1st edition X Wing played with some upgrade classes (EPT, Title, Mod) completely stripped out with selected other mods along the same vein also removed, in an effort to reduce the multi layered synergy and action stacking that defined the later game**. Sometimes, later X Wing felt like a pill taken for the side effects of another pill etc. A lot of these things have been directly addressed in 2e, further validating the removal of these “band-aid” measures.

Native Pilot abilities and core ship stats are now much more relevant. Where a Pilot ability was one of up to four layers of dice modification or Action economy, it is likely now half or even all of it. This takes away the very real possibility of an impossible to kill target ship or an equally impossible to avoid damage dealer.

Modifications in particular can tend to make all ships seem equal, spoiling the Rock-Paper-Scissors balance at the very core of the game’s design. Titles were also, for the most part, a way of artificially balancing or enhancing ships in the later meta. If a ship does not have Boost or Roll natively, then unless a unique element such as a Pilot or Droid do, it has no way of getting them.

System, Illicit, Crew and Droid slots make each faction unique, Crew and native Pilot abilities are empowered and Ordnance are seen as all or nothing alpha killers.

The resulting game is clean, straight forward and still engaging, especially for new players who now only need to learn to fly better, not tackle expanded squad building as well.

**If the later game as a whole is analysed, as many have, almost without exception a half dozen or so Elite Pilot Talents, Modifications and Titles are considered mandatory on many/most ships and consistently make up most top 10 or 20 upgrade lists. This damages the game in several ways.

• If they are mandatory, then the slots they take up are effectively spoken for and predictable.

• If you are ignorant to this, but your opponent is not, then you are stuffed before you start.

• Many pilots are simply ignored as not viable, while others almost always get a go.

• It takes a lot of practice to perfect the multi layered synergies that are on offer, which becomes a further hinderance for new players.

• Many builds make effectively generic ships, nullifying their weaknesses, but in turn their character.

***Turret Primaries are limited to range 1-2 that do get the R1 mod. This makes them a good reactive, point defence weapon, but not stable enough for long ranged attacks. Dual or wide arc weapons do not suffer this restriction.

Ultra Tiny....But Epic

Trawling the interwebs for games for Meg and I, a while ago I came across the Tiny Epic series. They hit a spot with me because they are small games in a big box (travel), have a feel to them similar to my early days of gaming (you know, the stuff you would make up on a rainy Sunday with a friend, but never completed) and are generally on the money theme wise.

Choices, choices. Too many to get, so little time.

I started by going with Ultra Tiny (Galaxies and Kingdoms), for a couple of reasons;

They are cheap at roughly half the price of the parent version.

They are super small (card pack size), but spread to cover a tray table.

They are generally even more complete than the Tiny Epic’s first volumes, effectively making them 1/4 the price of the base and expansion, including solo play and in the case of Galaxies a small extra element (Satellites and Super Weapons).

They are a dead end (no extras), so no add-ons even if I wanted ;).

They are a master class in ridiculously small game design.

So, in this box, small enough to easily fit into a cargo pants pocket, there are two full games, each of the depth and cleverness of games like Catan, but slightly faster playing and 1 to 4/5 player capable. The original boxes are card pack sized, but after sleeving the cards, they are just too tight. The relatively huge d12 is for UTEK solo mode and the optional 2x d4 combat dice for those of us who like some randomness/risk in TEK combat (a BGG recommendation).

This is most of one of the games (Galaxies). You have the 8mm cubes for; 2 players-Red and Blue (3 more factions are left out for added space), the Action dice (the dark grey ones), Satellites (light grey) and the Action, Galaxy, Planet, Secret Mission and solo “Rogue Galaxy” cards which are printed on the back of the Galaxy cards. The small cards are mini-American sized (X Wing 1e upgrade cards), the larger cards are standard playing card sized.

Kingdoms has a slightly different look with only the larger sized cards used for Territories/Factions (dual sided), Building, Solo, and Action cards. UTEK is slightly lighter in card stock, but “heavier” in cubes with 70 odd.

How does this play? With large hands, I find the cube moving fine. The text, especially on some cards forces my wife to wear her reading glasses and in a couple of cases in UTEK, even I struggle, but after a few games, the size becomes irrelevant (they are after all the same size as most game cards). The games are what they are, engrossing and compelling regardless of size and many of the issues raised by players are just as likely to be found in “Big Box” games (The text is comparable to the bulk of the cards in Eldritch Horror). If it was an experiment in gigantism, it would likely take longer to come to grips with.

The only real issue is bumping, as everything is so small and light, but we have found the answer to that is a little space and careful card placement with single finger cube pushing. Obviously don’t play it in the wind either.

To follow this I also added Tiny Epic Galaxies Blast Off, because it is apparently better than the first, more fun/generic/lite in feel and play and tighter rules wise, so ideal for guests. It does lack Solo play and the Satellites and Super weapons expansions so the smaller UTEG is still relevant. The UTE’s may fit in it’s box also, meaning I have the same game twice (but differently) and a second game all in a video tape sized box (remember those?).

Of the other games, Zombies is tempting, Western, Defenders with the recommended expansion (just bought), “full sized” Kingdoms with Expansion (for the heroes), maybe Tactics, Quest, Mechs, Pirates, Dungeon….,but we will see.

My immediate gaming future looks to be both Tiny and Epic.

The Tackle Box Experiment

My desire for a while now is o have a “travel” kit for X Wing (1e). This has had a couple of stumbling blocks, the main one of which was the fragility of the ships, then it dawned on me, the ships are only a suggestion. Sure they are the main draw to the game, but it functions 100% without them. All you need is…everything else.

Looking at my embarrassing collection of unused collateral for 1e, I realised, I could put together a full and workable “emergency travel” kit without touching on my main Bare Bones collection, especially if it was not exhaustive. To replace the ships, I use the deluxe dial ship silhouette tokens, not otherwise used.

So, looking at the potential. I have a cheap $8 fishing tackle box, bought as a possible travel option, lots of counters and cards, plenty of excess bases and even dice. The movement tools are a good fit, but I may have to cut down one of my range tools to a 2 &1 band set, but again, I have plenty.

What to put into the box as far as ships go?

Originally I wanted it to be a strictly 1 on 1 grudge match set, sticking to generic pilots (1 average and 1 rookie), but the 1e landscape screws the Rebels badly there, so instead I went with an “Ace” and a solid middle of the road line pilot, which ended up being the reverse of the same ship counter. This was then expanded to a pair of counters, making 4 pilots per ship covering an Ace, a second level Ace, line pilot and rookie, with a mind to representing the feel of each ship and it’s role in the game and also allowing a second ship in the squad (but no duplicates). Some of these pilots are support role pilots, so are best employed in a 2-3 ship squad, but most are lone wolves. This also increased the range of EPT’s to support options.

Having the ability to use two or more ships also opened back up some upgrades and abilities that were redundant with single ships (Cluster Missiles, Wingman, Swarm Tactics, solitary ships etc). Due to a shortage of some dials, one of each type is possible anyway so most squads are made up of a role defined and support option.

Pilots and Ships

Rebels;

• X Wing: Wedge, Luke, Biggs, Garvin, Red Sq pIlot, Rookie, Cavern Angel and Leevan. Solid.

• Y Wing: Horton, Dutch, Grey Sq pilot, Gold Sq pilot. Full options.

• E Wing: Corran, Etahn, Blackmoon Sq pilot, Knave Sq pilot. Full options.

• B Wing: Ten Numb, Nera, Keyan, Ibitsam, Dagger pilot, Blue Sq pilot. Tough.

• A Wing: Tycho, Jake, Gemmer, Arvel, Green Sq pilot, Prototype pilot. Heavy on EPT’s, fast.

All of the core fighters represented, each with a defined role. The Rebels have exclusive Droids and System slots up their sleeves and solid pilots across the board. They also have most weapon options. The roles of interceptor, line, multi role, close in fighter and superiority are covered, but no swarmer.

Imperial;

• Interceptor: Soontir, Turr, Lorrir, Wrath, Saber pilot, Avenger pilot, Alpha pilot. Skilled.

• Fighter: Howlrunner, Mauler, Dark Curse, Night Beast, Black Sq PIlot, Obsidian Pilot, Academy pilot. A solid support.

• Advanced: Vader, Maarek, Storm Sq Pilot, Tempest Sq Pilot. Vader & options.

• Defender: Rexler, Vessery, Ryad, Glaive Sq Pilot, Onyx Pilot, Delta Pilot. Superiority.

• Aggressor: Kestal, Double Edge, Onyx Escort, Sienar Spec. The multi role option.

Most of the usual suspects (no Howl as she has the wrong option on the flip side), with some classic high end Aces. The Aggressor gets some love as does the Advanced. Swarm, interceptor, multi role, line and superiority. The Empire lack that close fighting specialist, but are fast across the board.

Scum;

• Fang: Fenn, Teroch, Kadd, Protectorate Ace, Protectorate Veteran. Aces all.

• Z95: N’Dru, Kaa’to, Black Sun Soldier, Binayre Pirate. Full coverage.

• Scyk: Serissu, Genesis Red, Tansarrii Vet, Inaldra, Cartel Spacer, Sunny. Versatile support.

• Kihraxz: Talonbane, Viktor, Graz, Black Sun Ace, Cartel Spacer. Solid but unpredictable.

• Viper: Xisor, Dalan, Guri, Black Sun Assassin, Black Sun Enforcer. A tricky mix.

The Scum things are Illicit upgrades and weird manoeuvres, but they are also strong in the middle and upper end in pilots. Scum have the only S-loop/Super S-loop (Viper/Mk2). The Viper has more tricks than usual in this environment and the init roll rule evens out pilot disparity a little. They lack a turret or cannon option, but make up for that with the above. The Scum have two swarmers, an interceptor, line fighter and trickster/close fighter.

Between the three faction’s fifteen ships, there is a good representation of pilot abilities, manoeuvres, upgrades and factional feel. This is a sound introduction to the game with plenty of variety. The Imperials will tend towards a two ship squad, as will the Scum, with the Rebels being a little more robust.

Upgrades

For upgrades, judicious selection of ships (fighters & multi role) removes Crew, Salvaged Mech, and Bomb upgrades, anything large ship limited and some duds or more mechanically complicated options like Tractor Beams are omitted.

There is only one copy of each upgrade and only about 50-70% of the total are represented, so picking becomes a one at a time (secret) round robin affair in this order; Rebels, Empire, Scum. You may get “Push the Limit”, but miss out on “Auto Thrusters”, so some thought has to be applied to first choices and if there are 4 Missile or Torpedo armed ships, some out of the box thinking is needed.

(optionally, the player may be forced to select from a secret hand of 3-5 maximum of each upgrade type, keeping their choice and tactics a secret).

Many Mods and Elite Pilot Talents, are allowed (including ship specific S-Foils, Integrated Droid, Light Weight Frame and Twin Ion Engine), but no titles, two of the three “bandaid” fixes I usually so dislike, but these are kept in check by the limited scope of this project. At least these get a run in our house in some form. Soontir, Fenn, Tycho and Vader are a handful, but we are not talking about a tournament environment here, so it is an ideal time to allow these “game breakers” in for variety and nostalgia (and the optional init roll rule also helps).

EPT’s are all of the usual offenders, but originally had no support or team options. The increase to a squad sized points value allowing for a second or even third ship required their inclusion. The team or support dynamic is a strong X Wing tactical element without too much mechanical weight.

Systems are limited to Rebel B and E Wings, Droids to Rebel Y, X & E wings, Illicit to Scum Kihraxz and Z95’s, Cannons to B Wings and Defenders and Turrets to the Y Wing and Aggressor. This allows for some natural balancing and faction flavour as well as newly found relevance for those ships.

The Droid upgrades are kept to generics and R2-D2, R2-F2, as dearer options.

Ordnance is a solid range of the more liked Torps and Missiles, including Ion effect weapons, which were originally excluded for simplicity, but in the vein of this being a learning tool and Ion being a core tactical concept, they were added back in.

It all fits into this little tackle box. Along with ships and collateral, there are satellite/mine tokens, rules cards and some asteroids. The sleeves are ridiculously tough outer sleeves I used to get with the cards in my s/h Heroclix orders with ships loaded back to back to match their token. The (6) bases are rubberised, allowing for non slip performance on nearly any surface. I may use a set of rules as a box liner, write up an abridged cheat sheet or just use my phone/memory. Any 2x2’ surface area will do, but I may add a soft felt mat or boundary string in also.

The game will take the form of a head to head clash or maybe randomly chosen mission*, with squads ranging from 20 to 60 points.

At 15-20 points, the Z95, Tie Fighter and Scyk are all available, with a basic A Wing, Kihraxz, Aggressor or Interceptor option possible. Upgrades are also kept to a minimum.

At 25-30 points, basically any ship is an option, most with all pilots or a 2 weak ship squad.

At 35-40 points all ships with almost any upgrade selection can be used (Fang’s Defenders and E Wings only can exceed this budget), or a solid ship with a weak wingman.

At 45-60 points even a three ship squad could be fielded, but generally an Ace in a superiority fighter and a solid wingman is the way to go.

House (Box) Rules

An optional rule is to roll for initiative (PS + 1d6) which is at odds with the rules (see “optional”), but adds some unpredictability. Better pilots have an edge, but it is not set in stone that a PS8 pilot is always trumped by a PS9 one.

All upgrades are limited to one each per fight only (both sides).

Imperials pick first in rotation, then Rebels, then Scum. This gives the Imperials something to help make up for the factional benefits the others have, giving them the benefit of better resources and tends to force the Scum to try something different. For some added secrecy in squad building, split contested upgrade decks in half or a specific number of options, each player choosing from their hand only. This allows them to know what the enemy cannot have, but not specifically what they do have.

All ships may have 2 Mods because, well why not. It is not realistic to limit them. Why would Vectored Thrusters exclude, for example Guidance Chips? Mods, if used should be available as the player wishes to a point. An X Wing should come with S-Foils as standard, but that negates their mod slot, making them chose between Integrated Mech and S-Foils. Illogical. If all ships can potentially field two Mods, then the core ship determines what they come with as standard and how far (and how expensive) it is to expand them within that. Putting Targetting computer and Engine Upgrade onto a Tie fighter makes it well rounded, but still a Tie. Giving an Ace like Talonbane 2 Mods (Vaksai would have allowed 3), makes sense. Pimp the best ride, but loading up a fighter with the things it was not designed to have with a low grade pilot is not good economics, so this naturally evens out (as well as the limitation of only 1 of each mod to chose from).

The only thing to look at now is some kind of portable mat. There are a few options. One is the Ultimate Guard 1’ tile pack which gets mixed reviews, another is the 3x3’ Cigar Box cloth mat that I have, which is wrinkle resistant, but may not be very good for actual play without some type of anchor. I will have to have a good look at both.

*One simple scenario is the “destroy the warning beacons”, where 3 satellites are set up as targets, each needing a hit to be destroyed. The attacker wins if they are all taken out, the defender wins if not. These can then be used as mines for an escape scenario etc. Another is an un-even hunt/pursuit/escort scenario.

ed. The tackle box has been replaced by a small tool bits-n-peices box which is actually slightly smaller, but a better shape and has allowed me to add a dozen or so more pilots. I have also ordered an Ultimate Guard 2x2’ “Mystic Space” game mat for this and general card game play also. It folds down into a 1’ square or 2’ roll and the troublesome range ruler will also fit in it.

The Actual Differences Between Attack Wing and X Wing

X Wing and Attack Wing use the same core system, but with subtle thematic differences. These differences are more than enough to differentiate the two games, so lets have a quick look at them*.

XW 1e and 2e will be basically treated equally for this comparison.

Ships

A ship in Attack wing, regardless of actual size (except for a few genuine giants), are all represented with about the same table presence. The little Delta flyer and the intimidating Reman War Bird have the same foot print (i.e. base) and movement mechanics. The actual differences between the two are many (stats, dial etc), but otherwise you do not need to do a major mind shift to play either. This allows the game some consistency, especially in manoeuvre application and effect, but some inconsistencies regarding scaled capabilities and perceptions.

True, a small ship in Star Trek can have a big influence, but a range of 1-6 attack and 1-3 defence does not have the spread to cover the above two ships realistically. The little bank of phasers on the Flyer would be matched dozens of times over by the War Bird as even the Enterprise E needed allies to take it on, but for the game and the theme’s sake, the spread is heavily compressed.

Captains are separate to ships in AW so theoretically any combination is possible. Even if you stick to timeline and faction limits, this is a more flexible aspect of AW. Titles for AW ships are almost mandatory, adding shields, special abilities and more upgrades for a consistent 2 point bump.

AW feels fine with a single ship, while XW feels better with a squad.

X Wing is far more literal in scale. The Ghost dwarf’s a tie fighter, the Raider is considerably bigger than the Ghost and full sized capital ships are left to the sister game Armada (where the X Wing ships are correspondingly, but abstractly smaller). Weapons are kept at the same effect scale, so bigger ships have more. This allows the player to settle their eye with a “what ya see is what ya got” dynamic, but has created effectively 4 basing scales (3 in 1e). This effects manoeuvres, upgrades etc. Big ships feel and act very differently, even clumsily in 1e. FFG have had to control upgrade options depending on size, which makes sense, but adds natural complications.

Pilots in XW are locked in to certain ships, a design element I feel they got wrong, but seems set in stone after the second edition roll out. Some X Wing ships have Title options, which is part of the “legend” of many ships. These range from must have’s, to meh, but are generally less of a free ride than AW ones.

Manoeuvring

The two games share the same movement system, but there are some major differences in application.

Attack Wing is pretty conservative, offering no Boost, Barrel Roll, Talon turn or Segnor’s loop options and few pilot modifiers. Manoeuvre in AW is pretty straight forward as would be expected of a capital ship game, even predictably boring in some factions. Smaller ships tend to be slower, much like actual warships where big ships generally cruise faster even up to a genuine speed 6. Smaller ships do turn well, but nothing like the most nimble XW fighters. A table size is recommended for points games in AW, but I rarely take notice of this, playing on huge mats, increasing the feeling of vastness.

X Wing manoeuvring is a very different beast. Speeds are generally up on average, but top out at 5. The Boost and SLAM actions do add a speed 6 element, but only to a few and only by using up their action. Ships can be more agile, many have post move options unheard of in AW and many pilot skills are movement based. Movement, especially tight turning and outmanoeuvring in XW is a larger part of the dog fight dynamic, especially in the later 1e and 2e games where post move action chains often win or lose a game.

X Wing is as a rule played either on a 3x3’ tournament or 3x6’ Epic mat. I usually ignore this and use anything from 3x3 to 6x4’ mats.

Upgrades

AW upgrades are generally more common, but less varied. When looking at upgrade options as a whole, there are fewer classes (Crew, Weapon, Tech and the Captain only Elite Talents), but almost all ships will have 3 or more to chose from. As a prime example, Archer’s Enterprise (The Captain assigned can be part of the upgrade path) can have 6 if T’Pol is included (A Tie fighter, with otherwise identical stats may have 2 max).

In AW these are generally Crew, or if the faction leans that way, Tech centric, with weapons often being a “Photon Torpedo” equivalent or not, but there are exceptions. A major difference in AW is named ships. They are often blessed with special capabilities, more shields and more upgrades. The feel of AW is more about a big ship that soaks damage or shuts down enemy upgrades and most upgrades are a part of that. It is interesting to me how un-important upgrades feel in AW , compared to XW at least.

In XW upgrades are crucial. They are one of the strongest elements of XW is also the root of many of it’s problems. Upgrade choice makes or breaks a competitive squad build, with some upgrade cards being bought en-masse with little else in the ship pack employed (which would be unlikely in AW). Upgrade releases, followed soon after by a nerf or other tactical counters are really the story of XW 1e, but hopefully less so in 2e.

Not only is the choice greater, but layers of upgrade synergy are also more powerful. The right pilot and upgrade combination can sometimes be too powerful for the game to control, a dynamic that is less common in AW, especially faction pure. Even with the heavily reduced choice in Bare Bones, upgrade choice can still be the core of squad building.

Actions

AW has a pretty even handed feel with actions. Whether your ship has then or not is rarely the question, making their actual use more important. There are 4 core actions (Lock, Evade, Battle Stations and Scan) with a couple that may be swapped out (Cloak, Echo often for BS and Scan), but that is it. No dynamic post move manoeuvres or sneaky tricks, just 4 vanilla ones or the “alternate” if a ship can cloak. Rarely ships have fewer than 4 and often only if they are small or lower tech.

XW actions and their economy are the cause of much debate. The basic principals of the game have been heavily eroded over the years with layer upon layer of post movement re-positioning defining the later game. Realistically, if you lacked action synergy, you had better have something else up your sleeve like resilience or fire power. Ships in XW also have more variety of Action choice. Some ships only have a Lock and Focus, some have 4, but these can be very different to others, even going as far as defining factions. Barrel Rolls are common with Imperials, but less so with Rebels. Bigger ships usually lack manoeuvre options, but not always and Evade, standard on AW most ships is only available to some.

Most XW actions are movement or combat based, with some support options. The fragile but elusive fighter feel is highlighted here with Barrel Rolls, Talon Turns and Segnor’s Loops all the thing. Attacking with a Lock and Focus or defending with Evade and Focus are also important, but positioning to deliver the killer blow, or avoid it, really rules the game.

Which is better? The AW feel is appropriate as is the XW one, and neither game would feel right if swapped over, so they both serve their purpose.

Combat

AW is a less combat orientated game. Odd thing to say? What I mean is, AW is a less overtly aggressive game, which fits the theme of the universe it is part of and probably explains why scenario play fits it better. Many tactics in AW are clever captain’s gambits or crew disabling tricks. It is rare that even a combative faction like the Borg would lack some kind of upgrade disabling option. Ships with no Evade or high Agility are extremely rare also, making them less agile overall, but with the Evade option available almost always. This makes defence an action choice, not built in.

The ships are almost universally lower in agility than attack strength (def 3 is very rare), making the player feel like the hit is more likely, but the effect may be countered in some way. Just like in the shows, ships tend to fly around each other, passing out damage and other effects them coming around to do it all again, waiting for their enemies shields to be depleted, so they can beam over and cause havoc.

XW combat has a more destructive, alpha strike feel. Missiles, Torpedoes, Bombs, Cannons, all cause major damage or other effects, but your target may be too elusive to hit. Some bigger XW ships lack evasion, but smaller ships especially have 2+ standard. The big gamble is often when to use ordnance, as the sudden death nature of these heavy hitters can be game defining. Ordnance is often one use also, making manoeuvre and timing critical.

Factions

Attack Wing has clearly been designed with faction and timeline accuracy in mind. The Enterprise A and E are from different periods, so they are vastly different in capabilities, but are the equivalent of each other in their correct time. AW is unfortunately played pretty loosely competitively, with any captain and ship mated with any upgrade. This is a shame as the weaker ships are usually only weak by unfair comparison and mixing factions and timeline without any limits ruins story fidelity and tends to relegate a lot of ships and captains to the junk heap. Recommended; stick to timeline first, then faction optionally (lots of precedents here) and you will enjoy your collection more. In hind-sight I would have bought the Enterprise (NX) and Voyager collections only, but that is with the benefit of hind sight.

AW feels best played with a scenario. Can’t say why, maybe a hold over from the shows, but a scenario seems to be assumed and plenty are provided.

X Wing is strictly faction limited and with the exception of later 1e, is timeline specific within those factions, though competition play is loose here also. I dislike the logic of Republic fighting Resistance for example, but do as you feel suits.

Most X Wing play is a head to head duel, but I feel that is a shame. There are lots of great scenarios, many can be borrowed from AW or the source, but often, 100pt fights are assumed.

*

The two games are similar but different. Different enough for you to justify both? I do, but must admit, I bought AW to avoid buying the “bigger” XW game, knowing less went further in AW and then got XW anyway. I also have WW1 and 2 planes, sailing ships and others, so too late for me, but there is still time….you can still save yourself……run……now.

*We will not be looking at physical differences, only play and feel divergence.

Further Fun On The Home Front

My wife has become a little addicted to Catan, even with Star Trek trappings. Most nights lately, we have been going head to head over two or three games with honours pretty even.

Our house rules have spiced up the base game**, but none the less, the game is holding firm as our premier distraction at the moment.

This has spurred me on to try some other games;

King of Tokyo Dark edition, which has a few more rules than the standard version, making it unnecessary to buy any expansions. This has not been a great success as is for 2, but I am looking at house rules here. The map has 2 spaces (optional placement, maybe one adds 2 energy, the other 2 VP, but both without healing), so there are options there and the in-out of Tokyo dynamic seems pointless with 2, so again I will look at that. We may even just play 2 monsters each with the last one standing wins.

Seven Wonders Duel*, which is one of the most recommended two player games around. Once we give this a crack, I may add the Pantheon expansion, which seems to be the popular option.

Ticket to Ride (Express) London* . This was an instant hit (7 games the first night!), so much so that I have repainted the buses into 3 rather than 4 player (17 buses base +1 spare +6 from the “lost” team makes 24) for a longer and more strategic game for 2 people and I went Union Jack Red/White/Blue. I bought this on a whim, looking to try the mechanic out with Meg before getting a bigger one, but to be honest it is a winner on it’s own, we just felt it could have gone a little longer. The house rule of first to 50 points for instant game end is used also (although that does not guarantee a win).

Ed. This works really well. There is enough game for two people to try 3-5 route cards, complete 1-2 zones and reach consistently 30-40 points, with 50pts an instantly win. It plays about half as long as Catan basic.

Pandemic Fall of Rome, because I get a little fix of wargaming in with a new take on the Pandemic mechanic. The “viruses” are barbarians who march on Rome, forcing you to make peace with them or raise armies to fight them off, but they migrate, rather than just pop up (and with dice! Love dice).

Pandemic Reign of Cthulhu. This is our second most played game, maybe soon supplanted by Ticket, and we have it’s measure for the moment and have not found it half a twitchy as we thought it might be (lost a game in 4 turns once). I am sure we will get a good pasting when we raise the difficulty.

Kingdomino*. The game that started it all. Simple and fun, but surprisingly deep, this one will stay as is, played on “lite” evenings, although Meg seems less excited by tile laying games.

Wingspan. This is probably the most involved game in the set. We have the two expansions, though we have not played the Oceania one yet. Meg is ok with this one, but says it is a long winter night game for her, admitting she is a little stuck on Catan for the moment.

Carcassonne (Big Box). A cross between Kingdomino and Catan, I will assume this one is also a winner. The big box adds the near mandatory Inns and Cathedrals and Trades and Builders expansions along with several smaller ones for added variety (crop circles?). The Catan builder dynamic seems to suit Meg more, but this one is in the mix. We like the river, but generally ignore some of the more fiddly rules.

Cthulhu Realms*. This one is on the way. The sci-fi or fantasy themes did not appeal to Meg and their need for “growth” put me off, while this one looks complete in one box, a little more fun, varied and re-playable judging by the reviews I have read.

*

Games we may try;

Batman Talisman. I have played this with friends and as with Talisman of old, it can get a little bogged down, but I think we will give it a go and see (probably with house rules if needed). If we like it enough I will paint the figures, if not they may find their way onto the war games table.

Star Trek Panic. Meg tried this with me when I first got it, just so I could learn the rules and she did not like it, but we will likely give it a go again later as this was in the pre-gaming period. It is playable solo anyway, so no harm.

Munchkin/Marvel Munchkin*. Apparently it can be played with two, just dump un-playable cards as you go. I have 9+ expansions for standard as well as Pathfinder, so plenty to see here. Personally I am keener on the Marvel one, but we will give both a go. A two person variant rule I prefer across the board is to add a 1d roll for combat. With two people the combat dynamic can get a little predictable, so rolling adds a little risk, both ways. Not without it’s flaws, Munchkin has tons of support and viable variants/fixes out there. House rule options are starting at level 3 and using a combat dice.

Heroes of Normandie. I think the look and feel of the game may be enough to get Meg interested, but I will start modestly, especially if I play as a game master rather than opponent.

X Wing. Could it be that she has shown the smallest interest in playing Bare Bones with me? The new Bespin and Orbital Dunes mats have also gone down well, further stocking the fire.

Star Wars Risk. Good simple fun, this one usually comes down to the wire. I remember one game being won with a 6 rolled by the last surviving Rebel ship, destroying the Death Star the turn before all would have been lost.

Eldritch Horror (all the small expansions). This is basically Cthulhu Pandemic on steroids. Playable solo, I will give it a crack with/without Meg as a deeper, longer game than Pandemic.

Pathfinder CCG. I have the first and original set with all the Crimson Throne expansions. It may be too much, but who knows.

Iron Kingdoms/Hordes CCG. Same as above.

CG’s are risky, so I have limited them to Cthulhu Realms, 7K Duel and what I already have.

*These are small enough to travel with as well.

**We place the planets randomly first, then our bases and ships, then the numbers are allocated only to the planets we have bases on, with the rest revealed as we “explore” them. These rules and the personality cards that this version has make for a pretty fresh and surprisingly balanced game each outing (we leave the planets as placed for the night-usually three games, re-allocation the numbers each game). We also have an “advantage” rule, where the winner must win by three or more points once they reach ten, which has a couple of times made for a very cut-throat experience and we once beat the game with something like a 16-15 score.

X Wing 2e Generics Only Or "Hero Maker" Mode

See a pattern here? Again, I find the dynamic of an inherent pilot talent and another pilot talent odd, so as a play condition option I would like to put forward a “Generics only” limit.

This was not possible in 1e, due to an imbalance of offerings. The Empire and to a lesser extent the Scum factions had more and better generics as “fillers”, where the Rebels managed to fill their ranks with named pilots, so their generics were generally weaker. Too weak as it turned out. Even if pilot skill is limited to PS4, other problems pop up like the abundance of PS5 Scum pilots dropped, leaving trash pilots with no EPT slot. The TFA period was a little different, but limited in choice if used “timeline clean” and many of them still had their own talent anyway, blurring the logic.

Generics only in 1e were unfortunately not really viable except in set games.

Everyone is an Ace in the making.

So, lets look at using generic pilots in X Wing 2e with EPT’s as the only Pilot skill options and see which ships offer these upgrades in 2e?

The Resistance (4).

The A Wing has 2, 1 with 2 slots (I1 & I3), T70 has 2 (I4 & I3).

First Order (4).

Tie/ba 1 (I3), Tie/fo 1 (I3), Tie/sf 1 (I3), Tie/vn 1 (I4).

*

Scum (8).

Y-Wing 1 (I2), Fang 1 (I4), Khiraxz 1 (I3), M12-L 1 (I3), M-3a 1 (I3), Guild Tie 1 (I2), Viper 1 (I3), Z 95 1 (I3).

*

Empire (12).

Alpha Starwing 1 (I3), V1 Advanced 1 (I3) +1 Force (I3), x1 Advanced 1 (I3), Aggressor 1 (I3), Defender 1 (I4), Interceptor 1 (I4), Tie/ln 1 (I3), Phantom 1 (I4), Tie/rb 1 (I3), Bomber 1 (I3), Striker 1 (I3).

Rebel (7).

E Wing (I4), B Wing 1 (I3), Y Wing 1 (I3), A wing 2, 1 with 2 slots (I1 & I3), X Wing 1 (I3), Z 95 1 (I2).

This offering, not counting the non-EPT pilots which most ships also have, shows a logical and workable roster. The ships that should have EPT’s available to them (small ships, fighters) do have them, the bigger, slower ships less likely to use such tactics, don’t.

With the imminent arrival of some new squadron packs for the Empire, Rebel and Scum , there are likely more coming also.

*

The smaller spread of initiative also helps here, nullifying the inconsistencies of 1e (specifically and generally).

Every faction (I have looked at) gets at least one I4 option, usually placed with superiority fighters or elite squadrons and often with the ships that cost, so need something more.

All factions get plenty of I3 line fighter options and generally an I1-2 non EPT option also.

The I2 ships fit in better with second raters or multi role ships.

Ships too large and slow to need/use EPT’s without exceptional pilots miss out.

The A Wing I1 and 2 slot I3 fits with their “stunt pilot” vibe and the T70 getting an I4 and I3 also fits well with their numbers (countering the smaller range of ships)

There are a few ships missing such as the ARC-170 in Rebel fleets (found in Republic Fleets), but otherwise everything fits well.

*

Why do it?

For me it is simply the rationalising of pilot “tricks” to one option defining each flyer instead of a pilot inherent and optional EPT, which in 2e I am far more accepting of anyway. Even for the rest of the more sane world, it is a good “clean slate” or “make your own ace” mode for casual night matches.

Just like in 1e, it does reduce synergic layers a little (again less of an issue in 2e), so at it’s simplest, it is a reduction in complication for newer players.

Action Economy In Bare Bones

The idea behind Bare Bones X Wing 1e, is to wind the clock back to a game more like the original concept, which is in line with most other “Guess and Move” dogfight games.

Later 1e X Wing suffered from a (very natural) growth of options, leading to over complication, rewards for min/maxing and much assistance fully committed players while ham-stringing less knowledgable players. This was mainly due to increased action economy dynamics, already the most powerful aspect of the game, making squad building more of an efficiency audit than a themed ship love-in.

Bare Bones, by removing Elite Pilot Talents, Modifications and Titles, in one sweep reduced overall action economy, returning some balance and removed the bandaid fixes used to attempt the same.

Action economy is still important of course, but not dominant. This means good flying is paramount on a core level, as there are not seemingly infinite ways of changing what has been committed to, after the fact.

Lets look at what is still around in the Bare Bones universe*.

Pilots with two unconditional actions;

• Darth Vader (elegantly handles Vader being the strongest Force user around)

Pilots with two conditional actions;

• Night Beast (Focus), Chaser (Focus), Commander Alozen (Target Lock), Soontir Fel (Focus), Turr Phennir (Boost or Roll), Colonel Vassery (TL), Redline (TL).

• Tarn Mison (TL), Thane Kyrell (Action), Jake Farrell (Boost/Roll).

• Kad Solus (Focus), Drea Renthal (TL), Guri (Focus), Genesis Red (Action), Laetin A’Shera (Evade), IG-88C (Evade).

Pilots able to steal Actions;

• Palob Godalhi (Focus/Evade), Kaat’o Leeachos (Focus/Evade).

Pilots able to share with others;

• Garvin Dreis (Focus), Dutch Vander (TL), Kyle Katarn (Focus), Lando (Action), Shara Bey (TL), Airen Cracken (Action).

• Col. Jendon (TL)

• Manaroo (Actions/Tokens),

Pilots able to ignore Action reducing stress;

• Tycho Celchu, Braylen Stramm, Keyan Farlander, Hobbie Klivian.

• Captain Yorr (friends)

• 4-Lom (share stress)

Pilots able to swap out Actions;

• Nora Wexley (TL>Focus), Luke Skywalker (Focus>Evade).

Action economy can be vital.

*

Pilots are not the only source of action economy.

Droids that effect Action economy;

• R3 (Focus>Evade), R7-T1 (TL + Boost), R5-K6 (TL)

• R4 Agromech (Focus>TL), Overclocked R4 (Focus), Genius (Free Bomb Drop Action).

Crew who can share or add Actions:

• Latts Razzi (Evade), K4 Security Droid (TL), Outlaw Tech (Focus), Bossk (Focus + Lock), 4-Lom (Focus/Evade).

• Weapons Engineer (2x TL), Recon Spec (2x Focus), Ops Specialist (Focus), Inspiring Recruit (Stress)

• Jan Ors (Friends Focus>Evade), Leebo (Boost), Kyle Katarn (Focus).

• Ysanne Isard (Evade), Fleet Officer (Focus), System Officer (TL).

Systems and Illicit upgrades that effect Action Economy;

• Advanced Sensors (change Action/Move order), Fire Control System (TL).

• Burnout SLAM (SLAM), Contraband Cybernetics (Action), Glitterstim (Focus)

I am sure I have missed someone or some thing.

I have not included Action reducing or stress inflicting effects here, nor the effects that are more aligned to manoeuvre or combat, only direct Action economy elements, but as you can see there are plenty available (proportionate to other elements of the game), without stacking too many layers.

A crew or droid fitted ship may have a second Action stacked onto their own, if any and that added to a friend’s shared effect where possible, but that is it. Three AE effects are the maximum and one likely the norm. This is in balance with the Manoeuvre and Combat elements of the game.

Action economy should be the rare and powerful exception. The exception that, like a combat or manoeuvre mod, defines the ship and it’s tactics, but not one that has become an over powering element of the game.

*Bare Bones has been further trimmed at this point to help introduce new players to the game, removing the “Rebels” storyline, some Imperials and Scum, primarily those with actions that go outside of the main four or any from the newer movies. These ships are included in the slightly more complex “Classic” along with Named Titles.

A French Connection

A few years ago, I succumbed to the dark side (not the Star Wars one). As a confirmed miniatures and Role Playing gamer of many, many years, I stuck my nose back into the long forgotten (by me) realm of board gaming.

I had always been intrigued by the “Heroes of Normandie” game from Devil Pig Games but a few things put me off.

1. It was expensive, partly because the weight, making freight for the core sets excessive (a multi kilo box of thick cardboard) and there was a lot of it.

2. It was also a translation from French and depending on the edition you bought was rife with typos and inconsistencies.

3. It was a hybrid miniatures-board game, which felt familiar and enticing, but also irrelevant on some level.

4. I came in late, missing some kick starter and older expansions and the longer I hesitated the worse that issue became (like X Wing 1e, like Attack Wing…).

I decided not to go the HoN avenue, but instead just dabble in a few (physically) lighter games with more limited and controllable expansion paths.

It started innocently enough. First the Black Hawk Down themed Lock N Load Tactical “Day of Heroes”, which lead to the Heroes of Nam, Falklands and WW2 expansions and most supporting materiel. These are all self contained, but used the same rules, so cross purchasing was an option not an imperative.

Not content.

I have since sold LnL on. It was the biggest investment in time and money, in a time where I want to get things done, not get stuck on one system. I also found the cost of some “necessary” upgrades off putting such as $35 for some bigger maps, that were not better than the originals, just bigger (and needed), then they released even better ones! If I had kept going, each single box (I had 7) would have topped out at over $200au (more than my actual HoN collection), with much of that being new maps making the previous 2 sets redundant and separate scenario generators that I think should have been in the box in the first place. I do however miss the modern themed games.

I then ordered the Base game and Stalingrad expansion for Old School Tactical, but had to wait over a year for the reprint of the expansion as again, I had waited too long (then they sent me two!). This was followed by the Western Europe set and expansions, which weigh in as the same class as the HoN games.

OST has also expanded into the Pacific, but I have held back for now, content with the first two volumes, but if they go in the direction of Italy….

Ed. This one has gone also.

The final system and probably the most sensible is Combat Commander, which is mechanically the best of the three (for me), but lacks tanks and is unplayable solo.

All of these have several things in common.

The counters are abstract in art style and counter colour in that they do not match the boards. People are silhouettes and in some games of this type even the vehicles are also. When you look at them you are looking at game counters, which from a miniature gamer’s perspective (even one with a memory that goes back to older board games) sit in an odd space between abstract simulation and just unrealistic. Vehicles especially, drawn side on at this scale (1:1 vehicles and sections of foot) just look odd to me and the benefit of the often beautiful “top down” boards is reduced by them.

HoN eventually wore me down as it probably was always going to.

Lesson learned was to get where you are going directly, not by other routes, as any other process is just wasted time and money. Convinced it filled a different theme (semi cartoonish and light weight) and with a cross-over to the Achtung Cthulhu RPG world, it held a connection that would not let go. Really I just wanted all of it’s lusciousness.

Some of the heavier bits were shipped locally, some from France direct (which was reasonably cheap in quantity) and some from the U.S with mixed freight costs and some other issues. After a long year of collecting I am there.

Thanks to Noble Knight Games I am now knocking on the door of a complete collection with extras. We will ignore for the moment the pending second edition that I do intend to ignore :), my collection now boasts the kick starter extras (Millers Rangers having the title of “dearest cardboard slab” in the house, but did come packaged with the Marquis and Steiner panels as well, I think erroneously), the Gazettes, all core games and expansions for HoN, Heroes of Stalingrad and Shadows Over Normandie (the Cthulhu-Horror connection).

This game has the distinction (as of 2018) of being in the top ten dearest board games available….go me… .

Is it worth it?

I think so, and here is why.

First up all of the problems with inconsistent rules and counter print errors have been addressed.

The Rules Compendium and later expansions with the inclusion of multiple cheap (0.01c) errata re-print counter sheets, have soothed frayed nerves. Many of the errata’d counters are only minor and many went un-noticed, but they still printed replacements. I must confess to buying a few more each order for extra Zombies, Rangers etc.

So, issues aside….

The game is beautiful, really beautiful.

The counters are all mini dioramas in their own right. The top down view infantry teams and vehicles match the stunning scenery perfectly and everything is to “modellers” scale (i.e. correct).

The Combat Commander counters are large and well drawn, but is there really any comparison? The HoN counters are also very cleanly cut and corner rounded. No ragged corners! I have a very few that are slightly off register, but because of their size, this is less bothersome than in other games. The counter above is about as busy as they get.

The scale is better.

The counters are pretty literal. Four figures are four figures. If the counter is reduced (flipped), there are fewer figures on the flip side. I prefer the teams scale also as it fits better with the scale of vehicles etc. and makes weapon teams equal to rifle teams. Where other games have a section sized counter and little weapon counters added, HoN counters are the weapon team. This also reduces the need for pesky morale rules (some are optionally available), as the fortunes of a small team tends to be more; healthy > reduced > dead, than the larger section sized unit; active > broken > dead dynamic.

The game has character and characters.

The main players in the game are usually historic figures or well known movie/TV characters (often one in the same). If history and fiction cross over they will use a likeness that is similar to both the historical figure and the actor that played them in the movie both old and new (John Frost > Antony Hopkins, Sean Connery > General Urquhardt etc, with appearances from Jude Law, Tom Hanks, John Wayne, Charles Bronson, Matt Damon, Clint Eastwood, Ed Harris, James Coburn, Ron Perlman-twice and many more). Even some characters from ‘Nam era fiction pop up in SoN like Robert Duvall’s mad Air-Cavalryman and a George Peppard like Ranger. Some are even the actual designers and friends. Some hinting is required for fictional characters (Private Bryan), but real people are named out.

Each character is strong, but not impervious, so things may still go pear-shaped on you if you play them badly. Each unit represents an actual unit and has characters to fit.

A Vanilla U.S. Airborne unit or the actual “Band of Brothers”, lots of options. The recruitment tiles above are used to create the forces in the game. I ignored them at first, but they really do make it easy to set up a game and make for realistically balanced forces.

The system is solid and surprisingly deep.

Simply put, it sits nicely in my sweet spot of realistic results without clutter and is elegant in play. I am always surprised how much they can do with a single d6 roll. Want to kill that Tiger with a Piat? Give it a go, because anything is possible, but expect to fail, because you should, it is a Tiger and you have a crappy Piat! They set up dramatic Hollywood moments, both heroic and tragic.

The activation system is also sufficiently “Hollywood”. A cat and mouse game in itself of blind activation allocation with a little bluff, but I have even played it with a different init system from one of my own WW2 miniature rule sets for a more traditional “Igo-Ugo” feel and it is flexible enough to allow aggressive tampering.

The blocks at the bottom (belonging to Lovecraftian Deep Ones in this case), are used to allocate activations and the matching dice are used for all tests. The cards add the events that make movies different from reality (or is reality that different?). The ill-fitting card sleeves are down to me. Each faction gets a card pack, themed to suit them.

The game is comprehensive.

Many vehicles and weapons from late war Europe and mid war Stalingrad or the SAS desert campaign as well as some weirdness from Shadows are present. Wittman’s Tiger or “Oddballs” M4, flame throwers (or worse), most infantry and support weapons are all there. It is actually more comprehensive than Lock N Load and Old School Tactical in that regard, especially in variety to counter load. The scale helps here. Instead of needing a half dozen of one vehicle at section scale, you only need a couple of tanks at team scale. There is even an armoured train complete with Goering.

The LRDG about to be ambushed.

The game feels different, more tactile.

The core counters are actually tiles an inch square and thick. A larger tank has a similar foot print to a credit card and even a single person counter is bigger than a tank in OST.

Everything you need to know is on the counters. One of the handy things about the substantial counter size is it allows the designers to put all relevant information on the counter in a pleasant and relatively invisible way. Even the terrain has movement and cover effects printed on it, in-offensively. No charts!

This brings us to the luscious boards and scenery.

The scenery can sit on the board, which would normally annoy me, but in this case a small house is 4-6” wide, so it sits with some presence. I have (gulp) over thirty double-sided boards (you only need 2-6 for a game). I can do desert, woods, hills, dungeons, evil labs, coastline with fortifications, rivers with multiple bridges, swamp, sewers, towns (demolished or not) and on and on. I even have a promo board form the Warhammer spin-off game, that adds a Nazi or Allied “secret base” desert tile. These can then be covered with more of the same! Below Devil Boys cave appears on your everyday Nazi cult-sacrifice clearing.

Counters for everything and all you need to know is on them. The trenches above show egress points, defensive values and terrain effects, all without ruining the ascetic.

The game is alive and it is a community.

Fan made content is common, feedback constant and their site has regular scenario ideas. They even put their work out for customer approval! Not long ago, the small company reached a crisis point, almost folding, but fans bailed it out. There is much love for this game.

Cross-over is relevant.

Achtung Cthulhu by Modophius has a unique style and plenty of established characters and SoN shares in that. I was lucky enough recently to pick up the original Achtung Cthulhu expansion that preceded Shadows. This completes my Mythos character and monster options, even a giant Cthulhu makes an appearance, but there is more. The system also has a super hero themed set of expansions from the “Guardian Chronicles”. A Hell Boy clone, a Captain America like character with a British offsider and even some more regular evil Nazi supernaturals (Zombies, Ghouls, Werewolves etc), so your weirdness can be accessed via other flavours of weird if Cthulhu is not your style. The only thing I have not collected is the “Dust Chronicles” expansion that adds German and American super soldiers with sci-fi weaponry.

Maybe one day.

A frikkin’ sleep walker!

Engagement is very strong.

The game has a semi role playing feel. I often set up a game like an RPG scenario and play as the GM. The feel is movie orientated and it comes through so well. It is actually hard to play it too straight because the games character forces it’s way through regardless.

Recently a friend was tasked with the extraction of an enemy scientist from a lab somewhere in France. The scientist in question was working on a potion that animates the dead, and it was working, possibly too well. The player entered the game with a platoon of Rangers through an eerily deserted village, thinking it was a semi pulp WW2 scenario, then discovered he was in an episode of the Walking Dead meets Saving Private Ryan!. Much fun was had, especially when his men started going mad. He won, but I can only assume everyone involved would never be the same.

Like a scene from a “Boys own Adventures” book, but it is still fully compatible with the WW2 action around it. There are even spell books.

Play it normally, weird or any combination that suits, this game will reward you with engaging fun and rewarding play. Next is to get my wife playing!

Why Bare Bones First Edition X Wing Is A Good Primer For Second Edition

X Wing has two editions because the first got “un-fixable” without a major overhaul and too many people needed it to work competitively, which is testament to the quality of the core game concepts, that people wanted to fix it, when they could just walk away.

Was enough done? I thing enough was done within the parameters of “keep it close to the original”, but not everything that could have been done was, but anyway, there is no doubting that there was enough to make the game vibrant, logical and reasonably future proof.

The other option, taken by the “softer”, less combative community was to simply modify or remove the more troublesome elements to try to re-capture the earlier games balance and brilliance.

Bare Bones is our fix. It simply removes non-named (generic or loosely connected) Titles, Elite Pilot Talents and Modifications, which are all part of the over bloated, fix-the-fixes syndrome that bought the game down. Later 1e suffered from a top 10% only dynamic, with older ships requiring some major bandaid measures to see any table time, not always successfully, many of these requiring their own re-balancing fixes etc (and many were an imagination stretch at best) until it got to the stage where there was often only one good way to play/build a small group of competitive ships and the rest (the majority) became useless to all but the most open minded casual players.

The game started to look more like a Magic The Gathering style deck builder than a miniatures based game, but worse, it had a real insiders knowledge edge that excluded a lot of want to be players.

It also led to a lot of non-canon weirdness, which if that annoys you (yup), then another wall is erected between you and satisfying game play.

Bare Bones seems to have fixed much of this.

Goodby to multi layered action chains, nullified ship and pilot uniqueness and token stacking. This has made some ships pretty vanilla, but guess what? Squad tactics have come to the fore, much in keeping with the source material and the core concepts of the system a pretty balanced. Your 4 Tie Advanced squad may seem pretty lame, but they are up against 4 X Wings with no S-Foils, Expert Handling, Vectored Thrusters etc, so they are equally “lame”. X Wing still offers considerably more in build and ship variety than say Wings of Glory or even Attack Wing.

This is a balance achieved by turning back the clock to the point when the core game concepts ruled.

Ships now fly in formation for support, not relying on tricky action chains as their primary defence. Many ships only have their Pilot Talent as a point of difference, but that is fine. Pilot Skill, Pilot Talent and raw ship capabilities, mixed with more of the same (but different) gives you plenty to build with, then you fly on these merits alone. To be honest, on a level playing field, there are too many options to try them all. Conversely, if even more layers of synergy were added, would the game be better?

The design principles are there, they have just been swamped by more and more options.

Classic X Wing

The really cool thing though, is that BB 1e is a great jumping off point for 2e. The play is similar, just deeper. The 4-6 card monster builds that made the competitive 1e combos have been replaced by sometimes bare ships, but in numbers, which is similar to the cleaner presentation in 2e. This is helping a newer player learn the real basics, then move into to the linked actions and more varied manoeuvre choices of 2e, without unlearning the tangled web of competitive 1e.

A lot of the things nerfed or seamlessly blended into 2e are a natural fit, removing most of the mod cards that rankled and at the same time simplifying the game dynamic for players and designers. Many of the more troublesome upgrades have been dropped completely and the overall fit is natural and logical. The fell of 2e is surprisingly similar to BB, just with more moving parts.