With the TFA rules now out, the initiative thing has changed I believe. At least, there's now an initiative token in the set and on more than one occasion, we have simply rolled for it.
In fact, in order to keep flying casual, I always keep a D6 handy to decide any issues we can't resolve with the rules and cards.
I've never been a meta gamer (I'm more for narrative), so games like Warmachine, even though I love the setting and aesthetic, are beyond me, because of the synergy and combinations required between units to make a list work.
But X-Wing has me thinking about how I set up my lists and I found that I actually enjoy coming up with new and devious ways of combining ships, pilot abilities and upgrade cards. I've come to 'see' the game as it were. And that's a first for me, even after 25+ years of dabbling in miniature games...
Not that X-Wing does not play well without such nitpicky cardmongering though. I remember introducing my 12 year old nephew to the game, and the very first game we played, he totally tabled me. I went easy on him in the first two rounds or so, but I quickly realized that I had to up my game to keep up and he ended up soundly beating my casual list with his hodgepodge list of choice and no punches were pulled, trust me.
Point being that even with a rag tag fleet, one can be victorious over organized ranked forces, because in the end, a lot comes down to luck (because of dice) and good piloting skills (being able to project the movement templates in one's head).
As an aside; I've been working on my own cards for the game, so the CR90 corvette can be used by the Empire as well, and I will do the same with the GR75 for Scum. And when I get my hands on the Gozanti, I will make Scum cards for that ship as well.
A simple case of reskinning the cards with new titles and graphics, but the contents remaining the same. I will redo the huge ship specific crew cards like that as well, so the ships will play roughly the same, bar further other faction specific upgrades (crew) of course.
I thought that would spice up games even more, especially since right now, there are no Scum huge ships (yet).
Also, I have a big swarm of Droid Fighters and a Neimoidian shuttle for which I'm in the process of creating cards as a completely seperate faction. Recently, I had the idea of creating a crew card for them that would enable them to fill up to 50% of their list with Scum ships, for variety (mercenaries?).
(I know, I know; FFG will not venture into the prequel era, but according to Wookiepedia, remnants of the Trade Federation survived right up to the Battle of Yavin, so I'm going with that...
).
As you can tell, there are even more possibilities to this game once you get past the original premise. I, at least enjoy the DIY side of the game tremendously, and that includes scratchbuilding, converting and (re)painting ships as well!
08 June 2013, 09:24:13 PM
