During the World Championships this year, Fantasy Flight Games announced that X-Wing was ending, and being replaced by a Second Edition. Some components and rules would make the transition, but everything else would be new. They are releasing a Starter Set and Upgrade Kits so that existing players can rejoin the game as fast as possible, while slowly re-releasing the old ships for newer players.
It's taken some time to process my thoughts and feelings on the Edition change, as it affects my gaming on so many different levels. I wear many hats/perform many roles with X-Wing, so the impact was bound to be complicated. This post is to put a lot of that into one place and see whom else is in similar positions.
Player
I first approached X-Wing as a player. Initially, it was just myself flying Imperial against Jamie and his Rebellion, as had been the case when we had played Decipher's TCG as well. We attended the Assault on Imdaar Alpha pre-release, and I haven't looked back. As FFG shifted the Bounty Hunters out into their own faction, alongside other Scum elements, my collection shifted to match. Eventually, I started buying Rebel ships, to maximise my choice of ships to fly, both competitively and for fun.
The Edition change leaves me with a choice. I can keep playing First Edition, hoping that enough people wanting casual games will continue to play, or I can switch to Second Edition, figuring that the majority of the player base will also do so. Not switching will limit my potential opponents, while switching won't. I can even keep my existing stuff to play against those that don't switch.
Switching is going to be expensive. Looking at retail prices, the Starter is £37 and each Conversion Kit is £47. Each kit is for one faction and contains Pilot cards, Upgrade cards and a number of Dial per ship type. If you want to fly more of a specific ship than the kit contains dials for, then you will have to buy extra kits. Shops offering discounts and the Secondary Market will offset this a little. Similarly, if you want to continue flying multiple factions, you will need a kit for each one. This increases the cost again.
A big change that compounds this is the First Order and the Resistance are being split away from the Empire and Rebellion to become their own factions. If you enjoyed flying lists like Dash Rendar and Poe Dameron, or Quickdraw and Rear Admiral Chiraneau, you will no longer be able to. This means even if you thought you were mono-faction, you existing collection might no longer be. Also, those factions aren't releasing with the main game in September, leaving you waiting until the Wave Two release before you can play those ships.
The Wave Two Conversion Kits will be cheaper, as both of those factions have fewer ships. However, if your collection is like mine, if you want to keep playing all the factions you will have to buy the Starter and 5 Conversion Kits. That's £178 rrp in September, plus whatever price point the Wave Two kits come out at. That's an expensive readmission price. You can buy it in bits, but that's still £84 for one faction. Again, you can always shop around for a lower price and check out the secondary market for individual bits. And that's to keep playing a game that currently is already playable.
I'm seeing a lot of people comparing this to when Games Workshop change an Edition. However, when an Edition changes for 40K, you only have to buy the Rulebook and your armies Codex. With 8th Edition, the core rules are a free download. So the price of switching from 7th to 8th is £25 (£30 if you play Space Marines, but their Codex is larger). Having to buy new units don't apply to an Edition change, as the players that care often buy new units when the meta changes too. Essentially, the Edition change is a Meta change as far as their spending habits are concerned.
With the financial issues addressed, it's on to the rest of the issues I face as a player. Having watched the Team Covenant Zach versus Alex Davey video, and read the FFG article on movement (https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/5/9/a-few-maneuvers/ ), it's clear the core mechanics of the game aren't changing. This is good, as those mechanics are what make the game both amazing to play and simple to teach. Other mechanics have changed, and there will be new ones I've not seen discussed. This will mean readjusting to a new ruleset.
As someone who has played other games that have switched Editions multiple times, (Warhammer 40K and Heroclix, I'm looking at you both) and also as someone who plays a lot of games, absorbing new rules shouldn't be too difficult. There will be a short period where some old rules will attempt to filter through, but that will end. The annoying part will be that we've already seen that some existing Pilots and Upgrades are getting radically changed abilities, while some existing abilities are getting new names. One, in particular, I've noticed is there is a new TIE Advanced Pilot with the ability of Juno Eclipse. Does that mean she is getting a different ability? Or has the character been removed from the game entirely?
The biggest change is how squads are built. Firstly; squad size is 200 points but ships are roughly doubling in price. That gives them more room to make cost changes for Pilots and Upgrades. Squads will be roughly the same size they are now. However, the points won't be printed on the cards. Instead, they will be handled via an App.
The shift of games towards needing an App annoys me. Firstly, not everyone has a smartphone or tablet to put an app on. From a personal standpoint, my current phone doesn't have room for another App. I've already recently deleted what Apps I can, just to contain the current ever-expanding ones. That creates a barrier to entry for some people. I've heard that the software will also be useable via a website, but that's not useful to those who want to take a bunch of ships somewhere and just build some squads throughout the day as they play.
I get that it allows them to adjust problems in the game via changing point values. But they have long had this ability. I've been suggesting it as a fix to problems for a couple of years now. Instead, they have changed card text to fix them. All making this an app does is shrink the visible size of the FAQ. A lot of the pages in the current one are dedicated to changing card text, which highlights how often design mistakes have been made. Hiding this via an App, to me, doesn't outweigh the barriers to entry it causes.
Problem fixing is an interesting one. The online community is currently of the opinion that previously poor performing ships will now be balanced and playable, while the "over-powered" ones will be brought down in power level. In my experience, this won't be true. There will always be an imbalance in games like this. Some Pilots and Upgrades will be unplayable simply because their faction has better options for competitive play. Any attempt to try and correct this will either end with all ships being identical, or points having to change very frequently. I also hope that the player base has time to actually fly against and adapt to metas and that points aren't changed as a knee-jerk reaction every time the vocal online community causes a fuss.
Conclusion
I'm going to keep playing, switching to the Second Edition. The price and App are certainly barriers to my continued playing though. There are only 4 months to save up for the Edition change.
Collector
Some would call me a Hoarder, but part of what appeals to me about tabletop gaming is collecting. This approach to gaming then informs my play habits. For X-Wing, that means I currently buy 1 of each Rebel and Scum ship and 3 of each Imperial small ship. With the Empire, I want the ability to field squads of a Pilot and their two Wingmen. This has lead to me having a lot of physical Pilot and Upgrade cards.
While the ships are still useable, the dials wont be as many ships are getting new and improved dials with extra maneuvers. I can keep some of the cards for a collection, and give me the ability to continue to play First Edition, but the rest will be uneeded. Do I attempt to sell them on, hoping there is still a demand? Or do I recycle the cardboard?
They haven't announced what they are doing with the Epic format, other than it is coming at some point. Do I buy the 3 ships (Corvette, Transport and C-Roc) that I haven't bought yet? FFG hasn't historically been great at supporting the side formats. Any cards I get with those ships will be useless in Second Edition. It has put me off the expense of picking them up.
The TIE Reaper and Saw's Renegades haven't released yet. They have announced that they will also contain all the cards needed to make them Second Edition playable. At least that's one less worry.
Upgrade cards in Second Edition are going to be regular card sized. That means that when I dispose of the old upgrade cards, there are going to be a lot of unused small sleeves. I'm sure I'll find a use for them eventually. It does mean that the new cards will take up more space for storage though.
On the positive side of things, this could see a decrease in the cost of existing alternate art cards. There are a couple of official ones I still want to pick up for collection purposes. The Movie Still Lando Calrissian has long been expensive when it appears for sale. I'm hoping that it becomes affordable once Second Edition releases.
Conclusion
This will allow me to reduce the size of my collection and saves me buying the last three Epic ships. It may even let me obtain the Lando I've been after. I do fear that this means I'll have to dispose of large amounts of cardboard though, which is a shame.
Retailer
I work at G.I. Games. We sell tabletop games, card games and roleplay games. As such, I see the effect changes like this have on businesses. Stocking Second Edition isn't a question. It's a new product and I foresee the majority of the existing player base switching. However, existing First Edition stock is an issue.
While there will still be people picking up First Edition versions of ships in the lead up to Second Edition, that will become less true as time goes on. This potentially leaves shops with unsellable ships or having to discount them drastically to sell them.
This issue is common with FFGs LCGs as well. That's why I anticipate no assistance from them. Games Workshop refunds stores when they make Codexes defunct, but that's a rare practice in the gaming industry.
Also, individual ships will cost more in Second Edition than in First, going up by £6. This price increase could lead to the game being less attractive to new players, making it harder to shift new stock.
Conclusion
Our shop isn't massively affected, but I know other shops have lots of First Edition stock. This sort of thing is always a pain for Retailers and is what makes stocking games risky.
Tournament Organizer
I run Tournaments for several game systems. Alongside this Edition change, there was an announcement about changes coming to the official FFG Tournament structures. This will affect the way Seasonal Kits and upwards are run. We've already seen an increase in the price of these kits, but have no other information.
The next World Championships is going to be late 2019, well over a year after the recent one. We have yet to be informed how that affects the placement of feeder events next year, such as Nationals and Euros, or how it will affect the players that win those events this year.
How will the App affect things? Will it also contain software for running events, or will we stick to using TOME/Cryodex? Will the game still have the same time limit on Rounds? The squad structure looks the same, so I don't expect that to change. Yet currently there are more questions than answers.
Finally, for this Summer's events, there is the issue of prize support. The future kits coming between now and September contain double-sided promos that are compatible with both Editions. Older promos are essentially obsolete now though, especially the custom ones people have commissioned.
This leaves me with a stack of spare promos to give out to players who may not want them. It then ties into the collector's issue of the promos not having a resale value, which may lead to me having to dispose of them. Luckily, I believe the majority of players (at least locally) play for the love of the game rather than the prize support.
Conclusion
There is a fair amount of uncertainty at the moment when it comes to the future of tournaments. Best thing to do at the moment is stick with the current plan and wait for more news.
Judge
I Judge tournaments, both for my self and for FFG via Asmodee UK. This hat is the one least affected by the Edition change. Sure, I'll have to learn the new ruleset. But the same is true whenever a new Wave releases anyway. FFG will continue to release documents to help with this, and may even integrate that into the App.
That could lead to problems though. Power issues with the device you are running the App on or other mechanical failures. Having to get a device for the App in the first place. Hopefully, there will also be a printable version of any FAQ document.
As an aside, I'd also like to see Floor Rules. A proper guide to not only how to fix mistakes that players make, as well as how to official deal with them. There have long been no guidelines on when it is appropriate to award a player a Game Loss, as well as a Disqualification. An official document would ensure that all Judges and Marshalls are on the same page when these things happen. It could also address issues we have seen with live streams.
Conclusion
Business as usual here. The Floor Rules have been something I've been wanting for a while anyway.
Final Conclusion
I'm going to go forward with Second Edition, as I suspect the majority of players will. Staying with an older Edition of a game means that when new stuff releases, you won't be able to use it. Changing isn't without its problems though.
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