I just starter playing X-Wing 2.0 and I figured I’d share my experience with people who were on the fence about jumping in. With the release of 2.0 it has been touted as a great time to get in since its kind of a reset to the old broken stuff that many players were frustrated with. Being an FFG game many of our patrons and readers also play so I figured I’d give it a shot. So far its been a mixed bag but I’ve been having fun.

#1. Get Ready to Lose, a Lot.

I don’t mean losing in the sense of playing a game that made you feel like you actually had a chance of winning. I mean get ready to get completely crushed. Maybe it’s because I’ve never played miniatures before but the games haven’t been or felt close. Imagine jumping in to learn to play chess against someone who actually knows how to play but instead of all the pieces doing the same thing your opponent’s pieces move in a bunch of different ways and they all have special abilities.

This might be something that a lot of people take as a given but as someone who considers himself pretty good at games its hard to truly internalize. This leads me to my second piece of advice.

#2. Play the Starter Set First

I jumped right in and bought some empire and rebel ships. I did that before the new starter sets came out. My logic being that I wanted to have two factions to fly against each other once 2.0 was released. That’s all fine in theory and at the time I got a good deal so I don’t regret it but I recommend that you play the starter first. This, again, seems pretty obvious but you should try the game before you invest in it. Even if all your buddies like it that doesn’t mean that you are going to like it. I’m the kind of guy who starts on the hardest difficulty in video games and scales back if its too hard. I think that can sour you in certain situations. The people at FFG have put a lot of time into the starter sets as a teachable tool. The ships might seem kind of boring but I think you’ll have more fun in the long run if you start on easy mode.

#3. Know Your Space

The older I’ve gotten the more organized I’ve become. Its been out of necessity that I’ve had to get organized lest I feel the woe that is a bursting house or an unseeable floor. This is just a warning about the amount of time and money you’ll have to put into being organized when it comes to playing X-Wing. If you play Star Wars Destiny you know how much of a pain storing dice can be but X-Wing is on different level.

Not only do you have to have ships but you also have to have tokens, dials, stands, cards, templates for measuring, etc. In my first tournament I felt proud that I had all my stuff organized in boxes until I realized I didn’t have my measuring rulers (I need to get me one of those thin fancy wooden holders), that was slightly embarrassing but the people I played with were really nice about it and let me use theirs.

If you want to play at your house you need to have a space big enough to have a reasonable game. I specifically bought a table that was big enough. This might seem crazy if you live in a big enough space but for the city folk this is something to be mindful of.

At some point you might say to yourself: Is this worth the space? That’s a question you’ll need to ask yourself. If you are fine buying the starter and just playing that then this probably won’t apply to you but if you are a hardcore gamer who likes to dive deep into games then space considerations are very real. Its not just what you need now but also what you will need in the future.

#4. Be Ready to Play Long Games

Maybe you are a gamer who is used to playing very long games but I’m not. CCGs have been my bread and butter for years and I’ve usually hated extremely long games. This sort of ties into losing a lot. Stomaching quick loses is one thing but it gets old when you play 90 minute games that you were never going to win. I will give the game designers a lot of credit for keeping my interest in the face of my growing pains. Winning isn’t everything obviously and in my games I have made some sweet turns and have done some unexpected things that have surprised my opponents which has given me some satisfaction. These sort of things are the hallmark of a good game.

If you know long games aren’t for you then X-Wing probably isn’t for you. It’s a bit slow paced especially in the beginning. You’ll have to read people’s cards and upgrades when you start playing at stores and its not like in CCGs where taking people’s cards and rereading them is normal and easy. People will have a bunch ships with upgrades that you’ll need to learn. On top of that these cards have tokens on them making moving them so your opponent can read them cumbersome. This isn’t an attack on the game at all but just a factual statement about its nature.

Each ship has 12 diffrent ways it can move and when you have to decide where to move you are sort of swimming without knowing how. This can lead to indecision paralyses – the amount of choices and possibilities are just so high that its hard to feel confident that you even made a reasonable one. For the time, I’ve given up on the idea of knowing how my opponents ships move. As a matter of principle I generally don’t like to think about the strategy of a game when I’m learning it but I almost feel like I have to since the game is so long and I want to get something from my time investment. If any of those feelings resonate with you then you should definitely pick up the starter to test it out first.

Noob Tips: In future matches I’m going to ask my opponents if I can take pictures of their cards so I can quickly reference them. It might not be allowed in sanctioned play but I really have no other idea how I’m supposed to reference cards quickly otherwise.

#5. Physical Issues

Another reason you have to play slow is that ship placement is very important and nudging and moving ships accidentally is something you want to avoid. I’ve played card games my whole life and if I was a D and D character my dexterity would certainly be above average. Still, the placing, moving of ships and then accidentally hitting opponents ships is frustarting. This point is something that I might be the only one that cares about since everyone I’ve played with has been very cool about me having the dexterity of a caveman. I guess this is just my own anxiety manifesting but be ready to not be able to move pieces so swiftly and to take your time moving pieces and tools. If you are a person with shacky hands this is something you’ll have to come to grips with.

Noob Tips: One thing I will avoid is wearing long sleeve shirts since the sleeves can accidentally knock things around.

If you happen to have a bad back or feet I recommend that you actively sit down when you aren’t moving your pieces. I wasn’t paying attention to my back pain and standing for a long time does take it out of you and you’ll feel it the next day. These physical issues are totally new to me and something I haven’t heard people talk about.

I just wanted to be critical of the game since many review end up praising the deep gameplay or how it captures the flavor of the Star Wars universe so well. Those are all things I agree with and I do like the game. I’ll keep playing it since its interesting, it challenges me on a whole different level then I am used to and one of the most important things in gaming: a lot of my friends play it.

Thanks for reading and as always…

-NJCuenca

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