And The Flowers Are Still Standing!

 And The Flowers Are Still Standing!

I know that everything around the flowers is smashed and that's the joke, but technically, the flowers ARE still standing...

So a lot of people are pretty upset about the changes to X-Wing. I wouldn't know a lot about that because I only played 3 games of X-Wing before the changes were made, and those 3 games were spaced out over something like 18 months. Which meant I was relearning the game each time I played it. But I just played my fourth game in the wake of the newest changes (objective play, bumping rules, and the massive squad-building changes) and I happen to really like them!

I know there are a bunch of vets who are uninterested in the opinion of a n00b and that's totally fine. I don't know that I could convince anyone anyway if they're set on not liking these changes or thinking said changes "are ruining the game." But I will say that having played a couple of games before the changes and having played a game last night while implementing all of the changes, I really enjoyed it more now than I did before. It's true that under the new rules, there are a couple of things I could've built before that I can't build now. But with this new system, I do not really feel as though I'm having to navigate point limits as much as I did before. I still don't get everything I want, but within this new system, I feel a lot more comfortable taking a "what the hell; just in case" upgrade than in the previous system. With several years of Armada under my belt, I've got lots of experience trying to optimize points as best I can and running as lean as possible. It's a really nice change of pace to be encouraged to kit everything out as much as I can afford to do. For those who argue that what I've described above as an integral part of the game and competition it fosters, I can appreciate that was the case. And there's a certain beauty and satisfaction in it. But as a n00b who already gets the satisfaction of running lean by playing Armada, I'm perfectly happy to fly with all the bells and whistles in X-Wing.

If you can't see the wisdom in bedazzling one's own face, then I feel sorry for you.

Also, I know there were complaints when AMG made the changes to initiative rules. I had outlined what I thought the complaints were, but in talking to Josh, it sounds like there was quite a lot more nuance to the concerns voiced. I can't speak to a lot of that because I didn't have enough experience with the game prior to these changes to really center any part of my play on initiative knowledge while setting my dials. All I'll say is that one of my two biggest complaints about X-Wing (both of which prevented me from playing the game for years) was that I really resented the luck that came with rolling defensive dice. I resented the notion of my very good attack roll being negated simply because your dice rolled better than mine. More experienced X-Wing players (see: ALL of them) would, I think, be the first ones to argue that X-Wing is about positioning and not about dice. Sure, dice can help or hurt you. And if you lay it all out there on a gambit that's reliant on dice, then you're just hoping Lady Luck feels like throwing a little support your way. But the best players aren't counting on their dice rolls; the best X-Wing players are leveraging strong positioning to maximize their odds so even when things don't go exactly according to plan, they haven't put all their eggs in one basket. I personally end up feeling the same way about how initiative plays out. There'll be times it bites me and times it helps me, just as dice always have. Maybe it's just wildly different for me because of when I'm entering the game. But because of my entry point, this change and this element of randomness doesn't bother me at all.

It was only one game and we only got through something like 5 rounds before the game ended, but while initiative did influence the game, neither me nor my opponent thought it changed the complexion of the game so utterly that it cost or gave one of us the game. And speaking of only going 5 rounds: man, I love objective play. When I was first learning how to play Star Wars Armada, I really didn't like objectives. I felt like they distracted me from playing the game and I often felt as though they were "a cheap way" for my opponent to gain points. It took a little time, but I came to appreciate just how much more dimension objective play added to the game. Now, Armada is a very different game compared to X-Wing. In my mind, X-Wing is much more similar to Kill Team than it is to Armada. But when I think about Kill Team, I come back to that same reliance on dice not betraying you, and how that distracts from how all of the best players utilizing and leveraging good positioning. My friend Josh put it best (I'm quoting from a conversation we had after we talked through all of this stuff): "It's usually more satisfying than what would often happen before, where the 75 minutes would end and the game felt unresolved. It also gets rid of 'I'm up on points and you can't catch or destroy what I have left, so this game is over, but we'll play it for another 30 minutes unless you want to concede.'...Games that feel like they have an inevitable conclusion arrive at that conclusion sooner with the implementation of objectives." We played Assault at the Satellite Array and after basically scoring evenly on objective tokens for the first two rounds, the game tipped in my favor when I was able to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi (flying a Delta-7). After that, I was able to pin down and take out Anakin (also flying a Delta-7). At this point, I had 4 ships to his 2 and it was easy to control enough objectives that I won the game in round 5 or so.

We agreed that the game was over at that point, even though it's likely he would at least have killed my Nantex, so the combination of objective and kill points ending the game at that point spared us playing out several more rounds to complete the game. We both appreciated that. Now, there were several factors at play. One is that Josh is a far superior player to me. It's not close. He's the one who has been teaching me. So we talked through some of my choices and moves, so his insight as to things I could do better in the moment definitely meant my gameplay was superior to what it would've been if I was just guessing. Also, Josh was flying something totally oddball that he just threw together and wanted to try out with the new rules. And of course, this was only one game. I know it's possible that I'll hate the next ten games I play, thus proving all of the angry people right about AMG "ruining the game." But I just don't think that's going to happen. I had a lot of fun playing this game and my prior concern about how X-Wing is "just ships circling each other until someone gets lucky or someone makes a mistake or the clock runs out" was nowhere to be found. We both had plans, we both had to engage in order to make turn those plans into reality, and objective play made that happen.

I'm sorry if this isn't the game you fell in love with. I've had games I loved that were pulled out from under my feet *cough40kConquestcough*. But as someone pretty new coming to the game, I really dig it the way it plays right now. It has me wanting to play more sooner rather than later. I think there are certainly people who will give up X-Wing in light of the changes AMG made. That's a shame and there's definitely some loss for the game there. But I also think once anger cools a bit, most of the players will stick with it instead of leaving. I also think there are going to be a lot of new players who dig this new way of building squads and playing the game. Finally, I'm sure lots of people don't care about this at all, but I do: it's sooooooo much easier to keep track of mission points in this format than in the previous one. I can only speak for myself, but it'll keep the game moving on my end if I'm not having to calculate more than 20 points to determine where I stand in my match. As someone who tries to keep track of points in Armada and can have difficulty determining whether it's worth having my squadron stick around or if I should just GTFO and save the points, it makes a huge difference in the speed with which I can make my decisions.

Yes, it's true that AMG broke a lot of stuff on the table when they pulled away the tablecloth. But in the mind of this n00b, ultimately, the flowers (and X-Wing) are still standing when it's all said and done. I think it's worth exploring this new game AMG has rolled out. I think there are more of us who will like it than will walk away from it.

"If I'm wrong, nothing happens! We go to jail - peacefully, quietly, we'll enjoy it! But if I'm right, and we can stop this thing...Lenny...you will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters."