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Imperial Aces
Seems like the trend 'round here is away from X-wing, which I guess I can forgive. It is still my favorite miniatures game right now. And these new TIE Interceptor pilots are freakin' awesome.
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- Sagrilarus
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My local game store guy said that they don't have good tournament support, but this game is selling in Target so I can't imagine that's the majority of their intended audience.
S.
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- Michael Barnes
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If there is a problem, it may actually be that all of the really iconic, familiar ships are now out and there's a sense of uncertainty about what direction the game is going to go from here. Interest in the giant $100 ships doesn't seem to really be there, and who knows what's up with those space tiles they announced. So it almost seems like the game is at an impasse...especially for folks that have everything they want out of the OT releases. Do they just do repaints, do more EU stuff, start on the Prequel ships (that virtually no one wants)...or do they do products like a widely wanted scenario book, terrain, boards, etc.? It almost seems like FFG doesn't quite know what to do with the game from here, I don't know that there was a five year plan in place for it, so to speak.
I'm in for the Imperial Aces, they look good. And I'll buy whatever Rebel aces they do as well. That said, if they suddenly ended the line I'd be completely happy with my set and it will continue to be played for years to come.
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- Sagrilarus
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It's now one of five games using the same core mechanic, and Attack Wing is very similar overall. Word from my local retailer is that Wizkids is supporting the heck out of Attack Wing.
$20 at Target should give it some more attention, but I had to scan the box to see the discount price at my local store.
S.
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I don't think interest is falling in X-wing in general; interest seems to be waning on this site in particular. Or maybe it was just SuperFly.
FFG could do a better job of keeping up with demand. Seems like their website is out of stock of half the items.
Also did everyone who cares see this: url=http://http://www.gametrademagazine.com/Home/1/1/58/580[/url]
I doubt I can justify buying the big ships, but I am excited about the description of the mechanics.
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If momentum is slackening, my guess is that it's due exactly to what Michael has said. I suspect FFG could've kept up momentum more had it pushed out the OT ships a little more slowly, but I suspect their market research said they'd gain more by shoving them out faster while people were still enthusiastic and were willing to keep buying before they realized they already had too much.
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- Sagrilarus
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jpat wrote: but I suspect their market research said they'd gain more by shoving them out faster while people were still enthusiastic and were willing to keep buying before they realized they already had too much.
With a new movie coming out? They should be looking at 18 months from now. They should be looking to publish future ships.
I don't know what the licensing allows but they should be publishing ships that didn't exist in the movies. The variety would be invaluable even if it's largely about appearance. People dig that stuff.
S.
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On the other hand I am sure I will pick one or two up at some point. For me, I think the game itself has trumped the fact that it is Star Wars.
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- Michael Barnes
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I definitely agree that there's a sense that the momentum of the product line has slowed. This time last year, it was HOT. You couldn't buy it anywhere. There was rampant speculation about what the next releases would be. And now that we've had two more waves and they were more or less exactly what was expected...FFG doesn't seem to be providing customers with anything really exciting about the game beyond those big ships which are just not something that most players- even hardcore players- are going to buy en masse.
But we don't know what's going on, really. There could be licensing issues that are preventing other products coming out. For example, they may not be able to produce those starfield tiles because it would legally butt up against board game licensing held by Hasbro. Some of the EU stuff might be under different licensing packages or have different stakeholders involved. Then there's the whole question of Prequel ships- are they worth the risk, financially? Then, there are development issues of reconciling ships from different eras, creating all-new artwork, writing new rules/cards...all of which may not be worth the resources if a Naboo Starfighter sells a quarter as many units as an X-Wing.
The in-store play issue does seem to be substantial. Wizkids are old hands at store support. They know that offering storyline "seasons", having top-notch prize support, and fostering communities of play will sell the game even if its quality is poorer than X-Wing. If I'm into the competitive scene, the game that's giving me a huge fucking DS9 model as an incentive to go to a shop and play every week is the one I'm going to go with.
And Attack Wing has, I think, disrupted X-Wing quite a bit. I've heard here, on TOS, and elsewhere that folks have made the switch. I like both games, and I think the Trek/Wars flavors are different enough for me to have both. That said, I collect Attack Wing differently. I get one of everything, and that makes me happy. But I dont' even have any Dominion stuff yet. X-Wing, three of everything and one each of the larger ships. I can't imagine going mulitples on Attack Wing AND X-Wing.
I think it's too early to declare X-Wing in crisis, but I do think that one of FFG's top 1Q priorities should be to form up a solid plan of what to do with the game over 2014. It's pretty clear that the "wow" factor of the big ships is actually pretty muted (mostly due to those $100 price tags) and the things I've heard people asking for like a scenario book/cards, maps, and terrain don't seem to be materializing. They need to come in strong BEFORE the summer conventions with public plans about what they're doing with the game. Are they going prequels, EU, or repaints? How are they going to improve tournament support?
I mean, hell...I'd buy a set of deluxe templates if they made them. There's all kinds of things they could be doing, but just releasing more ships is actually about the LEAST appealing thing they can do with it right now.
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As far as ship purchases, I'm at 3 of each for XWing excluding Ties (6) and XWings (4) and one of each of the large ships. Two more Ties and I'm content until whatever else comes down the pipe.
Attack Wing, I'm targeting two of each, there might be an exception here or there, and one is plenty but a second gives some nice options.
From what I recall, I don't think they have the license for the Prequel stuff. I'm likely wrong, but I think I read that somewhere when they announced they had the license bit it was only for the Original Trilogy. And I'm too lazy to source it now.
They do need to do something and perhaps what that something is is to just polish off a few things, round out with a Rebel Aces and then cash licensing money from WizKids.
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- Michael Barnes
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Feb '14 we will see Wave 3 launch for Attack Wing. OP5 should be mostly in the books and people starting to claim OP6 DS9 prizes. Kits should be on order, if not shipping, for the two Single Episode Organized Plays. Wave 4 just a few weeks later. And then Wave 5 a few months after that.
The pace that WizKids is setting is actually breathtaking and invigorating. The pace that FFG is setting is...well...not.
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- Michael Barnes
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I would have thought that FFG would understand this with their support for Netrunner and their other LCG releases. But yes, Wizkids is definitely outpacing them on that front and it may be impacting how X-Wing is played or even selling.
Of course, if you just play at home with friends, it's a different dynamic. But these kinds of games HAVE to have support to be sustainable. I've seen many games come and go that had faltering or practically non-existant in-store support and the same thing happens every time. People stop buying because they feel like if they get into the game and invest then their opportunities to actually play it will dry up.
Hecatomb and Dreamblade are prime examples. Great games. Dreamblade was actually very great. But if you bought a couple of boxes of it, who were you going to play it with if your friends weren't into it? Not at an FLGS, because you'd either go and there'd be nobody there or they wouldn't be supporting it at all.
There may be a perception among the X-Wing player base that it's in decline because Wizkids is supporting Attack Wing so well. If you go to the Android's Dungeon for X-Wing night and there's three people, and then the next night you go for Attack Wing and there's 20, there's two different pictures of health and you're naturally going to want to be with the better supported game because there's more people to play with.
This is one of the reasons that Magic has never declined. You can go into a store and drop $500 on cards and feel assured that you'll have someone to play with. But you might buy a $50 board game and have no one to play with.
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