X wing is what brought me to Covenant. Because of you guys and the content you produce, you led me to net runner, GOT, LOTR LCG, Star Wars LCG, Keyforge, L5R, and and Star Wars Legion. I guess I just thank you guys for all the fond game memories.

Thanks for the kind words!

I'll echo Andrews comment he made on his Earthborne podcast that it's sad that this announcement was made with really no weigh considering how significant that game was for their studio. He gave the game a better eulogy but maybe that's fitting considering the people who produce and watch that podcast.

X-Wing really is one of the best games. Any version. 2.0 was the best though, as far as gameplay went. Trouble was FFG sold it as a rebrand of the existing game, with loads of content already converted over, instead of using it as a restarting point. New players were still overwhelmed, old players had very little new to buy after the conversion kits, and FFG had converted far too much content to have really play tested or balanced it. So, instead of revitalizing X-Wing for old players and being a good on ramp for new players, 2.0 just ended up being a good stopping point for those getting tired of 1.0’s messy meta and a daunting sea of content for newbies. It’s a real shame, because once FFG got cooking with 2.0, it really was the best version of one of the best games.

Thank you very much for the shoutout, team! Is certainly quite sad to say goodbye to FaB DB, but destiny has called me elsewhere. Steven, hope you do continue to follow - I suspect you'll find Halcyon Online to be far more than the old text-based RTSs of old :)

this is the best retrospective on the Xwing saga.

Hi guys, I became interested in X-wing and your videos with the footage from finals and also Alex presenting X-wing miniatures 2.0. After Zach said "The Empire did nothing wrong" I had to subscribe and like all your videos afterwards. Fellow Galactic Empire enjoyer here. Your content is great and I wish you lots of success with all your future projects.

Watching your Imperial Assaults and Xwing streams were a huge part of getting me back into gaming around 2016-17 ❤

X-wing got me into gaming and it's sad and infuriating the way AMG treated it. When I moved to Minnesota for a job that turned out to be a scam, playing X-wing helped me find people and getting to meet Alex Davy and somehow win the FFG store championship (back in the early days before people had really gotten serious in a way I could never match) was a great experience in my life. 2.0 definitely hit the player base in smaller areas but was really good. AMG though never really wanted to keep it going, and their initial streams were dripping with contempt for the players and the game. Some of the missions were a cool idea, and mission play was the thing X-wing always needed better in, but some other rules they added just showed they didn't understand the game at all and never bothered to learn. In this era of SquareSpace they took two years to even get more than a blank links page on their website for the game. Friends of mine who had played Warmachine told me about the "my way or the highway" changes that these same studio leaders made wrecked that community and it's rough to see it play out here. But I guess AMG can focus on their smash brothers type games now. I'll definitely not support AMG ever now, even though I'd thought of dipping back into Legion. And thank you for the cool templates you made back in the day!

When I was first exploring X-wing, I found Covenant's match commentary of world's. Still some of my favorite content on youtube full stop.

X-Wing is how I found you all. Then you convinced me to try Arkham... and KeyForge... and SolForge Fusion... and Marvel Champions... and...

I just wanted to mention that I finally decided to back Earthborne Rangers. Core box + Stewards box + Moments pack + Valley map. $172 in total. Pricey, but my own game's sales finally made it affordable for me. I've been drooling over EBR since you guys got the first printing in. Can't wait to dive in this December (fingers crossed)! Maybe next time I'll splurge on some of the other goodies. I really wanted that setting book, but it would have pushed me over $200. I had to draw the line somewhere.

X-Wing was a perfect storm of A.) a simple game system with tons of design space, B.) an IP that was bursting back into the public consciousness, and C.) a surge in popularity of hobby gaming in general. But X-Wing 1.0 became too bloated with all the erratas and "game- balancing" products. Then almost all that bloat was brought into 2.0 on launch day, which contributed to its divisive launch. Then even more bloat was added with the introduction of more factions. By then, veteran players were dropping like flies, but they weren't being replaced by new players because the sheer amount of content was too intimidating. If you want to keep the game alive through community leadership, the problem of game bloat MUST be addressed. Otherwise, you're going to find yourselves dealing with some of the same problems which both FFG and AMG had to face.

as someone who despises set rotation in games, but has watched too many favorite game die before their time was up: you MUST do set rotation, immediately implement that as a launch feature with your game, if you're doing a collectible experience. it is the only way to keep it fresh and keep the meta healthy it must be done set rotation is a fundamental reason that The Big Three are still around while everything else faded away

As a current X-wing player, there are many thoughts and feeling about all of this. I'm a bit more "pro AMG" than most, and viewed all of their changes as really good for the overall game. Like y'all were mentioning though, essentially FFG drilled the holes in the coffin for X-wing with 2.0 (even though it was desperately needed) and AMG put the screws in the holes to make the coffin good and sealed. I personally put the most blame on Asmodee for having this all happen with the firing of all the mini's devs and transferring it all over to AMG. Zach does make a good point though, there was no end in sight for the game, so having it not have a real conclusion really just killed it, and Asmodee being on the market to be sold every year didn't help when they were trimming fat with studios and game lines. Overall, X-wing was a life changer for a young dude right out of college, in a new job in a new town. Without X-wing I wouldn't have made some lifelong friends. I wouldn't have had the many amazing experiences, and just would have been worse off without it. Unfortunately with changes in work schedules and bad locations for the upcoming tournament season, I think X-wing is taking a back seat (the first one in 7 years) to other games until the final world's event in March 25. I'm excited to see what the new X-wing Alliance comes up with, but unfortunately there are still too many people who want to live in 2.0 world, while the XWA keeps the 2.5 edition going. There won't be new players, there won't be people unifying under one ruleset. It is just going to be a fun little side venture that eventually fizzles out.

I played X-Wing for the first time at a board game convention back when it first released. I had a friend who owned a LGS and would get me tons of ships at cost so I have a massive collection in the attic. I never played seriously but plan to get it back out once my son is old enough. Super fun game!

I was in Baltimore for the Sorcery Social and the art reveals. I was able to talk to the artists and stood in front of the original banshee painting talking about it with Chase and Simon. Such a great experience with great people throughout. Sorcery is doing this thing right!!

X-Wing was such an accessible game. Star Wars IP, prepainted minis, good community, etc. There were problems, but god I'd love to go back to X-Wing night right after wave 4 in 1.0 released and fly an Echo list.

The Cup in Baltimore was very fun. Seeing card paintings in person was sweet. Great event.

Very interesting Good job 👏🏻 im fall in love with AlphaClash 🤩🥳 I Hope soon find players in France 🇫🇷 or in Europe for tournment 🙏 Thanks !

I have a large 1st ed x-wing collection. Unfortunately. the way FFG handled the update to v2.0 meant it was not viable for me to convert. As the update box2s did not fit my collection. Within 18 monts tournaments were all 2.0 and I haven't played it since.

Its so funny to see you drink and talk about some of my local beers all the way on the other side of the world. Guess they export a lot more then I knew 😊 greetings from Belgium!

Will you guys still be doing anymore netrunner play through ?

how do new players get in with the fan continuation though? how do you just pick up a starter with prepainted minis?

It was a great game and instant sale to most people. 1.0 wasn’t perfect but they lost most old players with the upgrade kits. They were just too expensive and it divorced many players from the start. 2.0 could be amazing , I’ll never know as I am too invested into 1.0 so that’s what I’ll hold onto now. Armada dying feels bad and honestly both dying feels bad as the lack of produced models means no new players and existing stock will be scalped through the nose for a time, I never got to pick up republic fleet for that. Sad times.

@53:40 I never played, but I would have thought making missions a key part of tournament structures, so that people sometimes had to deal with situations that didn't suit a big turrets thing roaming backwards and forwards would be the best idea. Keep changing missions and then the ships and cards don't need updating but their value is in flux.

Loved the chats guys, agreed with lots and the Sorcery site bet was *chef's kiss*. One note though - Tortured Poets is a masterpiece, so I'm not sure what the skepticism there was about? 😉

So did SWU really cut out the middle man (mostly) and selling direct?? Stores can’t get boxes either. Seems like a good way to kill a game??

Is there a possibility to still get the beta booster boxes for Sorcery?

2:50:41 .... and what about the guys killing LoTR with the rings of power?

❤

Is there a successful, large scale miniature games company that the community can widely agree does things well?

Why just discontinue? Why not reform the game as a board game, same rules but fixed faction teams. One box per faction. Purchase two and go to town. A bit like kill team. But only a couple of factions?

what a coincidence, all the people I knew were idiots in high school way up here in Mass drank beer too. must be a high school idiot thing or something 😂. Loved X-Wing. such a great game!! left after 1.0 due to non-gaming reasons, but definitely a great game. its one of those games that will always be missed and irreplaceable. Armada looked fun but never hit like X-Wing did. never had an issue with cross era matches. that, IMO, isn't a fundamental problem. general balance and avoiding dumb strategies that aren't really playing the game as intended (IE Falcons) are design issues that were missed in development. but it happens, just sucks. but using era matches as a form of rotation or "meta" gaming sounds interesting but you then force players into playing factions they may not be as interested in but play just to compete and then its not as fun. I'm actually a fan of Steven's thoughts on the once a yr(or whatever time period chosen) card pack of $50, these are the legal cards now. includes all pilots, upgrades, etc... that can be used while allowing all ships & factions. the different sculps would also be awesome!! another fire stream. and then ending with a game of Warlord, hells to the ya!!! stop showing cool cards, I just want to go buy dragon and gargoyle cards now...

Och, come on guys! 2.0 was excellent, frankly AMG just killed the game by wanting to turn it into Marvel Crisis Protocol, and the players did not appreciate it. I do not know how they coul have made it profitable, but I can tell what they did wrong. From the beginning they said they wanted to make the game simpler and they made it more complex, they gave every faction too many triggers, they introduced non intuitive abilities (i.e. Zam Wesell), they allowed too much loadout and because of "Standarized" cards they removed the most entertaining part which is tinkering the list. Also they almost stopped messing with the points and that what was the big part of the game - meta changing every half a year. That made players excited and made them go back to "drawing boards" for developing new ideas and new lists. AMG never wanted to understand the game and the players, their communication was arrogant and the players could feel it.

Fantasy flight is where games go to die...if they buy your game, you can start the clock.

Still it better what want happen to Warhammer Fantasy.