X-Wing 2.0 Design Review- Droids and the Force

We’re nearing the official release of X-Wing 2.0. We’ve looked at how 2.0 has shifted the focus back to the importance of maneuvering, the more limited action economy, the new design space the developers have gained, how pilots have changed and taken a look at the redesign for all of the ships. One fundamental thing I’ve only touched on is the Force and Droids. In 1.0, pilots were differentiated by pilot skill and their pilot ability. With these additions, it suddenly becomes possible to have pilots that are quite distinct from the rest.

The Force

One of the stand out features that makes Star Wars, Star Wars, is the Force. This mystical energy field surrounds us and binds us. Those who could use it had exceptional abilities beyond that of mere mortals. In X-Wing, the devs tried to simulate this in 1.0 via pilot abilities, to mixed results.

2.0’s approach is far more overt. Force Sensitive pilots gain a Force rating representative of their relative power. Darth Vader gets three, most skilled users get two, and relative novices, such as Ezra, get one. The basic use for this token is to change a focus result into a hit or evade. With the loss of much of 1.0’s glut of passive dice mods, this by itself is huge.

Every round, a Force Sensitive character, has the ability to change one focus result of their choice. Doesn’t matter if they are stressed. Doesn’t matter if they bumped. A Force user will inherently be better. They also cost more too.

The differences between Force users and regular pilots doesn’t end there. They also have access to special Force Powers. These take the place of Talents (old EPT’s) so that does preclude them from some build options.

These Force Powers allow the pilot to “break” the rules of the game in some small way, something very in line with the Force. Instinctive Aim lets you fire a special weapon (most cases a Torpedo or Missile) without needing a target lock or focus. Just like Luke did to blow up the Death Star. You can also use Supernatural Reflexes to gain a barrel roll or boost before maneuvering, dramatically expanding the places you might end up. And Heightened Perception gives middling Force sensitive pilots the chance to fire at the start of a round, allowing them to dish out damage early, potentially getting the killing blow on a ship with a higher initiative.

All of these abilities compete for those precious Force tokens. This effect jives with the games new heavy emphasis on limited economy. Whenever a player has to make a tough choice it makes the game better.

These Force Sensitive characters are limited though. Only on characters who use the Force on screen get the privilege, so at launch, we only get Kanan, Ezra, Luke, Darth Vader, Grand Inquisitor, 7th Sister, generic Inquisitors, and Asajj. All of the Legends Force users, Corran Horn, Keyan Farlander, Merrick Steele, Kyle Katarn, etc lose their overt Force connection. Presumably, come wave two, Kylo Ren and Rey will join the ranks.

Droids

Less prevalent in X-Wing, but no less iconic in Star Wars, are droids. Droids have been in X-wing from the beginning, primarily as the Astromech upgrade. When Scum became a faction, the first droid pilots appeared. To highlight their differences from organic meatsacks, FFG has introduced the Calculate token, replacing the Focus action for all droid pilots. Calculate is an inherently weaker version of focus, allowing you to only change one focus result to a hit or evade. In some ways this is very similar to a Force token, however, you have to take an action to get one, where Force tokens are native to the pilot.

This weakness is shored up somewhat by certain droid pilots having ways to gain multiple calculate tokens a turn. While one calculate token is inferior to a focus, two is superior. This gives you the option to spend a token for offense and defense or for defense against multiple attacks. A few droid crew, C-3P0 and IG-88D, add this ability to any ship they are on, expanding to ships with access to double Calculate to any Rebel or Scum ship with a crew slot.

Another change to the game will have a particularly strong impact on these new droid pilots. The Ion effect now prevents a ship from performing any action except Focus. Since droids lack this action, if you ion a droid, it’s a pretty big deal. This fits the lore as ion weapons are designed to be used against technology, such as droids.

Given that there are only nine droid pilots (four of which are IG-88, the others being Guri, 4-LOM, Leebo, AP-5 and L3-37), it seems like an odd decision to add this entirely new game effect. But…

New Factions

At Gen-Con it was revealed Clone War era factions are coming to X-wing in 2019. This means the Separatists, with an entire army made out of droids, having a special mechanic for droids makes a lot of sense and opens up a lot of doors for design space. Similarly, the Republic will probably feature the highest concentration of Force-sensitive pilots of any faction.

With these two new mechanics built into the game, the devs have a lot of design space in how to make these new factions feel unique. I expect we’ll see some Republic upgrades and pilots with abilities that specifically affect Calculate tokens. We might even see Separatist pilots with some Force counter.

These distinctions in 2.0 is a welcome change. Being able to have droid pilots, Force-sensitive pilots and normal pilots of the same ship allows for plenty of options.