2.0 Now!

In which Bob is – just this once – rewarded for his impatience, plays some 2.0, tells you how you can too and all in less than 900 words.

There’s no getting away from the rock solid truth that 2.0 is the most anticipated change to happen to X-wing since forever. And I can’t wait… so I haven’t.

I think not, you crusty green lunatic.

It’s now pretty easy to proxy a game with components you already own to reproduce the battle demo’d by Bell of Lost Souls. It’s not the full 2.0 experience, but it’s close and it’s not a massive faff.

They used:

Wedge, Servomotor S-Foils, Outmaneuver, R4 Astromech
Luke, Servomotor S-Foils, Instinctive Aim , R2-D2 (3), Proton Torpedoes (2)
Y-Wing, Seismic Charges (2), Ion Cannon Turret, Selfless

vs

Darth Vader, Sense, Afterburner (2), Fire Control System, Cluster Missiles (4)
4 x Black Squadron Pilots with Crackshot (1)
(The numbers in brackets are the charges each of those upgrades has.)

A classic confrontation. Although it got a bit dull near the end.

You’ll need all your regular rulers and the like plus:

T-65 X-Wing with a PS5 base – You’ll be using this as Luke
T-65 X-Wing with a PS6 base – You’ll be using this as Wedge. PS9 has become Initiative 6
Y-Wing
Braylen Stram’s ARC base – PS3 with a rear arc so you can see what the turret can shoot
Wedge Pilot Card
Luke Pilot Card
Y-Wing pilot card
2 x T-70 Dials

4 x Tie Fighter with PS 3 base
4 x Black Squadron Pilot cards
4 x Tie Dials
Tie Advanced with Zertik Strom PS 6 base
Vader Pilot card
Tie Silencer dial

You’ll also need some tokens:
14 yellow tokens to represent charges on bombs, missiles, torpedoes, crack shots and so on.
5 tokens to represent force counters – Luke is capped at 2 and Vader at 5
1 Token to represent which way the Y-Wing Turret is facing
2 Tokens to flip to mark whether the S-Foils on the T-65s are open or closed.
And – obviously – some focus tokens, target locks and 8 shields.

And optionally:
A Kimogila base
An Auzzituck Base

Converting your 1.0 dials
When playing – you can position the Tie Silencer dial to a spot between the 1 Turn moves to represent a 1 forward and substitute 1 banks for 1 turns. You’ll also need to remember that 2 turns and 4 and 5 forwards are white, not green (sorry – blue). The T-70 dial is easier – just remember the 2 banks are also blue moves. On the Y-Wing, the 1 bank is now a blue move.

You can find a cute Mynock damage deck here. Print it off, chop the cards out and off you go.
Given the number of Ties with Crack Shot here, you may be wondering how to cope with the need to have your target in Bullsye Arc and how to barrel roll. In a friendly game – and they’re all friendly until September – it’s easy enough to work out: the Bullseye is just narrower than the front nubs on the base and the centre line from which you barrel is easy enough to eyeball. If you’re in a fussy mood, mark a 1 forward template in the centre and use an Auzzituck base to establish the centre line.
It is handy to have a PS3 base with a rear arc for the Y-Wing though. You may want to measure where the turret arc is a few times.

Rules
You can find details of the rules in skotothalmos’ survival kit here. Massive props to skotothalamos for putting that document together. It goes into all kinds of detail about rules and builds – this blog is a bit of a TLDR.

“TL;DR? From Bob? This is new.”

Here’s the key changes you’ll want to remember for this match:
Initiative:
It matters. Roll off, just like now.
Ship stats:
The X-Wings and Y-Wing have all gained a hull point, but the Y-Wing has lost a shield
Actions:
If you attempt an action and fail, that’s your chance to take an action done. No “just checking for a lock” or “seeing if this barrel roll fits”.
Evade now turns any dice to an evade rather than adding one.
Vader can spend 1 force token to perform an additional action. He can also take a free, stressing barrel roll after doing a focus.
Vader no longer has an evade action.
The Y-Wing can move his turret to any of his 4 arcs as an action
The Force:
Luke and Vader regenerate one force token at the start of activation. Luke also gets one each time someone shoots at him.
Vader has a maximum of 3 tokens, Luke has a maximum of 2.
Luke and Vader can spend one of their force tokens to flip a single focus result into a hit or an evade.

Actually, it is, Han. I’ve done some research.

Upgrades:
Some of the upgrades are unchanged. Others are new or have been nerfed –
Sense allows Vader to do an Intel Agent in the “System Phase” (i.e. before dials are revealed) at Range 1 or at Range 1-3 if he spends a force token
Fire Control System lets you to reroll one attack dice when shooting a ship you have locked. You cannot then spend the lock that turn.
R2-D2 triggers optionally when Luke reveals his dial – only 3 charges though and every time he does, Luke takes a no fire token.
Instinctive Aim allows Luke to spend a force token instead of a target lock to fire his proton torps
Selfless – works like Draw their Fire but only if you are also in the attacker’s arc
Afterburners – after a speed 3-5 manouevre, spend a charge to do a boost, even if you’re stressed
Ion Cannon turret – Still 3 red dice at range 1-2, but the first hit that gets through does a damage as normal, any further hits are converted to Ion Tokens. When you move after being ionised, you do a blue1 forward, but may only do a focus action after it.

And we played a couple of games…
… which taught us that 2.0 is a lot of fun. The crutches that you’d use on these ships are gone. Crack shot can be set up for one or maybe two ships, but the old days of getting multiple shots on a single target and cracking all hell out of it are long gone. The Ion Turret on the Y-Wing remains deadly – but not because it always gets a shot. It’s deadly because it always gets a shot and the Tie Fighters don’t. Once they overshoot or fly off in the wrong direction, the Y-Wing is still making a contribution to the damage race while they aren’t. Turrets will remain a source of whining, probably from people who have just seen their own ideal fix implemented.
Luke is a tank. He always was, until people started firing Heavy Laser Cannons at him, but if your game plan involves killing him then you’d better set up some kill boxes around him. (Or blatting him a YT-2400.)
Vader is a very good pilot but he can absolutely die if you expose him to shots. Losing evade hurts him. But spending a force token to do a Target Lock, Focus and Barrel Roll in a single turn is very nice indeed.
Half points on small ships is going to matter in tournament games – i doubt that either of these squads will be competitive because there’s not that much synergy and each player has only 2 plans to choose from (Kill Luke then everything else or Kill everything else then Luke) (Kill Vader then everything else or kill everything else then Vader) and there’s a real chance that your game will end with an unshootable Vader dodging out of Luke’s arc aiming to do a shot that won’t do any damage. Not an especially satisfying outcome and we’ll only know who wins that match after they let us have details of points so we can break this game properly.
And when will the App be released? “Hopefully for Gen Con” (Alex Davy 3rd June 2018)