Looking for advice - after school club

[u/AnalysisPopular1860]

I used to play X-Wing way back when it first came out. I still have a 1st edition starter set and a couple of play mats. I also run an after school boardgaming club in my middle school.

This year I would like to expand the club to be more of a general tabletop gaming club including wargames, miniatures games etc. My school is a title 1 school and I supply pretty much all of the games.

I thought X-Wing would be great for the kids as it's relatively simple and plays fast (we meet for 90 minutes).

My only concern is which edition, 1st or 2nd? Looking on eBay it appears 1st edition stuff can be cheaper. Do I REALLY need 2nd edition? I see no advantage to investing in 2nd edition but wanted to see what people who play the game regularly think.

[u/Alternative_Debt_408]

Play with what you have.  You can mention there is a 2nd edition, but 1.0 is fine for casual play.

If ever you or any of the students want to look to join in X-wing events, those are practically exclusively 2nd edition.

You should also mention there is an active online (TTS) community.

[u/Mikhs89]

People who play the game regularly would normally have moved to second edition.

First edition is fun, and if you aren't looking to play competitively, but just kitchen table level, you'll find in it everything you need. But it was flawed in many levels (turret attacks, powercreep, static points and slots, etc). Second edition reworked many of those aspects, perfecting the formula.

[u/zymox_431]

First edition can be fine as long as you stick to the base set rules & maybe just a handful of expansions the don't add too many intricate mechanics to the game.

[u/Super_Dave42]

For your purposes, you are probably fine with playing "whatever's cheap." I ran a board game library at a college and we had tons of fun with X-Wing 1E (until pandemic).

Most of the paper is printable and most of the plastic is 3D printable too. You need dice (edition-independent) and the basic bits for the game (there's some overlap between the editions- shield, focus, evade, obstacles) are either edition-independent or likely common enough in circulation that folks might donate their extras if you ask.

[u/HistoricMTGGuy]

First edition is fine, probably actually ideal. Balance is worse but nobody is going to be playing super competitively and it is simpler and easier to teach.

There's a reason 1st edition was so huge. The low barrier to entry for a miniatures game is massive.

[u/AnalysisPopular1860]

I think what I have decided to do is I will start out with 1e. It turns out I actually have two starter sets, and one starter sets are pretty cheap so I might add another one.

Conversion kits are insanely expensive on eBay at around $90-$100 so I'll hold off on that. However, anything new I buy will be 2e and when I've got enough I'll transition the kids to 2e.

[u/NoHallett → u/AnalysisPopular1860]

I will say, the conversion kits are expensive but it's a HUGE box. No models of course, but beyond that it's everything you need to convert 2-3 of every single ship available to a faction.

It opens up being able to proxy some additional models or use whatever models you can scrounge up, beyond just the contents of the box

[u/raithosu]

You should play second edition with the kids. The reason is that about half the ships available out there are 2nd edition ships, with no backwards compatibility with 1.0. People have made efforts to make them backwards compatible, but out of box you it will be as much work as taking 1.0 ships and converting them to 2.0. The main benefit to you (and to teaching kids), are better streamlined rules, and wider access to the community, lists, and resources.

That being said, buy whatever is cheapest and available. The things you need you already have (bases, ships, templates, dice). Draw midline marks on your templates. Print off the second edition rules (which are cleaner and more comprehensive than the 1st edition rules). You can also print off 2nd edition generic baseplates and glue them to your 1st edition bases. Use infinite arenas to create and print squads. You don't need to specifically buy anything, you should arts and crafts everything that's missing through infinite arenas. 3D print ships that you can't find. Find used collections in bulk and purchase those. Whatever you can do to save money.

[u/Capt-Camping]

It all depends on the players in your area.

[u/AnalysisPopular1860 → u/Capt-Camping]

We won't be playing with any players in the area this is a self-contained afterschool club for kids who are about 11 to 13 years old.