Why X-Wing Miniatures used to be such a simple yet elegant game... and isn't

  I had an opportunity to teach a new player X-Wing last night (he's played naval table top games for years).  And it was both refreshing and depressing at the same time.  I gave him 3 T-65s (PS 4 and 6) and I took two Academy Ties and a Royal Guard Interceptor.... no upgrades, no pilot abilities.  It was so much fun.  The game felt fast, it was still full of plenty of tactical counter play and planning.  And man, it was rewarding to set up good shots.  It truly felt like chess more than crazy combination you can't stop CCG ambushing.  As silly as it sounds, it wasn't nearly as stressful.  I wasn't tracking 10 different special rules of the like.

  Don't get me wrong, X-Wing is still a very simple game compared to so many others... (I've got a multi day 4000 point 40k game going at the moment) but I had forgotten how streamlined it had been and how much I had enjoyed its simple elegance when I started playing years ago.

  It truly made me sad.  X-Wing, IMO, has lost something amid the waves of options and special abilities and upgrades over time.  Chess has instead become Star Trek bonker TriD Chess.  Too many things interrupt the natural flow of the game, too many things ignore fundamental "fly better" gameplay, too may options to bypass the bump or the arc dodging, too many things make the range 1-3 interactions irrelevant and bypass stats entirely, too much token stacking.  It feels to me that FFG failed to setup a few "do not touch" signs on some of their mechanics.  High PS, bumping, token caps, firing arcs, regeneration, etc way too many core rule have too many exceptions.  The game is definitely less simple than before and with it much of the elegance is gone.  FFG seems to want to become the old GW right as GW is trying to become the next new FFG.

  Certainly some (most) of the growth is fun and great, and just the sheer variety is awesome, but more and more often (IMO) its starting to feel like bloat and a cancer eating away at both the approachability of the game for new players and its core fun.  I don't find the game hard or unfun now... I just forgot how well it ran without the burden of the years weighing it down.