2023 Update

Hello pilots!

I apologize for the huge gap since my last post. The majority of my free time for last several months has involved searching for, buying, and moving to my first house. I am finally starting to settle in and hope to get game time back up and running!

As for posts, my next planned one is The Mandalorian conversion. I have run into some technical difficulties with it, but plan on getting through these soon. Thank you for patience.

Additionally, I have several ideas for some homebrew updates to 1.0 ships. With these small updates, I can make “booster pack” posts to add some new and fun things to your games. I hope to get several of these out this year.

I will be sure to keep you posted, so stay tuned. As always, have fun flying out there!

-PGP

"We Have Power, Shields Up!"

Greetings pilots, it sure has been awhile! I am writing to announce that the Poor Grey Pilot is operating again. In this post, I'll explain what to expect.

While I stopped playing X-wing Miniatures competitively when the franchise moved to 2nd Edition, I did not jump out of the game entirely. I have played games off and on over the years. It has been a blast to keep ships flying and even playtest my own homebrew mechanics. Going forward, this blog will be the place for me to record my homebrew content for X-wing Miniatures 1st Edition. Not only will this provide good organization, it also allows me to share it with others online.

I recently watched a video essay that goes into why user-created content is so vital to the longevity of RTS video games. It creates the very definition of "a living game". I wholeheartedly believe that it is the same when it comes to tabletop games. My hope is that if you are still flying 1st Edition, adding some homebrew content to your collection will result in fun new games, and add needed lifeblood to the joy of the hobby!

This blog began with my analysis of X-wing Miniatures mechanics, which turned out to be my first foray into technical writing. I have since graduated college with a degree in technical writing, and now have worked four years in the technical writing field. I love my current job writing for the library industry. However, it does not scratch the itch I sometimes get to dive into game mechanics! So, its time that I come full circle and start creating X-wing content again.

I plan to post regularly, but not frequently, so be sure to be on the lookout for uploads as they come. The first mechanic I am finalizing is using medium bases in 1st Edition, which is super exiting!

Have a great day, pilots, and remember to fly casual.

-PGP

PS: Also, here's a sneak peak at a future homebrew expansion.

Please Pardon the Dust - A Poor Grey Pilot Blog Update

                Hi readers. You probably have noticed a few changes on the blog. Please note that I plan on continually updating and making changes and I apologize in advance for that. Like Utah Highway Construction, changes will be constant but for your benefit. Or to make a more appropriate analogy, I want my blog to be living and change just as much as the X-wing Miniature game breathes and grows.

                One of the big things I am working on is creating a better comment system. Right now my Blogger template doesn't offer a "Write a Comment" button at the end of posts. (At least from what I've tried to find). All it has is the generic "Comments" button. I am researching a smoother mechanic but until I get it, please know that to comment on a post you need to click the button that either says "No comments" or "X Comments". For any blessed soul out there who know more about Blogger than I do, please comment and let me know what works for you!

                Finally, this is a perfect time to get some feedback. What kinds of things do you want to see more of on the Poor Grey Pilot? Rethinking and creating viable builds from supposedly useless pieces of the X-wing game? Spotlights on less used and underappreciated pilots? More fun custom creations? Or something else? I have put up a poll that will run for the rest of the month. Please leave your feedback as to what you'd like to see! And if you have any ideas or topics you'd like to share, leave me a comment. (See above for comment instructions, lol).

                Thanks for the help and for your continued reading! Have a great day out there in the universe.

Out To Lunch – Be back shortly

                Hello readers. I am actually writing today from Nevada. My wife, extended family, and I are on a road trip to southern California and Disneyland! As you might understand, there is a time and a place for everything. There is a time to write X-wing strategy articles and there is a time to ride Star Tours forty times in a row. So I will be taking a break from posting for a couple weeks as I celebrate the last bit of summer with my family. As an added bonus to the already sweet treat of Disneyland, we will be at the park on Force Friday. It should be pretty fun! Anyways, I definitely plan to continue posting when I get back. Until then just be patient, try out a few PGP strategies with your squadmates, and fly causal.

Afterwards:
Also, I have a great X-wing project in the works and Disneyland is a key part. Can't wait to show you.

The Spelling of Grey - A One Vowel Revolution

                I chose the Gray Squadron Pilot as by blog's mascot for two reasons. The first is that the Y-wing has always been my favorite Star Wars ship in the movies and video games. Fantasy Flight Game is amazing at game creation they were able to capture the essence of the Y-wing perfectly, making it my favorite ship in X-wing Miniatures. But the second reason I picked the Gray Pilot is a little less obvious. I wanted an icon.

                When I initially started writing, yes, I did spell the color wrong. I have always preferred grey to gray and therefore didn't give it a second thought as I wrote it out. But when I discovered my mistake I decided to keep it. It is not enough for me to just accept something for the way it is. In a complicated game like X-wing Miniatures, it can be easy to fall into set definitions to streamline our learning. But once we learn the game we shouldn't stop our progression and stick to set ideas. Mastery of a skill does not involve checking off a list of tallies. It means becoming so good that you can take all the parts around you and know how to blend them together to make something new and beautiful. It means creating the trend of the game, not just following behind a wave of what other people have done.

                By no means do I intend for my ideas to set the trends of X-wing. Instead, what I want is for my writing to spark a creative outlook in readers and help them in their process of mastering this game. Hence the Gray Pilot. I kept the initial mistake because it embodied my desire to look at supposedly useless pieces in a whole new light. The Gray Squadron Pilot may be an overpriced squad ship that never sees competitive play but the Grey Pilot is a revolutionary man. With a little bit of ingenuity and practice the Grey Pilot can move from being just poor to being a team player with an actual purpose.

                I guess you could call me an idealist both in the way I live and in the way I play games. But idealism isn't passively wishing that things were better. It is actively working to help others and yourself reach the best state that we can be in. And it is my firm belief that we will make it there eventually. So what kind of ships do you fly in X-wing? Set ships with rigid roles and rules or ships bursting with untold potential? And for that matter, what kind of person are you? The difference could just be in how you spell the color grey.

A Blog's Description - What the Reader Can Expect from The Poor Grey Pilot

                When I first started this blog I really only had a desire to play the X-wing miniatures game and to write. I didn't know what direction I would want to go in or what really would drive my creative process. Now after a several weeks of posting I feel I can give you a more accurate estimation of this blog and if you, as the reader, will benefit from my articles.

                I will admit that I am not the most experienced player or the most clever. But when I do write about something I feel I have my facts straight and have a solid understanding. As for my strategy, it is a bit on the creative rather than logical side. True, that can lead to stuff that is completely useless to us in the game but it also can lead to some revolutionary ideas. My hope is that a blog filled with "outside-the-box" thinking will help readers find new ways to solve challenges in the X-wing world. For the Ender's Game fans out there you can compare this to Bean's squad of wire jumping hooligans.

                Apart from creative strategy, I hope to give different ways to look at things in-game. There are about mindsets and trends in the meta that I think we can fix to improve both ourselves and the overall game community.

                Also, a big part of delving into the game for me was learning the lore. It's one thing to have a randomly named pilot on a ship card. It is another to know the stories behind each person, especially when you can understand how ingenious Fantasy Flight Games was in creating some of their abilities. I hope to include a little bit of lore with each topic I write on. And hopefully it can help bring the universe alive to you like it did for me.

                If you have read a few of my articles then you've probably deduced that I am a Rebel player. Ever since I was a young boy watching Star Wars I have loved the Alliance and the Jedi. If you are Imperial Loyalist or an "Independent Merchant", please know I respect that and won't bash personal preferences in what I write. And even if I don't play them as much I do Rebels, I have Imperial and Scum ships in my collection as well. Though I can't guarantee constant frequency you can expect to get articles, strategies, and builds of all the factions. It is by understanding each piece and the game as a whole that we can continuously learn and develop our skills.

                As always, feel free to leave comments, tips, discussions, or ideas of posts for me to write. I only ask that responses be respectful to myself and to other readers. So enjoy and read away.

The Poor Grey Pilot - An Introduction to This Blog

                I recently read an article written by Major Juggler about the math behind the deep strategy in X-wing Miniatures. From that reading I discovered two things. The first is the epiphany that my love of this game and my love of writing should be combined. So here I am creating this blog to share my experiences and the things I have learned along the way.
                The second thing I discovered is that my favorite pilot - the poor Gray Squadron Pilot - was a dud. Major Juggler's Math Wing does a wonderful job of numerically showing why some pilots are heavily used in the meta game and why others are virtually forgotten. Here is the quote:

                "The PS4 Gray Squadron Pilot falls into the "PS4 trap" where +1 cost over the PS2 would have been too little, but +2 cost is too much, so the pilot virtually never sees use."

                According to the analysis the true point value of the Gray Squadron Pilot, based off of the effectiveness of a Y-Wing, should have been 1.2 points higher than the Gold Squadron Pilot. However, Fantasy Flight Games doesn't deal in partial points. Instead of making the Gray Squadron Pilot cost 1 more and have a slight advantage they opted to make him cost 2 more and have a slightly bigger disadvantage.
                What can a pilot do to get some respect around here? Not only is his miniatures model the wrong color, he doesn't even get a crew/gunner slot like he did in the Battle of Endor. And now its overpriced to fly him in the game.
                No, honestly, I'm not really upset about it. I just want to have fun and so I will continue running the Gray Squadron Pliot for his pilot skill and that's not going to change. As far as I am concerned, under-ratings in the meta game can quite easily translate to underestimation on the playing field. And that gives me the freedom to fly him unpressured and try new, unexpected things.
                This blog will be about X-Wing strategy, lore, crazy ideas and having fun. If there is anything you want me to analyze in the game, let me know in the comments. Thank you for reading.

Update:
Thanks to some repainting, the Poor Grey Pilot now has his own miniature of the correct color. See it here.