X-wing from FFG

[Fugazi]

Just from looking at the rules and models at the FFG site, X-wing could be a fun little game. It's very Wings of War-ish. Anyone had a closer look?

[RunepriestRidcully]

Yeah, would prefer something more like Call to arms Star fleet, especially if it had vanators in it.

[strewart]

I posted about this late last year thinking the same thing when it was still in production. At that stage, it looked like you only got 2-3 ships for $40-50 or something like that so it seemed pricey and I haven't pursued or looked into it since. Would be interested to see how it is faring now though.

[Fugazi]

At places like Miniature Market, the starter is $26. I might pick up the starter or try to get a game in somewhere just to see how it plays. I'm not committing to all the expansions/extra fighters yet.

[AndrewGPaul]

Yeah, would prefer something more like Call to arms Star fleet, especially if it had vanators in it.

Are the WotC painted starships still available second-hand? there was a reasonable selection of capital ships in that set. Mind you, to me, Star Wars has always been about fighter dogfights. Capital ships firing at each other is just something that goes on in the background.

[DarthSte]

Picked this up over the weekend - I've not had a chance to play it yet, but the rules seem fairly simple. Looks like it should be a lot of fun. Will probably pcik up a few of the expansions (looking forward to the Millennium Falcon and Slave 1 coming out in December!)

[AndrewGPaul]

Hopefully there'll be another X-Wing booster pack - we've got Red leader, Luke, Biggs and Wedge, but no Porkins.

[DEADMARSH]

I picked up the starter box weekend before last and had a chance to play a quickstart game this past Friday on my lunch hour.

Fun stuff!

Ruleset seems simple, yet elegant. Again, haven't had a chance to play with the full-blown ruleset yet, but I've read the rulebook several times and it definitely feels like one of those games where you really can teach somebody the rules in 10 or 15 minutes, then play a game without them feeling like they don't know what they're doing and just rolling dice. That being said, experience I think does mean something in this game, especially in the movement phase as knowing exactly how far you move using the templates would be a very handy skill to have (akin to estimating distance in 3rd ed 40k or WHFB- it isn't a deal breaker, but it is an advantage for the more experienced player).

By the way, the full rulebook is available on the FFG site- just go into the X-Wing section, click the Support tab, and you'll find a 12mb PDF download of the rulebook. Oddly enough, the quickstart rules aren't on there, but if you're curious as to how it plays, the full rules are there for free download.

As to the cost of the minis, it does seem a little steep, but there's more than just the minis in the boosters; there's the movement dial and cards as well. Basically, any ship you get in either the booster or the starter can be fielded four different ways- rookie type pilot, better skilled pilot, even better skilled pilot/ named character from the SW universe, really skilled named pilot from the SW universe. For example, the X-Wing you receive with the box set can be fielded as Rookie Pilot, Red Squadron Pilot, Biggs Darklighter, or Luke. Now, the ship stats stay the same, but the upgrades pilot abilities, and whatnots are different and the point costs for the ships reflect this.

I really dig it. If you have a dream of fielding like 10 ships, that's probably going to get really sticky for you, but 3 or 4 ships I think would be the sweet spot for this game, and with that in mind, not a ton of dough. Again, with the multiple pilots and optional upgrades/ pilot skills, you wouldn't have to play the same exact list every time even though you didn't change models.

Only suggestion I'll throw out there is one I read on the BoardGameGeek forums- assuming you're considering buying more X-Wing and TIE miniatures, if you don't care about getting the Rogue Squadron Pilot and Wedge Antilles cards (don't know about the Imperial equivalents), you're better off buying a second starter than X-Wing and TIE boosters. At MSRP, two TIEs and an X-Wing would run you about $45, where a starter is $40 and you get all the tokens, dice, and whatnots again.

[DarthSte]

Ruleset seems simple, yet elegant.

That's the word I was looking for!

As to the cost of the minis, it does seem a little steep, but there's more than just the minis in the boosters; there's the movement dial and cards as well. Basically, any ship you get in either the booster or the starter can be fielded four different ways- rookie type pilot, better skilled pilot, even better skilled pilot/ named character from the SW universe, really skilled named pilot from the SW universe. For example, the X-Wing you receive with the box set can be fielded as Rookie Pilot, Red Squadron Pilot, Biggs Darklighter, or Luke. Now, the ship stats stay the same, but the upgrades pilot abilities, and whatnots are different and the point costs for the ships reflect this.

Only suggestion I'll throw out there is one I read on the BoardGameGeek forums- assuming you're considering buying more X-Wing and TIE miniatures, if you don't care about getting the Rogue Squadron Pilot and Wedge Antilles cards (don't know about the Imperial equivalents), you're better off buying a second starter than X-Wing and TIE boosters. At MSRP, two TIEs and an X-Wing would run you about $45, where a starter is $40 and you get all the tokens, dice, and whatnots again.

They say on the website that the official tournie game size is 100 points, which is at most 4 X-Wings (more TIE Fighters though). I am considering getting an additional starter as the Dice cost £5 as well, but I do want to see the additional cards and stuff, will probably get the TIE AX (WITH DARTH VADER!!) next and have a think about it extra TIE Fighters. It seems the bigger ships (released around Christmas) will have extra rules and extra missions with them.

[Spellfire]

Although early days, whats the the upper limit on ship/fighter size looking like it might be? Obviously no Star Destroyers (boo) but maybe the Corvette?

[DEADMARSH]

That's the word I was looking for!


They say on the website that the official tournie game size is 100 points, which is at most 4 X-Wings (more TIE Fighters though). I am considering getting an additional starter as the Dice cost £5 as well, but I do want to see the additional cards and stuff, will probably get the TIE AX (WITH DARTH VADER!!) next and have a think about it extra TIE Fighters. It seems the bigger ships (released around Christmas) will have extra rules and extra missions with them.

Yeah, I went ahead and picked up the Y-Wing and a TIE Advanced boosters like a day after I picked up my starter. Really considering a second starter now that a couple of friends are getting into it to round out my initial lists (like you- I'm really looking forward to the Q4 boosters). Again, sort of talking out of my ass here as I've not played a real game of X-Wing yet, but I think 2 or 3 X-Wings coupled up with 2 or 1 Y-Wings would make for a pretty nasty Rebel side. Haven't messed with the Imps enough to really come up with anything, but good lord can those ships move.

That's the thing I really like the most about the game- they did a great job of conveying the speed and manuverability and making it actually mean something in game of the Imperial ships. As a veteran of X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and X-Wing Alliance games for PC, I really wondered how they'd balance out the two sides in a minis game like this; namely if it'd just be that the TIEs would be so much cheaper you'd spam them to be competitive. FFG knocked it out of the park, if you ask me. The TIEs can run circles around the Rebel ships, but of course, lack the shields to really hang in a straight-up fistfight.

I tell ya, and this will sound a little crazy, but the main reason I checked this game out was to try and play it online with some friends of mine who don't live nearby via Google Hangout/ Skype/ etc. The idea that movement is a fairly limited option and scenery being printed tokens makes it seem repeatable across a "remote chessboard" kind of setup. We've been wanting to play a minis game over Hangout/ Skype since we got tired of PC games a few months back, and had a lot of fun playing Dark Heresy in some Hangout/ Skype sessions. One of those remote guys picked up a starter yesterday, so hopefully before much longer we get a chance to try it out.

In short, it plays just how it should, in my opinion. Playing another lunch hour game this Friday, hopefully with the full rules if my friend has time to read them before hand. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

[DEADMARSH]

Although early days, whats the the upper limit on ship/fighter size looking like it might be? Obviously no Star Destroyers (boo) but maybe the Corvette?

I could see a Corvette, Nebulon B, a shuttle, maybe a platform, obviously the YT-1300 is already coming out... ships of that kind of mid-sized level would all be valid. Real, honest-to-God capital ships are probably outside the scope of this game as the minis try to take into account movement and firing arcs and that kind of thing. A Mon Cal cap ship would literally be like too big to fit on the board, y'know?

[eldargal]

Corvettes would be feasible one assumes, they are only ten times longer than the Y-wing, give or take a couple of metres. A Nebulon B frigate would be twice that again, quite a big model I'd imagine it would be very expensive.

Y-wing: 16m
Corvette: 150m
Nebulon B: 300m
Mon Cal Cruiser: 1200m
Imp Class I SD: 1600m

I don't have measurements for the actual FFG models so I can't say how large this would make them.

[DarthSte]

Based on the 1/270 scale that they say they are using, roughly:
Y-wing: 5.9cm
Corvette: 55cm
Nebulon B: 1.1m
Mon Cal Cruiser: 4.4m
Imp Class I SD: 5.9m

As the main game says the play area is 2'x2', the corvette coming in at nearly 2' long wouldn't really work in a "normal" game.

Nice idea though!

Corvettes would be feasible one assumes, they are only ten times longer than the Y-wing, give or take a couple of metres. A Nebulon B frigate would be twice that again, quite a big model I'd imagine it would be very expensive.

Y-wing: 16m
Corvette: 150m
Nebulon B: 300m
Mon Cal Cruiser: 1200m
Imp Class I SD: 1600m

I don't have measurements for the actual FFG models so I can't say how large this would make them.

[eldargal]

Fair point, I don't actually have the game (everywhere is sold out...) so I had no idea how it would work with game mechanics, I was only going by model size. Even a corvette would be a very large and expensive kit then.

I'd be happy enough with a TIE Interceptor (which they are making) and eventually a TIE Defender.

[DEADMARSH]

The quickstart is played on a 2' by 2', the main rules suggest if you're using 3 ships to play on a 3' x 3'. They do mention something along the lines of changing the size and shape of the playing field with the inclusion of more experienced players.

As for the ships, I'm just trying to remember stuff from the X-Wing games for PC, really. I mean, yeah, there were missions with Star Destroyers and stuff, but the ships you regularly went against were 'Vettes, Nebulon B Frigates, etc.

I'd LOVE to see a TIE Defender. Holy mackerel, those things were a nightmare to fly against. I also wouldn't mind seeing a Z-95 Headhunter as a cheap points-filler. Obviously a B-Wing would be super cool on the Rebel side of things and they could throw in an assault gunboat for the Imps to provide similar functionality.

I really hope the game takes off, pun intended. There's a lot of potential for cool stuff to be had here. Just please, FFG, keep the new stuff out. Or at least make it optional in some form or another. I have no desire to fly any of the ships from those other movies. Ugh...

[eldargal]

I'd rather see SWTOR style ships than prequel ships.

I'm sure a B-Wing will be along eventually, the A-Wing is coming in December afterall. As teh game expands and (hopefully) sells it would be more feasible to see a Corvette if board size was up to, say, 4x6 or 8x4. But I doubt we would see anything beyond that.

Ooh, TIE Avenger would be nice too. Loyal Imperial I...

Edit: Incidentally energongoodie on BoLs posted a size shot of some of the models, the Y-wing is almost exactly 5.9cm.

[nosebiter]

The game is just amazing for those evenings where time is an issue. It also goes well with a few beers and some star wars fanboys.

It is easy to learn but is very fun and has the potential to get very deep.

I think we will see the tie bomber and the b-wing along side the imperial shuttle. That covers the core small craft and fighters from the movies. Cherry picking from the same era there is the yt-2400 (dash rendars ship), tie defender, z-95, assault shuttle just off the top of my head.

[DEADMARSH]

As mentioned, the full rules are on the FFG site, but this video they produced breaks down the big stuff in a much more entertaining way!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuhwSma960Y&sns=em

[AndrewGPaul]

If you're going to chuck in the TIE Defender from the computer game, I'm, going to hope for the Assault Gunboat and TIE Advanced/Avenger from the same game. The gunboat seems unlikely, since it's never, ever been mentioned outside the games.