I took a look through the rules for the upcoming game due to be released at Gencon and (as much as you can tell from a simple read) like them. Out of curiosity, is this the same core set of rules they use for the Wings of War historical fighter games adapted for space or a totally different ruleset?
Seems like its based on the Wings of War fighter games but unlike wings of war you only plan one move ahead instead of three, that leads to a little more practical play. quite a few people are VERY excited about this game.
Wow... three turns ahead? I remember playing some historical minis games 20 years ago when we had to do that (to simulate the time delay in giving orders when they had to be carried by a horseback messenger) and it really put a crimp in abrupt tactics changes.
The maneuvers you plan in Wings of War aren't too drastically large though, and once you know the turn radius of each plane it's fairly easy to anticipate what the enemy will do. All players plan the moves at the same time and reveal them in order, so it's a fun and different approach. I've seen a similar idea used with cars in the autocombat game Outrider.
Anyway my biggest worry with the X-Wing game is the lack of ships in the starter set. It looks to be going more with the "collect them all!" approach instead of providing a solid core in the base game. Having custom stands doesn't allow other ships too be easily used which kind of sucks.
The "maneuver dial" talked about in the rules kind of reminds me of the boardgame Pirate's Cove, where each player would secretly do a single order and then reveal all at once. Also reminiscent of a lighter version of Full Thrust.
Looks like they have some different actions you can do each turn which is a change from Wings of War (where you just shoot). Things like Evade, Focus, etc. which should give some variety, even if it means more tokens to track.
Range bar is similar to Wings of War, except X-Wing uses custom dice (so annoying) followed by damage cards to figure out if an attack hits. Wings of War was just "you're in range, take a damage card" so a bit more depth there.
So all in all it has some vague similarities to Wings of War, but definitely not based heavily on it. Should be fun and light and I'd consider picking it up based on the price and availability of extra ships. Some of the rules seem a little convoluted and I'm not sold on the idea of dice followed by cards (seems like mixing mechanics).
Thanks for the recap. I'm somewhat excited by an official tabletop starfighter game (the wierd WOTC hybrid one didn't appeal to me). The prices are a bit much for a single plastic fig but you do get some cards and counters to balance out the value partially. I'm hoping that they release a ship/fighter every month or two for each side to keep the game fresh. The only ones I can see announced at the moment are the tie fighter and advanced plus the x and y wings. Just from the originial trilogy, that still leaves the B and A wings plus the tie bombers and intercepters.
I've been pretty well disillusioned with Star Wars for the last decade and more but it was pretty much my favorite thing in the world as a kid. As such, any new Star Wars product has me tied up in knots, wondering if anything can recapture what I loved about the franchise as from tyke to teenager. This product is the biggest hope I've had for that since the premiere of (and my eventually disappointment over) the Clone Wars show. I really look forward to the demo vids that will come out of GenCon this weekend.
As soon as the doors opened to the vendor area at GenCon the line at the FFG booth was as long as your imagination will allow, and the boxes that everyone seemed to be carrying were Android: Netrunner and this game. The line was ridiculously long. The only thing that made me sad was that the booster I saw called 'Tie Advanced' when it was really a 'Tie Bomber'. At least according to the old Tie Fighter PC game, which I believe is a holy text on the subject.
Manchu wrote:
And the awesome guys at Team Covenant got a great interview with one of the producers, Steve Kimball.
They also have a couple more videos on the subject but the other interesting one is a nice 10 minute+ sit down unboxing of the starter set.
Ahtman wrote:As soon as the doors opened to the vendor area at GenCon the line at the FFG booth was as long as your imagination will allow, and the boxes that everyone seemed to be carrying were Android: Netrunner and this game. The line was ridiculously long. The only thing that made me sad was that the booster I saw called 'Tie Advanced' when it was really a 'Tie Bomber'. At least according to the old Tie Fighter PC game, which I believe is a holy text on the subject.
That would indeed be strange. All the preview pics show the tie advanced on their website and they haven't announced the tie bomber yet as a fig (although its fairly obvious that it will be one to most fans). Did the boosters actually have dual cylinder hull tie bombers? I don't know how familiar you are with Star Wars fighters but the advanced is chunkier than the typical fighter with thicker wing connectors but only has a single hull design compared with the two side by side tubes of the bomber.
In my oxygen deprived head (from walking all around GenCon and all the gaming) I forgot the Bomber was the dual tube Tie, and was confusing the Tie Interceptor for the Tie Advanced. I just the long wings reminiscent of the Bomber and forgot everything I knew. Mea Culpa and all that.
Manchu wrote:So what kind of expansions would you guys like to see?
Must haves:
- A-wing - B-wing - TIE Interceptor - TIE Bomber
I'd expect those to be the first ones to come out after those already announced as they would complete the original trilogy basic collection. When they eventually get around to larger ships, I'd expect the Millenium Falcon, Slave One, and Imperial Shuttles (they hinted at the larger ships in last year's gencon video). Other than that, they'd have to move onto the EU or the Clone Wars. In the EU, I'd like a Z-95 (my personal fav from the old tie fighter games), the predator TIE fighter from the Legacy era comics 120 years after the original trilogy, and the TIE defender (which would have some serious balance issues or point cost if it was as good as in the old PC game). From the prequel trilogy, the episode 2 jedi fighter (the spear head shaped one obi-wan used), the arc-170 fighter/bomber, Sith Infiltrator, and the LAAT are my favs and instant-buys. My guess is that they'll complete the original trilogy stuff first, then same era +/20 years EU stuff (more rebellion vs imps), and then move onto the Clone Wars and more distant EU.
Another demo video, this time on a map of the Death Star surface:
You can see Team Covenant getting their video I posted above at the same time in the background lol ...
This vid makes me think expansions will not just be ships but also ... I guess you could call them "scenario packs" with components like a map of the Death Star and turbo laser towers as seen in this vid.
Personally, I am not too interested in prequel ships or EU stuff. I'd rather see the Galactic Civil War period get the attention, focusing on making more for these classic ships to do regarding scenarios and expanding the depth of tactical and strategic options, rather than just a race to put out more plastic ships.
Manchu wrote:
This vid makes me think expansions will not just be ships but also ... I guess you could call them "scenario packs" with components like a map of the Death Star and turbo laser towers as seen in this vid.
Personally, I am not too interested in prequel ships or EU stuff. I'd rather see the Galactic Civil War period get the attention, focusing on making more for these classic ships to do regarding scenarios and expanding the depth of tactical and strategic options, rather than just a race to put out more plastic ships.
I too want them to start with the original trilogy but frankly they'll run out of material by the end of the year even if they release one fig per side per month and in 6 months if they just do one fig for the line per month if limited to just the OT. Your list of figs (the rest of the ties and rebel alphabet soup) is it unless they start coming out with larger figs (which I want *eventually* but not for a while.. 6 months or so would be a sweet spot). While I do see a spot for scenarios, I'd prefer them to be either bundled with a fig or come out twice a year as they don't frankly drive sales much. At most, a group of 2-3 players would pick up a single scenario pack between them whereas at least half the players would be interested in a fig or even multiples of a fig. Would a fig per side or just one fig per month period be too frequent for you? I'd like to be able to start spending some money on star wars again after WOTC dropped me as a customer as I frankly enjoyed buying a booster pack of star wars minis on a weekly basis. Even monthly would be fine for me now as I don't frequent the same store and rarely make it even once a month.
edit: I guess sooner rather than later for the larger ships. MilFalc, slave 1, a-wing, interceptor pic from gencon.
In FFG in-flight report supposedly they hinted towards a starwars minis game.
I suspect this would not be released until late next year or the year after. Think they are waiting for the starwars minis market to dry up (bone dry) from the previous wizards of the coast minis game).
I would be interested in a starwars minis game as long as it is nothing like the WotC game. Power creep, meta build, total cheese, very few good pieces and a ton of crap piece.
I actually rather liked most of their sculpts except for the last few sets. Star Wars and D&D minis were incredible deals for their price and I could have NEVER bought and painted the 1,000+ fantasy minis and 200+ scifi minis I acquired in my keep pile (let alone the likely 1,000+ in my garbage/trade pile) in the time that those lines were at their peaks. Were there some absolute stinkers in each set? You bet.. but IMO they were balanced out by the gems and massively outnumbered by the average ones.
The route FFG seems to be taking though (at least from the look of the starfighters shown in this game compared with the WOTC set) is quality for a premium price. I'd expect them to go that same route with any infantry game they do.
It looks like the Millennium Falcon will cost about 30 USD. That's steep but IMO well worth it considering the detail. Also, they're calling the slightly larger bases used by the Falcon and Slave I "medium size" bases implying there might one day be large bases. Definitely glad I purchased a full size Hotz mat for this already!
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warboss wrote: ould a fig per side or just one fig per month period be too frequent for you?
Yeah, I think that way too much to ask and would kill the lifespan of the product line quickly.
TBH, I'd really like to see repaints of the X-wings, A-wings, Y-wings, etc. That way we could have Red Squadron and Gold Squadron but also Green and Blue Squadrons, etc. I suspect this game will eventually develop to higher point levels, which means a lot of ships looking exactly a like on big mats unless there are some repaints.
I think you can be reasonable certain you'll have one as/when there is a third wave. The second wave is supposed to be coming out by winter but then again the overall game was supposed to be out last February. So I'd say you may have your B-Wing if at all by Summer 2013.
Manchu wrote: It looks like the Millennium Falcon will cost about 30 USD. That's steep but IMO well worth it considering the detail. Also, they're calling the slightly larger bases used by the Falcon and Slave I "medium size" bases implying there might one day be large bases. Definitely glad I purchased a full size Hotz mat for this already!
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warboss wrote: ould a fig per side or just one fig per month period be too frequent for you?
Yeah, I think that way too much to ask and would kill the lifespan of the product line quickly.
TBH, I'd really like to see repaints of the X-wings, A-wings, Y-wings, etc. That way we could have Red Squadron and Gold Squadron but also Green and Blue Squadrons, etc. I suspect this game will eventually develop to higher point levels, which means a lot of ships looking exactly a like on big mats unless there are some repaints.
Interesting... the little quote icon thing carries avatar animation through to the smaller size... (I changed it for that reason, lol). $30 is a bit pricey IMO. Their material costs (which I know don't translate exactly to retail price but should correlate loosely) are maybe $2-3 more if that and they're charging double. $20 would have been a pie in the sky price but $25 is the most I'd pay for that. Lucky for me I frankly have very little interest in either the Slave 1 or Mil Falc. I suspect that they will eventually do repaints a year down the line to entice existing players to rebuy figs they already have.
Two starter sets! Cheapest way to get TIE Fighters and X-Wings. Plus you get dice sets and extra measurement templates. I also pre-ordered a third dice set because I'd love to see the game played with three ships and three people, all playing an individual pilot.
Automatically Appended Next Post: This pic gives an idea of the size of the Falcon:
I guess they do look bigger when you place them next to the regular craft (especially next to the tiny a-wing!). Eh, maybe they'll convince me to get the falcon but thats still in the air.
I wonder what pilots they can come out with for those larger ones. It looks like the smaller craft get their pilots from the movies and EU so I'd assume the same is true for the larger variants. I'd guess Lando, Chewie, and Han come with the Mil Falc but I can't recall anyone piloting slave 1 other than Boba in this time period. Does anyone know of other EU pilots that used the firespray craft other than the fetts?
IIRC, Dengar and Fett worked together for a significant period of time after Fett crawled out of the Saarlac. So he might be included.
I also think the Falcon should be a multi-pilot ship, as in you can choose a pilot and a co-pilot. It would be cool if what benefits/costs you get/pay are dependent on who takes which role.
I'm not sure if anyone mentioned it or if everyone already knows but the x-wings and TIEs that come in the booster packs have different pilots and equipment than those in the starter box so it's worth getting at least one booster of each to supplement any multiple starter purchase you might make.
Manchu wrote: So what kind of expansions would you guys like to see?
Must haves:
- A-wing
- B-wing
- TIE Interceptor
- TIE Bomber
Anything and everything YT-1300 size and smaller. I dont care what movie or book its from, if theres enough info to engineer a mini, fething make it. Obviously start with the better known stuff from both movie trilogies, then move onto the more obscure stuff.
@Mad4Minis: I will be very happy if FFG shows some restraint on that account. The past decade has been about milking the merchandise for every red cent. I think FFG should resist making a miniature for every conceivable ship and focus on tactical depth to cultivate a strong experience and brand identity.
By the by, here's a list of what cards come with what sets:
Manchu wrote: @Mad4Minis: I will be very happy if FFG shows some restraint on that account. The past decade has been about milking the merchandise for every red cent. I think FFG should resist making a miniature for every conceivable ship and focus on tactical depth to cultivate a strong experience and brand identity.
I can appreciate that, but Id hate to see it just be original trilogy only...if the game has only a handful of choices for each side its going to get boring real fast.
I personally find most color swaps for a ship that I already own more boring than an EU or other era ship that I don't... and I'm a gamer nto a collector. I'm not asking that they spam us with ships every week but I definitely would prefer that they come out with over a dozen before they start rehashing the same ships with a different colored stripe and an even lesser known EU character piloting it.
Repaints =! rehash. The object is to add value to large scale games by allowing (1) more options for the brand-centric options and (2) squad-level visual differentiation.
So much SW merchandising has been run into the ground by having to do one of every conceivable thing out there. More More More! is not a great mantra. And the thought of Rogue Squadron facing off against droid fighters honestly makes me feel a little queasy.
Manchu wrote: And the thought of Rogue Squadron facing off against droid fighters honestly makes me feel a little queasy.
And I'd find myself quickly losing interest in the game if the only offerings for waves of releases were the same models I already had but with a green stripe and some 2nd string EU pilots I never heard of. To each his own...
edit: No need for a bump so I just edited my message. Someone on the FFG boards posted a pic of the FFG ships next to the out of print WOTC collectible minis game so I figured I'd link to it here as well in case people are thinking about using those ships.
Regarding pilots, how many of these guys have you heard of in the first place? Hortan Salm? Mauler Mithel? Garven Dreis? Winged Gundark? Let's face it: aside from Luke, Wedge, and Vader (and Porkins for the lolz) all pilots are pretty much "EU" even if the image of one of these retroactive characters appears in the OT. (For example, Hortan Salm was apparently Gray Leader at Yavin.) So I can't really see how your "EU pilots I have never heard of" argument is relevant. It's not the name of the pilot that's important but what kind of tactical options that pilot card brings to the game.
Having a choice between spending 5 - 10 USD for a pack of cards or 15 USD for new cards + a repainted X-Wing/TIE Fighter, etc., I'd definitely take the latter option. The other route, of expanding into the prequels, comics, video games, etc., means that the game itself is not being supported and instead merchandising is the key driver. I don't get more options for my X-Wings in a game called X-Wing when FFG starts selling Naboo N1 starfighters. So like I said, that may appeal to collectors but I don't think it has much appeal to gamers who want to play a game called X-Wing.
This is just me speculating but I think the ships so far fall into a couple of different categories:
Standard Fighters: TIE Fighter and X-Wing
Support Fighters: TIE Advanced and Y-Wing
Scouts: A-Wing and TIE Interceptor
(eventually) Heavy Hitters: B-Wing and TIE Bomber
The Z-95 and TIE/D may fit into a fifth class of "Sub-Standard" fighters that basically come in a lower costs but are basically servicable and list fillers.
Manchu wrote: So ... some slight quality differences there. So I can't really see how your "EU pilots I have never heard of" argument is relevant. It's not the name of the pilot that's important but what kind of tactical options that pilot card brings to the game.
Some people are more fans of certain characters than the whole universe and they do specifically want to field Darth Vader not necessarily because they want a guy who can use two actions per turn but because they're fielding Darth freakin' Vader. That motivation disappears for most people when you use a minor character from a secondary EU source. If the starter was instead an X-wing versus a Tie Advanced but didn't include father and son Skywalker, I'd buy a box of each expansion specifically for those cards; I wouldn't do that just to get the 2nd guy from the left during the trench run on each side even if they each had a 3 issue plot arc in the Rogue Squadron comic series in the 90's. It may not be relevant for you personally but it is to others and therefore the discussion.
- B-wing
- B-wing
- TIE Defender
- Z-95 Headhunter
- TIE/D Automated Starfighter
- Did mention the B-wing yet?
Also, maybe a Z-'ceptor. For some reason, I really like how they look.
I'd say the b-wing is a shoe-in and I do hope they include the headhunter as well. I'd personally throw on the arc-170, jedi starfighter (the spearhead shaped one from ep2), and Tie Predator but those are obviously from different eras so will likely have to wait for a while.
warboss wrote: It may not be relevant for you personally but it is to others and therefore the discussion.
That's a cheap move. I didn't say it was irrelevant to the discussion generally. But what has it got to do with expanding into the prequels or EU mechanics-wise? This is a game about X-Wings and TIE Fighters. Supporting the game means supporting X-Wings and TIE Fighters, both with the models that provide the rest of their context (see my categories break down above) and with new rules/cards. I don't get your Darth Vader example at all. Darth Vader can be played but how does that make it any less important that you have mid-range costed pilots, too? As I said, it doesn't really matter what name is printed on the card when it's not Luke, Wedge, Vader, or R2-D2. Instead, it's important what rules are on the card.
warboss wrote: It may not be relevant for you personally but it is to others and therefore the discussion.
That's a cheap move. I didn't say it was irrelevant to the discussion generally. But what has it got to do with expanding into the prequels or EU mechanics-wise? This is a game about X-Wings and TIE Fighters. Supporting the game means supporting X-Wings and TIE Fighters, both with the models that provide the rest of their context (see my categories break down above) and with new rules/cards. I don't get your Darth Vader example at all. Darth Vader can be played but how does that make it any less important that you have mid-range costed pilots, too? As I said, it doesn't really matter what name is printed on the card when it's not Luke, Wedge, Vader, or R2-D2. Instead, it's important what rules are on the card.
No, you simply said that the presence or absence of EU pilots isn't relevant without any other qualifiers. Its not a "cheap move" to disagree with you so please tone down the rhetoric. I don't see as much value in repaints as you do partly because most of the good/known pilots will be included with the first iteration of each ship. For people like me that actually want to field certain named characters specifically on the tabletop (regardless of their ability), getting second string EU pilots with a repaint of an existing fighter doesn't increase the appeal. Since there are limited releases as it appears that each side only gets a single ship every month or two, I feel the "slot" is wasted on a rehash of an existing ship when others haven't had a single release yet. I don't, mind you, have a problem overall with repaint rereleases but I see them personally as less valuable to the game than a completely different unrepresented ship which means I'd prefer to have them appear later (after the same era EU is covered for instance) rather than sooner.
Manchu wrote: [As I said, it doesn't really matter what name is printed on the card when it's not Luke, Wedge, Vader, or R2-D2. Instead, it's important what rules are on the card.
Lol, again with the absolutes. It doesn't matter TO YOU what name is on the card and the only thing important TO YOU is what rules are there. That view isn't necessarily true for everyone.
warboss wrote: Its not a "cheap move" to disagree with you so please tone down the rhetoric.
It really is cheap to call somebody out on an argument that they didn't make -- and you just did it again: I'm not saying it's cheap to disagree with me and there's really no way what I said even hints at that.
warboss wrote:I don't see as much value in repaints as you do partly because most of the good/known pilots will be included with the first iteration of each ship.
But if you take a look at this game, you will see it is not about Darth Vader shooting at Luke Skywalker. Yeah, that is a fun thing that you can do but it's not the meat and potatoes of the game. Heck, Darth Vader is not even included in the starter set. The game is about OT-era ships dogfighting each other. That's really not "just my opinion" either. The name on the box is "X-Wing Miniatures Game." All the ships and characters are taken from the OT (even where the designers needed to rely on EU sources for the names of OT characters). It sounds like this game isn't for you because what you're describing as the direction that would keep your interest is not really what this game seems to be about, which is Galactic Civil War dogfighting. Think of it as a miniatures version of the X-Wing v. TIE Fighter computer game.
Manchu wrote: The game is about OT-era ships dogfighting each other. That's really not "just my opinion" either. The name on the box is "X-Wing Miniatures Game." All the ships and characters are taken from the OT (even where the designers needed to rely on EU sources for the names of OT characters). It sounds like this game isn't for you because what you're describing as the direction that would keep your interest is not really what this game seems to be about, which is Galactic Civil War dogfighting. Think of it as a miniatures version of the X-Wing v. TIE Fighter computer game.
You seem to be of the persuasion that these two motivations to play the game (dogfighting with specific characters versus dogfighting with specific rules in your squadron) are somehow mutually exclusive. Luckily for me, that's not the case and my interests and the game's goals do align. As such, it's probably best to just to agree to disagree. Either way, it'll be a few months (and likely at least two more release wave announcements) before they complete the OT movie fighters and repaints even become a viable possibility (as opposed to switching to EU or another era) so no reason for either of us to stress out about it.
warboss wrote: You seem to be of the persuasion that these two motivations to play the game (dogfighting with specific characters versus dogfighting with specific rules in your squadron) are somehow mutually exclusive.
To be honest, I don't understand the distinction you're making there. Only certain characters have certain rules. Aside from the gee whiz factor of some of the best cards being Luke, Wedge, and Vader, every other character's name is just a label for their rules. There may be some individual out there who has been waiting for years to pilot a Y-Wing in a game like this with Hortan Salm (and I say this as a fan of that character in all seriousness) but I don't think that's what you're talking about.
There are A - wings mentions? I'm in then, though it will be christmas time before I get any with dreamforges latest doozey.
Also you reckon they will bring out any larger ships?? Would be interesting to see a blockade runner like the Tantive IV in a game like this, apart from the fact I love the ship
Can't see a release date neither? Any idea's? Sorry if I have missed it
US release seems pegged for September (probably later than earlier) but I don't know whether it will be different for the UK. In any case, A-Wings will not be out in the US until "Winter" -- which could mean Christmas, could mean, Q1 2013, or could mean spring ... let's keep that at Gen Con 2011, FFG said X-Wing would have a January 2012 release ... We've been chatting on the FFG forum about larger ships and there's a consensus that something as large as the CR90 corvette is probably too big to produce at scale -- people have estimated it ending up around 22" long. Given that the upcoming medium-sized ships (the Millennium Falcon and Salve 1) are priced at 30 USD each, a model of the CR90 in the same scale would likely cost a fortune. And model out-of-scale would IMO be a waste of everyone's time.
Yeah the TIE defender is lovely piece of Imperial engineering and so is the Missile Boat, Thrawn answer to TIE Defender well in the computer game anyways.
Will they include the Uglys like the X-TIE fighter and Y-TIE ect?
As near as I can tell, the EU material has only appeared insofar as pilot names -- meaning FFG is drawing from Michael Stackpole's X-Wing novels as well as the X-Wing series of computer games. They don't seem to have drawn from the Rogue Squadron video game series, for example. I don't think that means we'll necessarily see either a TIE Defender or especially a Missile Boat (which completely misses the Star Wars design aesthetic). As discussed above, I don't think pilot names are really important outside of the movie stars so I doubt their use really indicates anything about the model range.
All the pilot names will mean something to those who have read the series to others it will mean how good a card will be for their squadron building, I suppose an example would be Tycho Celchu, those who read the books he's a character heavily involved with Rogue squadron and flies the A-Wing in RotJ that go on the death star attack run and splits up to take some of TIEs' away from Wedge and the Falcon but to those who haven't he's just a card with some stats on.
I guess as time move on maybe they will go backwards in the timeline or forwards but I'm quite happy were they currently are there's a fair few ships from novels and games that people haven't seen in the current time line.
I'm a big fan of the Stackpole's series and I also played the ever loving crap out of the games. I sympathize with the interest to, for example, see a model of the Pulsar Skate and Mirax as her pilot. But I just don't see that as jiving with the brand. When I say the pilots' names don't matter, I'm not saying I never read the books or comics or played the games and so don't care about them. I'm saying something about the product.
Also, it is interesting that neither Corran Horn nor Soontir Fel have appeared as pilots.
I love the Stackpole novels aswell I didn't mean you didn't care, just some people won't know much difference to Wedge or a Darklighter pilot card besides point value and flavoured text.
But yeah Corran Horn and Soontir Fel might come out laters or be Conventions only, If I recall Horn's X-wing was painted Corsec Green even tho he was in Rogue squadron, but I hope they do
as you have said in the thread and bring out different colour craft, like Green or Blue.
Manchu wrote: US release seems pegged for September (probably later than earlier) but I don't know whether it will be different for the UK. In any case, A-Wings will not be out in the US until "Winter" -- which could mean Christmas, could mean, Q1 2013, or could mean spring ... let's keep that at Gen Con 2011, FFG said X-Wing would have a January 2012 release ... We've been chatting on the FFG forum about larger ships and there's a consensus that something as large as the CR90 corvette is probably too big to produce at scale -- people have estimated it ending up around 22" long. Given that the upcoming medium-sized ships (the Millennium Falcon and Salve 1) are priced at 30 USD each, a model of the CR90 in the same scale would likely cost a fortune. And model out-of-scale would IMO be a waste of everyone's time.
Thanks for the info, that fits with when I would want to get the starter anyway
Haha! That big! I knew it would be very large compared but wow! Definitely not a good idea! Ah well the A-wings are enough for me!
Ravenblade666 wrote: I love the Stackpole novels aswell I didn't mean you didn't care, just some people won't know much difference to Wedge or a Darklighter pilot card besides point value and flavoured text.
But yeah Corran Horn and Soontir Fel might come out laters or be Conventions only, If I recall Horn's X-wing was painted Corsec Green even tho he was in Rogue squadron, but I hope they do
as you have said in the thread and bring out different colour craft, like Green or Blue.
Corran was kind of the exception to the rule in terms of squadron colors. The reason being, if you'll recall, that the X-Wing was actually considered "his" property when he joined the Alliance.
With that said:
I think they're focusing on the more well-known stuff early on. It's a smart move, as it gets the most attention for the smallest amount of effort. Add to it that some characters are just well-known anyways, and you've got a good setup.
I would also be very surprised Manchu if the TIE/D does not appear as it has featured in some novels. Most notably "Isard's Revenge".
Ravenblade666 wrote: I love the Stackpole novels aswell I didn't mean you didn't care, just some people won't know much difference to Wedge or a Darklighter pilot card besides point value and flavoured text.
But yeah Corran Horn and Soontir Fel might come out laters or be Conventions only, If I recall Horn's X-wing was painted Corsec Green even tho he was in Rogue squadron, but I hope they do as you have said in the thread and bring out different colour craft, like Green or Blue.
Corran was kind of the exception to the rule in terms of squadron colors. The reason being, if you'll recall, that the X-Wing was actually considered "his" property when he joined the Alliance.
With that said: I think they're focusing on the more well-known stuff early on. It's a smart move, as it gets the most attention for the smallest amount of effort. Add to it that some characters are just well-known anyways, and you've got a good setup.
I would also be very surprised Manchu if the TIE/D does not appear as it has featured in some novels. Most notably "Isard's Revenge".
And "Starfighters of Adumar", though the Aaron Alston entries aren't as good, IMO.
This may sound like a strange request but I'm trying to kitbash an EU fighter that likely will never be made (never has as well in the past) and needed a measurement as my FLGS still hasn't gotten word of their Xwing shipment yet (and the owner is excited about it as well). Basically, I was wondering if someone could measure the diameter in millimeters of the standard Tie Fighter eyeball hull. Any help would be appreciated.
I was just about to ask that! Thanks for the ninja, lol. If you could take a pic of the tie fighter next to a metric ruler or just measure the diameter of the central ball hull, it would be much appreciated! I'll be heading to the FLGS tomorrow with my fingers crossed (they're only open on the weekend so can't find out if they have it until later tonight)
Thanks for the quick response and appreciate the pic! I just wanted to get a estimate within a mm or two of how big to make the central hull and that most definitely helps.
I was able to get the game this weekend at the FLGS (just the basic box as the owner couldn't get the expansions) and had a question for the fellow players here... do you guys use both stems for each fighter? I put both one and two on a TIE fighter and the single stem looked better frankly and was more stable. Is this purely a cosmetic choice? I couldn't find anything in the rules about the height of the model affecting anything mechanically but figured I'd doublecheck.
We at The Black Ocean, a Sci Fi war gaming site will be covering this from the unboxing to advance play. We already have some unboxing photos on our Facebook. Come on over to our site and take a look. While you are there give us a like on Facebook. We just linked up Fantasy Flight's tutorial there. If you want to know more about this game that is a great place to start.
Hey guys I found a good battle mat for under 9 bucks. I was planning getting a plain black felt fabric then I saw just a few spaces away was a black one with glitter on it. There you go a starfield and didnt have to do anything.
So a 6X6 felt mat for under 9 bucks at any fabric store.
Played a game to myself (sad sack ) to get a grip of the rules today and I was impressed by just about everything! I really like how it flows and I get the feeling that they are dogfighting
The coolest thing by far though was Wedge dishing it out when he could. Because I couldn't judge any of the templates right () he only got to attack twice, but of those two attacks he caused a total of six damage, 3 of it to Vader!
Anyone else have a favourite pilot yet? I guess it doesn't have to be a sharpshooter like Wedge either.
Brother-Captain Scotti wrote: Played a game to myself (sad sack ) to get a grip of the rules today and I was impressed by just about everything! I really like how it flows and I get the feeling that they are dogfighting
The coolest thing by far though was Wedge dishing it out when he could. Because I couldn't judge any of the templates right () he only got to attack twice, but of those two attacks he caused a total of six damage, 3 of it to Vader!
Anyone else have a favourite pilot yet? I guess it doesn't have to be a sharpshooter like Wedge either.
Wedge and Vader would be my two with Vader edging forward to the top spot. The utility of having a focus (which can be offense or defense) plus one more of your choice sounds great in theory. Now I just have to get both blister packs to try out those particular pilots.
How did you plan the maneuvers in a 1 person game? Obviously there is no way to not know that the other side is doing. I might try this myself next week and try picking two to three appropriate manuevers and rolling off randomly to see which one gets chosen.
How did you plan the maneuvers in a 1 person game? Obviously there is no way to not know that the other side is doing. I might try this myself next week and try picking two to three appropriate manuevers and rolling off randomly to see which one gets chosen.
Brother-Captain Scotti wrote: Played a game to myself (sad sack ) to get a grip of the rules today and I was impressed by just about everything! I really like how it flows and I get the feeling that they are dogfighting
The coolest thing by far though was Wedge dishing it out when he could. Because I couldn't judge any of the templates right () he only got to attack twice, but of those two attacks he caused a total of six damage, 3 of it to Vader!
Anyone else have a favourite pilot yet? I guess it doesn't have to be a sharpshooter like Wedge either.
Wedge and Vader would be my two with Vader edging forward to the top spot. The utility of having a focus (which can be offense or defense) plus one more of your choice sounds great in theory. Now I just have to get both blister packs to try out those particular pilots.
How did you plan the maneuvers in a 1 person game? Obviously there is no way to not know that the other side is doing. I might try this myself next week and try picking two to three appropriate manuevers and rolling off randomly to see which one gets chosen.
Vader is pretty amazing. He can target lock and focus at the same time, as well as give him swarm tactics as a passive power and conc missiles hr becomes extremely good at shooting, support and defence! Sure it mean he costs a bomb but you can still fit a few 'elite' TIE pilots in there and an upgrade or too!
Wedges passive ability is a winner combined with protons. Send him off on his own or slap Biggs next to him to take the heat.
Concerning the game, I kinda tried to think about the order of what would be going and how I would be thinking where things may go in advance, don't know if that makes sense Say if I thought wedge would pursue say Vader as it was the best logical option I would say well the TIE would be placed there as in most circumstances you would see it coming.
robertsjf wrote:
Brother-Captain Scotti wrote: Anyone else have a favourite pilot yet? I guess it doesn't have to be a sharpshooter like Wedge either.
Academy Pilot. You know, the guy who's line was "Look out!"
I was pretty inspired by the FFG table so I'm working on some terrain tiles in 3d that I plan on having printed. I'm running into a few scaling issues and thought I'd see if you guys have any thoughts.
Basic idea was to do each part as a 3 inch x3 inch tile so when arranged in a 4 x4 configuration it'd make a 1 ft square tile. By doing each tile seperate it'd allow me to add variety to the table.
One of the main cocnerns is that the various buildings would anywhere from 1-3 inches and laser towers would be about 4-5 inches tall. I'm thinking this could lead to some difficulty using it as a gaming surface. The raised details and buildings could make placing the ships difficult.
Would it be preferable to flatten things so the surface is flat or go with the full height buildings?
Here's a render of a more flattened out version which wouldn't be more than 1/4 inch in height
yeah, Ships would have trouble on the big 3d versions but the flattened versions look a lot more usable for the x-wing game.
Panic...
Automatically Appended Next Post: yeah, Ships would have trouble on the big 3d versions but the flattened versions look a lot more usable for the x-wing game.
how much you looking at per 3"x3" tile? we will need 144 for a 3'x3' table and 256 for a 4'x4' table
@ $2 per tile; a 3'x3' table will cost $288 and a 4'x4 table will cost $512
@ $3 per tile a 3'x3' table will cost $432 and a 4'x4 table will cost $768
Hi Guys here are some pics of a game we had to try out a death star scenario (a modified version of dagobah daves from BGG). We disposed of points and just had as much stuff as we could on the board to see what happens (all the named characters with everything else being cheapest version rebels had full complements of torpedos and y-wings turrets but other than that no upgrades).
Two fleets go to war
Trench Run
Furball over the deathstar surface
Direct hit and rebels win!
Ok so the game was amazing fun but it needs a little tweaking to ratchet up the tension for the rebels. Also obviously point limits will have a big impact.
We had some simple if unrealistic rules for the trench (part ripped from the aforementioned Dagobah Daves mission and part homebrew) you could enter the trench from any point of the trench section of the main board by having your base completely in the area and spending an action, at that point you were placed at the start of the trench section. Imperials could not enter the trench until the turn after rebel ships had entered it. Movement in the trench was against pilot rules and went from closest to exhaust port to most distant. Turrets were obstacles and could fire the trench ones being secondary weapon systems with a range of 2, a power of 2, 2 hull and 0 agility. I'll refrain from posting the rest as it really is someone elses work.
Just wondering what tips and tactics the dakka community has for the upcoming Kessel Run tourney event next month. It doesn't seem like any of us will actually be competing for the same prizes (except maybe shadrach and panic!) so I don't think some friendly advice will hurt his or her own chances.
How well does TIE horde swarm work? (with and without a leader like vader?) How about rebel swarm with rookie x-wings x 4 with a few upgrades? Those are the two I'm most worried about as I've only recently gotten enough ships to get to the 100pt limit and have no experience fighting against swarms in this game. Any other killer strategies?
Although there is only so much rebels can do against the tie swarm. What I like to play is (edit: what I think works well. Really what I want to play is a million ion cannons to muck peoples crap up)
Biggs Darklighter w/ R2-F2
Rookie Pilot w/ Proton Torpedoes
Rookie Pilot w/ Proton Torpedoes
Rookie Pilot w/ R2 Astromech
Start them in a diamond with Biggs in back. Rush in for close range game. Close range game has two advantages for this build. It keeps Biggs in close enough for his ability to work, and it gives Rookie Pilots range 1 attacks for 4 red vs 3 green. The Rookie Pilots are also holding opponents back from getting range 1 attacks on Biggs, and with R2-F2 your ideally being attacked at 2 red vs 3 green.
So if all things go to plan you have dice advantage on both attacking and defending against Academy Pilots. Things of course fall apart when there is a TIE Advanced with missiles or rebels with torpedoes, but meta is leaning towards Academy Pilots at the moment.
From the figures I have so far, my Empire army is for Kessel Run:
Tie Advanced - Darth Vader
Tie Fighter x 4 - highest pointed pilots
Total - 91 points
I have 2 starter Kits and the one Tie Advanced. I have not chosen my upgrades yet. The lack of shields in the Tie Fighters are discouraging me and I may go Rebels with Y-wing and Luke.
Izzy wrote: Although there is only so much rebels can do against the tie swarm. What I like to play is (edit: what I think works well. Really what I want to play is a million ion cannons to muck peoples crap up)
Biggs Darklighter w/ R2-F2 Rookie Pilot w/ Proton Torpedoes Rookie Pilot w/ Proton Torpedoes Rookie Pilot w/ R2 Astromech
Start them in a diamond with Biggs in back. Rush in for close range game. Close range game has two advantages for this build. It keeps Biggs in close enough for his ability to work, and it gives Rookie Pilots range 1 attacks for 4 red vs 3 green. The Rookie Pilots are also holding opponents back from getting range 1 attacks on Biggs, and with R2-F2 your ideally being attacked at 2 red vs 3 green.
So if all things go to plan you have dice advantage on both attacking and defending against Academy Pilots. Things of course fall apart when there is a TIE Advanced with missiles or rebels with torpedoes, but meta is leaning towards Academy Pilots at the moment.
I haven't had the greatest luck with proton torpedoes unfortunately personally (although my experience is limited). The rookie x-wings are good as you say against academy pilots but the other types of tie pilots either tie (no pun intended) or exceed their pilot rating. I suspect that if people are going for a tie swarm that they'll go for the absolute lowest ties (and just assume they're going last except for maybe a single hero) but even that small bump in tie pilots can screw over the rebel rookie swarm (like Deathwing's list above with 4 obsidian pilots). If you upgrade the rookies to red squad xwings, you can't afford the 4pt upgrades for them unfortunately from what I remember weeks ago messing around with squadrons. Out of curiosity, any luck with R2D2? He seems like a useful upgrade with his ability to regain shields.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Briancj wrote: Fat dragon games has produced some X-Wing terrain, including turrets. 25% off.
3) Game resources. Any not listed in this thread, already?
4) Anyone writing scenarios?
5) Annoyed at having to buy custom dice?
6) Errata?
7) Honest Opinion: Is there game balance, here? Are the sides balanced? Do we feel there was enough playtesting?
8) Honest opinion: Falcon and Slave One Expansion - Do they break anything?
9) Honest opinion: TIE Swarm - Does it break the game?
10) Honest opinion: Shelf life. Does this game have 'legs', or will it die off?
This FAQ goes to 11!) House rules, star destroyers, etc? where can we find 'em?
Thanks, folks! I just picked up the core set because, while I didn't like it at Gencon, the enthusiams here is like lightning, and I do loves me some X-Wing.
3) Game resources. Any not listed in this thread, already?
4) Anyone writing scenarios?
5) Annoyed at having to buy custom dice?
6) Errata?
7) Honest Opinion: Is there game balance, here? Are the sides balanced? Do we feel there was enough playtesting?
8) Honest opinion: Falcon and Slave One Expansion - Do they break anything?
9) Honest opinion: TIE Swarm - Does it break the game?
10) Honest opinion: Shelf life. Does this game have 'legs', or will it die off?
This FAQ goes to 11!) House rules, star destroyers, etc? where can we find 'em?
Thanks, folks! I just picked up the core set because, while I didn't like it at Gencon, the enthusiams here is like lightning, and I do loves me some X-Wing.
--B.
1) 100 is good. I played my first full 100pt game (actually 2 in a row) this weekend and it really does play differently (and much longer) than the previous 50-60pts we did using just the starter and a pair of boosters. It turns out that I overbought/traded for starters due to all the reports about tie swarms. 4 ties (as long as you plan on getting adv, interc, and the likely bomber models) are enough to round out most collections. 3-4 x-wings is enough as well. YMMV depending on how much you like to play swarm forces in wargames.
2) depends on where you play. If you have a local store that you'll be playing at, buy at least half there to keep them in business. You can't play games of x-wing at amazon.com (who is actually having a sale on boosters since you asked) but if you're only playing at home or at friend's houses then that's not an issue.
5) Yup. Having to use 4 dice with the starter x-wing at a range one attack and only having 3 dice is a stupid gimmick to get you to buy more dice at $8 or the phone app at $5. You can technically buy blank 8-siders and mark them yourself but that looks a bit too ghetto in my opinion.
6) FFG has the erratta up on their website. It's not all inclusive at 4 pages but its a good start.
7) Game balance so far has been pretty good. My only complaint (if any) is that the tie advanced is a tie advanced and not an avenger. It's supposed to be a better overall fighter than the x-wing if you played the old PC games but it's not on the tabletop in its current advanced form. Now that the stats are coming out for the tie interceptors, I'm finding that I see less and less reason to use the advanced.
9) I don't think so but it does bog it down significantly especially if you use asteroids/terrain. Just like any game, it depends on the speed of the swarm player. If you're playing against someone of average speed that is not specifically trying to play quickly with concerted effort, it'll slow down quick. Just like with a horde ork army, it takes a specific player to not make the situation suck in a timed tourney environment where you only get to turn 3 (or even a friendly game that doesn't have all night to finish).
10) Definitely has shelf life if you're a star wars fan as opposed to only a specific x-wing miniatures game fan. I've seen people running homebrew space combat games at numerous conventions using the early 90's micromachine models which are wholey inferior to the ones in this game.
I've answered the ones I had time for and/or had a clue about. Hope that helps.
Okay, been looking at this game, looks like marvellous fun. However.. I can't seem to find where to buy it in the UK. Amazon UK only has one listing for the starter at £125. My usual UK online retailers lack in entirely.
yeah,
I hear that lots of local Waterstones stores have stock, it sells it for full retail £29.99 there...
Wave 2 is in February and I heard that will see everything restocked.
both Total Wargamer and OGgames say they will get restock in Feburary.
OG games has a date of FEB 26th.
Izzy wrote: Although there is only so much rebels can do against the tie swarm. What I like to play is (edit: what I think works well. Really what I want to play is a million ion cannons to muck peoples crap up)
Biggs Darklighter w/ R2-F2
Rookie Pilot w/ Proton Torpedoes
Rookie Pilot w/ Proton Torpedoes
Rookie Pilot w/ R2 Astromech
Start them in a diamond with Biggs in back. Rush in for close range game. Close range game has two advantages for this build. It keeps Biggs in close enough for his ability to work, and it gives Rookie Pilots range 1 attacks for 4 red vs 3 green. The Rookie Pilots are also holding opponents back from getting range 1 attacks on Biggs, and with R2-F2 your ideally being attacked at 2 red vs 3 green.
So if all things go to plan you have dice advantage on both attacking and defending against Academy Pilots. Things of course fall apart when there is a TIE Advanced with missiles or rebels with torpedoes, but meta is leaning towards Academy Pilots at the moment.
And once Wave 2 becomes active Biggs becomes an even better tank with the inclusion of the Stealth Device. This, plus R2-F2, gives him an Agility of 4 when he uses an action to activate the droid.
Using your list above I've come up with the following:
Biggs Darklighter with R2-F2 & Stealth Device (31)
Red Squadron Pilot x 3 (69)
100 points on the nose....pesonally I'm not a fan of Proton Torps as I haven't had any luck with them.
On a side note, I found this X-Wing squad builder over at the FFG forums. It lets you save your builds, keep a win-loss record of how each one is doing and see other squads people have built. It's also updated with info for the ships and cards in Wave 2.
Anpu-adom wrote: In case anyone it interested, Targets seem to have plenty of the starters on the shelf. I'd try there if your LFGS doesn't have any in stock.
Also (as strange as I find this) Barnes and Nobles has the starter box and expansions in their games section. Starter box is $40 USD.
yeah, Very excited that We will be getting wave 2 within 28days!
Just got a game against a friend. I played Rebels - Wedge, rookiex2, gold ion Vs the Empire - 6 Tie Fighter AllStars List.
Quick summary... Wedge took heavy damage on the first pass and Rebels concentrated fire to kill backstabber. Wedge died the Ties took a beating and lost two ships while the rebels lost shields but no more ships. At 3 on 3 the game was looking bad for the empire gold ion died... rebels fought back and won the game. Yay me!
Interesting. 20% off is a bit lean for an amazon discount and the stuff doesn't apparently qualify for the free prime shipping. I've already got one of each preordered at the FLGS (got to keep their lights on if I want to play there!) but they don't have a specific date yet.
No big news but the items in this wave have been listed as "on the boat" status on the FFG website and have had their availability date changed to March.
yeah, very disappointing with how they handle their releases/release dates. I pre-paid my pre-order back at the end of October expecting this wave in December.
The Kessel Run Event was a badly run mess and because of the Kessel Run wave two holds no surprises. Lose/Lose
And here we were, worried about what they were going to do for wave 3! If only we knew that they had plenty of time to consider it with the wave 2 delays.
Rebellion Era Fighters (Episodes IV-VI): Z-95 Headhunters B-Wing ARC-170 E-Wings V-Wings Tie Bomber Tie Defender + More and More Tie Variants than you can shake a stick at.
Of course, there are other ships from different eras that they could expand into... I don't think that they would fare well against later models. Even the ARC-170 and Z95 are at a disadvantage against a similarly piloted X-Wing. Droid Fighters Naboo Fighters Jedi Starfighters
Good news??? Keen observers on the FFG site noticed the wave 2 entries changed from March back to February (but still on the boat status). The drama continues...
I wouldn't put too much stock in the little symbols at their website. I've seen certain icons appear when I've known for a fact that it was either on the step before or after the one displayed.
Anyone have a good option for a transport case? I see that Battlefoam has made a foam tray, but i dont really want to drop the cash for that and a case.
I actually made a custom tray for my existing Gw cases during their holiday sale. Its deeper than the standard inch so I can fit more than one ship in each outline spot. Its still not cheap but its not expensive either if youve already got a sabol or gw case lying around without foam as I did.
I have the battlefoam tray that inserts into the X-Wing box. I like it well enough. I'm using a Plano box to keep all the tokens organized, and the spot in the tray isn't big enough for the Plano. Other than that, I really like it. It keeps everything secure and it fits my collection just fine.
I have used a quad-pistol case that I picked up at my local Walmart. Each store is different, and they may only carry it during hunting season, but I got it for less than the Battlefoam insert. It is pluck foam, so you make your own shapes.
Falco wrote: Anyone have a good option for a transport case? I see that Battlefoam has made a foam tray, but i dont really want to drop the cash for that and a case.
Just picked up my minis yesterday and they look great. While I was opening my minis, a guy came up and was asking a few questions while looking at them and he then went and bought around just shy of $100 of them... during the subsequent quickie demo I gave him, another guy was watching and then ended up buying around $150 of stuff.
One word of warning though is that my FLGS was selling out of them incredibly fast and said that EVERY distributor and even FFG were sold out when he tried to place another order today. I don't know if FFG only got another partial shipment or if they underestimated demand but that's what he was told when he tried to reorder. The store bought a dozen millenium falcons and starters each and they were down to one starter and no falcons when I left yesterday (which was only the second day they were on the shelves).
yeah,
Got my wave2 ships today!
Very impressed with the large ships. bigger than I expected.
I can't wait to make derelicts for my dead ship grave yard!
but it'll have to wait FFG have taken too long in releasing these and I've started a new project... dungeon bowl!
if the minis are available in the UK, then I hopefully won't have to wait until mid-April, like some German ebayshops state...
waiting since december on my wave 1 order... -_-
I ordered:
1 starter box
2 Twin Ion Engine Fighter
1 Twin Ion Engine Advanced X1 Fighter
1 Y-Wing bomber...
I already recieved:
1 X-Wing
can't wait to get my brother and friends addicted, so I can buy a 2nd starter box and some wave 2 ships. ^^
Anyone else been having problems with the FFG forums for the past week or so? Pages half load with the logo and headers and footers but skip the posts or they take a full minute to connect and load. I'm not having any problems otherwise with the web so it's not on my end.
Which company did you order from and how long did it take? Also, what size is it? I'm considering ordering one eventualy at 6x4 even though the standard size for this game is 3x3... I figure bigger games above 150pts should probably increase width but not depth between players. Anyone know the size of tables in the mongoose space game and the firestorm armada game? If possible, I'd probably prefer something that can be used for all three (and future/past game systems as well).
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Manchu wrote: The FFG forum has had extremely low loading speeds for months now.
Ah... I've been mainly remembering to check it on my phone over the past few months since the Kessel Run event so just figured any delay there was due to the mobile network instead. I only started checking with a land connection more recently as news of this wave arriving started to hit the web.
warboss wrote: Which company did you order from and how long did it take? Also, what size is it?
I ordered from Miniature Market. It took a few days to get from MO to VA. It is 3'x3'.
warboss wrote: I'm considering ordering one eventualy at 6x4
I plan on eventually commissioning one that size from Hot Matz. Actually, I already did but needed to cancel/modify the order last minute for another gaming need. Ideally, I'd like to see somebody like GF9 do a larger vinyl mat like this one but if they don't I'll definitely go Hotz. Hotz does fantastic work but it's expensive and takes a long time.
warboss wrote: I only started checking with a land connection more recently as news of this wave arriving started to hit the web.
Wow, I just tried checking it and it's much slower now than last time I checked (early last week); also seems the whole site is experiencing problems.
Sorry, for some reason I thought I had hotlinked that image. It's a vinyl mat from Gale Force 9 rather than custom felt. It's readily available for 32 USD from Miniature Market. There's also a Death Star surface one, but I don't like it too well.
After reading through his reviews I get the feeling that the A-wing is a sucide ship, throw some cluster missiles on them and blast forward allowing your other ships to come behind un-molested.
Manchu wrote: Sorry, for some reason I thought I had hotlinked that image. It's a vinyl mat from Gale Force 9 rather than custom felt. It's readily available for 32 USD from Miniature Market. There's also a Death Star surface one, but I don't like it too well.
Ah, thanks. I had heard GF9 was coming out with mats but I didn't realize they were 3x3. I hope they come out with something bigger as those designs look quite nice. They're out of the star field nebula one unfortunately.
filbert wrote: Is this game any good? Got an Amazon voucher for my birthday and took a punt on this just on a whim.
The game is solid, fun, simple, varied and tactically interesting. There's a few niggles in balance, but they're hardly extreme. It's good for casual or competitive play.
filbert wrote: Is this game any good? Got an Amazon voucher for my birthday and took a punt on this just on a whim.
Did you get just the core game or a few boosters too?
While there are alot of differnt pilots in the core set there is only three ships. You really need a a few extra ships to get a full experience of the game. I'd suggest increasing to three rebels and four imperials at a minimum.
Just the core game at the moment but I had a poke around Wayland and looked at the additional stuff that they have. Will have a flick through the rules and then order a bit more, I have no doubt!
yeah,
Cool, a cost effective way to bump up ship numbers is to buy a second core set, for the Extra range rulers and dice too.
(you actually need more attack dice for some attacks and only get three in the box)
The question is, how do you simulate the screaming pace of starfighter combat in a turn-based game? The answer is: secret movement orders and reverse resolution sequences.
Secret movement orders: The game uses dials to represent what movement a ship will take that round. The players simultaneously and secretly adjust their dials.
Reverse resolution sequences: The players then reveal the dial faces and from the lowest to the highest skilled pilot take moves. After that, the highest to the lowest skilled pilots take actions and make attacks.
These two mechanics produce a kind of competitive tension that feels like speed.
H.B.M.C. wrote: I'm wondering when/if they'll do the TIE/b and the B-Wing.
If they make them? I rather think they will considering how well they've sold so far, unless Disney breaches their license or something. As to when, my guess would be summer or fall of this year.
I'd like to see a mission/campaign book in the meantime.
Yes, I'd love to see a mission book and a few more upgrade cards. I was thinking that they'd do a Bounty Hunter's expansion (did some brainstorming along those lines a while ago). There are many more variants of the TIE's to do as well, but they aren't visually distinctive. B-Wings would fit nicely. So would older designs like the ARC-170's and Z-95's (which definitely saw service with the alliance); all three have had screen time in the movies. If going into the apocrypha, then W-wings and V-wings may make an appearance, but I really hope that they limit themselves to the Rebellion era.
Just had my first game with the wave two stuff. Heavy laser cannons on slave 1 are epic, a-wings are awesome, but I'm never leaving home without han solo in the falcon! On the subject of uglies and other wave fighters, studio bergstrom do an awesome range on 1" scale fighters that might sate some appetites for proxies or conversions.
Anpu-adom wrote: Yes, I'd love to see a mission book and a few more upgrade cards.
They could do a Rebel and Empire card pack that comes with a bunch more pilots, upgrades and other things.
Anpu-adom wrote: I was thinking that they'd do a Bounty Hunter's expansion (did some brainstorming along those lines a while ago). There are many more variants of the TIE's to do as well, but they aren't visually distinctive.
Too many bounty hunters and it might get a bit strange. And there are some visually distinctive TIE's - the Defender, Phantom and production model Advanced (TIE Avenger) would all be nice aditions (and it would mean you could have multiple TIE Advances without always using Vader's fighter).
Anpu-adom wrote: B-Wings would fit nicely. So would older designs like the ARC-170's and Z-95's (which definitely saw service with the alliance); all three have had screen time in the movies. If going into the apocrypha, then W-wings and V-wings may make an appearance, but I really hope that they limit themselves to the Rebellion era.
Don't forget the K-wings!
But yeah, some of the later post-Death Star II fighters would be nice (E-wing/TIE Drone) as well as a good spread of older styles (the aforementioned Z-95 and my personal fav, the R41 Starchaser!).
insert any Hubble Telescope Image you like for the background(you can even use the image of the one they sell for $40), and boom!
3'x3' Play mat for less than $20
Very interesting. Uploading a very hi res hubble picture, I get a quote of $38.07 including shipping for a 4x6 vinyl banner with a nice space scene (single sided). How is the material? Does it feel like a thick poster or just like a typical gaming mat you'd get from WOTC or GF9 for role playing games?
warboss wrote: Very interesting. Uploading a very hi res hubble picture, I get a quote of $38.07 including shipping for a 4x6 vinyl banner with a nice space scene (single sided). How is the material? Does it feel like a thick poster or just like a typical gaming mat you'd get from WOTC or GF9 for role playing games?
I was wondering that myself, I haven't ordered one yet. I have decided instead to go to a local sign shop and make a mat. Price is comparible and I like to keep the money local when I can.
I have went to fabric stores and felt thin vinyl like the material the sight says it is using. It is kinda like a very thin rubber floor mat but not as grippy. And it doesn't have a lot of memory so storing it rolled up doesn't make the edges super curly when you use it.
let me find the youtube vid that the guy mentioned it in and I'll throw the link up.
Automatically Appended Next Post: ok here is the link...
warboss wrote: Very interesting. Uploading a very hi res hubble picture, I get a quote of $38.07 including shipping for a 4x6 vinyl banner with a nice space scene (single sided). How is the material? Does it feel like a thick poster or just like a typical gaming mat you'd get from WOTC or GF9 for role playing games?
I was wondering that myself, I haven't ordered one yet. I have decided instead to go to a local sign shop and make a mat. Price is comparible and I like to keep the money local when I can.
I have went to fabric stores and felt thin vinyl like the material the sight says it is using. It is kinda like a very thin rubber floor mat but not as grippy. And it doesn't have a lot of memory so storing it rolled up doesn't make the edges super curly when you use it.
let me find the youtube vid that the guy mentioned it in and I'll throw the link up.
Ah, I figured with the link you posted that you had actually gotten it from them. I tried Kinko's (which is now Fed Ex apparently) and the cheapest banner they had was $89.99 (their minimum price... I didn't bother to try and exactly price it out when that was the "starting from" posted price).
Manchu wrote:There is no doubt that this game is very strong in terms of 1v1 competitive play. But there are a lot of SW fans interested in the narrative aspects of the game, too. As a separate matter, I've been concerned as a customer about the lifespan of this product line considering the extremely limited ship selection. I'm a proponent of this game staying OT-only but I'm also ready and willing to buy and play with more ships, both competitively and casually. In fact, I'm so excited about this game that I'd like to be spending more money on it than FFG seems able to support regarding the manufacture of plastic ships. You can see the market space on this booming with a variety of third party companies offering everything from plastic movement templates to custom-printed ship models.
I think one answer to all these issues lies is the campaign book. Talking with a friend about this over email, I came up with these basic ideas: It's the apogee of the New Order. The Alliance is on the run in the Outer Rim, trying to shore up support in systems like Mon Calamari. Meanwhile, Imperial leaders are only beginning to understand the conflict as a war rather than a police action. The book would consist of 20 or so linked missions such that the outcome of the preceding missions would affect the successive ones. This could be two-pronged. One prong could be branching narrative: If the Rebels win Mission 1, then play Mission 1A next; if the Imperials win, then play Mission 1B next. The other prong could be set-up focused: if the Rebels win Mission 8, successfully rescuing General Dodonna, then the Alliance player may use A-Wings in his lists for subsequent missions.
That would be the first campaign book, something very war-focused. Then I would have a second fringe-focused campaign where the two players take the role of a smuggler with a price on his head and a ruthless bounty hunter looking to bring him in. And of course, just like in the movies, this game of cat and mouse gets tangled up in larger issues of galactic politics. To me, these are the two iconic uses of space ships in the OT: (1) fighter planes in the war for freedom and (2) hot rods piloted by mercenaries and scoundrels. In fact, I would write the second campaign book so that it could optionally interweave with the first one. And of course I would sell repaints and/or POD cards to support these epic storylines!
So there you go, campaign books could (1) provide more mission concepts generally, for casual or competitive play, (2) shore up narrative-focused play for the many SW fans in it for the story, (3) support the existing model line, (4) create opportunity for campaign-specific repaint models, (5) create opportunity for new pilots and upgrades which could in turn be supported by the POD channel, and (6) generate product that minimizes the uncertainties of overseas miniatures production to sustain the line between model waves. The beauty about points (4) and (5) is that these would be totally optional from a consumer stand-point. If you want to play the mission with red X-Wings and A-Wings, you can do it. But if you're like me and you want three of everything then a green X-Wing and a blue A-Wing are awesome. And for those who don't want to buy repaints just to get cards, FFG could do them POD.
Those are some good ideas Manchu, let me know if you ever get any of them down. We've been kicking around the idea of making a map of some systems and having fleet markers and infrastructure, or maybe playing a planetary empires-style campaign.
Definitely some good ideas there, Manchu. I'm still working on getting enough people interested in local pickup games myself but will take a closer look when and if the group here stabilizes.
On an unrelated note, it appears that the Star Trek and Star Wars series will be sharing more than just a director in common for the near future...
Skip to about 4:30 to get to where he is talking about his play mat. It is pretty cool looking.
Thanks, listening to the video now. On your suggestion, I tried two local print shops and they quoted prices at roughly $10 per square foot so unfortunately that won't be happening for my 6x4 mat.
It would be excessive to get a whole wing (72 fighters) of TIEs, right?
I'm up to a full squadron of TIEs, at this point. Plus assorted other ships. I'd like to fill out all of my various ship types to full squadrons, no matter how much my 20 years of experience in fighter maintenance screams at me that there's no way they should ever be able to launch every ship in a given squadron.
Manchu wrote: That Star Trek thing is bizarre. I wonder what kind of changes they will make to give it a more capital ship-appropriate feel.
Not sure they really need to change much, considering how few weapons Star Trek ships actually carry. Their capital ships aren't exactly like capital ships in Star Wars(and don't even come close to the size).
I just thought of a nice combo (or at least it sounds that way to me): Kath Scarlet with an Ion Cannon.
I originally didn't think much of either of these cards, until I reread the wording.
Kath: "...the defender receives 1 stress token if he cancels at least 1 crit result."
Ion: "...Then cancel all dice results."
So if you roll any crits while shooting the ion, they get a stress token - even if the ion cannon still hits. Since the ion's forced move is white, they don't get to cancel the stress token next turn so you guarantee they lose an action. Maybe not the most killer combo in the world or anything, but still some okay synergy. Maybe a good way to lock down that pesky Biggs+R2F2, or stop a TIE Interceptor (mirror match) which would normally just boost after being ioned. I think it's worth trying out at least.
Edit: Or maybe it doesn't technically work since Kath specifically says "[the defender] cancels"??
Automatically Appended Next Post: Maybe Kath would even work well with just a Gunner - cancel a crit on both attacks and they need two green maneuvers before they can take actions again.
I don't think who cancels the critical is important. After all, defenders do not get a choice in whether or what to cancel -- evades always cancel hits and critical hits are always canceled first.
Question for the thread: If you take the YT-1300 with Han and you choose to re-roll your shots, does the defender get to re-roll there defense die? We have been playing it as they do not. Just want some outside opinions.
Falco wrote: If you take the YT-1300 with Han and you choose to re-roll your shots, does the defender get to re-roll there defense die?
Whoever has been playing against Han in your games has been getting a break! No, the defender does NOT get to reroll defense dice when you use Han's special rule.
Han's card reads: "When attacking, you may reroll all of your dice. If you choose to do so, you must reroll as many of your dice as possible." Second person pronouns refer to the person controlling the ship. Thus, when you (the attacker) use this power, ONLY reroll attack dice -- to the extent possible.
That last part can be confusing, too. There is at least one circumstance in the game where it is impossible (i.e., illegal) to reroll dice: p. 12 of rulebook indicates that dice that have already been rerolled may not be rerolled again. So, for example, let's say you used Target Lock and then rolled 2 hits and a miss using Han. If you use Target Lock to reroll the miss, you cannot then use Han's special rule to again reroll that die. You could in that case reroll the two hits, maybe hoping to get criticals.
So why does Han have Target Lock at all? Because many secondary weapons (e.g., missiles) require it.
Falco wrote: If you take the YT-1300 with Han and you choose to re-roll your shots, does the defender get to re-roll there defense die?
Whoever has been playing against Han in your games has been getting a break! No, the defender does NOT get to reroll defense dice when you use Han's special rule.
Han's card reads: "When attacking, you may reroll all of your dice. If you choose to do so, you must reroll as many of your dice as possible." Second person pronouns refer to the person controlling the ship. Thus, when you (the attacker) use this power, ONLY reroll attack dice -- to the extent possible.
That last part can be confusing, too. There is at least one circumstance in the game where it is impossible (i.e., illegal) to reroll dice: p. 12 of rulebook indicates that dice that have already been rerolled may not be rerolled again. So, for example, let's say you used Target Lock and then rolled 2 hits and a miss using Han. If you use Target Lock to reroll the miss, you cannot then use Han's special rule to again reroll that die. You could in that case reroll the two hits, maybe hoping to get criticals.
So why does Han have Target Lock at all? Because many secondary weapons (e.g., missiles) require it.
@MythicalMothman: Regarding the Ion-Kath combo, it's interesting that Kath is buffing the Ion Cannon rather than the other way around. That means you're getting more value out of the 5 points you'd normally spend on that upgrade.
The best thing for her would be some upgrade that allows you to reliably get/get more criticals but I'm having trouble thinking of how to do that other than just rolling more dice. The secondary weapons that allow you to do that, however, are one-shots and nearly as expensive as the Ion Cannon Turret.
Another big benefit of the Ion Canon Turret on the Firespray is the Ion Cannon Turret's 360 "non-arc." The Firespray's big base means its side arcs are extremely vulnerable. With the Ion Cannon Turret, you've got some cover there (albeit not against special rules like Backstabber's).
I've read a little more on the argument that this combo doesn't work because the defender isn't the one canceling the critical hits. The argument goes that the attacker controls the Ion Cannon Turret and so it is the attacker who is cancelling the criticals.
The trouble I have with this argument is that who's canceling the hits only matters if canceling the hits is optional -- e.g., with the Evade action. The Ion Cannon Turret entails non-optional canceling, just like how evasion results rolled on defense dice non-optionally cancel hits and critical hits on attack dice.
I think the Firespray's ion is just a Cannon, not a Turret, so it's unfortunately limited to the front 90 degree arc. (Although it's better than the turret version in that it can shoot at range 3?) So I'm starting to think it's easier to just save the points and focus on the primary gun with the better angle coverage. I'm also thinking stress isn't good enough to worry about spending points on Marksmanship or Merc Copilot or whatever, but a Gunner still sounds really useful. Then again, I'm gonna want to try out everything eventually instead of always doing the same thing, so whatever.
Manchu wrote: I don't think who cancels the critical is important. After all, defenders do not get a choice in whether or what to cancel -- evades always cancel hits and critical hits are always canceled first.
No, Crits are cancelled last.
Also, regarding trhe Han reroll issue. If you follow the procedure step by step, Han will roll hits, then reroll if he wants, before the defender rolls any defence dice.
Good catch -- but it doesn't change my analysis. The point is, canceling in that case is non-optional as is order of cancellation as between hit types.
UltraPrime wrote: Also, regarding the Han reroll issue. If you follow the procedure step by step, Han will roll hits, then reroll if he wants, before the defender rolls any defence dice.
Yep, that's also true: p. 8 under the Modify Attack Dice step of the Combat Phase reads "players can ... resolve abilities that reroll ... attack dice results" and this step is directly before the Roll Defense Dice step.
Bought two of those. I don't care about all the space for accessories as I would only use that for taking stuff to the store and not storage. What I care about is putting ships in foam to prevent damage and this product does that well enough considering its price and the market for this sort of thing.
Also: I don't think that guy understands the product he's reviewing.
I picked up Battlefoams trays, mostly because I already had a PACK 216 that they fit in to.
It's a good starting point, I'll definitely be getting custom Imperial/Rebel trays for ships cut once my collection settles down. I'm sure I'll be picking a third Firespray for instance.
I'm still trying to decide how I want to store everything, for taking out for games and in general. I purged my case of redundant target lock and number tokens, which helped a lot.
Set up for this game can be ridiculously time consuming, so paring down that sort of thing can definitely make a difference.
Third Firespray?? You're dedicated! I'm fine with my one and only. Our local store decided to go in on FFG league kits and had the first x-wing night yesterday and I took a few (mediocre cell phone) pics during the games. The first two games were for the prize support (some plastic target lock markers) but afterwards we had a larger game between the remaining players to see how the rules played above 100pts.
I'm liking the millennium falcon most in the Chewbacca variety (gunner, engine mod, push the limit, nien nubb) as it's got the staying power to survive the specials above it's pilot skill firing possibly at it but still leaves it with some room to maneuver as only the grunts will maneuver before it. In the big game (the pics above as well as the unlinked ones in my xwing gallery), I decided to leave the falcon to my fellow rebel and tried out "elite" x-wings instead. Luke and Wedge both with engine mods, push the limit, R2s, and proton torpedoes along with a similarly advanced a-wing (can't remember the character's name but it's the one who takes actions while stressed)... and they landed largely with a big thud. The range 3 alpha strike I had planned in the second pic resulted in only two total shields depleted after multiple missile and proton launches. Luke and Wedge then largely ran around like drunken frat boys whereas the two rookie x-wings (two left most models in the 2nd pic) kept proper formation and were the stars of my portion of the rebel fleet. The bagged 3 imperial fighters of various makes and a Scarlet Firespray between themselves whereas my 3 "special characters" took down less. The rebels looked like we had it solidly in the bag with a minor lead on the left and a crushing defeat for the imps with just one imperial fighter remaining on my right side but the empire did indeed strike back in the very last turn and almost collapsed the left flank with 8 out of 9 dice they rolled for damage landing (with several crits) despite rebel attempts to dodge. Since the store would be closing before we'd be able to finish another turn, we decided to call it a draw. My initial apprehension at larger games bogging down was largely dispelled with playing against a variety of opponents. My usual opponent tends to make an initial rush and then just soft turn for 3 rounds to get back into position making for long, drawn out games but that wasn't the case yesterday luckily in the first big game. All the players (and even a few lookie-loo bystanders) had a fun time time and I got to try out my new play mat as well.
Is it just me or is push the limit (PTL) a bit overpowered? I don't know if I was doing it correctly but I was effectively using it every single turn for two actions at the cost of limiting my movement options only. With Nien on the falcon, using the PTL card meant that I got a stress token for the two actions which I then removed in the movement phase of the next turn with a straight forward green move allowing me to do the same thing right afterwards. With the r2 units on the xwings in the big game, I was doing the same thing at the cost of green 1 and 2 speed maneuvers. Is that how you guys play it? The falcon was amazing at strafing with that combo (only had to turn twice to make sure I didn't exit the playtable) and the x-wings were insanely maneuverable (2 speed hard turns plus an addition boost with an action left over due to PTL).
I think next time I'll try my hand at playing the imperials and see how the tie interceptors work out both with and without PTL plus a generic firespray with a bomb as well as how some of the scenarios work as I've only played in team deathmatch style missions.
We’ve entered the Alderaan system.”
–Admiral Motti, Star Wars: A New Hope
Upgrade your X-Wing™ play area! Fantasy Flight Games is pleased to announce the upcoming release of the Starfield Game Tile Kit.
Starfield Game Tile Kit tiles create a quality, custom play surface:
•Twelve tiles, each one-foot square
•Durable 2.5 mm fiber board
•Smooth, matte-finished card stock
•Wide possible range of vivid Star Wars–themed scenes
The X-Wing Starfield Game Tile Kit introduces twelve thick tiles that allow you to wage your X-Wing space battles above such iconic Star Wars features as Alderaan and the Death Star. Each of these sturdy tiles consists of matte-finished card stock mounted on 2.5mm fiber board and measures one square foot. Starfield tiles are all double-sided, and permit a wide range of possible configurations to create immersive settings as you fight for the fate of a galaxy far, far away....
Will buy..
3rd quarter 2013 shouldn't slip as its just card and FFG make loads of card products.
In case its not obvious, there are some tiny barely visible stars on the tiles as well. My first look at them on a smaller screen didn't let me notice that so I figured I'd mention it just in case someone else missed it. I would have preferred large cutouts of the terrain (obviously usable on game mats) instead of tiles but I can see why they went with the choices they did. The good news is that there are 12 tiles in the set so you can make a more reasonable 3'x4' board rather than the 3x3 that gets a bit claustrophobic even at 100pts depending on the squadrons used.
Cool, couldn't see the stars on this monitor either. I assumed they were WIPs.
Thinking about it, I have enough trouble with not shifting asteroids and ships around during a game let alone if they are on tiles that can also be knocked around.
Attend the Star Wars™ Game Experience, May 3rd–5th at the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center in Roseville, MN, and you’ll be among the first to learn of four upcoming ships for the X-Wing™ Miniatures Game!
yeah,
just saw that on the FFG website and posted in the news and rumours section here.
very exciting.
I think we will see a official lambda and the first EU ship.
I'd bet on the tie defender.
It's a cool ship and due to it's familiar Tie design it wont offend those that only want movie ships.
Its already been made by lego so Lucas Arts have approved it before for mainstream consumption...
Attend the Star Wars™ Game Experience, May 3rd–5th at the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center in Roseville, MN, and you’ll be among the first to learn of four upcoming ships for the X-Wing™ Miniatures Game!
ooooo... didn't catch that. I saw the mention in the press release about getting a first look at upcoming squadrons but not the mention of a specific number of ships. I'm going with the Imperial Shuttle Tyderium as #3 and... a z-95 as #4. The later wasn't in the original trilogy but its a needed addition to the rebel lineup (mediocre but cheap fighter).
Attend the Star Wars™ Game Experience, May 3rd–5th at the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center in Roseville, MN, and you’ll be among the first to learn of four upcoming ships for the X-Wing™ Miniatures Game!
ooooo... didn't catch that. I saw the mention in the press release about getting a first look at upcoming squadrons but not the mention of a specific number of ships. I'm going with the Imperial Shuttle Tyderium as #3 and... a z-95 as #4. The later wasn't in the original trilogy but its a needed addition to the rebel lineup (mediocre but cheap fighter).
I'm guessing that they probably aren't going to give only 1 faction a new large ship, so we would probably see four fighters instead- my bets on Bomber, B-Wing, Defender and Headhunter, as B&B are the only fighters left from the movies that need producing, and the Defender and Headhunter provide access to different "Niches" for their faction.
A kit that has all the fighter broken down to their different parts that can then be put together to make the uglies. Don't see it happening but would be cool. I remember playing the xwing and tie fighter games and the number of Z95 kills I racked up was staggering but they would be great for a nice messy outer rim battls between the imperials and independent systems, mercs and pirates.
For those as wants 'em, there's always a hobby saw and glue.
And shapeways. They've got practically every EU ship there. I even made my own "sculpt" of the TIE Predator from the EU because I didn't find it there but never made one due to the quality of another test mini I got from them. I won't be buying uglies either but I have zero problem with people using them as stand-ins for other ships in a game.
yeah,
I did a quick review of the litko space base in my blog. Figured I'd copy it here too.
++
I bought a Litko large space flight base for my Lambda.
For £5.50 you get the large base, a short pole and three fitting,
Annoyingly litko has branded the base... although this isn't a problem if you use a YT1300 or FireSpray card insert
The base is the same length as the official base but 2 mm short on the width.
The plastic insert was very tight fitting into the YT1300 card insert. the official base has ridges along the sides that the Litko base does not.
I only glued the Plastic fitting onto the bottom of the Lambda, the rest of the assembly was tight fitting and didn't require glue.
The biggest problem is that the pole is too short and the Lambdas wings almost touch the board.
Summary.
The base as pretty good.
It's a shame the base is branded and the pole too short.
A extra inch would have ment the Lamdba's cockpit would have been the same height as the YT1300s and FireSprays, and the Lambdas wings would be up off the board.
Panic Rating - 8/10
-1 for branding the base… not needed.
-1 for the short pole… a selection of lengths would have been ideal or one long pole that could be cut to length.
I think I might use the outter rim smuggler profile for the lambda along side a YT1300
The weaker profile makes sense!
Does anyone know of any sites that have details on all the pilots/upgrade cards that the various ships come with, as well as their possible manoeuvers?
Manchu wrote: I think there are some BoardGameGeeks threads to that effect, or at least there used to be.
Thanks, found most of what I wanted in their photo galleries. I'm just one of those people that can't buy stuff without knowing broadly how it will work.
I could see the new ships being prequel movie ships rather than EU ships (wouldn't be happy, but wouldn't be surprised). Heck they've already delved slightly into prequel territory with Slave I's seismic charges.
In either case, we likely won't have to actually worry about it until almost the Christmas shopping season if the current pace of releases is any indication.
warboss wrote: In either case, we likely won't have to actually worry about it until almost the Christmas shopping season if the current pace of releases is any indication.
Actually we'll get a preview of Wave 3 at the FFG Star Wars Weekend celebration....
Even a Jedi as powerful as Yoda can have trouble interpreting visions of the future, but soon, you’ll have a chance to see it clearly. Attend the Star Wars™ Game Experience, May 3rd–5th at the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center in Roseville, MN, and you’ll be among the first to learn of four upcoming ships for the X-Wing™ Miniatures Game!
Along with our full weekend of exciting events and engaging competitions, we’ll announce the next four starship miniatures for X-Wing! Be there when we draw back the curtain and unveil, for the first time ever, four ships that are sure to shake up the X-Wing metagame when they arrive in stores later this year.
Thanks but I know... I referring to/joking about when we'd get a theoretically wave 4 in hand with the 6-7 months inbetween previewing wave 2 at gencon and getting it to the public (besides the limited tourney).
MythicalMothman wrote: I could see the new ships being prequel movie ships rather than EU ships (wouldn't be happy, but wouldn't be surprised). Heck they've already delved slightly into prequel territory with Slave I's seismic charges.
I really, really hope not, because they wouldn't scale well with the rebellion era ships. What I mean by that is, the fighters and most (super customized ships like Slave I and the Falcon excepted) other ships are generally obsolete. Advances in starfighter design in the generation between Ep. III and Ep. IV (let alone between Ep. I and Ep. VI) have left all of the prequel and clone wars fighters outmoded. The Y-Wing is the only ship I can think of from the Clone War era that is still in use during IV-VI, and even then what's in use by the rebels are the most recent Y-Wings, and regarded as mostly second line fighters and, when needed, bombers.
With that in mind, how do you represent obsolete fighters? Are they going to have firepower in the 1-2 range, max? Restricted to range 1-2? SEVERELY restricted movement dials? 2 Hull? 1 Shield, at best? Anything else just feels wrong, to me. If these long passed over and outdated fighters can hang with the cream of the current generation, it just doesn't ring at all true. And if they are given appropriately low stats, they have to be dirt cheap to compensate for it.
It's relatively much easier for them to go to EU ships that are MORE capable than the IV-IV ships by upstatting them and increasing cost. Same with the forthcoming VII+ ships. But when you set the bar without a huge amount of room to go below it, it's not so easy to make believable ships from a previous era.
I'm hoping we get EU stuff from Shadows of the Empire and Star Wars Galaxies, especially as the latter already has a nice nod. Plus SWG had fantastic ship designs for a third Mercenary/Pirate/Bounty Hunter faction.
Just a quick reminder that this weekend is the little convention that FFG is throwing for their star wars products at their HQ. May the 4th be with you or somesuch. I'll be running an X-wing game that day at the local store and think it'd be cool if others did so as well to raise a bit more public awareness about the game in the hobby. The added benefit of doing it this Saturday is that we'll likely have fan postings of what the next wave will be as its supposed to be revealed during the event.
I don't know, I certainly hoped the Moldy Crow might make it I guess. To me it feels more "core" than goofy looking TIE Defenders, but maybe I just played a lot of Jedi Knight growing up.
The fact that they were willing to make something as obscure as the Moldy Crow (and let's face it, it's obscure - it was in two video games from over a decade ago!) and the fact that it's an EU ship means that they're willing to branch out into other areas of SW and not confine themselves to the movies.
X-Wings are A3 D2 H3 S2, have Focus and Target Lock, and can equip torps and astromechs. The tightest turn it can make is a 1-inch wide turn (green) and at its fastest can move 4 inches straight (white). A Rookie Pilot (PS 2) brings that to 21 points.
I'm thinking a Z-95 should be A2 D2 H3 S1, also with Focus and Target Lock, with missiles upgrades but obviously no droid. It should have a tighter 1-inch bank (white) and its 4-inch straight movement should be red. A PS 2 Pilot should bring it to about 14-15 points.
Yeah, I'd agree with the above except maybe the red 4 forward and tighter turn (I don't recall them being slower but more maneuverable in the old PC games). Rebels do have a need for a cheap fighter. Currently, the cheapest you can get is a prototype a-wing and IIRC it's more costly (for obvious reasons) than half the TIE fighter special characters. It's not that the z-95 was so awesome in either stats, history, or looks but rather that it fills an obvious void that currently exists in the rebel ship lineup.
I don't know about the games but in the X-Wing novels, Z-95s are definitely slower but can hit tighter turns.
The Z-95 could also be the basis for a Fringer faction (even if such a faction was purely homebrew).
I'd like to see it in a wave along with the E-Wing and TIE/D -- two fighters that would take the existing Rebel and Imp metas to their logical conclusions.
E-Wings with advanced R7 astromechs, and TIE/d's with various beam weapon upgrades (tractor beam would be an interesting game mechanic for dog fights).
They had a 'beam weapon', which was an energy-intensive weapon of some type. One of those types was a small-scale tractor beam. It was a real power hog, but it made dog-fights against really fast things (A-Wings, TIE/Int's other TIE/d's) much easier if you could get behind them for a couple of seconds.
How about, in lieu of firing, you get to place a beam token on an enemy ship in your firing arc (range 2). If said enemy ship attempts any non-green maneuver on its next move phase, it trades the beam token for a stress token?
Automatically Appended Next Post: EDIT: Oh, haha -- I think we've crossed wires. When I said TIE/D I meant the droid fighter not the Defender. That's why I was surprised when you said it had beam weapons.
What I meant by the E-Wing and TIE/D taking the respective Reb Imp existing metas to their logical conclusion is you can't (or probably shouldn't) get much cheaper than a TIE/D or much mor expensive than an E-Wing.
I envision a TIE/D (droid/drone) as follows:
- A2 D2 H3 S0 - Barrel Role, Evasion - maneuver dial as TIE/LN except all white (cannot take stress) - 10 pts at PS1
So FFG's official announcement has a few details, including a few of the upgrade cards like advanced proton torpedoes, proton bombs, sensor jammers, and rebel captives.
Automatically Appended Next Post: If you look really closely at the pictures, it looks like the HWK-290's upgrade cards are Ion Cannon Turret, Blaster Turret, the Moldy Crow title of course, and three crewmembers? Intelligence Agent, Saboteur, and something Specialist.
The shuttle has a ton of upgrade cards that look new but I can't really make out what they are, except ST-361 which must be a unique shuttle title.
The B-wing has a Proton Torpedo, Advanced Proton Torpedo, Ion Cannon, Autoblaster (a new cannon?), and some other new thing.
TIE Bomber has Advanced Proton Torpedo, Assault Missile, Seismic Charge, Proton Bomb, and...Adrenaline Rush?
And android as well. Sadly, they're not $1 apps but at least they don't have microtransactions. Your x-wing is at point blank range with expose? 50 cents extra to roll that many dice!
Hey guys, just picked up the started box for this game and am still learning the rules. Awesome looking models are out and coming out, but do any of you know if there is going to be any releases of a star destroyer or anything large like that or any ships from the first 3 movies?
Synister_Intent wrote: Hey guys, just picked up the started box for this game and am still learning the rules. Awesome looking models are out and coming out, but do any of you know if there is going to be any releases of a star destroyer or anything large like that or any ships from the first 3 movies?
Probably no Star Destroyers- it would be several feet long.
As for the first 3 movie vessels, I'd imagine they will, but when they do they won't work with the ships we have now. A TIE Fighter and Y-Wing would have been considered worlds more advanced than the best Jedi Starfighters of Episode 3. It would be kind of like taking their Sopwith Camels, from WWI, up against a Spitfire from WW2. Fantasy Flight split the WW planes up in their previous game, so they will most likely do the same thing here.
First three movies? You mean the prequels? FFG has not said whether they are or are not releasing them but given all three of their current SW lines focus on Episodes IV - VI, it doesn't seem too likely. That said, the starter box already features a ship from Episode 1 -- the Senator's Shuttle was introduced at the end of Phantom Menace when Palpatine traveled to Naboo. Obviously, it only shows up in the game as a token.
As for Star Destroyers, that seems even less likely considering that (1) FFG has done it's best to keep to scale and a SD at this scale would be absurdly large and (2) the game is about dogfighting space planes not about capital ships in tactical fleet actions.
Is anybody else finding the rebels win more often than not? Maybe its the low points, My average games are around 60 pts or so, (no falc or slave) but whether every game I've played so far (whether my friend, or I, played as imperial) the rebels always won with little or no casualties.
Awesomesauce wrote: Is anybody else finding the rebels win more often than not? Maybe its the low points, My average games are around 60 pts or so, (no falc or slave) but whether every game I've played so far (whether my friend, or I, played as imperial) the rebels always won with little or no casualties.
any advise for the imperials?
Strangely, I've never played imps. I usually pick last in group games to let others get their first choice and somehow it's always been me on the rebels side. In the two league night tournies, I've picked rebels simply out of familiarity in the first one and because i still had the list handy in the second one.
My games, it seems that the Imps have the advantage. Numbers is a huge advantage, especially is you block the X-wings so that they don't get their actions.
Anpu-adom wrote: My games, it seems that the Imps have the advantage. Numbers is a huge advantage, especially is you block the X-wings so that they don't get their actions.
How many points does everyone usually play at? I'm still very new to the game
Anpu-adom wrote: My games, it seems that the Imps have the advantage. Numbers is a huge advantage, especially is you block the X-wings so that they don't get their actions.
How many points does everyone usually play at? I'm still very new to the game
100 pts is what the game is designed around.
You'll find topics on rebels and imps winning all the time, which I think is a strong indicator of a solid game.
Anpu-adom wrote: My games, it seems that the Imps have the advantage. Numbers is a huge advantage, especially is you block the X-wings so that they don't get their actions.
How many points does everyone usually play at? I'm still very new to the game
I've been playing sub-100 point games. I have way more imps than rebs in my collection just right now.
The rebels are easier to start with. Slower, tougher ships and fewer of them means that they are the easier fleet to begin with. The Imperials have a much higher skill ceiling. Bouncing 8 flimsy TIE fighters around the field while trying to cycle who gets hit takes a special type of mind. If you can pull it off, it will often leave the Rebels with one or more problems that they have no answer for.
Especially as the fleets begin to get weird analogues and side-grades with the expanded selection, it becomes much easier to say that the two fleets are quite balanced. I'm very much reminded of Imperium vs Chaos from BFG- each had some advantages, and enough flavor to be different, but both fleets were equally powerful in the right hands.
In my sub 100 point games (usually around 50), I find the Rebels win more, but I think at that level the Imperials can't really leverage their numbers advantage as much.
I'm building them up to 100 points each though, what would you recommend for both sides? (no 'big' ships though)
Add more TIEs for your Imps and go for minimal diversity for your Rebs. I mean, if you don't already have one Y-Wing and one A-Wing, get one of each; otherwise get some more X-Wings.
if you have the TIE fighter and X-Wing boosters already, a second core set is generally a good idea (if only to have sufficient amounts of dice... damn FFG for that ). Playing three X-wings can be fun, from what I've seen of it - playing five TIE fighters is hardly remarkable at all (generally, you want at least that much for a swarm!). Just make sure to have the boosters too; those cards and pilots are really good to have. Then again, it might be a month or so before those boosters become available again (still have to borrow pilots from those myself...) so just getting a second core set might be your best bet for now.
You also get extra dice as a single core set doesn't give you enough to shoot with the ships in the set unfortunately. My recommendation to new players is to get two core sets and trade off second faction if they don't want to collect both. After that, I suggest they buy a single booster of the core set fighters as they do come with some different cards and upgrades not included in the core.
I'm filling out the Battlefoam insert. That contains 3 X-Wings and 2 Y-Wings, 4 Ties and 2 Tie-Advanced. Quirk of height, but 4 Tie-Advanced can fit in the space meant for 2.
So my 'buy list' is:
2 Starters
1 X-Wing
2 Y-Wing
4 Tie-Advanced
and the battle foam insert
Here is something that I created for our campaign. If the Imperial player can keep one of the containers from being destroyed they have access to a single fighter:
TIE Avenger
It was made from an TIE Advanced, plasticard and left over pieces of the Advanced. I will post the paint I used to cover what I used later.
Uses the TIE Intercetor Dial Focus, Evade, Target Lock, Barrel Roll, Boost, Beam Weapon Expert Pilot Upgrade, Missile, Torpedo, or Bomb (Only one choice)
Points: 33
Beam Weapon: Used instead of action. RNG 1-2. Enemy fighter targeted in the front arc of the TIE Avenger can only move 1 white stright or 1 red sharp left or right for one turn. No barrel rolls or boosts. Beam lock is lost if the enemy fighter completely leaves the front arc or range. Beam lock is lost if an object (object, fighter, etc...) passes in between the target and the TIE Avenger. Beam lock is also lost if the TIE Avenger is hit by an attack.
TIE advengers look good. Did you ever try to remove the wings and reglue them backwards (front in the back)? It seems like those angle sweeps would work out more accurately.
Thank you. I did try to flip the wings and move them around but they didn't fit right. I was thinking of back to back interceptor wings but that is like $50.00 for a fighter.
I frankly hope they just come out with a free set of card upgrades that lets you use it as avengers instead (either for download on their site and/or as part of their league kits).
Well PoD card packs is something they need to branch into. Having more pilots and upgrades without needing to get the same mini (and the same cards) over and over would be good. Themed decks would be good.
But I'd prefer an actual Avenger mini. Having loads of Vader's fighter on the table just looks silly (and breaks canon too much for me).
Yup, nothing like buying a €15 A-wing for one fething push the limit card... Which of course is hardly needed on the A-wing proper, yet indispensable on soontir fel's TIE Interceptor... Fehh.
I didn't mean you didn't care, just some people won't know much difference to Wedge or a Darklighter pilot card besides point value and flavoured text.
). Playing three X-wings can be fun, from what I've seen of it - playing five TIE fighters is hardly remarkable at all (generally, you want at least that much for a swarm!). Just make sure to have the boosters too; those cards and pilots are really good to have. Then again, it might be a month or so before those boosters become available again (still have to borrow pilots from those myself...) so just getting a second core set might be your best bet for now.
