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For more than a decade now, I've had those star wars models from Star Wars Miniatures, prepainted models sold with cards.
I even bought a box with an AT ST and a map one day !
But I never actually got to play (I was young and didn't find the rules in French at that time).
So, does anyone know this game and what happened to it ?
It's a shame because the models, especially for the time, are good and prepainted (I really don't understand why star wars legion doesn't do it this way, I mean, a stormtrooper is white...) And the range was huge !

WotC lost the license to FFG in 2010 (iirc) and so that's why it died.

There is still an active community for the game, you can probably find players on Facebook easiest. Was due to do a Star Wars charity tournament this Easter before Covid closed everything down and SWMG was set to be the second largest turnout! I know the community here produces their own content (including maps).

That's impressive and interesting, after all those years ! Thanks for the info

I will have a hunt and see if I can dig some links up, I know there is a Vassal group.

It was a surprisingly good game. It was more like Imperial Assault than SW Legion. But, imo, it did a better job of capturing the "feel" of Star Wars than either of those games. I would take issue with the miniatures being "good", though. The miniatures were barely adequate. The IA minis are vastly superior, even unpainted, and the SW Legion ones are streaks ahead.

 ingtaer wrote:
WotC lost the license to FFG in 2010 (iirc) and so that's why it died.

Given the timing, I suspect WotC gave up the license more than anything. The entire prepaint industry died between 2008 and 2010 mostly due to unmanageable hikes in production costs.


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 godardc wrote:

It's a shame because the models, especially for the time, are good and prepainted (I really don't understand why star wars legion doesn't do it this way, I mean, a stormtrooper is white...) And the range was huge !

Essentially, WalMart has to be willing to carry the line for prepaints to have a chance of being profitable. When X-Wing failed to find a foothold there, the chance of doing prepaints for Legion essentially dropped to zero.

Never thought of this: is it really costlier to do prepaint ? Does SW legion, for example, has its own paint range to bring money ?
I'm one of guy of genuinely enjoy painting my models, but lots of people don't. I could see people paying 40€ instead of 35 for a boxe if it came already painted

 godardc wrote:
Never thought of this: is it really costlier to do prepaint ? Does SW legion, for example, has its own paint range to bring money ?
I'm one of guy of genuinely enjoy painting my models, but lots of people don't. I could see people paying 40€ instead of 35 for a boxe if it came already painted

Of course its costlier. Why would it not be? Beyond just the cost of paint, you have to pay people to do the painting. You're not likely to find anyone making a living painting a box of models for 5€. Unpainted isn't about selling a paint range. Most minis companies don't. It's about the production cost of having things painted.

I know it costs more ofc but I don't know how much more. Men, not machines painting though ? I'm surprised

I agree game was good, even with the limitations of grid based movement.
Picking target for shooting had restrictions, LoS was well thought, and the game felt overall tactical and rewarding.

Also, some neat abilities were really helping to bring the SW movies into the game.
Some of the best I can remember at the moment:
1) C3P0 able to draw fire on himself
2) R2D2 ability to open/close doors far away from it
3) Lord Vader's ability to kill a subordinate that missed an attack to "motivate" (improve attack skill) of other troops

There was also a Solo in Carbonite figure that was great to add some more narrative in your games.
It allowed you to add any Solo miniature to your force for half the points, BUT you had to keep it outside the game, field the Solo in Carbonite model instead to the other side of the map, and only when you will be able to reach and rescue him, you could swap it with the proper model.

I saw X-wing in Target, which is a big box retail competitor of Wal-mart.

 Easy E wrote:
I saw X-wing in Target, which is a big box retail competitor of Wal-mart.

Yup. FFG managed to get it included in the Force Friday launches for Ep 7 with the hopes that it would become a regular part of their toy section. It didn't get picked up enough for Target to carry the rest of the line (SKU management probably had as much to do with this) so its mostly been a place to get core sets on clearance unfortunately.

They used to carry Star Wars Minis the CMG at Barnes and Noble back in the day as well, the starers and boosters. The D&D skirmish game was a blast and pretty popular, although they finally ended it due to having to make the stat cards for skirmish, instead just focusing on the RPG market. With the exception of a few heavy hitters, all collectible card and miniatures games eventually come to an end, often sooner rather than later.

I've got a TON of the WotC Star Wars Miniatures, and almost every map they ever made for it too. First miniatures game I ever really got into, and had hours of enjoyment playing it with my brother and our friends. Now, sadly, the miniatures sit in boxes under my bed collecting dust.

As far as the game being good goes, I enjoyed it, but it was despite how simplistic the game was. Now that I play 40k, I don't know if I could go back to something like SWM regularly, although I've thought about it just for the nostalgia. I do remember thinking it would be cool to make a tabletop (non-grid based) version of the rules, but I never got around to it. The miniatures themselves were cool, especially as there were plenty of Expanded Universe (now Legends) characters in there, but the quality was not the greatest. I do remember a few guides being around for repainting the minis yourself if you wanted them to look better than the pre-painted versions. These days if I wanted to get into Star Wars tabletop gaming, I'd definitely play Legion.

Being into 40k doesn't preclude liking those. I used to play weekly both 40k and D&D minis that used mostly similar mechanics without issue; you just go in with different expectations regarding what to expect. I agree though that if you were to go back to playing that it would probably be best to do so with Legion. Playing the current supported game always makes the job easier. If you really want an uphill battle, you could instead try to start a West End Star Wars miniatures battle scene in your area.

It would be interesting to give those rules a go with Legion miniatures.

There was also a writeup on how to include rpg characters into that set of miniatures rules, too (West End games did a SW rpg at the same time they had those rules and miniature lines).

The old EU was based off the "Writers bible" for that old rpg - and the rpg used stuff from the EU and vice versa.

If you're interested I made some modular base/spaceship tiles for this game many years ago. I just submitted a new version with a few extra tiles today. So look out for v2.0

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/88036/imperial-base-modular-tiles