Gaming Geekiness- “Oh no, not again.”

So geeks & games…

Today I tried out a demo of Fantasy Flight’s X-Wing miniature game.  This was after purchasing a copy of the game for my brother in August, and a number of expansion packs.  I decided I should try it out.  So here’s a first dog fight review of X-Wing.

Starting out, I’m a Star Wars fan… old skool Star Wars. Episode 4, 5, & 6 before they got “fixed.”  I grew up with Star Wars, my brother & I used to beat each other senseless with broomstick light sabers.  So I decided I would try this game out after avoiding it for a while.

I started out at my local game store (Saltire Games) and watched a game finish out.  A squadron of Y-wing fighters against a squadron of TIE fighter lead by Darth Vader.  It was little confusing at first since there are a number of elements at play each turn. So here are the basics from one game:

• Pick your side and ships-  Ships gain special abilities due to who is piloting them and added things like droids.  Each of these things are worth points.  In my case I chose Biggs Darklighter and R2-D2 for one X-Wing and a Rookie pilot for another X-Wing -50 points.  I was going against a squadron of three TIE fighters also worth 50 points.
• Each ship has a movement wheel where you decide how fast your ship will travel and what direction it will go.  These are unique for the type of ship. You begin by setting the dial and then placing it face down so your opponent cannot see what you are going to do.
• Movement is resolved along with actions- this could be locking on a specific target, or having your pilot focus or evading.  Each movement is performed using a guide which fits between two bumps on the front & back of the figure’s base, making it really simple to move a piece correctly without needing a game board.
• Combat is resolved by the use of eight sided dice with unique markings.  Red dice are used for attack, green for defense.
• When damage is taken if your ship has shields you would remove a shield token, if you don’t you take a damage card.
• When you have the same number of damage cards as the ships structure the ship is destroyed. (ka-boom!)
• Games have specific victory conditions which could be a time limit or until all ships are destroyed.  We played until the complete destruction of our enemies.

So those are basics, with some help I was able to win (Biggs has the ability to have all enemy fire focused on him, R2 repairs shields so basically if you can’t take this combination out in one combat phase they just keep regenerating).  I have skipped some game elements to keep this short.  I figure I will need to try out an Imperial squadron next.

The system is very player friendly and rather simple even if at first glance it looks complicated.  Each ship has certain strategies and tactics that help (ion cannons on a Y-wing).  I followed the suggestion of focusing fire on one ship and taking the squadron down one ship at a time.

The game is very true to the Star Wars universe, and I was especially happy that at this moment they are sticking to the original trilogy with a Millennium Falcon, Slave 1, A-Wing and TIE Interceptor expansions coming out before the holidaze.  It is not a collectible game… so if you buy three X-wing expansion packs, you end up with three copies of all the materials needed.  Unlike other games where you need to keep buying in hope that you get a super exclusive piece, the only unique pilot is Luke Skywalker who comes in the Starter Set.  The miniatures are painted and look really good.  They went back and looked that the original models used in the film when creating the pieces, this detail makes me happy.  Right now for the Star Wars universe this is a great game and I can’t wait to play it again.  On a sidenote: as a Star Trek fan, I haven’t seen anything to beat FASA’s Star Trek: Starship Tactical Combat Simulator, long out of print, but that is a story for another day.