December 4, 2012 by darrell
Video Sponsors: Mercs - Warmachine
Darrell takes a look inside the new starter set for the X-Wing games from Fantasy Flight Games.
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Man this game is fun. It completely side-tracked me from building more Warmachine units. This game has become an overnight hit in my area. It’s very quick to play, but it has quite a bit of tactical depth especially when you start using upgrades that play with your pilot skill levels (Swarm Tactics for one). The turn structure makes the game feel more engaging because you’re never just sitting there watching your opponent take his turn. Both players are always involved in pretty much every action.
The game really starts to get good around the 50pt level, but isn’t really awesome until you get up to around 100pts (and bigger is definitely better). The starter box scenarios set you up at around 32pts per side. Basically, if you really want to play this game, get two starters because it’s the cheapest way to get more TIE fighters quick and you really need six of each die rather than three. Once you get two starters, you’re better off buying the rest of your ships in expansion blisters because the upgrade cards you get in the blisters are more useful than the ones in the starter set.
In spite of it all, the game feels remarkably affordable. Two complete, tournament-level (good 100pt) forces will run you probably less than a hundred dollars all combined. After that it’s all gravy.
Probably a good place to start is 4 X-wings and 5 TIE fighters with one TIE Advanced. Yes, that actually does work out to 100pts per side. Rebels are almost always outnumbered. You could insert a Y-Wing in there instead of an X-wing if you want to, but Y-wings are very situational at the lower point level games (but can wreak a lot of havoc in the early stages of larger games, say 150pts or larger).
Definitely on the Christmas game list.
Watching you guys run through wings of war on here a while back got me into that game. So I’ll look forward to a report on this.
@mpoke Nice review sounds like good advice.
Looks a fun game. A friend of mine picked it up and I must nip round and have a playtest sometime.
@mpopke: Good idea about two starters. If this is as much fun as you give it credit that seems like a good way to go and expand from there.
Fun fact about the Death Star: According to the book with the same title, that small ventilation-opening was a design-flaw they found during the construction but didn’t change due to the higher costs and the trust in their defense. That thing was actually ment to be guarded by a fleet to prevent stuff like small fighters exploiting weak-points.
The game sounds interesting, I’ll have to give it a try. Two starters to get the basic models also came to my mind while watching the video, especially as you get one set of rules for each of the players.
This is a great game – a bunch of us have been playing this since it came in. I personally started with 1 starter box, Y-wing, X-Wing, Tie Fighter and Tie Fighter Advance expansions. I have the A-Wing, Slave One and Falcon on order. Others have started with 2 starters. I am seriously considering picking up a 2nd starter. The extra movement templates and dice are very handy. Starter boxes are $42/CDN for 3 ships vs $15/CDN or more per expansion.
The game mechanics are very simple and get you playing quickly. It travels easily, and can be played on any flat surface.
Highly recommend for any Star Wars fan.