cut the chatter, red 2. accelerate to attack speed.

at gencon this summer i saw fantasy flight games running demos of their new miniatures game x-wing.  

initially, i was a bit non-plussed about the game. it seemed simplistic, basic even, and i have enough going on with 40k, flames of war, and warmachine. i really didn't see myself playing it at all. 

a few weeks later, i was presented with the opportunity to pick up the basic box and a y-wing for pretty cheap, and as usual, i was unable to prevent my gaming from flaring up, so i bought them.

opening the box, i found the quality of the product to be pretty amazing. ffg has gone above and beyond to create scale versions of the fighters we know and love, and the game itself is fast, fun, and full of the same cinematic action we saw the first time we watched the battle of yavin. 

yep. that's a seinar fleet systems tie advanced, and you can have a squadron with darth vader. he's awesome.

each turn you plan the maneuvers of your ships, execute those maneuvers (and take a pilot action if able), then try to shoot down your opponents if they are in range and in your field of fire. your pilot skill affects how movement and shooting is resolved. movement is resolved from lowest pilot skill to highest, and shooting is resolved from highest pilot skill to lowest. the actions you take after moving can provide you with a potential boost to accuracy if you're feeling aggressive on the guns, or an extra bit of maneuverability if you've got a bogie on your six.

the game scales nicely, with the suggested size of games being 100 points which means about four to five ships per side. it also plays well for teams (each player controls a 50 point flight) and the basic set includes a some card asteroids to add some terrain to the table (and terrain does make a difference!)

the btl-a4 y-wing starfighter is a freakin' tank in game. 

the current expansions (x-wing, y-wing, tie fighter, and tie advanced) are all available for about $15 a pop, so it's pretty affordable for a miniature wargame, and there's a lot of current interest in the game; boardgamegeek has had it on "the hotness" list for a while and folks are doing great stuff with the game itself, like creating an online squadron builder.

personally, i think ffg, despite my inital hesitation, has done a great job with x-wing, and i can't wait to see the future releases beyond the a-wing, tie interceptor, millennium falcon, and slave 1.

all images in this post are property of fantasy flight games, used without permission.