Wave 2 brings the A Wing Fighter, TIE Interceptor, Slave I and Millennium Falcon to gaming tables around the world. Today we will be looking at what could arguably be the most anticipated of the new ships, Han Solo's ride, the Millennium Falcon.
First, a little history on the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.
The filming history of the Millennium Falcon is a fascinating subject. Originally Han Solo's iconic ship, as designed, looked nothing like the ship we know and love today. In fact, the Rebel Blockade Runner was supposed to be Falcon.
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| Falcon? |
Legend has it the film makers felt that the original design of the Falcon was a little too derivative of the Eagle from Space: 1999 and a redesign was prompted. The Falcon was re-purposed with modifications, into the Blockade Runner everyone is so familiar with today.
Another LucasFilm story tells that the final design came during a meal when a hamburger provided the inspiration that became the Falcon we all know and love today.
The First wave of FFG's Star Wars: X wing game gave us all the major players from Star Wars IV: A New Hope except for the Millennium Falcon.With ave 2 players can finally fully re-create the famous attack on the Death Star.
Wave 2 also gives us the ESB Slave I and the ROTJ introduced TIE Interceptors and A Wings. (Which we will look at in a separate Post)
So what do you get?
In the box you get the Falcon itself and a large flight base. Also included are all the tokens and cards needed to use the Falcon in the game.
The Millennium Falcon
I haven't personally invested much in the pre-painted gaming hobby. I prefer painting miniatures myself and am often dismayed by the poor quality of the paint job. The X Wing game series provided very high quality pre-painted miniatures and the Falcon sets the bar even higher.
Other Stuff in the box:
The Falcon comes with a large flight base, 4 pilots and a selection of upgrade cards.
Pilots include...
Han Solo - Gives possilbe re-roll on shooting
Lando Calrissian - Give free action to nearby ships
Chewbacca - Ignore Critical hits
Generic YT-13000
You also get a selection of crew. You can add the gunner version of Luke for example to man the guns.
Also included are new equipment cards, upgrade cards and Falcon specific upgrade cards. The upgrade cards are particularly interesting as many of them can be used on other ships. For a point cost you can bump any ships shields by for example. this allows you to customize the heck out of the Falcon but also customize other ships in your collection.
The other stand out piece of kit in the Assault missile. If TIE swarms have been plaguing you or Swarm tactics TIEs have been getting you down this handy missile hits with 4 dice and if it hits scores a single point of damage on every ship within Range 1 of the target! While this missile is expensive (at 5 points) it's mere existence means that TIE swarms jsut became a little less viable.
In Game
The inclusion of the Falcon in game changes the dynamic quite a bit. the Large footprint of the Falcon (and the Slave 1) means that you must be careful to avoid collisions. The Falcon's stand becomes a weapon that can block off critical maneuver area for your opponents.
Against Imperials you need to identify the greatest threats to the Falcon and deal with them first. TIE Interceptors (With their 3 Attack dice) and TIE Advanced with Cluster Missiles should always be at the top of your kill list. The plain TIE Fighters ith their 2 AD can wait.
Conclusions
The cost of the box set is $30.00 US and at first seems rather steep for a single pre-painted model. (especially considering the box set with an X Wing and 2 TIE Fighters costs $40.00)
But considering the quality of the model itself and all the additional content in the form of cards and tokens the cost makes more sense.
5 out of 5 Proton Torpedoes!
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