All Miniatures Great and Small: X Wing FFG Game Review

I've been following the development of this game for well over a year and have waited with baited breath for it's release.

The iconic X-wing is easily one of my favorite spaceships ever. I've got X wing toys, models and Lego around my house. I'm a vet of the excellent Lucas Arts X-Wing games, a WEG's Star Warriors. So any game with an X Wing in it will instantly peak my interest.

I've been disappointed in the past with the Collectible Star Wars Ship battle games ( I hate the Hidden booster pack method of gaming)

FFG promised that X Wing would be true to the flavor of the Star Wars Universe and, all most more important to me, slavishly true to the ships themselves.

So how did FFG do? Read on and find out!

Unboxing:

FFG Games are always a treat to open. The quality of the box is excellent. The packaging is also excellent, with zip lock bags for the majority of the components in the box.

X Wing comes with 2 TIE Fighters and 1 iconic X Wing. Also included are all the dials and cards need for those ships. You also get several sheets of punch-out counters and maneuver templates. All are thick card that seems very sturdy.

I've got to commend FFG specifically for the packaging of the ships themselves. They have custom shaped plastic tray with lid that lets you store the ships in the box without fear of breaking them.

The Models:

The promised quality of the models is a big selling point for me and I've got to say I was not disappointed. The models are small but packed with detail.

The X Wing: I love this model. Great detail and the laser guns look great!. As far as I can tell the proportions are all correct. These ships are pre-painted and the quality is good, good enough that I won't be completely repainting them.

The TIEs look great as well. They are painted in a light gray that is screen accurate for EP4:ANH. By the time ESB and RotJ happen Imperial TIEs are all seen with a darker bluish paint scheme. Detail is good and one of my TIEs have even survived being snatched of the table by my 16 month old. Who needs a Exogorth when you've got baby around?

One thing that I can not applaud enough is the fact that these models are scaled to each other at 1/270 scale. a consistent scale for these ships is very appealing to me.

I'll review the expansion ships at a later date.

The Rules:

The game comes with a colorful and useful Rule book. It's on the thin side but I consider that a good thing. The Rules are laid out well and it was easy to flip through and find answers to questions as they popped up during game play.

As I read through the rules, explaining things to my son, my wife found herself thinking that the game sounded fun. Coming from my wife that is high praise indeed.

Gameplay:

The basic gameplay is pretty simple. Every ship has a maneuver dial, players all pick and reveal their maneuvers simultaneously. Staring with the worst pilots ships are moved, then, once everyone has moved starting with the best pilot, combat is resolved. So a super skilled pilot like Darth Vader will be moving last and shooting first. A large advantage to the game.

Token play an important roll in the game and make remembering special rules much easier. At any one time there might be Tokens placed next to fighters to denote Evading (Letting you dodge a HIT). Focus (Conferring an advantage on offense or Defense), Target Lock. (Improve your Hit Chance, needed for torpedoes). Having the Tokens as a visual reminder makes the game play simple and easy to follow.

Another interesting idea are the maneuver Templates. When a ship moves you pick up the maneuver template that matches the selection on the maneuver dial.

Each ship base has little pegs that slot the maneuver template into the base. Players then move their ship along the track. Very simple and intuitive.

Also adding to the game is that each ship has a different set of maneuvers, for example TIE fighters can turn more sharply then the X Wing.

Pilots, Customization and Squad building:

If the game was just generic TIE Fighters and X Wings fighting it out the game would get old pretty quickly. However X Wing gets around this by including Pilots, Customization and Squad Building.

Squad Building allows each player to build a points-based custom force and take it into battle. 31 points is recommended with the contents of a single Box Set. While 100 point forces are recommended in the Rule book and has already been used in the inaugural X Wing Tournament this year.

Pilots run the range from veteran to rookie. . So you might take Luke Skywalker if you want a Veteran Pilot or you might take a Red Squadron Pilot if you are trying to save points. Each Pilot has a different skill/points level and many of the experienced pilots have a special bonus as well (For example Luke excels at dodging attacks)

You can also customize your ships via the upgrade bar. Each ship allows you certain upgrade slots. For example, X Wings can take an R2 Upgrade card and a Torpedo upgrade card. Each upgrade confers a bonus to the ship and costs a certain amount of points.

With all this variation you can design a horde squadron of Cheap pilots or take a few Elite pilots with ships decked out with extra equipment.

The Expansion packs include new pilots and new upgrade cards meaning that even your initial X Wings and TIE Fighters can benefit from upgrades in the expansions.

Conclusion:

X Wing is not an overly complex game but it doesn't need to be. In trying to capture the high speed dog fighting seen in the Star Wars movies you would not want a game bogged down in too many rules.
FFG got a lot right with the game. X Wings feel like what you think an X Wing should and matches the expectations from film and other games. TIE seem nimble and fragile as they should.

A lot of the depth and quite a lot of the fun comes even before a game starts. Building your force, choosing the right Ships, Pilots and equipment is a huge part of this game. Force construction is pretty simple and straightforward but offers a lot more depth to the game.

What impressed me most about the game was.

Presentation: you can tell this was a well thought out game.
Quality: From the box to the cardboard components to the ships themselves the high quality is evident.
Game play: simple and fun... I won't be hurting my brain trying to play it like some other games

Things that could be better?

Not a lot. Most of my issues are nitpicks as a Starwars and more specifically an X Wing fan.

Proton Torpedoes: Fully understanding I only have 4 games under my belt we found that for the cost (4 Points) the 1 shot Proton Torpedoes don't seem to be that useful.

This is just a nitpick but I don't like the fact that the TIE Fighter and X Wing have the same Hull value (3). I would have preferred to see some separation there. In the X-Wing PC Games and the old Star Warriors West End game the W Wing's hull was more robust then the easily explodable TIEs. I think the case could be made that X Wings should be 4 Hull points. (Probably the TIE Advanced as well)

Overall I recommend this game for any Star Wars fans or any gamer that likes pushing spaceships around a board. The Game is so accessible that it could serve as a great introduction to the miniature gaming hobby.

Below is a few pictures of the game in action.

Wedge and Biggs on Patrol...