So, a busy week caught up with me today. I'll take this rather later opportunity to talk a bit about the other Star Wars game that Fantasy Flight released at GenCon - X-Wing Miniatures.
Starter SetX-Wing has been on the radar, as it were, for a year. A demo was available at GenCon 2011, but this year, it was up for sale. The starter box set and four expansion packs are now available. This is one of those games where picking up an extra starter set is beneficial to play larger games with more ships. Doing the math, it's also the cheapest way to buy extra X-Wings and TIE Fighters. Plus it doesn't hurt to have extra turn/distance templates with more people at the table. Oh, and they look incredible. These are the most detailed plastic minis for a game we have ever seen.
Expansion PacksThe expansion packs include the X-Wing, TIE Fighter, TIE Advanced (Vader's TIE fighter) and Y-Wing. While you only get one ship model per pack, extra pilot and upgrade cards are the real expansions to the game. Each pack has its own pilots, as well as all of the markers, dials and other rules you need for the individual ships. Named pilots like Wedge and Darth Vader show up in the expansion packs. These packs really do impact game play, in the form of more options and variations.
The game play is similar to last year's demo, and similar to FFG's Wings of War WWII airplane dogfighting game. There are squad building rules, so that each side may select a combination of ships, pilots and ship upgrades (secondary weapons, droids, etc.). The rulebook has some sample scenarios, and FFG has posted sample squadrons on their website.
The future expansion pack prototype models were on display at GenCon and Star Wars Celebration. The detail is unbelievable. Two of the ships are large - the Millennium Falcon and Slave I. The other two are the fastest fighters around - the A-Wing and TIE Interceptor. All four will certainly change the game.
Most of all, it is a fun game. The tactical dogfighting produces unexpected situations, with unpredictable turns and twists of fate.
Prototype Millennium Falcon expansion pack model
A few other notes:
Star Wars Edge of the Empire RPG Beta Update Week 2 is available. Several Force related changes this time.
Christopher West has been announced as the cartographer for Monte Cook's runaway kickstarter sci-fi fantasy hit, Numenera.
Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures and Edge of the Empire RPG lead desinger Jay Little has started a kickstarter of his own. It's a time travel RPG called The Coriolis Defect. If successful, I'll be one of the contributing writers to the project. Rob Wieland, Star Wars Saga Edition freelancer, is also on the project.
Looks like I chose a good week for this topic. FFG released more info about the new expansion sets. You can find them here.