X-Wing: Why in the World Aren’t You Playing This Game???
I know you guys. You’re the guys who think you know what X-Wing Miniatures is all about. But you’re in for a big surprise!
You post on forums about there not being any “depth” to the game. About the pre-paints. About the short game length. About how it’s really a boardgame, not a miniatures game. About how every Star Wars game since, well, forever, has ultimately ended up sucking.
I see your sideways glances when I walk in and take up space on one of your gaming tables. As I pull out my homemade starfield felt mat I hear the whispers, the mutterings, the snickers. And by snickers I mean derisive chuckles, the holier-than-thou snorts, the dismissive sneers, not the candy bars. Although I see those too sometimes- the candy bars I mean. Depends on if the store sells snacks usually. I don’t generally pack a Snickers in my backpack when I head to my FLGS.
Wait, where was I? Oh yeah. I know you guys. You think you’ve got it all figured out.
You couldn’t be more wrong. It’s all good though, I’m going to take a couple of minutes and clear up a few of the misconceptions you might have! Lucky you, right?
Truth is, you’re missing out on a miniatures game that actually rewards skill and experience more than who can put the netlist from the newest codex on their table first and/ or roll the most dice. You’re missing out on a game that caught a ton of people off-guard with its surprising tactical depth and pretty doggone even balance between factions and ships for the points, despite the asymmetrical nature of the ship stats on either side of the faction fence. A game where no ultimate netlist exists, and a good player with a “bad” list is going to beat the bad player with a “good” list every time. A game where you don’t feel like the dice completely control your game’s outcome regardless of your decisions.
You know- the game you’re always pining away for in the BoLS lounge that you think doesn’t exist.
Of course, the bad news is the secret’s out. The demand for X-Wing Miniatures is high and it’s fairly difficult to get your hands on anything but the Core Set, Millennium Falcon, and Firespray-31 now. Sure, reprints are coming soon- you’ll get your chance again, but don’t blow it this time, because you’re already in the back of a pretty long line.
What’s all the fuss about anyway? Why are guys like me obsessing over this game?
First, even though as miniatures gamers we have been taught to regard pre-assembled pre-paints with hate, scorn, and fire, well, they’re actually pretty nice looking. Sure, the wash is a little heavy in some places on some of the ships, but as someone who played against unpainted 40k armies the majority of the time since I took up a bolter in 2004, I’ll take heavy wash over unpainted grey plastic any day. They’re pretty detailed little buggers too. Kind of surprisingly so if you remember any of those other Star Wars miniature type games that came before.
Secondly, you don’t have to take out a second mortgage on your house to play this game. I’m also one of those rubes that tries to buy something from his FLGS to thank them for providing a place for me to play that isn’t my garage or dining room table. My own collection runs a little heavier than what’s probably average, but for $100 you can easily get yourself a copy of the Core Set, which includes not only the rulebook, necessary cards, tokens, and other whatnots that FFG is famous for, and three or four “Expansion” sets (read: extra ships, also complete with cards, tokens, and whatnots)- enough stuff to build a Tournament-legal list to be sure. Can you spend more? Of course- it’s a miniatures game after all, but for the cost of what I spent on my Necron army (not including the 6th ed rulebook, by the way), I own two to four copies of every ship in X-Wing except for the two big ships (the Falcon and Slave I). I can generate just about any of the popular lists making the rounds on the Tournament Circuit with my collection and have plenty of options for either the Rebels or the Empire.
Third, the rules are simple and pretty elegant, but a couple of interesting mechanics really change up how the game plays compared to other miniatures games. Is there some ambiguity? Yeah, I’m not gonna lie. There is some here and there, but to date- I’ve only ever run into it in the theoretical realm. Not to say it can’t happen, but it certainly isn’t part of anything in the core mechanic.
The Pilot Skill mechanic allows the lower ranked pilots to perform their maneuvers and subsequently, select their Actions before their higher-skilled brethren, but those higher-skill guys from the movies like Wedge Antilles or Vader himself get to fire before the scrubs when the Combat Phase rolls around. As you’d expect, if Wedge one-shots Academy TIE, Academy TIE is dead before he ever fires. Having to think forward and reverse with your movement and shooting really takes some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, you see how much it adds to the game.
The movement mechanic itself is fairly interesting too. You might have heard that all the ships share a bunch of cardboard templates from the Core Set. That’s correct, to a certain extent. The game does a good job of representing the more maneuverable (TIEs, A-Wings, Interceptors) from the less maneuverable (Y-Wings) with the available moves pictured on each ship’s maneuver dial. Not only do the more maneuverable ships have an extra move or two up their sleeve, they’re less likely to incur Stress with their moves which takes away your Action for the turn should you choose to execute a Stressful maneuver.
Past that, it’s icing on the proverbial cake. Named pilots have special abilities that give them an edge over the commoners (and actually kind of like- reflect the movies and stuff), but as you’d expect, cost more in points as well. All of the ships are upgradeable to some degree with Modifications, but you can also stick R2 and R5 droids in your X-Wings and Y-Wings, load up missiles into your TIE Advanced or A-Wings, add crew members to your YT-1300 or Firespray-31, and stock Proton Torpedoes in a X-Wings and a double-load in your Y-Wings which can also sport an Ion Cannon Turret should you choose to pay the points.
Maybe more than anything though, it’s finally a Star Wars game that doesn’t suck.
So once you’re done assuming, maybe when you’re taking a little siesta because your buddy is having to look up some unintuitive rule in your Nth edition 400 page rule/ hobby/ fluff book, wander over to our X-Wing game and have a look around. Chances are, you’ll probably stick around awhile.
If you want to get into X-Wing Miniatures but don’t know your Evades from your Target Locks, by all means, stop on by the hippest pilot bar in the galaxy- TheMetalBikini.com. We serve all kinds (yeah, even droids- they’re the best tippers), and have a whole bunch of articles from breakdown summaries of every single card released so far, to tactics articles, to our Bikini Battle Basics new player guides- all served up with a heapin’ helpin’ of my own personal brand of slang and humor. Can you dig it?
