Stabilize your rear deflectors... Watch for enemy fighters.

I succumbed to temptation [again!] and bought the new Fantasy Flight Games X Wing set.  I've been a long time fan of Wings of War and on the face of it this appears very similar.

The game is relatively pricey although the components are nice and give you a basic starting force of 2 TIE fighters and 1 X wing and offer the tempting promise of being able to blast Luke Skywalker out of the sky.  With additional ships available and the promise of forthcoming releases including the Millenium Falcon the game seemed worth a punt.  Amazon is definitely your friend here as it can be several pounds cheaper online.  I gather people [...by which I mean people with more money than sense!] are also buying several starter sets as this is a more cost effective way to build up a larger force of core ships and components.

Having finally gotten round to playing it, it seems it's not really that much like WoW after all.  The game uses a rather chunky dial to plan moves and has some cardboard  templates rather than the little WoW cards that inevitably slip around the table and lead to swearing and arguments.  There is a simple but effective mechanism for handling the effects of complex manoeuvres [causing 'stress' which does generate an image of TIE pilots having some aromatherapy while tracking down Rebel Scum].  Ships are neatly distinguished by having different manoeuvre capabilities and individual pilots bring unique abilities... and of course there's always the simple pleasure of trying to shoot the R2 unit!  Like a number of other games at the moment [SAGA, Bolt Action etc] it uses some game specific dice which come with the starter set but can of course be bought separately.




Luke's X wing is neatly caught in the crossfire of 2 TIE fighters... of course he survives!!!

 

We played an introductory game involving the forces of law and order trying to crush the pesky rebel ship piloted by Mr Skywalker himself.  Andrew took the role of LS and Chris and I were plucky Imperial pilots.  Despite some frankly brilliant flying on the part of the Empire, Luke was able to weather the attack and eventually destroyed both TIE fighters.  All of us felt it was a nicely simple but effective system which gives a good flavour of the films and is ideal for a club night.  We didn't add anything more complex such as asteroids but will do next time.

Highly recommended!!