X-wing Miniatures Game

[Nemarus]

Anyone else play this? I bought a bunch of ships just as a collector (if a TIE Interceptor or TIE Defender is produced in toy form, I MUST own it). I started looking through the rules today, and it looks like a pretty awesome game--and though turn based, a lot of the principles of good GSF play actually seem to transfer over to it. Probably because both GSF and the miniatures game were inspired heavily by the X-wing PC game.

 

I'm going to try and go play it sometime at my local game store. Any veterans have any tips?

[TrinityLyre]

I've always wanted to try it, I'll be interested to see if this gets any veteran replies!

[Emilhandsome]

Learn how to use the action economy to it's fullest potential, and how to prevent your opponent to use actions using stress, ions and blocking. Another helpful tip is whatever single maneuver you take you will always end up within your field of fire. This helps a lot when trying to predict where your enemies are going.

 

If you are into the interceptors I can recommend using Soontir Fel with PTL. Interceptors seems in my opinion to be the most fun to fly as imperials (I fly mostly rebels) and work well both as single flankers and as a full squad dealing out damage and dodging arcs with barrel roll.

 

On the game itself, every time I turn around Fantasy Flight seems to outdo itself on production quality and new fun features. They also do a good job rebalancing old ships that doesn't see much by adding new cards. Wave 4 of ships was released a few weeks ago (echo and corran horn are the shizzle) and rebel aces are coming out in a few more, so the game is in a really good place and getting better all the time:)

[Nemarus]

Learn how to use the action economy to it's fullest potential, and how to prevent your opponent to use actions using stress, ions and blocking. Another helpful tip is whatever single maneuver you take you will always end up within your field of fire. This helps a lot when trying to predict where your enemies are going.

 

If you are into the interceptors I can recommend using Soontir Fel with PTL. Interceptors seems in my opinion to be the most fun to fly as imperials (I fly mostly rebels) and work well both as single flankers and as a full squad dealing out damage and dodging arcs with barrel roll.

 

On the game itself, every time I turn around Fantasy Flight seems to outdo itself on production quality and new fun features. They also do a good job rebalancing old ships that doesn't see much by adding new cards. Wave 4 of ships was released a few weeks ago (echo and corran horn are the shizzle) and rebel aces are coming out in a few more, so the game is in a really good place and getting better all the time:)

 

I think my first game may be a furball format.

 

I was already thinking of bringing a TIE Interceptor from Aces (TIE Defenders are all too expensive) and trying to have highest Pilot Skill level, to make sure I always maneuver last. That way I can make up for my lack of playing experience by being able to decide my action after I know where everyone ends up. Then I can know whether I should Barrel Roll/Boost to get out of an arc or line up a shot, Evade if I'm stuck in an enemy arc, or Focus if I've got a good clean shot.

 

Oooh, I didn't realize Soontir got Boost on his own. I was thinking I'd have to use a modification for that.

 

That is very likely what I will use Thanks for the tips!

Edited July 14, 2014 by Nemarus

[Emilhandsome]

I think my first game may be a furball format.

 

I was already bringing thinking I'd bring a TIE Interceptor from Aces (TIE Defenders are all too expensive) and trying to have highest Pilot Skill level, to make sure I always maneuver last. That way I can make up for my lack of playing experience by being able to decide my action after I know where everyone ends up. Then I can know whether I should Barrel Roll/Boost to get out of an arc or line up a shot, Evade if I'm stuck in an enemy arc, or Focus if I've got a good clean shot.

 

Oooh, I didn't realize Soontir got Boost on his own. I was thinking I'd have to use a modification for that.

 

That is very likely what I will use Thanks for the tips!

 

Furball is great, especially for introducing the game to new players and getting them hooked. Having a single ship with just 1 or 2 special abilities let's you focus on learning the mechanics before you go into more advanced stuff like flying in formation.

 

Remember that having high pilot skill is a double edged sword when moving. While you get to choose what action to take after everyone else you also risk overlapping with early movers and loosing your action and ability to fire on that target.

[blade_mercurial]

Hey Nem,

 

That's cool you're interested in this game. FFG has done a top-notch job with this one. Unlike many other miniatures games, which suffer from faction imbalance and wonky/broken units, pretty much every card has an effective use and now that wave 4 is out, the different squad-building possibilities are increasing exponentially (so much more diversity than ever before). The only exception being the poor TIE advanced...there's high hopes that it will be 'fixed' in the foreseeable future though (that's still an extremely good track record compared to other mini games).

 

I know you're a smart guy, so you can probably pick things up quickly, but even so, I recommend doing the seemingly lame introductory battle recommended in the core rules (obsidian pilot + night beast vs. luke skywalker). It only takes like 30 minutes to play and it gives you a good sense of all the basic rules and you can easily see what advantages differences in pilot skill have.

 

I've been playing the game for about 2 years now and have quite a few ships on both sides. Soontir Fel is by far my favourite pilot: he rewards skillful play but man, zero room for error! Make one mistake and he's very likely to be toast. I've been running him with the obligatory push the limit ability plus a targeting computer (often a stealth device too, but that's optional). He's an absolute beast with his special ability combined with the targeting computer...

 

I can also recommend the FFG forums for finding out more about the game. The people there are pretty good natured and there's considerably less trolling and ignorance being tossed about there than, say, here for example

 

Fly Casual!

 

Sevaerian

[ShadowsNIte]

Recently watched as Wil Wheaton played it on his

(did I really spend 2 hours watching that?) Seems pretty fun, just gotta find a few more nerds to join in.

[Verain]

I can also recommend the FFG forums for finding out more about the game. The people there are pretty good natured and there's considerably less trolling and ignorance being tossed about there than, say, here for example

 

Don't tell him where your forums are unless you want Y-Wings nerfed or something, jeez!

[Verain]

I've always wanted to try it, I'll be interested to see if this gets any veteran replies!

 

My experience is that these games are just so frustrating to play. Normally they are EXCELLENT, but finding quality opponents is just so ludic hard.

 

And then you have this giant section of physical storage holding expensive and fragile items.

 

 

 

More power to you if it works, and esp if you have a gaming shop you go to. But I played Magic for years and it was always hard to actually get solid games, even when I lived with a gamer, dated a gamer, had other gamer friends, and went to the shop once a week to play for a few hours. Did I get the games? Yes. But it was expensive, time-wise, like many hobbies, and I spent more time wanting to play than playing.

 

 

 

There's also the money, which I guess should be brought up too- these cool games normally do involve some legit investment.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, looking into this game again, it looks even cooler than when I last checked it out. But I think I have to continue to pass on this one.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Verain

[blade_mercurial]

Don't tell him where your forums are unless you want Y-Wings nerfed or something, jeez!

 

One of the good things about this game is that there is very little grief over balancing, since it is so well designed. I'd go so far to say that the designers at Bioware could broaden their horizons a bit by checking it out and seeing what principles could be ported over

 

As for expense, compare it to a MMO. If you're a subscriber, you pay like what, near $100 per year or so (more if you want lots of extras). $100 gets you the starter set (includes 3 ships) plus 2 big ships OR 4 small ships (or 1 big & 2 small ships). That's not bad. More than enough to play 100 pt games -the standard- for a while (possibly a year depending on your tastes). After 2 years (like me) you spend $200 or $300 on it and you don't really need to collect much more. Additional expenditures will be small (just whatever suits your fancy or you feel you want more of). That's pretty close on par with what you spend to play a MMO for the first two years, and considerably less in subsequent years.

 

Another thing is quality vs. cost: the miniatures you get are quite detailed and good quality, especially for their price point (compare to Wizkids' attack wing, a similar game with substantially worse quality but same cost; or Games Workshop's citadel miniatures, which are of equitable quality, cheaper-per-model but more expensive-per-box/expansion and have the drawback of coming unpainted and unassembled).

 

Finding games/community obviously depends on where you live, but considering its 1 of the most popular miniatures game out there (if not the most....different areas this will vary of course), there's plenty of people and gaming stores supporting it all over north america, and FFG is pretty good with its customer service and community support (compared to similar game companies).

 

I'm not saying its for everyone though - but its definitely one of the best miniatures games out there and if anyone were considering getting into a minis game, this one is certainly not a bad choice.

[SammyGStatus]

What the .... What is this awesomeness (beyond ANOTHER money sinkhole)

[Mathemagica]

I'll just leave

here.

 

And I'm with Verain on this one. It is an awesome game, but it's incredibly frustrating to invest money in it and then being unable to play because of lack of partners.

So I'd advise anyone against investing into it unless you have at least one reliable partner to play with (in that case, go for it).