Twiligh Thur – Being a Drax Report

Do you suffer from Roids? A surprising amount of Pilots, both Imperial and Rebel Scum do.  I was certainly suffering badly from them last Thur when I drove not one but two of my Tie Fighters through a few choice asteroids all clearly labelled as such.  The real enemy Star Wars X-Wing miniatures (just like life) are not the other players it’s often yourself…. /Allows time for reader to nod sagely

I’m pot committed with x-wing.  Myself and a gaming buddy (please note: buddy is a misnomer, there are no gaming Buddies as such, just opponents or people if you play it right, whom help you until it’s high time to stiletto them.  Just before they we’re planning on vaping you.  It’s the nature of things) but in the loosest sense of the word a gaming buddy (see earlier) and I have a fine collection of x-wing models which since it’s a mare to separate we’re married in a humanist ceremony some time back and are often seen out together having fun.  It was high time to crack open the boxes they reside in and breath some life into them with the appropriate rules and phew phews.

X-wing is not a million miles (or a long long time ago) from Wings of Glory a WWI Flying Ace combat game .  It’s a relatively new game from Fantasy Flight and as you would expect it has high production values and it’s not half bad.  Ok let’s be honest the game has EXPLODED.  It has very keen models which very importantly come pre-painted.  You can jump right into it with just the started box (which comes with an x-wing and two Tie fighters) and it’s gloriously collectable.

There are over a dozen ships that can be bought to add to the basic game,  A-Wings, B-Wings, Tie Advanced, to name but a few, and thankfully all from the original series.  Fantasy Flight have done a sterling job (at least for them) in drip releasing new ships every so often and some of them (A-Wings for example) sell like hotcakes.  Some of the bigger and seriously expensive ships are due to hove into sight soon which will really put the transports amongst the pigeons

A couple of things I like about X-wing.  It’s Star Wars.  The greatest trilogy of all (yes it is)(don’t argue) time, it’s the original trilogy, the models are really really nice. Everything you need to play a decent game comes in the original box.  Also it’s Star Wars.

There’s a fantastic feel to the whole thing, It’s pretty easy to play, the games are fast (depending on size), there’s a lot of variety and it’s edge of your seat stuff start to finish.

If I had to fault the game I’d say it’s a PIG to store.  The models although gorgeous are awkward and like a lot of tabletop stuff easily broken, although, touch plastic, none have for me so far.  (Hi faith, Victor here). You can spend a bit of money and get a decent storage system but it can be pricey.  A few cheaper options are presenting themselves and a bit of imagination can help with your storage woes. Dragging out a lot of models and setting them up for a big battle can be a chore but no more than any other tabletop game and it’s your own fault if you set-up a huge battle.

The game can be played as either a points versus battle or as a scenario based game.  Either is good although my understanding is in a points battle some combos are killer and some are weak beer.  That said Fantasy Flight and the greater gaming community recognise this as an excellent game and adjust it accordingly with new releases.

I like this game, I had better really since I’m a few models in and want more, because I do and that’s reason enough.

The game on Thur was a 50 points 2v2 which is really a 1v1 with two people on either side if that makes sense.  We split into two groups each of which had semi-experienced players and me and another player.

My team took Imperials while my erstwhile buddy took rebel scum.

We had Five Tie fighters (one of which was Vader flying the Tie Advanced) and we squared up against two X-Wings, an A-Wing and a Y-Wing in a straight out fire fight in an asteroid field.  (Be careful with them there asteroids, there’s a reason Tie Fighter pilots tend to avoid them)

Our Tie fighters were a mix of academy pilots and veterans and it was straight in zero kissing first turn, plenty of phew phew and initially anyway a nice mix of hits on the rebel shields.  The Rebel Y-wing a real workhorse took a sustained hammering from the swarm of ties expertly directed by Vader, who indeed “has you now”.  Return fire was minimal and all things were looking good

The next turns became a bit of a scrum with ships knocking up against each other and worse still against some asteroids and a hard fight en-sewed with very little finesse, just lots of guns and hope.  There was NO flying casual.

Whittle by whittle (see what I did there?) both fleets started to be whittled down until it was just Vader and his youngfella Luke Skywalker and his shit of a droid R2-D2 (who btw knew all long who his Da really was but never mentioned it once.  not once).  Finally Vader vanquished skywalker and after a short robotic cry it was all over.

Not bad.  We need to play this more.  That said we need to play lots of games more and we will

Joined by another gamer we jumped into the very long titled

DC Comics Deck-Building Game

This game is very similar to Dominion, a game I liked initially and now doesn’t beep my jeep at all.  It has some nice pics of superheroes but that doesn’t save it from being an OK game.  My problem with this and Dominion (and a few others) is it’s primarily a solo game, there isn’t a whole lot of interaction with the other players, there’s a bit, but it doesn’t have the whole  “HA! Take take” style of play.  It’s more about getting the best deck together you can before anyone else and it just doesn’t work for me.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with the game, The card quality and art work is very good, the game is fairly fast it’s just…. it’s Dominion clone and not a very good one either.  Each game is the same, you don’t even get to vary the cards  like Dominion.  I’m sure there’s a stack of expansions in production but I just can’t be bothered with it.  It’s a dull game.  I’ll play it but I refuse to be excited.

Funny enough I played Aquaman whom is not as bad as all that.

So in summary X-wing good, DC Comics Deck building game bad if you’re not a dominion fan.

Expect a few more mini reviews of X-wing.  It’s just too good not to play again and again

More of that soon

Huzzah!

Vic