Never tell me the odds!

I’ve spoken before about X-Wing miniatures game.  It’s a cracker.  Fantasy Flight have really nailed it with this.  It’s Skylanders for grown ups.

When I say they’ve nailed it they’ve gotten everything right.

• Gorgeous pre painted scale models of the ships – CHECK!
• Great game play – CHECK!
• Captures the feel of Star Wars – CHECK!
• it doesn’t stray near episodes 1-3 – CHECK!
• It’s relatively  inexpensive – CHECK!

The more I play this game the more I like it and to be honest I had better, I’m pot committed on it having been swayed by the beauty of the models.  Between myself and my x-wing buddy (there are no buddies in gaming) we’ve amassed a good collection of models and last Friday night was a chance to get in a few games.

I’d picked up a few new models from the second and third waves over the last few months and they’d sat gathering dust on my gaming shelf.  Time to crack them open!

Coming to the party were the B-Wing and the New Imperial Phantom.    I’d played a few small games of it at Brocon and had a thirst for more.  The games at Brocon were straight out of the starter kit, One X-Wing versus Two Tie Fighters.

If X-wing were a Massive Multiplayer Game then the B-Wing would be a Tanker.  A slow slugger than can take one for the team.  It’s dog slow and gets stressed very easily.  You can equip it with a range of missiles and it can really pack a punch.

Now the phantom is a fighter in MMO parlance. It’s nimble. It can deal out a paddling like it was making butter but it can’t take too much abuse. It’s also got a natty cloaking device which is new and despite what you might have in your head about how that should work from watching too much Star Trek it’s more a big move boost than a cloak in the traditional sense

Now I’m no expert on x-wing so were still at the learning as we go stage as far as what’s a good squad build.  In gaming I find this the sweet spot, where the game is new enough that you’re not sick of it or stuck in a rutt but you know the rules well enough that you don’t make basic mistakes.

For the first few games I took a tie fighter (backstabber)(who’d have thought) and the phantom whilst my opponent took a B wing and an A wing

Just like him I love the A wing. I’ve never seen it do anything outside of running around excitedly like a my little pony but it does look real purdy.  I’ve two of them now so they can run together all giggly and no doubt fall down a bit.

The combo of tie and phantom was fantastic. In retrospect my higher pilot value for both ships was what did it.  The four attack dice on the phantom coupled with a high pilot value was devastating. In the three games we played I was able to deploy last then zoom in with both and take out the A wing then dance around the B wing like it was a fat mall cop

In fairness I was fantastically lucky with dice rolling. At one stage I rolled a crit on my first shot at the A wing and scored two hits directly on the hull taking it out effectively with one dice

The same went for evades. I was having a great few games up until the last where cockiness showed me what a B wing can do up close and personal

After that it was a few A wing v Tie fighter battles. All good

X-Wing is impressing the hell of me.  It’s been a slow grow since I haven’t gotten to play it that much.  It is essentially a two player game and that doesn’t fit well on thur nights.

My next port of call with this adventure will be X-Wing on VASSAL

If you haven’t looked at VASSAL you need to have a google.  I’ll be doing a full report on it soon

For now Huzzah and happy gaming

Vic