Looks like an interesting game, check out this BOLS X-Wing Batrep. Honestly, I am on the fence between this and Dropzone Commander.. Full Post here.
Should I look into it?
Since no game is for every gamer, I thought I’d quickly hit on the pros and cons of X-Wing.Pros
- Games are fast, typically taking less than an hour for the standard, tournament-level, 100-point game. This is great for those of us who can’t afford to spend an entire evening at the local game store.
- They have some of the best pre-painted miniatures I have seen. While many scoff at the idea of pre-painted minis, not everyone has the time or inclination to paint miniatures.
- The game’s balance is pretty solid. I own at least two of every ship, and would certainly field a pair of any ship in a competitive build.
- The activation mechanics keep both players invested at all times. Having to wait ten or more minutes during a game of Warmachine or Warhammer 40,000 can get a bit boring.
Cons
- Fantasy Flight has been having distribution problems. Aside from Core Sets, the Millenium Falcon, and Slave-1, X-Wing is pretty much sold out at the distributor level. These problems aren’t unique to X-Wing, as they can be found with several of their other titles. While I’m not exactly hurting for models to play with, it is a little difficult to promote a game that people can’t really buy into.
- The selection of existing ships from the chosen era is growing smaller and smaller, and that is concerning for the overall longevity of the game. After the third quarter releases drop, there isn’t really much left from the Galactic Civil War to grab at. Sure, there are things like the TIE Defender, Z-95 Headhunter, XG-1 Starwing Assault Gunboat, and YT-2400, but these can only sustain new releases for so long unless they want to start using “uglies”, and nobody wants that.
- The Star Wars license is a fickle beast. As someone who really liked Wizard of the Coast’s Star Wars: Saga Edition, I was more than a little annoyed when that game was canned when Wizards of the Coast lost the license for Star Wars, resulting in the game going out-of-print overnight. Now that Disney owns Lucasfilm, they quickly shuttered LucasArts and struck a speedy agreement with Electronic Arts, so who knows if the license will be renewed when it expires?
A few weeks ago, I managed to capture my first, proper 100-point game on camera, which has been edited into a battle report. While we did make some rules mistakes, including using incorrect initiative rules, wrongly identifying the phase names, and some other minor things, we still felt that the game was interesting enough to share. Check it out!