What is one of the best things a Star Wars geek could do on a Saturday afternoon, when the sun is shining high and the air is filled with the smell of spring flowers? Exactly:
Sit in a small, dark living room, curtains closed, testing a Star Wars table top game.
That’s what my friends and I did a while ago.
We chose to spend a few hours playing the “Star Wars: X-Wing, Miniatures Game“.
Preparations
Basically the game is about a space battle between the Rebels vs the Empire. After choosing your side, you get your ships together, represented by minature models, and equip them with weapons, crew members like Chewie or R2-D2 and pilots, like Han Solo, Darth Vader and many more.
You can increase the number of available ships by buying additional miniatures. The core game includes one X-Wing and two TIE-Fighters.
Our teams consisted of one Firespray-31 (pilot: Boba Fett), one TIE-Advanced (pilot: Darth Vader) and two TIE-Fighters (pilots: Dark Curse, Mauler Mithel) on Empire side.
The line-up of the Rebels was two X-Wings (pilots: Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles) and one YT-1300 (pilot: Han Solo).
Photo: Thomas Ritzinger
Battle on!
Playing the game was a lot of fun. We (Empire side) tried to take down Han and Chewie in his YT-1300, turning against them with all our resources. After they transformed Vader and Mithel to space dust, we finally managed to blow them up (thanks Boba!), which was really, really hard. The Milennium Falcon was a tough one, but finally it became what it always was: a piece of space junk.
Unfortunately we were confronted with the hard truth, that not everyone is a good pilot. So we kissed some asteroids and got stuck, which gave the Rebels the opportunity to get rid of Boba.
Our last TIE-Fighter tried his best, but we all know, that the Empire’s policy is not based on endurance, but more on quantity. So the lone fighter couldn’t turn the tables.
When our last TIE blew up, I was wondering, why people like Thrawn mooch around at the other end of the galaxy, when their tactical minds are needed the most. The Rebels won, but only the battle, not the war.
We will have revenge!
Miniatures
The models of the miniatures are really great. Be it the YT-1300 with movable parts or the Firespray-31 with it’s unique design.
They have been created with a lot of effort, the coloring is really nice and I would even place them on my shelf or next to the screen of my PC to just look at them. You get the feeling of actually having a small fighter on your desk and not just a piece of plastic.
Photo: Thomas Ritzinger
Conclusion
Personally I am not a big fan of tabletop games, because I usually feel overstrained by the rules on the one hand and too limited by them on the other hand. But getting into the “Star Wars: X-Wing, Miniatures Game” was easy and didn’t need a lot of exhausting preparations.
However, we soon found out, that players, who prefer games with high complexity, will also have their needs satisfied. The constellation of weapons and crew members, the flying tactics and the line-up of the pilots offer enough options for making a challenging game out of it. Not to mention the possibility of getting more miniatures for bigger fleets, which would also increase the overall complexity and tactical potential of the game.
In other words: going outside on sunny afternoons is totally overrated, especially if you can have a good game instead.
Tom is an Austrian actor and director, working in theaters since 2001. He studied acting in Salzburg and currently lives in Germany. He loves being creative, putting the crazy thoughts in his head out into the world and dreaming of being a Star Wars character. In addition he is also studying Media-Management, but only if his thoughts don´t drift to galaxies far, far away.
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