Star Wars X-Wing - Wave X Additions

Fantasy Flight Games just announced that they'd be adding two new ships to the tenth Wave of Star Wars X-Wing releases.  These two ships are based on the upcoming Rogue One movie.  In a shockingly original naming convention, the Rebel ship is called a U-Wing.  I'm assuming that the Rebellion can only field 26 different types of ships.  We have A-Wings, B-Wings, E-Wings, K-Wings, X-Wings, etc.  I supposed we could have accents.  Maybe an Ä-Wing is better engineered than an A-Wing?  It would be nice to have more variety.  The Imperial ship is yet another TIE variant.  This one is called the Striker.

The U-Wing looks pretty cool.  It has these giant swept back wings that actually sweep forward also and form the U shape the ship is named for.  I'm really hoping that the model has the ability for the wings to move.  X-Wing ships are usually pretty static, but the Lamba-class has moving wing, so it's possible.

I was a little surprised to see that the ship is mounted on a large ship base.  It looks like a star fighter.  It looks like it could easily fit on a smaller base.  Then again, it has better than average stats for a fighter.  It has 4 hull points as well as 4 shields.  The single agility won't keep this around forever though.

The ship does have two crew slots, presumably to accommodate the two new crew cards included in the set.

I think Jyn Erso is the main character for Rogue One.  At least, that's what the trailer makes us think.  Cassian is the dude standing in the background of most of the scenes Jyn is is, so he's probably the side kick.  Jyn can load ships up with focus tokens while Cassian is going to be great if you're good at guessing what your opponent is going to do.  Honestly, if Cassian was on the field, I'd probably pick my second best move every time to make his guessing game harder.

The Imperial ship is the Tie Striker.  Billed as a predominantly atmosphere based fighter, the Striker has a silhouette that makes you think it might understand the concept of aerodynamic, while still remaining firmly in the TIE family.

The TIE Striker has 4 hull points and no shields, making it somewhat durable...  for a TIE.  This ship has a Striker only Title available called Adaptive Ailerons.  If you take this Title, you are able to perform what is essentially a boost action immediately before revealing your maneuver dial.  At least two of the pilot cards have a skill of 6 or better, allowing an Elite upgrade.  I'm thinking this ship would be insane in terms of maneuverability with Push The Limit and Engine Upgrade.

Think about it.  The pilot skill 8 card...  a unique pilot named "Duchess"...  can boost, maneuver, and then barrel roll and boost again, in either order.  Of course, the Adaptive Ailerons title only works if you're not stressed, so you wouldn't be able to do this every turn.  I'm sure there are better combinations, but I can't think of another ship that could literally cover have the board in one movement phase.  You can see below an example of this ship arc dodging its way out of the X-Wing's path and into a perfect firing arc.

Overall, I'm pretty excited about the new ships.  I've never really been into Star Wars video or computer games, so I simply don't recognize the majority of the ships that are released for this game.  TIE Fighters...  sure.  TIE Punishers?  TIE Defenders?  TIE Phantoms?  Not so much.  They look cool, but don't have the same impact as a ship you've seen dog fighting on the big screen.

Depending on its upgrade cards (I see 14 in the picture above!), I might pick up a U-Wing.  I WILL be picking up one or two Strikers.  They're just too cool looking and I'm a predominantly Imperial player.

Product Review - Storm of Sigmar

I know I said I'd be playing some Age of Sigmar over the weekend, but it didn't happen.  I played X-Wing instead for basically the first time.  It was loads of fun and I'll be posting more about it later.  I DO have some Age of Sigmar new though.

Knowing that I needed two extra Retributors and needing a few models himself to fill in a squad, my buddy picked this up.  Priced at $33, it seemed like a good deal for the models and I fully expected that we'd be throwing everything else in the box away.  BUT...

This thing is actually pretty awesome!  Upon opening the box, you'll see that it's just packed with stuff.  Sprues, bases, dice, rules, etc.

The sprues are clearly recut versions of the models from the big starter box.  You get a total of four mini sprues.  In total, you're getting the following...

• 1x Retributor-Prime armed with a Lighning Hammer
• 1x Retributor armed with a Lightning Hammer
• 1x Liberator-Prime armed with a Wahammer and Sigmarite Shield
• 2x Liberators armed with Warhammers and Sigmarite Shields
• 1x Blood Warrior Chaos Champion armed with a Goreaxe and a Gorefist
• 2x Blood Warriors armed with Goreaxes and Gorefists
• 1x Bloodreaver Chieftain armed with Reaver Blades
• 4x Bloodreavers armed with Reaver Blades

It's not a lot of any one model, but it's a total of 13 models.  That's really not bad for $33, ignoring everything else in the box.

The box also comes with a small assembly guide, a nice pack of dice, four very convenient Warscrolls and a rule book.  Also included, but not pictured is the small Stormcast Eternals transfer sheet that you'd get in a Liberators box.

The reverse of the Warscrolls has some pretty cool looking artwork.  Given that he doesn't really need the Warscrolls, my buddy is planning on putting these up on the wall in his gaming room.  I really like that they included these little pieces of artwork.  It really adds to the value of the kit.

The rule book itself is pretty decently sized.  I was expecting a small pamphlet, but this is actually a pretty decent introduction to the game.  Everything you'd expect to see is here.  A short introduction to the game and hobby, a series of four Battleplans designed to be fought with the models in the kit, the full "4 page" Age of Sigmar rules and a section on how to proceed if it seems like this is something you're interested in.  Oh, and a Rangefinder.  More on that in a second, because I laughed when I saw it.

This is the first Battleplan.  I know you can't read the text, but essentially, the three Blood Warriors are deployed at the three black dots on the map.   The map is a 2' x 2' square, for scale.  The Stormcast Eternal player gets to go first and starts by placing the Retributor-Prime anywhere on the map...  even dead center if he wants.  The game then goes for four rounds.  Whoever has the model closest to the center of the board at the end of round 4 OR wipes out their opponent wins.  It actually sounds really cool.  The other three Battleplans are similar and use more of the models until the fourth where you'll use everything in the box.

Oh, and the Rangefinder.  It's printed on the back of the rule book.  I laughed at this.  It's a smart move as it reduces the number of components needed and also eliminates a piece of trash for when you inevitably get a measuring tape.  Also give you a good idea of the size of the rule book.  It's a little smaller than the normal GW "small rule books".

Overall, I rate this product a major win.  I would recommend this for people interested in the game in a heart beat.  In fact, this is probably a better starter set for people who don't know anything about table top gaming than the much larger (and much more expensive) Age of Sigmar "big box" starter.  

My ONLY complaint is that the box isn't fully self contained.  You need glue to assemble the models.  If they were snap-fit, anyone could grab some wire snips out of the family tool box and be good to go.  This is ALMOST ready for sale at a big box store like Target or Wal-Mart.  In any case, this is a really good step in the right direction towards lowering the barrier to entry of playing these games.