Designers: Steven Kimball, James Kniffen, Corey Konieczka, Jason Little, Brady Sadler, Adam Sadler

Final Score:  (3 out 5 Stars)

I have been playing and collecting Star Wars X-Wing since release and have always been a big fan, yet oddly enough I always felt an aversion to reviewing it. I think in part it’s because I know that while I love the game, staying objective was going to be difficult, but also because I knew that ultimately my rating system would keep me honest and in the end X-Wing wasn’t going to score as high as I would want it to. Still I have played X-Wing so long, I know it inside and out, from every angle, in every style of play. I think I’m as ready to review it as I will ever be.

Keep in mind this review is not of the core set, it’s the entire combined experience of everything X-wing from start to finish up to this point (roughly wave 8). Ok so here we go.

Overview

Unless you have been living under a metaphorical gaming rock, you know what Star Wars X-Wing is. Exploding on the miniatures gaming scene, X-Wing rose to be one of the bestselling and most popular miniatures game on the market surpassing the reigning king, Warhammer 40k. Leveraging one of the most popularized and fanatic induced franchises at a time of its rebirth, X-Wing puts players behind the cockpit of Star Wars most famous star fighters in pitched dog fights. The game packs hidden movement with clever template mechanics, a wide variety of special powers and a unique execution phase that creates dynamic and interesting combinations on level with complex CCG deck building.

It’s popularity is neither surprising nor is its economic success, but when you get right down to it, is X-wing a good game or does it live by its franchise fame and it’s fanatic fane base?

Components

Verdict:
Tilt: 

Pros:  The miniatures look fantastic on the table with sturdy components all around, inspiring the theme and setting you up for an imagination induced Star Wars nerdgasm without worry that you’ll break something when you get too excited.

Cons: While the miniature casts and pre-paints are good, they are considerably below the quality level of your average un-assembled and unpainted miniatures game.  They are on the low end of the spectrum in the hobby.

When it comes to miniatures games, components are probably more critical than any other type of game. In fact, the miniature game hobby is referred to as a hobby because you normally spend 95% of the time assembling and painting miniatures and about 5% of your time actually playing.

Fantasy Flight being clever business folk flipped things on its heel and decided that assembling & painting wasn’t going to be a part of X-Wing and produced a pre-painted miniatures game instead. Some loved it, some hated it, but there is no denying that if you played Warhammer 40k for 10 years and you played X-Wing for one year you will have played 10 times more X-Wing matches then you will Warhammer 40k matches and it’s in part because painting is pulled out of the equation.

Now the drawback here is that pre-painted miniature quality is never going to be up to snuff compared to hand painted miniatures unless you are particularly bad at painting minis. That is the case here, while the miniature paint jobs are passable, perhaps even “pretty good” this is largely thanks to the fact that most Star Wars ships are effectively variations on the color grey or beige. It’s not going to blow you away and under close inspection it’s easy to see that very little attention was given. Thanks to the rustic color scheme of Star Wars ships however, the imperfections are easy to ignore, the ships look pretty fantastic on the table and evidence of that can be seen in the fact that re-paints are quite rare in the hobby.

The casts also fall in the pretty good category but there really is little to complain about here unless you are accustomed to incredible detail of modern miniatures games. The minis are detailed enough to be recognizable and sufficiently accurate if you’re a fan.  They are scaled well enough to keep all but the most rabid fuck-tard pleased. They are sturdy as well, my miniatures have lasted through endless box shakes, drops and careless handling with little more than an occasional bent antenna. There is little to complain or praise about Star Wars X-Wing miniatures, they get the job done.  When it comes to the quality of miniatures FFG produces while 40k fans will be quick to point out (and be correct) they don’t compare to what you get from Games Workshop, considering they are pointing the finger from second place, it’s clear that while component quality is important, having a great game mechanic is what puts you in the number one spot in the 21st century.

I personally love the fact that the game is pre painted, in fact if X-wing was not pre-painted I seriously doubt I would be playing it. I have neither the time or the patience for painting these days, so for me, pre-painted minis were really a big decision maker.

Theme

Verdict:
Tilt: 

Pros:  From the classic to the epic, in X-Wing the theme pours out of every exposed thermal exhaust port.

Cons:  If you don’t like Star Wars go fuck yourself.  That’s really all I have to say about that.

In a word, pitch perfect. If there is anything X-Wing got right it’s the feel of a thematic Star Wars infused dog fight. You start each match with a small, controlled and well formed group of fighters and by the time you reach your enemy it’s a cluster fuck of ships, jockeying for position, trying to get on someone’s tail and blowing them out of the sky…. eh space-sky. Success is based largely on movement, special skills of the pilots and abilities of ships as well as a bit of luck. Each ship brings something unique to the battle and every ship functions as you might imagine based on Star Wars lore.

This is hardly the end of the thematic presence of X-Wing. Take any dog fight scene in the movies, cartoons, books, comic books or video games and easily re-create it in X-Wing. Whether it’s battles between the Millennium Falcon and a bunch of Tie Fighters or made up dog fights like contest between Red Squadron and Black Squadron, it can all be done and the rush and thematic presence is there. Thanks to the introduction of Epic play, you can now also throw in huge ships like the Raider or Corvette to add exactly what Epic play suggests, bigger battles with more ships.

Every card and piece of gear is meticulously illustrated with a distinct Star Wars feel giving the already visual presence of the game even more appeal and this is important because you want to have a sense of a person behind the ship.

Suffice to say the theme here is in bulk and there is no disputing X-Wing’s success in this department. If there is anything to complain about here is that at 100 points in a standard match, typically the battlefield is not quite as full as one might hope. While you can throw in a bunch of low cost Tie Fighters to give it some girth, typical 100 point match ups allow you to put between 2 to 4 ships on the table. Since this is the competitive standard, it is the most common type of game people aspire to but personally I think the game is a lot more interesting at the 150-300 point mark. In particular when you are trying re-create thematic battles with authentic squadrons, it can be quite difficult to accomplish at the low point match of 100 point. This of course I wouldn’t count against the theme, after all, how many points you and a friend decide to play with is up to you and while 100 points is a standard, it’s not a requirement.

Gameplay

Verdict:
Tilt: 

Pros:  Between the brilliant flight system, hidden movement, challenging list building and multitude of ways to play the game all wrapped in a Star Wars theme as a fan it’s simply pure joy.

Cons:  As if to counter each good point in the game FFG has poured sour milk into it through a steady and painful release of poorly thought out and unbalanced ships, pilots and/or equipment.

Ok so this is the big one and the one I have been dreading. I knew X-Wing would pass components and theme with flying colors, it is FFG and it Star Wars after all. That said in order for this review to be truly objective, despite my personal tastes, I would have to deal with the many negatives of X-Wing. Gameplay is the single most important thing to the game. Sure theme and components are critical but all the pizazz in the world isn’t going to make you want to collect hundreds of dollars in miniatures if you don’t enjoy the game, especially since the painting part of the hobby is largely removed. I’m a glass is half-full kind of guy so let’s do the good stuff first.

X-wings flight system mechanic is nothing short of brilliant in particular considering the subject matter here, it just fits in with X-Wing dog fighting like peanut butter and jelly. It’s important to note it’s not the only game that uses the system, it can be seen in Star Trek Attack Wing and Dungeons and Dragons attack wing and while the system works exactly the same, it just doesn’t fit those games at all in my opinion. The maneuver templates while a simple concept gives X-Wing a very distinct dog fight feel, quite possibly the most important and defining aspect of the game.

Next up is the hidden move first, shoot later mechanic. Again, this is such a great yet simple way to represent a dog fight in space. You have these ships buzzing around each other trying to get into position and everything from pilot skill, ship type and equipment are accounted for while simultaneously adding that wonderful human factor of trying to read your opponents mind and predicting where he will be, what maneuvers he will take. I love the way this work and it’s just a pitch perfect touch to the games already fantastic flight system. Put together, this is one of those mechanics that you look at as a amateur game designer, realize its simplicity and wonder why the fuck you didn’t think of it!

Finally and you really have to hand it to FFG here, they have ensured that there are lots of different ways to play the same game, each more dynamic then the next. You can play pitched battles or scenarios, there are different point counts, you have epic play and team epic play. They have created mission creation system which houses thousands of player created missions. Those are just the official by rules methods, but X-Wing opens itself up to the creative fans and as you might expect from a miniatures community lots of alternative rules, campaign modes, even cooperative play have all been invented for the game. The mechanic is simple enough to manage that creating balanced sub-system is a snap to do with and really everything kind of clicks in terms of trying to work the games core into alternative concepts. You buy these miniatures and you don’t just by one game, but an entire series of games all within the confines of a dog fighting epic. It’s fantastic and by and large it’s this over anything else that I love about the game.

Overall I can also say that X-Wing is just fun to play and I think fun factor while a matter of personal taste exclusively should never be ignored, especially if you’re a Star Wars fan. Pushing around miniature versions of childhood toys in a game clearly made for grownups is its own magic.

Ok so now it’s time for the bad stuff and unfortunately there is quite a bit of it, it really does pain me to say.

For one the games “balance” leaves a lot to be desired, in particular in the 100 point standard match arena, the most common type of match up. Worst yet in a lot of ways many of the things released for X-Wing over the years have kind of broken its thematic spirit as a dog fighting game which really adds salt to the unbalance wound.

While we got 360 shooting on the Millennium Falcon in the early days for example, this very expensive, large ship while pretty strong, against the big scheme of the game had sufficient drawbacks that special builds were not needed to counter it. 360 shooting however became something of a common practice in releases afterwards, more and more ways to do it were released with every wave and at this point it’s just kind of turned at least the competitive game into less a dog fighting game and more a Yahtzee dice challenge. Can you roll well on command? Now I will say that unbalances of this kind can be overcome by high level play and to that X-Wing can be said to be an easy game to learn but a hard game to master. Once mastered I think unbalances become less of an issue, but that pull towards 360 shooting is strong if you’re having trouble winning.

360 degree shooting is hardly the only issue, but it’s sort of the catalyst to how releases where handled because each new wave is effectively trying to correct the problems and imbalances of the previous release, or we are meant to believe anyway. Most dominant Meta lists however in competitive play are based around 360 degree shooting or ridiculous dice control/manipulation, so you either had to just get in range to roll dice or you could forgo maneuvering and just joust without fear thanks to amazing dice odds.

Ship A was too strong, ship B was created to counter ship A, leading to ship B becoming too strong so equipment C was created to counter ship B but it accidently made ship D too strong. Etc.. etc. If you know anything about collectable card games you might be familiar with this phenomenon and you probably also know it’s no accident that the newest stuff is always center stage of the new meta. These implementations are not a result of bad design but actually an intentional way to push collection element of the game for competitive players. Another words if you want to compete, you needed to buy the new stuff because it’s always better than the old stuff. X-wing suffers horribly as a result and in large part competitive play will typically render 90% of your collection useless at any given moment and you’ll be flying variations of the 2-4 actively competitive lists if you have a desire to actually be able to compete.

Now a lot of people might argue with that assessment, believe me, I want to as well but I fully understand fanboyism, suffer from it too but it would be dishonest to assess the game any other way. This upping of the power curve is blatant. There was a time in the early days when rolling 4 dice was a lot and you would only sometimes land such opportunities, but in today’s environment, this is just average and there are ships that will roll 5 or 6 dice with re-rolls and dice manipulations thanks to combinations of ships and cards.

I love X-Wing, so it’s hard to put that to paper, but it’s true. At the end of the day X-Wing is not a balanced game. It swings wildly, there are heavily overpowered ships, ship abilities and equipment combo’s and while something new will always come along that will trump the current “cheese”, in the end the standard 100 point match of competitive play is really a disappointing experience of predictable metas. You end up facing these cheesy lists and the only way you can compete is to build your own cheese.

Yes sure, if you’re a really good X-wing player you will win more often than lose and I get that and it really is true, but that really isn’t the point. The point is that you should be able to build an interesting or fun list and still be competitive within the scope of a balanced game because you play well, but in X-Wing you just can’t do that. You have to play the meta lists to stay competative AND you have to be great at the game, simply being great is not enough. I don’t mind the latter, but I absolutely hate meta play and I think it’s a flaw to design a game that hinges on it so heavily.

Now thankfully this does not mean the game has to be unbalanced. Get a friendly group together, break away from the 100 point standard, play scenario’s, epic play, re-create battles from movies or books, create a couple of house rules and you’re golden. There is fun gameplay in there and you can really avoid these broken elements of the game, but if you play X-Wing long enough you will find this ugly competitive nature of the game rear its ugly head and deflate your enjoyment of the game even among friendly groups. The unbalance is inbred into the game.

Thankfully I can honestly say that at least as of this writing X-Wing is in the best shape it’s been a long time. Many of the problems with overpowered elements of the game have strong and varied counters. A lot of gear for older ships was introduced that will make a lot more of your collection viable, even competitively. Still there are many elements that still are not that great. Ordinance equipment like missiles and torpedoes are still extremely weak despite repeated attempts to correct it. X-Wings, the most iconic ship in the Star Wars universe are universally accepted as being utterly useless and overpriced point wise. 360 degree shooting and Turrets you will still find in an overwhelming amount of lists and there is still gear in the game that will just make you hate the game as a whole as it frustrates the shit out of you in how unfair it is, both when you face it and the fact that you have to use it for your ship to remain viable. I hate having 100+ cards in my box but only 10 or so that are worth a shit competitively.

The game has aged now, whether it’s done well or not is a topic of debate, one which would make little difference in a review. The good news is that FFG still releases fun and interesting content pretty regularly and the unbalancing elements at this point are probably not repairable anyway so it’s pointless to argue about anyway. As gaming group you might consider house ruling certain things to create more enjoyable games but personally I find that the attempt are balancing and re-balancing the game via new releases is geared towards standard 100 point matches and when you break away from that, many things that are not viable become so as a result. This is kind of a good thing and I highly recommend getting away from 100 point games.

As it stands, X-Wing is a sort of wild swinger, it boasts some of the coolest and creative mechanics in any game I have ever played, while simultaneously suffering from some of the dumbest “cheesy” additions that just chip away at that wonderful design and the joy of playing a dog fighting game in the Star Wars Universe.

Replay ability and Longevity

Verdict:
Tilt: 

Pros:  Various game modes, plethora of ships, variants via list builds and the default dynamic nature of the game result in a game in which no two matches will ever be alike.

Cons: Much of what I just said in the pro’s section really relies on you building a sizable collection from which to work and that can get expensive real quick like.

When it comes to most miniatures games replaybaility is usually not a problem and X-Wing is no different. I do believe however that you have to keep collecting and bringing in new units and gear to keep the game fresh and interesting and in that regard like most collectible games, replayability hinges a bit on expanding your collection.

In general though once your collection reaches a certain size and in particular if you collect more than one faction, you really have a game that you will never run out of new experiences to offer. Every game of X-Wing is unique, every match up will dramatically alter the outcome and different point values have a huge impact on the way games play out. The higher you go the more interesting things get and more importantly the more gear and ships you might ordinarily ignore in the 100 point frame become viable.

X-Wing gets an A+ from me as far as longevity goes as well, I have been playing this game steady since release and I’m as excited to play it today as I was the day it was released.

Conclusion

You might think that I have a love hate relationship with X-Wing and perhaps to a degree it’s true. I do love its ingenuity, its fantastic dynamic simplicity and most of all it’s fun factor. In the same breath it’s swingy with many unbalanced elements and there is far too much “useless” equipment, ships and pilot types that make your collection feel unused, in particular in competitive 100 point standard matches.

So why is it still my favorite game? In the end I think the bad parts of X-Wing can be worked around pretty easily with some creative alternative ways to play the game outside of the 100 point standard match. What you’re left is all the good with little to none of the bad. Sure it’s a bit swingy of a game and luck plays its part either way, but I think there is an element of thematic correctness to that, dog fights are wildly unpredictable and so I’m pretty ok with that.

My personal experiences with X-Wing range from good to amazing and while I understand from a competitive stand point there is plenty to complain about, the idea that competitive is some sort of requirement or standard is silly, it’s simply not. If your looking for a thematic Star Wars dog fighting game and want to re-live some of the most epic moments in Star Wars, X-Wing will let you do that with ease.

If however you are looking for a competitive game, I think there are much better miniatures games for that. Star Wars Armada comes to mind in particular if you insist on the Star Wars theme, but X-Wing doesn’t fair that well in that department in my humble opinion. It’s much better as a thematic game of creating fun scenarios, thematic and epic sized games. That’s were all the joy of playing X-Wing really lives.

For what it’s worth, my heart bleeds to see my beloved X-Wing get a 3 out of 5 stars, if I wasn’t bound by my own rating system and stupid requirement to be objective I would have given it at least 4.5 Stars.  It is my favorite game of all time and I love it, flaws and all.