Back at CVI, I had the chance to get a tour of the Fantasy Flight Games booth with Steve Horvath (Senior VP of Communications and Digital Business) in order to check out the releases that have spawned from their relatively new Star Wars license. While we'll provide coverage on a variety of the products that were on display, today let's focus in on the Star Wars: W-Wing Miniatures Game, which is now available online and in stores. For those unfamiliar with the game, FantasyFlightGames.com provides the following short description:

"X-Wing is a tactical ship-to-ship combat game in which players take control of powerful Rebel X-wings and nimble Imperial TIE fighters, facing them against each other in fast-paced space combat. Featuring stunningly detailed and painted miniatures, X-Wing recreates exciting Star Wars space combat throughout its several included scenarios. Select your crew, plan your maneuvers, and complete your mission!

The X-Wing starter set includes everything you need to begin your battles, such as scenarios, cards, and fully assembled and painted ships. What's more, X-Wing's quick-to-learn ruleset establishes the foundation for a system that can be expanded with your favorite ships and characters from the Star Wars universe."


So two players square off, one as the Empire and one as the Rebellion, in a match of tactical spacecraft dominance while hopefully talking just a little bit of trash for the sake of intimidation. The game moves through a succession of phases (Planning, Activation, Combat, End) between the players until one side ultimately wins. Dice, tokens, maneuver dials, templates, range rulers, and cards help guide your movements. While the starter set provides you with an X-Wing and TIE Fighters, a variety of expansion packs are available that include:

- X-Wing Expansion Pack
- TIE Fighter Expansion Pack
- TIE Advanced Expansion Pack
- Y-Wing Expansion Pack
- Millennium Falcon Expansion Pack
- Slave 1 Expansion Pack
- A-Wing Expansion Pack
- TIE Interceptor Expansion Pack

Besides the ship, each expansion pack also includes a maneuver dial, cards and tokens. An X-Wing Dice Pack accessory is also available separately as are Dice Apps for both the Android and iOS operating systems.


As of CVI, which was right after the game's wildly successful initial Gen Con release, only the X-Wing, TIE Fighter, TIE Advanced, and the Y-Wing expansion packs were available. The forthcoming expansion vehicles were on display at the CVI booth though and they looked absolutely fantastic. That's an important aspect to point out about the game. The vehicle detail is not only spot on, but it marks the first time ever in licensing that the TIE Fighter is represented as being made to scale to the X-Wing. You have to love that kind of effort on the part of Fantasy Flight Games. Steve Horvath and the rest of the crew know and love their Star Wars and they seem to be having a blast being able to work within the GFFA. As Steve described the game and how it's played, you couldn't help but get excited to try it out. This is coming from a historically non-RPG player. I've dipped my foot into the pool in the past but I've never been for a full swim. That's about to change as my son and I take the time to learn the game. Look for future posts about our experience in order to help display how newbies like myself can dive into the X-Wing Miniatures Game. Oh, and to get back to those expansion packs following my editorial tangent, all eight can be purchased now.


Fantasy Flight Games has released a series of tutorial videos to help new players get comfortable with the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game. Look for a post in the next day or so, with those tutorials embedded, so you can simply bookmark the page for future reference. Until then, you can learn more about the game at FantasyFlightGames.com. You can also "Like" Fantasy Flight Games on Facebook and follow them on Twitter: @FFGames.

Many thanks to Steve Horvath, Anton Torres and the rest of the Fantasy Flight Games staff for their time at Star Wars Celebration VI and for their continued efforts in bringing forth new innovative games to the Star Wars universe. Whenever you find yourself annoyed at something going on in the GFFA, take a step back and realize how lucky we are to simply have a franchise that we love which offers content in just about every medium imaginable. And at this point, just as with those who create The Clone Wars, those working on the products are fans who grew up with Star Wars along with us. Thirty-five years after its initial release, the future of Star Wars is as bright as ever.