Star Wars X-Wing 2nd Edition Miniatures Game CORE SET - Join the Epic Space Battles! Strategy Game for Kids & Adults, Ages 14+, 2 Players, 45 Minute Playtime, Made by Atomic Mass Games

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An old coworker introduced me to X-Wing: Second Edition about a year ago, and I haven't looked back. This is a terrifically fun game that has the right blend of aesthetics (beautiful pre-painted miniatures), strategic planning (building a viable list of ships, pilots, and ordinance), tactical maneuvers (moving your pieces skillfully across the board), and random chance (lucky rolls of the dice, or a surprising maneuver by your opponent.) While there's a bit of a learning curve, Second Edition has been markedly streamlined from X-Wing 1.0, which tacked on rules as the game evolved, had too many obsolete ships, and was in dire need of a reboot.Major changes from 1.0 to 2.0 include the following: new medium-based ships, Force-sensitive pilots, a bulls-eye arc, replacing turret ships' 360 degree arcs with bow-tie arcs, splitting the First Order and Resistance into their own independent factions, adding the Republic and Separatist prequel factions, and creating new and improved ship sculpts, some with moving parts (for instance, 2.0 X-Wings and B-Wings have folding wings, while their 1.0 counterparts do not.) However, far and away the single best contribution to this game—and what sold me on investing my hard-earned money into 2.0⁠—is the creation of an online points list, rather than printing the points values on the cards themselves. This development might seem counterintuitive⁠—don't you want every number in front of you as position your 200 point squad on the table?⁠—but it allows 2.0 to continually stay fresh and prevents ships from becoming obsolete as the game continually evolves. For example, if Darth Vader is too powerful, FFG can just make him more expensive by updating the points list. If A-Wings aren't seeing enough play, FFG can just knock a couple points off each pilot, and folks will start playing them again. So long as the printed abilities and movement dials themselves aren't actually broken, squads can always be re-valued to ensure every card is playable. A crummy ship can be made cheap, an exceptional one expensive, and in extreme cases, a near-useless modification made completely free. (I'm looking at you, Jamming Beam!) In short, X-Wing 2.0 is essentially future-proofed, and you can feel confident any ships you buy circa 2019 will stay competitive probably years into the future.The 2.0 Core Set is about as good a purchase as you can get for this game: three brand new ships for ~$12 a piece, plus one set of maneuver templates, some obstacles, range rulers, and three dice each on offense and defense. If I have one quibble, it's that the Core Set doesn't actually give you enough dice to cover all the scenarios involving X-Wings and TIE/lns⁠—a range 1 attack by an X-Wing, for instance, is typically a four dice attack. But for most hard-core Star Wars fans, this can be seen as a good thing, since it gives them a baked-in excuse to just go ahead and buy a second Core Set⁠—now you can play right away with your friends, and you have twice as many ships! Win-win, right?The Core Set is an absolute must-have for anyone looking to build an Empire or Rebel-based list, but you'll likely need to add more ships, since 1 X-Wing or 2 TIE/lns a squad does not make. If you're starting fresh with 2.0 like I did, some sensible Empire options include the TIE/ln expansion (with pilot "Howlrunner" essential to any swarm list) and the TIE Advanced x1, which has Darth Vader, a fantastic and practically obligatory pilot. Some sensible Rebel options include the T-65 X-Wing expansion, the BTL-A4 Y-Wing, or the Millennium Falcon. (For the record, I purchased 2 Core Sets, and the TIE/ln, TIE Advanced x1, and T-65 X-Wing expansions through Amazon when I first started. If you scrapped the TIE/ln expansion, you could have two solid squads' worth of ships for ~$100.)

So let me start with I have been eye balling this table top game for years. I have played some more advanced board games beyond Monopoly, Life, etc., but never really had someone to play with that would take the time to play. So, fast forward a bit, I now have my fiancé to "prey" upon and force her into playing (kidding). So I got this, shortly after the game was updated to 2.0. I spent the first day I had it just reading the rules, to which I was quite intimidated by. I learned the basic rules and got my fiancé to play, 2 Tie Fighters vs. 1 X-Wing! 1st game I won (figured I would). So, I asked her how she liked it and she thought it was "interesting". Fast forward about a week. I spent the time in between the first game and game two, learning the full rules, to the best I could, and implemented them into a 120 point game, as we still only had the core-set. Game two, she wiped my smug right off my face meanwhile the whole time, "This is confusing, so much is happening"....well apparently "confusion" was on her side. Another week or so passed, I let my inner nerd get the best of me, and I bought a few more ships for both the empire and rebels. Game 3, she did it again, didn't even take out one ship of her....Now she loves the game...beating me at the one game I hold above our other board games.Point on the narration, this game is immensely fun! There is so much customization you can do to the ships (the cards), that you could play differently 1,000 different ways. 2.0 edition now has 7 factions, and it looks like Fantasy Flight Games are releasing/updating new ships quarterly. If you can get a friend to play, awesome! If you are trying to get someone to play that isn't so strategy-savvy, I suggest letting them play with the Rebels. Rebels have stronger ships, and are better at surviving when stranded away from their allies. However, Empire is deadly in numbers!Worried about trying this game out? Just go for it. I got my fiancé, who has never been one to play any type of video games, board game, and will ask if I (OMG SHE DID!) want to play my Star Wars game. Even my uncle, who is the least "nerdy" person was playing. He came over and the first 10 minutes was mocking the game, to then around round 3-4 really start focusing and was walking around the table trying to find his next best action (Sucked him in!).

Not sure about X-Wing? This starter box is for you. Fly as Luke Skywalker in his classic X-Wing against two Tie fighters.What I like:*The miniatures! They are detailed and come pre-painted. The X-Wing even has moving parts (the wings come together or move apart).*This is the 2.0 box (the most recent version of the rules at the time of this review).*The game rules hit the sweet spot for me. Not too complicated, while leaving plenty of strategic choices.*A cost effective way to try the game before dropping more money on the many expansions.What I don't like:*I really want to field a squad of ships (two or three per side) for my game. With three ships total in this box, I'll need to purchase expansions to make that happen.*Putting together the miniatures and corresponding dials was not complicated, but I felt nervous applying a lot of pressure to get things to snap together. (I didn't want to break them before the first play!)*Seems like more dice would be helpful to speed gameplay.If you're not sure about X-Wing, I'd recommend you start here. Thanks for reading.PS - Also, the product was delivered timely and with no issues. Thank you Amazon.