Do all ships have the same firing range in the basic gameplay?

See where it varys with the upgrade cards for other weapons.

Yes, all primary weapons can shoot ranges 1-3.

Its cool but seems like that takes some of the realism out of the game guess the dice make up for it?

By the way is there a live chat where someone could play online like a chess game against a live player

May have to use Skype or some Vid Chat?

11 minutes ago, Corv said:

By the way is there a live chat where someone could play online like a chess game against a live player

May have to use Skype or some Vid Chat?

Look up a system called "Vassal." It's a generic online system for playing various board games... people have created fairly robust X-Wing modules for it.

OK thanks will check it out