This week we get to see X-Wings: http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3451

We get to see 2 of the 4 pilots and at least 2 of the 5 upgrade cards. I'm not sure if marksmanship is duplicated in this set or not, it wasn't clear. I do hope well see more proton torpedoes though.

I find Expert Maneuvers interesting since no X-Wing pilots/ships seem to have the barrel roll ability.

I am liking how this is shaping up. I'm still hoping for Porkins, though.

Maybe we will get four updates this week. One for each expansion.

Another nice update. What I most want to know now is how big the recommend play are is. Anyone else curious about this?

Very.

[seems my post is too short, so I will amend this to say, "yes, very much."]

This is the first I have heard about "Stress Tokens". I wonder how those will work. I noticed they were not damage cards. Interesting allowing X-wings to Barrel Roll and give an advantage to TIEs since most of the time they will be ones that have target locks on them.

I can't wait for the rules. I know they are written, I wish they would post them so we can start an FAQ well in advance of the big tournament.

thanks,
Duncan

vadersson said:

Ya, I was interested in that as well. I suspect that multiple stress tokens will cause you to draw a damage card. Interesting thing there is you could damage an X-Wing before their shields were down.

I've been trying to figure out what ion cannons do. The thing that seemed most likely to me was dealing a damage card face-up, but it doesn't count towards the hull value of the target ship. But that mechanic could get really messy with two displays of damage cards for each ship. But the stress tokens may be a way for ion cannons to work as well. I'll be interested to see all the ways stress tokens work. We know that you can get one from failing a red maneuver and now you can get one from barrel rolling with Wedge. We have yet to see how you fail a red maneuver.

I was excited to see the two new pilots, and especially the artwork for Garven Dreis. I'm really excited to try to play this game. I can't help feeling like the pilot abilities don't really add that much, but I'm hoping that is intentional. They are there to add flavor, but they don't make the game, the game play makes the game.

Did they have that picture up of all the stuff from the expansion pack yesterday? I had not seen that before just now.

Looks like there are some duplicate cards with the base set. Also only two starfighter markers, so if you want to use certain combinations of two pilots you will want two sets. (Four if you really need all four different pilots.)

Thanks,

Duncan

You know I don't think that image was there, or I just totally blew over it. That's quite a bit more in a pack than I expected.

You seem to be right about the markers, they seem to be two sided, and you'd have to get the right combo of packs to get it. But since you get a set with each ship I don't think it's too big of a deal until you talk about combining the core X-Wing/TIE Fighters with the expansion sets.

Interesting to note that at this point we've seen everything but 1 upgrade card from the X-Wing expansion pack. There seems to be one more R5 unit in the center of that fan that we haven't seen yet.

Also at least it seems that the two unique pilots are on seperate markers and not opposite sides of each other.

Regarding other markers, we've got the 3 action markers, Focus, an exclimation and something that might look like a damage marker. Perhaps that's the stress marker. We've got a pile of target lock markers on the top, they might be number coded to match up with the ships.

But then we have the circular markers with the blue spheres and the number markers, any clue what these are for?

Not at all sure about the blue circles. However, what if the number markers are Skill/Initiative boost markers? Maybe a card raises your skill (perm or temp)? I see they seem to start at 10 and 11, so maybe only elite pilots can use it an it bumps you to 10 or 11 for a turn. Other than that, I have no idea.

Common FFG, release the rules. Pleaseeeee?

Thanks,

Duncan

Aahzmandius_Karrde said:

Are the blue spheres not shield markers/tokens?

Parakitor said:

This is why I asked, even though it should have been stupidly obvious…

I do believe you are 100% correct sir.

vadersson said:

Possible. But then shouldn't the numbers be orange, not white?

I'm seeing three each of 10 and 11 though. Why would you need three, one for the ship card, one for the miniature and one for the maneuver dial?

Or is this just a linkage between ship and maneuver dial?

Aahzmandius_Karrde said:

That picture was definitely added after the fact.

Interesting to see that there are definitely two joints in a ship's stalk. I first thought it was a way to differentiate one ship from another, but the figure base drop-ons will do that well enough on their own.

Why that extra joint, I wonder?

I. J. Thompson said:

I wonder that, too. My initial thought was variable altitude, but there is no way a TIE fighter can sit that low with out it's wings touching the base/tabletop. Curious.

I wouldn't be suprised if they are the same peg molds as from Wings of War. And that it just took two of them to get the proper height. It also let's them go up without the pegs being quite so tall per increment.

That new image is awesome! I can't wait to get my hands on these! I am a little bummed about the ship cover cards being two-sided instead of getting 4, but I guess it's good that they're saving card-stock that way.

I can't for the life of me figure out what the 10s and 11s mean. Skill boosts seem rather odd, especially if there are three of each in one pack.

Getting only two cardboard thingies might mean that I'll have to change my preorder again - because I really want to have the flexibility of using all four expansion pilots at the same time, and that won't be possible when getting all the X-Wing minis from the more cost-efficient base game and only getting the X-Wing expansion once

I actually had set up that mail already, but didn't want to annoy my FLGS staff folks too much by sending a daily "hey I want something different after all" mail

I'm in the same boat. I've got one each of the X-wing products on preorder and a separate preorder for SW:TCG, but now I'm considering cancelling the card game and getting a few more of these. At least one more Y-wing. Decisions, decisions.

I don't know if I'm concerned about the markers being two-sided. Eventually you need more fighters to field more pilots, so you'd get more markers with the extra fighters you'd need to buy. I have two starters and a single x-wing expansion coming, so I still don't have enough fighters to field all the expansion pilots. You could always just make a color copy of the marker on cardstock so you could use both sides at the same time until you get more ships.

It's not a cause of concern really for me. It's really a matter of min-maxing what I get for my money. Since the X-Wing expansion also has cards that the base game supposedly doesn't, it makes sense to get two of them anyway. On the other hand, more than one base game makes sense for the added templates and dice. I think I'll find out what I really want, eventually

After reading the article through again, I've come to the conclusion that elite pilot talents are not restricted to Imperial or Rebel. Some of you probably already figured this out. The reason I think this is because Expert Handling says that you take a stress token only if you're ship does not already have Barrel Roll. Since TIEs are the only ones with Barrel Roll, it makes sense that this card can be played on Imperials as well.

Could be, but more nimble fighters in future releases (like the A-Wing) might have barrel roll.