I had a question that I was hoping someone on the forum or from FFG could answer:

Having never played a tabletop miniatures game before to any real extent (demos notwithstanding), I've been "iffy" on getting into X-wing upon release, and it has come down for the most part to a question of assumed cost.

From what I'm seeing on the website presently, the starter set comes with a total of three ships, one X-wing for the Rebels and two standard TIE fighters for the Imperials. When we toss in one of each expansion, that adds one more X-wing, one Y-wing, one more TIE fighter, and one TIE Advanced.

Once an extra set of dice are factored in, that's base cost of about $108 for a total of seven ships (3 Rebel, 4 Imperial).

How many starfighters are the expected/intended number for playing the game beyond the starter set? If there is a given playing surface, how many is it designed to accommodate?

All these questions vary from "it depends" to "no idea."

1. Playing surface: the rules-set and the way the game is played means that no map is required. You could put them on your carpet if you want to. We don't know for certain, though, whether there will be some official game-mat that either comes with the starter or is available later.

2. Playing surface and numbers: As far as we know, there's no theoretical limit to the size of battles that can be fought. obviously, 3-5 fighters could be handled on your dining-room table but some mongasso fray with 20 ships would need at least a ping-pong table.

3. Other expansions: Folks' preferences aside (there are many who refuse to accept the existence of the Prequels) it is simply logical to assume that IF the game is successful, FFG will branch out into the Clone Wars timeframe for expansions. Right now they're hot on the Big Three, but those ships will run out pretty damned quick, and any company wants to keep making money by offering up new products. FFG has already said that all the major ships from the OT will be represented - but what "major" constitutes is anyone's guess. IG-58's call: once the TIE Interceptor, A-Wing, B-Wing and TIE Bomber are produced, and possibly the Millenium Falcon & Slave-I (Firespray, actually) see release, then we'll get Prequel material. Much as I would LIKE to, I don't expect to see the like of TIE Defenders and Z-95 Headhunters until the Prequels/Clone wars get some action.

The GenCon tournament runs with 100 points per side ( source ), so I guess that can be considered somewhat standard. The maximum number of ships with academy / rookie pilots ( as seen here ), would then be 8 TIE Fighters at 12 points each and 4 X-Wings at 21 points each.

On the other hand, the Luke Skywalker pilot with upgrades they presented in the points news article runs to a total of 39 points, and there'll be similar ways to pimp a TIE Advanced with Darth Vader I'm sure, and Y-Wings possibly go even higher.

So it looks like the "standard" tournament size will be around 3-4 vs 5-6 ships or so. Judging by last year's GenCon pictures, this should be playable on one square meter.

My preorder though totals 4 X-Wings, 3 Y-Wings, 7 TIE Fighters and 4 TIE Advanced, so fleets in my games might turn out to be somewhat larger. I also ordered a HotzMat of 90x72 inches, so I should be fine with whatever table size I get to play on

I fully expect that the starting game will have everything you need to play, including enough ships. However the starter set is probably the least amount of ships you could play with. That being said, table top stratagy games where you can buy your own force have a tendancy to get pretty expensive. I fully expect to buy 2 copies of the game plus every starter. That is only 4 rebel ships and 6 Imperial ships. I expect those to be pretty medium squadron/fleet sizes. But until the game comes out I am really just guessing.

"My preorder though totals 4 X-Wings, 3 Y-Wings, 7 TIE Fighters and 4 TIE Advanced, so fleets in my games might turn out to be somewhat larger. I also ordered a HotzMat of 90x72 inches, so I should be fine with whatever table size I get to play on "

Preorder, you say? Where were you able to do so? I've been wanting to.

MiniatureMarket.com has great preorder prices right now. Plus free shipping if you're in the US, I think (depending how much you spend).

That's where I got mine. You get free shipping with orders over $100. My shipping was around $8 for a starter and 5 expansion ships.

Thanks for the heads-up. I was able to order one of each with UPS ground shipping for basically $81, rather than $108 retail without shipping considered.

Now begins the process of preparing my fiancee. "See, honey, you we can use this table here. Space is the color of a wooden dining room table, you see…"

NathanPButler said:

"My preorder though totals 4 X-Wings, 3 Y-Wings, 7 TIE Fighters and 4 TIE Advanced, so fleets in my games might turn out to be somewhat larger. I also ordered a HotzMat of 90x72 inches, so I should be fine with whatever table size I get to play on "

Preorder, you say? Where were you able to do so? I've been wanting to.

My FLGS, guess that's not an option for you, since it's in Switzerland - I won't actually get anything sooner like that though…

I have my pre-orders at Miniature Market too. Sadly, they have no information from FFG on when the minis will be released. I am hoping for shortly after GenCon.

If you need a table for the game (and a good dinning room table too) check out Geek Chic. Their tables are amazing. If we had not just bought out new dinning room table before we saw their stuff, we would have gotten one of their tables to use instead. Nice stuff.

NathanPButler said:

"See, honey, we can use this table here. Space is the color of a wooden dining room table, you see…"

I invite you to join my one-person tirade to FFG to include a fold-out paper starmap with the game (which so many others here are so tired of hearing me drone on about )!

I. J. Thompson said:

I invite you to join my one-person tirade to FFG to include a fold-out paper starmap with the game (which so many others here are so tired of hearing me drone on about )!

Here's a meme just for you, I.J.

Brilliant!

Go to the fabrick store, buy some black fabric and flick some white paint on it. Done.

Hrathen said:

Yeah. No.

I saw in hobbycraft star speccled type fabric, was only is 12" sqaures but would have worked if it was a full sheet

on the other hand i have just painted the back of another board black, i have some plans to space it up.