Hello everyone!

I got into x-wing upon its release. Purchased a few expansions and played a few games. I loved it. Though time went by and I had to make some choices. My core gaming experience was card gaming. I started with magic and eventually dropped that model in favor of the LCG. But minis had always interested me so I jumped head first into 40k, that was a mistake. All in all, I enjoyed card games more so I decided to walk away from the mini market.

Now recently I've been introduced to the game of chess. I had been introduced to it when I was a kid, but never really got into it. But I'm hooked. I love chess.

So now I want to design and build my own board. And I wanted it to be thematic. Then it hit me. X-Wing has gorgeously detailed models. Why not? So thats the goal.

The board will be designed to use caring minis as pawns and pieces. But the board is going to be unique unto itself.

It will be a multi-layered board. The base will be Woden framed, but the interior will be a canvas of a major locAtion the the rebels and imperials fought over. Ideas include the battle of Yavin and Endor, but I'm open to suggestions.

The actual playing board will be glass, with the tiles cut and etched into it. This glass top will be raised about an inch above the decorative board by one inch clear support columns. So when a game is in progress, you get a thematic and cinematic recreation of that battle while playing a game of chess.

For pawn and pieces, I'll post the list of my ideas. Beyond the pawns though, I'm open for suggestions.

Pawn - X-Wing/Tie Fighter

Rook - A-Wing/Tie Interceptor

Knight - B-Wing/Tie Advanced

Bishop - Y-Wing/Tie Bomber

Queen - Falcon/Slave 1

King - ?/?

Not sure about kings yet, it please offer you input of the choices above, maybe something doesn't fit right thematically, let me know.

I'm get excited about this project and I hope you are to.

Stay tuned for later posts, and as always, may the force be with you.

The kings could be best represented by a figurine of Luke and Vader respectively or Yoda vs Emperor. Alternatively just a Rebel Alliance symbol mounted on a base vs an Imperial Emblem. I guess the size of the Falcon could cause some overlapping issues.

I've seen a lot of varient sets so I would probably go with

• Rooks. Y-Wing and Tie Bomber in the Rook place. The rook is far more often heavier an bulkier when sets are made.
• Knight. I would use the Interceptor/A-Wing for the Knight as that always is shown as being mobile in varient sets
• That would leave the X-1 and the B-Wing as Bishops which makes quite a lot of sense.

• King for the Imperials Shuttle with Emperor on of course.
• Queen Slave 1
• King for Rebels, I wonder about getting something like a Senator's Shuttle there are a few good versions out there.
• Queen Falcon

The kings could be best represented by a figurine of Luke and Vader respectively or Yoda vs Emperor. Alternatively just a Rebel Alliance symbol mounted on a base vs an Imperial Emblem. I guess the size of the Falcon could cause some overlapping issues.

I agree with Rodent above but think that Bishops are more suited to the A-Wing/Interceptor myself. Bishops can move fast, but usually strike when you least expect it. Using the B-Wing/Advanced for the Knight works for me because they're heavier and see more direct combat as opposed to more hit and run nature of interception craft.

I concur with Rodent's ideas. I think the Emperor's shuttle would make a good King (is rather big and doesn't move fast). The Senator's shuttle would work pretty well for the rebels, but finding the model would be harder. If you are good at painting, you could always put a big imperial icon on one Lamda shuttle, and then get an alternate paint job with the rebel icon on another shuttle. Not the best but it would work with what is currently out. Then at least both Queens and Kings would be big base ships, since they are the center-pieces anyway.

I concur with Rodent's ideas. I think the Emperor's shuttle would make a good King (is rather big and doesn't move fast). The Senator's shuttle would work pretty well for the rebels, but finding the model would be harder. If you are good at painting, you could always put a big imperial icon on one Lamda shuttle, and then get an alternate paint job with the rebel icon on another shuttle. Not the best but it would work with what is currently out. Then at least both Queens and Kings would be big base ships, since they are the center-pieces anyway.

*cough* *cough* http://www.shapeways.com/model/886228/senate-starship.html

I appreciate all of the responses guys, thank you.

The size issue with the bigger models does bother me a bit, I could make the board to size for them, but them the squares may overpower the smaller pieces. It's worth a shot to see visually how it would look though, so I'll try it out. eye ball it and go from there.

I also really like the rebel/imperial symbols as options to fill those slots, gives me the option to be creative about their design.

I also noticed on the product page that their is a new imperial set releasing soon called imperial aces. Both models are tie interceptors but they are painted with a unique scheme. I could possibly use these for king/queen. But only if a rebel set that mirrors it is soon to be released as well.

But I'd really like to find a home for the falcon and slave 1 and the imperial shuttle.

The Pawns are the weakest ships so for the Rebels that would mean HWKs.

When we get to the other pieces things start to get tricky.

For the Knight I'd say the B-Wing is a good representation of that as it has power and the ability to pull of some crazy short range maneuvers.

I guess I'll put the X-Wings in the Rook position. They can move and are seen as hard hitters.

For the Bishop I'd assign the A-Wing. A Bishop can move vast distances but has some weaknesses as they are always stuck on their color. I'll say the A-Wings 2 attack dice can represent this restriction.

The Queen will be the Falcon as it can move but hit hard in all directions.

And I guess all of this leaves the lowly Y-Wing to act as the King. It isn't that fast but can strike in all directions when equiped with a Turret.

You see I would be tempted to get some Z-95s for the pawns.

here's an idea.. works well for the large squares of the big ships, but when say.. 2 pawns are in the same space due to the Imps taking a Rebel space.. they fight for it, each ship gets to fire their guns and it continues until one of them if blown up and the winner obviously keeps the space..

just an idea, but adds a lot of diversity to the game

What about the HWK and the Shuttle? They both have the crappiest movement of all the ships, as the king has next to pawns.

So how about:

King: HWK/ Shuttle

If it helps you can picture somebody really important on board each ship.

I know some of you are senitive to scale, but I would try to find out of scale Falcon and Firespray for the queens. then I would look for shrunk down Blockade Runner and Star Destroyer for the kings. This would solve square size issues and give the kings a little more regal bearing.