Unboxing the Star Wars X-Wing Miniature Expansion

After getting my head around the X-Wing Miniatures Game Starter Box (which doesn’t take long), plans soon started appearing in my head on how to expand my squadron. Like many people starting out in the X-Wing Miniatures Game, I built a Rebel Squadron first, not least because it takes less ships to do so, making it faster and cheaper than building an Imperial Squadron.

One of the most interesting – and most contentious – expansions  is the X-Wing Expansion.

Of course, you get an X-Wing in the starter box (and many people like to buy two of those). Fantasy Flight Games was clever enough, to add unique content to the (ship per ship more expensive) X-Wing (and Tie Fighter) expansion, making them popular purchases themselves.

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#1 – X-Wing Expansion Pack: The X-Wing

To start with, the X-Wing Expansion Pack includes – obviously – an X-Wing Miniature. It’s the same miniature included in the Starter Box, but that X-Wing obviously needs a wing-man!

Like the miniature from the starter box, the Expansion includes not only the miniature itself, but

• A base with cardboard inserts for all the pilots (see below)
• An X-Wing maneuver dial
• Cardboard tokens for shields (never lose one of those!), Focus, Stress, Target Lock, etc..

Everything you need to play!

In the long run, I’d like to see FFG add a few spare shield tokens, which are strictly limited to the shields you have. On the other hand, most X-Wing players seem to drown in Target Lock and “generic pilot number” tokens to the point that adding ever more of them seems ridiculous.

But those are minor quibbles.

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#2 – X-Wing Expansion Pack: The Cards

What makes the X-Wing Expansion different from the X-Wing in the starter are the pilots and upgrade cards. The Expansion comes with a total of 4 pilots, including a generic Rookie Pilot and Red Squadron Pilot (which are also in the starter), as well as two named pilots in the form of Wedge Antilles and Graven Dreis.

• Wedge Antilles is arguably the main draw for a lot of people. People have allegedly buy the expansion just for him. Obviously, he’s a well-known name from the original movies. FFGs also made him one of the best pilots around – Pilot Skill 9 putting him ahead of Luke Skywalker and on par with Darth Vader – and one of the best special abilities (less evade dice for those pesky Tie Fighters), making Wedge a very, very, very popular pilot.

• Graven Dreis is the other named pilot, without the halo of Wedge. He does have a fun ability to pass Focus tokens around, which makes him an interesting addition to larger squadrons and/or in combination with the more recent Rebel “support” ship, the HWK-290.

Among the upgrade cards the R5-K6, the R5 Astromech and Expert Handling also do not appear in the basic box. All of them are moderately useful in the right situation.

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#3 – Thoughts?

Overall, the X-Wing Expansion pack is a good addition to the X-Wing Miniatures Game. If anything, I feel that Fantasy Flight Games might have erred a bit too far on the side of better sales (and not game balance), when they wrote the rules for Wedge Antilles. Granted, at nearly 30 points, he’s not cheap. Yet there is hardly an  X-Wing squadron out there without Wedge.

Nitpicking aside (tokens as well as Wedge), it’s a solid addition to the X-Wing Miniature Game that most aspiring Rebel Commanders will want to pick up at some point (not least because of Wedge, but hopefully also because X-Wings simply are cool!).

Do You Play X-Wing the Miniatures Game?

If yes, would you buy the X-Wing Expansion for the unique pilot cards? Would you opt for a second starter box instead?

Let me know what you think!

Z.