by JK777
Oh those guys over the pond at FFG are smart. I've said it before and I will repeat myself: the components for FFG games are just top quality. Period. FFG learnt that good quality components are a necessary but not sufficient condition for selling their games and so we come to point 2 of my list entitled "Why the guys at FFG are so smart" and that is licences. Not simply content to produce good quality components FFG work with Games Workshop and other companies to tap into the rich vein of an already established customer base, and the pinnacle of those licences? Well it has to be Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise right? Point 3, and this is the one they have most recently picked up on. People who buy boardgames love games that are expandable, why? Because we are all collectors at heart, but worse than that, we are completist collectors and so we spend our hard earned money on all those expansion packs FFG pump out. Well maybe they have yet to convince you, but they have me in some kind of hypnotic trance.So, when they first announced this game I was adamant, I was not buying this game. It was after all a miniatures game with templates to determine distance for movement and that's just one step away from using a ruler and a set square. My board games have squares and you move from one to the next that's how board games work. Besides this game doesn't EVEN HAVE A BOARD!
Then I started to read the FFG website articles and I could feel myself being drawn in, "You will buy this game" I was repeating over and over in my hypnotic trance like state. Force persuasion is a strange thing and "those weren't the droids I was looking for". Then the videos were released on the website and that was pretty much that, I went straight down my local shop and within seconds I had purchased the base game, 2 extra ships (TIE advance and another X-wing) and some Star Wars card sleeves to boot. Now I know I could have bought another box set, but the separately boxed X-wing has slightly different cards and the completist in me had to know what was on those cards.
I set up my first scenario and in the back of my head I could hear the "Imperial March" dun dun d-dun dun d-dun dun d-dun. I skipped straight on to what I will call "the proper rules" and I have to say that this game is a blast. The game rules are sufficiently sleek to be easy enough to grasp, but have sufficient nuances that this isn't simply a case of choose a movement, decide if you can fire, hit the other ship then rinse and repeat. Deciding whether to undertake a difficult maneouvre to gain an advantage, but accept the fact that you will have a stress token which can hamper you in future rounds. The combination of options from the initial load out of the ships to the pilot skills that can be used they all add a level of strategy to the game. Finally, the objectives add another nice twist. Now, what we need FFG is a book with lovely pictures and loads of scenarios which use every conceivable set of ships and load outs. A Descent style compendium.
I will be the first to admit that I can't wait to have a 5+ tie fighters versus the Millenium Falcon match up, once the iconic ship runs off the production line. Who wouldn't want to replay the classic escape from the Death Star in "A New Hope"?
But what about the negatives, well its Star Wars so some of the pilots' names are horrendously cringe-worthy. I can take Luke, Han, Wedge and Darth and I can even accept Lando and Biggs, but Nien Nunb; seriously? Is that even pronouncable in English?
The other double edged sword in FFG's expandable games collections is the rules. They are likely to get more complicated as more ships are released, turrets for the Millenium Falcon, new cards, different maneouvres. Now these are likely to increase the long term playability of the game, but they will also increase the complexity and it is a balance that FFG needs to strike well.
Oh yes and the million dollar question, will FFG be supporting all those Star Wars movies? Or does this particular foray into a galaxy far far away just extend from Episode IV to VI? Why do I ask? Well I really do not want to see some obscure Gungan spaceship with that floppy eared maniac Jar Jar Binks at the controls. This is simply because I already have the phrase "Meesa dunna no how to fly dis ting" etched onto my brain. With a movement selection wheel that just has a collection of random spaghetti looping movements, and most will on the whole be performed whilst moving backwards whilst trying to complete the objective of reverse parking the ship between the two nearest X-wings. Please FFG don't do that to me. Give me a set of Snow Speeders to attack Imperial AT AT walkers and AT ST walkers on Hoth, that would be an ace twist on the game. Even give me an Imperial Star Destroyer, which if built to scale would, let's face it, be larger than your family dog and require something more than a spindly piece of plastic to hold it up, but it would still be a-mazing.
This game has much potential and you have to wipe you brow and thank Yoda that FFG has the franchise, because they will produce something worthy of the Star Wars name. FFG may the force be with you.