Product Review: Aeronautica Imperialis (GW - 2019)

 

So I’ve posted a couple of Battle Reports. Now I should do a Product Review!

Basic Fluff:

It’s the 40,0000 Universe. The poor “Ground Pounders” are being harassed by enemy air support and it’s your job to stop them!

Aeronautica Imperialis (AI) is one of the Classic Specialist Games branch of Games Workshop (GW) that have been reviewed, renewed and re-released, like Blood Bowl. Like other Specialist games, you don’t need to play any other of Games Workshops’ games in order to enjoy it. You can use it to create a campaign and link with Battlefleet Gothic (out-of-print) and Warhammer 40,000, but it plays fine on its own.

I would equate Aeronautica Imperialis as your “Basic Beer & Pretzel” game or an introduction to more complex Air Combat game systems.

 

Rules:

If I were to compare the rules to anything, it would be a hybrid of “Star Wars – X-Wing” and “Check Your 6!” (CY6).

The game is played on a Hex map (like CY6) and has altitude bands (again, like CY6).  Moves are planned in advance and revealed as the individual aircraft move.  Movement is planned by dropping a counter with the move number (like X-Wing) so there's no tracking separate sheets for each plane. Maneuver Numbers are based on a Movement Diagram (similar to CY6), but ALL aircraft use 1 Movement Diagram. No need for multiple charts if you have multiple types of aircraft.

As players activate Aircraft during movement, speed is first set (changing the current speed up to the maximum change allowed by the throttle stat), then the maneuver is carried out, and finally speed set after modifiers for climbing (-1 Speed) or diving (+1 Speed).

The Movement Diagram allows you to decide to go Left or Right for most maneuvers as you Activate and move the aircraft, usually allowing multiple final headings to choose from when the model has stopped, unlike CY6! CY6 requires a more detailed description including direction and speed and final heading that you've set during the planning phase, long before you move your model. This maked CY6 basically simultanious movement while AI is alternating aircraft as it makes a difference from plane to plane. This can be important if the move to left you planned originally suddenly appears to be the worst thing you can do, so you can decide to go right instead! Or you want to take advantage of a plane that moved where you want to go so you want to slow-down a hex or two to tail. 

There are only 8 maneuvers to choose from in the Movement Diagram. The limitation of which moves each type of aircraft are allowed is in the Aircraft Statistics of the Aircraft. Usually these are defined like "1-4", or "1-3, 6". Not all aircraft can do all 8 maneuvers – in fact, most can only do 4-6 maneuvers!

After the movement is the Shooting Phase, where each player alternates which aircraft (or Ground Defence) Activates, then fires until one or both players are done. Damage is immediate – if he shoots down your bomber before you activate it, your bomber doesn’t get to drop its bombs! This makes choosing which plane to activate very important and can win or lose the game. This system is similar to Adeptus Titanicus. What’s nice is that damage is recorded on the model stands themselves with the use of tokens or “Chits”. No extra Record sheets! You could record the damage on individual stat cards for the aircraft if you dodn't want to do the Chits on the stands.

There are multiple “versions” of the rules at the moment. The initial release consisted of a box set with minimum rules (just enough to get you started) as well as the book “Rynn’s World Air War – Campaign Book” which contained all the rules. The initial set and book covered the Imperial Navy and Orks. GW has just release a New Campaign Book:“Tarlos Air War – Campaign Book” which covers Tau and Imperial Guard.as well as a couple of new aircraft for Imperial Navy..

Don’t buy Rynn’s World except for the fluff or stats for Imperial Navy or Orcs. It wasn’t a BAD book, but there were some issues with how they wrote up some rules. These rule issues have been (mostly) fixed in the new campaign book or by downloading the FAQ.

If you’re just starting out, buy the second book: “Tarlos Air War – Campaign Book”. THIS is the book with all the latest and greatest and NEW rules in one place. You’re still going to need the FAQ downloaded from GW’s site, but it’s much easier and those rules that needed major corrections have been fixed. Mostly. 

Both the Campaign Books also contain missions and simple campaign rules that allow you to gain experience. A plus when compared to some other games.If you want the campaign rules for the Orcs or Imperial Navy, you'll need Rynn's World.

Overall, rules-wise, this is a good starter game for those who want an introduction to Air Combat games as it uses most of the concepts of other games of the genre, placed in a simpler package. Game play typically is 2-3 hours, though we've done the Dogfight in 30 minutes with 3 planes a side. Though official missions reportedly take 12 turns, we’ve found in most games 3-5 turns is enough to complete the mission.  Typical missions have between 3-6 planes per side.

Models:

So far, GW has released forces for:

• Imperial Navy
• Orcs
• Tau
• Astra Militarium (Imperial Guard.)

Rumor has indicated there are more forces on the way, but I’ve learned not to “believe” rumors when it comes to GW until I see it on their web site. (I do know a few people who want Eldar and Marines. Be Patient!) As usual, it’ll probably depend on how successful the game sells.

The Models are well detailed and give any modeler the chance to really sharpen their painting skills. Customizations are possible (especially for Orcs), But for the Imperials and Tau, it’ll be limited mostly to weapons options. Fighters come 4 or 6 in a box, depending on the Physical size of the models. (Imperial Thunderbolts and Ork Fighta Bommers are 4 per box, the rest so far are 6 per box) while Bombers are only 2 per box (at this time). All boxes come WITH flight stands for all aircraft in the box, so that’s a nice feature!

My Painted Stand beside a "raw" stand.
Speed dial on the left, Altitude dial on the right.

I am a little worried, as GW has announced that some fliers are now being offered through Forge World. So far, there are only 2 listed: An Orbiter and the Vulture, but I expect the Tau Remora Stealth Drone will join their ranks. Smaller/simpler models, with fewer parts, and that are too expensive to model in plastic. We’ll see how that progresses.

 As the model count for the games is typically 3-6 planes, you can usually get away with buying only 2 or 3 boxes of models, usually just to model the different types of planes you want in your force. The most expensive force could be Orcs with Dakka Jets, Fighta Bommers, Eavy Bommers and Grot Bommers, though a mixed Imperial force (Navy & Guard) could need more types.

If there’s something I don’t like about the models, it’s the instructions on how to build. Some of the pictures choose the worst possible angles to show how parts go together (or even show an obscured view so you cannot tell where they go). Also, some of the smaller parts are too small for my ham-fists. Be prepared to do lots of test fitting and keep your parts well over the table as you cut them free of the sprue.

Model Gallery:

Tau Barracuda - Work In Progress

Tau Tiger Shark - Work in Progress

Orc Fighta Bommers

Orc Dakka Jets

Imperial Navy Marauder

Imperial Navy Thunderbolt Fury & Thunderbolt
(Check out the guns under the nose)

Orc Grot Bommer and 'Eavy Bommer

Accessories:

GW has made lots of extras available for the game.

Of course, there’s the standard custom dice for each list.

They have Boxes of cards that list all the options and aircraft statistics for each force. If you don't have the book, you can get the stats here. The cards are pre-printed on normal playing card stock and are easy to read. You get a number of cards for each type of Aircraft as well as the accessories and Pilot Skills.

You’re supposed to have one card on the board per plane, but if you play a larger game, you may not have enough cards in a single box. Also, the possibility of mixing up your expendables when used per each plane when launching rockets, bombs, etc, is a real possibility. I’ve started to use extra dice on the flight stands to show expendables so I won’t mix up which aircraft has haw many left. I would recommend only 1 box and use only 1 card for each type unless each aircraft of that type is configured differently.

Ground Objectives and Defences are already available for the Imperial Navy and Orcs (combined into 1 box set). I expect another combined box set to arrive with Tau and Imperial Guard sometime.

The box sets come with a paper hex map, but you can buy a double-sided, hard cardboard map set (same quality as most Table Game boards) . There’s one for Rynn’s World and one for Talos. These are slightly smaller than 4’ X 4’ when put together, something like 38 X 39 -2” hexes. You can get other Hex Maps elsewhere, but if you want to go to the GW stores, you’ll need a set of the GW maps.

 

Summary:

What I Liked:

• Easy of play.
• Model quality (plastics – haven’t seen any from Forge World)
• The Fluff, missions and simple Campaign rules in the Campaign books.
• All the rules were updated in latest campaign book, may not need to carry around extra books.
• ePub versions of the Campaign Books (with Rules) are available from Warhammer Digital a (little) cheaper for those who like to use their tablets or laptops.

 What I Didn’t Like:

• Teeny tiny pieces on some models
• Poor modeling instructions
• Cost of Boxes for GW Models are over $50 each, though somewhat mollified by the fact that all models come with Flight stands.
•  Need to buy extra HARDCOVER or ePub book to get all the rules when you buy a starter box set.

As always, I hope this article is of some help. I enjoy the game and (for the most part) the models are nice and detailed.

If you plan carefully, you don't need to spend a lot of money, but it is still going to be more expensive than some other Air Combat games that use generic models (unless you do the larger scales). I suspect it is similar in cost to X-Wing, but you need to assemble and paint the models yourself!

Have Fun!

BatRep & Review: Flames of War - 1500pts, Mid War - Canadian vs Germans!

First, sorry for the delays (again).  There was a death in the family just before Christmas.  I’ve been in no mood to do these reports for a while as a result.

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Checking over the blog, I realize I never did a Flames of War report, so we’ll start off with a quick overview:

Flames of War is an “I-Go; You Go” system that originally was a derivative of Warhammer 40k in its beginnings, but has since evolved to its own ruleset.  The battles are company-based (200 – 200 soldiers or 10 – 20 tanks) rather than squad based and infantry stands represent a team of 4-5 soldiers, vehicles are still individual vehicles.  The models are in 15mm scale.  The advantage of this scale of battle and models is that you can play larger Infantry and Tank companies on a standard 4’ X 6’ table.  It is also more easily scaled up to Battalion Level (500 – 1000 soldiers or 30 – 50 tanks) battles.  Battle Front makes most models that you will need, but many other 3rd party manufacturers make WWII Models in this scale.

The game has split World War II (WWII) into 3 “Eras”: Early War (Pre 1942ish), Mid War (~1942 – 1943) and Late War (1944 and onwards).  Lists are split into the various Theaters of Operations: Africa/Italy, Western Front and Eastern Front.  Battlefront – the makers of the game, have announced Pacific Theatre rules and lists are coming but not available at the time of this report.  While battles can be fought with armies that are normally on different Theaters of Operation (or even allies – Russians vs British anyone?), they shouldn’t be played across different Eras as the points values and availability of (superior) equipment and arms changes drastically.

Battlefront has released new versions of the ruleset as well:  World War 1, Vietnam, Arab – Israelis wars and “Team Yankee” – the hypothetical WWIII between NATO and the USSR.  I’ve only played WWII and will not attempt to make note of the differences between the different versions.  ‘Cause I don’t know what they are!  (Good reason, EH?)

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So, on to the battle report!

I brought out an Infantry Company from the Canadians from 1^st Infantry in Italy:

• Headquarters with the Company Commander, the Second In Command and an extra PIAT team
• 3 Combat Platoons each consisting of 3 Rifle Squads (6 stands), a Morar team, a PIAT team and the Command Team
• 2 Armoured Platoons with 3 Sherman Tanks each (1 platoon with AA Guns, the other without)
• 1 Heavy Mortar Platoon with 2 Sections (4 Tubes), a Command Team and an Observer Team; with Trucks
• Limited Air Support with Hurricane IIC

I chose an Infantry Company as a way of increasing the number of units I would have on the table.  I was required to take 2 Platoons, but chose the 3^rd as 2 platoons is usually not enough if you want to attack.  To Support an attack, I wanted a Unit of tanks for covering fire and weakening the opposition.  Heavy Mortars were a good Artillery support and have the option for smoke screens, for fairly cheap. 

Now that I had my Essentials, I had to round off my force. I chose a 2^nd Tank Platoon as insurance to help with an attack.  Now I was in a quandary.  I wanted another Artillery Support, but didn’t have the points or models to add more.  If it was a larger battle, I could have had a battery of 25lb artillery.  So, wracking my brain, I remembered I could take Air Support to attack ground targets.  Air Support is quite random and unpredictable, but it was better than the alternatives that I could think about. It would also provide Anti-Aircraft capability if the Germans brought Air Support as well.

My opponent brought out a German Grenadierkompanie which consisted of (from memory):

• Company Command including Company Commanders, Second in command and a Mortar Section of 2 mortars.
• 3 Combat Platoons of 3 Grenadier Squads (6 teams) and a Command team, each.
• 1 Grenadier Machine Gun Platoon of 2 sections (2 teams each), split up and attached to two of the Grenadier Squads
• 1 Grenadier Mortar Squad of 2 Sections (4 tubes), a Command Squad and an Observer
• 1 Grenadier Anti-Tank Platoon with 3 PaK38 guns and a Command team
• 1 Tiger Tank 
• 1 Grenadier Scout Platoon with 2 squads (4 stands) and a Command Team

After setting up the table, we needed to determine who the Attacker was and who was the Defender.  Standard Missions always have an Attacker and Defender which (usually) define who goes first, deploys first and any special rules associated with either side.  

Unlike most games, Flames of War doesn’t just randomly roll to determine this.  There is a “Pecking Order” as some Companies are more suitable for attack, while others are defensive in nature.  Order of preference of “Attacker” are:

• Tank Companies
• Mechanized Companies
• Infantry Companies
• Fortified Companies (Always Defends)

There are some army lists that by their very nature are “Always Attack” or Always Defend” as defined in the unit’s special rules.

In the event that 2 armies of the same type are forced to fight each other, then a roll-off determines who attacks.

Germans won the roll of Attacker – Canadians Defend

Flames of war has 12 standard missions, so we followed the instructions to roll for a mission and ended up with “Encounter”: two small forces encounter each other and the call goes out for re-enforcements from both sides.  Both sides have 12” deployment zones and 2 objectives are placed within 8 inches of the long board edges but more than 8” from the short edges.  Both teams must hold back ½ their units (rounded up) off the table and they are delayed.  Rolls for re-enforcements don’t begin until turn 3. 

That could be a very long time to wait for help…

Players then start deploying their troops, alternating teams until all remaining troops are deployed.

• Canadians deployed 2 Combat Platoons and the Mortar Platoon.
• Germans deployed 2 Grenadier Platoons, the HQ Mortar Platoon and the Anti-Tank platoon.

Start of Game

Turn 1:

Germans:

All platoons spent the turn trying to “Dig In” (make Foxholes).  Only the Mortar team behind the hill succeeded.

Canadians:

All the Canadian units attempted to Dig In, but failed the required skill test to do so.

Hurricanes arrived and bombed the units on the Eastern hill protecting one of the Objectives, but only succeeded in killing one team.  The unit became pinned as a result.

Turn 2:

Germans:

The Infantry squad on the hill failed their Moral Test and remained pinned for the turn.

The AT teams in the wood successfully dug in inside the woods near the German Centre. 

German Mortars bombarded and killed 2 teams in the Canadian Centre, 2^nd Platoon, pinning the Canadians.

Canadians:

The Centre Squad failed to unpin.

First Squadron moved to the left, behind a hill and out of sight.  None of the Canadian shooting this turn did any damage.

Turn 3:

Germans:

Germans rolled and succeeded in getting an infantry platoon to arrive this turn.  Unfortunately, all Reserves are randomly deployed and the new platoon arrived on the far West Corner, far from the action.  In the movement phase, the new Reserves did a double-march, allowing them to march twice as far, but leaving the teams more exposed to fire.

The unit on top the Eastern hill finally unpinned.  PaK38s in the woods managed to shoot and kill 2 teams from the 1^st Platoon who didn’t quite make it out of range or sight around the hill.  Mortars once more hit 2^nd Platoon, but failed to kill any.

Canadians:

Canadians rolled for Reserves and successfully brought on an Armoured Platoon of 3 Shermans in the Centre. Worse for the Germans, another flight of Hurricanes arrived and caught the Reserves in the open ground with no cover!  2^nd Platoon managed to unpin

1^st Platoon moved further around the hill.  The Shermans took position and fired on the Infantry Platoon on the Eastern hill, killing 1 team.  The rest of the teams failed to hit except the Hurricanes.  The Hurricanes strafed the doble-marching re-enforcements and killing 9 teams!  The survivors failed their Moral test and fled the field!  Canadians were holding their own!

Turn 4:

Germans:

Germans failed to get any Re-enforcements this turn.

The Squad on the Eastern Hill FINALLY dug in and positioned themselves (more) safely in their foxholes.

After another turn of firing, only the Mortars managed to hit (the luckless 2^nd Canadian Platoon, again), but though failed to kill any teams, managed to pin them once more.

Canadians:

So once again, 2^nd Platoon stayed pinned…

No Air Support this turn, either..

The 2^nd Armoured Platoon arrived on the Eastern Corner and drove forward, following the 1^st (infantry) platoon around the east side of the hill (away from the PaK38s) while the other Armoured Platoon moved to the East, behind a hill. 

The Mortar team changed tactics and successfully laid smoke that covered one PaK 38 Team and most of the Infantry Platoon on the Eastern hill, limiting their range of view.

Laying A Smoke Screen

Turn 5:

Germans:

Uh Oh.

The last Grenadier Infantry Platoon arrived on the Eastern Corner and moved towards the woods.  Worse, the German Tiger tank arrived this turn in the German Centre. 

For those not familiar with the Tiger, it was probably the second most feared tank in the Second World War.  (The Most Feared would probably be the King Tiger.)  A Sherman’s 75mm gun would have to hit a Tiger in the rear or flank from very close AND be very lucky to knock it out.  A Tiger’s 88mm gun would kill a Sherman from outside the Sherman’s 75mm range…

(Stories are told that a Sherman could beat a Tiger by driving in rings around the Tiger as the Sherman could drive faster than the Tiger’s turret would rotate.  Of course, it usually cost 5 Shermans to get 1 Sherman close enough to do that!)

To make me worry more, the Tiger drove towards the East, obviously trying to intercept my Shermans, presently out-of-sight, thanks to the smoke screen.

German shooting was lack lustre – no casualties, but the Canadian 2^nd Platoon was pinned (still).

Canadians:

The last (3^rd) Infantry Platoon arrived in the center.  Two Hurricanes arrived and tried to bomb out the Tiger tank.  2^nd Platoon (again) failed to unpin.

Mortars laid Smoke once again.  Then we all stood back and waited for the Hurricanes’ bombs to land…

So, the bombs landed on the Tiger, casing “5 points” of damage.  A Tiger has 2 points of Armour and rolls a D6 to add to its armour to try to cancel the 5 points of damage.  All Graham needed to do was roll 4+.  A 3 would “tie”, which could result in a “bail-out” (the crew evacuates the tank).  A 1 or 2 would mean the Bombs would have to roll a “Firepower test” which if passed, would destroy the tank.  A fail would also cause the crew to bail out.

Graham rolled a 2!

I passed the Firepower Test and the Tiger was destroyed!

(I ALMOST PASSED OUT HOLDING MY BREATH ON THIS ONE!)

Death of a Tiger!

Turn 6:

Germans:

The last German (RECCE) platoon arrived in the German Centre.

The Platoon in the Eastern woods moved farther forward, while German Mortar fire all failed to hit their targets. Smoke hampered the rest of the German shooting.

Canadians:

The 2^nd Platoon FINALLY unpinned. 

The Mortars failed to spot and drop smoke this turn.  One Sherman Troop moved on top of the hill and fired at the infantry team guarding one of the objectives, somehow killed to teams.  Surprisingly, the Germans had had enough and broke! 

That made 2 platoons out of 8 that had fled the battle!  Instead of going for an objective, the Canadians’ new battle plan was to try and make 2 more platoons break and run.  This would force a Company Morale Check and (if I was REALLY lucky) the Germans could fail and abandon the battlefield to me – an Auto Win!

Turn 7:

Germans:

The Germans, realizing my new plan, started to hide and dig in where they could.  While the Command Mortar Team missed their target, the other Mortar team hit 2^nd Platoon (AGAIN), and killed 2 stands, this time taking out the last stand that was in range!  Fortunately for me, the squad was still over 50% so I didn’t need a Morale Test.

Canadians:

All squads that were pinned successfully unpinned.  (I think it’s the first time since the fist platoon was pinned in turn 2?)

All Canadian shooting missed this turn.  2 Hurricanes bombed the Mortars on the west side, but only succeeded in pinning them.

Turn 8:  (Last Turn)

Germans:

The Mortar team succeeded in getting unpinned.  Anyone that wasn’t dug in before succeeded this turn.  The Mortar teams both failed to hit targets.  They then waited for the Canadians to do their worse.

Canadians:

Being a Jerk and knowing it was last turn, the one platoon of Shermans behind 1^st Platoon moved to the Hedge row to get off some shots off this turn.

When the smoke cleared from the tank shells, Mortar bombardment and the Hurricane bomb drops; 1 PaK 38 was destroyed.  Not enough to cause a morale test for the squad, let alone the entire company!

A Draw!

Or Was It?

End of Game

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After getting home and writing this Battle Report, I discovered something we missed during the game.  According to Flames of War, there are no draws!

Usually a battle goes on until one side or the other achieves its Objectives or forces their enemy to retreat off the table.  The exception is a timed game (either based on actual time or number of turns).  If NEITHER side achieves their Objective, then you work out how many Victory Points each team earned.  These VPs are based on the number of losses the Winner or Enemy suffered during the game.

In this case,
Germans suffered 2 lost platoons, so Canadians got 3 VP.
Canadians suffered no lost platoons, so Germans got 1 VP.

Canadians Won the Battle!

(What would have happened if both sides had same amount of casualties, I don’t know!)

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First of all, I know I didn’t go into too much detail.  There’s good reasons.

1 – It was only the second game in ___ Years.
2 – As such, we made a lot of errors
      (I’m too embarrassed to say how badly, but at least we played our errors consistently!)
3 – I took VERY poor notes!

Evaluating the battle itself:

The Canadians were LUCKY!  The Hero of the battle has to be the Air Support and the Hurricane Pilots that did a wonderful job!  If the planes hadn’t taken out the Tiger, I dread to think what would have happened to the Canadians!  Brrrrrrr.

However, that brings up a weakness in these types of missions.  When you have Infantry vs Infantry battles (and 2 cautious players), they can quickly become highly Defensive battles; neither side willing to move until they think they have the advantage to move.  If this hadn’t been a “Timed” game (8 turns), we could easily have had the battle go on another 8 turns OR MORE!  Though with 2 undamaged tank squads, Canadians definitely had an advantage.

A Motor Company or Armoured Company, being more “attack-oriented”, will tend to result in battles with more movement (and definite action) than this battle.

So, because I’m a chicken, no real Infantry fighting happened in this battle – it just became a long-range duel until we ran out of time.  Canadians could (and should) have been far more aggressive once the Tiger was knocked out.

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So, what are my impressions of Flames of War?

Overall, a decent rule set.  It allows for larger scale battles than a Squad-based game, though the models are smaller and less detailed at 15mm compared to 25-29mm scaled models.  There are some weaknesses to the rules that can create some interesting situations.

First, this is more of an “Era-Specific” issue.  Tanks are VERY expensive (points-wise) in this era.  For Example, 1 squadron of 3 Sherman Tanks for the Canadians is 350 points.  Two Infantry Platoons are only 155 points.  (And Canadians are cheaper than British…) 1500 points would be on the “lower-Standard” Battle size.  To take a Tank Company would give you your minimum tanks and not much else.  Late war, tanks are “cheaper” in general, but you have to worry more about the escalation factor.  It’s no fun facing off a company of Shermans against a company of Panthers, Tigers or worse, King Tigers.  (A valid list is 3 King Tigers and an option or two in late war.)

One “pet peeve” of mine about the rules; you have to target an enemy team when you want to do a smoke screen.  I would much rather be able to target a spot on the table for laying smoke so that it conceals the area I want hidden, rather than concealing the enemy!  If an Enemy shoots from the concealment of the woods and it makes it that much harder to spot the teams in the woods to zero the mortars in, why wouldn’t you drop smoke in front of the woods…

While there are a number of mission options and rules for just about every conceivable weapon system and situation, there can be a case of the “I’m gonna Lose!” if you draw the wrong forces against someone else’s list or mission. 

Case and Point: Graham’s Germans had no ability to deal with the Hurricanes in the British Air Support.  There are units that are AA and MOST tanks can buy an AA machine gun (I did for 1 unit of Shermans), but in this one battle, Graham had NO AA at all.  I hadn’t taken the AA to be an “Overwhelming Force”, but in this case, Graham’s list was caught flat-footed with no defense.

On the other hand, if I had taken my typical Anti-Tank squad with 6lb cannons, I would have a rule that says I can’t shoot them at Infantry (No HE (shells)) and they would have been useless against a Tiger.  There can be a lot of “Rock – Paper – Scissors” in Flames of War, as a result.

In my defense for taking Air Support, historically, Canadians would have called down for Air Support to deal with German Armour.  So in theory, it was historically accurate.

One HUGE advantage to Flames of War is the Army lists.  There is a very active testing and review group and if someone can work out something historically accurate that isn’t too far over the top, you can probably find it.  If they uncover a flaw in a Table of Organization, they will address it.  Eventually.

Also, when you buy a book for a Theatre of operations and era, it includes armies for both sides.  The “Intelligence Handbook” for North Africa, contains multiple lists for each the Germans, the Italians, the British and the Americans. This allows you to see the potential enemy lists in the same volume as your own lists.  This is a much cheaper alternative to buying each and every army book (like other game systems I could name…).  If you are not interested in a particular theatre, there’s no reason to buy the book.  On the other hand, armies in the same era should be “playable” against each other, no matter what theatre of operations.

Overall, Flames of War is a good choice for those wanting to experiment with WWII battles.  They’re well known and should be easy enough to find someone else almost anywhere that has played or is willing to play.

Hope you enjoyed the battle and the review.  Good Luck and keep your dice hot!

Overall, Flames of War is a Decent Game.  There are flaws, but so do most games.  

BatRep & Product Review: Relic Knights: Basic Boxes – Black Diamond vs Star Nebula Corsairs

So a friend sold me one of his factions he got from Kickstarter, so I figured I should get off my butt and try it!

Product Review:

Relic Knights is a Miniature Skirmish Battle in an Anime Universe.  Figures are the ever-popular 28mm-ish scale with multiple races/disciplines in this futuristic Sci-Fi environment.

Basic Fluff:

The galaxies are disappearing and finally, there is only 1 left.  Can you help stop the “Darkspace Calamity” from claiming the last Galaxy or will you encourage the destruction.  Only time will tell…

If you are a fan of Anime, you’ll recognize the basic outlines of the various Factions very quickly.  They’re VERY stereotypical.

• Doctrine: the Wizards and Magic folks, trying to control “Esper” rather than “Winds of Magic”
• Cerci Speed Circuit: Think “Speed Racer” and all those other futuristic race cartoons.  Happy go lucky racers fighting against each other and the syndicate as they try to entertain their audiences and earn credits to keep on racing.  Saving the Universe just happens to be part of the fun…
• Shattered Sword: All those virtuous Knightly Orders and Paladins trying to protect the innocent and save the day.
• Black Diamond: Your Mercenary Guns for Hire with some being honorable, and some, well, we’re not sure.  Sometimes you gotta take a dirty job to put rounds in the mags, ya know?
• Noh Empire: The REALLY ugly alien monsters that want to destroy or take over everything.  The 2^nd biggest threat to the Universe after the Deadspace Calamity.
• Star Nebule Pirates: Of course there’s those loveable rouges that rob from the rich and keep for themselves.  One of the Pirates is ‘Captain Harker” – need I say more?

Rumor has it, a new version will be released soon, with more options for the original Factions as well as possibly more Factions!

Models:

Models are plastic / resin that I never really investigated further.  Wash the figures before painting and you should be good.  I’ve only used Zap-A-Gap and it works fine.

Model Detail is decent.  I’m not a master modeler or painter, but there was enough detail for me to paint interesting figures and not so much as to overwhelm me.  They look like 3D Anime figures – which is what they’re supposed to be! 

Overall, I like the models.  They’re easy to file / shave / customize.  Painting is normal and up to the painter’s imagination.  These figures pass the 2’ rule; if painted well, they look great from across the table – 4 out of 5 stars.

Warning: There is a lot of controversy about the figures released by Relic Knights.  Some people will consider some of the figures “Mature”, bordering on Adult.  The controversy is North American perception that Cartoons should be “Family Friendly”.  Japanese Animation, on the other hand, has NEVER been restricted just to Children’s fare as it has in North America.  Adult themes in Anime is common and some series / movies are specifically written for adults.  As a result, certain factions use a lot of “Fan Service” poses: Skimpy and tight costumes, poses that may/may not show panties, figures that appear naked or almost so.  Add some of the paint jobs being displayed by some of the more imaginative adult painters out there and Voila!  Extreme Over-reaction.

If you are not offended by Games Workshop’s Slannish or other companies’ “interesting” figures, then you shouldn’t have an issue with Relic Knights.  If you are bothered, review the site’s figures carefully before purchasing. Don’t let younger kids play with your figs so there aren’t any “interesting” questions asked, either!

Game Play:

This is the most unique play style I’ve played so far.

First, there are no dice to this game.  Everything is done using “Esper” Cards.  There are 6 “Colours” of Esper.  Each colour represents a different aspect of esper: Law, Creation, Corruption, Entropy, Chaos, and Essence.  Each Aspect has certain properties and can be used to do different things by those with the ability to manipulate it.  The most powerful manipulators become Knights.

The Esper deck contains 42 cards that are shuffled and dealt or flipped to get your random results.  Most cards have 2 circles of different colours, one larger than the other.  The Larger circle is worth 2 Esper points of that colour, the smaller only 1 Esper point of its colour.  There are also “Wild Cards” that are worth 1 Esper of any type and “Void” cards that aren’t worth anything.  Also note – each Esper type is strongly affiliated with a Faction.  At the beginning of the game, a player has a hand of 5 Esper Cards to start using their abilities.

Players form Cadres, consisting of at least 1 Knight (larger games can support more) and their Cypher (think Spirit Guide with extra abilities), Minions and Uniques.  These Cadres draw random missions and attempt to carry them out.  Whomever earns the Minimum required points to finish a game first, wins.  Wiping out the enemy Cadre is an automatic victory as well.

The other unique aspect is that this is not a Turn-based game!  Unlike You-Go-I-Go, Relic Knights uses alternate Activations.  Players activate a unit, then the other player activates a unit.  Unlike Spartan games, instead of going through all your units once before repeating, you can “Stage” your units in almost any order you want.  With limitations.  Players place their units on a “Dashboard” with a Ready Queue.  Dependent on the number of points in the game, your queue grows in size.  As you finish activating a card, you throw it into an Idle Section and advance all the cards in your queue forward one space, then select a unit card to go from the Idle Section to the Ready queue.  (Very simplified and not quite correct – there’s an “Active” slot you move to, but it’s basically all the same.)

For example, a Start Box game (~35 Points) has a queue of 2.  A 50 Point game has a Ready Queue of 3 slots.  Large Battles (100 Points) have Ready Queues of 5 Slots.

This means you need to plan in advance what unit(s) you want to play when and try to have the required Esper cards ready for them by the time they activate!  It’s not always that easy!

Units all have 2 cards: 1 “Tracker” card that is used to track damage and place within the Idle or Ready Queue & 1 Reference card that shows the various capabilities of the units and how much Esper (and what types) are required to perform them.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Battle Report:

Best way to explain the game is to play the game!

Wer decided to play basic box sets, no extras.  So Mike brought his Black Diamond Boxset while I brought my Star Nebula Corsairs.

Black Diamond Force:

• Questing Knight Leopold Magnus
• Cypher Static
• M8-Blitz Auto-Tank
• 5 X Diamond Corps (Basic Line Troopers)

Black Knight’s Missions:

• Secure Perimeter (Primary Mission – 5VP)Team must place Secure Tokens on their Primary Objective and on both enemy Secondary Objectives.  Tokens must be on all 3 at the same time.
• Defense of Life (Secondary Mission – 3VP)
  Opponent picks a unit and that unit must deposit a token on the farthest board edge from the unit’s starting position.
•  

Star Nebula Corsairs Force:

• Questing Knight Captain Harker
• Cypher Caeser
• Broadside (Portable Cannon thingee!)
• 5 X Corsairs (Basic Line Troopers)

Corsair’s Missions:

• Secure Perimeter (Primary Mission – 5VP)
  Must destroy either 1 Enemy Primary Objective or 2 enemy Secondary Objectives.
• Anarchy (Secondary Mission – 3VP)
  Place Sabotage Tokens on 5 different objectives, enemy or friendly.

We placed our Objectives, then our units, alternating placement between the players.

So, after drawing some random cards, Diamond’s got first Activation.

Initial Startup
Orange - Corsairs' Tokens
Purple - Diamond's Tokens

I put the 5 Corsairs in my first Ready Queue and Harker in the second.  The Broadside & Cypher in the Idle pile.

First Activation, the Diamond Corps moved towards the Corsairs, picked 1 Corsair model as a target (All models within 6” of the target and LOS were fair game) and fired on them using PR-12 Rifle Burst, playing 2 points of Purple (corruption) Esper.  The Corps then drew an Extra 2 cards (using the first value of the shooting icon) and “pressed” Piercing on the shot – reducing armour by 1.  With only 3 models able to see the Target, the Corsairs suffered 5 points damage (3 Points + 1 point for each extra shooter) and reducing armour to None from 1.  The Corsairs drew 2 Esper cards from their own deck (2^nd number of the Shooting Icon) but didn’t have enough of the correct Esper to do anything in defence.  Corsairs are worth 3 hit points each so I lost 1 Corsair and another took 2 wounds.  After applying damage, the Diamond Corps did their Follow-up move.  The Diamonds then moved their Corps to the Idle pile and both players did their “house-keeping” (Both players needed to “return” to 5 Esper Cards in hand, the “Active” player dumping any they don’t want and the Non-Active only dropping extra or filling their hand – no dumping of unwanted cards.  Active player advances all their Ready Section 1 slot and grabs a card from “Idle” to put in the last slot.)

Diamond's Corps Gun Down Corsairs

The Corsairs were not pleased and vented on the Diamond Corps. The Corsairs moved forward, 3 in contact with one model and declared No Quarter - a melee attack using 2 Orange (Chaos) Esper.  I then drew 2 extra cards and was able to “Press” with 3 Red (Entrophy) Esper to increase the damage to 7.  With 3 models in contact, I got a bonus 2 damage for a total of 9 Damage!  The Corps drew 2 cards and were able to power-up Force Screen increasing their armour to 2.  This dropped my damage back down to 7, but it was enough to kill 2 Corps members and damage a 3^rd!  I then made my follow-up move towards the survivors.  During clean-up I dumped some cards I didn’t want and brought my hand back to 5, Moved Harker to 1^st Ready Queue and added Broadside to the 2^nd while the Corsairs went into the idle pile.

Corsairs Charge Into The Corps!

And that’s how play basically works…

Diamond’s Cypher, Static cast Electroshock over by Harker.  It did no damage as it was an Area of Effect, but when Harker Activated, he would trigger the AOE effect and lose any Buffs he had as well as suffer Damage 4.

Harker activated (and got Zapped – took 4 damage) and Gained a Held Esper as he could draw Line-Of-Sight to his Cypher.    Held Esper can be used as 2 Esper points of any colour you chose, when you want it.  Harker then ran towards a friendly Objective and placed a Sabotage Marker on it, then hid behind a container during his follow-up move.

Harker Sabotages an Objective and Hides!

The Diamond’s Tank activated, moved forward, shot at and damaged the Broadside (5 Damage) then scooted behind a canister for cover.

The Broadside moved behind a container of his own and shot back at the Tank, but due to my screwy rules reading, I misunderstood how cover worked and ended up reducing my damage output BADLY!  I only managed to put 1 damage point on the tank!

(READ THE RULES!!!)

The Diamond Corps took another shot at the Corsairs, and killed 2 more Corsairs.

Corps Shoot More Corsairs!

The Corsairs shot right back and killed 2 more Corps Members.

Corsairs Return the Favour!

Magnus activated and Gained a Held Esper as he could draw Line-Of-Sight to his Cypher.  Magnus then moved towards Hawker and once he could draw LOS, he used Esper Overload to cause Hawker extra damage as the Pirate had Held Esper – causing another 8 Damage points, leaving Harker VERY hurt (I think I had 1 or 2 Damage Points left)!

Harker Activated but couldn’t see his Cypher this time, so no extra Esper for him.  Harker moved out and shot the last Corps member using I’ll Take That – then pressed Reave & Lifeleech which allowed Harker to recover 3 Damage Points (that felt better) and gained an Extra Held Esper for killing the model.

Harker Kills The Last Corpsman
&
Gains Some Healing!

The Diamond’s Tank came out from cover and blasted the Broadside (it had only 1 damage point left – I hadn’t even bothered to pull it from the Idle pile as I knew it wouldn’t last long enough to do anything).  The tank then took cover behind another cargo container.

Broadside Goes Down In Flames

The Corsairs moved out and placed another Sabotage token on an Enemy Secondary Objective.

Magnus moved towards the Corsairs and target them with Electric Blast – killing one Corsair and pushing the other 4” away.

Magnus Kills a Corsair

The Cypher Caesar activates and stole a Held Esper from Magnus, then flew out of sight!

The Tank continues driving towards the opposite table edge, and finally completed its move to the Opposite Board Edge, dropped their Life Token and claimed the Secondary Objective complete (3 VPs).

Harker moved out to get a Clear Line Of Sight and in desperation fires Command Shot, then presses it to increase the damage to 9 points.  The Tank’s armour reduced the damage down to 6 – not enough damage to stop the tank!  The Attack used up the last of Harker’s Held Esper.

Magnus then used Esper Overload on Harker again.  Fortunately, by dumping his Held Esper previously, Harker saved his own life – though he was down to 1 damage point!

The Last Corsair took a shot at Magnus with Lead Tooth, and damaged the Diamond Knight.

Corsair Bravely Shoots Magnus!

<I lost track of an activation here – my tablet’s power died and I changed over to my cell’s note app.  Sorry!>

Harker Activated and charged Magnus with Relentless, pressed the attack for 7 damage and overrun 6”.  (Overrun pushes the target away, then the attacker follows the same distance – maintaining contact.)  The attack wasn’t powerful enough – it only did 5 damage Points due to Armour and left Magnus Alive!

Magnus wasted no time.  Cast Esper Overload on Harker and kills the hapless Corsair Knight.  With his master down, Caesar flies away and left a single, solitaire Corsair on the battlefield.

Magnus Takes Down Harker

I conceded the game at this point.

End Of Game!

Black Diamond Victory!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So, First Game, very different, lots of Fun!

I Like the Esper deck mechanic.  I’ve simplified things greatly here, but you should get the general idea how things work.  The models are nice.  The rules seem complete.  The basic rules are simple, but there are a bunch of Minor rules or “Abilities” to try to learn and remember.  The good news is that they’re all together in the back of the rule book – you don’t have to go digging through multiple sections for them.  It sounds complicated at first, but once you start getting into it, the activations go quickly.

The Basic Boxes all include 1 Knight, a Cypher, a unit of multiple Minions and a single Minion (plus the Tracking and Reference cards for each).  More importantly, you get the Esper Deck (with reference cards for Scenarios, various special rules and Esper Manipulation, damage card for the Objectives and a Token Tracker) and a bag of tokens – giving everything you need for a game – EXCEPT TERRAIN!

Speaking of which, Relic Knights is a very terrain intensive game.  If you’re familiar with Infinity (and why aren’t you?), then you’re looking at that scale or DENSER!  They recommend 2-3 pieces of terrain per Square foot!  Half of it tall enough to block larger models (Humans are Size 2 – they recommend blocking LOS for Size 3).

Most of the box sets seem ok – I can see why you want to buy more units quickly.  The Knights are usually ok, but some of the other units are “Meh” to Poor.  For example, the Broadside for the Corsairs has a poor reputation, but everyone seems to like the versatility of the Corsair unit and recommend multiple units.

No matter what Faction you chose, I would recommend everyone get the basic box set.  Play a game or two, then start filling out your army.

Bonus Marks Soda Pop Miniatures for additional support.  They’ve released a Cadre Builder and Digital Dashboard for use on both Android and Apple Tablets & Phones.  The cost is quite reasonable and you can purchase the Digital Rulebook as well for extra.  I don’t know if they will extend this to Windows, but we can hope so.

Screen Shots of Digital App On Android!

Anyway, I like the game and I'm going to recommend it.  I’m looking forward to my next game!

Hope you enjoyed this write-up!

Product Review: Fantasy Flights' Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures

Happy Star Wars Day!

May the Force be with you!

Real Life has been keeping me busy with a new job hunt as has a number of family issues.  So, I’ve been bad and haven’t been playing many games.  Sorry!

Instead, I’ll leave you a Product Review of Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars X-Wing Miniature game.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . . .

I was a Kid when the “First” Star Wars movie was released.  You “Young Ones” know it as Episode IV – A New Hope.  And yes, Han Shot First!!!

Zooming around in an X Wing Fighter, blasting away Imperial Tie Fighters was a past time we all did at some time or another.  At least, in our minds we did.

THIS was the game I wanted as a kid!  WHY, oh WHY did you take so long?!?!?

So What Is It?

If you haven’t heard of this game – what rock have you been hiding under?

X-Wing is a Ship-to-Ship combat game, specifically designed for Fighters in the Star Wars Universe.  Battles tend to be Fighters vs Fighters, but Fantasy Flight have added larger ships to the game.  Presently, there are “Normal” ships such as fighters, “Large” Ships which include the Millennium Falcon, Slave 1, etc, and finally the Huge Ships such as the Rebel Blockade Runner and the Rebel Transport (which aren’t normally legal in most games). 

In a “Standard” or Tournament game, players have 100 points to spend on various vessels and their Pilots, with options and upgrades available for most every ship.  Larger games are possible, but 100pts is standard.  Each Vessel selected has a card that shows the ship and pilot’s stats, including:

• Pilot Skill or Initiative
• Firepower
• Evasiveness (Dodging)
• Hull Points
• Shields 
• List of Actions available
• Description of Pilot & Ship or Special Rules
• Options Bar
• Points Value

Players will also need a miniature of the vessel with the appropriate faceplate on the base.  Players receive option cards when they buy their ships.  Most cards can be used with any appropriate ship but some do have restrictions (actually printed on the cards, such as “Rebel Only”).  These cards generally give added capabilities to the ships, such as a secondary weapon or special skills or crew.  Each card has a value as well which will affect the total point cost of the ship.

Once players have their ships, their cards and their options figured out, the game (usually) plays on a 3’ X 3’ surface, though extra space will be required to lay out the cards to track damage, etc.  A standard 4’ X 4’ card table would be an ideal surface.  Unlike many Fighter Games, X-Wing is played on a “plain” surface – No Hexes!  Debris and asteroids can be (and should be) placed on the table to break up lines of fire and maneuvering.

One disadvantage (?) is that each player must buy the Starter Box set which contains 2 Tie Fighters, 1 X-Wing Fighter, Appropriate Flight Stands, Card Stock Turn/Maneuver templates, Upgrade cards, special X-Wing dice and, most Important – the Damage Cards.  In theory, you can purchase everything else singularly (there are a couple of 3^rd party Maneuver templates, Range Rulers and various Tokens), but to the best of my knowledge, you can only get the Damage Cards in the Starter Box Set.  This isn’t actually a disadvantage as the box set pays for itself by virtual of having 3 Plastic Fighters (all pre-painted and assembled, BTW) that everyone usually wants.  In fact, most people will end up buying at least 2 box sets to start their fleets.

To expand your Fleets, individual fighters and ships (and their appropriate cards and flight stands) are available in blister packs so that you can pick and choose which and how many of each ship you want in your collection.  If you want to do Rebels Only fleet, you can (except for the 2 Ties you got stuck with when you bought the Starter Box)!  You could probably find an Imperial Player to trade your Ties with…

A standard game is 100 Points.  That will be 2-4 X-Wings vs 4-8 Tie Fighters – dependent on the pilots that are taken and special upgrades on either side.  Y-Wings, A-Wings, Tie Advance, Tie Interceptors and many more fighters are available.  Large ships, such as the Imperial Shuttle, The Millennium Falcon and Slave 1 are typically in the 35 – 60pts, depending on pilots and options.  So some fleets are seeing 1 or 2 large ships with a couple of fighters as escorts.  A recent addition has been “Scum and Villainy” – a 3^rd “Fleet Choice” so that you are not limited to just the Rebels and Imperials.

Game Play:

Players deploy their ships within Rang Band 1 of their opposite table edges.

Typical Deployment

Range Ruler Verifying Correct Setup

Each turn, Movement is pre-plotted.  Each ship has a Maneuver Dial that has all the available maneuvers permitted for that ship.  

Maneuver Dials for Tie & X-Wing Fighters

The player first sets the Maneuver Dial to the maneuver that he wants to perform.  Once every one has placed all their dials beside all the ships, the maneuvers are revealed and performed, Lowest Pilot Skill first to highest.  Ships are moved using Special Templates that fit into notches placed into the front and rear of the flight stands.  Holding the Template still, you move the ship base along the template and place it at the other end.  If at the end of the move, there would be over-lap on another ship’s base – you stop just as the moving ship’s base makes contact with other base.  In this case, the moving ship loses its Action.  If you can move the entire distance and place the base without overlapping, then the pilot has a number of choices for an action.  Not all ships have access to all the actions (in fact, I don’t think ANY ship has ALL available actions available to it).  These actions could be an extra maneuver, enhanced targeting, evasive maneuvering, etc…

Maneuvering Templates

Movement Revealed - Template In Use

Shooting is done after all the ships have completed their maneuvers and are resolved in Reverse Order!  Best Pilot Skill shoot first!  Ranges are measured using Range Rulers which provide bonuses for shooting or evading (or NOT!) based on the distances.  Special CUSTOM Red Dice are rolled to determine whether the shooter hits (number of dice dependent on the ship and weapons) and the defender rolls CUSTOM Green Dice (again, number dependent on the ship and bonuses) to try to evade.  If hits “hit”, you remove shield markers until they’re gone and then you draw damage cards from the Damage deck and place it by the ship’s stat card (off Table).  There are two types of Hits – standard and Crits!  Standard Hits, the card is placed face down by the Stat card and counts as 1 hit and removes 1 Hull Point.  When a ship has no more hull, it is destroyed.  If you rolled a crit and all shields are down, the Damage Card is placed Face-Up beside the stat card and extra effects are placed on the damaged ship.

A Wing is shot at and takes damage...
Green Dice failed to evade hits
Shields absorb 2 hits and the hull takes 1 Hit & 1 Crit!

Repeat Ad Nausea…

The winner is the one that completes the mission (usually who killed the most points though escort mission and cargo retrieval are other options).  Players can make up their own objectives if you want.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If I were to compare it to other games, it would play and feel be similar to both “Wings of War/Glory” and “Check Your 6!”.  Maneuvers are planned in advance, shooting is opportunistic and the excitement level is about the same.  The real difference between these systems is how the ships are moved.  Wings of Glory uses a card system with lines drawn on the cards as their movement template and Check Your 6! uses a hex-map and movement charts.  The X-Wing Maneuver Templates is different, but perform the same function. 

The Maneuver Templates are based on Speeds labeled 1 through 5.  There are “Banks” that change the ship’s facing ~ 45 degrees and “Turns” that change the ship’s facing 90 degrees.  Banks and Turns are only available for speeds 1-3.  As you can probably figure out, that makes 11 Templates that you need to play the game!  It’s kind of awkward when you first start playing, but after a while, players develop an “organization” skill to help them keep track of them.  Every once in a while, someone will still misplace a particular template and game play stops as players try to find it…   ;-)

The good news is that Ship “Classes” tend to be to scale to each other.  While the Fighters are to scale to other fighters and larger ships are in proportion to other large ships, the scale is kinda skewed to make the larger ships playable on the same sized battle zone as with fighters.  There is a 3^rd ship size class: “Huge” Ships.  So far, there are 3: The Rebel Transport, the Rebel Blockade Runner and an Imperial Gunship (just being released about now).  Again, they are not proportional to fighters but are “supposed” to be proportional to each other.  Huge ships are not for standard games and don’t belong on a 3’ X 3’ table, so I won’t discuss them here.  Maybe some other time…

Pros:

• This is the game every kid wanted when the movies were first released!  COOL Factor = 10+ (out of 10)
• The Ships are well detailed and painted (Though many seem to like repainting them)
• “Regular” 100 Point game can be played on a smaller table! (3’ X 3’)
• Rules are available for Free Download
• Starter box contains everything you need to start playing
• Very Popular – should be no problem finding opponents
• Simple Rules with Many Ships & Multiple Options for ships = many unique engagements!
• Each Ship blister has everything you need to use that ship PLUS SOME optional (and sometimes unique) Upgrades
• Lots of web support from both Fantasy Flight & 3^rd Party Programmers

Cons:

• Players need to buy the Starter Box just to get a Damage Deck – everything else available separately through Fantasy Flight or 3^rd party vendors
• Specific Upgrade Cards are available only when purchasing specific models.  For many tournaments – you MUST have original card!  This means you May need to buy ships (or more of them) than you want to, just to get the cards you want for other ships!
• Uses Custom Dice – if you lose them, you’ll need to buy Fantasy Flight’s Dice Packs or another Starter Set
• Each Blister, while complete with cards, etc, is costly -  Imperial Fleets making “Swarms” of 8 ships will be more costly ($$$) than Rebels (typically)
• Unless you’re just collecting 1 of each, you NEVER want just 1 of each model, meaning more $$$
• Some Models are very fragile (X-Wing’s Laser Cannons for example)
• “Codex Creep”: Ships have been released in “Waves”.  Some newer ”wave” ships make older wave ships less useful or appear over-priced or less desirable
• A lot of “Rock – Paper – Scissors” in competitive play.  Many Internet lists abound
• Collecting models will take up a Lot of space

Overall: Costly but Fun – Recommended ONLY if you can afford it!

Like most miniature games, X-Wing can become very expensive, very fast if you don’t limit yourself.  While you can probably get started and have a viable 100 point force for less than $150 (Canadian), it won’t stay that cheap for long.  Fighters range from $12 - $17 (cdn) depending on where you go.  Large Ships are typically in the $40 - $60 range (though you don't need as many of these).

This is one of those games that really is a collector’s game as you’ll never have all or enough of all the ships to please yourself.  Once you're caught up, fantasy Flight is sure to release another wave!

Still, it’s cheaper starting out than something like 40k or Warhammer Fantasy and their typical 1500 - 2500 point tournament lists…

Any way, a fun game that I would recommend unless one of the cons is an absolute no-go for you.

Have fun.  May The Force Be With You!