X-Wing Miniatures Game: Wave IX review

With Star Wars spin-off Rogue One set to hit cinema screens on December 16th, Fantasy Flight has brought some of the movie’s ships to its X-Wing Miniatures Game line-up, as well as adding vehicles from last year’s The Force Awakens and the wider sci-fi universe.

From last year’s film comes the Special Forces TIE, with the pack including four pilots and five upgrades, with the ship able to equip both a system and tech advancement simultaneously. Similar in design to its fellow First Order TIEs, the fighter is actually a little bit slower with one fewer agility point but better defended thanks to two extra shield tokens. The free Special Ops Training Title adds a bonus attack die to a shot from the primary arc, with players optionally able to fire ahead and behind in the same round. A missile can also be equipped.

Joining the evil side is the Protectorate Starfighter, hailing from animated TV series Star Wars Rebels. The ship is best at short distances, with four cards activating at Range 1, and counters a lack of shields with three attack, three ability and four hull points. Six ship cards and two upgrades accompany the pack.

Also from Rebels comes the Shadow Caster, a large ship with a new mechanic in the mobile firing arc, represented by a swivelling cardboard arrow that is set to a quadrant and rotated using the relevant action. It helps to shake up some of X-Wing’s gameplay and make the ship stand out as a unique addition to a team, bolstered by its ability to drop debris on the game board and utilise a tractor beam.

Finally, the ARC-170 first appeared in Episode III and later in the Clone Wars series, but arrives in X-Wing with the choice of Shara Bey, the mother of The Force Awaken’s Poe Dameron, as a pilot. The ship can be frustrating to fly against opponents such as the TIEs given that its green manoeuvres only extend to 1 and 2 speeds, but does benefit from boosting its 2 attack power with the Alliance Overhaul upgrade to add an extra die to its forward cannon or change a Focus result to a Critical with its auxiliary attack. When it hits, it hits hard – if you can catch up with anything, that is.

As you might expect from Fantasy Flight's X-Wing release at this point, all of the models are well modelled and finished, with the ARC-170 a particular standout for its unique shape and colour scheme.

Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games

Price: £13.99–£36.99

Website: fantasyflightgames.com