Unboxing! X-Wing Second Edition Core Set
Your Friendly X-Wing Pilot: Binksy
With less then a week to go until the release of Star Wars: X-Wing Second Edition, I had the chance to get hold of a copy of the core set early (thank you, Wayland Games) so I could tell you all about it!
What I have written below is an early review of my thoughts on the changes compared to X-Wing 1.0.
First and foremost, I can confirm that the core set is basically the same as the two first edition core sets released for X-Wing.
Inside you will get the following items:
- a rule book
- a set if manoeuvre templates
- a set of attack and evade dice (3 of each)
- a damage deck
- a set of pilot and upgrade cards
- enough tokens for your ships and upgrades
- movement dials for each ship
- and, more importantly, the ships! Included in the core set, you get two Imperial Tie Fighters and one Rebel X-Wing.
The Second Edition Core Set has an RRP of around the £36 mark, similar in price to the previous core sets - it’s nice to see that there is no difference there - and, due to the amount of gaming ‘stuff’ you get in it, I think it’s great value for money.
Now to what you’re really here for - how the game plays. Yes, there are some differences to how your games of X-Wing will play BUT (and this is important) this makes the game fairer (and better) than the older version.
There have clearly been some cosmetic changes. Each manoeuvre template and ship base have been marked with centre lines and centre etchings, this is to help players when moving ships into position (especially when they have bumped into another ship). With these new centre lines and etchings you can easily line them up and move your ship into the correct position.
Next up, the way you build and create lists has changed. The biggest change is the addition of "Threat" cards for each pilot. These cards have a predefined set of upgrades for each pilot - the benefit being you can set up a basic game quickly. Each pilot has a threat level denoted by filled sections on a threat meter, for example "Luke Skywalker" has 3 sections filled in where as an imperial "Academy Pilot" only has one.
To make a list, each player makes a squad of pilots working towards a certain threat level. So, for a demo game, one player would use Luke (threat level 3) and the other player would use the academy pilot (threat level 1) and another pilot (threat level 2) to have a combined overall level of 3.
Upgrade cards and tokens have also changed. The majority of the tokens have remained from 1.0 but there are new tokens that have all new abilities!
For example, the new "Proton Torpedo" upgrade card has been amended from a single use card to having two surges. For all you torpedo fans out there this means you are now able to use them on two separate occasions, increasing its potential! This doesn’t mean that all upgrades have been increased - far from it. The previously limitless "R2-D2" upgrade card has been changed to have 3 surge tokens, meaning you can only gain a maximum of 3 shields per game!
Another token new to 2.0 is the "Force Token". These tokens can be used to either change a single "focus" result on an attack/evade dice to a hit/evade result or be used in conjunction with upgrade cards or abilties to perform other game effects. An example of this would using a token to trigger the force ability "Instinctive Aim" to ignore the "Target Lock" or "Focus" token requirement on a special weapon.
The ships contained within this core set have also been updated. The Tie Fighter's have their individual guns painted but the greater change is seen on the X-Wing model. They now have movable wings that can either be open or closed, so you can really geek off with "lock your wings in attack position" as ordered by Red Leader.
New pilots, moves and upgrades freshen up the potentially ageing system for a new and exciting way to play. I cannot wait to get stuck in fully when the core set and conversion kits are released.
Please note: At the time of writing, the Star Wars X-Wing app and conversion kits were not available. I’ll be back with a full review of X-Wing 2.0 once it's been fully released.
Take a look at the rules from the Fantasy Flight Games website now:
Star Wars: X-Wing Second Edition Rulebook
