There have been a lot of recent announcements from Fantasy Flight Games outlining what’s coming in the new Wave 9 expansion packs. I was considering doing a review of these but decided those articles cover the contents quite well and there isn’t really much I could add until they are actually released. We’ve looked at X-wing expanion packs in general by faction (Rebel, Scum, Imperial). Those articles will be updated soon with all the ships released since.

But one thing we haven’t really looked at in much detail is each individual expansion pack. So today we’re going to start a look back at each of the old expansion packs and how they currently fit into the present meta. To start us off, we’re not even really going to look at an expansion pack at all but the original core box.

What’s Included

This list includes everything you get with the box. Anything unique to only this box is marked in italics.

Ships

X-Wing

TIE Fighter (x2)

Pilots

•Luke Skywalker

•Biggs Darklighter

Red Squadron Pilot

Rookie Pilot

•”Mauler Mithel”

•”Dark Curse”

•”Night Beast”

Black Squadron Pilot (x2)

Obsidian Squadron Pilot (x2)

Academy Pilot (x2)

Upgrades

Determination (EPT)

Marksmanship (EPT)

•R2-D2 (Astromech)

•R2-F2 (Astromech)

Proton Torpedoes (Torpedo)

Other

Core components to play the game (range rules, movement templates, asteroids, tokens)

Flight Stats

The rebel pilots included in this pack are still fairly useful. Luke Skywalker is, of course, an iconic character you’ll probably want to put on the table at some point. He’s pretty strong defensively though doesn’t see much use currently due to the flaws in the X-wings basic stats*. Biggs is the most viable of the two as his ability to dictate your opponent’s actions is always useful.

As for the Imperial pilots, they have been mostly outshined by new TIE Pilots. Darkcurse is quite annoying to have to kill so is probably the most valuable. Mauler Mithel comes in second as any chance to add dice to your attack is useful. Plus being PS 7 with an EPT can make him fill a number of different roles. But in general, if you’re flying a TIE Fighter it is probably one of the generics for the pure point efficiency.

Loadout

The Elite Pilot Talents included in this box do not see a lot of use these days. Determination can be helpful as a cheap extra safety net for some valuable ships but it’s not unique to this box. Outside of a few corner cases Marksmanship sees almost no use due to it’s high cost.

The droids, on the other hand, are a different story. For starters, they are unique so you can’t find them anywhere else. If you want R2-D2 on a fighter, you need this box. And R2-D2 is one of the most valuable Astromech upgrades in the game. He’s pricey but worth every point as he’s one of only a handful of ways to recover from damage dealt. There are multiple squadrons you can build which make good use of R2-D2.

R2-F2 on the other hand does not see a lot of use. That’s not to say he’s worthless however. Using Push the Limits or Experimental Interface with him is a good way make a really defensive ship. But due to the cost and unreliability of green dice it’s not done very often.

Is it still worth getting*?

Yes.

While there are now two Core sets, and the new Force Awakens one includes the more up-to-date rule book, better maneuver templates and a better damage deck the original core still has good value. Buying one of each will give you an ideal collection of dice, a spare set of maneuver templates so you can play with a friend and the full collection of asteroids to choose from. It is a also good way to quickly flesh out your available ships. Having multiple TIE fighters are useful to beef up almost any Imperial squadron. R2-D2 is one of the best Astromech upgrades out there which can be used on X-Wings, Y-Wings, T-70’s and E-Wings

*This is an opinion only and looks primarily at the ship’s position in the competitive tournament meta.

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