It was a Thursday morning back in June 2018. Josh – my friend and colleague – met me at my home at 9:00 AM for our first X-Wing Miniatures dogfight. It is no coincidence that Josh’s last name is “Green,” because “green” is what we both were when it came to X-Wing. I had the Fantasy Flight Games’ Bespin 3×3 neoprene playmat setup on the dining room table, and the “blue” Core Set ships set out. I let Josh pick which ship(s) he wanted to fly, and he chose the Empire. That meant I was flying the X-Wing, much to my delight (I am a Rebel after all), so I took to explaining the basic rules, setting up the ships, handing out tokens, and prepping the board. The featured image of this post is from that morning as I waited for Josh to arrive.

We played the tutorial mission outlined in the rulebook, which excludes the asteroids and any upgrade cards. Why, you may ask? Simple, we did not have a clue how to fly these ships. No matter how many videos you watch online to teach you the game, there is nothing quite like grabbing the maneuver templates yourself and flying the ships around the board. Anyway, the dual went about as good as we could have expected: Josh flew one of the TIE’s right off the edge of the mat, and I blew the other right out of space with a four-die range one attack from behind. He never so much as nicked the X-Wing’s paint. We set up for a second sortie, this time adding in the asteroids, and the results increased in hilarity as both of us proceeded to “overlap” – the term used when you run into another ship or obstacle – the asteroids and each other in a game more resembling Bumper Ships than dogfighting! When the dust settled, both TIE’s fell victim to the red blast of the X-Wing’s laser cannons. But even though Josh lost epically to me, we both found a joy in this game unlike any other board game to date. Here’s a picture from our next get-together where he played a more bold Empire list with the VT-49 Decimator and Darth Vader in the TIE Advanced x1! He ended up “pulling a Josh” by flying the Decimator right off the edge of the board again! It’s tough learning how to maneuver the larger ships, at first.

Let me back up a moment, though, and tell you how Josh and I came to dogfight that fateful morning. I had only entered into the X-Wing Miniatures game community in May 2018 when I traded in a rather large and valuable Magic: The Gathering collection from my high school years. The collection fetched a value of nearly $3,000 USD, if I took the “store credit” option. Of course, not wanting to lose money by taking straight-up cash, I racked up the store credit and spent it nearly as fast! I walked away with a sizable collection of X-Wing packs, including all of the epic ship packs, bases, playmats, dials, and dice. I did not spend the entire amount on X-Wing, but enough to build lists (e.g. fleets) with all three factions. The pic on the left is the shopping cart filled with the cards and comics I traded in; the pic on the right is only part of the first haul!

Only then did I realize that this game is not very fun to play solo…I had not heard about Heroes of the Aturi Cluster yet. In other words, I knew I needed a partner with whom to play. My wife still has not yet embraced the goodness that is X-Wing, but I hope that changes someday. Much to my surprise, Josh agreed to start meeting with me weekly to learn to play, and he has had as great of a time with it as I have.

Since all this happened, Fantasy Flight announced X-Wing 2.0 (the second edition). At first I panicked when I heard the news. I remember sitting on a couch one May evening in Amman, Jordan, where I had traveled for work, and a Facebook message popped up: “Did you hear? X-Wing 2.0 is coming.” My heart sank. I just spent over $1,500 on 1.0 ships and accessories! I hurriedly asked the store owner if I could return anything, but he told me not to worry. Conversion kits are coming that will make all 1.0 ships and upgrades 2.0-ready. Whew!

My first hyperspace jump into X-Wing Miniatures has been an amazing journey into board-gaming. In fact, X-Wing became the gateway game to the larger world that is modern board-gaming. Ready your Rebel Starfighters, steady your Empire Reapers, and scramble your Scum Kimogilas, and I will see you in a galaxy far, far away! In my next post, I am going to document my first foray into the campaign deliciousness that is Heroes of the Aturi Cluster, because it has been nothing short of brilliant in every way! Fly casual out there!