Review of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game

Alright then... so that's the card (board?) game players and miniature game players taken care of. But what about roleplayers? Fear not! Next up are my review of FFG's recently released Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game (or just Beginner Game for short). You noticed I wrote review and not first impressions like I said earlier. As I kept writing the whole thing simply became a bit too comprehensive for some mere first impressions so I decided to give it the proper review treatment. While I haven't actually played it yet I think my grip on the system and the setting is firm enough to warrant it. :)

Back since that announcement, yes you know which one I'm talking about by now, the game I was most interested to hear about was a new Star Wars rpg. I had a gut feeling that FFG might try and develop the system they created for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd ed. further, as it had a certain cinematic feel to it. In August last year FFG announced the new rpg and the beta prior to its release. After reading the preview I discovered that my hunch had been correct and the game would indeed use the WFRP3 system at its core. Good news I thought, as I quite like WFRP3!

FFG decided to do a big beta project to get input from the player community and although I didn't participate directly I read a lot about it and wrote down my thoughts on the game.  From what it seemed Edge of the Empire would indeed be using a refined version of the WFRP3 system; refined meaning some changes in the rules but mainly the removal of the huge amount of tokens and cards that WFRP3 was built on. Now, I like the idea of the cards and tokens - to have everything at your fingertips, and not need to flip through books - but with new cards and tokens being added with every expansion it soon became bloated and unwieldy. In fact I think "card fatigue" was one of the reasons our WFRP3 campaign kind of fizzled out after we finished The Gathering Storm. But streamlining an already solid system seemed great to me! Of course, new rules had to be added as well and character creation and evolvement have changed drastically from WFRP3. 

Now the main rulebook has still not been released, although it was recently "officially" announced, and we probably won't see it for another few months. To tide us over until then, and help attract non-rpg players, FFG has released the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game. A box including a slimmed down version of the rulebook, some pre-generated characters, an introductory adventure, dice and... some tokens(!). While I don't fit into the category of non-roleplayer who need to be lured into the fold, I do fit into the category of veteran roleplayer who gets way to excited about something and who doesn't have the patience to wait for the real deal. :)

So when the Beginner Box was released in late December I simply had to order a copy.


What You Get in the Box

Apologies for the many stock images. Didn't have time to take any pictures.

I mentioned briefly what you get in the box, but lets have a closer look. What first might catch your eye is a leaflet with the text "Read This First" at the top. I'll admit to not doing this as it's simply another "what is roleplaying?" text with an example of play. Good for someone completely new to the concept though. On the backside is the opening crawl of for the adventure 'Escape from Mos Shuuta' which is a pretty neat idea. Then there's the actual 32 page adventure book which is labeled "Read This Second". Finally there's the 48 page rulebook with the label "Read This Last". The idea is to be able to get started quickly as all the essential rules are introduced gradually in the adventure.

Besides books (and leaflet) there are four very nice looking pre-made character folders. They are all four pages with a full page cover art of the character and her backstory on the last page. Four pages might seem like a lot but the idea is that you'll flip to the next page when your character levels up, unlocking new abilities etc through XP. There is also a large fold out map, which I think might have been the main reason I bought this box. I love maps! On one side is the top down view of the interior of the Krayt Fang, a YT-1300 freighter the characters are trying to get hold of (it's got a Wampa rug!). On the other side are one larger map of Mos Shuuta and two smaller map of the local cantina and spaceport control. They all look very nice and are reminiscent of the excellent Mos Eisley map from WEG's old game.

An rpg without dice is a rare beast indeed, and the Beginner Game comes with a decent assortment of the special dice you will need when playing. 14 in total of seven different varieties. Again, if you are familiar with WFRP3 they will be fairly familiar, although there are some changes to how the dice system works. Finally there is a sheet of tokens you can punch out and use during the game. They consist of tokens for the player characters and the enemies they might encounter (including spaceships) as well as Destiny Point tokens that are used to keep track of the how many light or dark side Destiny Points are in play (they are doublesided).

On a final note I'm sad to report that the actual box this all comes in is simply rubbish. It's a packaging box - for delivery of the content to the store/customer - not a storage box - for the customer to keep the content in after she's purchased it. This is a shame as I thought I might use it as a general Star Wars rpg storage box, not I'll probably end up throwing it away instead. Sadface.


The Content

Alright, those are the physical components, but what I think you all are more interested in is the actual content of the game. Let's have a look at the rulebook first, and go through a very brief rules explanation.

When playing the game you roll a pool made up of the special dice mentioned above. As you assemble your pool you'll start with the positive dice - for your Ability and Skill scores plus circumstantial benefits you might be enjoying - and then you add the negative dice as instructed by the GM - for the difficulty and circumstantial disadvantages. You roll them all together and look at all the different symbols that come up. Most of the time a positive symbol of a certain kind have a respective negative symbol and the two cancel eachother out, so after you've taken the canceled dice out you're left with the net result. If you've managed to score more Success symbols than Failure symbols you have succeded in your attempt.

It doesn't stop there though as you might have succeded but still rolled a bunch of Threat symbols, meaning you succeded but with some detrimental side effect. The flipside is also true and you could fail but roll enough Advantage symbols to still manage to get some kind of advantage out of the situation. There are also Triumph and Despair symbols that are kind of like stronger versions of Advantages and Threats. Check the nearby table for more detailed descriptions.

Then there's the 12 sided Force die.... which is mystical. It isn't actually used in the Beginner game except for generating Destiny points at the beginning of each session. It's interesting since it can result in either light or dark side points, the twist being that there are more sides with dark side points, but the sides with light side points have higher values. This very much goes with the dark side not being stronger but quicker, easier, more seductive. Light Destiny points can be used by the players to boost their rolls, while dark Destiny points can be used by the GM. But when used by either the Destiny Point token is flipped over to the other side, so if the players use up all the remainging light Destiny points the GM have them all available to herself as dark Destiny points! A pretty cool balancing mechanic that seems in line with the whole Force thing. While I'm glad there are no jedi in this game (yet) I'm definitely looking forward to reading the force rules in the full rulebook!

So yeah... that's a lot of text just about the dice. But the thing is, if you get how the dice works you pretty much get the entire system. The rest is rather basic stuff: you have primary abilities, skills that enhance those abilities and talents that allow you to break the rules and do some cool stuff! When damaged you suffer physical Wounds and/or Strain which is more akin to exhaustion. You can also elect to suffer Strain voluntarily to get more maneuvers during combat.

Some of the tokens you get in the box.

It's pretty far from rules heavy (and rules strict!) systems like D20. In fact I think it has more in common with the modern indie rpg movement as it's very easy to play fast and loose and simply adjust on the fly and not get bogged down in detail; "That Stormtrooper shot out the lights. Ok, that means you have to roll an extra Setback die when attacking". I was going to say that the system is a bit abstracted, but I actually don't think it is. You might see it as abstract if all you've ever played is D&D with its grids and modifier minutae, but compared to most other rpgs I've read and played I'd say it's fairly middle of the road. It's abstracted in a way I think rpgs should be abstracted, that is to say it doesn't matter if the Rodian bounty hunter is 6.5 or 7 meters away, it simply matters that she's close. If I want that kind of tactical grid-infested play I'll go and pull out my copy of Descent or fire up SWTOR.

Sorry, going off on a tangent there.

The rulebook covers the basic of gameplay but doesn't go into character creation at all and, seeing as this is a beginner's game, the chapters on talents and character evolvement are quite short. However, there is a chapter on spaceships and spaceship combat which I was pleasantly surprised by! At the end of the book are chapters for equipment, starships and NPCs and I think the book actually includes more stuff than would strictly be needed for a beginner game. If you really wanted to this could last you quite some time - as long as you have the imagination to come up with further adventures.


The Adventure

Speaking of adventures... I haven't actually read Escape from Mos Shuuta. I flipped through it quickly just to get a sense of the layout and I read the 'How to Use This Book' section but that's about it. The things is, I dind't want to spoil it as there's a chance that I might actually get to play it! However, from what I have gathered from people who have played it and the backstory for the player characters it's centered around escaping Teemo the Hutt and aqcuiring a spacehip to make it off Tattooine. The adventure is quite short, usually lasting around two or three hours, which is probably the perfect lenght for a demo, but there's a much longer sequal available for download from FFG called 'The Long Arm of the Hutt' which should provide a couple more sessions at least.


The Characters

The four characters included in the box are Oskara the twi'lek Bounty Hunter, 41-VEX the droid Colonist, Pash the human Smuggler and Lowhhrick the wookiee Hired Gun. I wasn't sure what to expect of the pre-gens, but I ended up quite liking them! Their backstories are just the right length and have just the right tone for you to quickly get the characters. Are they slightly stereotypical? Yes, but in a good way; a way that allow new players to quickly find something familiar to latch on to.

Pash's character folder. Click for larger view.

The character folders of course include the character sheet with all the stats, but also explanations of what everything is and how the dice symbols work. It's all quite clearly laid out and should make it very easy for new players to get into the game. Flip the page and you've got an updated character sheet where you can choose and fill in your first character development(s). On the final page is a another character sheet with more space for filling in upgrades and the first start of that character's talent tree. Basically this makes it possible to play with the character and level her up a few levels before you'd need the main rulebook. Again, this is something FFG could probably have gotten away with leaving out entirely, so having it included is a nice bonus.

It bears mentioning again that the art is absolutely spectacular! FFG is known for having beautiful looking products but their new line of Star Wars games (that share art, naturally) might be my favourite so far. There is mostly new art, but now and then you come across something from an older game or one of Ralph Mcquarrie's pieces of concept art and it all blends well together. Awesome!

Oh I almost forgot! There are two more characters available for download from FFG if you have more than four players in your group, Sasha the Explorer and Mathus the Technician, both humans.


My Thoughts

I think Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game is a pretty good product. If you belong to the target group of people new to roleplaying (or perhaps people new to non-D20 roleplaying). It's got a surprisingly comprehensive starter rulebook, well rounded characters that can be developed further and an adventure that (I hear) is a good introduction to roleplaying. What more could you want as a teenager just exploring this new medium?

On the other hand, if you are a rpg veteran like myself this is more of an appetizer as you wait for the main course and had the core rulebook been released on the same day I don't think I would have bought the beginner box. Although I'd love to play or run the adventure and the downloadable follow up, in the end I think what I will find continual use for in the future is the dice, the map and perhaps the tokens. On the third hand, it is a good rpg introduction and I could easily see myself running this as a demo for roleplaying in general more than once. And I've enjoyed reading through it and kind of getting warmed up for the core book that I'm assuming will be released in May or June. So for me I feel the box was worth the investment.

As for the system itself, I like it. They've taken the good things from WFRP3, left the baggage and streamlined it. In this game you won't end up with the huuuge dice pools of WFRP3 as you often upgrade or downgrade dice instead of simply adding more dice to the mix, meaning the size of the pool stay more or less constant. Difficulty is also a bit more fluid instead of the standard one difficulty die of WFRP3. I also like the Destiny Point system as its dual nature forces the players to really think about when to use it (because they know it'll come back and bite them in the ass!).

There are of course things missing form this paired down rulebook. While I didn't expect character generation to be in their I was a little surprised that Obligations didn't make it. Obligations in the main game is something every character have, it could be a dept or a promise or simply baggage that your character starts out with. It adds to the characters background but also figures in play as there as the Obligation in question can turn up when least expected - you run into a bounty hunter working for that Quarrian you owe money.

The full talent tree from the beta rulebook.

These are trifles though, and in the end I think this is a good way of trying to widen the hobby a bit. You will have to decide for yourself wheather you will find use for the Beginner Game or wheather you'll get more out of simply waiting for the core book. It's good at what it does, but what it does is fairly specific. With that said, I really can't wait to play it!


Star Wars week on Fire Broadside is in full swing and next up is a tactics article on how to play the Rebels in X-Wing. Expect to see it on Sunday.

May the Force be with you!

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Review of X-Wing Miniatures Game

So maybe flimsy cards is not your thing, maybe abstract battle on a large scale doesn't suit you. Fear not! There are plenty of Star Wars action to go around. Today I will review Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game from Fantasy Flight Games.

This was also announced around the same time as the card game and roleplaying game and I was initially not all that impressed. I've always been a fleet scale kind of guy when it comes to spaceship battle games - Full Thrust, Starmada, Firestorm: Armada, Task Force Zeta, whathaveyou - whereas X-Wing is a much more intimate game focused on dogfighting. Around Gencon the same year there was a debate about wheather X-Wing is simply a re-dressed Wings of War and designers and industry folk on both sides of the fence stepped forward to tell their view on things. In the end I think most people settled on something like "the two games are very similar, but so are many other games within a given genre". Nevertheless I think X-Wing does owe a lot to it's predecessor, even though they are also different in several regards.

An early X-Wing prototype showcased during GenCon.

Anyway, as FFG ramped up their previews of the game I found myself becoming more and more interested. I mentioned that my enthusiasm for Star Wars has dampened quite a bit during the past 15 years or so (wonder why...), but the starships and space battles from the original trilogy have never ceased to enkindle my imagination! I love the design of the ships and the non-Newtonian (hell, non-scientific!) style of WWII in space actually works in Star Wars. So by mid 2012 I realized that I would at least have to get the core set to see if the game itself was any fun - the previews looked good, but some hands on experience was needed.

A few months later and I eagerly went to the post office to pick up my copy of X-Wing! Contrary to my original plan I had also ordered another X-Wing and three(!!) Y-Wings as well. Just couldn't help myself. Luckily my friend Anders picked up the slack on the Imperial side and bought extra TIEs so we could play larger battles.

Our inital impressions were very positive (you can read my thoughts here) but I think we played a bit too intensively and burned out a little after the first couple of weeks. Luckily by the time the Kessel Event rolled around to Sweden we were all eager to play again! Taking part in a tournament and facing several different players (and sides) taught me a lot about the game and I've come to appreciate it more I think.

So let's have a look at the game, shall we? I will be doing this review more on the game as a whole, rather than about the specific core box. While you definitely can have a lot of fun with the three ships you start out with, it's once you expand out and buy more and different ships the game really blooms. I also won't cover the rules in any real detail, if you are curious about them you can simply download the rulebook or watch the detailed video tutorial put out by FFG. In fact if you are at all interested in this game I strongly suggest you watch the video, preferably before you continue reading this review. I'll wait.

Done? Ok, here we go. This review might seem a bit backwards, but bear with me...

Building Your Squadron

A sample Rebel squadron showing the models and the corresponding cards.

The standard size of a game is 100 points which will give you between three and eight ships depending on which side you play and what ship loadouts you bring. Rebels have more expensive ships and usually end up with three or four (although they can push the limit and field five) while Imperial ships are cheaper and five or six seem to be the most common number. This helps to bring out the Star Wars flavour as the Rebels are virtually always outnumbered and really need to use the higher quality of their ships to their advantage. Fail to do that and the Imperial swarm will get you.

When building your squadron it's not only about choosing which ship types to field and wheather they should have proton torpedoes or not, there's a lot more to it. With each ship comes a set of cards with generic and unique pilots who all have different Piloting Skill and different abilities. Depending on the pilot and the ship there are also various upgrade slots available so an X-Wing can take an Astromech droid and an ace Obsidian Squadron pilot can take an Elite Pilot ability. This all combines to make squadron building a big part of the game, for better and for worse.

This is not Infinity where "it's not your list, it's you" (although that's not entirely true in Infinity either) but neither is it 40k where you can just look at your opponents list and see who will win. X-Wing sits safely somewhere in between where squadron building is important and some builds simply aren't viable, but a reasonably balanced list has a good chance of winning if played right. Personally I enjoy the squadron building in this game. It's fun trying to squeeze as much firepower as possible out of your squadron and make sure the different abilities synergize well together. It's not overly complex or time consuming though, so you'll be at it pew-pewing quickly nonetheless. To make it even quicker a couple of online squadron builders have popped up here and here.

The Rules

A couple of manuver dials and templates.

A game turn starts by assigning secret orders to all your ships. This is done via the maneuver dial and different ships have different maneuring capabilities - TIEs being very nimble and Y-Wings being flying bathtubs! Once all the dials are out you start revealing them and moving ships in order of ascending Piloting Skill, meaning more skilled pilots will move last and can take advantage of knowing where the opposition is. After moving a ship you also decide what action it will take, stuff like Lock-On, Evade or Focus. Generally Rebel ships can take offensive actions like Lock-On while Imperial ships are more defensively minded and can Evade and Barrel Roll.

Wedge, the most skilled Rebel pilot.

Once all ships have moved you go back and every ship (who didn't crash into an asteroid at least) get to fire. However, unlike ship movement this is done in order of descending Piloting Skill, of course meaning that better pilots get to shoot first. This can have a huge impact as ships can be destroyed before they get to shoot at all! It's not super important to have all high skilled pilots, but having one or two to be able to attack a critical target before it gets to attack is usually a good idea. Once shooting is taken care of there is a short clean up phase and you move on to the next turn.

Movement is taken care of by a set of templates that come in the core box and while the rules are similar to Wings of War the templates are a lot more user friendly than the cards ever were. While you can't actually collide with other ships you can "bump" them, meaning you lose your action for that turn. There are also certain hard maneuvers that incur stress on the pilot doing them, forcing him to make an easy maneuver in a future turn to get rid of it.

Shooting is handled by special eight sided dice - red attack dice and green defense dice. You want to roll more hits than the target rolls evades, and there are of course several ways of manipulating the dice. Focus, for example, allows you to change some dice results to hits or evades while Lock-On allows you to re-roll some or all of the dice. This is a game that favours aggression though so the attack dice are slightly stronger than the defense dice. The standard firing arc is 90° to the front of the ship, however some ships and upgrades allow for different firing arcs.

All in all the rules are straightforward and easy to learn. There are a couple of details concerning asteroid/ship collisions that are easily overlooked, but generally reading and understanding the rulebook shouldn't take much time at all. FFG has a reputation of writing convoluted and messy rulebooks, but I don't think X-Wing suffers from this (and I don't think the "problem" is even remotely close to what some people claim).

How the Game Plays

A practice game just before my first tournament.

In our first couple of games we were simply digesting the rules system and felt quite satisfied with the balance of details versus speed of play. There are a few abstractions and no detailed ship management, but on the other hand you can play a 100 point match in 45-60 minutes! After a few games I remember feeling a bit concerned that perhaps luck was a larger factor than I felt comfortable with, and I was also worried that the balance of the game favoured the Imperials as the TIE simply seemed to bring more bang for its buck.

In a game with dice like this luck is always going to be a factor, but as I played more I learned how to better stack the odds in my favour and how to use maneuvering to my advantage. You know... basic wargame stuff. It does feel like it's even more crucial in X-Wing than in many other wargames though. Perhaps it's because you have so few units to begin with (especially as a Rebel!) that you have to make sure that every move counts! Generally I think Rebels are a bit more challenging to play, at least in the beginning, as many of their abilities "buff" friendly ships, requiring them to stay close to each other and make use of teamwork. The Imperial ships don't have as many abilities like that but are more focused on individual ship advantages.

As I played more with my Rebels I realized that the balance is probably not as skewed as I first feared, in fact I think it's pretty well balanced as long as you don't go too extremes (I still think the eight ship TIE swarm is the strongest squadron right now). The key is learning how to maneuver in formation and how to make best use of your abilities.

Playing the first scenario - Escort Duty.

At first it's easy to just race ahead like disorganized rabble which usually ends up with a large chaotic furball in the middle of the table where the deciding factor usually ends up being luck. But as you learn what kind of maneuvers your ships can make and how to stay in formation (which really is surprisingly important!) things quickly change. Then there's the whole mind-game aspect of X-Wing where it's about out-smarting your opponent just as you try to figure out where his ships are going to end up during the next maneuvering phase!

Some of my most successfull games have been when I've managed to do the completely unexpected, forcing my opponent to commit to where my ships no longer are. It's great fun when you succeed, but it can be tricky to pull off.

The Components Ships

My slightly re-touched ships: Red 5 flanked by Red 2 and Gold 2.

Yeah, the components are usual FFG fare, high quality cardboard tokens and nice linen finish cards. Yadda-yadda-yadda. There. Now let's talk spaceships!

The ship models are the obvious big draw of the game and FFG knew that very well. There are actually a couple of pages in the rulebook where they talk about the design process and how they decided on which scale to use (1/270). The ships have all been modeled digitally and 3D printed to get a detailed master and then made using hard-injection plastic. The quality of the ship models vary a little bit from ship to ship, but overall I think it's very good. Not as good as some true model ships, but for "game pieces" they are pretty darn good. The larger ships like Millenium Falcon and Slave I especially are really beautiful pieces!

I have had some problems with malformed ships. So far only X-Wings which I guess stems from the fact that they have the most amount of parts - there have been a couple of crooked guns and engine exhausts, but nothing that couldn't be corrected with some modelling tools.

The Millenium Falcon and Slave I from the yet to be released Wave 2.

The ships also all come pre-painted and although I'm a miniature painter myself I'm a great fan of this. I don't feel that it infringes on my creative freedom or taints the model, I simply think it's great to be able to use them straight out of the box! I'm sure I could repaint them and get a better result, but to be honest I see no reason to. They look good as they are on the tabletop. What I have done is added some extra details here and there - the personalized markings on the Red Squadron X-Wings and some engine glow etc. - but that is just me "pimping" my ships. They really do look good as they are.

How to Get Started

Playing with just the core box.

So you think this sounds like fun and want to know how to get started with X-Wing? Well, getting the core box is of course the essential first step. If you are unsure wheather you'll like it or not simply get the core box. The game is good even with only three ships and there are three scenarios in the rulebook that are pretty fun to play! So say you like it and want more. Now there are two options, either you feel like more variety would be good in which case I suggest getting a Y-Wing and a TIE Advanced. They both bring some new stuff to the game and the Y-Wing in particular is great fun with its turret that can fire 360° around!

However, if you really like the game and want to get serious about expanding it getting a second core box is the way to go! You'll get another X-Wing and two more TIEs (as well as another set of dice, cards, templates etc) which will go a long way to getting that 100 point squadron. After this you can get the expansion ships you like and go from there.

Of course, with Wave 2 just around the corner things are about to change as the Millenium Falcon and Slave I can eat up a whole lot of points, while the A-Wing suddenly allows the rebels cheap(ish) ships in their squadron. That being said I still think that two core boxes will be an essential purchase if you really want to get into the game proper.

My Thoughts

Trying out the scenario from the Millenium Falcon expansion. Smugglers be smuggling!

I think X-Wing is a very fun miniature game with great looking models and rules that are balanced between ease of play and tactical options. If you are looking for a crunchy games with options like where to project your shields or power resource management X-Wing isn't it, and I'd advice you to track down the old WEG game Star Warriors instead, however if you would like something fast, with dice but still crunchy enough to include squadron building and tactical maneuvering you're in luck! Of course, if you are a Star Wars fan who even remotely enjoy miniature or board gaming it's really a no-brainer; you need to at least try this game. In fact, I think X-Wing is a great gateway game and a way to get into miniature gaming in general. Easy rules, few models and nothing to paint makes it very friendly for beginners!

Just like in most wargames you get a great sense of fulfilment as you start to learn how to use your chosen faction effectively. Which maneuvers work and which don't, how to make the best use of the pilot abilities in your squadron and making sure to fly in the formation where you can take advantage of the different Piloting Skills of your ships (and not bump into eachother). As I mentioned in the introduction post to Star Wars week I'm going to write an X-Wing tactics article from a Rebel perspective so expect more on this later.

As the game looks right now I don't think there are any huge, gaping flaws apparent. In casual play I think there's a slight lean towards the Empire being the stronger faction, but it's not by a large margin. However it's a bit more problematic in tournament play where it's actually the other way around. As tournaments are structured now a standard game is 60 minutes which is fine if you play Rebels vs Imperials or Rebels vs Rebels. In those matchups there's a decent chance that one side will get destroyed outright (rendering a full 5 points for a match win). Imperial vs Imperial matches on the other hand are usually long, drawn out affairs as TIEs lack the firepower to reliably hit nimble ships like themselves. Add to this the fact that most Imperial squadrons consist of around six ships (which take longer to manuver and shoot with than three or four) and you soon realize why almost all Imperial vs Imperial games only end in a 3 point partial victory.

Rebel mirror matches tend to be short and bloody.

So basically, if you play Imperial and end up with an unlucky draw and have to face three other Imperial players you'll have a very hard time getting more than 9 points. Now this is not something you need to pay attention to as you start out, or if you're not interested in tournaments (I wasn't... until I saw the prizes FFG offered!), but it's still an issue with the game that I'm unsure of how to resolve.

Besides that I don't really have any serious complaints about the game! I'm very happy with my investment and I think it will see a lot of play time in the future!


Next up on Star Wars Week here on Fire Broadside will be my first impressions of the Star Wars Edge of the Empire Beginner Game... that is to say, FFG's new Star Wars rpg starter box. Until then young padawans!

May the Force be with you!

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Star Wars the Card Game - First Impressions

Welcome back padawans, I hope you've spent your time practicing with your learners sabers and meditating on the meaning of the Force. Our first lesson of the day will be about the new Star Wars the (Living) Card Game from Fantasy Flight Games.

As you might remember it was first revealed two years ago when FFG got the Star Wars licens for card games, miniature games and roleplaying games (not board games, alas). Back then it was announced as a full on cooperative experience which sounded very similar to their Lord of the Rings the Card Game which had been released earlier that year. Personally I thought it sounded pretty cool to team up together against the Empire, but at the same time I could certainly understand the people who felt a little disappointed that it would be a "LotR re-theme" and that you wouldn't be able to wield the might of the Imperial Fleet yourself. I felt I could go for it either way, although I must admit to having felt a bit wary of collecting a second cooperative LCG.

Anyway, this all soon changed when, in the beginning of 2012, FFG announced that great changes had been made and the Star Wars LCG was now going to be a two player competitive game. I think this was probably a better decision although some part of me was sad to see the co-op aspect of the game go (for now). Still I wasn't entirely on board yet, perhaps mostly because of the damage the prequals and the "modern Star Wars" had done to my enthusiasm for the setting.

Luckily FFG really know what they're doing and as I became more and more excited about X-Wing and the new roleplaying game, I started to become excited about the card game as well. The previews were interesting and the cards looked gorgeous. What finally pushed me over the edge was the very slick tutorial video released in early December. It goes through, step by step, the entire gameplay and the resource management and the different strategic levels really made me pay attention. I was going to get this game.

Here we are a month and a bit later and I've just played my first three games of the Star Wars LCG. In the core set you get two Light Side (LS) and two Dark Side (DS) decks as well as parts of a third for each. The Light Side factions are Rebel Alliance, Jedi and Smugglers and Spies while the Dark Side has Imperial Navy, Sith and Scum and Villains. The latter on each side don't make up a complete deck but will be fleshed out as expansions are released. I was a little sad to learn this as the seedy underbelly of the Star Wars setting has always appealed to me greatly!

So we sat down and I handed Anders the four available decks so he could make his pick and, just as I had foreseen, he chose the Imperial Navy deck. An easy guess seeing as Anders plays imps in X-Wing as well. Hehe! To make this as thematic as possible I took the corresponding LS deck: the Rebel Alliance!

The Devastator is part of the Imperial Navy faction.

Gameplay is fast and you can often get fairly powerful units out even in the first turn, if you really squeeze your resources dry. This combined with the fact that you draw back up to your full hand of six cards the beginning of your turn creates a game that is full on action from turn one. In our first game the Imperial Navy got the early lead as Anders managed to play a couple of cheaper units while I still had none. However, what I did get was Trench Run - a special enhancement card that allows the LS player to attack the Death Star dial, that is used as a game timer, as if it was an objective. I thought this sounded cool and played it on my first turn.

I think Anders might have destroyed one of my objectives before I managed to get a unit out, Red 2 - an X-Wing. I used it to chip away at the Death Star but it was slow going and I didn't have much to use as defense. Then as the dial was around seven or eight I drew to Y-Wings! Woo! Just what was needed to put some hurt on that moon, I mean space station. Units in this game can do three kinds of damage and just because something is good at killing other units, like the X-Wing, doesn't mean it's very good at destroying objectives. Y-Wings, being bombers, are quite the opposite and with a proper escort or some fancy maneuvering they can really tear a target apart.

In the final round my small squadron accelerated to attack speed and plunged down into that trench! Unfortunately for the Imperials the Star Destroyer Devastator had been waylaid by a Rebel feint and wasn't available to defend the Death Star (meaning it was Exhausted). This meant that that it was all down to some TIE fighters to defend the station, but it wasn't enough and the Y-Wings blew the Death Star into smithereens! Yay, Rebel victory!

My trench run...

We decided to immediately play again with the same decks and this time I got a couple of units out early, both Leia Organa and Mon Mothma. Two great cards, but not the most powerful when it comes to attack and defence. However, thanks to some shielding from other cards they survived the first few turns intact. On the Imperial side Anders played some TIEs and some Stormtroopers that I couldn't really stop with my two leading ladies. Again the imps managed to destroy an objective before I could get the ball rolling.

However, when it rains it pours and when I finally got a slew of units in my hand I had been able to build up a lot of resources and suddenly I had A-Wings, Y-Wings and X-Wings backed up by Home One and some engineers. Even with the Devastator on his side this still proved too much for the Imperials and the Rebels won by destroying three objectives.

Hmm... so that's two for two for the Light Side so far. Still, we were (are!) still learning and Anders kept forgetting that you can play any cards into Edge Battles. For our third game I decided to switch to the Jedi deck to see how it played, while Anders still kept at it with the Imperial Navy.

This was a fairly short game as I, in a great stroke of luck, drew just the right cards and just the right objectives to be able to play Luke Skywalker with Shii-Cho Training and Jedi Lightsaber, meaning I had a monster of a unit out on turn one that could both be offensive and defensive. Luke made short work of the Stormtroopers and Death Star troopers that Anders played and started putting heavy damage on a DS objective where one of my cards was held captive (yes, you can capture enemies and hold them at your secret base!). Anders kept throwing weaker troops at Luke to slow him down but they kept being chopped into tiny little bits.

It was only after the Devastator entered play that Luke had to be careful. However he was still able to avoid its attacks while attacking the objective during my turn. When I destroyed it I discovered that the captured unit was none other than Yoda! Adding him to my hand he, a Jedi in Hiding and a Believer in the Old Ways soon joined Luke and even the mighty Star Destroyer failed to slow their onslaught. The game ended in a fairly easy victory for the Jedi.

These three games might have sounded a little one-sided when described by me post play, but I'd say that only the third one felt like it was over before it really begun. In the first game the Rebels managed to turn defeat into victory, the second seemed fairly even while the third was... well, Luke happened.

I had a great time with the game and Anders enjoyed it enough to order his own core set today, even though it didn't go very well this time around. It plays quickly while still retaining a decent amount of tactical depth. I was unsure what to make of the Edge Battles where you basically blind bid cards against each other as you try to win the Edge. However, this proved to be a fun little mechanic as it provided some great poker-like moments of bluffing as well as the ability to turn a loosing battle into a partial victory.

The resource mechanic is clever as well as it allows you to get your more expensive units out pretty quickly but that will probably leave your with very few resources for a turn or two. Since you usually spend a lot of your cards in Edge Battles but then get to draw up to your hand limit of six at the start of each turn also helps keep the pace high and you won't spend many turns without something worthwhile to play. If you prefer your games to be slower and allow you to gradually build up a force to then attack your opponent with you might be disappointed. In the Star Wars LCG units come and go as they get destroyed and you need to keep the pressure on from the start.

There is also something called the Force Struggle where you can commit units to the the dark or light side of the force. The winner gets at bonus during his refresh phase and some cards change depending on which side is currently winning. However, commiting units to the force means that they become Exhausted for a longer period of time if they also take part in battles.

A lot has been said about what some people think are theme inconsistensies/implausabilities in reviews and forums. The fact that a Rancor could destroy a Star Destroyer or Palpatines Force Lightning could destroy an X-Wing. The original cooperative iteration of this game included a space and land theater of war but as that mechanic disappeared another level of abstraction has been applied and as long as you don't take the cards literally I think it works fine.

Speaking of theme, the art on the cards is simply fantastic! FFG made a great choice in that they aren't using stills from the films but rather art that on many occasion copies the films. This allows them not only to capture the iconic moments we're all familiar with, but also to seamlessly include things from the expanded universe. Additionally I've personally always thought that photos in any kind of board/card/roleplaying game rarely works and simply looks cheap. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that it's not only all new art from FFG but they are re-using some really famous older stuff like Ralph Mquarrie's original concept art. Very cool!

Finally let's talk deck building. As far as I know this is the first time a card game such as this has gone the route of "pod deck building" that is to say, you don't pick and choose every card you want to include individually, but instead as pre-determined Objective Sets consisting of one objective and five other cards. While I'm a fan of deck building I've never really been too invested in it for one simple reason, none of my friends have been into it. And building decks only for myself doesn't feel like fun. Even building decks for them to play with doesn't feel fun. However, this more accessible way of creating decks might change a few things for my gaming friends.

An Objective Set.

While I can see how hardcore card gamers frown on the idea of pod deck building I think this is not really a game for them. I think it is a lighter card game than A Game of Thrones or Android: Netrunner but that is certainly not a bad thing! While I'm going to get Netrunner as well, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in my group of friends who will, let alone creating decks for it or think about strategies. Star Wars on the other hand is different, I could see it catching on with at least a few of my friends and it would be great fun to try the multiplayer rules that will be included in the first deluxe expansion!

So yeah... my first impressions are very positive! It looks great, it plays quickly with lots of different tactical options and it has a robust resource mechanic and interesting battles. If you are a seasoned card gamer it might feel a bit light (but that again could be because it's completely new) but for regular gamers or people who like card games but don't play them exclusively it seems to have well blended mix of ingredients! I'm looking forward to my next play and once I've got a few more games under my belt I think I'll start experimenting with some easy deck building.



My suggestion is to try it out if you like Star Wars and aren't adverse to card games. Odds are that you will enjoy it.

May the Force be with you!

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Star Wars Week!!

Young Padawans, welcome to the annual(?!) Fire Broadside Star Wars Week!!

That's right, I've been planning for some future articles and it occured to me that almost all of them are Star Wars themed. So instead of spreading them out and writing other articles to go between them I decided to embrace the overwhelming Force of a galaxy far, far away...

So what does this mean exactly? Well, yesterday I played my first few games of Star Wars the Card Game with my good friend Anders (followed by Dust Warfare, but this is not the week for that) so the first article to pop up will be my first impressions of that game. Next up will be a proper review of X-Wing the Miniature Game. Seeing as it was my most played game of 2012 and I've managed to win two X-Wing tournaments I thought it was about time I sat down and really typed out my thoughts about the game.


Continuing in the theme of "impressions" the next article will be all about the new Star Wars: Edge of the Empire - Beginner Game RPG box. I got it just after Christmas and have spent some time reading the rulebook and oogling all the great art! While I have yet to play or run the adventure I think some first impressions are in order at the very least. Finally I will return to X-Wing to write a tactics article about how you should I play Rebels, or at least how I play rebels before Wave 2 of ships and cards hit the streets (although I think the tactics are sound even then).

Only three ships? Not my squadron of choice...

Besides that (What? You want more?!), I might squeeze in some small random Star Warsy stuff here and there. Maybe... if I have the time.

So with that I bid you farewell, although the LCG article should be up soonish.

May the Force be with you!

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...and Future!

Ah, we're back! Talking about past accomplishments is all well and good but I think we're all actually more interested in what the future might hold. Of course there are more new stuff that I want to play than I could possibly find time for, nevertheless I will do my utmost to try! Let's break it down...

Board Games

My list of games from "Board Games I Look Forward to" is still very current as I've only managed to play one of those games (Descent 2nd ed). For shame! However new things keep cropping up so lets add a couple of titles shall we?

Speaking of Descent 2nd ed, the first expansion for it, Lair of the Wyrm, has just been released and I've managed to get my kitten mittens on it! It includes two new characters and classes, two new monsters and a sort of mini-campaign that can be sprinkled in among the campaign you get in the core box. It looks like a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to trying it out, especially as my buddy Micke has agreed on taking the role of the Overlord this time around. I rarely get to play the role of the heroes/investigators/chumps in these types of games so I'll be sure to make the most out of it. :)

Star Wars: The Card Game is perhaps not technically a board game, but close enough. When it was first announced I wasn't all that interested to be honest, but I think X-Wing has re-kindled my love of Star Wars and this game seems to push all the right buttons both when it comes to theme and mechanics. It plays quickly with lots of action and a theme that seems to work well. I also like that the deckbuilding has been streamlined as that is most often the big hurdle for getting my friends into card games. Instead of choosing every single card, you choose Objective sets consisting of one Objective card and five (I think) cards that come with it. I think this should make deck building much more accessible for the casual player and much quicker to boot. My copy of this game is in the mail... hopefully in my hands before the end of the week!

I initially dismissed Mice & Mystics as a poor mans copy of Mouse Guard, but has since learned the error of my ways. Of course it's inspired by Mouse Guard but it also seems to be a damn fine game! Cooperative dungeon crawling with a very strong story element if I've understood things correctly. There's no Overlord (Overcat?) and new adventures will apparently be released continuously. I'm thinking that this game might be the next step up for my seven year old niece who loves to play DungeonQuest.

For me Mansions of Madness was never quite that hole-in-one that I had hoped it to be. It's definitely fun, but some of the scenarios are a bit meh and I've been discouraged by the piss-poor reviews most of the expansions have received (again, because of bad scenario design, not because of any actual faults in game play). However the new big box expansion Call of the Wild does look very promising! We get to move out of the mansions of madness and into the er... outdoors of madness. It seems like the focus will be the rural areas around Dunwich and from what I've read in the FFG previews this is an expansion I just have to get!

Besides the new and shiny I want to play more (everything!!) Runewars, Alien Frontiers, Claustrophobia, High Frontier, Earth Reborn, Cyclades, Twilight Imperium, Battlestar Galactica, Planet Steam, Space Alert, Chaos in the Old World, Age of Conan, Bios Megafauna, Shogun, Lords of Waterdeep, A Game of Thrones.... you know. The usual. :)

Roleplaying Games

As I said, 2012 was a bad year for roleplaying, but I'm determined to change things in 2013. I'll probably repeat myself a lot in this section, but that's simply because the games I want to play stay fairly consistent. One or two new additions perhaps. Luckily for me it seems like the people who might be available for/interested in roleplaying have grown a little, so hopefully it should be easier to get going than it was last year.

The One Ring has been on my must-play-list since I read through it and wrote my review of it, pretty much. For me it does so many things right (at least on paper) and it seems like it would be a blast to play! Tales from Wilderland has a bunch of neat looking adventures for it and Heart of the Wild and The Darkening of Mirkwood will be released during spring, hopefully. Basically it would be very easy to start things up, only needing some standard prep and rules explanations. With most people having The Hobbit fresh in their minds Middle-Earth isn't too far off... even though that's not quite the same as my Middle-Earth.

More Star Wars! Yes, FFG is going all out with their new rpg Star Wars: Edge of the Empire and have just released the Beginner Game. It consists of a trimmed down rulebook, a short adventure and some gorgeous pre-made characters, maps and tokens. And dice. Learning that they had basically taken the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd ed mechanics, minus 95% of the cards and tokens, and transplanted it into the Star Wars setting certainly caught my interest! While I appreciate what they tried to do with the cards in WFRP3 it became too cumbersome in the end with stacks upon stacks of talents and maneuvers and monster cards. It seems FFG learned from this and simply took the core mechanics and the quite brilliant dice pool mechanic and used that as the base for Edge of the Empire. It's also focusing entirely on the small scale smugglers/fringers/bountyhunters of the galaxy which appeals to me. I'll try the beginner game and the sequal you can download from FFG and will most likely pick up the core book when it is released as well.

I'll say Mouse Guard here, although I would happily try Burning Wheel as well. However Mouse Guard is still the more accessible of the two, and the setting is just so cool. We played it twice more than a year ago and it worked quite well! My players enjoyed themselves but were still confused by the system I think, having not read the book it naturally takes longer time for them to acclimatize which they never had time for since we only played twice. I want to give it another go, perhaps with new players, and see what happens. Three or four sessions is probably what is needed before the whole system starts to sink away and feel really natural.

Finally I'd like to play with FATE. I was going to put down Diaspora specifically, and although that is still probably my favourite FATE setting I'd like to try the system no matter the background! For me Diaspora of course comes first to mind but there's Bulldogs and Starblazer Adventures for more sci-fi, The Dresden Files for some urban fantasy/horror or why not the original Spirit of the Century for some over the top pulp action?! Then we have the upcoming reboot of the Swedish sci-fi rpg Coriolis (co-written by one of my regular Dust Warfare opponents!) that will also use FATE as its engine. Having gone on about it almost since the inception of this blog I feel ashamed for not actually having played with FATE yet. This demands change!

I also want to play more Fiasco and try Technoir, Rogue Trader, 3:16, Apocalypse World, Dragon Age, Trail of Cthulhu, Kuro and so on. Oh, and the new (last?) campaign for WFRP3 bears a special mention as it is a re-imagining of famous The Enemy Within campaign. From what I've read so far it seems pretty good and I think I might have to get it just to read at the very least.

Miniature Games

Well then, I'm sure you pretty much know what I'll write in this section. Still, let's get it over with. :)

Infinity is still my favourite miniature game and the campaign snowball has started to roll. I know people are preparing for it, and even though I got my specialists sorted I need to sort a couple of baggage remotes. My only problem is that none of my close friends really play the game. Sure, Anders still have his Nomads and he's said that he thinks it's a brilliant game, but now that he has Dust Warfare (and more importantly, people ot play with) I don't honestly think he'll touch his Infinity minis again. Perhaps I should try and get some new people interested... which would be a great excuse to get that second faction I've been thinking about! Hehe!

Next up we have Dust Warfare which we played a lot during the autumn. I think the main reason being there are several of us who are interested and have models for it. Don't get me wrong, it's a game that I really like that combines ease of play with a decent tactical depth, but if it had only been me and Anders things might have looked different. With Hades the SSU have finally caught up with the other factions when it comes to unit options and the new tanks and walkers certainly open up a whole lot of new possibilities! When painting I've been rushing through my infantry and spent some more time with the vehicles, which seems to be a good balance for me when it comes to this game. Next up should be tanks and some Red Guard as we ready for the Hades campaign.

Finally Star Wars manages to sneak its way into all three different sections! This time in the form of the fast and furious X-Wing. A game that I first really enjoyed, then started fearing it was too random, and finally enjoyed again as I started figuring out the tactics of the game. While this is a minature game I almost feel bad for putting it in this list since there's virtually no painting or modelling involved. Sure, some quick modifications here and there, but it's not quite the same. However that is probably one of the reasons it makes the list. Painting takes time (especially at my pace) and not having to do it was a big draw for me. In any case I'm looking forward to Wave 2 with its A-Wings and keep dreaming about Wave 3... can we say B-Wings and TIE Bombers?!

My 15mm stuff grows in spurts with periods of rest in between. It's one of those games that takes time because I have to do everything myself. I think my  GZG UNSC are pretty much playable as they are now, some more basic infantry to round them out perhaps. But they need some opponents. While I still want to finish my Mars Reds I feel more inclined to paint Crusties so I think they will become the main opposition for a time. Rules wise I'm looking forward to getting my copy of Gruntz 1.1 courtesy of Robin Fitton himself (since I was lucky to win a Gruntz painting competition a year ago). Then there's of course Tomorrow's War and I'm hearing good things about 5150 Star Army and it's siblings. Will have to check them out as well.

Besides these four there are Heavy Gear that is still very much on ice, Judge Dredd which I think makes for a good side project (did you see the new Citi-Def?!) and a variety of spaceship games. I'm sure at least one of them will make it on the blog this year.


Besides the analogue gaming you'll be able to read about video gaming, space exploration and the occasional movie here on Fire Broadside! Looking forward to writing more, reading more and playing more during 2013!

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