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Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game | The Official Thread

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
Armada definitely looks awesome (and thanks for making that comprehensive wave 1 & 2 post!), but I'm going to be passing on it. I might give it a chance later in its life cycle when it gets a bit cheaper, though.

I started work this week on my first repaint featuring the HWK-290. I wasn't going for anything radically different since I was mainly aiming to change the base color of the Moldy Crow to be a lighter greenish-grey color, but I did repaint all of the accents and details after going over the entire ship with two thin coats of a pastel green.

More than anything I was using this repaint as an exercise in practicing and applying techniques like keeping the paint thin/consistent, detailing the accents (that stripe on the nose was a pain in the ass), and weathering/using a wash. I still need to paint the rear thrusters and highlight a bit around the ship as I only just applied the black wash to it last night after getting the base colors down. I also might add in some light blaster damage here and there before finally adding the matt varnish layer (I'll be using a gloss varnish on the cockpit glass).

These pictures don't show the turret very well since the lamp is directly above the mini - I just took these really quickly before heading off to work. Feedback welcome!

Wow, it certainly sounds like you know what you're doing; It looks really good so far!
 
Wow, it certainly sounds like you know what you're doing; It looks really good so far!

Thanks! I was hoping for the final color to be a bit more greenish looking, but I think the subtle green looks pretty good. I may try to highlight some of the areas of the ship to get a bit more green to show through, as well as a some lighter grey highlights on the wing spikes/antenna(?) to get that grey to contrast just a bit more from the rest of the ship.

And it probably sounds like I know what I'm doing because before diving into painting, I read up on a bunch of different techniques and watched like 30 tutorial videos. xD
 

jstevenson

Sailor Stevenson
Armada is fun, it plays almost like inverse X-Wing in that the Imperials are big and slow and powerful, and the Rebels are fast and swarming.

And sure, a corvette couldn't go toe-to-toe with a Vic Class, but a bunch of Corvettes and Nebulon Bs might.
 
Armada seems so cheeky to me. The Rebellion could never really go toe to toe against the Empire in capital ship engagements. Even a Victory class should be capable of easily wrecking a Frigate and Corvette. Going to be even more ludicrous when they get access to the Imperial class.

The more objective style focus of the gameplay does help combat this. I primarily play Rebels in Armada and more often then not you want to focus on fulfilling your chosen mission rather then throw out damage and go toe to toe with the SD Victory, in fact (although I have seen it happen) I have never personally destroyed the Star Destroyer (even when I win the mission).
 
The more objective style focus of the gameplay does help combat this. I primarily play Rebels in Armada and more often then not you want to focus on fulfilling your chosen mission rather then throw out damage and go toe to toe with the SD Victory, in fact (although I have seen it happen) I have never personally destroyed the Star Destroyer (even when I win the mission).

At least that makes more sense thematically. It doesn't make too much sense to me for Rebel's ever choosing to fight the Imperials using capital ships unless they absolutely have to in order to hold them of to achieve an objective of some sort. In fact, it also seems strange that Rebel ships would outnumber Imperials, given the huge fleet the Imperials have at their disposal compared to the much smaller Rebel fleet.

I imagine the context of these battles are either the Rebels engaging a weak point in the Imperial defenses at an opportune moment to achieve some sort of objective (then hyperspace the hell out of there), or possibly an Imperial raiding party catching the Rebels with their pants down and forcing them into an engagement.
 

jstevenson

Sailor Stevenson
At least that makes more sense thematically. It doesn't make too much sense to me for Rebel's ever choosing to fight the Imperials using capital ships unless they absolutely have to in order to hold them of to achieve an objective of some sort. In fact, it also seems strange that Rebel ships would outnumber Imperials, given the huge fleet the Imperials have at their disposal compared to the much smaller Rebel fleet.

I imagine the context of these battles are either the Rebels engaging a weak point in the Imperial defenses at an opportune moment to achieve some sort of objective (then hyperspace the hell out of there), or possibly an Imperial raiding party catching the Rebels with their pants down and forcing them into an engagement.

well, as a game, the conceit is that both players will be roughly evenly matched. So you're right, the Rebels aren't going to hit the Imperials where they will obviously lose.


I have destroyed the Vic with the base Rebels. But it requires some good rolls and using stuff like Dodonna's Pride (and Dodonna himself) to ensure you get some crippling critical hits. Crits are way nasty in this game.
 

Won

Member
That's a lot of credits for an Imperial Star Destroyer.

Local store sells the Armada core game for slightly more reasonable price. Would even pick it up just to check things out, if it wasn't for all the extra costs (storage/transport/sleeves/etc.).
 

PBalfredo

Member
Armada seems so cheeky to me. The Rebellion could never really go toe to toe against the Empire in capital ship engagements. Even a Victory class should be capable of easily wrecking a Frigate and Corvette. Going to be even more ludicrous when they get access to the Imperial class.

No kidding. Just for fun, I loaded up X-Wing Alliance real quick and made a custom skirmish in the flight simulator with a frigate and corvette versus a Victory. The Victory class still had 94% shields left after it killed both starships, and that's with me inadvertently drawing some fire from the SD in my observation craft.
 

Tensketch

Member
I'm subbed to this thread and yet I never post to it. I apologise, GAF.

Anyway, are we sharing paint jobs? Cos I wanna share paint jobs!

First one is straight forward, you may not be able to tell with the photo. But if you use a blue wash on the tie fighter model, the end result is a blue tie fighter more akin to the ones seen in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Hb0Wids.jpg

(fun fact, TIE Fighters were always meant to be blue, but blue screen tech in the 70's prevented this, so they went with grey. By the time episodes V & VI came out, they'd sorted this problem.)

Green Squardron repaints!
LDPYr8R.jpg

9dZEADM.jpg

cH5fTNU.jpg


Bounty Hunter Firespray
lyhswOm.jpg

Royal Guard Tie Defender
LiS6HXt.jpg

(I actually painted 2 of these. The first one was taken off me by my cousin and frequent X-Wing oponent. He loved it so much that he asked if he could have it and I could have his defender instead. I also have a defender with 181st style bloodstripes, speaking of which...)

Blood Stripe Decimator
YrtEesM.jpg

(The Imperial Logo is a nail art transfer!)

Scum Repaints
wrftvLo.jpg

66xzNuG.jpg

4cIziHs.jpg

(I went over the panels with the light grey again, as the wash that I applied made it look grubby. It looks much better now)
sgmzKnS.jpg

l4LEkqB.jpg

I do have more, but these are the only ones I have on my phone. The rest aren't as good.
 
Just popping in here to state that Armada is a lot of fun. I played a couple games with my friend using my core set, and I must say that I can't wait for the Wave 1 models I ordered to release.

Also, I found an app to build fleet lists using all of the core and wave one stuff. It will be updated as the Wave 2 expansions are spoiled.

Fab's Fleet Generator
 

Tensketch

Member
Oof, the regional rules have just been revealed and it is now official that all tournament games must be at least 75 minutes long. No more 60 minute rounds.

The guys running my regional also announced that they're allowing more than 64 players, which as someone pointed out, now means not everyone comes away with a prize.
I'm still going, but I'm going to be super pissed if I don't get that Fett card.
 

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
Yeah, the 75-minute round thing means tournaments will have to start early and will go very long, especially if the organizers aren't efficient about getting next-round pairings up. Makes it look like you'll need a hotel the night before and the night after a regional tournament, and I don't think the prizes (or prestige) from winning big X-Wing tournaments are worth multiple hotel night stays.

Maybe I can piggyback off a friend staying in Columbus for Origins so I can go to the Dayton regional, though.
 
Awesome repaints Tensketch!

I did more work on my Moldy Crow and am pretty much done. I added a bit of highlights and shading, painted in the engines, and tested out a couple of different weathering affects/battle damage (these probably aren't too noticeable). All that's left now is to varnish it. I am planning to gloss varnish the cockpit and the metallic parts (the wing frame, wing antenna, and turret). I read somewhere that gloss varnishing the engines make them pop a bit, has anyone here had good results with something like this? I was planning on matt varnishing the rest - is that enough protection for X-Wing models? I have been reading of a common technique called "bulletcoating" which from what I understand, is a full coat of gloss varnish (for protection) and then a coat of matt varnish over that to remove the glossy finish. I'm assuming that's mostly for metal miniatures though since they are more easily chipped, but I was curious as to what anyone miht practice doing to their repainted X-Wing minis when it comes to protecting them. Would one or two coats of Matt Varnish be enough, and then I can just add a thin layer of gloss varnish over the bits I want to be a bit glossy?

Also please note that the lighting conditions when taking these pictures had the mini directly under a table lamp that I use to see clearly when I'm painting, so everything looks a bit brighter than it looks under normal lighting conditions, but at this time it's the best I have to work with for taking pictures:





 

PBalfredo

Member
Hmm. Looks like they're aiming to make ordinance worthwhile in this next wave. Though I wish they went with the Assault Gunboat for the imperials. Digging into deeper EU sources (like Galactic Battlegrounds) while lacking one of the main fighters from the X-wing video game series, the main inspiration for the miniatures game, seems like a big omission. I'm sure they'll get to it eventually, but loading up Assault Gunboats (or Missile Boats) with new ordinance cards would have been a perfect fit.
 

jstevenson

Sailor Stevenson
my only question is how the Bomber will still fit in, but will be interesting to see.

Small base turret will be quite scary too, though I bet its dial is terrrrrible
 

PBalfredo

Member
my only question is how the Bomber will still fit in, but will be interesting to see.

Small base turret will be quite scary too, though I bet its dial is terrrrrible

Yeah, considering the Interdictor originated as a straight upgrade to the TIE Bomber, unless it's got a significant difference in cost or fills a difference niche somehow, I could see it eating the Bomber's lunch.
 
Yeah, considering the Interdictor originated as a straight upgrade to the TIE Bomber, unless it's got a significant difference in cost or fills a difference niche somehow, I could see it eating the Bomber's lunch.

I'm confident that FFG wouldn't make a ship to outright replace another ship. Plus Bombers can barrel roll and Punishers can't. I'm definitely interested in seeing what kind of differences these two ships have and I am looking forward to some kind of title or upgrade card specific to the Bombers to give them some sort of buff.

Time will tell!
 

MrChom

Member
Oh and I may have missed some of the Armada chat but so far it looks like a good game but very VERY different from X-Wing. X-Wing is a straight up duel/dogfight, things are able to stop in an instant, turn, flip....no such luck with Armada....you're moving capital ships now.

They really do convey the weight and heft of these behemoths next to the tiny nimble fighters, and the front gunnery of a Star Destroyer is absolutely brutal compared to what most things in the game so far can kick out. Yet to play with objectives but it's looking good so far.
 
So far the only downside of the next wave is that I've read rumors that the K-Wing and the Punisher are both going to be retailing for $19.99. I guess the logic here is that for small base ships, they are pretty large.
 

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
So far the only downside of the next wave is that I've read rumors that the K-Wing and the Punisher are both going to be retailing for $19.99. I guess the logic here is that for small base ships, they are pretty large.

Not a rumor. The product pages give the prices:

Hound's Tooth: $40
Kihraxz Fighter: $15
K-Wing: $20
TIE Punisher: $20

You can also tell how expensive a ship will be by how many upgrade cards it comes with. $15 ships usually only come with five or fewer upgrade cards. The K-Wing and TIE Punisher come with nine each.
 

Draxal

Member
So far the only downside of the next wave is that I've read rumors that the K-Wing and the Punisher are both going to be retailing for $19.99. I guess the logic here is that for small base ships, they are pretty large.

I'm pretty grumpy that Bossk isn't Imperial aligned as well.
 
For now, I'm only interested in the Hound's Tooth. I don't like ordnance and don't collect Rebel so the Punisher and K-wing are easy to ignore. Just hope the Kihraxz doesn't come with any vital Scum upgrades.

I wonder in tournament settings if killing the Hound is worth his full points or if you have to kill the Pup as well.
 
For now, I'm only interested in the Hound's Tooth. I don't like ordnance and don't collect Rebel so the Punisher and K-wing are easy to ignore. Just hope the Kihraxz doesn't come with any vital Scum upgrades.

Dunno about "Vital", but it looks like it comes with 2 new EPTs. Best guesses are Lightning Reflexes and Crack Shot?

Can't really see what they do, but frankly the Kihraxz seems pretty underwhelming to me. Doesn't seem like it'll cost all that much less than the Starviper, has a bland action bar (just focus and target lock; losing barrel roll and boost) and just one missile slot. It does get the Illicit slot though, which looks like it might be getting some new stuff.
 

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
For now, I'm only interested in the Hound's Tooth. I don't like ordnance and don't collect Rebel so the Punisher and K-wing are easy to ignore. Just hope the Kihraxz doesn't come with any vital Scum upgrades.

It looks like the only upgrade the Kihraxz has that the Hound's Tooth doesn't is an EPT called Lightning Reflexes, which looks like it says, "After you perform a white or green maneuver with your maneuver dial, you may discard this card to flip this ship 180 degrees. Then take a stress token after the Check Pilot Stress step."


I wonder in tournament settings if killing the Hound is worth his full points or if you have to kill the Pup as well.

I imagine you get no points for killing the HT if the Pup launches, which might be infuriating in a tournament setting, heh.


Dunno about "Vital", but it looks like it comes with 2 new EPTs. Best guesses are Lightning Reflexes and Crack Shot?

Can't really see what they do, but frankly the Kihraxz seems pretty underwhelming to me. Doesn't seem like it'll cost all that much less than the Starviper, has a bland action bar (just focus and target lock; losing barrel roll and boost) and just one missile slot. It does get the Illicit slot though, which looks like it might be getting some new stuff.

It's basically a Scum X-Wing. The differences are 4 hull 1 shield instead of 3 hull 2 shields, and it swaps the astromech slot for an illicit slot (a bad swap, IMO). I think the PS2 will cost 20 points. PS9 (at 29 points) minus PS2 equals 22, minus 1 for the PS9 having an EPT equals 21, minus 1 for the PS9 having a pilot ability equals 20. (Besides, with the hull/shield configuration on a Kihraxz being worse than an X-Wing, it would be silly to make them cost the same.)
 
It looks like the only upgrade the Kihraxz has that the Hound's Tooth doesn't is an EPT called Lightning Reflexes, which looks like it says, "After you perform a white or green maneuver with your maneuver dial, you may flip this ship 180 degrees. Then take a stress token after the Check Pilot Stress step."

It's basically a Scum X-Wing. The differences are 4 hull 1 shield instead of 3 hull 2 shields, and it swaps the astromech slot for an illicit slot (a bad swap, IMO). I think the PS2 will cost 20 points. PS9 (at 29 points) minus PS2 equals 22, minus 1 for the PS9 having an EPT equals 21, minus 1 for the PS9 having a pilot ability equals 20. (Besides, with the hull/shield configuration on a Kihraxz being worse than an X-Wing, it would be silly to make them cost the same.)
Where'd you see the text for Lightning Reflexes? I can make out part of it, but only part. Still curious what Crack Shot is.

And yeah, I stand by the "Kihraxz is underwhelming" statement.

I am curious what the "Ion P..." upgrade with the YV is though. It has to be a modification, because there's no symbol in the bottom left. (and only mods and titles lack symbols, as far as I recall)
 
The Kihraxz definitely doesn't look like a game changer, but if I'm not mistaken it has Scum's first and only PS9 pilot, and its pilot ability is pretty damn good.
 

Tensketch

Member
Twin Ion Engine being a TIE only card already makes me wanna do royal guard fel with autothrusters and TIE and I dont even know what the damn card does!
 
Someone posted this in the X-Wing reddit which I think would be a great (and much needed buff) to the X-Wing:

Dynamic S-Foils
Modification. X-Wing Only
Your action bar gains the SLAM action.
0 pts.

I really like the idea, personally.
 

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
Where'd you see the text for Lightning Reflexes? I can make out part of it, but only part. Still curious what Crack Shot is.

And yeah, I stand by the "Kihraxz is underwhelming" statement.

I am curious what the "Ion P..." upgrade with the YV is though. It has to be a modification, because there's no symbol in the bottom left. (and only mods and titles lack symbols, as far as I recall)

I got the text for Lightning Reflexes from simply surmising what it says based on what we can see of the card. I may not be 100 percent accurate on that, but it should be pretty close. [edit] And I just edited my post up there because it looks like Lightning Reflexes requires you to discard it to use its effect.

That Ion P____ card definitely looks like a modification. It's large ships only. It kinda looks like it says, "After an enemy ship executes a maneuver that causes it to overlap this ship, roll 1 (?) die. On a [hit] or a [crit], the enemy ship receives 1 ion token."


Twin Ion Engine being a TIE only card already makes me wanna do royal guard fel with autothrusters and TIE and I dont even know what the damn card does!

People on FFG's forums speculate that it's more of a fix for the TIE Defender and TIE Bomber — it may turn some maneuvers green, like the R2 Astromech does. Perhaps it makes all left and right turns green, or all 2 speed maneuvers green, something like that.
 
I got the text for Lightning Reflexes from simply surmising what it says based on what we can see of the card. I may not be 100 percent accurate on that, but it should be pretty close. [edit] And I just edited my post up there because it looks like Lightning Reflexes requires you to discard it to use its effect.

That Ion P____ card definitely looks like a modification. It's large ships only. It kinda looks like it says, "After an enemy ship executes a maneuver that causes it to overlap this ship, roll 1 (?) die. On a [hit] or a [crit], the enemy ship receives 1 ion token."
Ah, wasn't sure if you'd seen a sneak peak or something elsewhere.:D

It would make sense for Lightning Reflexes to be a one use card. Being able to turn any maneuver into a K/S turn would be super powerful. It's a pretty nice power even as a one shot!

The ion pulse thing makes sense. Work pretty well on a Decimator with the ram build.
 
People on FFG's forums speculate that it's more of a fix for the TIE Defender and TIE Bomber — it may turn some maneuvers green, like the R2 Astromech does. Perhaps it makes all left and right turns green, or all 2 speed maneuvers green, something like that.

Has the cost of this card been spoiled? I don't know how much of a "fix" this would have on a Defender if it wasn't a free Modification, since in the case of the Defender specifically, it's the cost of the ship that is its real hindrance, not its lack of green turns. Although, I suppose coupled with a white K-Turn, having green turn options would make it that much better, assuming the mod was at most 1 point.

I hope it's something a little more inspired though since this upgrade would feel very much like a mirror of R2 Astromech/Unhinged Astromech if speculation is true.
 

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
Has the cost of this card been spoiled? I don't know how much of a "fix" this would have on a Defender if it wasn't a free Modification, since in the case of the Defender specifically, it's the cost of the ship that is its real hindrance, not its lack of green turns. Although, I suppose coupled with a white K-Turn, having green turn options would make it that much better, assuming the mod was at most 1 point.

I hope it's something a little more inspired though since this upgrade would feel very much like a mirror of R2 Astromech/Unhinged Astromech if speculation is true.

Don't know the cost, no. But you're right, it damn well better not cost more than 1, if even that much. I'm still annoyed that Extra Munitions costs 2 points. One of ordnance's many problems is costing too much, and while EM does technically reduce their cost, I think they could have gone a little farther with it. Two Proton Torpedoes costing 3 points each still doesn't look like a great deal to me.
 
Don't know the cost, no. But you're right, it damn well better not cost more than 1, if even that much. I'm still annoyed that Extra Munitions costs 2 points. One of ordnance's many problems is costing too much, and while EM does technically reduce their cost, I think they could have gone a little farther with it. Two Proton Torpedoes costing 3 points each still doesn't look like a great deal to me.

The weird thing about EM is how much better the value is, the more you sink into your ship. If you take Boba Fett in the Slave I (to add the torp slot), you can give him Homing Missiles (or the Improved Homing Missiles from the new wave) and proton bombs, suddenly extra munitions saves you like 10 points (depending on the cost of the Imp. Homing Missiles). It doesn't make the build any good, but it does make for an interesting ship at least.

Edit: essentially, they had to cost it not just for ships with, say, two torpedo slots, but ships that have Torps AND (missiles AND/OR bombs).
 
A friend of mine and I went in and bought two cores. We split the factions up, I will be playing imperial and him playing as rebel. We agreed on sharing cards cross faction as needs be, but this definitely makes Armada more affordable. We did play one 300pt. game, and it was pretty awesome. The game feels a bit more laid back than X-Wing as far as maneuvering goes, and you can use the range ruler at anytime to measure distance. Unfortunately due to our inexperience, my friend meet a disastrous end, in which he exposed his flagship's rear to my Victory front and side firing arcs. I used the title to boost my forward firing shot even further and basically one-shot his frigate. Rad for me, but he conceded at that point since most of x-wings were dead along with two of corvettes. You have be extremely careful on how you maneuver your ships. One wrong move and your flank is exposed and BAM, space dust.

Armada has left a pretty good impression me so far. Can't wait for wave one to release so we can get little variety going.
 

Tensketch

Member
Went to regionals yesterday in the UK. Had a great time, ended with a 2-4 (a lot of people had counters for Chewbo, also I didnt fly it very well) and just barely made the top 64 of 80 people. Got mah Boba card, all I care about.

I met up with one of the guys who I've seen around in the local games store where I live and I'm hoping that a community of players can get together and we can get some regular games going.
 

Tensketch

Member
well, since my local meta was whatever myself, my cousin or my dad flies, I wanted to fly a chewbo list:

Chewbacca
- Recon Specialist
- Falcon Title
- Lone Wolf
- C3PO

Leebo
- Recon Specialist
- Outrider
- Mangler Cannon
- Predator


I realised after the day that if I could do it again, I would swap 3PO & falcon title for Jan (focus evade each turn is just brilliant) and Lone Wolf for either VI and Stealth or Predator (getting the initiative bid).

The meta for the tourney was really diverse, however. Probably the most popular list was either the Deci Phantom (which my cousin flew a variation of) or IG-88's. The top list however I believe was a double decimator list.

Saw some cool lists the entire day, some were designed to just screw over 360 turrets (a guy flew 4 PTL A-Wings with autothrusters and I couldnt touch them), others were classics (4 B-Wings with Advanced Sensors, the 2014 worlds winner list, I think I saw a panic attack there too) and some were just guys favourite ships (my cousin played a guy who had a BYZX list that stomped all over him).


EDIT: Incase anyone wants to know my cousins list:

Captain Oicunn
- Intimidation
- Mara Jade
- Ysanne Isard
- Rebel Captive
- Dauntless

Whisper
- Gunner
- Fire-Control System
- Veteran Instincts
- Advanced Cloaking Device

His deci ploughs into his opponents causing murder whilst his phantom ripped em apart with constant target locks and re-rolls, He flew an almost mirror match against someone flying a whisper/chireneau combo and wiped him out.
 
Yeah, I am not surprised that phantom/decimator lists are not going away despite people's early predictions that the nerf was going to greatly reduce the phantoms's popularity. What I am surprised about is hearing a dual decimator list won the tournament. That's pretty cool actually. My friend has a wicked dual decimator list that just stresses the heck out of your ships. When he flies it correctly it is quite the beast to contend with.
 

Tensketch

Member
I personally find that what the nerf did was make it less of an autopilot ship and instead made it far more precise. The people who flew phantom lists knew how to fly phantoms and weren't just relying on picking the best of 4 options at the start of their turn.

When my cousin heard of the nerf he was obviously annoyed but when he tried the new rules, said that he likes them because it means at the start of the turn, you have to have confidence in your ability and just go for it.
 
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