Star Wars X-Wing The Force Awakens Starter Set From Fantasy Flight Games Review and unboxing

Star Wars X-Wing has always been a firm favourite of Olivia and mine since we had the original starter set for it.  Now with the new film due for release at the end of the year Fantasy Flight Games have released an updated starter set to go along with it with ships and pilots from the new film.  Is this worth getting if you are new to the game? is it worth getting if you already have the original starter set? what comes in the box? all these questions will be answered, stick with us read on and find out.

 The box art is superb with the new T-70 Xwing  and packaged in the same way as the old set so you can clearly see the ships.  What's inside?

 it comes packed full of paper goodness, you have a  little insert sheet showing you a small selection of other ships that are available, a Fantasy Flight games catalogue to flick through full of wondrous other games to try then 3 rules booklets for the game itself.  This method makes things a lot simpler, you have the learn to play booklet that guides you through the basics for the game, with plenty of diagrams and in full colour with learning actions, how attacks work and movement and so on, then you have the rules reference booklet.  In this one all the main rules are laid out alphabetically so you can just flick to find it to brush up on what you need, its perfect to keep near you during a game if you need to find anything, and a lot more useful then flicking through a complete rulebook looking for one point, so that's a big improvement.  The mission that come with the starter set are in their own little leaflet, and use the ships and tokens that come in the box so you do not need anything else, but can change out the ships for other packs when you get them and play the mission.  The missions being on a separate sheet follows the way mission are packaged in large based ships, so you can keep them all together in one place, again another nice little touch I approve of. 

 We have the range ruler looking at the bottom of the box, a set of pilot cards, special dice and damage deck.

 You get a whole world of card tokens in this game, all excellent quality that will last you well.  It contains all the manoeuvre templates you will need, dials, shields, ship bases, objective tokens, asteroids and plenty more, all easy to punch out and good card stock.

 What's nice is the asteroids are different to the original set, so can provide a mix and variety to play with.  It also includes a cool looking initiative token to keep a track of it.  All the tokens are completely compatible with all your old X-Wing models, so wont look out of place, in fact you wont be able to tell which is the new set and old set, which is a great thing.

 The ship bases have the same stats as the original game, attack, defence, hull shields, firing arc and any relevant actions the ship can take.

 It will take a while to punch out all the bits you need, so your are definitely getting plenty of value in the box.

 We get a nice selection of pilots to choose from for the First Order side, all with new great looking artwork.

 The generic un-named pilots also give you back ground on the ships card to read to further your knowledge of them.

 You get three named Ace TIE/FO pilots, all with their own special ability stated on the card

 For the Resistance side you get four pilots, again all with great new artwork and background information on the ship,

 The Resistances ace pilot in the pack is Poe Dameron, who can use focus to his advantage, so you want to make a good use of him in combat to get those hits in,

 The art is excellent, and high quality, its great seeing more pictures of ships we have only glimpsed in a trailer so far,

 The symbols on the back of the cards are subtly different from the original set, as these are new factions, well more sub-factions really, as it states in the book that resistance can mix in with Rebels, and First Order can mix in with the Empire.

 The dice are the same as the original, so that's good and can go straight in the pool, always need more dice for this game as I do think 3 is not enough.

 You get 5 upgrade cards in here, 4 are new ones, and Proton Torpedoes are the same from the old set.  I like the fact BB-8 is in it as he looks fun from the trailers, and he will prove a useful astromech for you due to him giving you a barrel roll as a free action.

 The damage deck is different from the original set, and replaces it if you already have it, it has new art on the back of the cards to make sure they don't get mixed up.

 Now the ships themselves! you get one T-70 X-wing, and two TIE/FOs

 These ships are all in scale and on the same bases which are included as the original ships and expansions, and are also of the same high quality.  Great looking models, full of detail with an excellent paint job they look phenomenal

 The TIE/FO is not the same model as the original TIE repainted, it has sublte differneces, and a new paintjob, that red cockpit glow is just excellent.

 You can see all the detail on the T-70 here, showing its evolution from the original Xwing

 They are great looking models from every angle

 You can see the details on the wing here, they are great models and do not need any touch up work at all.

 If you are familiar with the original ships you can see the T-70 has got some more manoeuvres up its sleeve, with some tight 180 turns, and the TIE has the Segnors loop ability.

 The Force awakens ships, compared with the original ships, as you can see are of the same high quality and the same scale.

 The T-70 looks more powerful then its Xwing ancestor, but retains design features making it familiar

The ships can match together and fly in the same battles with no problems.

If you are a fan of X-Wing, this is a must have for the updated rules that pulled all the ship expansion rules into one place, the updated damage deck, and of course the new ships as well! so its a no brainer.  If you have not played X-wing before, this is the best place to start, it provides all the basic tokens and templates you will ever need, along with dice decks and ships to get you going and collecting your way to victory for either the First order, or the Resistance.  Then you can pick up other expansions and add them into your collection to get bigger battles and more variety

If you are Star wars fan you need this game, its easy to learn even if you are non gamer you will be playing easily in a short time.  If you are a gamer that has not tried X-wing, you need this game, its fantastic, fun, and high quality.

Olivia is 6 and plays it like a master, so it can be taught to anyone, as there is little to read on the cards, and once you have the basics of how to move and fight you will ruling the galaxy, or defending it!

Its RRP is £29.99 which is a bargain for what you get in it, so head here to find your local store and go and grab it

Stick with us for a battle report using the starter box coming later on.