Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures game ARC-170 unboxing and reveiw from Fantasy Flight games

Time again to look at the newest release for Xwing... This time its the Rebellions turn to get a new ship.. well new old ship if that makes sense as the ARC is an elderly beast, but rather a cool looking one in my opinion, and therefore i forgive the prequels (a bit) for creating it.

The Rebel Alliance recovered, repaired, and retrofitted a handful of ARC-170 starfighters during the Galactic Civil War. Though somewhat antiquated, the ship was still a force to be reckoned with, featuring powerful cannons, heavy shielding, and a tail gunner. The ARC-170 Expansion Pack introduces this starfighter to X-Wing as a resilient vessel with two attack, an auxiliary firing arc, and both crew and astromech upgrade slots. Additionally, four ship cards introduce Poe Dameron's mother Shara Bey and three other aces while nine new upgrades permit a wide range of creative configurations.

You can see shes slightly bigger then most of the ships we see, so is in the slightly bigger clam shell compared to the TIE or Xwing.

Lets crack it open and see what shes like...........

 Ok, shes not the most nimble ship in the galaxy, but she is knocking on a bit!, and even going at speed 4 will put a stress on her frame.... she does have plenty of low speed maneuvers though., and with a rear gunner to protect her its not too much of an issue.

 As always all the tokens you need, with the auxiliary arc of your rear gunner cleared maked on the ships baseplate.

 Lets take a look at the pilots, unusually all 4 are named pilots, it must be due to the fact that the ARC-170 was such a rare beast in Rebel service there aren't that many pilots.

She doesnt have much firepower with a 2, low agility, which is to be expected for this tank, good hull and average shields.. she can take a beating.  The only two actions on the bar are focus and target lock, so your options are limited, and a lot of these ships make use of those abilities in a supporting role. 

Norra for example lets you spend a target lock when attacking or defending to add a focus result to the pool, handy if you have the focus ability and can then convert them into hits.

Shara lets other ships at range1-2 use your target lock blue token, which can cause a nasty surprise for your opponent.

Thane lets you get a free action after an enemy in your fire arc attacks an ally in range 1-3 of you, very handy to get more accuracy with a focus and target lock, or... to be used on some of the funky upgrade cards coming in a bit.....

Lastly Braylen lets you roll a dice after a move, and on a hit or crit get rid of a stress, this is a great ability if you want to risk throwing your ARC around a bit more, or at least know you can potentially shred the stress without having to pull a green move.

 for upgrades we get a few pretty handy ones....

Recon specialistis one we have seen before, she lets you get two focus tokens for each focus action.

Adrenaline rush lets you discard it if you reveal a red move, it then counts as a white, very handy for such a ship when you need a boost of speed, or a suprise K turn.

Alliance overhaul is a 0 cost title.  When you attack from your primary weapon and primary arc you can roll an adiitional dice, making her a 3 attack ship in the front, and you also get to change a focus to a crit for free, suddenly making her a very scary prospect! for 0 cost, this is a basic must take card.

The R3 astromech can cancel one of your focus results to assign an evade token to your ship... very useful if you have done all the damage you need, or done no damage, so you may as well try to survive the return fire.

Tail gunner reduces your oppoents agility by 1 when they are in your rear arc, so well worth it to try and push through as much damage as possible.

Vectored thrusters is a mod, and gives you the barrel roll action! which is great for this ship as it gives you a bit more maneuverability, and another action choice, well worth it to set up either your primary, or auxiliary arcs for shots.

Seismic torpedoes are a game changer.... The first weapon that can actually get rid of terrain.

It allows you to spend an Action to explode an obstacle within Range 1–2 of your primary firing arc, potentially dealing damage to nearby enemy ships. Then, whether or not you damage your opponent's ships, you remove the obstacle from the table, and you can potentially fly your whole squadron straight through the gap—without penalty—in the next round, so no more enemy dodging in and ou and around those asteroids.. just blow them away!

 The ship herself is great looking, and faithful to her prequel looks, though of course a lot more tatty in the paint department.... I think it really adds character to a ship, and fits her age.

 As alwyas, the model is well detailed, and well painted.

Even a cool Rebel symbol on the wing....

Its a great pack, that torpedo... wow.. that's going to change things, i can just see Olivia unleashing it to stop me dodging around things with my beloved TIE Phantom.  She may be slow, but shes a tank, and flown in formation is pretty scary, add a Ywing as her her wing man and you have got all around cover and a ton of hull to eat through.  An excellent addition to the game!


With an RRP of £18.99 she adss some hefty punch and some nice tricks to your force. Head on down to your Local Game Store and grab a copy, you will have a great time throwing this old ship around on the table.