Star Wars: X-Wing

We've been away for a couple of days, visiting my in-Laws near Haderslev, where the kids spent all week. Yesterday we took a one-day trip across the Danish-German border to visit Flensburg,  and in a games store called Gandalph I bought a German version of the X-Wing starter set (I speak and read German fluently, so it's not an issue), as all game components seem sold-out here in Denmark.

This morning I explained the basic rules for my 10 and 7 years old aughters, and they grasped the concept immediately, so we played the beginner scenario with my youngest offspring taking conrol of the X-Wing fighter, and my eldest daughter and I taking control of one Tie-Fighter each.

After a tense dogfight, I managed to tail the X-Wing and bringing my laser cannon to bear in two consecutive turns, which won the day for the Empire.

Conclusions:

The game is EXTREMELY well designed, and the large amount of high-quality double-sided thick carboard punch-out counters and accesories, combined with the hand-painted miniature starfighters, the high-end cards and  rules booklet, and a tense, tactical game-play, provides much value-for-money.

You SHOULD, however, consider buying at least two starter sets, as having more counters, dice, rulers, etc. (and double-up or more on the ships), will probably enhance the gaming experiance even further.

The game mechanics are simple enough for even younger kids to appreciate, yet the full rules present enough tactical options for the experienced gamer to delve into - and the option of adding more and/or other ship types to the game is just an added boon (I'm still awaiting an order of another starter set and some additional fighters to be fulfilled by my FLGS).

I'm already envisioning large participation games with swarms of Tie-Fighters trying to fend off Rebel attempts to break through to make bombing raids on Imperial installations of some sort, and maybe even the attack on the Death Star from Episode IV... only the imagination sets limits!

I shall make a step-by-step AAR with pics of another game soonish - leaving the manouver-rulers used for moving the ships behind the moved pieces provide a good impression of the tightly intertwined flying involved, and I shall try to use this to good effect when taking pictures of the action.