I’m not even going to mess around with any sort of introduction this week, folks. We have new Star Wars: X-Wing the Miniatures Game news that must be shouted from the rooftops!
The new “Imperial Aces” expansion!
Since the TIE Interceptor models were announced, I haven’t known a single Imperial player who has not at least mentioned hand-painting bloodstripes on solar panels. Fantasy Flight Games must have gotten wind of this because the new Imperial Aces expansion (coming in the 4th quarter of 2013) includes 2 Interceptor repaints: one with Saber Squadron’s telltale bloodstripes and one that takes the the color red little more seriously – the Royal Guard!
Look at all this stuff!
The expansion doesn’t stop with repaints, though. As you can see above Imperial Aces will give would be Saber Squadron squad leaders and their Royal Guard allies a plethora of new pilots and upgrades to choose from. Fantasy Flight has even gone one better by including a new scenario for players to engage in.
With the announcement of larger ships at GenCon and the inclusion of the Slave I, Millenium Falcon and Imperial Shuttle in the last few waves there’s been some concern that X-Wing was straying a bit too far from its dogfighting roots. Expansions like Imperial Aces (and the practically inevitable Rebel counterpart sure to follow on its heels) will go a long way to alleviate players’ concerns.
The Game of Thrones Card Game Organized Play Kit
While new X-Wing news is always welcome, Fantasy Flight had another, somewhat related bit of news to dole out this week. The 3rd season of their popular Organized Play kits is ready to be pre-ordered by retailers wishing to host events. As usual, all of Fantasy Flight’s Living Card Games are represented (Call of Cthulhu, A Game of Thrones, Warhammer Invasion, Lord of the Rings, Android: Netrunner, Star Wars) as well as Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game. The contents of these kits is nothing unexpected, but the various game mats, tokens and variant cards all bear Fantasy Flight’s usual quality.
And on a final, unfortunate note I have to report a bit of fraudulent phishing that’s been going on. Apparently some jokers have been going around using the email address “service@reapermini.com” to try and swindle Reaper Miniatures’ customers out of their credit card info. Reaper posted a warning on their Facebook page advising their customers and fans against providing any such information and hopefully the cultprit will be caught soon ad dealt with accordingly.
Tabletop Term of the Week: Last week I briefly touched on how to protect elements of your game by sleeving your cards in protective covers. This week, I’d like to share the best course of action for when the unthinkable happens. No matter how well you care for your games, accidents will happen and you might find yourself with a broken piece, a warped board or cards covered in any number of fluids. When this sort of tragedy strikes, the best course of action is to contact the game’s publisher directly.
Many publsihers will have contact forms on their websites. You can usually find this info in your game’s instruction manual or with a simple Google search, but don’t hesitate to ask the staff at your local game store if you’re completely lost. Once you know how to get a hold of them, it’s often as simple as providing them with a short description of your problem and asking if they can send a replacement. Most publishers will respond within 24 hours and may ask for more information about what’s wrong or request pictures of the damage. Once they have everything they need, you’re likely going to have a nice little package on its way to you with replacement components!
