First Step Into a Larger World

I have a soft spot for dogfight games, going back to a copy of Wings of War: Dawn of WWII that I was given for my 11th birthday. Despite my continuing interest in that game, there are issues with it, especially for an eleven year-old. The plane cards lack the cool factor of miniatures, and made movement tricky, and the maneuver deck was also fiddly. Because of this (and the fact that WoW supplements are vastly more expensive than I remember), I had been interested in finding a replacement game for some time, and Fantasy Flight's X-Wing Miniatures Game fit the bill. In addition to great looking minis and a more streamlined gameplay than its predecessor, it tapped into another thing I enjoy, the X-Wing novels by Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston. The idea of recreating the actions of Rogue and Wraith Squadrons on the tabletop had me hooked. So, as a test of the miniature quality, I purchased an E-Wing expansion pack.

The quality of the game tokens and cards is up to Fantasy Flight's usual high standards, the tokens are printed with a great deal of detail, and all the cards feature original artwork (I'd like to see credits for the artists as per Arkham Horror, though). The E-Wing first appeared in the comic series Dark Empire plagued with mechanical difficulties, although it later became something of a replacement for the X-Wing by the time of The Black Fleet Crisis and New Jedi Order era. Since the E-Wing is strictly an Expanded Universe ship, unrevisited as yet by the Disney takeover, all the pilots come from the novels and comics of 'Legends' canon. The two generic cards, from Knave and Blackmoon Squadrons, are from Dark Empire and The New Jedi Order novels respectively. Having Corran Horn, the protagonist of Stackpole's Rogue Squadron novels, makes for a great ace character, although Etahn Ah'Baht's addition is somewhat perplexing. A'Baht is the Dornean General in charge of the Fifth New Republic Fleet in the Black Fleet Crisis and the war against the Yuuzhan Vong, and never to my knowledge flies a snubfighter.

Still, it is an excellent pack. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the paint job too. Even I would feel comfortable fielding it in an unmodified state- perhaps the first prepainted miniature I've felt that way about. Still, as seen above, there was room for improvement! I opted for Blackmoon Squadron markings, which I do not believe have ever been illustrated, even unofficially, giving me room to invent my own.

I kept the shape of the original red markings as I liked the outlines and wanted to retain the good 'alliance grey' color on the body. All the repainting was done freehand, with no masking of any kind, as such there is some slight variance with the markings. I also wanted to relieve the resultant monochromatic look, so I added a stripe in medium tan/yellow down the body.

Last to be added were some slightly overscale squadron and pilot insignia, along with a row of kills below the cockpit. I actually could not find anyone who had added carbon scoring from laser cannon near-misses- these were drybrushed on before I applied an overall ink wash.

I opted for no markings along the underbelly of the E-Wing, making the tan arrows stand out in contrast with the plain grey.

I look forward to testing the ship's mettle and trying out the game in the near future!