May the Fourth be with you! Are you a big Star Wars fan? Or maybe you just like the idea of flying around space? Star Wars X-Wing is the game for you.
X-Wing is a miniatures game where you get to fly through space, destroying other people’s ships and taking names. At Hexagon Calgary, we have a group who comes every Monday night to play at the cafe, always with an open invitation to teach new players the game. Most of the people in this group are part of the Calgary Chinook Squadron of the X-Wing community in Calgary and will compete in tournaments around the city.
Let’s get you started, with a quick how to play:
The game is played in 5 phases, starting with Phase 1:
Phase 1 is the Planning phase, where you get to secretly decide where your ship is going to fly. It’s as simple as that.
Phase 2 is a simple phase, that is often skipped, depending on the ships that are in play:
In Phase 2, the Systems phase, some ships may perform special actions, depending on their ship. Once these abilities are resolved, you move on to the next phase.
Moving on to Phase 3:
Phase 3 is the Activation phase, which is when you move your ship according the dial that you set in the planning phase. Once you have performed your movement (given that you don’t run into anything) you now take one action. The actions you may take are determined by the ship you are flying, and even the character you are playing as.
Next Phase is where you get to shoot, Phase 4:
Phase 4 is called the Engagement phase, and this is where you get to shoot at the other players on the board. You can determine who you may shoot at based on where the guns are on your ship. Some ships have moving turrets and some have multidirectional guns, but more just have the ability to shoot whats in front of them. The Engagement phase is done in opposite order from the Activation phase, meaning that if you were the last person to move your ship, you are the first to shoot. Shooting is done with dice rolling, and the ship being attacked can roll defense dice to protect themselves.
The last phase is Phase 5:
Phase 5 is the End phase, where you clean up any tokens that only last one round, such as focus tokens and evade tokens. Basically this is a cleanup phase. Once this is complete, you repeat the steps, starting at Phase 1.
Repeat these steps until your ship blows up, or you have killed all other players on the board.
That doesn’t sound so hard, does it? X-Wing is pretty easy to pick up and will satisfy your need for space exploration and battle. Come and join our lovely crew of X-wing enthusiasts on Monday nights at Hexagon Calgary, for a bit more detailed instruction of this great space game, and a great evening! Starts around 6:30, and can usually be found at Table B1.
