Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game Expansion: Imperial Aces , FFGSWX21 (First Edition)

Lovely model. In the EU, the E-Wing was the intended successor to the iconic X-Wing, but it never gained traction with most pilots.The model stats are slightly superior to the X-Wing, but not by a great deal. 3 agility gives the ship a decent defense, and the three shields and two hull points give you an extra soak for a dreaded critical hit, as opposed to the X-Wing's 3 hull and 2 shields. The ship is, though, expensive to field; it would not be advisable to field more than one in a standard game.Corran Horn's ability is excellent, allowing him to fire twice in one turn, on the condition that he forfeits an attack in the following turn. Getting into range one of an enemy ship and having the potential to roll four attack dice followed by a further four attack dice at the end of the combat phase can work well for thinning or weakening an opponent's ships. Pairing him with R2-D2 is highly recommended, and will keep him on the table longer.He has a pilot kill of eight.Etahn A'baht is another interesting pilot, and one that works well in Rebel swarm builds. If a Rebel ship attacks an enemy that is within range three of Etahn, that attacker can change one normal hit result to a critical. Etahn is, however, a costly 32 points. He has a pilot skill of five.The two generic pilots come in with pilot skills of three and one, and cost 29 and 27 points respectively.The most notable upgrade card is advanced sensors, and it is an extremely useful upgrade for a B-Wing, allowing an action to be taken before a maneuver.All in all, it is a nice ship, but it is expensive to field. I would recommend probably only getting one, unless you really need another advanced sensors card for a tournament. The Lambda-Class shuttle is the only other ship I know of with this card.

I've been a casual X-Wing player more-or-less since the game's release but have only recently decided to explore the Scum & Villainy faction, enticed mainly by this little ship. What we have here is basically the Scum equivalent of the Rebel A-wing; high in agility with a versatile dial (if slightly less versatile than that of its Rebel cousin) with a mediocre base attack. However, unlike the A-wing (and where this ship earns its place in your squadron) is its ability to add a cannon to its offensive arsenal.This is achieved by way of the "Heavy Scyk" upgrade card which allows the ship to take either a cannon, a torpedo or a missile. Torpedoes and missiles see very little use as they're only good for one hit, but cannons can really boost a ship's firepower. The set includes three choices - Mangler Cannon, Ion Cannon and Flechette Cannon - and you can use the Autoblaster or Heavy Laser Cannon from other sets. The "Heavy Scyk" upgrade costs 2 points and that, plus the cost of the cannon itself, brings the M3-A up from "cheap and cheerful swarmer" to "mid-price heavy hitter". This versatility really sets the M3-A apart from any other ship released so far.Another interesting thing to note about this ship is that one of its two non-unique pilots caries a pilot skill of 5 and an elite upgrade slot for just 17 points. That's not something you see very often, and the possibilities for this thing if you choose to give it Push The Limit are frightening as it has Target Lock, Focus, Barrel Roll and Evade up its sleeve.The M3-A provides your Scum and Villainy faction with a fast, manoeuvrable ship that can deliver a big hit if you're prepared to pay the costs. A great ship and highly recommended.

I have to admit to being a little reluctant to buy this initially due to the relatively high ticket price for a single ship/model. However having decided to bite the bullet I'm incredibly glad I did. The model itself is huge in dimensions (as it should be) in comparison to the normal fighters, the detail is great and the paint job is suitably weathered and realistic. So much so you could probably use this in a fan movie if you so desired :)In addition it comes with a wealth of cards and accessories to enhance your game experience and grow upon the basic game. If this is the quality of epic/capital ships that are going to be released for this game series it will become a massive hit as time goes by, especially with the new movies in the pipeline.I'm looking forward to future releases in this series, although don't go expecting a star destroyer any time soon as if built on the same scale it would be unbelievably huge and no doubt carry a price tag to match :)

Lovely model to complement the X-Wing collection. It comes with plenty of counters for the missions/campaign included in the accompanying booklet (although many of the scenarios require a lot more models than in the core set to play them), and loads of upgrade cards. And here's where the main interest lies. Some of the upgrade cards are 'a must' if you want to play competitively in an X-Wing tournament, and as many of the upgrade cards are only found in this set, you have to buy it.The plastic pegs that attach this huge ship to its base are a bit too flimsy. It's very easy to snap the pegs off. Even when removing the ship from the base, if you don't pull the stand out exactly perpendicular to the ship it risks snapping the pegs off. Invariably they sheer off flush with the locating hole which then becomes almost impossible to extract! So even if you manage to get hold of a new stand (FFG are planning to start selling these some time in 2016) you can't use it. I have snapped off one of these pegs on another model and only managed to get the peg out by clamping the model in a vice and using a hobby micro drill to drill out the peg...not exactly easy! So this is probably not a model for young children (or clumsy adults).Other than the stand issue, this is a great, highly detailed model. FFG have produced a very well polished expansion set. It is a bit pricey at its full RRP, but I picked mine up on an Amazon Prime special 24hr deal at a steal of a price. It arrived in less than 24hrs as well, so top marks to Amazon for that.