I am very, very happy this exists. It's good in concept, and good in execution. My ten-year-old son and I just got into the X-Wing Miniatures Game a couple of months ago. We started with the original core set and we'd added a handful of single-fighter expansion packs before we picked this up. We had just been considering whether or not to buy another original core set when we learned the new core set was due out soon. A lot of the "how to get started in X-Wing" pieces you'll find online recommend getting two core sets, to economically build your fleet, get two sets of movement templates, and finally have enough dice to stop rerolling. (Both core sets are nerfed by have one fewer attack and defense dice than you really need for most situations - presumably to goad you into buying their pricey packs of extra dice.) Having purchased and played with this new core set, I can say for certain that it is very nice to have two core sets, with all of the extra ships, counters, movement templates, and dice. But it's also nice to have two core sets that aren't exactly the same. The new Force Awakens X-Wings and TIE fighters have some new tricks - an additional point of shields on each, a new fast-turn maneuver for each ship, and new abilities like target lock for the TIE fighters and boost actions for the X-Wings.The damage deck is a bit different, and for those interested in competitive play, it's apparently an official replacement for the damage deck in the original core set. There are a few other nice touches as well - the new core set comes with three missions, just like the original core set, but they're not the same missions. You still get six asteroid markers but the ones are different shapes with different art, so if you combine an original and a Force Awakens core set you can make a field with 12 unique asteroids. My favorite update is the way they've handled the rulebook. The original core set rulebook is, frankly, kind of a mess. It's a good thing the game is so intuitive to pick up, because the original rulebook is NOT well organized, requiring far too much flipping back and forth during the first few games. I'm happy to say that's much improved in the new core set. It includes not one but three booklets: a short "How to Play" booklet that walks you through the rules by actually playing the game, a much thicker "Rules Reference" that is basically an alphabetically-arranged glossary of rules and terms, and a leaflet with the three new missions. For people who haven't been playing long enough to have all of the rules memorized yet, the Rules Reference book is a godsend - MUCH easier to use than the old core rulebook when you need to look up some pesky situation mid-game. The weaknesses of this core set are the same as the original: it's a bit weedy to have a core set for a miniatures game that only includes three ships, and I'm still irked that they drive you to purchase additional dice (or their proprietary dice app) by including so few in the starter box. But by now those are just the ground realities of the X-Wing Miniatures Game, and within that context, this core set is no weaker than its predecessor, and actually improves on it in some non-trivial ways (like the Rules Reference). I can't quite bring myself to knock off a whole star for that. In sum, I'm happy about this new core set because it gives new and existing players new options. You can focus your play strictly on the original trilogy timeline, or only on the Force Awakens era, or mix 'em up. And people who want to get two sets of templates, dice, and bits without getting carbon-copy fighters can get one of each. In fact, I hope that Fantasy Flight adds at least one more core set in the future - I'd kill for a Scum & Villainy Core Set with a bounty hunter ship and a couple of fringe fighters. Weiterlesen
