Fantasy Flight Games hit a home run with its Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures game. We reviewed it a while ago and found it to be a fantastic miniatures game with some amazing components. Since then, Fantasy Flight has been releasing a steady stream of expansion ships for you to add to your fleet. Players already have their hands on the first 3 waves of expansions and will soon be able to use some large transport ships. But today, they’ve announced what ships will be in their upcoming Wave 4 Release.
Z-95 Headhunter
The first ship for the rebels is the Z-95 Headhunter. Canonically, it’s the precursor to the X-Wing. The Z-95 Headhunter appears to be a low cost, low power option for rebel squadrons. According to FFG, the Z-95 Headhunter Expansion Pack comes with two missile upgrades, the Assault Missiles and the deadly Ion Pulse Missiles.
E-Wing
I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve never heard of the E-Wing before. This is the first X-Wing Miniatures ship that I haven’t come across in my history with Star Wars movies, TV shows, books and games. From what I gather, the ship appears to combine the X-wing’s firepower and durability with the A-wing’s speed and maneuverability. According to FFG, The E-Wing comes with the mini, four ship cards, five upgrade cards, maneuver dial, and tokens.
TIE Defender
I first ran into the TIE defender when playing the old X-Wing PC game. But that was probably the last time I crossed paths with this ship. The TIE Defender improved upon the TIE Fighter by adding shields, a hyperdrive and better weapons. So this ship appears to add some bigger firepower for your Imperial squadrons. According to FFG, expansion pack comes with the TIE defender miniature, four ship cards, one maneuver dial, all the tokens you need, and five upgrade cards.
TIE Phantom
The final ship for the Imperials is another one I don’t recall seeing in my history with Star Wars canon. In addition to being more powerful than your standard TIE Fighter, the TIE Phantom adds a new in-game mechanic: cloaking. I’m curious to see how this feature works during a battle. According to FFG, the expansion pack includes one TIE phantom miniature, four ship cards, five upgrades, one maneuver dial, reference cards for its new rules, and all the tokens you need.
So that’s the Wave 4 ships. If you’d like some additional information, you can hit up the announcement page on Fantasy Flights’ website.
What do you think? Was this what you were expecting and which one is going to be your “must have.” Let us know in the comments below.
Just a FYI, the E-Wing made it’s first appearance in the Dark Empire comic series, the Black Fleet Crisis series of novels, several novels in the Yuuzan Vong storyline, and a few others that escape me. The TIE Phantom was from the video game Rebel Assault II.