So here are my first thoughts on the alpha solo play rules from Star Wars: X-Wing

First of: if you (like me) haven’t played X-Wing in a while, read up on the rules before. Trust me.

Setting up the table: you need your regular 3’x3′ gaming space, two hyperspace entry points and six parts of obstacles. It is a bit fiddly because of the measurements given by the solo play rulebook what has to have what distance to what but it’s manageable.

For this first try I went with the most basic setup I could which was only the minis from the core set. You should take one or more ships for your force and make them a 35 – 45 points list. Or a “threat level 2” from the quick build rules. Same amount of points/threat level should be applied to the enemy force. The enemy force must be a greater number then the player force and divided into two waves with each wave totalling around 50% of the players points cost/threat level. A third wave with a list almost as high as the players total should be set aside as reinforcements.  I choose the thread level approach because that was the easiest to set up. I ended up with a rouge squadron veteran and two TIE fighter academy pilots.

And here is where I screwed up for the first time. I started with both TIEs on the mat when it should have been only one. Well, to late now.

Next up is movement. Like in the normal game the pilot with the lowest pilot skill goes first. Depending on where the next player controlled ship is you roll one attack and one defence die and that gives you the manoeuvre you should do. in the first turns the TIE had a tendency on using “the slowest blue bank or turn manoeuvre towards your Tally”.

And here is where I screwed up the first 4 turns. After movement you determine the attitude (offensive, balanced or defensive) of the enemy ship. The attitude then itself has a list of actions you should take for the automated ship. For example doing a barrel roll if you’re heading for an obstacle or are in an enemies firing arc.

So after moving and actions is done the fun part begins: shooting. This is (at least in my case) the most fun and easiest part of the whole thing because it’s the simplest.

After some bumping into asteroids and into each other I finally got a lock on one TIE and killed him.

At the beginning of Turn 4 the second wave should arrive on the hyperspace markers. And maybe even reinforcements if you have killed any of wave one. Since I had just killed one TIE I simply brought him back into play. At turn 7 one of the reinforcement ship should enter play. Since I didn’t have reinforcements as such but had again killed a TIE he came into play again.

Only in round 7 you can declare victory if the last solo play ships is destroyed or your forces have left the table. It took me 10 turns to defeat 4 TIE fighter.

Was it fun? Yes.

Was it exhausting? Yes but mainly because I’ve forgotten so many rules.

Will I play it again? I think so. I didn’t sort away all tokens and cards but put them aside so that the next setup should be a lot easier.

Side note: I did record all of the play on video but I’m not sure if I can use it for anything. Lighting isn’t very good and over long stretches there is nothing happening because I’m stuck reading rules. Maybe some stills can be salvaged to make a battle report of sorts.