Star Wars Starship Battles; Shite or Salvagable?

I've been thinking about the press releases regarding a Star Trek Miniatures game from NECA/Wiz and although I think that the Star Trek franchise has a wider variety of races, ships, powers and so on, I can't help but think that it's just another CMG debacle that will have me spending thousands on a game that I will likely not have anyone to play with.

So, I considered getting a starter and couple of boosters for Star Wars Miniatures. I've heard both good and bad about it, with the primary bitch being the unlimited range...that seems fixable. Is there something else I should know about?

That being said, can someone persuade me or dissuade me from trading for or buying some of these cool little miniatures for some Saturday afternoon skirmishes with my 9-year old?

It's simple and awesome. I'd wait a little longer since Wizards lost their license for SWs stuff and the game is going to be dead shortly and thus getting a lot cheaper.

The unlimited range isn't really that bad a thing, it's thematic and fitting (yes I can shoot a laser across this football field) and it just makes you pay attention to cover.

It's not the deepest, but that makes it perfect for little dudes. It's in a similar class as Heroscape.

There is also something very satisfying about playing with some of the classic characters.

I don't know if this impacts you at all, but Wizards is losing their Star Wars license and has opted not to renew. Thus, anything WoTC + Star Wars is going to be discontinued in the not too distant future. Just wanted to let you know before you got too invested in a doomed system.

I appreciate the thought, ahayford, and I knew that going in, which was one of the main reasons - no "new modules/new sets" to buy, so once I'm done, I'm done. That being said, I won't even try to "collect" the entire series, just enough for some bad-ass battles and fighter squadron warfare. Light, simple, and easy enough for a 9-year old is what I'm going for.

I love the idea of it, as I'm a big fan of the SW franchise. But the game itself is well, kind of boring.

Wait, are you asking about the Star Wars Starship Minis game or the regular Star Wars minis game?

The regular minis game was pretty solid. The Starship minis game was shit. However, I was able to pick a bunch up to pimp out my copy of Star Wars: Star Warriors.

Spinrad wrote:

Wait, are you asking about the Star Wars Starship Minis game or the regular Star Wars minis game?

The regular minis game was pretty solid. The Starship minis game was shit. However, I was able to pick a bunch up to pimp out my copy of Star Wars: Star Warriors.

Starship. I played the regular minis game a lot for a while, until I realized that Heroscape is so much better and converted most of the SW minis to Heroscape figures.

I keep hearing about Star Warriors...may be a thought! Thanks!

Oh my bad, I was talking about regular minis, no idea about the space battles. meh.

The best balance of playability and detail in a Star Trek ship combat game is Dan Verssen's collectible dice game.

The boosters are impossible to find, but the base First Contact set, which has the Enterprise against the Borg sphere ship, is really cheap and easy to get, and I've always had fun with it.

Also worthy of mention is FASA's old Starship Duel I & II. Like the dice game, movement is completely abstracted, and the only thing that really matters is which side of your ship you're presenting to your opponent. You just chose which way you want to point, which shields and phasers you want to power, and shoot at each other.

They also did one based on The Last Starfighter, which is simpler, but wins points for being a Last Starfighter game.

The Wizards of the Coast Starship Battles is a steaming pile of turd except that the minis are pretty well done. The rules themselves are a train wreck and the battles go as follows:
Capital ships pound at each other from afar. Fighters close in and finish them off. There's no really maneuver or anything else.

the regular star wars minis game is pretty cool though but I haven't played in a year or so. From what I've seen it was starting to suffer from the same thing that Magic was suffering from...creep. It seems the newer figures are more powerful and it would be tough to compete with the older figures. But I guess if they want us to buy yet another Luke, that Luke should be able to do everything.

Some of the ships:

I kind of hoped that using the standard rules with some houserules regarding range would be the answer to the problem, but apparently this may be overstated.

I'm buying a starter and 2 boosters to get it going, and I'll post a review. Hopefully I'll hate it...I've had some bad days lately and beating up WotC would be fun!

I really like this game. It needs some serious house rules though. A star wars game needs to be fast and furious with lots of stuff blowing up. Currently the game is all about the capitol ships. I have been chatting with Launius and he suggested making a new expanded command sheet and not making commands expendable. I think it could use a bit more. I tried the house rules on BGG and didn't love them.

I hope you like it. I do.

Steve"Tubbs"Avery

It's not a bad system to start with though. It just needs some tweaking. I think they were trying to get it out before WizKids did their Star Wars ship game because the rules seem rushed. The minis are really nice though.

Superfly,

The Star Wars Starship Minis are basically the same as the old micromachines minis. They work great for my simple, fast, and fun starship combat game that I have taught to people in the past. The actual SWSM game is crapola, but the ships are great.

I won't have time for at least a week, but if you do get any minis and want to try my game rules out, I can write them down for you. My game allows quick custom creation of ships with a point value system and battles are fast and furious. The only other thing you'd need is a big hex starfield map or two or three, depending on how big of battles you want to conduct. I don't try to simulate all three dimensions as some other games might, but I do have shields, weapon arcs, missiles, and engines all creatable and destructable.

I had a starter and a booster but I never got around to playing it. Then I traded them to Ken B for some Dragon Dice. I wonder if he ever played with them or if they continue to gather dust. The sculpts are pretty awesome though.