"Looking for Star Wars table top/miniatures/board game..." Topic

Got a 7 year old girl who likes Star Wars and board games (manages Carcassonne without any problems), can anyone suggest anything? Star Wars Monopoly, Risk, etc seem a bit pointless as we already own the normal versions. X-Wing and Armada are out on cost and subject matter grounds – don't think ship combat will really float her boat!

Cost will probably sink this suggestion as well, but the current SW Minis game is Fantasy Flight's Star Wars Imperial Assault: link

Or search Ebay for old copies of the West End Star Wars Miniatures Battles game: link

or the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Miniatures Game: link

Imperial Assault is a good family game. I am not a fan of the boardgame style, but many of my friends play it with their kids or at social get-togethers.

link

Very different from standard Risk, and a pretty good game.

The new Star Wars Risk might be a bit much to manage. If you can find, however, the older versions of Star Wars Risk (Classic Trilogy or Clone Wars), both are actually quite good. Not too complicated, but asymmetric enough in victory conditions to give them a really different feel from traditional Risk.

There is a Star Wars version of Carcassonne out there, haven't played it so I can't comment on what it is like.

If you can get one for a sensible price on ebay (as they are out of production) Star Wars Epic Duels is superb.

auction

John T

See the free Pod Racing rules at runtus.org for a bit of fun.

The new Star Wars Risk isn't Risk. It's essentially a reskin of the much praised OOP Battle of Naboo: The Queen's Gambit game. But yes, there's a lot going on in this game, as it has three distinct board areas on which very different things are happening. Only the space battle truly involves miniatures and tactical action; the other two sections force strategic thinking in terms of resource usage, affecting the outcome of the tactical battle between the space forces.

But even the true Risk variants of Star Wars (Attack of the Clones and The Original Trilogy Edition) have distinctive differences from classic Risk that make for a very different game, including assymetric forces, differing strategic goals, a more tactically diverse decision tree for card use (cards can boost forces OR buy special forces (spacecraft) OR trigger special events/tactical surprises, etc.), and, best of all, a Death Star *that destroys planets*!!! Alas, OOP, but great games.

FFG has just released the two-player Star Wars: Rebellion game, which has the same "conquer the galaxy" general theme as a Risk-style game. I havem't played it, and suspect it may be a bit complex, but the buzz has been very positive.

Thanks for the suggestions, Imperial Assault is interesting, but it is a bit steep if it doesn't go down well and my local gaming group dosen't play it either. The old WoTC miniature game probably would have been okay, but in the UK it seems quite to difficult to pick up at a reasonable cost.

Might see if I can find a pdf copy of the rules for the various Risk versions and give them the once over.

Blasters and Bulkheads plus cheap Wizards of the Coast Star Wars miniatures. That is my preference over Imperial Assault.

You can also buy the Imperial Asault expansion packs for heros, they aren't too expensive and scale well with WoTC. I have bought Boba Fett and a couple of others. The sculpts are really nice. So the bulk of my stuff is WoTC, and I'm going to use IA miniatures for the heroes.

Thanks Polecat, I was wondering whether or not IA stuff would scale with the WoTC mini's, as thats the route I've gone down. Rather blew my budget on a bulk purchase, but I can sell on what I don't need for a reasonable price.

Can anyone suggest any other odds and ends that scale with the WoTC figures, kits for sceniary, etc?

Also does the hot water trick work with the WoTC mini's for straitening out blasters, etc?

The trick works for twisty lightsabers so probably yes.

Just some FYI I had to do the "Hot Water Trick" for some Star Wars Starship Battles minis I got. Most not bad, but one CSI Destroyer 'tail' section, pretty badly curved.

If you do the H W trick.. be sure to watch it carefully. As soon as the miniature 'remembers'/ returns to its molded shape, you need to have a bowl of ICE Water handy to dunk it into immmediately.

But Unlike the companys, Leave it in the cold water to allow the 'entire' model to cool so not to 'rebend'.

1) I think by just getting the base game X-Wing, sticking to the basic rules, you have a game a bright, focused seven-year old can follow along. You DON'T have to become tied to in-store play, with the constant buying of newer and more competitive ships.

2) On the other end of the cost scale, find some old MicroMachines and the old STSSB figs, use a free and simple game such as Tuffley's Tacship, and roll your own.

3) Have you considered role-playing? A few action figures, or better yet, your WOTC, someone else will have to suggest cheap-to-free rules, and a 7 yr old lass already has awesome 'playing with dolls' skills.

Doug

Finally got around to playing a couple of test games of the WOTC miniatures game. Outing number one saw Dad's Darth stamp all over daughter's Obi-Wan. Changed to some more vanilla forces for game two, which saw daughter's Storm Troopers stomp on Dad's Rebel Scum. She seemed to enjoy it, but we're short on Rebel heros, which I guess I'm now going to have to rectify.

The basic rules are okay IMO, if a little lacking in finess and somewhat brutal. Not sure that some of the more advanced pieces with plethera of special rules will flow that smoothly.

On the plus side, if number one daughter tires, number two son, despite being only three and never having seen anything Star War's related on TV is already obsssessed. So the the game should get another outing.