The TV show Star Wars Rebels has been a massive boon to the Star Wars X-Wing game. The regular show features a great many space battles with new and novel enemies and expands the Star Wars universe in a way that the books and comics can’t. One of the stand out scenes in show involves the Rebel’s stealing an Imperial TIE and the crew’s resident graffiti artist, Sabine, deciding to give it a rather startling new paint job.
Obviously this had to be turned into a playable model, and the result is rather striking. It’s a lovely model. It’s a basic TIE Fighter and they’ve always been quite nice and highly detailed pieces. The addition of an orange ‘phoenix’ art just adds to the joy of the piece. Of course, the fact that this means that Rebels can now use TIEs has caused some moaning amongst those who collect and play Imperial forces, but given that the Imperials get some of the nicest ships in the game, they can do with learning to share a little.
Rules wise, well, this is a TIE Fighter. A highly mobile and very breakable ship can easily sneak behind its foe and go pew-pew until the enemy explodes. The manoeuvre dial is unchanged, except it has a Rebel logo on it rather than the Imperial one. It’s the extra cards that make it fun. For a start, the ‘Title: Sabine’s Masterpiece’ allows you to load the ship with some lovely illicit equipment and extra crew. This means you can cram a dead-mans switch into your breakable TIE, and also somehow add an extra person into that tiny cockpit (Rebels it seems, have no regard for health & safety).
This person may well be Captain Rex, veteran Clone Wars trooper now turned Rebel. He’s rather nifty in the sense that he adds an extra focus token if you miss your target. Which is a potential ‘get out of death free’ card. You can also add the modification Captured TIE, which means less TIE pilots with a lower skill can’t target you (because they think you’re on their side). You can also have drop-out Jedi Ashoka Tano as a pilot, who’s a high-speed cheerleader who gives her allies bonus actions.
Mostly this is a theme filled, fun expansion for the game. Number crunchers may whinge, but if you’re interested in creative play and generating new strategies (and happen to play Rebels) then this is a great addition.
SABINE’S TIE FIGHTER EXPANSION PACK / PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
