Review of X-Wing Miniatures Game – Star Wars: Rebels Expansion Packs

The AWESOME new Star Wars Rebels ships have arrived! There are three expansion ships from Fantasy Flight Games: The Inquisitor’s Tie, the Imperial Assault Carrier (aka Gozanti Class Cruiser), as well as Ghost (and its shuttle Phantom)! The Cruiser was technically seen first in Phantom Menace (in a slightly different form) and then in several episodes of Clone Wars, before showing up in Rebels, however the miniature was released at the same time as the Rebels expansion sets.

Review of X-Wing Miniatures Game: Rebels Ships
Released by Fantasy Flight Games
Designed by Jay Little
Review by Edward Nam (aka “the Hubby”)

Inquisitor’s TIE:

The Inquisitor’s TIE is a variant of the TIE Advanced (Darth Vader’s TIE). As the photos below show, they look similar though there are some notable differences. Oddly the solar paneling (if that’s what they are) is on the inside of the Inquisitor’s TIE, but on both the inside and outside for the standard TIE Advanced. The paneling is taller in height but shorter in length than the standard TIE Advanced and the wings have more curvature.

Comparing abilities, the Inquisitor’s TIE has the same four action choices: focus, barrel roll, target lock, and boost. The pilot skill value options on the four Inquisitor cards included are 2, 4, 6, and 8 with squad point costs of 16, 19, 22, and 25 respectively. The standard TIE Advanced has 2, 4, 7, and 9 pilot skill level with squad point costs of 21, 23, 27, and 29 respectively. The squad points are cheaper because the hull value is one point lower (2 vs 3). So the Inquisitor’s TIE is slightly weaker than Darth Vader’s variant.

Imperial Assault Carrier:

The Imperial Assault Carrier (aka Gozanti Class Cruiser) may be the most impressive ship I’ve seen from Fantasy Flight Games so far (the Rebel Transport comes in at a close second). The pictures say a thousand words, but I will still add a few words of my own. First thing one notices when opening the box is that it comes with 2 TIE fighters. Next, upon closer inspection one can notice that from bow to stern, starboard to port, the detail on this freighter/carrier is amazing. I was excited to find that 4 TIE fighters can attach to the bottom of the Carrier! (Editor’s Note: When opening this box, and putting the ship together the Hubby hollered. “WHOOOAAAA! HONEY, YOU GOTTA COME AND SEE THIS!”). I couldn’t figure out how to get all 4 TIEs to face in the same direction. Regarding the new TIEs, note that they are more blue in color than the TIEs that come with the original game box, but otherwise look the same (see comparison pictures below).

The game comes with only a single card for the Carrier. Pilot skill level 2, 40 point buy, 4 firepower, 0 agility, 9 hull, and 5 shield. It has 4 actions: targeting lock, and 3 new actions: recover, reinforce, and coordinate. The ship comes with its own rulebook that describes these actions. The recover action allows accumulated energy tokens to recover the shield; reinforce allows for multiple evasions; and coordinate allows one Imperial ship in range to immediately take an action (this is a pretty cool option). The ship has two stands so it uses the “huge ship” rules. The TIEs have the following identical cards for pilot skill level 1, 3, and 4 (Black Squadron Pilot), but it also comes with new 4, 6 and 7 pilots with new special abilities.

Overall, this is really an amazing miniature. Now if only they would build 2 attachable AT-AT walkers (as seen in Star Wars Rebels Season 2, “Princess of Lothal” at the 5:20 mark).

Wait, I have just the thing! The LEGO Microfighter AT-AT (75075) is about the right size. Note that the AT-ATs in Rebels episode were of an older (and I think) smaller design than the behemoths in the Empire Strikes Back, so these might just do! (Pause… while I re-set up my backdrop, get the camera and shoot some more photos.) I hope you enjoy the photos as much I enjoyed taking them. In case you are curious, there was no simple way to physically attach the AT-ATs to the carrier, but it wouldn’t be too complicated to rig something up if you wanted to (with or without the transfer tubes).

A small note about the radar dish on the carrier – it is removable! I’m not sure why FFG designed it this way, but it popped off when I was putting it back in the box, and it popped back in just as easily. It’s possible that they did this because it’s easily breakable otherwise, but all the gun turrets are breakable too. There’s lots of fragile elements on these ships.

Ghost and Phantom:

Ghost is the ship that everyone has been waiting for – and it’s very nicely done! I was happy to find that it comes with the attack shuttle Phantom as a separate small ship with its own base. The Ghost’s own shuttle is still attached to the back of the hull and does not come out. Be careful when removing the extra Phantom from the packaging, it fits pretty snuggly in the plastic and I can imagine the wing snapping if one isn’t careful removing it. Please do not try to fold the wings on the Phantom! 🙂 It’s interesting that as I was taking pictures of the Phantom, I realized that it looked a lot like a snowspeeder – especially from the back. Overall, the detail and color pattern on both ships are faithful to the ship on the television show and it is another excellent ship from FFG, however I must admit that I was quite a bit more impressed with the Imperial Carrier (above) than the Ghost.

note the unique stand, this is because the connecting point is not on the center of mass.

The Ghost ship has 3 action choices: focus, targeting lock, and evasion. It also has the following stats: 4 firepower, 0 agility, 10 hull, 6 shield; and 3, 4, 5, 7 pilot skill level options for 35, 37, 38, and 40 squadron points respectively, signifying the different crew members of the Ghost piloting the vessel. These pilots are Lothal Rebel, Chopper, Kanan, and Hera respectively.

The Phantom has 3 action choices: focus, barrel roll, and evasion. It has the following stats: 3 firepower, 2 agility, 2 hull, 2 shield; and 3, 4, 5, 7 pilot skill levels for 18, 20, 21, 22 squadron points respectively signifying Zeb, Ezra, Sabine, and Hera as pilots. If you want the Ghost to fire from the Phantom in the rear, you have to “buy” the shuttle too. There are specific rules for how the Phantom can deploy during combat.

Overall, I believe that these ships make an excellent addition to the game or for your collection. There are some interesting scenarios I’d like to try out. Enjoy and please do send me suggestions for how to improve these posts.

Check out my other X-Wing Miniatures Game Reviews: