Addiction Marketing in X-Wing Miniatures Game

According to news from the adventure gaming hobby trade show in March, Fantasy Flight Games’ Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game is the company’s most successful game of any kind ever. This comes as no surprise. FFG has combined one of the most popular media franchises with a fine-tuned marketing and tournament strategy pioneered by Wizards of the Coast in its more than 20-year campaign with Magic: The Gathering, a game that re-shaped the hobby’s manufacturing, sales, and play landscape.

The X-Wing Miniatures Game is a fantastic game. The basic set contains everything needed to play, including an X-wing and two TIE fighters. My four year-old son plays the quick-start version of the game (without all the numerous nuances of squad points, special pilots, and a vast range of vessel upgrades), though he usually flies the Millennium Falcon with a 360-degree field of fire so he doesn’t have to line up shots like the rest of the fighters. It’s a fun game that builds on the often overlooked minis-moving-along-templates design pioneered by the folks at Ares Games in their Wings of War/Wings of Glory games simulating historical aerial combat from World War I and World War II.

Since I’d only played the full version of the game a few times with friends (and without the aforementioned four year-old), I didn’t fully comprehend the complex relationship between a 100-point squad, named pilots with different special abilities, and upgrade cards that added enhanced equipment, secondary weapons, and extra pilot bonuses. But after recently participating in a tournament – my first – at my Friendly Local Game Store, I quickly realized how FFG inserted layers of complexity in the game design to encourage constant play and frequent purchases.

Expansion Addiction

The first level comes from providing additional “expansion packs” with new ships. At $14.95 adding a new ship to one’s squad doesn’t seem like a huge investment...until players start building toward a collection of one of each ship, or customized squads for either Rebel or Imperial forces, or both. Each comes with several ship cards containing the vessel’s combat stats (generally the same for each type) and a host of pilots from the rookie and typical squadron pilot to those with specific names and special abilities (including several from the films and the expanded universe). Each also comes with the same set of upgrade cards adding everything from new pilot bonuses to an array of equipment including droids, secondary weapons like bombs and missiles, and various sensor enhancements. Each in its own way affects the game; they alter die results, allow for extra actions, provide secondary weapons with greater potential firepower, and otherwise improve the overall performance of the vessel. Some upgrades seem common, while a few, more powerful upgrades only come with specific ships. Both ship and upgrade cards include a point cost used in assembling 100-point squads for the suggested personal as well as tournament play, with the more powerful pilots and upgrades costing more and theoretically balancing out advantages for fairness.

In the game a vessel can use an upgrade as long as a player owns that card (and the associated ship it came with) and the ship can add that kind of upgrade. Different vessels allow different kinds and numbers of upgrades indicated by symbols on the ship cards; however, upgrade cards rarely indicate they’re limited to Rebel or Imperial ships. So an Imperial ship could use an upgrade that comes exclusively with a Rebel ship, and vice versa. The combinations in a squad between ship types, named pilots, and valid upgrades seem limitless, yet they depend on owning more expansion pack ships. The expansions encourage frequent play as gamers try out different ships with varying combinations of pilots and upgrades.

This strategy requires an escalation on different levels. New ships can’t simply provide previously released upgrades, but must include some exclusive ones to tempt player purchases. New releases must also fit within a player’s vision of the continuity. Since the game’s publication FFG has thus far produced most of the vessels from the classic Star Wars trilogy. But those in the upcoming fourth “wave” of releases all originate in “expanded universe” material developed over the years in comics, roleplaying games, and other media (these include the Z-95 Headhunter, forerunner of the X-wing; TIE Defender; E-wing; and TIE Phantom) that some might not find fits with their own personal “canon” for the franchise. Hedging its bets, FFG also released more classic-canon vessels in “aces expansion packs” featuring two alternate paint scheme models of previously released ships (TIE Interceptors, A-wing and B-wing) with alternate ship cards (and pilots) and no doubt a host of standard and exclusive upgrades. Add to this the oversized ships – the Rebel medium transport and Tantive IV Corellian corvette – released with appropriately high price tags ($59.95 and $89.95 respectively) and even casual players start considering buying new ships to add to their collection (either to play with or simply admire). They’re beautiful models that look fantastic on the gaming table, lend a realistic feel to one’s Star Wars dogfights, and offer varying levels of play complexity that perpetuate the play more/buy more cycle.

Tournament Play

Although not every person who plays the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game invests time and money participating in official tournaments, the vast gaming population that does helps fuel FFG’s “most successful game of any kind ever” sales levels.

Avid players like to try out new ships just for fun, but tournament players seek to add new ships, pilots, and upgrades to their arsenal, test out different, potential-winning combinations in casual play, and then bring the best squadrons to the tournament table in competitive play. Tournaments offer a chance to face off against different opponents and squads with the goal of winning prizes and rising in the overall ratings. This cycle often encourages a min-max style of play as innovative players and avid collectors/consumers purchase more expansion packs and work out which combinations of ships, pilots, and upgrades work best together, usually providing incredible advantages over other, less proven squads. Unlike the random nature of Magic: The Gathering, in which available cards to play must show up in one’s hand as randomly drawn from the deck, X-Wing Miniatures players stack the odds in their favor with pilots and upgrades empowering their strategies in every single turn. This results in seasoned tournament players completely rolling over rookies like myself who haven’t had the time to exhaustively play out numerous combinations of pilots and upgrades from my limited collection of ships. I’m certainly not complaining that I didn’t enjoy the tournament games – I had a blast – and every hard-core gamer I played against remained friendly and in most cases helpful in explaining (and sometimes showing off) the nuances of 100-point squad play. It became very clear at the in-store tournament who were the power tournament players and who played the game mostly for fun.

“Organized play” has fueled game interest, sales, and fan loyalty since the days of the Role Playing Game Association (RPGA); it continues as a strong and carefully crafted marketing strategy through tournament leagues for Magic: The Gathering, the X-Wing Miniatures Game, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and others. Finding the right mix between game component “expansions” and combinations for winning tournaments drives casual and tournament play, collectability, and ultimately sales.

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Experience WWII Aviation in Wings of War

Wings of War WWII: The Dawn of World War II lets players simulate tabletop dogfights in period aircraft, gaining some sense of the chaos and danger of aerial combat while still enjoying an easy to learn game. Designed by Andrea Angiolino and Pier Giorgio Paglia of Nexus Editrice SRL in Italy, the game has English language distribution through Fantasy Flight Games.

The successor to the popular World War I aerial combat game, Wings of War, puts players at the command of Messerschmitt Bf109s, Spitfires, Grumman F4F-4 Wildcats, Hawker Hurricanes, Mitsubishi A6M2 Reisens, and other aircraft. Up to six aircraft can fly at once with the basic set; let each player have their own plane or give a player the command of a pilot and wingman to better coordinate maneuvers.
 

Cards represent aircraft, each with its own maneuver deck for that kind of airplane. Maneuver cards plot out where and how an aircraft card moves around the playing surface, showing two moves, one at low speed, one at high speed. Players plan their maneuvers two turns in advance, placing maneuver cards face-down in sequence with a face-down speed marker indicating how fast they’re going. All players reveal their maneuvers simultaneously, plot them out with their aircraft card, then see if any enemy airplanes are within their field of fire and range. If so, the target player randomly draws damage chits (based on damage ratings for the attacking plane), which indicate how many points of damage it takes. Reach or exceed your plane’s points and it goes down.
 

Those are the basic concepts in broad summary. The game includes these basic rules and more advanced rules for varying altitudes, mechanical damage complications (rudder jams, engine damage, crew hits, fire), ace pilots, campaigns, bombing, photo recon, and strafing. Eight scenarios provide ideas for missions beyond the game’s basic dogfight action.
 

Accessories

Wings of War WWII: The Dawn of World War II includes everything needed to play -- 24 airplane cards (12 Axis and 12 Allies), six maneuver card decks, bomb and target cards, damage and other markers, two range rulers, and six airplane consoles on which players plot their upcoming, face-down moves and speeds -- all quality components for a $34.95 price tag.

The game offers a host of other accessories to enhance play. Squadron packs include additional airplanes plus three associated maneuver decks. Perhaps the best visual play aid, actual scaled airplane miniatures each come with their own stand and maneuver deck ($12.95 each, $15.95 for large planes like the Stuka and Val dive bomber). Players can also use the play mats for the World War I version of the game; these are pricey at $39.95 considering players can create their own customized play surfaces with appropriately colored craft store felt and a sponge dappling of crafter’s paint.

A second game set, Wings of War: Fire from the Sky, introduces new rules for dive-bombing and additional planes, including bombers like the Ju87 Stuka, Aichi D3A Val, SBD Dauntless, plus more fighters. This boxed game stands on its own (complete with rules, counters, etc.) or you can combine it with the earlier set. A Deluxe Edition, costing $69.95, includes all the necessary rules, counters, rulers, and cards, plus miniatures of four different aircraft; the set might have included two pairs of similar aircraft (two Spitfires and two Messerschmitts, for example) for squadron missions instead of one-on-one dogfight dogfights.

Game fans might check out the Wings of War Aerodrome website for a host of other resources they can download free with simple registration at the site. Here you’ll find additional target cards (rail lines and yards, ships, airfields, even a German u-boat), scenario and campaign ideas, and additional aircraft cards for those not covered in the main game.
 

Historical Concepts

Wings of War WWII demonstrates some basic tactical concepts from the period through its innovative gameplay. It gives participants some idea of what fighter pilots faced without actually placing players in danger.

Maneuvers: Each aircraft has a different maneuver rating corresponding to one of four maneuver decks. These help demonstrate the technical limitations of the aircraft, especially when compared against different models.

No Plan Survives Contact with the Enemy: No matter how much one plans out maneuvers in advance, or collaborates beforehand with fellow squadron mates, as soon as enemy aircraft engage in combat, everything dissolves into a frenzied dogfight as planes try to maneuver around each other to line up targets in their sights.

Combat Is Deadly: Wander into an enemy aircraft’s range and field of fire? Take damage. End your maneuver with your card or miniatures base touching another? You’ve collided…take damage. Try a special maneuver (like an Immelman turn) without the correct maneuvers preceding or following it…take damage (for stress on the aircraft). Pilots might last a little longer in one-on-one dogfights, but add a few more players and the action gets chaotic and deadly rather quickly.
 

Check It Out

Wings of War WWII offers great tabletop gameplay with historically accurate aircraft and extended playability with combinations of different planes and missions. Start with the original Wings of War WWII: The Dawn of World War II box set to get a feel for the rules and the aircraft. Once you’ve found a few planes you enjoy flying, purchase a few miniatures, create your own play surface, and download some extra resources to continue your World War II aerial missions.

Avalon Hill Releases Borg’s Battle Cry

Avalon Hill plans to release an updated version of Richard Borg’s American Civil War game, Battle Cry, on November 23, 2010. Having the backing of parent company Wizards of the Coast, itself a division of Hasbro, enables Avalon Hill to produce the game with an impressive inventory of components: rulebook, board, 46 double-sided terrain tiles, 60 command cards, 8 custom dice, numerous tokens, a flag label sheet, and 122 plastic figure for infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Battle Cry also includes 30 battle scenarios, 13 more than the previously released version.

Although the Avalon Hill website doesn’t list a suggested retail price for this newest edition, a quick online search showed Battle Cry priced at $60, though Amazon.com’s supplier Funagain Games offers it at a 20% discount at $47.99.

You can download a black-and-white PDF of the rules from the previous edition at the Avalon Hill website’s “downloads” page. Although designers might have revised some rules and added 13 more scenarios, there’s a good chance the gameplay remains similar.

Games like Battle Cry, Days of Wonder’s Memoir ’44 (also designed by Richard Borg), and Nexus/Fantasy Flight Games’ Battles of Napoleon help introduce new players to the gaming hobby based on engaging periods in history. They provide an entry point into wargames and miniatures games based on their historical themes and components similar to typical board games. The game systems balance easy-to-learn rules with the complexities of period battles. The components include all the goodies one expects in a boxed game: board, cards, plastic soldier pieces, custom dice, terrain tiles. In many cases players can purchase supplemental materials (maps, pieces, cards) to expand the game depending on their interest; just take a look at the numerous Memoir ’44 expansions Days of Wonder has released to cover various World War II campaigns.

Granted, the retail price of such games can run between $50 and $100, but the replay value remains nearly limitless with the included scenarios, those created for online resources, and situations players can create on their own. For history enthusiasts, these games can help their favorite periods come alive and enable them to explore them from a fun, first-hand perspective of battlefield commanders.