X-Wing Miniatures Game gets a second edition, with Force powers and a squad-building app

Hugely popular Star Wars dogfighting game X-Wing is getting a major shake-up this autumn with the announcement of a second edition.

It’s been six years since Fantasy Flight first released its ship-on-ship miniatures hit, putting out dozens of spaceships across 14 waves of releases, fuelling the competitive scene’s involved meta.

The second edition, which is due for an early launch at Gen Con in August before getting a wide release on September 13th, will make widespread updates to the fast-paced gameplay, with Fantasy Flight saying the overall flow and clarity of matches have been improved.

The most exciting addition to the gameplay is a greater focus on Force powers, which were present in the first edition but were never given their own dedicated system. The second edition will up the way the mystical energy is harnessed by pilots, allowing those able to control the Force to perform special actions, from improving their aim to predicting what their opponent is about to do. Despite its strength, the Force will be a finite resource during matches: once it’s spent, it’s spent.

As well as the return of stress-inducing manoeuvres, which limit pilots from performing too many high-risk actions too quickly, the second edition will include linked actions that can be combined together to execute more complex chains of commands.

The other big change coming to X-Wing’s second edition takes place off the tabletop. The game’s factions have been revamped to give each a more distinct feel, with Rebel squadrons handling very differently to Imperial fleets, which in turn differ from Scum and Villainy sides. The First Order and Resistance factions from the latest Star Wars movies have also been reclassified into their own unique factions separate from the Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance, with similarly unique personalities.

Backing up this widening of the game’s evolving meta will be an official squad-builder app and website, which will allow players to track their collection of ships, pilots and powers and create lists of ships for casual and organised play much easier.

Most significantly, ship point costs and upgrade slots – used to keep things fair during tournaments – will no longer be listed on physical cards, but will instead be tracked in the app, allowing the game to be rebalanced on the fly. The app will also stop players from accidentally building illegal squads for tournaments.

The second edition will launch with a core set including the game’s now-standard one X-Wing and two TIE Fighter beginner loadout, with plenty of ships to follow. Ships from the first edition will be made compatible with the second edition via conversion kits, which will be specific to each of the factions and include the tokens, cards and whatnot needed to update them to the new format. They'll also be $50 (£47) – each.

You’ll probably want to pick up those new X-Wing models, though, because they’ll now let you switch the foils from open to closed.

Get a look at X-Wing’s second edition ahead of its September 13th release below: