Star Wars X-Wing - I Have You Now!! (X-Wing 'Imperial Raider' a Closer Look)

By Matt MacKenzie

Even though the majority of articles I write for you guys here visiting WWPD are Flames of War or hobby related, it's nice to have other gaming interests to discuss. Although I am not into 'Star Wars Armada', one of Fantasy Flight's other miniature games, I do play X-Wing. Green Squadron I admit, has peaked my interest and has turned my gaming life upside down! I've got Star Wars tokens, models and even LEGO from one end of the house to the other! In this case, we are going to take a look at one of the largest miniatures (I use that term loosely) in the X-Wing Miniatures game.

One big ship and one small ship, in a very big box. The prices on this model vary from store to store and some of the best deals can be had online. ($100 CDN) If the cost of shipping and the Raider itself saves you only a few dollars, I recommend buying from your local gaming store instead. This ship was released in August of 2015 as part of Wave 7 of the X-Wing miniature releases. You'll also notice a Tie-Advanced comes with the Imperial Raider, much like the X-Wing packaged with the Rebel Transport. It's a welcome addition to your collection, as it features a different paint scheme than the other Tie-Advanced that came out shortly after the original Core Set was released.

As with the larger ships, there is a cardboard insert that contains all of the range sticks, tokens and assortment of cards and rules for that ship. Of course, it also comes with the flight stands for both the Tie-Advanced and the Imperial Raider. The stands for the Raider were a bit finicky and took a little caution in lining everything up properly, don't be too firm pressing them into the ship or the base. The weak plastic could break and you would have issues fixing it.

This gives you a sense of just how big this Imperial Raider is. It's also the first look you get at the darker paint scheme of the Tie-Advanced.

The Aft section with the bridge is pretty cool, looking forward over the rest of the ship. It still maintains it's slick race car look throughout the model.

Junk in the trunk.

With a few of the ships placed next to it, you can see how tall it stands and whether or not you'll have storage for this. Thankfully, you'll only need one of these, unless you have deep pockets or a lot of room in your gaming area.

Tie Advanced pilot cards, a few new ones only available with the Raider.

Gee, I'm glad I have more tokens. Said no X-Wing player. (Ever)

Obviously the large ship movement template and the energy tokens are some you may not have already in your collection.

Managing this ship during game play is fairly straightforward since it is broken down into a Fore and Aft section. Manage your energy wisely!

Close-up view of the provided cards for the Imperial Raider. Take note of the different stats and available upgrades for each of the two sections.

CS Wrongway: "I'm not afraid. Besides, how could this get any worse?"

CS Hotshot: "It's worse..."

CS Wrongway: "...he's behind me, isn't he?"

Bottom line is that this model is a great addtion to your X-Wing collection. You could have some serious fun just running this ship against a few of your mates on a Friday night. It has it's place as a front runner for one of my favorite additions so far in the way of large ships. My list of pros/cons are below.

PROS

+detailed

+it's h'uge

+Tie-Advanced included

CONS

-cost

-delicate flight stand attachment points

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Matt MacKenzie loves the history of WW2 and many types of gaming. He enjoys regularly contributing articles to WWPD. Matt is retired on weekends and enjoys FoW, Kings of War, X-Wing and video games. He also hosts a gaming related podcast at DiceDevils.com.