X-Wing Wave 4 Ships Announced

[Landlubber]

Looks to be pretty interesting!  I think this is the first wave that consists entirely of Expanded Universe starfighters; to the best of my knowledge, none of these ships saw screen time in the original films.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4645

Also, for those of you who aren't familiar, here is some information on the ships:

Z-95:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Z-95_Headhunter

TIE Defender:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/TIE_Defender

E-Wing:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/E-Wing

TIE Phantom:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/TIE_PHANTOM

[Ruckdog]

Interesting mix. The TIE variants look cool, though I'm a bit "meh" on the other two. I wonder where FF will take the game from here...it seems they are running low on "classic" designs already. I wonder if they plan on doing a prequel trilogy set? I would also love to see a capital ship game using the same system (different scale of course). Star Destroyers vs MonCal Cruisers all the way!

[Landlubber]

I was hoping we'd see the Z-95.  Wasn't sure what else we would see.  Agreed, they are running out of starfighter hulls from the original series and expanded universe.  There might be some other larger-hulled ships they could introduce (like the Skipray Blastboat).  However, I think that the larger ships--like the YT-1300, Imperial Shuttle, and Firespray-31--are best used in scenario play.  This is, after all, a dogfighting game.  Keeping my fingers that they do NOT go into the prequels...

I agree with you wholeheartedly about the capital ship idea.  Apparently that was done before (although not by FFG), but didn't go over too well--maybe it was the execution, not sure.  As for the future of X-Wing, I wouldn't mind seeing a third faction introduced--maybe Prince Xizor's BlackSun corporation?  They could release some variations on the basic ships, with different stats to reflect that they've been modified.  We could have a smuggler's variant of the X-Wing--better maneuverability, but with no shields--something like that.

I'd also like to see some new pilot cards.  They haven't covered everyone who was in Rogue and Wraith Squadrons yet, and some of those could have pretty cool abilities.  I had thought about Piggy, the Gamorrean from Wraith Squadron.  He was supposed to be a mathematical genius--so I thought his pilot trait would be that he gets to look at the maneuver dial of any ship in range one after all dials have been placed, and then adjust his own movement.

Just ideas.... But I'll definitely be ordering at least one of each of these ships!

[Ruckdog]

AFAIK, the only other pre-painted SW mini game was done by Wizards of the Coast a few years ago. I bought the starter set reduced after the game was mostly dead. The minis were like the Wizkids Star Trek games in that all the minis were not in scale with each other. The game itself was VERY basic and not all that interesting, probably contributing to the game's eventual demise. So, I think a SW Capitol ship game based on the FlightPath system would be much better and do quite well.