The X-wing miniatures game is a tabletop starship dogfighting simulator from Fantasy Flight
Games.
It allows you to go head to head using an arsenal of your favourite fighters from the
Star Wars franchise.
It features a variety of ships from all corners of the Star Wars lore including some of the
more obscure ones.
So here’s 5 ships you may not of have heard of before X-wing.
K-wing The K-wing made it’s debut appearance in
the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy, and whilst it appeared in a few other Star Wars Novels,
it rarely makes appearances in official content.
The BTL-S8 K-wing assault fighter was heavy bomber used by the New Republic.
Armed to the teeth, this fighter had a total of 18 hardpoints on it’s hull equipped with
a variety of weapons including twin laser turrets, short range quad turbolaser turrets,
a selection of torpedoes and missiles as well mines and bombs all of which making it formidiable
fighter in conjunction with its primary role as a bomber.
Whilst the K-wing had no hyperdrive capability, it did feature a SubLight Acceleration Motor
or SLAM allowing the ship to unleash it’s massive payload against an enemy capital ship
before making a speedy retreat.
Starviper The Starviper made it’s first appearance
in the 1996 Shadow of the Empire books and game as well as making an appearance later
in expansion packs for the Star Wars: Empire at War Real Time strategy game.
It was an attack platform widely used by the criminal organisation Zann Consortium.
Featuring a modest armament of mounted twin laser cannons as well as a light frame, this
craft was fairly manoeuvrable, proving itself cable against other interceptors such as A-wing
and TIE interceptors.
The Starviper is the successor of ship known as Virago, originally commissioned by the
leader of the Black Sun, Prince Xizor.
After the ship’s construction was complete, Xizor went on to purchase all production rights
for the Virago, ensuring that his personal ship remain unique.
It wasn’t until his death that the design became available to the open market in the
slightly less powerful Starviper variant.
Auzituck Gunship The Auzituck was a gunship used by Wookies
to combat slavers.
Manufactured by Appazanna Engineering Works, the Wookie Gunship is equipped with 3 forward
facing Sureggi twin laser cannons, with the interiors of the ship being contructed from
trees indigenous to kashyyyk Whilst this ship did not make it’s first appearance until
2014 in Star Wars: Rebels, it’s name originates from an early draft script of A New Hope in
which Chewbacca meets with his Father named Auzituck.
Alpha-class Star Wing Like several other of the ships in the minatures
game, the Alpha-class XG-1 Star Wing debuted in the 1993 Star Wars: X-Wing video game.
Notably, it was the first ship employed by the Galactic Empire that features both hyperdrive
and shield capabilities.
Visually similar to the Lamda-class shuttle, the smaller Star-wing was equipped with two
laser cannons mounted on the chin of the craft and two ion cannons above the cockpit.
The Star-wing was also equipped with warhead launchers that could be loaded with a variety
of munitions including concussion missiles and proton torpedoes.
Early Alpha-Class star wings were a unique tool in the early Empire’s arsenal as they
did require deployement into a battlezone from a carrier or star destroyer.
However, whilst bulky, the ship’s lack of manoeuvrability meant it struggled against
commonplace rebel fighters such as x-wings and a-wings without proper support.
The Star-wing was quickly outclassed by the later TIE-Defender, that proved to be a vastly
preferable space superiority fighter and a far greater threat to the enemies of the Empire.
TIE phantom The TIE Phantom was a prototype fighter developed
by the Galactic Empire that was also equipped with both deflector shields and hyperdrive
capabilities.
More notably however the fighter featured a stygium cloaking device, technology that
had rarely been used since the days of the old Republic, with one of the most recent
examples prior being the Sith Infiltrator such as the one used by Darth Maul.
The scarcity of such technology was largely due to an imposed ban by the Republic in the
days preceding the Empire, in tandem with depletion of the necessary stygium crystals
mines.
The TIE phantom made its first appearance in Star Wars Rebel Assault game series, but
would not be named until the later Star Wars: Empire at war.
TIE Phantom housed twin laser cannons underneath the cockpit, as well as an additional laser
cannon at the tip of each of its three wings and required both a pilot and a gunner/co-pilot
to operate.
Many systems, including weapons, were inoperable during cloak, however the Phantom was fitted
with a mechanism which automictically deactivated the cloak whenever the weapons were fired
and subsequently reactivated them immediately after, allowing the fighter to strike with
cruel efficiency against unknowing foes.