Most of you reading this are probably well aware already, but in recent years - this year in particular (2024) - the Star Wars miniatures wargaming community has been faced with a bittersweet reality: official support for some of its most beloved games is coming to an end. Star Wars Armada and X-Wing are set to lose their official backing from Atomic Mass Games (AMG) in 2025, while Imperial Assault was declared a “complete game” by Fantasy Flight Games (FFG), back in April 2019. Now, instead of fading into obscurity… the passion for these games continues to burn brightly thanks to the tireless efforts of a passionate community.

This will be part of a multi-part post looking into the current state of play for these three games and where they’re headed in the future…

How does a game survive when the official devs are no longer feeding it new content? Well… of course, the community takes over.

Happy Life Day, Merry Sith-mas and wishing you all a wonderful Holiday Season!!

G’day everyone! I’ve been having my very first ‘White Christmas’ while I’m here in Canada and it’s been awesome - lots of time for kicking back, relaxing with my better-half and for getting stuck into some hobby stuff while we’re staying all warm and cosy inside.

I must also thank you all for the positive responses and feedback on Part 1 of this series about the future of three of our favourite games! It really is evident that there is still some real passion for these games and new people are still joining in - even now!! It’s great to be able to get the word out as much as we can and help our communities grow. Some may have even received core sets and/or expansions for these games for Christmas, so I hope this post - Part 2 - is as helpful as possible in providing a summary of where to seek out everything you need to keep growing and enjoying these awesome games from now and well into the future! So, in this article, I will…

How to Source Third-Party minis, game components and Prize Support

As our favourite Star Wars miniatures games continue to evolve through fan-driven content and all of the last available boxed sets and expansions are selling out, a growing number of third-party providers have stepped in to support players who want to keep their collections and games alive. These providers offer everything from custom miniatures and 3D-printed models to beautiful alternative cards and high-quality game components that expand the universe of Star Wars Armada, X-Wing and Imperial Assault miniatures games.

I’ll also make it clear now that I am in no way affiliated with any of the below sites or sellers and I do not benefit from ‘clicks’ or purchases made from any links at this time - I’m just here to pull together all of the information I can and share it with you, the community.

Miniatures

For Armada, X-Wing and Imperial Assault players, third-party miniature manufacturers and 3D printing communities have created new ships and squadrons that can be incorporated into games, as well as reprints of the original official base game miniatures. Many fans have embraced some of these custom-made models, which not only add unique designs to their fleets but also help fill gaps left by the official line. Platforms like Etsy and several other dedicated creators have produced high-quality models, from custom ships to re-scaled or even entirely new factions. These models are often available for purchase or even download, allowing players to print their own miniatures for personal use and a few may even offer painted versions.

Cards, Tokens, and Other Components

In addition to miniatures, third-party creators have expanded the game’s components. X-Wing and Armada players can find custom tokens, components, and Quality of Life (QoL) upgrades that increase availability and enhance the tactile experience of your games. Moreover, several companies have developed alternative card packs and components that balance or expand upon official sets, giving players the flexibility to modify their collections with new content.

For Imperial Assault, fan-made campaign expansions and miniatures offer players even more ways to experience the game. Whether it’s creating new heroes, new enemies, or new terrain pieces, these third-party components breathe new life into the game long after its official support has ended.

Miniatures

Etsy is a great starting point for ALL your third party mini needs! In just the last year or so, the amount of sellers has increased exponentially to offer a large selection that includes proxies or reproductions of official minis (especially Venator-class Star Destroyers), plus lots of additional minis to expand into community project units, factions and IPs (such as Halo and BSG, mentioned in my previous article, here). Just type the game title into the search bar and enjoy browsing! However, a few stand out examples are definitely WesJanson3D, PulsefiredGaming, SabreWorkshop & CassieReneeArt

Only-games.co is also a great repository for all three games and is also the new home of Mel Miniatures, which some of you may already know previously, as well as it’s previous home on the old ShapeWays site. Site navigation is quite similar to Shapeways as well, so finding what you need is quite easy, just make sure you’re looking at right scale mini, specifically for Armada/X-Wing.

Rare as hen’s teeth…? Print your own! (*Armada Legacy*)

Thingiverse is of course a great place to find STL 3D print files for just about anything, including all three of these games (and more!). Sometimes you can find the files for free download or for a small fee. You can even obtain a licence from some designers, should you want to print a bunch and sell them on platforms such as Etsy. Of note, Armada Legacy also have a page here! Speaking of…

Armada Legacy once again brings A LOT to the party for Armada with their own website full of some excellent links if you want to either buy third party minis online or the STLs to print your own for each of the ships and squadrons currently found in the base game (plus some other items too, which I’ll get to later).

Slightly Used Shipyards is another great site for Armada that has a number of STLs available for download to those who may wish to print their own ships on a 3D printer (personally, I just like that the URL is ‘susyard’ lol).

Cards, tokens and components

Etsy, as mentioned above, is a great place to get everything you need, such as tokens, range rulers, manoeuvre tools, deck boxes, terrain and tournament kits for all three games. I reckon this deserves a little more detail, so some great examples are as follows:

Admiral Tater Ship Shop: A large range of highly customisable tokens, tools, rulers, organisers and an epic ‘tournament system’ that makes the effort of organising your gear and moving around tournament tables at large events an absolute breeze. Tournament prize support options are available too, comprising of various combinations of the above items with your chosen customised design.
StellarEndeavours and ExclamationStudios: These two offer great products to replace and/or add custom tokens, ship bases and plastic stands for your ships and squadrons. With the release of Armada’s Rapid Reinforcements 1 & 2, and scarcity of Armada minis in general, these bases are in high demand and often sell out. Same goes for X-Wing and the demand for custom bases or replacements for incorrect prints, such as the TIE Whisper’s front firing arc misprint on the official version. StellarEndeavours has also offered a 15% discount with code ARMADALEGENDS.
PetersabersWorkshop and BensArmadaShipCards are great for printed cards and some ship/squadron base tokens (only for Rapid Reinforcements 1 & 2), plus Ben’s has manoeuvre tools available as well!
MrDulkes is a newer seller that offers 3D printed storage boxes for your Armada ships, featuring innovative designs that both keep them safe and highly organised.
HomeHobbyNHyperspace offers a number of custom decals for your minis as well, allowing you to create your favourite factions with accurate markings, or just have fun with other designs. There’s quite a few sellers that offer different decals as well, should you be looking for something in particular instead, like a sporting team logos, WW2 aircraft livery, Hello Kitty, etc.
GripMats and BoardGameGoodies both offer excellent playmats for Armada and X-Wing, including some awesome designs and the ‘grippiness’ of the GripMats is great for those people that are bad at knocking minis askew mid-game.

Thingiverse again has a large selection of files that can enhance your experience and new designs are being added every week. Everything from tokens, organisers, rulers, terrain, bases and other upgrades can all be found from a simple search. Then all you need is download and print them (or have them printed for you).

Other sites are available as well for each of these games, where communities have already collated information and high-resolution images for self reproduction of minis, components and cards.

Kuat Drive Yards provides files for ship and squadron cards and bases from the currently official version units, plus a large number of Legends (formerly known as the Expanded Universe) units that are compatible with Armada Legacy and Legends.
Armada Legacy site covers all of the items from the current releases of Armada, including dials, tools, tokens, dice, terrain, bases and cards, though some items are either no longer available or Etsy stores are currently taking breaks.

Armada Shipyards contains ready-to-print custom ship, squadron, upgrade and objective cards for use with Armada. These fan-made designs cover dozens of additional spacecraft and characters from the Star Wars Canon and Legends that are not part of the current official version.
Patreon: Robbe’s Workshop has a few cool things for Armada, such as a few 3D printed ship base tokens with firing arcs to replace cardboard ones and a 3D printed SPHA-T upgrade piece to fit to your Republic Venators! He hasn’t been running for that long and already has a few things available, but I believe there’s much, much more to come in future. Definitely one to watch.

Miniatures

Etsy again offers a large selection that includes proxies or reproductions of official minis (especially those that were not reprinted for version 2.0). The stand out examples for X-Wing are: WesJanson3D, PulsefiredGaming, MaximusDesignsCA & CassieReneeArt

Thingiverse, as mentioned above, is a good place to find 3D print files for X-Wing minis as well. Sometimes you can find the files for free download or for a small fee. You can even obtain a licence from some designers, should you want to print a bunch and sell them on platforms such as Etsy.

Cards, tokens and components

Etsy, as mentioned above, is a great place to get everything you need, such as tokens, range rulers, manoeuvre tools, deck boxes, terrain and tournament kits for all three games. I reckon this deserves a little more detail, so some great examples of some sellers and their offerings are as follows:

My awesome customised *Admiral Tater* X-Wing template set

Admiral Tater Ship Shop: A large range of highly customisable tokens, tools, rulers and organisers that are great for X-Wing too. I matched mine with my Armada gear. Tournament prize support options are available too, comprising of various combinations of the above items with your chosen customised design
TheMeltingPoint3D has similar items to the above, but mainly for X-Wing (and Legion).
OPTiCALSiN has a solid selection of acrylic tokens, rulers, counter, templates and generic ships bases for X-Wing too.

Thingiverse again has a large selection of files that can enhance your experience and new designs are being added every week. Everything from tokens, organisers, rulers, terrain, bases and other upgrades can all be found from a simple search. Then all you need is download and print them (or have them printed for you).

I highly appreciate the pure *efficiency* of the Infinite Arenas cards

Infinite Arenas - AMG 2.5, XWA and 2.0 X2PO Legacy cards to print can all be found on the Holocron. You can also make your own highly efficient all-in-one build cards for printing (and saving table space) using the Squad Printer, by simply importing an XWS list file from your preferred squad builder. He also has a Patreon, here, if you’d like to subscribe to support his endeavours, plus maybe receive some goodies in return. Tournament prize support options are available too, comprising of various combinations of the above items to hand out to players.

X-Wing Alliance (XWA) - keep an eye out for the upcoming Wave 0 Tournament Kits that are about to be distributed to those who applied. If successful, I expect this will continue to replace the AMG support to tournaments going forward.

Miniatures

Etsy remains the staple for finding almost anything we need for games as more sellers are joining the site to offer minis. Some of the stand out sellers for IA minis are: JACTPrints, Wargames3D & DCRPcustomminiatures

Only-games.co is also a great repository for all three games and is also the new home of Mel Miniatures, which some of you may already know previously, as well as it’s previous home on the old ShapeWays site. Site navigation is quite similar to Shapeways as well, so finding what you need is quite easy, just make sure you’re looking at right scale mini for IA, but you can sometimes get away with Legion minis where needed.

Thingiverse is of course a great place to find STL 3D print files for just about anything, including IA. Sometimes you can find the files for free download or for a small fee. You can even obtain a licence from some designers, should you want to print a bunch and sell them on platforms such as Etsy.

Cards, tokens and components

Etsy is, unsurprisingly, also great for IA components, with some of the main sellers being:

Cool upgrades from TabletopGoodies on Etsy

JACTPrints offers upgraded tokens, markers and organisers for tokens, cards or map tiles that can help keep the game’s rather large footprint a bit tidier.
TableTopGoodies and BGExpansions have a bunch of awesome terrain and token upgrades, including the option to order them pre-coloured to help the game pop a bit more on the table.

IACP for the all of the content created by them since they began, including the printable unit cards.

IA Skirmish Map Project for Hi-Res skirmish map images so you can print you own!

Boardwars.eu Imperial Assault Image Database for a comprehensive database of all cards and skirmish maps from the core set and all box, ally and villain expansions.

3D Printing Options

Regarding printing your own minis and components; lots of people have printers or know someone that does, but if that’s not the case, please also keep in mind that most public libraries also have 3D printers available for public use at a small price (or even free!). Just bring your own print files on a USB device or SD card. For example, here in Halifax, Canada, the Halifax Public Library offers a free DIY drop-in service for 3D printing with your files on SD card and prints are free for up to 1.5hrs in print time.

As a side note, wherever you are around the world, I also highly recommend that you always join your local library anyway - even if you don’t ever use it - as their public funding is usually based on membership numbers and it helps them to stay open.

Always Pass on What You Have Learned: Divesting of Your Collection

For those who are looking to part with their collections as the official support winds down, there’s no need to let your beloved models, cards, and components gather dust. The community is in need of them!

If you’re considering divesting your Star Wars Armada, X-Wing, or Imperial Assault collection, now is a great time to pass your pieces along to someone who will continue to cherish them. Whether you’re downsizing your collection or transitioning to other games, there are plenty of players eager to take your items off your hands. Here’s how you can make a difference:

Trade with or Donate to your Local Gaming Community: Many local gaming stores and event organisers would love to have extra models and components to perhaps use as prize support or for encouraging new players to try the game or grow their collections.
Sell or Trade Locally: Use online marketplaces like eBay, Facebook groups, Reddit pages for each game and r/FFGtrade or r/miniswap to connect with other players who are looking to buy, sell or swap specific ships, models, or expansions.
Create a Wishlist for Others: If you’re still looking for certain pieces to complete your collection, don’t hesitate to share your wish list within community groups as listed above. Chances are, someone might be willing to trade or sell what you need.

Remember, even as official support fades, the spirit of these games lives on in the community. By passing on your collection back into circulation, you’re giving new players the chance to experience the fun of Star Wars miniatures wargaming.

Unlimited Power!!: Online play for everyone

With a suitable PC or Laptop, download Vassal and/or TableTop Simulator (TTS) and the relevant mods for Armada, then you’re off! There’s great tutorials on YouTube for both systems for all three games. That said, they are all a little dated now, they’re still very useful to get started, but the relevant Discords or SubReddits will be able to assist further, if needed:

Armada: Green Knight for Vassal & Fly Casual for TTS
X-Wing: Gold Squadron has tutorials for both Vassal & TTS, but there are many others on YouTube.
Imperial Assault: Guides available on the IACP website, under ‘Online Platforms’.

To jump into a game with someone online, you just need to join the relevant Discord and from there, setting up a game is fairly straightforward. There’s also regular annual online tournament circuits with players from all around the world. These can range from high-level competition to fun casual tournaments that use different and entertaining rulesets that make it so much more interesting or thematic…or just silly. Either way, from my experience playing in Armada online tournaments, they’re all great fun and incredibly well-run.

Phew…! Ok, that was a pretty long list, but I sincerely hope that it is useful to some of you in helping you find exactly what you need to enjoy any or all of these awesome games. I am constantly impressed by the passion and ingenuity of the community that brings all of this stuff to the party - which continues to grow! All the best and happy gaming!

Cheers and thanks for reading,

- Rosco

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