Star Wars X-Wing: Resistance Racers

4th April 2025

Barry

5 mins

As if plucked from my mind, here comes Tim for Wednesday night X-Wing with all the racers from Resistance. I previously wrote about how with continued development of the game that there might be the opportunity to realise all these ships – and yet Tim had them locked away.

You ever feel like there’s a giant target on your back? No me neither…

The premise isn’t too far removed from what’s been done previously with Resistance Racer rules, though this felt so much more streamlined and simpler. We had 11 racers to choose from, and being me I took Major Vonreng as the only FO entry available – though it’s worth noting that all the other pilots stats are based off other well-known fast ships already in the game.

The track was established with 6 gates to go through, and I won initiative because I only have one upgrade. I probably should have read the rules, but that meant I’d be going first every turn. For setup, I considered the situation and decided to deploy at the back and not on the line to avoid getting shot at repeatedly straight away.

Instead I perform a somewhat meagre speed 3 and barrel roll out go create some space. The others equally shoot past and I avoid too much drama, and being on the ‘outside’ as opposed to on the ‘inside’ of the track gives me an opportunity to move forward and boost to cross the gate first and face into the turn at a reasonably good angle of attack.

Shots are fired but really I’m not concerned as I don’t have arc on anyone – I’m mostly defending from others and that doesn’t stop next turn as I shoot through, barrel roll and boost to avoid the debris field. The others keep stacking up behind me, though now they’re starting to get toys as they run through the gate after me and they start taking shots at each other.

I use my Adaptability repeatedly to force the others to bump into me, and then moving on.

Dick-move right?

I’m the only one able to cut around the corner and cross gate 2 first, though the angle is so aggressive I can’t possibly just go straight to clear my deplete.

The others of course are able to catch up as I make a bank turn and boost – and this turn becomes a hot mess. I’m ioned, there’s two ion bombs at the back of the field which crushes everyones dreams of glory.

Hakuna Matata Ricky Bobby…

I make the corner, and Trav in the green racer – which is based on a TIE Strike – and he is right there with me at gate 3. He scores advanced slam upgrade and so he manages to absolutely smash through gate 4 in front of me by a considerable amount.

But now I’m behind him with a target lock, a Mag Pulse, and a bonus Heavy Laser Cannon…or sorts to shoot him with.

He ends up ionised facing a rock, if he were to go straight, so he turns right which is the wrong angle for the next gate. I’m able to close the gap on him and ion him again, keeping him well out of the race. Similarly, the others are all too busy back at gate 3.

They catch up as I start turn gate 5. Trav flies off and joins them all at gate 4, and so now they’re gunning for me as I move past them.

Now that took some skill to miss.

Trav and Tim choose violence and ignore the gate in favour of taking me out to resetting me at the gate – unfortunately they approach the gate from the wrong direction. Ando also manages to just miss crossing the gate somehow.

This leaves Chiew as the only other player facing the right direction other than myself – and I’m very far down the last straight out of range of anyone.

As they battle to face the correct angle, Chiew races down the final straight whilst I commence my victory lap. Chiew and I decide that we can only do basic maneuvers to see how far we get along the track before the others manage to get their act together and can finish the race. By the time Tim crosses the line for third, Trav isn’t far behind and Ando has a straight shot to the line.

I’ve crossed the second gate, rapidly approaching third. Chiew is about to cross gate 2.

The guys put a solid effort into these bad boys.

Conclusion

This was really fun, though there' was a few tweaks we made to prevent any negative play experience being baked in. In saying that - Poe seems grossly overpowered being able to repeatedly boost or barrel roll with a speed 2 template. However, being in front the whole race is far from ideal as you don’t get any decent upgrades like missiles, cannons, bombs or advanced slam.

If anyone is interested in playing this, the rules are available able here. You don’t need to have custom printed ships, though I will admit if you can achieve that it’s very cool.

Stay salty! 

- Barry