Do you think you would be able to pull off using the SSB mini's (to save money) and buying just the cards/rules/markers + tokens?

 You can't just buy that stuff directly.  They are only sold with miniatures.  So you're looking at least one of every product to get all the cards.  After that if you're just playing in you house there's probably no problem with it.  The ship markers might not sit well.  You won't have quite the precision of movement since the bases aren't keyed for the templates, and if I recall correctly they are a bit smaller.

TieDefender said:

TieDefender said:

While casual gaming and such shouldn't have any trouble using proxies and stand-ins, tournaments will likely be a different beast.  Whether that means anything to you depends on your gaming goals.

 vendor stores always chop up boosters/starters and let you buy things individually ala Angels 20 etc .  I realize I wouldn't be able to play at tournaments like that but just for fun at home.

So im wondering if there is anything about the game that would be difficult making it work with SSB mini's.

TieDefender said:

I think the only main concern would be the base size.  This game greatly relies upon the position of the base on the board and the direction the ship is faced.  All measurements are taken from the base.  However, if you could cut out a "base" that is the same size and can figure out how to mount your SSB ship to it, it should work.  Just don't expect that to "fly" in a tournament. (See what I did there?)

Roy

I'd probably recommend buying the starter anyways as you'd need a ton from there that would likely cost you as much to buy separately.  Can you use the WOTC ships?  Yeah, but with some serious effort.  The ship sizes themselves don't matter as you measure to the bases for all effects which means you'd have to put the correct size plasticard/paper/cardboard square under the circular WOTC base.  You'd also have to buy one of each of the movement arrows to make multiples for yourself as well as either get some of the custom dice or just make a table for yourself about which numbers mean what.  In addition, you'd have to print out the pilot and upgrade cards as well.  All in all, I think just getting the starter at a discount shop is worth it as it will cut down the work by half. 

I haven't seen the actual pieces yet, but it's probably not an issue playing at home.  I do recall that the rebel ships in SSB had round bases, which would make positioning the move templates tricky (no real defined front edge).  You could always re-base them, I suppose.  I plan on using the SSB a-wings, interceptors, falcon and firespray as proxies until they come out.

tiepilot1138 said:

TieDefender said:

Vendors chop up boosters and starters because they are randomized and there are rares that they can sell for more than a single pack of miniatures. There are no rares in this game and every item comes with the exact same components, so there's no incentive for a store to sell the bits separately. The only bits you can easily access will be the dice which come in a separate dice set, but you could easily use normal d8s and correspond the numbers to the different symbols.

If you want to proxy, that's up to you, but in my opinion, if you want the real experience of this game, you need the actual products. At the very least, you should buy one core set and see where that takes you.

Also, there are tons of stores online that will sell these at a very deep discount. I've seen the Core Set for less than $26 and the expansions for less than $10.

I don't think I expected the size comparison to be so extreme.  I only put 1 altitude peg on the FFG minis to keep them in the same height reference.

Aahzmandius_Karrde said:

Wow, those SSB ships are ugly. It really makes me appreciate the work and detail that FFG put into these.

I agree the FFG pieces look better, but you are paying $15 retail for one figure. The SSB boosters had 7 figures for I think $20. 

 Those numbers sound better until you realize what you got in the box was a crapshoot. 

 I had forgotten how ugly the ssb battles ships were. And more that that it was a TERRIBLE game. 

I plan on doing something similar, but only for large battles,  Ill be buying at least two starters and each of the boosters.

I found some square bases at gencon that are almost the exact same size and i have all kinds of ships that will fit on the bases.

Most of the time well be using the legit ships. But it will be fun to run a giant scrum like we did at Gencon. We had about 20 ships in that game. 

It COULD be done, but I honestly feel it'd be more trouble than it's worth. First, you'd have to scam/score all the game components. Then, if you buy at the right places, the much sexier (and bigger) FFG ships really aren't all THAT expensive. Plus, you'd have to not really give a damn about scale. If all that is acceptable, then yeah - it could be done.