Snap Ships Tactics is like a Lego X-Wing, and it sounds fantastic
Bricks! In! Space!
A new ship-battling miniatures game is blending the fun of building Lego with the slick dogfighting gameplay of Star Wars: X-Wing.
Snap Ships Tactics is based on the toy range of the same name created by former Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Call of Duty and Guitar Hero developers Scott Pease and Jeff Swenty, who originally launched the series of buildable sets a couple of years ago.
The Snap Ships line is made up of building sets similar to Lego, Duplo or K’NEX, except it’s focused on sci-fi spacecraft and mechs. The toys - made up of connected blocks that snap together, giving them their name - pair with a mobile app that lets players see their creations in augmented reality and battle against computer enemies in a video game.
Snap Ships Tactics expands the universe to a fully-fledged tabletop game that allows the customisable ships to be used to dogfight, much like Star Wars miniatures game X-Wing. Its unique twist on personalising your miniatures sounds like genuinely clever fun, too.
The specific blocks that players use to build their ship determine its available weapons, movement, defence, range and other aspects, represented by various ability cards that add to a base chassis card. (For you connoisseurs out there, it’s not unlike Kingdom Hearts’ gummi ship system.)
During the game, players shift power cubes onto the cards to activate their effects, moving around the table using movement and range templates similar to X-Wing. Attacks are resolved using dice, and affected by the facing and firing arc of the ship’s base. As ships take fire, cards flip over to represent damaged systems in need of repair.
The game can be played in a head-to-head competitive mode, or against AI opponents in single-player or co-op.
Snap Ships Tactics is currently up on Kickstarter, where it’s almost tripled its $65,000 goal with just over a week left on the clock. The game is due to release next summer, with a two-player starter set accompanied by a range of expansions that can boost the game’s player count up to four-vs-four battles.