Despite this, fans haven't had many opportunities to play tabletop incarnations of these battles, something Wizards of the Coast looks to change with its new Starship Battles miniatures game.

Nominally part of the Star Wars Miniatures line, Starship Battles is a game unto itself. It sports a similar core game mechanic, but it's been heavily revised to accommodate battles between star fighters and capital ships.

The game divides its ships into four classes, ranging from the gigantic Class I (super star destroyers) to the diminutive class IV (TIE and X-wing fighters). Class determines certain base characteristics, such as speed, turning radius and movement direction, while each individual ship's stat card details how many points it's worth, the number of hits it can take, how much damage it deals out and any special abilities.

Gameplay is straightforward. Players build fleets worth 100, 200 or 300 points and then deploy them on opposing sides of a 2x3-foot grid map. The player who loses the opening initiative roll is forced to move first, followed by the winner. The attack phase then unfolds, with the winner going first. The player unleashes the firepower of each of his or her ships in turn by rolling a d20, adding the "attack number" for the chosen weapon system and seeing whether the result beats the target ship's defense. If it does, a hit is scored and damage is dealt. The opposing player returns fire, and then the process repeats until one fleet is destroyed.

The basic game is sold in starter packs containing two capital ships (the Mon Calamari star defender Viscount and the super star destroyer Executor), eight randomized miniatures, stat cards for each ship, a rule book, fleet commander cards, damage and command tokens and a battle map. Boosters feature seven ships and their corresponding stat cards. The initial set has 60 collectible miniatures drawn from across the extended Star Wars universe of movies, books and video games.

Technological wonders and terrors

With Starship Battles, Wizards of the Coast set out to create a fast-playing, easy-to-learn game that built on the success of its earlier Dungeons & Dragons and Star Wars miniature lines. They've succeeded, but at the cost of much of the complexity that experienced players long for.

The game is easy to learn, especially for those who've played Wizards' other games, and initial battles using its basic rules unfold in less than an hour. Another bonus for beginners and casual gamers is that the miniatures come pre-painted, allowing them to be played out of the box. The sculptures are of good quality, and fans who don't end up playing the game regularly won't mind displaying a few on their desks.

The game's complexity can be ratcheted up a few notches by incorporating "fleet commander options." These rules allows certain ships, usually capital ships like the Executor, to carry out special orders that modify a given ship in some way, such as increasing its firepower or improving its defense. At best, each ship can issue only one or two such orders a game, so they must be used wisely. Larger ships are divided into quadrants that govern what weapons they can bring to bear and how hard they are to hit on a given side. This increases the importance of facing and makes up for the limited amount of tactical maneuvering possible on the small game map.

After a few fights, Starship Battles' drawbacks become apparent. The game's fast play means players can knock out a bunch of battles in a night, but most won't be the strategic slugfests that veteran wargamers love. For a game set in the Star Wars universe, there's a surprising lack of Force powers; Luke may have used the Force to guide his Death Star shot, but players won't be able to use it to take down that troublesome super star destroyer. Assembling the perfect fleet is going to be expensive, with the starter costing $40 and boosters running $20 a pop.

Still, the game has potential. Game scenarios being released on Wizards' Web site add some much-needed strategic elements, if players choose to use them. The Star Wars Miniatures game incorporates Force powers in its rules, so it stands to reason that they'll be added to Starship Battles eventually. Finally, role players may find the key to running a truly cinematic campaign by merging Starship Battles with the next iteration of the pen-and-paper RPG, due out in spring 2007. Wizards claims the new edition will be more tightly integrated with the miniatures games, and it's easy to see how players could jump from role-playing a rebel infiltration of an Imperial base to a dogfight between X-wings and TIE fighters as they try to escape with valuable starship plans.