Does Han shoot first?

I opened up my Millennium Falcon.

This is one of the large-sized ships in the X-Wing Miniatures Game. It comes in its own big box along with the usual mass of bits.

All the bits

It is a gorgeous model, very nicely painted like all the other ships. It is much bigger than the X-Wings and TIE Fighters, and is strictly to scale. The little antenna dish moves up and down!

It looks great on its stand. Vrooooooommm!

Like all the ships in the game it comes with a choice of pilots with different skills and abilities. You can choose from Han himself, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca or some random smuggler.

All these pilots have flown the either the Millennium Falcon itself or another one of the YT-1300 freighters.

All these pilots have flown the either the Millennium Falcon or another similar freighter.

You also get a bunch of upgrade cards. This set comes with some new types of upgrades. The first is crew members. The Falcon’s crew roster is straight from the films.

Crew cards are new. They have a special little 'person' icon in the corner. Only ship with this icon can carry crew members.

Crew cards are new. They have a special little ‘person’ icon in the corner. Only ships with this icon can carry crew members.

The other types of cards that the Falcon comes with are a Title and Modifications.

A Title converts an ordinary vanilla ship into a specific one from the films. In this case, it changes a regular YT-1300 freighter into the actual Millennium Falcon and gives it the ability to evade.

Modifications are really neat, because any ship can use a Modification no matter what icons it has. They give nice general abilities that are good for anyone. They are a bit pricey though.

The Title and Modifications. Usually only certain agile ships can boost (i.e. take an extra move), but adding this Modification gives any ship this ability.

One of the most important numbers in a pilot’s stats is his or her pilot skill.

A high pilot skill means you get to move and act after everyone else has moved and acted, so you know what they have done before deciding what action to take.

Then in the combat phase, the opposite is true. The higher skill pilots get to fire before the others, giving them a chance to kill their opponents before they can fire back. Pilot skills range from a low of 1 up to a maximum of 9.

Han’s pilot skill is 9, so Han does indeed shoot first.