Got a couple games of X-Wing in on Thursday night at Gamer's Haven in Colorado Springs. Both were 100-point games against the same opponent; I played the Rebels in both games. Here is the battle report from the second game.
Rebel ships:
Gray Squadron pilot (Y-wing) (4) with Ion Cannon
Rookie pilot (X-wing) (2)
Garven Dreis (X-wing) (6) with R5-K6 astromech
Red Squadron pilot (X-wing) (4) with R5-K6 astromech
Imperial ships:
Darth Vader (TIE Advanced) (9)
Soontir Fel (TIE Interceptor) (9)
Mauler Mithel (TIE Fighter) (7)
Dark Curse (TIE Fighter) (6)
I might have the Imperial pilot rankings wrong, but I think that's correct. Also, a couple of them carried upgrades, but I cannot remember what they were.
Here was the Rebel set up:
I decided to put some space between my ships (no pun intended) because I'm still learning the maneuver templates, and I was getting tired of my ships bumping into each other. I'm also trying to break out of the Dystopian Wars "command distance" mindset.
And here was the Imperial setup:
Turn 1 saw the Rebels start charging across the board...
...while the Imperials passed the time by showing off their superb aerobatic skills:
Before I go any further: the game board was provided by my opponent, John. It is a black tri-fold display board that he painted himself. Gave a nice setting for our games. He said it was his first attempt--I thought it looked great, and the ships really stand out against the dark background. Can't wait to see his follow-on projects!
Meanwhile, in the galaxy far, far away....
Turn 2 saw the ships start to move into range of each other, so some jockeying for position occurred. Here was the end of the Turn 2 movement phase:
And the end of the Turn 2 combat phase:
Soontir Fel got hit with the Y-wing's ion cannon, but it didn't matter, as the Red Squadron X-wing at his 4 o'clock position waxed him with one volley of well-aimed shots. However, before Soontir died, he blew away ALL of the Y-wing's shields (3). This would set things up nicely for Mauler Mithel later.
Turn 3 movement saw the X-wings lining up some shots and acquiring target locks, while the TIE fighter pilots reacted to Soontir's untimely demise. Vader side-slipped past Garven Dreis:
Turn 3 combat saw Dark Curse fall to Garven's laser cannons, and Mauler Mithel was hit by the Y-wing's ion cannon, but managed not to get hit by anything else. One of the two TIEs also picked 2 hull points off the Y-wing (it starts with 5).
Administrative note: when hit by the ion cannon, the target ship cannot perform any free actions in the next round, moves in the next round only by using the "straight 1" move template, and recieves 1 face-down damage card. The pilot can still shoot at anything in his firing arc that is in range, and can still evade being shot at. These effects only last for the round after the ship is hit (except the damage card, which is permanent).
Turn 4 movement:
And turn 4 combat:
Since Mauler Mithel had a higher pilot skill than all of the Rebel pilots, he shot first, even though he could not maneuver due to being under the effects of the ion cannon blast. But his bare minimum of movement carried him into Range 1 of the offending Y-wing, and he gave it all he had. Mauler scored 4 hits (3 AD due to the close range, plus Mauler gets 1 additional AD at Range 1); the Y-wing gets only 1 evade die, and his one free movement was spent on something else. So Mauler had his revenge. However, as he watched his opponent disintegrate into a rapidly expanding ball of gas and debris, he was obliterated by the Rookie X-wing pilot behind him.
Turn 5 saw one of the Rebel fighters strip the shields off Vader's TIE Advanced, at which point the Sith lord decided that he was needed elsewhere and made the jump to lightspeed.
Administrative note: we did not realize until nearly the end of the game that John had not been rolling his evade dice when the ion cannon was firing at his ships. The ion cannon uses 3 attack dice, and only has to score one regular hit in order to be effective. This may have changed the outcome of the game; however, on both occasions that I used it in this game, I rolled three hits, so he would have had to be very lucky with his evasion rolls to get out of getting hit. I felt very badly about it.
Some lessons learned:
-TIE fighters and interceptors are fragile. An X-wing has enough hitting power to grease an undamaged TIE fighter or interceptor with one volley, if the dice rolls work out for the Rebel player and DON'T work out for the Imperial player. TIEs, on the other hand, cannot kill an undamaged X-wing in one volley; multiple ships firing on the same target might work, if the TIEs can get in close to get the extra attack dice needed. So I think being the Imperial player is going to be the more challenging of the two factions.
-Y-wings cannot keep up with X-wings. The fastest they can fly is a "straight 4", and this is a red maneuver for them. Their only green maneuvers are a "straight 1" or "straight 2".
John was a fun opponent, and weathered my admittedly extremely lucky dice rolls with grace. Plus, he provided us with a fantastic playing surface. I look forward to flying against him again!
Thanks for reading this battle report. May the force be with you.
