First gaming of 2015

Today was our first gaming session of the New Year.

The game of choice was Star Wars: X-Wing. There is a good reason for this... which will be revealed in time... if we can get organised.

When I arrived Mark and Phil were already set up to roll out a game, so I sat back watched and took a couple of photos.

Mark had the Rebels (YT-1300 & 2 B-Wing). Phil was commanding the Imperials (a number of Tie Fighters with 1 Advanced). 100pts per side.

Here's a couple of shots...

I believe it was a pretty convincing win for the Rebels, but check out Mark's blog for the full details (there you go Mark... you better blog now! :) ).

Then it was my turn and I figured... since I have some of the Star Wars big ships, we should figure out how to use them. This time it was the turn of this one....

...the Rebel Transport.

I'd read through the rules a bit whilst Mark and Phil were playing their game and had remembered the Rebel Transport comes with a small campaign centered around the escape from Hoth.

The first mission of that looked like a good place to start.

I would field the Rebel Transport and support Mark who now had 125pts to play with. He dropped the YT-1300 to add in 2 X-Wing and 1 A-Wing. Phil's force remained unchanged, but he would get to resurrect any destroyed Tie's with a pilot skill level of 4 or higher as basic Tie's.

And Phil would get to deploy some mines that would do all sorts of horrible things (each mine had a different effect). Although, if Mark could get enough ships near them, then we would be able to effectively disrupt them for awhile (mission special rules... ).

Object of the game (for the Rebels). Ensure the Rebel Transport escaped the table (opposite corner).

So we deployed...

 

There was a lot that happened during the game, so I won't go into a lot of detail on the swirling melee that followed. Nor will I list out all the ships taken.... too hard to remember and no one wants a long list :)

Suffice to say, we had Wedge on our side. No, Phil didn't take Darth.

Turn 1 started and the race to escape began.

The Rebel initial focus was to try and neutralise the closest mines and hopefully do a little damage to the oncoming Tie swarm...

And then things kicked off quite quickly from there, but mainly for the Imperial forces. Trying to neutralise mines had meant a number of Rebel ships were not in good firing positions. Luckily Imperial forces can't shoot very well. Still, they took a few shields of my Rebel Transport, but I'd spent the first couple of turns moving slowly to build up energy.... shields were quickly re-established.

The fight continued, but I'd gone full speed ahead with the Transport now. We had to get out of dodge! I also tried jamming. That left one Tie loaded up with stress...

But then disaster.... one of the Imperial mines activated and it was an ion pulse. Suddenly one of the B-Wings found itself drifting and drifting in a dangerous direction..... right into the path of the Tranport (the Transport moves last and destroys any smaller craft that it collides with).

Disaster was averted though. But only just... the Transport has spotted the B-Wing in time and slowed engines (also to gain some energy) averting the collision.

By now a few Tie's had been destroyed and had been resurrected. The Transport still had a few shield points, but had taken some hull damage. The rest of the Rebel force was relatively untouched. The fight continued....

The Rebel's took their first casualty late in the game with the A-Wing being destroyed. Tie's were slowly being knocked out, so Imperial numbers were dwindling.

Then we were here... agonisingly close to escape....

But Imperial forces managed to gain control of the last mine... and activate it. It's a pulse mine which pushes the Transport back away from escape!

So, the Rebel forces still have their work cut out. The aft section of the Transport has taken a lot of damage. Some very good shooting from the few remaining Tie's could destroy it...

But Rebel shooting is better cutting the Tie's down and the Transport has enough movement next turn to escape...

A very close game in the end and quite good fun.

Phil spread his fire quite a bit. I suspect concentrating more on the Transport early on could well have won the game for him.

We did get a few of the rules wrong with Transport... and I did get the damage cards mixed up, but in general we had most of the rules pretty well sussed. Which was good having not played it for some time!

I do think the best builds in the this game are go for numbers and minimal upgrades. You need to be able to concentrate fire and destroy enemy ships.

To that end.... I think I'll have to try the Tantive IV next time.... :)