X Wing... Stop the Transport!

This week's game was an X Wing game with regular opponent Andrew fielding a Rebel Transport supported by an X Wing [with Luke and R2D2 on board], a Y wing and an A Wing.

Matching this were a 3 TIE fighters, my new Imperial Shuttle and an Advanced TIE fighter with Darth Vader at the helm.  New-ish club member Julian joined us taking the 2 TIE fighters.
The objective was pretty straightforward...destroy the rebel transport!

The Transport is an impressive model, if rather pricey.  The Transport isn't cheap [the Corellian Corvette is even more expensive] but has some interesting new rules for the game and comes with a campaign system of linked games based on the rebels attempting to flee Hoth.

It is unarmed but has the ability to allocate its power each turn which means it can rather annoyingly boost shields and carry out repairs.  Damage is also allocated to either the front or rear of the ship with 2 separate damage decks giving appropriate critical hit effects depending on where it has been hit.  The Rebel player can choose to fly slowly but have lots of energy to reallocate, or speed along but risk being too badly damaged.  At least the lack of weapons on-board meant that it wouldn't be able to damage any of my ships.....hmmmmm........

 

The Imperial and Rebel fighters face off....

 

The Imperial plan initially worked well with the shuttle, advanced fighter and bog-standard TIE fighter heading straight for the rebel fighter while Julian's better class TIE fighters [ie with named pilots with special abilities] took the long way round, avoiding a fight but then swinging round to attack the transport.

Vader vs Luke

 

 

The fighters spent a few turns dog-fighting with no one actually any significant damage although Vader's shields were beginning to take a bit of a pounding.  The Rebels were very annoyed to discover that the Shuttle had some Rebel prisoners on board which meant that they were given a Stress token each turn if they attacked it....I'm not sure how they knew they were on-board...presumably the Imperials were dangling the Wookiee prisoners out of the cockpit like some kind of fluffy dice ornament!

The shuttle then managed to break through the line of fighters and, along with Julian's fighters began to attack the transport.  The combination of firepower was beginning to tell when I realised that I'd left my shuttle sitting directly in the path of the transport.  Andrew sensibly increased to full speed and crashed straight into the shuttle...collisions in X Wing don't normally cause damage except in the case of the Huge ships like the transport in which case they destroy the other ship!  Boom went  third of my total points!  At least it took a couple of the transport's shields with it...

The Imperials continued to harass the transport but time was beginning to tell.  The Rebel fighters were beginning to get a bit battered but the ability of the transport to restore shields and repair itself was making it hard to cause significant damage.  Time was now against us so we called it a night.... the result was still very much in doubt but the loss of the shuttle was an embarrassing loss for the Empire.

"Shuttle Tydirium, what is your cargo and destination?"

I have a game of X Wing coming up in a week or so in which the Imperial navy will be carrying out a policing action against the very impressive Rebel Transport which is being fielded by Andrew.

I decided the Imperials could do with a bit of a boost and then discovered that my local Waterstones had a few of the FFG ships in stock and before I knew it an Imperial Shuttle had made its way home with me!

The Shuttle isn't exactly a dog fighting star but I reckon it won't have to be against the Transport... not sure about all the fighters that will doubtless be escorting it though.

The Shuttle's strength is in the number of upgrades it can have, many of which benefit the other ships in the squadron so it acts as a flying command centre, as well as toting a few powerful guns.

It's also a really nice model... I'd heard there had been some issues with the wings not deploying fully but they seemed fine to me.

Of course if Andrew reads this my secret weapon is going to be revealed a little early.....

• 
  

I find your lack of steering ability disturbing!

Having taken receipt of my Millennium Falcon [and exhausted the pleasure I could get from flying it around the living room and attacking the dog!] we had our latest game of X Wing earlier this week at the club.

Chris had the honour of piloting the Falcon accompanied by an X Wing and I took Darth Vader, accompanied by 2 of his minions in TIE fighters... I'm not really sure where they get the names from... I mean, 'Backstabber and Mauler Mithel'... really??

Anyway, the points were worked out and all was equal.  Despite its size the Falcon is pretty nimble and more importantly has a 360 degree arc of fire, which was to prove pretty useful.  The encounter took place in an asteroid field where doubtless, Han Solo was engaged in some nefarious smuggling and was being brought to account by the forces of law and order.

The game opened with the 2 TIE fighters moving off round the edge of the board, trying to get in behind the X Wing and the Falcon [Backstabber has a bonus when he attacks from the side or rear] which seemed like a good idea at the time although it took them out of the fight for a couple of turns.

The Falcon after an initially cautious advance then steamed straight ahead, as did Darth Vader and in a flurry of missile fire they launched their additional missiles at each other, causing no damage whatsoever!!  The ships then passed by each other and then I had to try and reposition Vader's ship in order to fire, while the Chris' ship could merrily blaze away without worrying about arc of fire.

 

 

Meanwhile TIE fighter #1 had managed to get into position and fired at the X Wing before promptly crashing into an asteroid and then being blown apart by fire from the Rebel Scum!

The remainder of the game consisted of me flying the ships in ever decreasing circles, trying to get my guns to bear on the enemy while being shot.  The 2nd TIE fighter blazed away at the Falcon, reducing its shields to almost nil before also being destroyed.  Vader meanwhile repeatedly crashed into the Falcon while trying to manoeuvre, proving spectacularly that he must have been the worst pilot in the universe!  In X Wing this doesn't cause any damage but does mean that the crashing ship can't fire or take any actions... as Vader's chief ability is to have 2 actions versus everyone else's 1 this was a major blow.  Inevitably the game ended with the destruction of the remaining Imperial ship and a clean sweep for the rebels.

Crunch....There goes the no claims bonus!!!

Lessons to be learned from the game...

• Don't crash into asteroids
• Don't crash into other ships
• In general... don't crash!!

Although the points values were all balanced [69 points apiece since you ask!  No... I don't know why I couldn't make it a nice round number either], the game felt quite one sided.  The Falcon has 5 shield points and then 8 hull points to knock off before it's destroyed compared with no shields for the TIE fighters and a couple for Vader and only 3 hull boxes.  Makes sense as its a much larger ship but that combined with the all round fire ability proved very effective.  Perhaps if I'd managed to actually fire in more turns and been able to use the actions which were wasted for most of the game it might have made a difference... of course it could be that it was also down to Chris's tactics but I'd hate to admit that!!!

The Falcon has landed...

I've been eagerly waiting on the 2nd wave of releases for X Wing which have finally gone on sale in the last couple of weeks.

Wave 2 includes the Millennium Falcon, Slave 1, an A Wing fighter and a TIE interceptor.  To be honest the only one out of those that really appealed was the Falcon.  The fighters are fine and I guess will add to the range of options for the Empire or Rebels.  The other 2 are more interesting as they are much larger models and should give a very different scenario.

Slave 1 didn't really do it for me but the Falcon took me straight back to the 70s and my collection of action figures and ships [all of course completely lost and/or destroyed!].  I duly ordered the Millennium Falcon from Wayland Games and they had it dispatched as soon as the orders reached the UK.

The model itself is lovely... appropriately bigger than the fighters in the basic set and with a lot of detail on the ship itself. 

The set includes cards for Han Solo, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian and a generic smuggler, each with different skills.  There are some extra rules for larger ships and a new scenario to try out.  I've a game arranged in a couple of weeks to try it out so more info once we've played it out properly... in the meantime I'll content myself with flying it around the living room making spaceship noises, much to my son's embarrassment.

Lock S-Foils in attack position!

Another Monday... a second chance to try out the X Wing rules that made such a good impression a few weeks ago.

This time Andrew and I swapped sides with the Rebel Scum now transforming into gallantly heroic freedom fighters in my hands.  We aimed for approx. 70 points per side: Andrew, ably assisted by Chris fielded Lord Vader himself in his Advanced TIE fighter accompanied by to bit part TIE fighter pilots.  In response I chose Luke Skywalker with R2 strapped to the X Wing and a Y Wing upgraded with an Ion Cannon.

The Empire began in pretty assertive style by flying straight at the Rebels which allowed me to concentrate on one fighter and cause several hits.  We quickly found ourselves in a massive tangle with lots of shots at point blank range.  Unfortunately Darth Vader then came into his own with a multitude of Actions [most people only get one] and all round high skills which were able to quickly wear down Luke's X Wing's shields.

A close range tangle... if only we had interstellar traffic lights!

Luckily the R2 unit proved its worth and was able to restore shields providing I didn't do anything too complex in manoeuvring and this bought Luke several turns. 

The TIE fighters struggled to bring their guns to bear on the Rebels and the Y Wing's Ion cannon began to prove particularly annoying: if it manages to hit it causes 1 point of damage but also slows the target ship to a short move... effectively pecking away at them and wearing them down.  Much to Andrew's frustration the TIE fighters couldn't get into an effective position and Luke was able to finish them off before facing off against his father [oops... hope that wasn't a spoiler!]


Here Darth Vader's superior skills proved very effective and Episodes 5 and 6 were cut off prematurely as Luke's ship exploded [...maybe he escaped in some implausible fashion...]

The rather cumbersome Y Wing was then left facing Vader and I suspected here that the game was up and the Advanced TIE fighter would make short work of the slower ship.  Again though the Ion cannon proved its worth, slowly wearing down the fighters shields and hull and negating the Empire ship's chances to get into an effective firing position.  The Y wing circled around Vader, slowly blasting away  until the last hull point was gone and Skywalker Senior was snuffed out.

Darth Vader and the Y Wing face off...

Another very successful outing for the X Wing rules.  We still haven't added in some of the other options such as asteroids etc and we'll have to try these next.  The next sets are due out in February next year and will include the Millennium Falcon... can't wait!

Stabilize your rear deflectors... Watch for enemy fighters.

I succumbed to temptation [again!] and bought the new Fantasy Flight Games X Wing set.  I've been a long time fan of Wings of War and on the face of it this appears very similar.

The game is relatively pricey although the components are nice and give you a basic starting force of 2 TIE fighters and 1 X wing and offer the tempting promise of being able to blast Luke Skywalker out of the sky.  With additional ships available and the promise of forthcoming releases including the Millenium Falcon the game seemed worth a punt.  Amazon is definitely your friend here as it can be several pounds cheaper online.  I gather people [...by which I mean people with more money than sense!] are also buying several starter sets as this is a more cost effective way to build up a larger force of core ships and components.

Having finally gotten round to playing it, it seems it's not really that much like WoW after all.  The game uses a rather chunky dial to plan moves and has some cardboard  templates rather than the little WoW cards that inevitably slip around the table and lead to swearing and arguments.  There is a simple but effective mechanism for handling the effects of complex manoeuvres [causing 'stress' which does generate an image of TIE pilots having some aromatherapy while tracking down Rebel Scum].  Ships are neatly distinguished by having different manoeuvre capabilities and individual pilots bring unique abilities... and of course there's always the simple pleasure of trying to shoot the R2 unit!  Like a number of other games at the moment [SAGA, Bolt Action etc] it uses some game specific dice which come with the starter set but can of course be bought separately.




Luke's X wing is neatly caught in the crossfire of 2 TIE fighters... of course he survives!!!

 

We played an introductory game involving the forces of law and order trying to crush the pesky rebel ship piloted by Mr Skywalker himself.  Andrew took the role of LS and Chris and I were plucky Imperial pilots.  Despite some frankly brilliant flying on the part of the Empire, Luke was able to weather the attack and eventually destroyed both TIE fighters.  All of us felt it was a nicely simple but effective system which gives a good flavour of the films and is ideal for a club night.  We didn't add anything more complex such as asteroids but will do next time.

Highly recommended!!