RogerBW's Blog

I'm still taking advantage of my employer's leave year ending in January, so Ashley came over to play some X-Wing.

Both of us are fairly new to the game, so we probably made mistakes in choosing our forces, but on-line squadron builders made sure they were legal. I started off with an Imperial TIE swarm (one good pilot, the rest unnamed and barely-trained), on the "quantity has a quality all of its own" principle, going up against a three-X, one-Y force.

Howlrunner / TIE Fighter
 Swarm Tactics
Academy Pilot / TIE Fighter
Obsidian Squadron Pilot / TIE Fighter
Obsidian Squadron Pilot / TIE Fighter
Black Squadron Pilot / TIE Fighter
Black Squadron Pilot / TIE Fighter
Black Squadron Pilot / TIE Fighter

Hobbie Klivian / X-Wing
 R2-D2
Tarn Mison / X-Wing
 R2 Astromech
Red Squadron Pilot / X-Wing
 R3-A2
Gold Squadron Pilot / Y-Wing
 Shield Upgrade

By concentrating our fire, the TIEs were able to knock out one X-Wing in the initial pass.

Things rapidly became very messy. The TIEs went to constant evasive manoeuvres after the first pass, and this was very frustrating for my opponent. Where an X-Wing gradually has its shields and hull worn down (a bit like a D&D fighter), a TIE continues to be absolutely fine until it gets unlucky, takes a little damage, and is done for (like a GURPS fighter).

Further confusion, but no more kills yet.

We took out another X-Wing, and at this point it was looking distinctly bad for the Rebels.

TIEs started to go down, though, including the one good pilot.

"That's the guy who's actually been through the pilot training. Well, we say training. It's more like work experience."

In the end, seven on four came down to four on one, and then to four on none.

For the return engagement, I'd also set up an XXXY force, with astromechs spread among them (none of them turning out to be hugely useful, in the end, though they were slightly helpful). I popped a TIE on the first pass, and we were all sufficiently still in formation to come back for a second orderly attack.

Darth Vader / TIE Advanced
Mauler Mithel / TIE Fighter
 Squad Leader
Dark Curse / TIE Fighter
Academy Pilot / TIE Fighter
Academy Pilot / TIE Fighter
Academy Pilot / TIE Fighter

Dutch Vander / Y-Wing
 R2-F2
Biggs Darklighter / X-Wing
 R2-D2
Rookie Pilot / X-Wing
 R2 Astromech
Rookie Pilot / X-Wing
 R5-K6

Then things started to come apart for both sides. I was feeling the lack of Evades after the all-TIE force (though my Y-wing pilot could boost his agility as his action, which helped a lot). Darth Vader in the TIE Advanced went down, leading to the happiest Rebel in the galaxy.

Briefly, until the TIEs caught him.

But when we were down to a single TIE against a damaged X and a fairly solid Y, it seemed reasonable to call the game.

This was games four and five for me, if I've got the count right, and I'm still learning a great deal each time I play. I was deliberately sticking to ships and cards from the first wave of releases, so that I can work my way into things a bit at a time. I'm getting a lot of the feeling that I used to get with BattleTech: the shooting phase is very random, so the player's skill is mostly deployed in the movement phase, working out where the enemy will be and putting oneself in a position to concentrate force on them. (Concentration is even more important when there's the possibility of regeneration. Ashley had R2-D2 on one X-Wing in the first game, and when I was scoring a hit here and a hit there it was able to regenerate shields quite easily. In the second, I had it on Biggs' X-Wing, and the hits just stacked up in a single fire phase so it never had a chance to achieve anything.)

I was finding the cards and special abilities less use than I'd expected them to be, though that may well be a thing that comes with time or more cunning combinations. Certainly the TIE swarm's victory over the Rebels in game one felt as though it had a greater margin of success than the Rebels' win in game two.

"Actually it's about ethics in colonial governance."

My wife approves of my wargaming at home (it means I'm not driving off to Oxford or Cambridge or Reading or London or somewhere), and so do I (it means really good food).