X-wing epic battle report

So, continuing our series on X-wing and as promised from Thursday, here is a review of the big epic game we had on Wednesday. we had about 320 points a side. the epic ships were loaded out the same, with 3 different cannons and a few other things:

Ian led the forces of order with Jonathan and I have to confess somebody who's name escapes me! 

They had:

1 imperial raider, kitted out with three sorts of cannons and some imperial crew (including the guy who lets you drive over asteroids)

-1TIE Punnisher, Redline with munitions, plasma torpedoes, cluster missiles and free target lock sensors upgrade thingy. 

-Captain Jonas in a TIE Bomber (re rolls for allies with secondary weapons) munitions, plasma torpedoes, ion pulse missiles.

 -PS4 bomber with the same loadout as Jonas.

-2 Black Squadron TIEs with Wingman. 

-A PS3 Defender with ion engines. 

-Kir Kanos (exchange evade tokens for hits) in an interceptor with title, shield and hull upgrades. 

(This is mostly quoted from the text conversation)

Opening engagements

I flew he rebellion with robin and Andrew, with roughly something like

-A tantive, also with three cannons, Han, leia

-B-Wing: Dagger Squadron Pilot (Heavy Laser Cannon) 

-B-Wing: Dagger Squadron Pilot ("Mangler" Cannon) 

-Y-Wing: Gray Squadron Pilot (Twin Laser Turret ) 

-K-Wing: •Miranda Doni (Plasma Torpedoes; Plasma Torpedoes; Tactician) 

-A-Wing: •Jake Farrell (Outmanoeuvre ; Proton Rockets; Autothrusters ) 

-Z-95 Headhunter: Tala Squadron (Cluster Missiles) 

-Z-95 Headhunter: Tala Squadron

Roughly the same points, but crucially two intentional things that I'd done. Firstly, I deliberately out everybody ps4 or higher. So that even if they got cleared of by the imperial raider they'd get to shoot. Secondly, and for a lasting effect- I made a strong  initiative bid. With the choice on initiative, we gave it to the imperials. Perhaps a little to tactical for the level we were playing at, but it meant that the raider and half their ships were down before we placed anything. Meaning we refused flank away from the raider. Good for us, but probably the wrong decision for the game. My competitive nature got the best of me there. 

So we set up, concentrating all of forces in the centre, and left of centre.  The imperials set up in the centre, and to the right of Centre from our perspective. 

First Engagement

In the first two rounds, we decided to rush the imperials and see if they would blink. With the imperial raider cruising towards us, our plan was to try and use our superior firepower to take a couple of ships out before battle was joined. So all of our ships went as fast as they could without pulling red manoeuvres.

Before

Over the next couple of turns, the forces of the imperial side took the bait and joined battle, much to the silent curses of their admiral as he continued to move at a glacial pace towards the battle. This resulted in an almighty dogfight in the centre of the board, with Miranda and Jake quickly into the flank and rear. There is a lot of space on a 6x3 board!

After

The clinching factor was that the tantive was able to engage relatively early on, and start throwing 5 dice attacks at ships. Because the imperial fighters were preoccupied with our fighters, I was able to cruise along our back line at about range 4 from the fight and destroy a ship a turn. This tipped the balance in our favour, until then it had been touch and go. 

I rolled this, and then used han solo crew to pump it up

Seeing his comrades fall into our carefully placed trap, their Admiral placed all power to the engines in an effort to save his fellows. Unfortunately for him, due in part to unlucky imperial dice rolls, by the time he got there, we had cleaved our way through the imperial fleet like a lightsaber through butter. This meant that the imperial raider and a tie defender were facing the tantive, a bwing, Jake and Miranda. 

This was where we called it. A victory for the filthy rebel scum. The club only goes on to 10pm and any longer and we would have overstayed our welcome. In the next turn we would have probably lost the bwing (I'd advised putting it in a very risky place where it was going to get run over!) and potentially another ship. But the rear of the raider was halfway dead from one round of shooting! 

Closing Shots

All in all a great game. Next week we are playing 100 point dogfights, and then in the final week before Christmas I'm thinking about a narrative mission, with side tables. Robin has suggested one as a potential as well. If you want to come along and join us, please let me know! The more the merrier!