Odds & Ends (3) - X-Wing AAR

Managed to squeeze a game of X-Wing into my busy schedule this week, we both took ships we hadn't used before so it was a bit of a learning experience. Both squadrons came in about 160pts. I took command of the Empire, and had the following ships:

1 Firespray (Standard Bounty Hunter with an Auto Blaster, Navigator, Concussion Missiles and Seismic charges)
3 TIE IN (1 Royal Guard, 1 Sabre Sqn & 1 Avenger Sqn with Push the Limit and a Hull Upgrade; Expose and Hull Upgrade and nothing, respectively)
1 TIE Bomber (Gamma Sqn with Prox. Mines, 2 loads of Cluster Missiles and both normal and Advanced Proton torp's)

The Rebel forces commanded by John were:

1 Millenium Falcon (Han & Chewie with an Intelligence Agent and draw their fire)
2 X-Wings (1 Red Sqn & 1 Rookie both with R2's and Proton Torp's)
1 A-Wing (Green Sqn with Push the Limit and Cluster missiles)
1 HWK (Rebel Operative with a Recon Agent Shield Upgrade and Blaster Turret)

I didn't manage to grab many pictures as the action was flowing and I don't like to disturb it for the sake of a few photo's, so apologies for the lack of quality images.

We made our own mission up, which was that the Rebels would start in 2 groups the Falcon and X-wings in one the HWK and A-Wing in the other, the Falcon and HWK had to get within range 1 of each other and then both spend an action "Communicating" as they attempt to transit vital information via a short range encryption device. The Empire simply had to stop this from happening.

It didn't start too well for the rebels with their rookie X-wing pilot heading straight into an asteroid, fortunately doing no damage(this became a bit of habit for this poor pilot, who managed to hit 3 asteroids during the game)

 

The battle split into two distinct  sections, with the X Wings engaging the TIE/In and the Falcon and A-Wing taking on the Bomber and Firespray, the HWK being quite fagile took itself out of the battle  hoping to fulfill its mission.

 

My TIE's managed to eventually defeat both X-Wings though not before my Royal Guard had had his Pilot skill reduced to 0 due to critical hits. The Bomber seemed to draw a lot of fire and was taken out before I had chance to fire off all its special weapons which is always annoying. The A-Wing after being shot up, was destroyed when it clipped an asteroid.

The chase was now on to bring down the HWK which would scupper my opponents mission, the first TIE to get within range of the HWK was promptly and much to my surprise shot down in one quick burst. The Falcon was attempting to get within range of the HWK and all the remaining ships had converged in a corner of the table. Finally managing to get rid of some critical damage that prevented the Firespray from Target Locking the HWK, I launched my missiles only to see the HWK easily survive the attack. At this point both the Falcon and the Firespray were badly damaged and the HWK was just hanging on in there. Both remaining TIE's had suffered only minor damage, but both had injured pilots. If I didn't take the HWK out soon the rebels would claim the victory, fortunately for me in an attempt to evade the Firespray the HWK swung straight into the line of fire of both my TIE's and my man of the match - The Sabre Sqn Pilot did that last bit of damage to bring it down.

Only the Falcon survived on the rebel side and that was badly shot up, I still had 3 ships left but all were damaged and it was much closer than the final tally would seem.

It was my first run out with the Firespray and I liked it, its auxillary fire arc(to the rear) is very useful, and unlike most Imperial ships it can take a kicking. I was particulary impressed with the Expose skill on my TIE Sabre Sqn pilot which he managed to use almost every turn.


We have planned a game of Richard III for next week which John hasn't played before and I'm not overly familiar with, so its off to swot up on the rules.