Location:
Rebel Base near the Sullust Sector
First
Player = Me
Objective
= Hyperspace Assault
My
Imperial Fleet (399 pts)
Victory-I,
Admiral Screed, Expanded Launchers, Sensor TeamVictory-II, Gunnery Team, Overload Pulse
Gladiator-I, Demolisher, Engine Techs, ACMs, Veteran Captain
Gladiator-I, Insidious, ACMs
4 x TIE fighter
Rebel
Fleet (399 pts)
Assault
Frigate MkII-B, Dodonna, Enhanced Armaments, Gunnery Team, Adar TallonNebulon-B Escort Frigate, Yavaris
Nebulon-B Support Frigate, Salvation, XI7 turbolasers
Corvette A, Leia Organa
Luke Skywalker
3 x X-wing
2 x A-wing
2 x Y-wing
Deployment
The
Rebels placed the objective markers on the edge of my deployment zone, in the
left, centre and right hand side of the board. Yavaris, Luke and the 2
Y-wings went into reserve.
 |
| Deployment |
I
deployed the Victory class ships in the middle of the board, facing toward the
gap in the debris which led to the space station. Demolisher deployed on
my left to cover the centre objective marker, and Insidious on the right to
cover the right objective marker. The idea being to give the Rebels a
hard time if they dropped out of hyperspace in those areas.
The
Rebels deployed with Salvation on my far left, the Space Whale in the middle of
the board facing to my left to line up broadsides, with the Corvette, X-wings
and A-wings between the other ships.
Turn 1
My
Victorys advanced at speed 2 in the middle. I realised here I made a
mistake, as Screed's flagship was a bit far ahead of the Vic-II which I had
intended to lead the echelon formation. The Gladiators moved to cover
their respective objective markers to prevent a Rebel assault. The Rebels
advanced cautiously at speed 2.
 |
| The Imperial fleet makes an implacable advance |
The
Victorys continued their advance, turning past the first set of asteroids but
still out of engagement range. Demolisher was able to cover the centre
objective, but Insidious was too far away to cover the right objective with its
broadsides. A gap was left for the Rebel fleet! The Rebels
continued their cautious advance, with a lone X-wing coming out to play who was
pounced on by TIEs - but still had one health. The A-wings moved to start
plinking at my flagship, taking down a lot of shields along with some long range
Rebel sharpshooting.
 |
| The fighters begin the engagement, and the flagship loses many shields |
Turn 3
The Rebel
reinforcements now landed in the gap in my firing arcs, threatening the
flagship! My first choice of activation was therefore Screed's Vic-I,
flying him forward at speed 2 and turning to move out of range of Yavaris in
his rear. The flagship proceeded to take a pounding from the Rebels' red
dice, losing all of his shields on the right and front arcs and taking a
Dodonna's crit (crew panic). The Vic-II put some damage on the AF which
was redirected to the far side. Demolisher flew up and put some pain on
the corvette, but it survived with just a few HP left. Insidious then
parked next to Yavaris in my rear to get a double arc the next turn, and in
return a Y-wing and Yavaris damaged Insidious.
 |
| Yavaris arrives to ambush the Imperial forces! |
 |
| While Demolisher fails to kill the Corvette |
Turn 4
 |
| Top of turn 4: I decided to try and Demolish the Corvette and Salvation |
I now had a tough choice of activation. The flagship had repair, but was going to have to repair the crit or keep getting damage each turn - which meant no shields back up. I therefore flew Demolisher forward, after hosing down the corvette for first blood with a broadside - which initially had 4 blanks!! I used my concentrate firepower token, but that was redirected, and so grudgingly used my Screed ability to get the kill. Demolisher then sped forward to land two hits on Salvation's side arc - neatly moving Demolisher out of Salvation's front arc and the Whale's side arc.
Yavaris
put further damage on Insidious, along with another hit/crit from the
Y-wing. My lone TIE fighter squadron bogged down the other
Y-wing. Insidious then fired back with a double arc into the Neb's
side. When the smoke cleared, Yavaris was no more and Insidious dialled
up the speed to get clear of the Rebel bombers. However, the flagship was
now in serious trouble with another crit preventing use of exhausted defence
tokens and 4 HP left. The X-wings took a few more HPs, then the Whale
opened up and blew apart Screed's flagship. Meanwhile, my token complement of TIE
fighters had been pretty much wiped out. Was this a decisive swing for
the Rebels?
 |
| The Imperial flagship is gone, but Demolisher sets up retaliation |
Turn 5
My Vic-II
opened up on the Whale taking down some shields, and cleared out Salvation's
front three shields. At this point, I totally forgot about overload pulse
as Screed had gone. I then turned
aggressively and collided with the Neb - leaving me in place. Salvation
then activated, landing on his own X-wings which I moved safely away and
putting minimal damage on the remaining Vic. Demolisher concentrated
firepower into the front shields of the Whale, gobbling up all 4 shields and
putting damage on the hull with ACMs. The Whale now had almost no
shields, but was able to skip past the speeding Demolisher (who couldn't get a
second shot - I forgot to use my Veteran Captain to slow down and do a tight
turn with engine techs. Dammit!)
 |
| The Whale escapes Demolisher, while the Vic-II and Insidious close for the kill |
Insidious
continued to fly forward, putting some light damage on Salvation and getting
into broadside range for the last turn.
Turn 6
At this
point, I felt happy with my lead - although the flagship was down, my other
ships were in good health and the Rebels had a wounded Salvation and Whale with
no shields left. Time to go for the wipeout. I then had a
brainwave, activated Insidious first to get the broadside off - bang went
Salvation. Then I flew the Gladiator forwards into the path of the Whale,
hoping to trigger a collision and bag an extra HP on him and lock him in place
for my Vic-II.
As it
happened, this was a completely moronic idea. Insidious wasn't able to
block his ship, and instead presented the Rebels' only remaining ship with a
juicy double arc shot - which he took, and blasted the Gladiator apart with the
second volley. The Whale flew forward, took some light damage from my
Vic-II while Demolisher was already far away from the game.
 |
| The Whale escapes after blowing Insidious apart with its last volley! |
The
Rebels remaining forces included a heavily damaged Whale (2 hp and no shields
left!) and most of his fighters. I had lost Screed’s flagship, Insidious,
and all my TIEs (as expected). The final round was decisive, and it was a
well-deserved win for the Rebels!
Final
score:
Empire:
Yavaris, Salvation, Corvette A, A-wing = 184 pts
Rebels:
Victory-I, Screed, Insidious, 4 x TIE fighters = 215 pts
MOV = 31
pts (6-4)
Post-Match
Analysis:
This was
a fun game. Felt very close all the way
through, and could have gone either way with some better rolls at key points on
either side. My opponent played well, using Yavaris to unbalance my formation. I also made a couple of big
errors in this game, which I think made all the difference to the result in the
end.
·
Putting the
flagship in the front of my echelon (by accident) – I definitely should have
put the Vic-II here as I planned, as it would have been able to get much
greater use of its blue dice in this position (including overload pulse). Next time, recognise who will get hit hardest
and repair sooner.
·
Upgrades: some of
the upgrades I paid for didn’t get used to best effect. I never got a single shot off with my front arc 3 red 5
black dice on Screed’s flagship, forgot about overload pulse and the veteran
captain on Demolisher. Need to take my time a bit more
rather than rushing on with the turn!
·
The aggressive first move with Insidious on turn 6. If I hadn’t
activated him first, he would have been at long range and evaded/braced any damage. I was too keen to go for the aggressive move
at the end!
I also
think the squadrons were really effective for the Rebels – although my TIEs
bogged them down, I lost 32 pts in the process and they were able to inflict
damage on my ships at key moments. Need
to bring some more squadrons in the next list!
I am not
a big fan of overload pulse. Every time
I think it will be really useful in a game, it just doesn’t really add a
lot. For the points, upgrades like intel
officer or XI7 are much more useful.
However, I think it will work on an escort ship for the ISD Avenger when
we get wave 2.
That’s
all for now, I plan to add some thoughts on tactics in the next post.
