The Empire (Tries to) Strike Back!

As you may recall, the last foray into space for the gaming group ended with a horribly lopsided victory of the Rebels over the Empire. So when we gathered for a return event, things were definitely going to be different...

The Combatants (L to R):
Commander Will—Rebel
Darth Ben (No, Not *That* Ben)—Empire
Darth Jim—Empire
Darth Alexander (Hiding in the Shadows)—Empire
Commander Not Appearing In This Photo (AKA Yours Truly)—Rebel

And Now Begins...

EPISODE XXL

THE EMPEROR'S NEW UNDERPANTS

In the aftermath of glaring defeat, gasps were heard throughout the corridors of the Imperial military. These were followed by loud thumps as various admirals and generals involuntarily acknowledged their errors and accepted their permanent removal from their positions without protest. Once the bodies were cleared, the Empire’s new top military leaders pledged to serve Emperor Palpatine with renewed vigor and diligence...

The first step was a complete review of the Imperial Navy Manual of Starfighter Doctrine   (e.g. the Star Wars X-wing Miniatures Game Rule Book), to see whether all official guidelines and procedures had been properly adhered to. The new leaders found that while procedures had mostly followed expected protocol, proper attention had not been paid to force makeup and battlefield effectiveness and equivalency. An exhaustive study revealed that Imperial projections as to levels of training and armament required to adequately combat Rebel capabilities had been woefully underestimated. (In short, we had the point matchup totally out of whack.)

In an effort to correct this error, the Imperial high command began planning the next mission with strict attention to both mission objectives and adequate combat capabilities. 

Emperor Palpatine himself had great interest in the battle that would ensue, as it involved the carefully guarded delivery of several autonomous unmanned cargo containers, each carrying materials of a highly sensitive nature for the Emperor’s administrative purposes. [The Imperial Office of Truth and Selective Openness completely denies allegations that the contents were in any way pink or frilly and certainly not feminine at all. And yes, the Emperor wears a size 18... wait, strike that. Execute that reporter! Now!  (SKEPEWWW! SKEPEWWW! Sizzle....)]

Ahem, as we were saying, it was imperative that these important and essential materials not fall into Rebel hands. The Rebels, of course, sent their top men to intercept the cargo, promising a full exposé of the contents in The Galactic Enquirer (“Enquiring Minds Do Want to See This Paper”).

The orders were issued, the site was chosen, and the various commanders were directed to assemble... and in the cold, hard depths of space, battle commenced.

The Nitty Gritty

After the last debacle, I decided to go strictly by the book. Selecting the “Thieves In the Night” scenario included in the Millennium Falcon Expansion Set, I put together an equal points balance collection of some of the Rebel’s best versus the Empire’s best.
The scenario itself calls for the Empire to shepherd three automated cargo canisters from one end of the battlespace to the other. The canisters move independently, always straight and in the same direction; they cannot maneuver in any way, nor stop, nor change direction. Two Empire fighters act as “Escorts”, who can boost the speed of the canisters if the fighters stay within one range band of a canister (or canisters). Meanwhile, the Rebels designate a ship to be the “thief,” which can attempt to snatch a single canister at the end of the movement phase, if the canister is within one range band of the “thief” vessel. (The Rebels have the advantage of being able to shift which ship is the “thief” at the end of the planning phase. The Empire has the advantage that if an Escort is destroyed, another vessel automatically becomes an escort... if they have any vessels left.)

The victory conditions are simple: The Empire must successfully escort at least two of the containers across the battlespace (a our table was 4’ long, we marked the correct distance with a line of asteroids that were otherwise not considered as elements of the battle). The Rebels must successfully steal two containers to win. Note that while destruction of the enemy is certainly helpful, it isn’t necessary, and the Empire can still win even if all its vessels are destroyed, if the Rebels fail to snatch the containers!

Though the book suggests a 100-point per side battle, I wanted to max out the Rebel forces as much as I could, and do the same for the Empire. The result gave 165 points  to each side, which I ran as a solo test scenario (ending in a narrow Empire victory). It seemed to work well, so I offered the same set up to my gaming group.

The Battle Begins
Note that the Rebels can set up very close to the Empire in this scenario; combat begins immediately!

The Forces:

Rebels (165)

Millennium Falcon YT-1300
Chewbacca as pilot
Nien Nunb as crew
MF Title Upgrade
Elusiveness Upgrade
Engine Upgrade
Assault Missiles
Wedge Antilles X-wing
R2F2
Proton Torpedoes
Luke Skywalker X-wing
R2D2
Proton Torpedoes
Deadeye
Biggs Darklighter X-wing
R5D8
Proton Torpedoes

Empire (165)

Turr Phennir TIE Interceptor
Marksmanship
Soontir Fel TIE Interceptor
Daredevil
Howlgunner TIE
Swarm Tactics
Backstabber TIE
Night Beast TIE
Dark Curse TIE
Winged Gundark TIE
Academy Rookie TIE

(The above may be off; I forgot to record all of the upgrade cards, and I’m working from memory.)

The Commanders
Rebels:
Commander Will, controlling the Millennium Falcon and Wedge Antilles.
Commander Not Appearing In These Photos (AKA yours truly), controlling Luke Skywalker and Biggs Darklighter.

Empire:
Darth Jim
Darth Alexander
Darth Ben (No, Not *That* Ben)

 I can’t recall who controlled what on the Empire side, but the forces were pretty well split up evenly. I think Darth Jim and Darth Ben (No, Not *That* Ben) controlled one each of the Escort vessels, as well a support fighter each, while Darth Alexander was assigned to general assault detail with a squadron of three TIEs.

First Blood
Darth Ben's wingman goes down early, and the Falcon swoops in on the first canister (token in foreground).

Will and I planned a bait-and-switch with the “thief” vessel, starting off with the Falcon assigned to snatch the canisters, to draw the Emperor’s forces away from Luke’s X-wing, so we could switch to it mid-battle. It didn’t quite work that way, as the Empire had a lot of fighters to throw around, but things got hairy around the Falcon very quickly. In a boost to the Rebel side, the Falcon snatched the central canister fairly early on, so we left it in charge of going after the next canister.

Hairy Furball
Ya know, all  those TIEs were *supposed* to chase the Falcon!

The Empire however, interrupted this effort, boosting one of the remaining canisters quickly across the battlefield, while the Falcon and Wedge were drawn off from the canister moving up the far side, and got bottled up in a dogfight with the TIEs. Darth Ben (No, Not *That* Ben) saw his TIES blow up rapidly, much to his despair (see photo above and below).

Why you? Because it's Star Wars, and nobody named Ben is gonna survive to the end...

Meanwhile Darth Alexander proved quite deft at both his shooting, taking out the vaunted Wedge Antilles (“So, I guess he’s not the ‘one other’ you meant, Yoda?”), and his dodging, avoiding all attempts to clobber his last TIE! (See his “moment of triumph” picture as he dodges the crit that would have taken him down... yes, fired by Dad...)

Wedge bites the big one, courtesy smilin' Darth Alexander.

Another TIE bites the dust...

Smilin' Darth Alexander celebrates the Dark Side of the Force.

With both sides now caught out of position, the battle became a desperate race to reach the last canister, which had slowly been crawling through space. The escorts were too far from the canister to assist it, but the Rebels were too far away to capture it. The game might well come down to which side got close enough to use their ability on the lone pod! 

The Rebel commanders realized that it was time to call the switch. Luke took over “thief” duties from Chewie, and roared full tilt after the distant cargo pod, with the Falcon acting to block the escort TIES from catching up. The asteroid field loomed close as Luke drew near— there was little time for targeting; it was grab or give up!

“Use the Force, Luke!”
“Uh, Ben?” (Yes, *that* Ben.)
“Yes, you ninny! Who did you think it was, Avon calling? NOW SHUT UP AND USE THE FRICKIN’ FORCE!”

Staring off into space with a vague expression that was supposed to be intense concentration, Luke activated the tractor beam on his X-wing (didn’t know they had one, did you? Ain’t retconning grand?)...

Stealing a Win!
(Needed more crits than evades on equal dice! And holy cheese, it happened!)

... and snatched the final canister!!!

Victory: REBELS (Again...)

The Rebels soared off with their prize, the Empire slunk away in despair (expecting another round of “abrupt resignations”), and supermarket magazine racks across the galaxy displayed very embarrassing photos of the Emperor’s feminine undies.

(“That’s alleged feminine undies!”— The Imperial Office of Truth and Selective Openness.)

Wrap Up

Although another Rebel victory, this time it was definitely a close call; the force matchup was nearly perfect. Had the Empire boosted the canister a little sooner, or had the Force turned against Luke, this would have been an Empire win. The photos don’t show the number of hits all sides had been taking— the MF was shieldless, with hull hits mounting up, and only R2D2 was holding Luke together, rebuilding his shields to block what at any moment could be a killing blow (two hits out of three hull points). Ironically, Biggs Darklighter, the pilot whose ability is to make people shoot him (!) was soaring along quite unperturbed. (Of course, the TIEs kept maneuvering to keep Biggs out of their firing arcs so they could focus on Luke or the Falcon. Sneaky little blighters...)

Really, victory came down to a dice roll, and a rather improbable one at that, since the “thief’s” dice and the canister’s dice are equal, and the “thief” has to roll more crit results  (1 in 8 per die, or 12.5% odds) than the defender rolls evade results (2 in 8 per die, or 25% odds). I rolled one crit for Luke; even a single evade would have stopped the attempt... and none appeared. (There was much cheering for this result on the Rebel side, and much groaning from the Empire side.)

In the end, we had a well-fought match. As with most X-wing dogfights with lots of ships, we frequently found ourselves blocking each others’ actions because of the overlap rules, although in some cases this was deliberate. It can be tricky to remember who’s moving first when you’re planning your maneuver; if you forget that someone will (or won’t) be in the same spot as they currently are when your ship moves, it can mess up your plans.

Overall, I really enjoyed this scenario. It certainly forced us to make different tactical decisions than we otherwise would in order to meet the goals of either snatching the canisters or getting them across space as quickly as possible. For both sides, you have to realize that maneuvering to attack the enemy may not be the best choice for a given situation. Indeed, as the Rebel force, we realized that in some cases shooting the escort vessel might be a bad idea, if it would cause another TIE to take over escort duties and boost a canister that otherwise would be moving more slowly.

I can certainly see that we’ll be trying more of the suggested scenarios, and sticking fairly closely to the points system for future battles.

Thanks for reading, and may the Force be with you!

--- Commander Parzival, the Wargamesmonger

It's a Frickin' Flying Shark!

Okay, there's been a lot going on which I have to blog about, but I'm wanting to get something up, and this seems timely.

In honor of the recent release of one of what must be the Greatest Movies Ever Made for a Minor Cable Channel, that masterpiece of cinematic excess, the incomparable Sharknado (google it, if you've been living in ignorance), I present The FRICKIN' FLYING SHARK!

Download it, size it to fit 8.5" x 11" paper, print it on card stock, cut, glue, assemble and throw as directed. Make a passel of 'em and you can create your very on whirling cyclone of carchardon carchariases, aka Great White Sharks.

You will need something to weight the nose, and you may have to fiddle a bit to get a decent gliding action, but it will fly.

And it's just in time for the next showing of Sharknado.

Aren't you happy now? :-)

--- Howard Shirley

P.S. If your friends want this (and of course they will), please send them directly to my blog to download their own copy. Yeah, it's a shameless way to build viewership, but hey, where else can you get such an awesome shark glider for free!

P.P.S. A few tips:

The glider may have tendency to stall. You can adjust this by making a small slit in the rear of the wing centerline (or making the slit in the fish itself longer towards the rear) and sliding the wing backwards, or by adding more weight around the nose.
Also, a gentle wrist throw will be much more satisfactory than an arm throw. Think "light toss" rather than "big hurl."