UK Nationals Side Event - a HHHUUUUGGGGEEEE game!!

Hi all,

I'm going to try and give a sense of the wonderful time we had during one of the side events last Sunday at the UK Nationals.

It went like this:

34 players on 16 mats with Rebels fighting the Empire; ending with a free for all once the rebels only had a couple of ships left.

It went on for more than 7 hours, up until only 4 ships were left standing (defenders and Jake). The winner was then decided by dice roll.

(And here I won my first and only side event of the day!! With 5 kills and not one shield off  :))

It probably was a bit too long and it's a shame quite a few players had to drop before the end (Argh Omega Leader: why did you have to go?!)

But it was GREAT!! Really awesome game! I think everyone truly enjoyed it: there was loads of fun, of banter, of fantastic flying and teamplay!

A special mention of Matt flying Palp: it was terribly fun! I don't think Palp has ever been more cheered and booed than during this game.

Matt kept walking along the Imperial side of the tables, checking who was in dire need of some help: it was glorious 

A very big thanks to Alex from Esdevium Games for pulling this one off and offer us such a blast!!

I'm going to try and tell the story of those 34 ships, fighting together...

(By the way, I'm French, so please expect some spelling mistakes or incomprehensible sentences )

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This is the battle that will determine it all. This is where the Empire can successfully restore order in the galaxy and save it from the rebels’ attacks.

And it’s down to a few small ships to tip the balance one way of the other: all the big guns are gone. The Empire mighty force: Star Destroyers, Super Star Destroyers, Imperial assault carrier, all destroyed. But they took off the core of the Rebel forces: there’s no corvette or frigate that hasn’t been reduced to a pile of debris.

And here we are, a few squads to decide the way the known universe will go.

But the morale is still high: the Emperor has managed to escape his Super Star Destroyer in a Lambda-Class shuttle and his guiding the Imperial forces in our last attempt to crush the Rebels forces once and for all.

Delta Squadron Pilot 8717 is part of the group escorting the Emperor shuttle. He is probably one of the less experienced pilots, but he’s confident in his skills and his ship. His grey defender is one of the brand new ones, with upgraded manoeuvrability which, in the right hands, can make it very hard to hit. He is flying in formation with another defender, its ship painted in blood red to show his worth in past combats. The final piece of escort is no-one else than Juno Eclipse, in her Tie-Advanced.

Somewhere above his left wing, DS8717 can barely discern two other defenders engaging two X-wings. Shots are fired but it’s difficult to make anything of it from this distance.

Even further, his radar is showing dots of numerous ships engaged in a furball. Omega Leader, two interceptors, a Defender and one Tie Adv Prototype are exchanging fire with 4 A-Wings and 2 X-Wings, and from the few radio messages DS8717, it seems the battle there is getting quickly very explosive.

Imps and Rebels are getting ready to fight on this side of the system

On the other side, again too far to see, other squads are engaged in dire combat. DS8717 can’t make sense of everything he is seeing on his screen but it looks like an A-wing and an attack shuttle are cornered by two defenders and a Tie-Advanced.

But DS8717 doesn’t have time to trace down other’s battles; his attention is fully on the two A-wings going straight for the shuttle. He and his wingman thought the A-wings were directly engaging them, but this was just a feint to get a shot at the Emperor. And now, Juno is the only one in range to protect the shuttle while DS8717 is coming back full speed.

DS8717 still manages to keep an eye on the nearest furball where a Tie-Advanced (is it really Darth Vader there??) and a Defender are cornered by an A-wing, a Y-wing and a X-wing. The a-wing there looks like he may join the group attacking the shuttle if he can disengage.

Juno is going straight for the A-wings, protecting the shuttle while DS8717 and his wingman are trying to rejoin.

Shots are fired all around. Still above his left wing, space is illuminated by a deluge of laser fire that the two X-wings are pouring on the two defenders. But they juke and evade fire. At some point, one defender seems doomed, but DS8717 can sense some sort of energy going from the shuttle and reaching the defender in time to save him miraculously. The Emperor is directly using the Force to support his troops. Even more than saving this defender, this gives a great boost to the imps morale, probably also strengthening the resolve of the Rebels to get rid of Him. The return fire is more effective, and one dot on DS8717’s radar disappear as an explosion is clearly visible on the left of his cockpit: one X-Wing down.

Lone X-wing after his wingman has been shot to pieces by two defenders

Further on, a defender and Tie advanced are facing four rebel ships... But the attack shuttle is getting quickly back to focus on the Emperor

DS8717 couldn’t really keep track of the other parts of the battle, but it seemed like the Imperial forces were having the upper hand in most of the skirmishes.

More important for DS8717, he was about to engage the two a-wings harassing the shuttle.

He was aiming at the closest one, but knew it was going to be a long shot: the a-wing was too nimble and too far: DS8717’s chances of doing it any substantial damage were too thin for comfort, even with his targeting computer tracing the enemy ship.

But just as he was going to press the trigger, he saw the a-wing shift laterally towards an asteroid. This was a very strange move for the rebel pilot to perform and, more importantly, something that the small aircraft shouldn’t have been able to pull off!

And then, DS8717 understood: the a-wing was being tractor beamed right in front of him, into an asteroid field. Between the tractor beam of the shuttle and the asteroids, the rebel pilot manoeuvrability was greatly impaired and, when DS8717 finally activated his lasers, there was nothing that could prevent his fire to make a direct hit on the rebel ship.

The explosion blinded him shortly, but DS8717 was smiling. With the help of the shuttle’s pilot, he just had reduced the threat against the Emperor. It was his first kill today, but the battle was still going on!

One A-wing is going to go on a asteroid to get killed by the grey PS1 Tie-Defender

Checking his radar, DS8717 saw the X-wing which had lost his wingman pulling further left, fleeing towards the furthest skirmish, with two defenders hot in pursuit. The X-Wing was clearly outracing the Defenders, who couldn’t keep up, even at full speed. But DS8717 had a little smile: he had the impression that the X-Wing was going to reach a lost battle and would then be pinned between two squads of defenders and interceptors with no chance to escape this time.

Just as DS8717 was thinking this, he felt again the Force being used and an interceptor barely escaping hits thanks to the renewed help of the Emperor.

Closest to home, DS8717 and Juno had taken too much time to get rid of the second A-wing: another a-wing saw them entangled and went straight after the shuttle. And in a bad tactical decision, the other defenders had left to help Vader deal with another a-wing and a y-wing.

The Emperor was in dire danger! As soon as DS8717 and Juno had dispatched the last a-wing from the first wave, they got back full speed on the trail of the shuttle. But the a-wing was in full speed and they weren’t able to reach the shuttle before the a-wing had put some damage on the shuttle. At last, they managed to cover the distance and engage the rebel pilot.

But their combined fire did nothing at first to damage the ship which was still fully committed on destroying the shuttle. At some point, DS8717 was sure the shuttle was going to go down. The a-wing was priming his torpedoes and seemed in distance of an inevitable shot. But it didn't fire, probably just short of the required distance; and DS8717’s squad managed to kill the a-wing before the torpedoes were shot! Still, the shuttle was already badly damaged, limping with no shields, and with heavy damages on the hull that DS8717 could directly see from his cockpit.

And, as soon as this threat was dealt with and the a-wing was destroyed, DS8717 could see another one fleeing from the battle on his left straight to the shuttle and an attack shuttle was doing the same thing from the right, firing madly its twin laser turrets to any ships on its path.

The Emperor is fleeing... towards an a-wing. The escort is going to try and get rid of the shuttle

DS8717 could only watch as Juno pulled stunning manoeuvres, one after the other in desperate attempts to protect the Emperor. But, in the end, the ace’s skill and DS8717 own firepower were not enough to take out the attack shuttle before it was too late. With a sinking sense of defeat DS8717 saw the shuttle disintegrate just in front of his eyes. The Emperor was no more!

The death of the Emperor made such an impact on the Force that it was deeply felt by everyone in the system. Time seemed to stop for a moment. There was a second or two of intense bewilderment and the pilots were submerged by the ripple of this explosion from the Force.

And then, brutally, this instant of calm and quiet stopped… and the imperial pilots went wild. The rage that held them together as one was like nothing they had felt before. DS8717 wasn’t concerned anymore by the tide of the battle or any other tactic or strategic aspect of the combat. It was now done to killing the most possible of those filthy rebels who had killed their Emperor. Revenge was all and everything. It was a blood bath. Rebels were probably still cheering their victory and Palpatine’s death while their ships were destroyed, annihilated by a torrent of laser fire that symbolised the remnant of the Empire’s wrath.

Quickly, there were only two or three a-wings left.

The universe is shrinking!

The game is called "chasing the last a-wings"... But it's a difficult one!

The victory was at hand. Even the death of the Emperor should not have robbed them of the delight of victory.

But it did! And more troubling than that, once they had had some time to assimilate the shock, Palpatine’s death left nothing but emptiness in the imperial pilots. Any sense of purpose or of duty was destroyed by the hole felt through the Force.

DS8717 couldn’t have said which ship started, but it became quickly evident: the imperial were turning against each other! Their despair was such that they had become feral beasts, with only one purpose: to kill, any and everything. Nothing in the universe was good or noble enough to survive their Emperor!

And DS8717 was no exception. He had a moment of hesitation just before squeezing the trigger when Juno passed straight into his sight. She had just saved his life several times since the beginning of the battle and had been the best at protecting their dear Emperor.

He felt his soul tore down when his lasers brought her ship down, in a vivid explosion. But really, there was nothing he could do.

And it went like this for what seemed like ages; pilots shooting at their former comrades and sometime friends. Tie advanced and defenders exploding into flames, one after the other. The frenzy that took them could only stop with death for each of them.

Last man standing, DS8717 had a brief moment of bewilderment. Alone, he had nothing else to kill. No purpose, no mission, no reason at all to go on. It was easy to see how to rig his computer into believing it was going to hyperspace and, instead, provoking an explosion that would liberate him, at last.

The grey Tie Defender briefly shone like a small sun, alone in space, before the darkness covered it all.

Last round of shooting: DS8717 is going to kill one of the red defenders, leaving only four ships remaining

Missions - Battle Report of Mission 1

Mission 1 – Escort

Biggs just couldn’t believe it. The whole fleet was gone – annihilated by Imp forces that came from nowhere but definitively knew what they were doing. There was no questioning: someone had leaked their flight plan. There was no other explanation for such a perfect ambush. The Imperials hadn’t even needed an Interdictor cruiser, they just lay down their ambush at the worst moment, just as they were near enough from planet Dagobah. The senator’s corvette never got a chance to get away from the planet mass to reach a hyperspace vector.
Still, overwhelmed by the Imp forces, they had hold their ground.
The price had been too high for Biggs to consider; out of the two X-wing squadrons and the fully manned corvette, only Biggs’ and Luke’s X-wing remained. But the senator was safe, tucked in a damaged shuttle. And, at least, they got rid of all the attackers…
- “Biggs, I got 3 eyeballs coming in at full speed!”

Luke was right, they were still not done here. Three dots just appeared on Biggs’ display. Three TIE fighters wouldn’t usually be a worry for Luke and him, but they needed to keep the senator shuttle safe, which would be tricky.
- “I see them, Luke. I’ll play babysitter for the senator’s shuttle while you go for them. You just need to buy us enough time to reach hyperspace speed.
- You’ve got it”. And Luke was already quitting their formation to rush ahead of the danger.

Biggs couldn’t do anything else but watch. Luke’s X-wing and the nearest Tie Fighter were already trading fire but with no damage done. The eyeball seemed to be juking and evading like mad and, even with the help of the Force, Luke didn’t manage to put some damage in.
- Be careful Biggs. Those are not your standard eyeballs. They’re more agile than anything I’ve seen before!” Great, exactly what they needed!
But Biggs didn’t have time to give it more thought: the Ties were already on them and gunning for the senator’s shuttle. While Luke was taking the flank to put some damage on one of the eyeball, Biggs was busy trying to put his X-wing between the sight of the eyeballs and their prize.

Luke finally managed to get a hit on the first Tie, but didn’t kill it outright. And Biggs had to sustain fire from two eyeballs, the last one managed to get through him and get a hit on the shuttle’s shields. But just after an evasive manoeuver, Biggs got his sight on the Tie fighter that Luke had already damaged and threw all he could, hitting several times with his quad lasers. The eyeball finally shattered in a gratifying explosion.

- Yeah! I got him, Luke. Two to go!
- Yes. No. Wait a minute.” But Biggs didn’t need Luke’s warning, his droid was already alerting him about a new Tie fighter, still at the limit of his scanner, but converging at full speed to their position.
- I’m staying with the shuttle”, Biggs shouted on their private channel. “And I’ll deal with the newcomer. You keep harassing the others”.
Before he even had time to finish speaking, Luke had barrel-rolled in position to flank the remaining two eyeballs and Biggs only had to follow the slow pace of the shuttle… and make himself the biggest target in the area…

While Luke managed to hit his target, the eyeball refused to die on the spot and was still gunning for Biggs. Only one Tie managed to take a shot on the shuttle, to no avail. The others all went for Biggs.
The shields took most of the blunt, but Biggs was shaken by an explosion on his left side. His droid immediately launched a status check. Everything was still operational, but the X-wing wouldn’t be able to withstand more damage.
Biggs, reduced the power for his engine while still keeping up with the shuttle and asked his droid to boost his shields to max power. It was far from nominal, but it would give him at least some amount of protection.

- Luke! I need some support here, I’ve got two eyeballs tailing me and the other one is gunning for the senator!
- I’m on it.” Luke's answer was, as always, calm and detached. But Biggs could still hear the strain his friend was under in his voice, and couldn’t help marvel at the piloting skill he was displaying. Barrel-rolling back and boosting ahead in the same move, Luke put himself just behind the two eyeballs.
But they were definitively not facing novices. Luke’s fire went wild, his lasers illuminating the eyeball, without touching it.
Meanwhile, Biggs lost his shields again, but managed to evade the worst. The senator’s shuttle was also getting hammered. Its shields were still holding out, but for how long?

It now felt to Biggs like he was part of a strange convoy. The shuttle was leading, with Biggs just after, trying to give it as best protection as he could, with all the eyeballs gunning for him and Luke chasing them.

Biggs felt two successive explosions. The first one was good news: one of the eyeball just behind him was badly hit by Luke’s lasers, but was not out of the fight yet! The second explosion was really bad news. His droid had just been hit and died in a screeching noise. Without his droid, there was no way Biggs would be able to get anything out of his already spent shields. The situation looked more and more grim.

At last, Luke managed to put a direct hit on his target and the eyeball closest to Biggs exploded in a ball of flames that felt too close for comfort.
Nearly at the same time, the other two eyeballs got theirs lasers converging on Biggs’ X-wing. There was nothing else for him to do but to eject before his X-Wing exploded. In his space suit, Biggs couldn’t influence the combat one way or another, but he got the satisfaction to see the shuttle entering hyperspace!
- “Hey Luke!” he pleaded, “when you’re done with the remaining eyeballs, you won’t forget to ask for a rescue?!”

Hangar Bay style tournament - 8 players

I went yesterday to a local tournament, with 8 players and had so much fun out of those games that I thought I'd try to write down a short battle report.

The twist was that you could come with 2 lists. Each player would look at his opponent lists and both would decide with dials, at the same time, which one they would use for the game.

I had prepared the following two lists:
[ REBEL SQUADRON (100 points)
1 • Dash Rendar - Push The Limit - Heavy Laser Cannon - Kanan Jarrus - Outrider (54)
2 • Extras - YT2400-debris-2 - YT2400-debris-1 - YT2400-debris-0 (0)
3 • Miranda Doni - Extra Munitions - Conner Net - Seismic Charges - Twin Laser Turret - Bombardier - Advanced SLAM (46)

[ IMPERIAL SQUADRON (99 points)
1 • Whisper - Veteran Instincts - Gunner - Fire-Control System - Advanced Cloaking Device (44)
2 • Rear Admiral Chiraneau - Veteran Instincts - Gunner - Darth Vader (55)


First game: Gary
Gary came with two quite similar lists, one with all unnamed pilots, and another one with roughly the same ships (less one), but named ones.
I thought both of my list would be adequate to play against both of his, so I took the IMPs to quash the rebellion.

He chose 2A / 1B / 1X and the unnamed Falcon with no upgrades at all

He sets his ships all along his side, so I choose my left side and rush with RAC front to get some shots while his ships try to join.
(strangely, his Falcon moves away and leaves his B-wing quite alone for the fist shots).

I run for the kill with RAC (even if it gets me in the arc of several of his ships, while Whisper gets some prudent shots on the B-wing, then the Falcon).

The B-wing dies before he can shoot and RAC only suffers attacks from the A-wings. Whisper is safe.

Then, his falcon got to go all the way around and it's RAC+ whipser vs X-wing + 2 A-wings.
I manage to bump on his X-wing to prevent his shot and 'vader' one of his A-wings.

It's now easy kill for Whisper + RAC on the remaining A-wing and X-wing, before chasing the Falcon.

Win: 100-27



Second game: Ian

So Ian comes with a list of 2 interceptors+AT+stealth and OL+Juke with which he already won our last game and the other one is Solo+Luke in the falcon and Poe.
Obviously, he doesn't want to play the interceptors vs the decimator and we end up playing again Reb vs Imp.

This game is probably the more interesting one I've ever played so far.
The asteroids are mostly on my left corner and we start with the Decimator and the Falcon facing each other on the right.
I'm going straight at Solo, but the Falcon go round the map towards my left and we play a bit of hide and seek for some time.
I end up in what I thought was a quite good position and had a nice first rounds of shooting. (And I used Vader literally as much as possible).

That's where we end up before what I thought was a good move on my part:

Whisper is going to uncloack on the right and left hard turn to face Poe, and the Decimator goes back down far enough to make Poe bump, while the Falcon gets closer to Whisper.
Perfect: Poe can't attack and I have a nice go from Whisper on Poe and from the Deci on the Falcon, with the Falcon only getting one shield of Whisper.
But, what I thought was a great move actually put me in a pretty bad situation: Whisper can't uncloack. And even more, her options are very limited.
Next turn, she bumps in the arcs of both Poe and the Falcon and dies there.
The Decimator still manages to put some fear in Poe with a crit which has him on the run to regen and I chase the Falcon and I finish him by killing my own Decimator with Vader.

Lost: 63 - 100

This game was really great because I could see how I played for the short-term where Ian was more aware of the positioning and was anticipating more. Whisper's infortune was no chance: he got me in the asteroids on purpose and let me enjoy slight short-term benefits for better prospects. A great opportunity to learn!
And also, the game was tremendously fun to play! It was still quite tense and I used Vader probably more than wisely. Ian only damaged it for 2 hits, which means I used Vader for the 14 remaining hit points 
I think that, in the end, I was shouting 'Vader' each time I used him 

Third game: Chris

Chris had a very similar list to mine and another one which I can't remember but was probably (?) interceptors based.

I made a very poor choice by taking my Decimator list again. They were both very similar, but he had two main advantages: less points than me, so he got to shoot with his two ships before my Whisper and he had Engine Upgrade on the Decimator. And I think that made the difference. (I'm not saying Chris didn't fly his ships better than I did: he really did! But I think those two differences in our list were quite important here).

Basically, the game was called: "catch whisper with RAC, and flee with your own whisper" and he was better at it than me.

He killed whisper before she even got a chance to shoot (and that was poor flying from my part). And I barely managed to kill his Deci by, once again, sacrificing my own with Vader.

Beginning of the carousel:

And you can see which one is getting closer to the other whisper:

Lost 55 - 100

Fourth game: Matt

For the fourth game, I chose once again the Deci+whisper and Matt went for a Contracted Scout with 2 Proton torpedoes and Deadeye / R4 Agromech / guidance chips + Palob + Torkil, both with TLT.

To cut it as short as the game was, I lost 0 - 100 in 10 mins. Mainly because of stupid flying on my part and also a bit of bad luck (I would have lost anyway, but the dice and the crits made it faster).

I thought I'd put whisper in jousting position and get Deci take the flanking side, feeling I could use Whisper cloaking and BR to avoid arcs.

In the initial round, I thought I was maintaining Whisper out of range, with the idea to get her to rush in range 1 just after and avoid the torpedoes. But I ended up in range and got hammered by the 3 ships. Whisper didn't want to live and her green dices turned up blanks. The next round, my Deci comes from the side and I'm confident I can destroy Palob (who is already on hull) before having to suffer the second torpedo from the Scout who managed his white S-loop. But Torkil makes RAC PS0 and the torpedoes deliver 1 hit / 3 crits (which, obviously, RAC cannot evade). The crits are as follow: 1 direct hit + 1 direct hit + 1 major explosion - I roll hit - 1 major explosion - I roll hit - another crit which I forgot but kill RAC. So 3 crits = 7 hits which was exactly what was needed to end the game!

Loss 0 - 100

That's where the tournament ends for me, 1 win - 3 loss and I end up being the next to last. But I had a really great time and enjoyed the games very much!

Fifth game: Matt

As we finished so early and the other still have a lot of gaming to do, Matt agrees on a rematch: same list, same asteroids, same players try again.

This time, I manage to get both RAC and whisper to jump from out of range into range 1, with RAC in jousting position and whisper on the side. First round of shots gets Torkil killed. Next one, the Scout has to do a 4-k to face my ships and gets stressed with no focus and has to suffer from RAC (who use Vader) + Whisper and dies on the next round before being able to use his torpedoes. Then it's just a matter for Whisper to follow Palob at range 1 and finish him off.

This was my first battle report, from my first ever X-Wing tournament. I was very much learning the game and with today's knowledge, I realise I came with a knife to a gun fight: bringing 2 Tie Interceptors without AT (and without Soontir) at a time where TLT was king is a tad suicidal 😜

I just wanted to thank you for the advices and give a little feedback on my first tournament.

Let's just say it didn't quite work out in terms of wins, but I still had a really great time!

The squad I finally chose was:

[ IMPERIAL SQUADRON (100 points)

1 • Carnor Jax - Push The Limit (29)

2 • Kir Kanos (24)

3 • 'Omega Ace'' - Push The Limit - Hull Upgrade (26)

4 • 'Epsilon Leader'' - Weapons Guidance (21)

5 • Extras - Force awakens damage deck - Core 2-asteroid-5 - Core 2-asteroid-3 - Core 2-asteroid-2 (0)

http://x-wing.fabpsb.net/permalink.php?sq=e32m10e34e58m10p5e59v1e0u20u18u16u15 ]

First game was against Dash and Miranda. I chose to go all guns out for Miranda and, even while my opponent was nice enough to explain in detail to me the slam mouvement, it still came as a surprise when I had all of my ships encircling her and she just went away 

From there, it went downhill with Dash really getting damages on my ships and Miranda giving double stress with Tactician + TLT... until I just mixed up my dial and sent Carnor Jax outside of the boards. My opponent was very nice and proposed me to correct my dial, but I was there to learn and I think it was a valuable lesson  (and he had already allowed me a couple of times to use Epsilon Leader ability after the fact). Anyway, there was little chance of me winning the game.. Lost 0-100

My last Tie-Fighter, just before the final kill

Next game, I got a bye  I watched a nice game but would have rather played.

Next one was brilliant! This time, I was faced with Miranda and Poe + 2 Z-95.

Again, I chose to go for Miranda and it worked quite well. I managed to get rid of her quite quickly, but Poe also got a few hits on Carnor and Kir.

Very well balanced game, truly all the time on the edge and undecided until the end. When the time was called, it was Poe, already badly managed, against my two Tie-fighters; so I was still up in terms of points. On the last roll of dice, Poe got a brilliant attack and decimated one of the Tie. Game lost 61-81

Carnor Jax coming for the kill

For the next one, I had to face Tie-Fighters and Interceptors. Omega leader was there, as well as Carnor.

My opening was not very good at all (or my opponent's was great!). But let's say it did not start well and, again, went downhill from there. I must say I ended up quite confused several times, struggling even to understand which ships were mine  Game lost: 18-100

The last game was against two FireSpray-31, one with Bobba Fett and I don't remember the other pilot.

I really enjoyed the game. Carnor Jax was a pita for those guys (Bobba Fett ended up several times with no actions as he didn't need a target lock due to his ability).

I managed to often be outside the front and rear arcs - so that was good - but also managed to bump THREE times on the same (very small) asteroid (pic below)!!

At some point, I re-checked on of my dial and realised I had - again - mixed up left for right and was able to correct before it sent my ship outside the board! Hopefully, lesson learnt 

Got a bit of luck on the dice rolling and ended up with my first victory  100-29

Picture taken just before Carnor Jax and the first FireSpray-31 were downed.

You can see Kir Kanos sitting on the asteroid...

All in all, a very nice experience, thanks to a *very* friendly mood and nice players!