IZZY Wizzy vs Achy A-K-E Heart

Dark side or light?

It's All-Skype Fight Night!

After some recent Amazon birthday vouchers, a very kind gift from Kraken, and finding an unclaimed "reward" from credit card, I have recently filled the hangar with a few more ships.

So how better to give them a test out than with a dogfight. Kraken was on hand and after forming three lists:

Rebel: Achy A-K-E Heart (A wing, K-wing, E-wing)
http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/399528/achy-a-k-e-heart

Empire: I’m a LIAr, it’s quite operational (emperor’s Lambda shuttle + royal guard Interceptor + TIE Advanced)
http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/399530/liar-list

Scum: IZZY Wizzy Let’s get bizzy (Ig88, Z95, Z95, Ywing)
http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/399525/izzy-wizzy                          

Kraken chose Scum, and I rolled Rebel from the remainder.

Scum chose me. At an early age. 

Deployment

The A Wing placed first in one corner, and most of the scum taking the diagonal opposite. The IG robot assassin lined up against the A Wing and the pair of Rebel aces faced the regular scum.


Turn 1:

The A wing shot forward, but did not bother performing an action (trying to be quick and not expecting any thing to be in range after one turn); but the IG moved fast and with its boost and larger base it was in range ready to shoot.

The Zs and Y all turn away from the aces who moved forward fast: full out and boost for the Ewing and an advanced slam to keep up from the Kwing.

Only viable shots were Corran on a Z and IG on the A: a shield knocked off a piece.


Turn 2:

The Awing nudged forward, allowing the Aggressor to jump round behind... nimble for a big ship; and its guns strip away another shield and a hull point.

I really enjoyed how light on its feet this brute is! For a big bruiser, it can spin about with relative ease. 

One Z and Y carried on their trajectory, whilst another turned to harrass Corran and Miranda. Corran barreled to get out of their arc, but in doing so flew in to Miranda's path. Even actionless the pair could strip the Z of its shields and take it down.

Turn 3:

The Awing tries to outmaneuver his foe, but this brings him into the pincer of both the IG's arc, and the Ywing. No amount of dodging or asteroid cover could prevent the inevitable.

On the other flanks, the E and K stalked their Z prey and combined power took the final pirate out.

Worst. Pirates. Ever.

The chaff was gone. Two ships a piece. No one hurt. The game starts again.

Turn 4:

Time to re-position. The IG throws caution asides, landing on an asteroid, as the Y flips.

Overly caution Corran boosts out of the IG's arc, neglecting to remember that the android would not be able to shoot whilst brushing meteorite dust from his inertial dampeners; and for the second time ends up flying in Miranda's path to save himself.

Turn 5:

The IG tries to chase, but bumps off the first asteroid and pinballs into a second serious damaging the shields. Remembering the lack of shot Miranda's pauses in front and flips the finger, whilst Corran again boosts to safefy.

Turn 6:

The Ywing turns in hard stressing itself and out of IG's arc, the two rebels drift forward and focus fire on the Ywing: ripping through shields.

Turn 7:

The Ywing tries for another hard turn, but the ship can't take it, and due to the engine stall the Ywing crashes harmlessly into an asteroid; but temporarily disrupting the targeting computer.

Damn ship. If I'd remembered how stressed Kavil was from all the damage in the last turn, I wouldn't have tried to do a K-turn! Never give your opponent a chance to steer when there are asteroids on the line.

Turn 8:

Miranda circles the asteroid, and Corran diverts power to shield generation; knowing the IG will have to slowly slingshot round the asteroid. Miranda manages to hit the crippled Kavil, and Ywing grounds on the asteroid for good.

Turn 9:

Corran flips to come back to joust the big robot, whilst Miranda performs a flyby. But IG is wary to the tactic and protects itself now the shields are down.

Turn 10:

Corran and IG close the gap between them, as Miranda continues to try and find critical shots.

Turn 11:

Again the IG flips past and performs a daring turn and gets on Corran's rear. The shields are back thanks to R2 however.

Miranda turns off her weapons, and thrusts forward trying to turn round the asteroid...

Turn 12:

... unfortunately the turn is misjudged and it leaves no room for another turn, and the K wing is off the board.

Corran tries to run, barrel roll and boost to gain his shields back before turning round.

Turn 13:

The ships dance round each other to gain a better vector, but little damage is caused.

Corran has full hull and keeps at least one shield up at all times. IG's shields are down and three hull points remain.


Turn 14:

IG is back on an asteroid, and Corran can freely maneuver to try for position.

Turn 15:

The ships crash. No shooting this turn.

Turn 16:

The IG corners round the asteroid, and Corran flies over clipping a shield as he does. Shields are down, time to make the shots count. At close range Corran fires and manages to clip a piece of hull. 

Down to 2hull points on both teams.

Corran digs in... if this fails, he can't shoot next turn... he fires again.

It's a hit and a crit, the hit is dodged; so a crit coming in.... turning the card face up: it's a direct damage and the Rebels win.

Verdict:

After a recent spate of imperial games, I really enjoyed playing the rebels.  

It was a conscious decision to focus on the chaff as I thought I could outfly two ships (I was wrong about the IG) and so this would negate incoming hits. Conceptually this worked, as the Zs never really made a shot. I was not sure when the Zs and A had gone; feeling confident once the Y fell; and then less sure once my K bugged out. Good game.

My initial plan was to leg Kavil and the Pirates past the asteroids, meet up with IG88 to toast the A-wing and use my generally superior maneuverability to outfly the K-wing whilst taking out the E-Wing in the end game. 

What a massive disaster that was. 

The Pirates should have been thrown in my opponent's face, I think, with Kavil alongside to keep them busy and do as much damage as possible with focused fire. As it was, their retreat wasn't fast enough and the larger, harder rebel ships picked them off piecemeal. 

IG88 could probably have taken the A-wing. His ship really is nippy, as well as being tough, it's really worth its points. If you can fly it, of course - I think there was only one asteroid that I didn't leave flecks of paint on at the end of all that. 

Corran is really maneuverable and good fun to play - I think I played him as a wimp, but it worked, and meant he was ready to do the double tap at the perfect time, and it worked... at 48pts I was worried about giving him away. The pairing of him and the turretted Kwing worked for me. 

Corran is a bugger. I just couldn't catch him and focus enough to take him out - exactly as he's supposed to be, of course, as the E-wing would wither to any concerted fire. I was plinking away like mad, but he always managed to grow some shields back just in time for me to hit the next asteroid!

I really liked the IG ship. Currently picking up one of each set, and the IG is the first one where I have thought I'd like a second one of those... 

I agree!

I'd happily try this list again; perhaps against the LIAr list; or even going the other way round - but that's for another time!

Also: I really liked the photos taken as screen grabs of the video window. With the same framing, it means that from photo gallery I can create a mini flipbook of the battle. 

Or even a gif...

If someone could play the Benny Hill theme on a turbo laser, that would be perfect.