Quadroplegia

Finally! The Quadjumper is here!

Let's use it to escape!

Here's my list, which sacrifices pretty much any shielding for some very manouverable, hard-hitting jousters. Plus bombs, which I now feel I cannot do without in one form or another.

SHIELDS DOWN

100 points

33 points

Kad Solus

6

 3

 4/3

 4

 0

   

Protectorate Starfighter, Unique

After you execute a red manoeuvre, assign 2 focus tokens to your ship.

Deadeye (1)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

Concord Dawn Protector (1)

Stealth Device (3)

5
4
3
2
1

39 points

Guri

5

 3

 3

 4

 1

   

StarViper, Unique

At the start of the Combat phase, if you are at Range 1 of an enemy ship, you may assign 1 focus token to your ship

Expert Handling (2)

Flechette Torpedoes (2)

Virago (1)

Autothrusters (2)

Cloaking Device (2)

4
3
2
1

28 points

Sarco Plank

5

 2

 2

 5

 0

 

Quadjumper, Unique

When defending, instead of using your agility value, you may roll a number defense dice equal to the speed of the manoeuvre you executed this round.

Boba Fett (1)

Proton Bombs (5)

Pattern Analyzer (2)

Dead Man's Switch (2)

View this squadron at: http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/659809/shields-down

Kas brings TIEs again. That damn phantom is back, and he's also got the shiny new Striker variant, which is a prime arc dodger if ever I saw one.

Turn 1-3

Off we set, deploying in opposite corners and heading in towards each other with slow grace.

Because we've started so far apart, there's a bit of a calm before the storm. My line stays in fairly decent formation as I sweep up through the asteroids, whereas Kas is already looking to flank and splitting up by using his decloak moves to swing round. He gets an early target lock on Guri, but the scum rolls out of it in the following turn, using Expert Handling.

When it comes to it, though, his TIE Striker is left facing my full firing line, as I stay in formation. Some lucky rolls from me pick him off swiftly, before he's really had a chance to try out the new ship! 

Turn 4-6

And it gets worse for him from here on in. 

The action wanders off the north edge of the camera for a while here, but basically the Phantom tries to loop back while the Protector scrambles past my ships for cover. Cover he doesn't find - the dastardly Quadjumper's reverse move catches him by surprise, and he's still getting shot at.

Meanwhile the Protectorate Fighter and the Starviper prove to be agile enough to keep up with the Phantom. Kad Solus has a great ability - pull anything red and get two free focus, which is very handy for a Deadeye round of Plasma Missiles to the engine ports, which takes out the TIE Protector from range.

And as long as Guri stays close, he gets free focus too, so the two of them are quite hard to pin down whilst also hitting hard. He dances round with the Phantom, neither of them quite getting to grips with each other, but keeping busy all the same.

The Quadjumper just ploughs back and forth over the same furrow. It's not a powerful ship, but it's very hard to pin down, especially with a barrel roll in hand. The Phantom struggles to get away from everyone, ends up surrounded, and pops shortly afterwards. 

That's that - I'm barely even scratched, despite my no shields, and the Imperials are all spaced! It's all over so fast, we switch table edges and play the two lists again.

Rematch

Turn 1-3

We start in opposing corners again, so the first few turns are mostly about moving into position. 

Both of us fly in straight packs towards the middle of the table. 

Over the next two turns, Kas takes a fast route for the middle, whereas I fly straight for another turn before taking a hard left to present a solid firing line down the middle. 

Alas, Kas once again comes unstuck. His Phantom ends up uncloaked directly in front of both Quadjumper and Starviper, and once more the Dice Force is with me. Pop goes the Phantom, which even manages to whiff its attack in the process. Grim stuff. 

Turns 4-7

After this, it just turns into dice carnage. The remaining TIES try to regroup and sweep in together, but I more or less hold position across my corridor in the asteroids. 

The TIE Protector is the first to fall foul of my line, as the Striker is (as expected) very nippy, easily dodging round me and staying out of trouble. Taking an unlucky crit from the Quadjumper, though, I use Boba Fett to chop out the Protector's damage-enhancing tach kit, which leaves it feeling a bit toothless. 

The Protector runs off, but Solus can keep up with it, and they both make a long, slow arc through the bottom of the board while the others dogfight at close range.

Before the Protector can make another pass, Solus takes it out while the others carrying on zooming about, trying to get good positions. By way of celebration, he spends the next couple of turns flying into big rocks. 

Turns 8-14

Once again, Kas is surrounded and outgunned, but refuses to go down fighting. 

Over the next seven turns, we fight an extremely involved game of cat and mouse. The Striker pulls off some very mean flying, avoiding my Proton bombs and the bulk of my fire, then evading what I manage to throw at it. 

I'll skip over the details as these photos are frankly pretty useless at showing you what's going on. If you think it's bad, just bear in mind that it's the view I have over Skype, which probably explains why I die in Asteroids so much.

It's also, in the end, just too much to fight off. Although the Striker does manage to kill Kad Solus, critting the last of his asteroid-batttered hull away in a close-range joust, Guri stays focussed long enough to bring down the lighter, faster craft, and I'm two games up with a surprisingly powerful Scum list.

Airlocker Room

Well, I enjoyed that! Dunno if Kas did quite so much...

Particularly the last game, which was extremely hard fought and tense in the latter bits. You know, the bits I skipped over in the narrative. It really was a tangly, loopy dogfight, but it just didn't make the transfer to the page very well. 

The Quadjumper is my new favourite ship. I mean, it's terrible, it's frail and lightly armed. But those backward moves! The original plan was to throw the bomber in as a blocker and get the mileage from Proton Bombs, Boba Fett and then the Deadman's Switch, but in both games it came away relatively unscratched. 

As well as being a blast to fly, it was also very good at catching TIEs unawares by reversing out of their way and leaving them in its sights. I could also see myself enjoying using the slightly more expensive version that lets you throw bombs forward while you fly backwards. That plus Bombadier would be worth a go on another night, I think. 

The Scum fighters are both strong choices, hard hitting but manouverable. First time I've felt the value of the Starviper, that's a mean ship, and I think Guri is a good pilot for it. Might try Prince Xisor with a swarm of underlings some time too, though. 

Good stuff, all in all. Roll on wave 11!