A long time ago in a galaxy skype skype away...

Bit of a late report here, so let's not dwell too much on the details. Two fast-paced fights from a short-notice game between Kraken and Kas here. We'd been hoping that Kas's new Wave 10 models would be in play, but the postman let us down. My lists were all Quadjumper based, so I botched together some alternatives and we set to anyway. 

MINI STAR DESTROYER

100 points

64 points

Rear Admiral Chiraneau

8

 3

 0

 12

 4

 

VT-49 Decimator, Unique

When attacking at Range 1-2, you may change 1 of your  results to a  result.

Adrenaline Rush (1)

Cluster Mines (4)

Inspiring Recruit (1)

Agent Kallus (2)

Kylo Ren (3)

Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)

Tactical Jammer (1)

4
3
2
1

12 points

Academy Pilot #1

1

 2

 3

 3

 0

  

TIE Fighter

5
4
3
2
1

12 points

Academy Pilot #2

1

 2

 3

 3

 0

  

TIE Fighter

5
4
3
2
1

12 points

Academy Pilot #3

1

 2

 3

 3

 0

  

TIE Fighter

5
4
3
2
1

View this squadron at: http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/649260/mini-star-destroyer

Turn 1

My plan here was to use the big tanky ship as a big tank, and nip all the little crappy TIEs about as chaff and flankers, but basically to try and keep them together and alpha strike as hard as possible. With this in mind, we flew in a nice straight line towards the enemy, who looked like they had a similar idea.

Turn 2

And sure enough, we all set to jousting at close range shortly afterwards. Kas's paired Protectorate Starfighters zipped off to the side, ready to sweep in behind my line, but one of them had run into asteroid-based problems and was a little too busy swerving to shoot.

The Vindicator lost all its shields, but the advanced scanner lock let me use the Proton Torpedoes at close range, which was more than enough to take out a Protectorate fighter. I even had time to let the TIEs start plinking the shields off the Hound's Tooth.

Turn 3

The big ships faced off at close range as the Hound's Tooth braked while the Decimator slowed to a crawl. The TIE line K-turned, although one of them was wounded and broke away to the right.

That left one of the Protectorate fighters right in front of the TIE line, and despite their fearsome close-range shooting prowess, it was whiffle time. All of my ships that were able to focussed their fire back on the hapless pilot, and down he went, just leaving the big freighter. At least it managed to burst a TIE with close-range fire from its cannon.

Turn 4

As the two big buses bumped uglies in the middle, the TIES started manouvering for a second pass on the Hound's Tooth. The Decimator dropped a line of mines, knowing that the big scummer would struggle to get past them,

Turn 5

In the event, the mines proved irrelevant. Already battered, the big ship couldn't evade the fire from all three opponents and exploded, throwing out its Z95 lifeboat. This could easily avoid the minefield, but could it now take on the odds stacked against it?

Turn 6-9

TL;DR - no, no it couldn't. It did struggle gamely, but even after I obligingly fatally flew one TIE into an asteroid, the Z95 just didn't have the firepower to trade blows with the deadly 360-arc turret on the Decimator.

Both TIEs line up on the Z95, which tattoos its name into the ridiculously thick hull armour of the Decimator

The TIE on the left explodes in the central asteroids as the Nashtah Pup head south

And then sensing the overall drift of the battle, the armed escape pod does exactly what it was meant for, and escapes off the bottom of the table rather than fight the Decimator any more.

That took us about an hour, and Kas was spoiling for a rematch after a disappointing performance from the Scum, so we lined up a new fight.

K Wing vs Phantoms Game

This time, I went with the Rebels, the faction I'm least familiar with. I like bombers, and the K-slamming K-Wing feels like fun, so I take one of those loaded for bear with a light screen of fighters.

JUST 4 KIXX

100 points

51 points

Miranda Doni

8

 2

 1

 5

 4

  

K-Wing, Unique

Once per round when attacking, you may either spend 1 shield to roll 1 additional attack die or roll 1 fewer attack die to recover 1 shield.

Dorsal Turret (3)

Extra Munitions (2)

Seismic Torpedo (2)

Cluster Missiles (4)

Jan Ors (2)

Cluster Mines (4)

Proximity Mines (3)

Advanced SLAM (2)

3
2
1

25 points

Jess Pava

3

 3

 2

 3

 3

  

T-70 X-Wing, Unique

When attacking or defending, you may reroll 1 of your dice for each other friendly ship at Range 1.

4
3
2
1

24 points

Blue Squadron Novice

2

 3

 2

 3

 3

  

T-70 X-Wing

4
3
2
1

View this squadron at: http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/650772/just-4-kixx

Turn 1

The overall plan is to get the K-Wing in, close and bomby, then try and mop up survivors with the faster, more manouverable escorts. The main problem with this is that I have almost no idea at any given time where those damn Phantoms actually are, or how I'll hit them with bombs.

Turn 2

And I'm so busy worrying about it, I screw up and collide the escorts into each other as they try to close. Jess Pava immediately starts taking hits from the incoming TIEs.

Turn 3

The main consolation I have is that when the Phantoms decloak, Miranda can at least shoot at them before they vanish from the scopes again, as I have initiative. That's not much help, though, as my turret is pretty weak sauce, and I can't get a bead for the missiles I'm carrying.

Again, my escorts collide with each other and generally flap about being ineffectual, while the TIEs run rings round me, sniggering.

Turn 4

I manage to nail down one Phantom enough to scratch it a little at the top end of the asteroid field, but at some cost. Miranda is hurting enough that her already feeble turret is made even more feeble as I repair her shields. And Jess Pava is looking very ropey, limping along on her last hull point.

Turn 5

Again, I can't really pin the Phantoms down, and even when I can, they're cloaked and nearly impossible to hit. Jess explodes after Kas outguesses my attempt to run her to safety.

Turn 6-8

The Phantom Menace starts chipping away at Miranda, who I can kind of keep steady by regenerating shields, but can't really manage much damage with.

A spread of proximity mines manages to clip one of the TIE at least, who recovers from the damage in an asteroid field and gets sniped by the Blue X-Wing pilot before it can recover. But it's not looking good for me - even Blue is hurting now, and I've yet to make headway on the Phantoms.

The only ray of sunshine is my surprise use of Seismic Torpedoes. 

I'd always written them off as expensive and situational, but I hadn't previously noticed that you fire them as an action, rather than using locks. So Miranda can, for example, perform an Advanced SLAM and launch them, which catches Kas on the hop and dings a Phantom as well as blowing up the asteroids. Fun!

Turn 9-10

But that's it for sunshine for me. After that, the Phantoms poke Miranda to death...

...and when Blue tries to run for cover, they easily follow, catch and kill him. Game!

Airlocker Room

No big revelations for me from these games. Fun to shop about a bit, but I think I prefer Scum lists to Empire or Rebels. I do start to see the power of a good swarm, though, that you can concentrate a lot of fire even from rubbish ships. With good positioning, there's not a lot your opponent can do other than brace and hope to weather it.

Apart from that stunning tactical insight, I also have discovered I dislike TIE Phantoms immensely.