Above The Skies of Rylstone - Rebel Alliance vs Galactic Empire

 X-Wing! Now that's a game I've not played in a long time...

Further evidence on why you should never throw your old games away - Kasfunatu and I, Stylus, will be playing out the latest chapter in The Jimulthuan Quadrant using X-Wing 1.0!

Rebel Alliance

The last time I played this game (checks notes: 2017) I remember building lots of clever lists with overlapping abilities and upgrades. To get me back in the saddle, I ditched all that and went with as many characters from A New Hope as I could squeeze in.

The Millennium Falcon is a bit of a target, but it has a turret, so I won't need to worry about facing the right direction. Chewie can mitigate the damage and C-3PO's paranoia (we're doomed) should eke out some more evasive dice. 

Luke and R2-D2 can be surprisingly tanky, as Luke can use the Force to turn Focus results to Evades and R2 can repair shields with green manoeuvres.

The A-Wing is just making up the numbers here. At least it's as fast and agile as a TIE fighter.

YT-1300 - Chewbacca (42)

• Title - Millennium Falcon (1)
• C-3PO (3)
• Gunner (5)

X-Wing - Luke Skywalker (28)

• R2-D2 (4)
• Integrated Astromech (0)

A-Wing - Prototype Pilot (17)

• Chardaan Refit (-2)
• Autothrusters (2)

Galactic Empire

I too looked at some of the old battle reports and although some were more gimmicky, I remembered the TIE Phantom fondly and so took my experimental TIE fleet. And of course being the Crypt Angels and Space Marines, there was no doubt that I should be playing the Empire! 

Vessery is tanky for a TIE and has some tricks as long as keeps moving at at least speed 3. The Phantom has the fun cloak/decloak mechanic (namely: at the start of your turn before revealing dial and moving you can decloak and either boost or barrel roll distance 2). This makes for some interesting moves but also good chance that you'll get it wrong, but also a chance, with PS9, that might avoid a bump by decloaking a certain way before moving. When last played, which was also pre v2 and a good number of years ago, I favoured Echo as my Phantom pilot, who would not only have the decloak but their boost/barrel were made with the 2-bank not the 2-straight.... however, as my first game in ~10 years wasn't sure my spatial awareness would be good enough for that, and so Whisper it was. A standard TIE/fo finished off the trio of fighter, with a persistent evade, ability to ignore an enemy dodge, and increased agility (at least until hit), and being a First Order version of ship, having a pip of shield, he was a little more resilient than the standard TIE. 

Whisper - TIE Phantom (total inc upgrades 39)

• Veteran Instincts
• Fire-Control System
• Advanced Cloaking Device

Vessery - TIE Defender (total inc upgrades 35)

• Juke
• TIE/x7

Omega Leader - TIE/fo Fighter (total inc upgrades 26)

• Juke
• Comm Relay
• Stealth Device

Part 1: Use the Force

With the Starkiller base of Rylstone in the background, we line up for battle: The Phantom on the left side, with the Defender and Fighter supporting each other on the right.

On the other side, the Falcon and X-Wing take the centre, with the A-Wing on the right. We all advance cautiously, hoping we remember how this works.

An early bump from the Defender into the Fighter reminds us to be careful about mid-air collisions. It gets far worse when Luke flies his X-Wing into the back of the Falcon, losing his chance to generate a focus token just when it would have been most useful - when all three enemy craft have him in their sights.

The Phantom goes first, scoring three hits. All Luke can manage is three Focus results (say a Focus token would come in handy right now) and so he already loses both shields and is critically hit. 

The Defender joins in, forcing Luke to jettison R2-D2 to stay alive, and the Fighter delivers the coup de grace.

One X-Wing down and we haven't even finished the first joust. In shock, both the Falcon and the A-Wing hit nothing in return.

I didn't expect the first pass to be as brutal, and we both remembered Luke being more resilient. 

My dice can be lucky it's true. The ironic thing in this game was that Stylus was rolling for both me and him, as I failed to find my Xwing dice in time... well truth be I didn't spot they were missing until went to use them!

Part 2: Hokey religions are no match for a good blaster

Hoping that Luke remembered to pack his space-parachute, the Rebels are gifted a piece of luck: the Phantom accidently steers into a debris cloud and can't cloak this turn.

There we go, and that was with the straight move decloak... definitely not ready for Echo. so in two rounds we've both bumped and I have run into an asteroid.

Unable to turn down this gift, the Falcon opens up, scoring three hits, only to have the Phantom dodge two of them and get away with the loss of one shield.

That could have easily been him gone.

The Falcon ploughs doggedly on, switching attention to the Fighter and managing to chip away one of its shields.

And the stealth device was no more.

The A-Wing takes a diversionary tack, pulls a Koiogran-turn (basically a loop) and heads to the other end of the quadrant, drawing the Phantom after it.

The plan works in the sense that the Phantom does pass on the Falcon to chase the A-Wing, but falls quickly flat when the A-Wing is blown to smithereens.

Part 3: Never tell me the odds

The final stage of the dogfight is the Defender chasing the Falcon around the quadrant, with the Falcon trading its considerable shields and hull points to buy time to get a clear shot.

It's not working so well, not least because the Defender has the ability to cancel out C-3PO's evades, so the shields are disappearing fast.

As long I moved 3+ I would get a free evade, and as long as I have an evade, then could force an enemy dodge into a focus; forcing the Falcon to use focus to defend by switching back to dodge or taking the hit to keep it for offence. 

The trap closes as the Phantom and Fighter also get the Falcon in their sights and unleash everything. The Falcon attempts to bump into the Phantom, but it's too evasive for that, and the smell of burnt wookie hair wafts across the vacuum of space...

Back in the Cantina

That was fun! Bumping into things, stubbornly ineffective dice, nearly flying off the board - it's all coming back to me!

Brilliant stuff

I don't usually blame the dice in a defeat, but it was particularly galling that the Empire's results were rolling hot, since it was all my dice and I was doing all the rolling! (Kasfunatu misplaced his X-Wing dice, so I had the honours). Luck aside, my ships didn't bring enough gun to deal with those manoeuvrable TIEs and I certainly could have used some more tricks up my sleeve to disrupt them.

Time to revisit my lists of 2017 - we shall fly again!

Absolutely, that was great fun, and makes me sad that put this game on the shelf for almost ten years. Nice, relatively quick, and fun, game. 

Hopefully with the new top down camera it will be something can try again. 

PS I found my dice bag about 10 minutes after cleaning up, but in some ways glad Stylus rolled for me!