X Wing - Capitol ship

On Thursday night I made it to the club and we decided to put on a game of X wing using a new Capitol ship that John had picked up from EBay, a Tantive IV. The model even came with some home devised rules for use in X wing games. As we were unsure of the full capabilities of the Tantive IV we just decided to field a variety of ships but no special characters.

John took on the Rebels and backed up the Tantive IV with an escort of 2 X-wings and an A-wing. As the game progressed it became apparent that the Rebels were under strength and at least 2 further X-wings should have been fielded

For the Imperials, we had 3 players each with 4 ships each. Myself, Tom and George. Between us we had 2 Tie Advanced, 2 Tie Interceptors, 2 Tie Bombers and 6 Tie fighters. Our objectives were simple. See how long the Tantive could survive against the onslaught.

Tantive IV with escort

George's Ties

The game opened with the the Imperial squadrons trying to close with the Tantive. John initially kept his escorts to one flank of the capitol ship and this was to prove his undoing. As Tom's squadrons advanced they engaged with the escort damaging both x-wings for the loss of the Tie Advanced. George meanwhile swarmed in with his basic Tie fighters and managed to knock out 6 of the 10 shields of the Tantive in the first turn of firing. Due to the number of Imperial ships John continually split his fire, coupled with some poor dice he was unable to inflict much damage against the Tie fighters, finding them difficult to hit.

Escort engage the Imperials

Ties begin their attack run on the Tantive IV

After his initial attack run, Georges' squadron swept over the Tantive and engaged the rear of the escort. in quick succession the overwhelming firepower of the Imperial ships brought down both X-wings. This left the poor A-wing pursued by a veritable storm of Ties. The Tantive continued to split its fire again to little effect as the Imperial ships easily avoided any hits.

A new meaning to being swarmed

A-wing makes a run for it.

With the Tantive being isolated I sent in my squadron which quickly reduced the remaining shields. Next the 2 Tie Bombers let fly with advanced proton torpedoes and knocked out one of the turrets. It was at this point we called it quits. The rebels were well and truly done for and only 1 Imperial ship had been lost.

We did take a few learning points for the game. Apart from recognising that a second group of fighters for the rebels would have made the job extremely difficult. 2 Tie squadrons were able to fall on the flank of the Tantive while its small escort was engaged by our 3rd squadron.

Splitting fire is bad for capitol ships. As they don't have focus Ties were able to continually use their evade tokens which kept them alive. If more than 1 turret had targeted the same Tie, once the token was used up John would have a greater likelihood of inflicting damage. Also John forgot to use his Target lock for the Turrets to allow him at least 1 re roll for missed hits.

Overall an enjoyable game and with a few more tweeks it will give the Rebels a greater chance of success.