X Wing Battle Reports: Imperials Vs Rebels/Rebels/Imperials

Yesterday I played several rapid-fire games of X Wing. I used the same squadron (or a slight variation) every time, one I've really been enjoying:

Tie Interceptor, Soontir Fel, Push The Limit, Royal Guard Tie, Targeting Computer, Shield Upgrade
Tie Phantom, Whisper, Veteran Instincts, Advanced Cloaking Device
Lambda Shuttle, Omicron Group Pilot, Darth Vader Crew (in the final game this was Mara Jade instead)
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I went for the 3 point initiative bid as I really enjoy being able to choose to move after enemy Soontir/Whisper, or shooting before Han Solo, with my Soontir and Whisper.

Game 1

In the first game I played Jay, who was running the following 3 ship rebel build:

B Wing, Ten Numb, Autoblaster, Proton Torpedoes, Fire Control System, Veteran Instincts
Y Wing, Horton Salm, R2-D2, Advanced Proton Torpedoes, Blaster Turret
Z-95 Headhunter, Tala Squadron Pilot, Cluster Missiles

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 The board after our rocks and setup. I decided I'd try and slow them with my shuttle, while Soontir and Whisper go in guns blazing.

 The Lambda gracefully sweeps through the middle, with the aces flanking. Jay pushes up his squadron, with his Tala ready to face off with Soontir next round...

 Soontir floats up for a Range 1 engagement with the Z-95, which I didn't realise had cluster missiles. Jay has his missiles ready to go with a Target Lock, so I need Soontir to kill that ship... one Target Lock/Focus stack later, the Tala is smithereens, failing both of his evades!
The shuttle hard turns into the engagement, and starts work on Ten Numb.
Whisper however has a much less glorious time- he accidentally lands on a rock, and does nothing this round or next. Hooray for Whisper...

 Whisper turns off the rock but he's still out of the fight. The Shuttle pulls a 1 straight, colliding with the B Wing to block. Jay's Y wing gracefully banks through the gap and blaster turrets my Lambda for minimal damage, while Soontir aims at Ten Numb, continuing to hurt him with his piles of tokens! 

 Whisper and Ten Numb line up R1 shots on each other- Ten Numb is PS10 with Jay's build, so I'm quite worried. The Phantom is reduced to 1 measly hull, but then the B Wing is too!
Jay's Y Wing is just off the bottom of the picture, coming back for another pass.
The Lambda begins a long process of turning through the rocks (without hitting any), while Soontir turned right rather than left because I was worried he would collide with something with the left turn.

 A quiet turn for me- Whisper decloaks then recloaks, to try and get away from Ten Numb but to no avail, the B Wing's Fire Control System ensuring my demise. Soontir pulls a hard 1 and a boost to get back in the fight next turn, while the Lambda and Y Wing have a competition over "Who can be out of the fight for the longest?"

 Soontir has had quite enough of not doing any damage, so he grabs a Boost/Focus/Target Lock ready to annihilate the B Wing. Ten Numb tries to barrel roll away but he's still in range 3- Soontir proves his worth again as he deals 3 hits, finishing off the second of the rebel scum!

 Now Soontir gets to play "Chase the Y Wing", made interesting by R2-D2 and the Blaster Turret. I start to do damage, forcing Jay to pull green manoeuvres to recover shields. The Lambda continues to turn.

 The chase continues- the Y Wing recovers a shield, then Soontir takes 2 off again. The Lambda is still turning.

 Soontir gets to Range 1 and does 4 damage to the Y-Wing! Now it only has 1 left, after recovering again this round. The Lambda keeps trying to get back in the fight.

Soontir pulls up next to the Y Wing and slightly behind it- after much deliberation, including an independent adjudicator our friend Ryan, Soontir has a shot. He goes the 4 hits he was destined for, and Horton Salm is destroyed. 3 out of 3 for Soontir!

After Action
Go Soontir! I was disappointed by Whisper this time- I flew him much more poorly than I did previously and got very little use out of him. Soontir however did not disappoint, putting out at least 12 points of damage over the game and bagging all 3 kills! My MVP this game has to be the Shuttle though, for avoiding all of the rocks... Admittedly it didn't look good if the game went to another turn though. Jay's squadron was pretty cool, although I think and Ion Cannon and perhaps Dutch Vander would be a better build for the Y Wing. The Ten Numb Autoblaster combo at Range 1 is brutal, essentially delivering whatever damage it rolls!

Game 2
This time I played Ryan. He only got into X-Wing this summer, but has taken to it very well. We played 2 games- in the first, I used the same squadron and he used the following Rebel list:

E Wing, Corran Horn, Fire Control System, Engine Upgrade, Push The Limit and R2-D2
X Wing, Biggs Darklighter, Hull Upgrade

Z-95 Headhunter, Bandit Squadron Pilot
Z-95 Headhunter, Bandit Squadron Pilot

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Ouch! A tricked out Corran Horn along with a "Biggs Mini Swarm." However Corran is only PS8, so as long as I don't make any mistakes I shouldn't have too much trouble...

 I deploy similarly to before, with a similar plan- the shuttle will hold Ryan up in the middle, while my aces flank. The rocks are fairly tight in the middle.

 After a couple of rounds, the board is such. My shuttle is ready to turn in for the engagement next turn, while my aces are standing by.

 First engagement to the Empire! One Bandit Squadron is just too far in front of Biggs' leash, so he goes down to Whisper and the Shuttle. Soontir boosts to try and take advantage of a naked Corran, who clunked on a Headhunter. However, this takes him into range of Biggs so he is only able to take 1 shield, and also puts him in a bad position for next turn.

 The Lambda can't pull a 3 bank to avoid Soontir due to being stressed, so instead tries to go far enough forwards to avoid the collision. This does block Biggs and the Tala, and Corran koigrans so also loses his action. Whisper gets out of the way, and then Soontir... collides into the Shuttle. Oh crap. Ryan wastes no time- Biggs, the Tala and Corran reduce him to a single with their shooting, and then Corran activates his ability- with the Fire Control System's help he is able to blow the Interceptor to smithereens!

 The shuttle continues to stall Biggs, while the Tala is able to Koigran over, into a gap between the shuttle and the asteroid that is just big enough! Corran can't shoot this turn, so goes on the defensive. Whisper now has to do some heavy lifting, but first he gets away from the fighting, ready to make another pass. Combat passes with Corran taking no damage from the shuttle, and the Tala doing 2 to the shuttle.

My shuttle flies towards the bottom of the board, away from threats and also hoping Ryan will chase it and so fall into Whisper's trap. He doesn't go for it yet, just re-positioning his ships. No shooting this turn!

 Whisper pulls a decloak Koigran and is just in range of Biggs, to take a shot and get his cloak back up. Corran and the Headhunter follow the Lambda, and alas it is no more. Whisper really has his work cut out now...

 Whisper goes for the throat on Biggs, and gets it- with the damage dealt by Soontir earlier and Ryan only passing 1 evade, the X Wing is destroyed! Corran continues his approach, while the Bandit shoots the re-cloaked Whisper, but does nothing.

 We dance around, ready to continue the fight. Ryan gets Corran ready to Koigran next turn, while the Z-95 shuffles forward.

 The poor Bandit Squadron Pilot, abandoned by Corran, faces off against the mighty Whisper, and it goes predictably well for the Phantom. Corran pulls a Koigran, and it seems we're about to have an impromptu joust!

Whisper and Corran begin their duel. Whisper shoots first, taking 2 shield. Corran uses both of his attacks to do the same to Whisper though!


We stopped at this point as we wanted to get another game in afterwards. We decided to call it a draw- neither of us had kept time, our ships were similar points, and in a duel between them it's very tricky to determine the outcome- perhaps Whisper has the edge by moving afterwards, but Corran has R2-D2 and can wait for his chance to double attack.

After Action
Well, that game was tough! I flew Soontir very poorly in the first exchance, and Ryan had positioned well to take advantage. This match really did show me the power of a phantom though- for less than 40pts, it can clear up most of a Squadron by itself! Truly a beast of a ship, and if it can pick its fights then there's no stopping it! Corran was great for Ryan- he's lots of points, but he is very strong. It's a shame that Push The Limit is so necessary rather than Veteran Instincts- with PS 10, he'd be incredible.

 Game 3
Ryan and I pushed on for another quick game!
I used an almost identical squadron, but I wanted to try out Mara Jade instead of Vader. Her stress inducing ability is very strong, and I felt like I wasn't always getting much out of Vader as a blocker/delayer.

Ryan used an Imperial squadron this time:

Tie Interceptor, Soontir Fel, Push The Limit, Targeting Computer
Tie Interceptor, Carnor Jax, Push The Limit
Tie Phantom, Whisper, Advance Cloaking Device, Veteran Instincts
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This is why I like a 3pt initiative bid. As high PS Imperials are getting more popular, you need to be able to win the mirror match. Most high PS builds will have a 1pt bid , but many more are countering that with a 2pt bid of their own. I bid 3pts, as there's not really anything else I want in my squadron for 1pt (except maybe Enhanced Scopes on my blocker shuttle, to make it PS 0 during the activation phase).

This time there are less pictures of the opening & deployment.

 My opening sees the shuttle and aces leapfrog each other, sticking close together. My plan is to lure Ryan into a close range dogfight, then block with the Shuttle and stress his phantom with Mara Jade.
Ryan deploys Carnor and his Whisper in the opposite corner, and his Soontir zips towards them along the top edge.

This is the first engagement, and it took us both by surprise. Ryan's Soontir accidentally landed on a rock, taking a damage and losing his actions. Seeing this, mine boosted into Range 3, and with a Target Lock/Focus stack was able to bring his doppelganger down! A very unfortunate start for Ryan. However his Whisper is able to return fire, taking 1 hull and 1 shield from my Soontir. Carnor takes a potshot at the shuttle for 1 hull.

 My Whisper decloaks opposite his, and we exchange firepower, each losing a shield or 2. The shuttle successfully stays out of Whisper's way.

The Lambda moves to Block Ryan's Whisper, but he is just able to avoid me. He damages my shuttle some more and recloaks, but I am still able to deal him another damage. I also stress him with Mara here.


We called the game here as the store was closing soon, we were both tired, and now there was almost nothing Ryan could do to avoid getting blocked and shot down by my Whisper next turn.

After Action
Brutal game- 3 aces died in 2 rounds! I felt bad for Ryan with his Soontir hitting a rock, as it really proved costly. Even though we ended up trading Soontirs, I was confident that my Whisper/Shuttle could beat his Whisper/Carnor due to initiative, and then taking out Carnor too made it a tough climb for Ryan. I liked Mara Jade in the shuttle- I find with this squadron that the shuttle either dies very fast and Vader is little use, or it blocks for a round or 2, he does maybe 1 crit and then has to turn around. Mara however greatly improves the blocking round, as she ensures every ship around her has a stress token, which prevents people pulling Koigrans over the shuttle or around the aces. I think I'll keep trying with her.

So that concludes this week's X-Wing action! There's also a 40k Battle Report to come too, which was potentially my final practice before the GT. It was against yet more Astra Militarum, this time with 3 Vendettas! That should be up very soon.

Thanks to Jay and Ryan for the great games, and thanks again for reading!

SimonW