Star Wars X-Wing League @ NAGA 25-03-2015

Veteran Han Solo in his YT-1300 crewed by Dash Rendar.

Veteran Lando Calrissian in his YT-1300 crewed by Nien Numb with an Engine Upgrade

My Twin Falcons, first time outing for either of them and the first time I’d played rebels.

The smuggling Rebel duo ready to fly.

The slow inevitable advance of Han and Lando as the two B-Wings and X-Wing skirt the table edge.

The larger ships deftfully maneuver through the asteroids with Lando using his upgraded engines to jink past asteroids.

Lando sweeps in behind the two B-Wings forcing one to “koorigan turn” to get an arc on him. Han faces off against Wes Janson.

Han rams Ten Numb whilst Lando koorigan turns to face Keyan Farlander. This maneuver would decide Lando’s fate in the firing phase later.

Han puts some hurt on Keyan stripping away some shields.

Lando spends his Target Lock to hit Wes Janson causing serious damage to his hull.

Keyan opts to use his Heavy Laser Cannon to finish off Lando at Range 3.

Han returns the favour by naturally rolling 4 hits at Range 1 on Keyan

Before Keyan can fire at Han he squiffs a roll against him but his pilot ability allows him to re-roll and get a natural 3 hit salvo to destroy him.

Only Han with a fully Hulled YT-1300 left versus Wes Janson with 1 Hull point left.

Despite a great evade roll the one hit needed squeaks through and destroys Brent’s sole remaining ship before it can reply.

RIP Lando Calrissian post battle.

Han has lost some shields and Chewie will need to buff out some scratches but he lives to smuggle another day.

RIP Ten Numb post battle.

RIP Wes Janson post battle.

RIP Keyan Farlander post battle.

NAGA X-Wing League Table. Jason Marden +2, Brent Jay -1, Alan Mathieson -1.

Having beaten Mitchell Dunton a fortnight ago I advanced a step on the X-Wing League Ladder to 6th position which opened up Brent Jay as a potential opponent and would allow me, if I wont to leapfrog Alan Mathieson into 4th.  With that in mind I challenged Brent Jay to a game of X-Wing.  I had watched Brent play previously and despite his losses against the leading players he was a solid and knowledgeable opponent.  I was not optimistic about facing him but I had nothing to lose and everything to win.

I decided to take my Twin Falcon build that was my second choice versus Mitchell Dunton a fortnight ago.  The build was as follows:-

====================== “Fat Han & Skinny Lando” or “The Smuggle Struggle” ======================

99 points Pilots

Han Solo (49) YT-1300 (46), Veteran Instincts (1), Dash Rendar (2)

Lando Calrissian (50) YT-1300 (44), Veteran Instincts (1), Nien Nunb (1), Engine Upgrade (4)

It was the first time I had used a Falcon or in fact even flew Rebels so I didn’t know what to expect.  Brent un-beknowst to me had also gone with Rebels although having watched some of his previous battles I was aware he was a fairly tidy Rebel player.  Brent was primarily using B-Wings (I had seen him use Keyan before) this was his build:-

===================== Brent’s Rebel Squadron =====================

100 points Pilots

Ten Numb (31)

Keyan Farlander (40) B-Wing (29), Heavy Laser Cannon (7), Opportunist (4)

Wes Janson (29)

With the forces determined it was time to setup.  I had both initiative being on 99pts and superior pilot skills as mine were 11 and 9 versus Brents 8, 8 and 7.  So setup last, moving last and firing first.  This firing first would probably be the main reason for my win.

Brent setup to follow the table edge facing the right.  I opted to setup with my YT-1300’s in formation flying at range 1 so they passed either side of an asteroid as they advanced.  Han was less worried about this than Lando as he could still fire if he bumped an asteroid.

Turn one was posturing, no turning towards my YT-1300’s from Brent and I advanced my Falcons towards Brents forces.

Turn two saw the YT-1300’s get into range 3 as they shot forward.  Lando Boosted to narrowly avoid an asteroid and Han entered the asteroid field.  None of Brent’s ships had arc on me so I was free to target whoever I liked.  I had already resolved to take down those pesky B-Wings first as Keyan and Ten Numb worried me.  Two shots later Ten Numb had no shields left.

Turn three saw proper engagement between the fleets, the two B-Wings Koorigan turned to bring thier arcs on Lando’s YT-1300.  Lando turned to face them as Han jinked his way through the asteroids clipping one and taking damage.  Han fired on Wes Janson ignoring the asteroid between them and stripping all his shields away.  Lando put more hurt onto the now unshielded Ten Numb and reduced him to two Hull points.  Wes fired at han and Han managed to hide his YT-1300 behind an asteroid and evade the entire attack.

Turn four saw the B-Wings split as Keyan continued to be elusive.  Ten Numb was in trouble as Lando koorigan turned behind him and Han smashed his YT-1300 into him.  The B-Wings took target locks on Lando.  Han couldnt fire at ten Numb so took his opportunity to attack the X-Wing of Wes Janson leaving him with a solitary single Hull point.  Lando finished off Ten Numb with a hit and a crit as I believed Keyan wasnt a target as he couldnt fire on me.  This wasn’t the case.  Keyan was a close call and at range 1 too.  it was potentially a game defining moment.  I argued that Brents should take the shot and he argued that Keyan was slightly out.  Taking a third opinion they agreed with me and Brent fired.  Four hits and a crit!!!!  Lando was rocked and was now in trouble, with low evade dice he could fall in a single turn of combat.

Turn five was all about close flying.  Keyan kooriganed again to bring his fwd arc to bear on the rear of Lando’s YT-1300, Wes Janson tried to run.  Han arced past Lando performing a hard 3 to chase Keyan as Lando pursued Wes.

Han shot first!  (sorry couldn’t resist!) A natural roll of 4 hits against Keyan stripped him of his three remaining shields and leaving him unshielded.  Keyan returned fire taking a couple of Hans shields away but leaving him with 1 remaining.  Wes was out of range to fire at Han.

Turn six saw an opportunity for my Rebel squadron to do significant damage to Brents by taking down Keyan Farlander.  Keyan slowly crept forward with a 1 forward hoping Han would shoot past.  Wes crept forward clearing his stress and moved into a position to get a shot off at Han’s YT-1300.  Han again would be firing first.  He had a Target Lock, a Focus and his ability to re-roll so I was quietly confident I could see off the remaining two hull points on Keyan.  I rolled and to my amazement got absolutely nothing, a complete squiff of a roll.  Using Hans ability I re-rolled all the dice.  Much better this time around, three natural hits.  Keyan only had one evade dice so no matter what roll he made he was toast.  Brent rolled and gained the one evade but the remaining two hits got through and finished Keyan off.  Wes in his X-Wing fired on Han and stripped the last shield and put one damage to Hans hull.

Turn seven saw the end of the encounter.  Wes Janson went balls out and roared up behind the YT-1300 to close to range 1.  He took a Focus to try and evade some of the damage that was inevitably coming his way.  Han pulled a hard 2 left to avoid an asteroid.  Taking a Focus Han prepared to fire at the X-Wing.  Han fired first with PS 11, rolling another great natural roll of 3 hits Wes needed to achieve 3 evades to avoid being destroyed.  Brent rolled and pulled two Focuses.  Spending Wes’ token to flip them both to evade the final shot managed to get through and destroy the badly damaged X-Wing of Wes.

Victory to Team Smuggler and their YT-1300.  I had lost Lando to some pretty devastating firing from Keyan but had scraped a hard fought out victory!  This propelled me up two spots in the NAGA X-Wing League from 6th to 4th pushing Brent down to 5th and Alan Mathieson down to 6th.  My overall Star Wars X-Wing record being 4-2 with both losses to NAGA members (Sean & Alan).