The X-Factor

Club night last night and as usual I left everything to the last minute, I did however manage to knock a list up for our X-Wing game before leaving the house. We were fairly early as Dan was opening up as we arrived, however over the next half hour or so we ended up with almost a full house and a newcomer. One boardgame, one card game, a Warmaster ancients do a demo of Sharpe Practice for Julian the new guy, and of course our four way X-Wing game.
 

Full house.

It was Andrew and son Alfred vs Simon and myself, we had Rebels and the opposition were 'Pirates' for want of a better name, a mix of Scum and Rebel ships. Simon and Andrew can tell you how many rivets are on each ship, Alfred might also know a bit about the Star Wars Universe but as I gave up when the Teddy Bears arrived I just like the little starships. Because Simon and Andrew know more than me they tool up their ships with all sorts of upgrades, I on the other hand prefer to keep things simple that way I don't buy upgrades and then completely forget to use them. Which is why I always feel frightened when I see the opposition.

It was a straight up dogfight and I went for a B-Wing with a decent pilot, a heavy laser cannon and a hull upgrade to keep her alive, I think it's a her as you never know with these names. The escort was three Rookie X-Wings, these were meat shields and I did not expect them to last long, Simon took his new ship, the Ghost, a nice looking thing with a small shuttle which when docked allows him to fire to the rear or it can detach and become a small fighter on its own account, with a pile of upgrades this only left enough points for two bog standard A-Wings as escorts. Andrew and Alfred had a selection of large ships a Hounds Tooth,YT-2400, Punishing One along with a Y-Wing, Z95 and an X-Wing.

We gang up on poor Alfred.

As we deployed it was obvious we had an opportunity to gang up on on the enemy as they had a large gap between their forces, Alfred was the weakest so we decided to hit him first, he was up against my squadron and the Ghost, a tough challenge. Even so I thought my boys were in for a hard time, but no as the range closed Alfred's small fighters bit the dust, I set them up and the Ghost with the ability to deal four hits without fear of saving rolls, finished them off. This is an astonishing trait and means that if you are fighting this thing you have to hit it with everything you have to kill it quickly. Andrew nearly managed this at one point but it limped along with one or two hull points left.

The enemy about to receive a lot of hurt.

We lost an A-Wing very quickly in the fight but Andrew then spent a lot of time trying to hunt down his mate while Alfred struggled against our main forces, the Pirates were feeding their ships in piecemeal. It was at this point I pulled off a neat piece of flying and doubled back to take out the Y-Wing, I was so chuffed I took a photo.

X-Wings on the Port Bow captain.

The YT-2400 also bit the dust and I had only lost one X-Wing. The Hound had decided to come my way while the Punishing was now annoyed by the remaining A-Wing, the badly injured Ghost was also over in that area and the little shuttle had detached and was also worrying the Punishing. What a strange name for a starship.

I had to make a decision and brave the asteroids in order to despatch the Hound, I was lucky and took no damage, however I did lose another X-wing as the Punishing fired from long range, but the Hound could not escape and went up in pieces. The writing was on the wall my remaining two ships were hardly touched and the Punishing had only two hull points left as it headed for hyperspace.

My squadron had performed brilliantly, the Rookies more than held their own and the firepower of the B-Wing's heavy laser cannon was the real punisher. A great game which at the mid point despite my write up looked like turning against us, however the enemy could not concentrate enough firepower were separated and picked off one by one. My thanks to everyone for an exciting game.

From a wargaming point of view I started off a bit ropy with the dice but this picked up in the latter half of the game and I dealt out a lot of damage with that cannon, the concentrated fire of my squadron backed up by the Ghost was a formidable challenge for Andrew and Alfred. It is no fun taking those four hits each turn, on the other hand the ship has only one saving die and despite shields and a large number of hull points can be taken down quickly if picked on, ours only managed to stay alive by the skin of its teeth.

Next week it is American Civil War with Johnny Reb, I last managed an outing with this last summer when my mate Billy came down from Scotland, so I am looking forward to it.