Wednesday 9 January 2019

Per Ardua ad Astra

I have the X-Wing game and a few ships to give me choices for 'builds', my forces are Imperial and Rebel, I prefer playing Imperial because I love Empires and these guys are great baddies, they always get the thin edge of the wedge when up against the holier than though Rebels. As you know if you are a regular here I am not and never will be a great pilot, but the game is very clever, deceptively easy to play but tough to master, I should play more but you can only fit in so many games.


So when Second Edition was announced I thought I would be handing in my pilot licence for a bus pass, but no, for Christmas I asked for two Conversion Kits for my models and a Core Set to keep the Force alive in Casa Anderson. Fantasy Flight Games pulled a fast one here, you should only have needed the Conversion Kits, not a Core Set having already bought one for First Edition, but guess what, the damage cards had changed, so you needed to get it no matter what as they did not come (as expected) with the Conversion Kits. These large firms are adept at taking your money and forcing you down a certain path, their path, in doing so they show just how much the moolah matters more than the players, many who have spent small fortunes on X-Wing. You are overwhelmed by the contents of the kits, you have cards galore, for the most part I managed to outfit my two factions from the kits with a bit of cut and paste helping along the way.

There are going to be some seven factions eventually, me, I am sticking with two and concentrating on Imperial, I may be tempted to buy a couple of new Imperial ships to fill a hole in my order of battle but that is it as I feel slightly ripped off. Also I do not have the commitment to X-Wing that many others have, I will be making use of what I have though throughout the year.

Andrew and son Alf had thrown down the gauntlet for last night, both enjoy the game and Andrew travels to game nights in Preston, my wingman did not turn up so new player Alex was pressganged, I could not give him the weaker build as he was new so I reluctantly gave up my Tie Interceptors. It is scary how much information on the Star Wars universe some of these guys have. OK, so I had two Tie Advanced and two Tie Fighters while Alex flew two Interceptors and a Tie Phantom, as I looked across the table my heart sank, Alf had a K-Wing and two X-Wings while Andrew had the huge Hounds Tooth, a HWK 290 and a small swarm of chunky things. I began to think of an early bath.

As the game started I turned one Advanced to fly off on his own, the idea was that I could bring him back in behind the enemy eventually, however the 'plan' worked well and he drew away the two X-Wings from the battle. The rest of the Imperial fleet went hell for leather at our opposite numbers, this caused the chunky ships to back off for a time while a large dogfight and a large amount of confusion began in the right hand sector. At first neither side was gaining an advantage and shooting was fairly abysmal although saves were plentiful, the first ship to go was the HWK, the chunky ships now got their revenge as they entered the battle, they had tractor beams and kept moving my Tie Fighters on to asteroids, I lost one to multiple collisions with the rocks, the second I lost to close range shots and the odd bump with the damn rocks. However, Alex had found out how to get the best from his ships and with only a little help from me took down the Hounds Tooth, she tried in vain to escape her fate but she blew up spectacularly almost at the eleventh hour. I think the Imperials had one more kill in that round but I cannot say for sure, the result though was a convincing Imperial win against the odds.

Ready, steady, go.

The chunky things.
The Empire attacks!
The doomed Hounds Tooth.
The Hound tries but fails to escape.
 Did the game play better than First Edition, time will tell, it did seem to flow better but it is too soon to make a judgement and I am not sure I am the best person to do so. It took us about 2.5 hours to finish, we were not in a hurry and unusually there was not a lot of hits in the first half of the game and many of those were saved, it did become more ferocious in the second half.

Not sure what is happening next week, I do have some X-Wing the weekend after that at my sons, Stewart is a far more serious and experienced X-Wing player than I will ever be, I am taking an escape shuttle.

Elsewhere we had two Frostgrave games and one of Cruel Seas, the latest wargame craze sweeping the nation, I didn't get a chance to go and have a look but expect to play some in the coming weeks.

10 comments:

  1. Not for me as I’m sure you know George, but if it suits others that’s fine. Your comment on the endless updating and new editioning of these bijou games, I’ll not call them Wargames, is spot on. Like football fans we are being packaged as consumers. The hobby has, for me anyway, drifted far off course in these latter years...

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    1. I would not call them wargames either even if some are very loosely based on an historical setting. There are companies like that in our hobby as well. Thankfully we are also blessed with smaller outfits which do take us seriously and the hobby fuels what they do. I had a slight hiccup with Front Rank recently and they were superb. But yes, the times they are a changing....

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  2. Looks like absolute chaos all those little chits and cards and tokens - lol! But glad you had fun.
    As for companies that exploit us as hobbyists ... Grr! Had enough of that in my GW/Warhammer days.
    Cheers
    Matt

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    1. Most of the chits etc. come off at the end of the turn, many are simply reminders. I did not want to mention the Great Satan, putting aside their games I think their methods were not good for the hobby, I didn't buy into it back then but am paying for it now as the influence spreads.

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  3. Looks fun but not my cup of tea, I have problems controlling WWI crates.

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    1. Sopwith Camel or Tie Fighter l’m better on the ground.

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  4. Grest looking game George. Id like to give it a go one day. I personally wouldn't buy any of the models, for two reasons the first being the one you mentioned. When companies get you hooked and keep changing the system so you need an ever ending fat wallet to keep up with "the new improvments" just like Games Workshop and it's sci-fi and its against my religion to do sci-fi.

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    1. I don’t mind Sci-Fi and this is a very clever game. However I feel I have invested enough now and have the will power to stop which is unusual.

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  5. Looks superb. Good to see that the game is still fresh and as you say, the rules are deceptively subtle. Tie fighter swarms have a quality all their own.

    (And yes, the Empire are simply misunderstood, and are trying to bring an end to this destructive conflict. I mean, what kind of rebellion destroys a second death star while their are still contractors on it finishing things? How many sparks and joiners had to die to help the rebellion...I could go on ;) )

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    1. I always wonder how anyone managed to build a Death Star, if today's huge projects are anything to go by it would be over budget, wouldn't work, shoddy materials, not ready on time, political interference etc. Also where do you get the contractors to build James Bond villains headquarters under lakes and in mountains etc. and all without anyone noticing.

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