First Foray Into Star Wars X-Wing Miniature Game

I have wargaming A.D.D.   It's a problem, I know, but I really just don't care.   To illustrate my gaming A.D.D., I provide the following example:

About three weeks ago, Fantasy Flight Games released their Star Wars X-Wing miniatures game.  I have been following the development of this game for about a year, and was excited about its release.  When it came out, I bought a starter box set and one of each of the expansions.  Subsequently, I bought a number of additional expansions to grow my fleet, and am now up to four X-Wings, five Tie Fighters, two Y-Wings and two Tie Advanced (did I happen to mention my wargaming A.D.D.)

The game's rules are a very quick read, and easy to pick up.   Also, Fantasy Flight Games put the game rules online, which allowed me to read over them while I was waiting for the box set I ordered to arrive.  As I said, the rules are easy to get a basic handle of, but with the combination of different ships, pilots, skills, astromechs, and secondary weapons, there is enough variation in the game which allows for deeper strategies and is difficult to truly master.

On Saturday I headed over to Game Parlor in Chantilly, Virginia to get in my first game of X-Wing.   The guys over at A Few Maneuvers (the unofficial Star Wars X-Wing game site) set up a meet up, and when I arrived, Roy, the creator of A Few Maneuvers, was going through the ropes with his friend Jarrod.  After Jarrod was done putting the Imperial smack down on Roy's Rebels (just what the Rebel scum deserve, what with their trying to upset the law and order the Imperial military has tried so hard to maintain), we decided to get a team game going.


I had just picked up an old Hasbro Star Wars Imperial Shuttle from Ebay, I thought it might be fun to get the shuttle on the table, and decided to try the first mission in the rulebook, "Political Escort".  In "Political Escort", the Rebel player has to safely get their shuttle across the board and exit on the Imperial starting edge.   The X-Wing basic box set comes with a cardboard token to represent the shuttle the Rebels have to escort, but I much prefer real miniatures, so I threw the Imperial Shuttle on the table.

As Roy had just played a game as the Rebels against Jarrod as the Imperials, we switched things around, and Jarrod and I took the Rebs while Roy and another initiate took the Imperials.  Here are the forces we decided to field:

Rebels	Imperial
X-Wing #1      Piloted by Wedge Antilles      Proton Torpedo      R2-D2 astromech	Tie Advanced      Piloted by Darth Vader      Cluster Missiles      Squad Leader elite talent
X-Wing #2      Piloted by a Red Squadron pilot      Proton Torpedo	Tie Fighter #1      Piloted by an Obsidian Squadron Pilot
Y-Wing      Piloted by “Dutch” Vander      Ion Cannon      Proton Torpedo      R5-K6 Astromech	Tie Fighter #2      Piloted by an Obsidian Squadron Pilot
	Tie Fighter #3      Piloted by an Obsidian Squadron Pilot
	Tie Fighter #4      Piloted by an Obsidian Squadron Pilot
	Tie Fighter #5      Piloted by an Obsidian Squadron Pilot

Basically, as you can see, my Rebel team is outnumbered two to one, plus the Imperials were bringing Darth Vader to the fight, who is a real beast!!! Rebel ships have shields, stronger hulls, and more firepower to compensate for the sheer numbers the Imperials can field.

Turn One: The Imperials try to split our forces.

Each turn in X-Wing is comprised of two phases: the activation phase and the combat phase.  Order is determined based upon your pilot skill.  Lowest skill level pilots move first, but highest level skilled pilots shoot first.

Turn One:  In turn one the Rebel shuttle moved first (as it has a pilot skill of two) then the five Imperial Obsidian Squadron Pilots moved (pilot skill of three), the Rebel Red Squadron Pilot (pilot skill of four), followed by Darth Vader (skill pilot nine) and Wedge Antilles (skill pilot nine).   Wedge moved after Vader, even though they have the same pilot skill, due to the fact that we (the Rebel side) won the initiative roll at the beginning of the game.  The Imperials split into two groups, attempting to flank the Rebel group, and split the Rebel fighters away from the shuttle.  Little did the Imperials know that we are far too incompetent to fall for any type of strategy.  We just piloted our X-Wings and Y-Wing straight down the middle, throwing caution, and intelligence, to the wind.

Shuttle eye view of what's to come!!!

In the combat phase, Wedge Antilles opened the phase with a volley towards the nearest Tie Fighter.   Swing and a miss.  That's ok, as Wedge obtained a target lock on the Tie back during the activation phase, allowing Wedge to reroll all of the misses.   Unless of course you miss again.   Doh!!!   The force is strong with that Tie pilot.

That's ok, as "Dutch" got a target lock on one of the Tie Fighters, and "Dutch's" special rule allowed for an immediate target lock by the Red Squadron pilot as well.  "Dutch" let loose a proton torpedo, and brought the Tie's hull down to one.   Excellent!!!  Then the X-Wing swooped in and finished off the Tie.   Fantastic!!!  First blood to the Rebels.

The Imperials demonstrate a lack of shooting ability, and miss every shot thrown against "Dutch" in the Y-Wing and the Red Squadron Pilot.  End of turn one.

Then the dang Imperials show their strategerie again by demonstrating that they can read the rulebook (which I seem to have an issue with).   It would seem that the mission rules state the Imperials can bring on reinforcements at the beginning of each turn in the form of one ship destroyed in the prior turn.  Double doh!!!   It literally would have been better if we had just left the damn Tie Fighter crippled rather than killing it off.  Ohh, this was disheartening.

Didn't I just kill you!!!

Turn Two:  The Imperials swarm in and surround the shuttle and Rebel escort.  Vader and two Tie Fighters swamp poor Wedge, and the Rebel ace pilot goes up in a ball of flame, destroyed by a mere Obsidian Squadron Pilot (the Imps should at least have had the respect to use Vader to kill Wedge).

Turn Two:  Wedge surrounded.

"Dutch" Vander fires off an Ion Cannon salvo at the nearest Tie Fighter, but for some odd reason the Ion Cannon gunner mistyped the proper firing codes, and even the target lock "Dutch" had on the Tie couldn't help the cannon to score a single hit.  The Red Squadron pilot, perfectly displaying the reason he isn't a named Star Wars character (I mean, come on, even every creature in the cantina had a name and a dang back story), misses the Tie Fighter he was shooting at completely.

Turn Three:  A Game of Chicken.

Turn Three:  In order to portray the chaos of flight and maneuvers in Star Wars X-Wing at the beginning of the activation phase both sides have to simultaneously select what maneuvers their ships will be making during the movement phase.  The maneuvers are selected on a dial, which is placed face down on the table next to the ship at the beginning of the activation phase.  Then, as each ship is moved, in order based upon pilot skill (from worst to best), the maneuver you selected is revealed and you have to conduct which ever maneuver you previously selected.  As we are newer to the game, and are still trying to develop the skill of how to anticipate our opponents maneuvers, many of our ships ended up bumping into each other.  This doesn't cause any damage (space is 3D remember) but it means you can't perform any actions that turn (ie target locks, barrel rolls, etc).  Also, you can't shoot any ships your base is in contact with.

A number of our turns ended up looking like the local demolition derby.  Heck, my Y-Wing even ended up slamming into Jarrod's X-Wing, and we were even coordinating during the maneuver phase.  Regardless, this caused me some issues.  The reason I took "Dutch" and the R5-K6 astromech is due to all of the target locks I could get (which means I can reroll misses).   "Dutch" gives free target locks to friendly ships nearby, after "Dutch" obtains one, plus, after expending his target lock, with R5-K6, "Dutch" can pick up another target lock if he rolls a hit, which then means we can give another target lock to another friendly unit.   Unless of course you smack into other ships during the maneuver phase and can't conduct any actions, which includes target locks.   So my lack of flying skill negated the points I spent to upgrade to "Dutch" and add on R5-K6. 

Anyway, by turn three in the game, the Imperials see that the shuttle has made it half way down the board unscathed and decide to do something about it.   Four Tie Fighters and Darth Vader open up into the shuttle.  Luckily, it turns out that the Rebels best pilot wasn't Wedge Antilles, who died miserably moments ago, but is some poor schmuck relegated to flying a shuttle.   To the massive frustration of the Imperials, the shuttle pilot evades every hit they throw at it  Well, our Rebel fighter pilots can't fly our shoot, but we certainly give some extra training to our bus drivers!!!

Turn Four:  Vader Target Locks the shuttle.

Turn to Four:  The end is in sight, and the shuttle can see its point of escape.   As the shuttle can only move two inches forward, or conduct a one inch bank each turn, we decide the fastest travel between two points is a straight line.   In other words, no fancy maneuvering for us, full thrusters straight ahead.

Only issue is that we have five Tie Fighters and that damn Darth Vader directly behind the shuttle shooting up the shuttle's tail pipe.  Luckily, one of the Tie Fighters miscalculates and ends up continually moving straight forward, so it's down to four Tie Fighters, Vader , and what ever assistance the X-Wing and Y-Wing can give.

Vader obtains a target lock and lets the Cluster Missiles fly at the shuttle.  Cluster Missiles provide two sets of three shots.   The first set of three completely misses the shuttle and the shuttle pilot evades the two hits scored by the second set of three shots.   I really need to come up with a name for this shuttle pilot and enter him into the Star Wars lexicon!!!   He has far out performed everyone else on the table today (too bad the shuttle doesn't have any weapons, as I'm sure the shuttle pilot would have mopped the table with the Imps).

"Dutch", using his normal flying skill, runs into one of the Tie Fighters during the maneuver phase, thus again, thanks to my lack of flying skill, I can't use my extra special, secret sauce, target lock.   I try to score an Ion Cannon shot on Vader and that, again, just goes horribly wrong.   If there were game rules which allowed you to shoot your own ship I am quite sure "Dutch" would have succeeded long ago.

The Red Squadron X-Wing pushes too far forward, and unfortunately doesn't have any of the Ties in his firing arc. 

The remaining four Tie Fighters open up on the shuttle, and though our crack shuttle pilot is able to evade most of the shots, a number of them are able to whittle down the shuttles shields.   Better try to get out of Dodge fast, as things are starting to take a turn for the worse for our valiant shuttle pilot.

Turn Five: The Imperials gang up on the shuttle.

Turn Five:  Both sides are doing the math now and know that it's all about the shuttle's remaining shields and hull holding out.   The shuttle is hitting max speed looking to escape, and the Imperials are trying to focus fire to destroy the shuttle.  The Imps are no longer even trying to engage the Rebel escort fighters.
 

The shuttle makes a run for it.

Luckily, one of the Tie Fighters, due to maneuvering issues, is off in never-never land, so that's one less set of guns the shuttle has to worry about.   Also, another Tie conducts a maneuver to turn around, and the shuttle is out of its firing arc.  I aim the Ion Cannon at that Tie, hoping that if Ion Cannon hits, one less Tie will be firing at the shuttle next turn.   Ion Cannons are great in that they not only dish out three damage, but if an enemy ship is hit with the Ion Cannon next turn the affected enemy ship can only move one inch straight forward.   The Force proves that it hasn't completely abandoned me, and I manage to hit the Tie with an Ion blast.

The Red Squadron X-Wing turns around and starts heading back into the fight.  He is out of range this turn to shoot at any of the Imperials, but he will be racing to throw down next turn.

Darth and the three remaining Tie Fighters open up into the shuttle.   Despite all of the prior fancy flying the shuttle's last three remaining shields evaporate and three of the six hull points are struck in a hail of laser fire.

It's down to the wire for the shuttle.

Turn Six:  Is this the end for our valiant shuttle pilot?

Turn Six:  The shuttle moves first by two inches and touches the end of the gaming table, literally.  Not a millimeter back, not a millimeter forward, exactly on the edge.  The rules state the "shuttle must flee off the Imperial player's edge of the play area".  We discuss this as a group as to whether or not this means the shuttle escaped.   Roy and the Imperial players are basically willing to admit defeat, and allow the shuttle to flee, giving us the win.   Jarrod and I aren't quite sure, and thus we come to an agreement, if the shuttle survives this round, the Rebels win, if the shuttle is destroyed, the game is a draw.

Alright, so now its for the whole ball of wax.   Vader gets a target lock and blasts the shuttle.   Again, our valiant shuttle pilot evades, but is still hit by one shot.  Down to two hull points!!! 

"Dutch" is out of position and range to hit any of the Tie Fighters, so, again, he's useless.   The Red Squadron X-Wing opens up in the rear of one of the Ties, but the Tie Fighter evades the shot. 

The three remaining Tie Fighters line up on the shuttle.   They systematically start unleashing all hell on the shuttle, peppering it with laser fire.  The pilot evades as best he can, but in the end is just overwhelmed by the volume of fire.   The shuttle dies in a blaze of glory as nothing he could do would save him from the Imperial's fury.

This was a great game and a whole lot of fun.  Everything really came down to the wire, and the game could have gone either way.  In the end, after getting home, I reread the rules and the shuttle would have had to move part of its base outside of the game area to be considered to have "fled" the battlefield.  So Roy and the Imperials won the match.

The Tie Fighter swarm was horrible to fight against, and the loss of Wedge in turn two really hurt us.  My biggest issue was getting the maneuvering down.   My poor maneuvering caused me to lose my action almost every turn, which negated all of the cool upgrades I paid for for "Dutch".   Also, in speaking with Jarrod, both he and I believe that for the escort mission, where it is probably better to disable rather than kill Tie Fighters, it may have been better if we had taken another Y-Wing and Ion Cannon instead of the Red Squadron X-Wing.  Ahh, things to try in the future.

I plan on getting in a lot more games of X-Wing in the future.   The game is fast and furious and fun.  I can imagine that continuously running the three scenarios Fantasy Flight Games included in the main rule book will get dull after a period, but I have already seen people making fan based scenarios.   I have even started working on a scenario involving the Imperials trying to disable a Corellian Corvette.  There is nothing like seeing capital ships on the gaming table, and I have a model Rebel Blockade Runner/Corellian Corvette which is very close to scale.   Once I have the scenario written I will play test it and post the results here.   Big things to come!!!