T2a. Refueling Ambush

One week after our first scenario with the Corvette, we again had time to play a Corvette scenario. As T1 had been won by the Rebels (not surprisingly, I must say, as that scenario seems quite difficult for the Imperials), we played T2a: Refueling Ambush.

Rebels (203 points) (played by JL)
- CR90 Corvette Fore with 2 Single Turbolasers, Gunnery Team and Sensor Team (74 points)
- CR90 Corvette Aft with Quad Laser Cannons, Engineering Team and Tibanna Gas Supplies (54 points)
- 2x Gold Squadron with Ion Cannon Turret (23x2=46 points)
- Prototype A-Wing (17 points)
- Bandit Z-95 (12 points)

Imperials (145 points) (played by Beni)
- Soontir Fel with Push the Limit (30 points)
- Omicron Lambda-Class Shuttle with Engine Upgrade (25 points)
- 2x Scimitar TIE Bomber with 2x Cluster Missiles (2x24= 48 points)
- 3x Black Squadron TIE Fighters (3x14 = 54 points)

The goal for the Imperials is to cripple one section of the Corvette before it escapes the refueling station. The Corvette starts refueling and impaired, as it will get less energy than normal.

This time I did switch the flash from my smartphone to automatic, so the photos were much better!

Setup and first maneuvers

I started by placing the Corvette within range 2 of the border and centered. Then Beni placed three Black Squadron TIEs coming perpendicular to the Corvette and Soontir Fel with the rest of his ships from the front part of the Corvette. I decided to run a screen with my ships against the two TIE Bombers, as they seemed to be the most dangerous to me.

In retrospect, I think I should have set up one of my ships (the Z-95 or the A-Wing) to screen a bit against the TIE Fighters to make it more difficult for Beni to destroy the Cargo Container used by the Corvette to refuel.

Another thing I realized while writing the blog is that I could have placed the Corvette closer to my side of the board, as the scenario instructs to place the Corvette within (and not "at") range 2... This would have given me 1 more turn to refuel.

Setup: the Imperials find the Corvette in a very favorable situation for them!

Soontir Fel, the best Imperial pilot, is ready to show some of his ace skills!

Keep the Bombers in your sights!

Full Throttle to attack the Cargo Container

Turn 1

On the first turn I decided to keep the Corvette docked and launch my other ships into a screen formation.

The result of the screen was mixed... I blocked the Bombers from easily reaching the Corvette, but I could not seriously damage any of them in the first two turns, because Beni maneuvered really well and did not give me easy ion cannon shots against his Bombers.

On the other side of the battle, two of the TIE Fighters were able to shoot at the Cargo Container from turn 1 and scored already two hits... the dice were falling in the Imperial side this time!

I placed my A-Wing to try to annoy the Bombers as much as possible and left the Y-Wings behind

The TIE Fighters approach the container at full speed...

The TIE Bombers advance slowly, placing themselves just outside the reach of the Ion Cannon Turrets... Meanwhile, the Shuttle advances at full speed toward the Corvette, and Soontir Fel pulls a crazy stunt to place himself at range 1 from one of the Y-Wings and obtaining a 4-hit attack

Turn 2

In the second turn of the battle I wanted to activate the Corvette, but realized that the rules of the scenario say that the CR90 would activate normally in the following Activation phase... This means I would have to wait until turn 3 to escape the exploding Container!

On the other hand, my screen worked a bit better and I blocked the Bombers at range 4 from the Corvette.

The big melee with my four ships, Soontir Fel and the two TIE Bombers

The TIE Fighters get closer to the Cargo Container while the Shuttle avoids the Corvette

The Corvette shoots its primary weapon against one of the Bombers...

And scores a good hit... unfortunately not enough to take the Bomber down

The Bomber's pilot became stunned

The TIE Fighters blow the container on the second round... Beni rolled three more hits with the exploding container and that, together with a previous shot from the Shuttle wiped all the Corvette's shields... Again, dice were falling on the Imperial side.

This turn I managed to ionize one of the Bombers and Soontir Fel!

Turn 3

Things were looking bleak for the Rebellion... The Corvette was being hit both in its front and aft sections, and one of my Y-Wings would move out of range of the other ships for the rest of the game.

On the other hand, I had a good chance to shoot either Soontir or one of the Bombers down, but was not able to do it, yet.

The TIE Fighters move closer to the Corvette

Meanwhile, my ships concentrate on Soontir Fel and damaged him again

The Bombers cross the scree and get ready to shoot their deadly ordnance

And the Corvette finally starts its movement and finishes one of the TIE Fighters with its Quad Laser Cannons

Turn 4

Although I had been able to ionize one of Beni's Bombers the previous turn, the other one was free and Beni placed her in a very good situation to attack the Corvette.

The Corvette blows a second TIE Fighter

The Y-Wing that had been almost destroyed by Soontir Fel (he had score 7 hits on the ship) shoots him down and scores the only Rebel achievement of the day!

The Bomber in position shoots its Cluster Missiles... 4 hits in two attacks of 3 and cripples the Corvette!... The Dark Side shines with a special dark bright today!

Summary

Another brilliant X-Wing mission with the Corvette. This one is much more balanced than T1, specially considering that I could have set up the Corvette much better if I had read the rules a bit more attentively.

Beni obtained a well deserved victory. The dice also helped him today (he rolled better than average on almost every attack roll he made, specially against the Corvette), but the bigger part of the victory was due to his very adept maneuvering that prevented me from easily focusing fire on his Bombers... At the end, it was one of the Bombers that scored the final hit on the fore part of the Corvette.

To show the damage evolution on the Corvette:
Turn 1 (fore reinforced): fore section suffers 2 damage from Shuttle.
Turn 2 (back reinforced): fore and aft sections suffer 3 damage each from container's explosion; fore suffers extra 2 from TIE Fighter.
Turn 3 (fore reinforced): aft section suffers 4 hits from TIE Fighters.
Turn 4 (back reinforced): aft section suffers 1 hit from TIE Fighters. Fore section suffers 2 hits from Soontir Fel (1crit) and 4 final hits from Bomber's Cluster Missiles.

One thing that makes the scenario very interesting is that you'll have almost no energy for the Corvette. This reduces its survivability as it won't be able to easily recover shields... Also, being attached to a ticking bomb (the Container) is a big handicap for the Rebels.

One possibility for the Rebels (pointed by Beni) would have been to detach the Corvette already on turn 1, so that you can move from turn 2 and avoid the Container blast, but I'm not so sure. Waiting two turns gave me the 3 points of Energy that I used to add 1 die to my attack on a Bomber and to shoot the Quad Laser Cannons twice (destroying two TIE Fighters), and I could have obtained even more if I had gone straight in turn two and maybe regain some Shields...

I also did not play my best. I did not read the mission special rules properly and I could have made a much better screen. I had two options in my mind and finally decided for this one, but now I'm convinced that I should have annoyed the TIE Fighters much more to prevent them from easily destroying the Container.

Anyway, a memorable mission. It's complex, fun and with lot of tactical possibilities... I really cannot wait to play the next scenario. Unfortunately, a weird combination of work and vacation could mean that it will take us several weeks to play again.

Bringing out the big guns!... Starting the point of No Return campaign with the CR90

We finally have now the time to open the CR90 box and play the full campaign! The first scenario of the campaign, Mistaken Identity, is very well designed, as it will help you learn the basics and some of the weaknesses and strengths of the CR90.

Rebels (128 points) (played by JL)
- CR90 Corvette Fore with 2 Single Turbolasers, Gunnery Team and Sensor Team (74 points)
- CR90 Corvette Aft with Quad Laser Cannons, Engineering Team and Tibanna Gas Supplies (54 points)

Imperials (89 points) (played by Beni)
- Howlrunner with Determination (19 points)
- 5x Black Squadron TIE Fighters (5x14 = 70 points)

The goal for the Imperials is to cripple one section of the Corvette in 6 rounds.

Unfortunately, with the excitement I forgot to switch off the automatic flash from my smartphone and the Corvette has lost some of its details... That won't happen again in the next scenario.

Setup and first maneuvers

The scenario uses the standard 90x90 cm map with 6 asteroids. Beni decided to accumulate his asteroids in the same region of space, something I think worked in my favour because it made maneuvering with the Corvette much easier and denied him the opportunity of using the asteroids to gain some extra cover.

A TIE Fighter squadron hails the Corvette and orders it to stop

The Corvette model looks amazing, specially with the nice GF9 map as background

First Blood

Beni feared 6 rounds were not enough to allow him to circle around the Corvette and try to attack it from the back. He decided to move full throttle toward the Corvette.

The Corvette's primary weapon is very scary. With just 1 Energy you get an enormous 5 dice attack! Combine it with a Target Lock and things can get very nasty if you are not far enough... Its disadvantage is that it cannot target anything at ranges 1 or 2.

Unfortunately for the Imperials, one of the TIEs was just in range 3 of the Corvette

A very lucky first shot after using the Target Lock to reroll...

ANd one of the TIEs explodes!

Melee

The obvious weakness of the Corvette is that it has very little punch power at ranges 1 and 2, so getting to that distance is a must; on the other hand, being squashed by the gargantuan ship if you are so close is a real risk.

The TIE Fighter swarm closes the gap with the Corvette

Brilliant positioning by Beni this time; also, Howlrunner situation allowed many rerolls, but unfortunately for the Imperials, all hits were absorbed by the Corvette's Reinforcement action

This risk became a reality when one of the Black Squadron TIEs blocked Howlrunner's movement and she was rammed by the Corvette.

Out of the way and into the cold dark space!

The CR90 is surrounded by the TIEs, but only two of them have a shot on her

Even a close range, the CR90 still has its Quad Laser Cannons... another lucky shot and another TIE bursts into pieces

With only three TIEs remaining and with full shields, the CR90 is almost sure to survive

One of the TIEs moves to range 3 from the fore part of the CR20 and is shot down

The other two TIEs look helplessly as the majestic CR90 plots through the asteroid field

The two remaining TIEs deal out some damage to the CR90, but it was all blocked by the Corvette's shields

One of the TIE fighters dodges the CR90 by millimeters

But the second one was gunned down by the Corvette's Quad Laser Cannon

Summary

The scenario finished with 5 TIEs destroyed and the Corvette suffering only minor damage to the shields. Attacking the Corvette head on did not work very well for Beni, but we don't know if the scenario gives enough time to fly around the CR90 and hit it from the back... As we plan to play again the campaign switching roles, I'll have a chance to try.

 A very positive point is that Huge ships like the Corvette and the Transport add a lot of variety and fun factor to an already great game... I hope we'll have enough time to play many more scenarios with Huge ships!

Escape from Sarka, Mission 3 of the Pirates' Run Campaign

You can find the whole campaign here: Pirates' Run Campaign
And the PDF for the first scenario is here: Escape from Sarka

The Story so far

The Imperials launch a furious surprise assault on the Insurrection Privateers base. In the ensuing
mayhem, some pirates, including their leader Chiko Yidrath, escape in their spaceships with several
Imperials hot on their heels.
 

Desperate to avoid the Imperials and gain time to power up their hyperdrives, the pirates rush to a
nearby asteroid field.

Battle Report

Planning the Ships' list
This scenario was my attempt to recreate the famous Han Solo escape through an asteroid field while being pursued by several TIE Fighters.

As the Pirate I decided to give the YT-1300 the Engine Upgrade (I wanted to try if it would be too easy for him to escape, which turned out to be so) and accompanied him with a Y-Wing+Ion Turret to screen his escape and a couple Z-95s to make diversions.

JL's list, Pirates:

- Chewbacca YT-1300 (as Pirate leader Chiko Yidrath) with Elusiveness and Engine Upgrade (48)

- Grey Squadron Y-Wing with R7 Astromech and Ion Turret (27)

- Tala Z-95 (13)

- Bandit Z-95 (12)

Beni went this time for numbers and created two swarms!

Beni's list, Imperials
- Ebon Squadron: Royal Guard Interceptor and 3 Saber Squadron Interceptors (85)
- Alpha Squadron: Backstabber with Engine Upgrade and 5 Obsidian TIE Fighters (85)

Setup
I decided to use the Y-Wing to cover Chiko's escape and to place the two Z-95s in another side of the board as a diversion in case Beni would attack Chiko with all his ships.

The pirates start their mad rush through the asteroid field

Chiko is well ahead while the Y-Wing tries to block the pursuit

Two of the Interceptors move easily behind the Z-95s and start firing at them; one of the Interceptors went through a moving asteroid and lost some time

Meanwhile, the Royal Guard and the third interceptor go after Chiko who is well ahead

The Triumphant launches a wave of TIE Fighters to help the Interceptors

The TIE swarm enters the asteroid field!

Chiko maneuvers perfectly between two asteroids

Chiko is well ahead of the Imperials while the other Pirate ships are hunted down

The first Z-95 is destroyed

The Y-Wing becomes surrounded by the TIE swarm

A general view of the asteroid field

One of the Interceptors that had been damaged by Chiko crashes against an asteroid!

Chiko prepares to enter hyperspace while the other pirate ships are in big trouble

The last Z-95 is hunted down by the remaining Interceptors

Summary and changing the design of the scenario
I was very happy with how the asteroid field worked. That some of the asteroids can move a bit just after the Planning phase made movement exciting and dangerous, but it was not fiddly. Also, losing speed if you overlap an asteroid means you cannot simply race straight through them.

Another advantage is that the scenario was fast and took us a bit less than 90 minutes. I think the changes I made will probably add another 30 minutes. Considering the amount of action and possibilities, 2 hours looks a correct amount of time for the scenario.

On the other hand, escaping with the YT-1300 was too easy if it has an Engine Upgrade. I decided to change the scenario so that the YT-1300's upgrades are fixed.

At the same time, it was too easy for the Imperials to destroy the other 3 ships as the difference in points was too big. I decided to give the Rebels 20 extra points and force them to use 4 ships; that way the screen will be stronger (also because the YT-1300 will shoot more) and the scenario will probably be more exciting.

Now we only have the fourth scenario to try! It's an epic one, so we'll have to find two other friends to play with us. The problem will be finding a good time for 4 players, because the scenario will probably need 3-4 hours to be played.