Dogfight: Shuttles vs. Z-95s

After finishing the Evacuation from Hoth campaign, Beni and I decided to play a standard dogfight in order to try out the new ships.





I wanted to try the new Z-95s, and so created a list heavy with them. I thought both Airen and Dutch Vander would combine very well with cheaper Z-95s, because they would be able to give them Target Locks, even if they moved first, and thus using them as missile platforms would be a possibility. Originally, I thought about using 3 Bandit Z-95s, but then I was forced to use Concussion Missiles, and as I was very interested in trying the Homing Missiles for the first time, I changed my list and used two Tala Squadrons Z-95s. That had also the positive advantage of allowing me to also equip my Z-95s with the Munitions Failsafe upgrade.


Rebels (100 points) (played by JL)
- Airen Cracken with Homing Missiles, Predator and Munitions Failsafe (28points)
- Dutch Vander with R2-D2, Flechette Torpedoes and Ion Cannon Turret (34points)
- Tala Squadron Z-95 with Homing Missiles and Munitions Failsafe (19x2=38 points)

Beni wanted to try out the Shuttles. He created a list to prevent the enemy from easily hitting the Shuttles and to remove any maneuverability flexibility by adding Stress tokens. Carnor Jax was there to prevent enemy ships from using Focus tokens, a very good combination idea with the Sensor Jammers.




Imperials (100 points) (played by Beni)
- Carnor Jax with Outmaneuver and Stealth Device (32 points)
- Omicron Groups Shuttle with Sensor Jammer, Recon Specialist, Tactician and Engine Upgrade x2 (34x2= 68 points)

Setup and first maneuvers

Beni won the Initiative in the throw and positioned the asteroids. He placed them quite well, making it difficult for me to block the movement of his Shuttles. He topped it by placing both Shuttles in his middle of the board, so that I had no easy way to try and outnumber one of his Shuttles.

The Shuttles approach the compact Rebel group along two lanes left by the asteroids

Surprisingly, for me, Beni kept Carnor Jax in the back... I suppose Carnor wanted to show off his red ship to the spectators and spent his first 2-3 turns slaloming about asteroids and the Shuttles.

Meanwhile, Carnor Jax tries his red ship by slaloming along the board...

In the meantime, I feinted with a maneuver of my squadron to the right...

The Rebel squadron stays in compact formation and seems to be approaching the Imperial ships around the asteroid to their left

 ... and then I changed directions to try to surprise Beni... It worked perfectly! On top of that, Beni, who thought I was going to be more or less in the center of the board, executed a pincer maneuver and stopped his central Shuttle while accelerating with the one to his right flank.

We have him in our sights!

Meanwhil, Carnor keeps smiling to a particularly interesting blonde in the public...

First Blood

Thanks to Airen and Dutch Vander, both Tala Z-95s shot with Target Lock and Focus... This (and being shot with 3 Homing Missiles and the Y-Wing Ion Cannon) was too much for the Shuttle, which exploded after receiving so much incoming damage (a total of 11 damage out of a possible maximum of 13... Focus+Target Lock is almost equal to maximum damage). The Sensor Jammer of the Shuttle only prevented one damage from the initial Airen's attack.

The missile gang does not joke!

Dogfight

Things became quite messy. I had to avoid the asteroid and divided my squadron, while Carnor realized there was something going on and approached the battle...

Big rock ahead!

Beni used the Tactician upgrade for the first time and almost one shot one of the Tala Z-95s.
And I started slowly piling damage on the Shuttle... death by thousand paper cuts, they call it.

That Shuttle looks scary once you have no more missiles!

 Some expert maneuvering on Beni's part allowed him to block all my ships, and gave Carnor a chance to use his Predator upgrade... Welcome to the fight, Carnor!

After a boost, Carnor has one of the Z-95s right where he wants...

Unfortunately for Carnor, his mind was still on the blonde, and he did not shoot too well, even though the Z-95's defense had been downgraded

 The fight's result seemed now very clear, and on top of that I managed to ionize Carnor with Dutch Vander while adding some extra damage on the Shuttle with Airen.

Dutch Vander ionizes Carnor

 Even though Beni made the Shuttle stop, I just kept behind him and blocking Carnor's path... Still, I realized he now could shoot on Airen... it looked dangerous, although with 4 attack dice against 2 defense, chances of him destroying Airen in one hit looked low.

The melee goes on...

 Carnor piled two damage on Airen and was ionized again...

And Carnor becomes ionized a second time

My last maneuver was quite easy, I let the Shuttle coast in front of me and K-turned with Airen to finish Carnor.

All Imperials have now Rebel ships on their 6

Airen deals the last point of damage to Carnor

and the Shuttle survived one more turn

 

The last hit on the Shuttle was obtained by the damaged Tala Z-95

I think the battle was decided when Beni fell for my feint, specially considering that he maneuvered in a way that left one of his Shuttles stranded against my whole squadron with no support from his other ships... Also, Carnor arrived very late to the fight and his Focus-blocking ability, which would have worked great with the Sensor Jammers, was not used enough.

Then main tactical idea to get from this dogfight is that you should always try to have your ships in positions in which they can support each other, so that the enemy won't get easy free attacks without you being able to respond in some way.