Armada interlude

This blog is mostly geared towards X-Wing battle reports, but I've played already many games of Armada and just wanted to write a bit about it.

I've been playing most of my games with Rebels against my friend Mario who has been playing with Imperials, and so far it has been a blast! I'll write here about our last game, only because it's the one I took most picture of!


Mat and 3D Rocks
For this game we used the Space Rocks (from www.space-rocks.net) and a new 3x6' mat.. The miniatures look even better than normal with this material!

Fleets
Mario played a VSD II and two Gladiators with Admiral Screed. I don't remember his upgrades, but one of the Gladiators had the Demolisher title, and both had Engine Techs.

I played with 3 Assault Frigates with Bel Iblis. All my ships had Advanced Projectors and Gunnery Teams, two of them had Enhanced Armaments and the third one had Bel Iblis. I heard of this list in the IFF podcast and decided to use it, as I had not played before without squadrons.

Mario won the initiative bid and decided to be first player. He then chose my "Intel Sweep" objective.


Setup
Mario chose his VSD as his objective ship and placed his Gladiators so as to threaten my objective ship (Bel Iblis). This was one of the reasons that cost him the game, as I was able to focus first in his Gladiators and then in his VSD, and he was unable to use his VSD to finish the Gladiators work.

This was my third game against Gladiators, so I decided to give them as little maneuver possibilities to flank me as possible and packed my ships in a tight formation.

The Rebels set up close to three of the objective tokens in a tight formation... the idea was to make it difficult for the Gladiators to flank them

The VSD starts far from the main action... it would need 3 turns (a battle takes 6) to get close to the Rebel ships

The Gladiators had a lot of trouble maneuvering in the close quarters with the 3 Assault Frigates, two asteroids and being in the corner of the map; here, the Demolisher Gladiator is in the sights of all 3 Assault Frigates in turn 3

The Demolisher Gladiator falls under the concentrated fire of the three Assault Frigates

After the encounter with the Gladiators, Demolisher was destroyed and the second Gladiator had taken two Hull damage (and it had not been able to shoot a single time at close range).

The VSD then got at firing range of the Assault Frigates and shot at the one that had been damaged a bit by the Demolisher. I positioned my second Frigate (which had not suffered damage) between the VSD and the damaged Frigate and risked a double arc attack from the VSD... the Assault Frigate took a hard beating but survived relatively well (Advanced Projectors in an Assault Frigate works wonderfully well).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The VSD is surrounded by the Assault Frigates

The VSD then maneuvered into the middle of a "death circle" formed by the three Assault Frigates and was destroyed in round 6.


Summary
The Gladiators are very scary ships, but positioning them is not so easy, especially if they have to attack a close formation. The VSD would have helped breaking that tight formation, but Mario had deployed it too far away, and this gave me a big advantage in the game, as I could always focus on half of his fleet at the time.

That decision and two badly timed criticals on the VSD gave me a big advantage and final score. I also won the "Intel Sweep" objective 3 to 2, adding 75 extra points to my tally.

Armada vs. X-Wing
If you are considering which game to play (if you don't want to play both as I do) then ask yourself:
- Do you like to plan ahead your strategy, or do you like simulations of ship of the line battles? Then Armada is your game.
- Do you prefer a more reactive game, in which the first plan is not so decisive (although it will always be important, of course) and that simulates an airplane dogfight? Then you cannot miss with X-Wing!

Will of the Empire campaign, R1 and R2

I played the first two scenarios of the campaign with my friend Antonio. They were both very nice and fun games.

R1: Test Flight
In Test Flight, the Rebel Alliance attempts to destroy the X1 TIE Advanced prototypes before the Empire can use them in action.


Rebels
Top Luke, (100 points) (played by Antonio)
- Luke Skywalker with R5-P9, Predator and Stealth Device (37)
- X-Wing Rookie x 3 (21x3)

Darth Messengers, Raider Corvette (170 points) (played by me, JL)
- Raider Corvette (Fore) with Quad Laser Cannons (56)
- Raider Corvette (Aft) with Quad Laser Cannons and Single Turbolasers (64)
- Tempest Squadron TIE Advanced with Cluster Missiles x2 (25x2)

I placed my TIE Advanced in the same side of the Raider as the Rebel attackers, which I think was a mistake

The Raider-class Corvette model is a beauty!

The Rebel strike party is ready to strike!

The X-Wings flew in tight formation while I tried to flank them with one of my TIEs

One of the X-Wings breaks off the attack and tries to escape the engagement to get information of the TIE Advanced prototypes back to the Rebellion

The X-Wings outmaneuver one of the TIEs and blow it to pìeces...

Meanwhile, the other TIE hits one of the X-Wings with its Cluster Missiles and scores a clean hit!

The reserved X-Wing meets its demise at the weapons of the mighty Raider!

The Raider proved a killing machine in this game

A bit later, the Raider scores a second kill destroying the last Rookie X-Wing

But Luke manages to escape with the Prototypes information having suffered only a couple hits to his shields

Summary
R1, Test Flight is a great scenario to learn how to use the Raider and show its strength... Being able to shoot twice with its primary weapon (spending 2 energy) at ranges 2-4, plus its secondary weapons makes this ship a weapons platform to be feared!


The scenario was won by Antonio because his setup was better than mine and he also flew his X-Wings much better than I did mine and outmaneuvered me the whole game... Also, from the story aspect point of view, it was great to see just Luke escaping to seal the Rebellion win!





R2: Ion Tempest
In Ion Tempest, the Imperial captain of the Raider lays a trap for the Rebels. The scenario additional mechanics make for a very interesting scenario.

Rebels
B-Wing Fury, (130 points) (played by Antonio)
- Ethan A'baht E-Wing with R2 Astromech, Calculation and Sensor Jammer (38)
- 2 x Blue B-Wing with Heavy Laser Cannon and Sensor Jammer (33x2)
- Blue B-Wing with Sensor Jammer (26)

Darth Messengers, Raider Corvette (203 points) (played by me, JL)
- Raider Corvette (Fore) with Ion Cannon Battery (56)
- Raider Corvette (Aft) with 2 Ion Cannon Batteries, Sensor Team and Engineering Team (72)
- Tempest Squadron TIE Advanced with Cluster Missiles (25)
- Saber Squadron TIE Interceptor with Predator and Autothrusters (26) 
- Saber Squadron TIE Interceptor with Crack Shot and Autothrusters (26) 


 Strategy
I wanted to use my Interceptors to flank Antonio's ships while he attacked the Raider, but from the beginning he tried to finish my escorts first, which I think was a sound tactic.

Raider escorts try to flank the Rebels

The Raider starts moving to capture Rebel ships!

The Rebel wings concentrate their fire on the TIE Inteceptors and destroyed one of them

 The battle was very close and the Ion Storm disrupted Antonio's movement more than mine. He got very close to crippling the Raider, but I managed to capture one of his B-Wings and destroy the E-Wing and another of his B-Wings... Capturing ships was extremely difficult!

Etahn is not careful and crushes against the Raider... in the back, one of the B-Wings is shot down by the remaining TIE Interceptor (not in the picture because it was behind the Raider)

The last B-Wing is ionized, but manages to escape into hyperspace with a Barrel Roll

Summary
Another very fun scenario. I think the victory conditions are such that it was more probable to end in a draw, although anything could happen... In this one I think I maneuvered a bit better than Antonio (probably also thanks to the help of the Ion Storm that annoyed him more than me).

Antonio got too close to the Raider with his B-Wings and was not able to use his HLCs much. I think part of the reason was because of my flanking maneuvers with my TIEs. He had to take the decision to actively get rid of them, and that made his position worse later in the scenario. I still think his decision was sound; if he had ignored my TIE escorts, things would have been worse for him.

So, now we only have to finish scenario R4 to finish with the campaign... with the end of the vacation season it will be more difficult to play, as we are using our gaming time to play Epic battles, but I hope it won't be long until we manage to finish this wonderful campaign.

Summer, Armada, Imperial Assault and lots of gaming...

Summer is the best time to rest the body, and to rest the soul with lots of gaming!

I have been very busy gaming, so busy in fact that, because of that and my vacations in Spain, I did not have the time to write any battle reports... So just a quick summary of the past months before getting to the latest battles.

Imperial Assault
I'm having a blast with the game. Descent has always been my favorite game (and probably the one I've spent most time playing) and I think Imperial Assault is a big improvement. The story is better written, the alternate activations reduce the downtime and the limit of extra movement points that the Hero players can take per turn makes things a bit less chaotic.

I have been running a campaign with 4 friends in the last months and we are now in the middle of the last scenario. I think they have a good chance to win it, but it's not decided yet (I'd say a 70-30 % in their favor). All scenarios of the campaign have been very balanced (with a difference of just one or two actions deciding the game), so I've been very pleased with the game so far.

Armada
I started playing Armada with a friend that lost the X-Wing train (I actually think his gaming style fits better with Armada). The game is going to be another big success for FFG. Its mechanics are extremely well thought. Each game feels like what a big fleet encounter should be, and the game is very fast for the strategic depth it has.

I think FFG has managed to give Armada the correct flavor. While X-Wing is a game of reaction to your opponent(s)' movements and guessing where they'll maneuver next and thus a wonderful simulation of a dogfight, Armada feels much more strategic: you must have a battle plan in your mind when you create your fleet and sticking to it as much as possible is the secret to success; yes, you must also react to your opponent's actions, but only insofar as to adapt your initial plan; if you change your plan radically, either voluntarily or forced by your opponent's movements, you'll most probably lose the game.

X-Wing
Well, lots of good news from X-Wing. I've bought all the expansions so far and am very happy with them and with the ones that will arrive soon. I'm also very excited with the upcoming Force Awakens movie and am even trying to save some time from my busy schedule to watch Star Wars Rebels.

During summer I tried most of my new Scum ships in preparation for a local tournament in which I could finally not participate due to unfortunate personal circumstances.

I also received the first Huge Imperial ship: the Raider Corvette! I've already played three games with it (reports coming soon) and find it a very interesting addition to the X-Wing family.

With most friends back from their vacation, we managed to play yet another great Epic battle!

And that's the quick summary of the summer... now move on to the battle reports.

Epic Team Battle 2

For our second epic battle, we ramped up to 150 points per player. One of my friends missed the date, so I had to play with 300 points as the Rebel (which proved quite demanding).

Teams

Rebels
Darth Messengers, CR90 escort (150 points) (played by me, JL)
- Arvel Crynyd A-Wing with Test Pilot, Intimidation, Autothrusters and Chardaan Refit (25)
- Green Squadron A-Wing with Intimidation, Autothrusters and Chardaan Refit x2 (21x2)
- Horton Salm Y-Wing with BTL-A4 title, Ion Cannon Turret, Proton Torpedoes, Extra Munitions and Munitions Failsafe (37)
- Gold Squadron Y-Wing with BTL-A4 title and Ion Cannon Turret x2 (23x2)

Darth Messengers, CR90 (150 points) (played by me, JL)
- CR90 Corvette (Fore) with Ion Cannon Battery, Sensor Team, Gunnery Team and Comms Bosster (68)
- CR90 Corvette (Aft) with Weapons Engineer, Ion Cannon Battery and Backup Shield Generator (52)
- Jan Ors HWK-290 with Ion Cannon Turret (30)


Imperials 
Rickbane (150 points) (played by Ricardo)
- Soontir Fel TIE-Interceptor with Push the Limit and Autothrusters (32)
- Shadow Squadrom Phantom with Fire Control System, Recon Specialist and Advanced Cloaking Device x2 (36x2) 
- Storm Squadron TIE-Advanced with x1 title and Accuracy Corrector x2 (23x2)

Rombic (150 points) (played by Antonio)
- Captain Jonus TIE Bomber (25)
- Omicron Group Lambda Shuttle with Heavy Laser Cannon, Sensor Jammer and Tactical Jammer (33)
- Omicron Group Lambda Shuttle with Heavy Laser Cannon (28)
- Lieutenant Colzet TIE-Advanced with x1 title, Cluster Missiles and Sensor Jammer (27)
- Delta Squadron TIE-Defender with Heavy Laser Cannon (37)

Rebel Tactics

This time I wanted to go full thematic and to create a couple squadrons that would protect the Corvette. I also wanted to try the BTL-A4 title for the Y-Wings, so I created a Y-Wing squadron with Horton Salm as leader (his ability to re-roll blanks is awesome). Because of that, I decided to try the Ion Cannon Batteries with the Corvette. As blockers I decided to use A-Wings; they are highly maneuverable and may dodge a lot of attacks, and Arvel Crynyd is the best blocker out there.

I then finished adding Jan Ors as support ship. I wanted to feel the awesomeness of rolling 6 attack dice with the Corvette! I completed the Corvette with Weapons Engineer and Sensor Team to always be able to re-roll the Corvette's dice (not having Focus as possible action is a big disadvantage).

My last points went for Comms Booster and Backup Shield Generator. I regret not having changed these for Gas Tibanna Supplies, because I always had trouble with Energy and were not able to use those two cards... so points wasted.

Imperial Tactics

In the Imperial list I saw they had gone for the nemesis of the Corvette: Heavy Laser Cannons and Phantoms... These two things are overkill against a Corvette with its 0 Agility roll. Combine the Heavy Laser Cannons with Jonus, and you are going to deal a ton of damage to low Agility ships.

I also feel the Omicron Lambda with Sensor Jammer and Tactical Jammer was annoying and very difficult to kill... You need to score 10 points against a ship with Sensor Jammer! Seeing all the ships from that squadron huddling behind the Lambda was quite fun.

The Battle

With 600 points on the table, the Epic battle started to shine! Already from the setup there were a lot of tactical decisions to make on who to flank, counter-flank, protect or not the Corvette's engine area, etc. The battle took us a bit more than 270 minutes, was intense and very fun. Also, having to manage 300 points is heavy on your concentration and I did many noobie mistakes... fortunately, I was able to whine myself out of a couple predicaments, to the annoyance of my fellow players! Double hit! :))

Here is the summary:

Starting situation; two main groups close on the Corvette; I decided to flank the group in the center with my squadrons and then try to go back on the other group; the Imperials decided (correctly, I think) to have Soontir flank my squadrons

The evil Cannoneers have the Corvette in their target locks!

Situation at the beginning of the second turn

During the combat phase of the 1st turn, the Corvette shot 6 dice with Target Lock on one of the Phantoms and failed miserably (only 2 hits that were easily evaded by the Phantom).

Horton Salm launched his first missiles at the Shuttle (a noob error as he did not have Focus to counter the Sensor Jammer; on top of that, I forgot to re-roll my blank results; I whined like a pro and managed to convince the Imperials to let me roll a die for 50% chance of not launching the missiles, but I lost the toss). I scored 1 lousy hit on the Shuttle, which shot back at Horton for 4 solid hits!

Meanwhile, I decided to try to hunt Soontir with my A-Wings, as I think not putting any pressure on Soontir would be disastrous for me.

Beginning of second turn, from Imperials perspective

Situation at the end of round 3

On the bottom of the field, Soontir managed to avoid crashing into Arvel by a millimeter. We actually rolled to see 50% what happened and I lost again the toss (it would become a regular happening in this battle). I think this was the action that decided a big part of the battle, as from then on I had to keep at least two of my ships harassing Soontir every turn. At least I managed to survive his attack and my A-Wing suffered only 2 damages.

They decided to divide their main group. For me it was a good thing, because it took some heat away from the Corvette and also made Jonus's re-roll ability less powerful.

At the top, the Corvette was able to finally hit one of the Phantoms, then ionized it. It also ionized one of the TIE Advanced. It was one of its best turns, but still did not do much damage, even with all the re-rolls that the Sensor Team and Weapons Engineer allowed it.

Horton Salm ionizes the TIE Defender; the Omicron did not shoot so well this time and scored only 1 hit back

Ionized in the previous turn, all my ships focused fire on the Defender; I used this time one of my A-Wings to reduce its Agility; the Corvette scored the final hits with its primary weapon: 4 hits with one shot!

And here we see the Corvette blowing up one of the Phantoms with the Ion Cannon Batteries in the same turn. It had taken me 2 6-dice with re-roll primary weapon attacks and 2 re-roll Ion Cannon Battery attacks to destroy it: too many resources for just one ship.

In the following turn, Soontir finally manages to hunt down one of my A-Wings (I managed to harass him and survive 3 turns after his first attack!)

One of the funniest situations happened in the center. I managed to ionize one of the Lambdas and Captain Jonus. As my Corvette was in its last Hull points, I rammed the Shuttle and crippled also my front with an asteroid hit

The remaining Phantom cripples the aft part of the Corvette and destroys it. We discussed how cool would it be to have rules that would drop debris tokens on the map when a ship is blown

Captain Jonus is destroyed thanks to the focused fire of one of my Y-wings and one A-Wing

The 270 minutes had passed, and the final score was 141 points for the Imperials (the Corvette and one of the Green Squadron A-Wings) and 131 for me (Captain Jonus, the Delta Squadron TIE Defender, one Shadow Squadron Phantom and the Omicron Lambda with Sensor Jammer). A very close game, full of nice tactical and strategical decisions.

We had a bit of time and decided to play 1 more turn. I almost managed to destroy Soontir Fel (he escaped with 1 Hull point from another ambush), and the Imperials finally destroyed Horton Salm (who, by the way, never used his awesome re-roll ability...).

The surviving Shadow Phantom shoots down Horton Salm

Summary

The game ended with an Imperial minor victory... I think the deciding event was Soontir's narrow escape from my A-Wings' ambush. Half a centimeter and he would have crashed against Arvel. I would have used Jan Ors to give him an extra attack die, and I would have been able to attack him with 4 attack dice against 2 agility with no Focus (plus a second A-Wing would have had also a shot on him)... As it turned out, Soontir proved to be the best Imperial pilot and kept my ships busy for the rest of the game (and single handedly destroyed one of the A-Wings).

As for my list, I think it lacked punch power. The BTL-A4 title makes the Y-Wings a bit more competitive, but they still feel a bit sub-optimal. I completely forgot to use Horton's ability, but I guess this was compensated by the Imperial players forgetting also to use their Fire Control Systems... Having to manage 150 points (300 in my case) is very challenging.

Another thing to comment is on the Corvette. It still feels somewhat sub-optimal for its cost, though it makes the game much more interesting. In retrospect, I think my decision to also use the A-Wings for flanking their center group was not the correct one, and I should have used them for the original purpose I had in mind: to create a screen for the Corvette. As it turned out, 1 of their Phantoms and 2 of the TIE Advanced had a very easy hunt, as the Corvette is not powerful enough to fend off so many ships by itself (although it costs roughly the same amount: 120 points for the Corvette for 118 points for the two Phantoms and TIE Advanced, which were especially optimized to hunt down the Corvette because of their Pilot Skills).

Anyway, another great X-Wing game. It was very fun and tactically exciting. I even managed to whine my way out of a couple of tough spots... My apologies to the Imperials... well, not really... :P


Well, now comes the time for a well deserved vacation! The problem is that my friends' vacation won't coordinate too well with mine, so I think we won't be able to play our next Epic battle until late August... Until then, keep flying!

(cut scene)

(Soontir is surrounded by 3 enemy fighters)

Arvel: Well done, boys! We have him right where we wanted; he cannot escape now!

Soontir: focus, focus, focus, veer to the right... and full throttle to the left!

Arvel: Where did he go? He disappeared from my sights!

Green One: Help! I have him at my 7!
Soontir: focus focus focus (laser cannon sounds) (A-wing explodes)

Soontir: for the Emperor!
(yes, he is so frightening as a Terminator Space Marine)

Epic Team Battle 1

For our first trial, we decided to go for teams with 120 points per player.

Teams

Rebels
Rombic (120 points) (played by Antonio)
- Jake Farrel A-Wing with Test Pilot, Assault Missiles, Push the Limit and Autothrusters (34)
- Blue Squadron B-Wing with Ion Torpedoes (27)
- Gold Squadron Y-Wing with Ion Cannon Turret (23)
- Rookie X-Wing (21)
- Prototype A-Wing with Chardaan Refit (15)  

Darth Messengers (119 points) (played by me, JL)
- CR90 Corvette (Fore) with Dodonna's Pride, Single Turbolasers, Engineering Team and Comms Booster (70)
- CR90 Corvette (Aft) with Quad Laser Cannons and Backup Shield Generator (49)


Imperials 
Rickbane (120 points) (played by Ricardo)
- Soontir Fel TIE-Interceptor with Push the Limit and Autothrusters (32)
- Colonel Vessery TIE- Defender with Adrenaline Rush (36)
- Sigma Squadrom Phantom with Fire Control System and Stygium Particle Accelerator (29) 
- Lieutenant Colzet TIE-Advanced with x1 title and Fire Control System (23)

Tardis (120 points) (played by Beni)
- Rear Admiral Chiraneau Decimator with Determination, Proximity Mines, Mercenary Copilot, Gunner, Ysanne Isard and Engine Upgrade (65)
- Krassis Trelix Firespray-31 with Heavy Laser Cannon, Proximity Mines, Gunner and Engine Upgrade (55)

Rebel Tactics

Our main idea was to combine the Comms Booster of the CR90 with Jake Farrell's power, to give him a lot of maneuverability. We added also a couple of blast missiles to our lists to have some sort of swarm control. Finally, the 4 non-unique ships would be assigned to the protection of the aft section of the Corvette, its weakest point.

Imperial Tactics

From their list, the ship I feared the most was Krassis Trelix with his Heavy Laser Cannon. This sort of weapon can be very dangerous for the Corvette (especially when coupled with Krassis ability that allows him to re-roll 1 die for free when using secondary weapons).
In that sense, the Phantom also seemed a big threat for the Corvette, because of its 4-dice attack.
The other nice combo was to have so many FCs coupled with Colonel Vessery's ability.
The proximity mines look scary on paper, but they are difficult to deploy (I have already some experience with them), so they did not worry me so much,

The Battle

Even though there were 479 points on the table, as we played with a 90x180cm field, it looked a bit empty. The battle felt more like a big skirmish, as there were not many possibilities of flanking strategies (not enough points for that, compared with the next battle as you'll see in my next post).

Still, the feeling of fielding so many ships at once was very exhilararing, and there were plenty of good and fun moments.

The Imperial patrol catches sight on a poor lonely Rebel Corvette and approaches it with evil intentions...

The Corvette is protected by a small group of Rebel fighters lead by the valerous Jake Farrel

A detailed view of the Rebels

Krassis closes as fast as he can on the Corvette with the intention of using his Heavy Laser Cannon; meanwhile, the Corvette starts firing on Chirenau's Decimator

A miscommunication problem caused some trouble in the Rebel escort ships...

Jake Farrel launches his Assault Missiles with great success against the Imperial leader, the dreaded Admiral Chirenau; the blast caught also the TIE Phantom. Meanwhile, the Corvette concentrates fire on Chirenau, while deflecting the shields to the front, to better protect itself against Krassis' HLC

A calculation error lands Krassis between Corvette and asteroid... The Prototype A-Wing blocked Krassis' move to his right, he turned left and landed on the asteroid, unable to use his Engine Upgrade to escape the incoming Corvette... HONK HONK (last sounds heard by Krassis)

With Krassis gone, things look dire for the Imperials; Chirenau is being shot at by the Corvette and its escorts, and the rest of the Imperial patrol is unable to focus fire

Chirenau's Decimator is destroyed under the heavy barrage

Soontir Fel manages to evade the Rebel escort screen and approaches the Corvette, but has not too much space to maneuver;
meanwhile, an intense fight erupts among the escorts of both fleets, punctuated every now and then by the barrages of the CR90s weapons!
The B-Wing is destroyed after a valiant fight!

Lieutenant Colzet's TIE Advanced blows in pieces, surrounded by Rebel fighters

The Rebels have gained the upper hand, and even Soontir has trouble connecting good attacks

The Corvette shoots down the Phantom, which had been severely damaged from previous shots

Colonel Vessery becomes the last victim of the CR90 escort

Summary

The game ended in an Imperial rout... The turning point was Krassis collision with the CR90. Also, the Rebels managed to concentrate their fire much better than the Imperials, and Jake Farrel's coordination with the Corvette's comms booster worked to perfection, as he could almost always be where he was most needed. Finally, Rombic rolls were consistently above average (apparently, some Karmic balance to an incident that happened during the very first turn and caused some trouble in his maneuvering). :))

On the Imperial side, there was not much to celebrate. Their rolls were below average and they needed more time than normal to finish the first escort (the B-Wing) on which they focused (although also with not much success). Also, Krassis's collision with the asteroid and being trampled by the CR90 meant the Corvette was completely free to harass the rest of the Imperial ships from a distance.

The game was very fun, with plenty of heroic moments, saves and deaths because of small miscalculations and lot of good-spirit mocking, bragging and joking... as usual, a pleasure to play X-Wing!

And stay tuned to our next transmission! Another Epic Team Battle, this time with 150 points per player.

(cut scene)

(Krassis drives his Firespray while listening to Bob Marley's "Bad Boys")

Krassis: CR90 reduce your speed, you are in a highly protected ecologic area. Exogorths are known to breed in the area, and the vibrations of your engine might disturb them

CR90: (pzt, brr, static) please repeat the order

Krassis: CR90, that's it, smartass. Stop the ship and prepare to be boarded for inspection and for violating order 66-2 of the Imperial Ecologic Bureau.

(a big Exogorth sticks annoyed its head out of a nearby asteroid and grapples Krassis' Firespray)Krassis: Aggh!
CR90: (pzt, brr, static) Shit! An Exogorth colony! Quickly, full throttle before they grapple us...
(crash noises)

CR90: (pzt, brr, static) Did you hear anything? Tell that metal bucket to come here and fix this comm relay.
R2D2 unit: titoo too tip

Chirenau: Oh my Emperor! They killed Krassis! You bastards! Destroy that Corvette!

Ramping up for Epic battles!

The last months have been filled with lots of activity, and a lot of X-Wing gaming.

Actually, there was so many things going on, that I decided not to publish any comments for lack of time, and also because they were mostly Tournament-style 100-points skirmishes.

Two big events happened for my X-Wing gaming: a big regional tournament in which I participated and finished 3rd out of 27 players (using a variant of the famous YT-2400 + Corran Horn (E-Wing)), and an evening tournament I organized at the gaming club I'm member of. Both of them were lots of fun, and especially the one in my club was run in a great atmosphere (plus I won it!). Before and after, I played several skirmishes to try out different lists.

The most important thing is that we finally are getting ready to fight a big Epic Team battle, and that will be the theme of the next few posts.

Now, a couple pictures of what happened with X-Wing in the last couple months:

My prize for being 3rd (I won 4 battles and lost 1) in a regional tournament

Small tournament in my club (we were 6 people; I won 3 games and lost none)

One of my battles. My version of Corran Horn (with R2D2 and FCS) proved very durable and tough to beat

A battle during the tournament using my secondary mat; this was the first time I used it; the problem is that the geometric patterns are too confusing

A tutorial I ran on Huge ships; in this case, the CR90 Corvette