Hello

I was fortunate to takes notes and pictures of a semi-casual game at my local gaming store and both players were kind enough to let me share it with everyone:

Note: you should be able to click on each image for a slightly larger version or zoom in on your browser (CTRL + for PC). Enjoy!

List overview and tricks:

Empire:

• Swarm tactics allows the shuttle to fire before Vessery, netting a TL (target lock) using the fire control system which can then be used by Vessery in the same shooting phase.

Rebels:

• Each and every ship can cause stress and/or ionize.
• Hobbie can use R3-A2 to cause stress to any ship which he will then clear using his own or Dutch's target lock.
• The B-Wing is capable of causing stress and ionization at the same time.
• The Flechette Torpedo makes any Y-Wing dangerous at range 3 on the initial pass.

A lot happens in the Turn 3 shooting phase! Dutch fires his Flechette Torpedoes and completed misses the Tie Interceptor but still gives it a stress token on top of it's push the limit stress (munition failsafe would have been nice here). Hobbie then fires at the same Tie interceptor, uses R3 to give the T/I and himself a stress but then uses the target lock from Dutch to clear that stress. The poor Tie Interceptor now has 1 damage from Hobbie, but more importantly 3 stress tokens! A push-the-limit Tie Interceptor that won't be able to take a single action for the next 3 turns!

Here there rebel player has a very tough choice, continue to mount pressure on the empire and get the ion+stress synergy to start working or dodge the giant asteroid. In his place I think I would have also opted to keep formation while the initial pass is completed. On the Empire side, a really tough choice is made on what to do with the T/I. Have it go out in a blaze of glory or have it circle the battlefield for 3 turns in the hopes of clearing it's stress before the fight is over!?

In a brilliant use of Swarm Tactics, the shuttle fires first in order to allow for Vessery's skill to activate. In return the rebels dish out moer stress and ionization than I have ever seen! Welcome the Wave 4 synergetic rebels!

Turn 6 continued in the next post...

... continued from Turn 5

I hope you found this battle report enterntaining!

Please post any comments, suggestions, thoughts, questions and requests!

Wow, very cool! What program did you use to create the turn summary and all that?

Wow, very cool! What program did you use to create the turn summary and all that?

I am glad that you liked this! I used Paint.net to sharpen the images where I could. I used two PowerPoint effect pre-sets to create the 3D looking side panels and to place the ship images on top. Everything else is text and ascii value derived text. The final "slide" is grouped together as one object and exported as .jpg, then trimmed again using PowerPoint. The biggest problem with this is the image compression: a 14Mb presentation has to be reduced down to 2 by the PowerPoint export tool, photobucket (the upload site I am using) and this forum.

Very nice battle report! I wasn't expecting the Rebels to turn right in front of the big asteroid, but then it looked very good after the incredible stress/ion rounds. Impressive display of the new equipment.

Great presentation. I love the pictures of each ship included in the background of their blue status cards. Laughed at the Shuttle going poof.

As a graphic designer this is pretty cool!

One mistake I noticed, for turn 3 shooting you duplicated the turn 3 movements for the dialogue boxes.

Very nice battle report! I wasn't expecting the Rebels to turn right in front of the big asteroid, but then it looked very good after the incredible stress/ion rounds. Impressive display of the new equipment.

Great presentation. I love the pictures of each ship included in the background of their blue status cards. Laughed at the Shuttle going poof.

Thank you for your comments! I wish I titled the battle report better because that was the whole point: to show what Wave 4 and Rebel Aces have brought to the table for the Rebels! A Rebel player can now run a list where every single ship has ion or stress capabilities! The bad guys can all now work together while the Empire is still left with a bit selfish pilots.

As a graphic designer this is pretty cool!

One mistake I noticed, for turn 3 shooting you duplicated the turn 3 movements for the dialogue boxes.

Thanks! Turn 3 shooting just had so much going in it that I abondoned the boxes and wrote it out underneath the image. To me that was one of the most jaw dropping moments in X-Wing that I have ever seen! Here you had a regular Push-the-Limit Interceptor chugging along and suddenly it ends up with 3 stress on it! From one of the best outflankers in the game it was reducing to a regular Alpha Interceptor with no actions and no arc evasion! In this case, the T/I was the cheapest possible but what if that was Jax or Fel or how about Vader, Whisper or Echo? A ship that relies on it's action economy would be totalled!

The same way Turn 6 showed something that Vessery is good at: double stressed, but still manages to pull a K-Turn and get a TL!

Using my stress shuttle build(adv sensors, gunner, tactician, engine upgrade) I've put double or tripple stress on a target (after it k turned). Tactician is amazing. Darth k turned and ended up at range 2 of a shuttle, he dodged both shots but ended up with 3 stress, taking him out of the fight for the next 3-4 turns, when he finally came back into the fight I took him

That sure is a nasty rebel list though.

Same thing happened yesterday in a 150 pt game. Corran Horn K-turned, and Kath Scarlet shot him at Range 3, triggering Merc Copilot and causing him to be double stressed. He got left behind by his B-wing buddies and the Defender swooped in to kill him when he was trying to shed stress.

It was definitely the first game I've played where the Imperial (my side) was generating stress and seeing the benefits of it. The OGP Buzzsaw had Rebel Captive on him, so at one point a B-wing had 3 stress tokens. Even though they were shooting at me, most of the shots weren't effective. This gives me many ideas and lists I want to try next!

Thank you for sharing your gaming experience with stress, nurglez and kryzak!

I wonder if stress inducing / giving will become a tournament thing or if competitive players will ignore it in favor of more firepower? I guess that only time will tell!

The only down side of stress inducing for the Imperials (which have a harder time to do it since they don't have that darn R3-A2) is that it's not reliable. Tactician is Range 2 only, Kath requires crits, so needs Marksmanship or Merc Copilot and a tiny bit of luck. Flechette Torps are one shot only. And Rebel Captive requires someone to shoot at you. There isn't a "point and that person is stressed 100%" use case that I can think of.

Well, not at least until Mara Jade comes out!

I can't wait until Mara Jade is out!!!

Wow, great report and a unique squad.

Wow, great report and a unique squad.

Bobby, who was playing in this game? Gus and James again?

By the way, looking forward to your next report Bobby. Well, done!

Wow, great report and a unique squad.

This is indicative of the types of lists being flown at GameKastle. We certainly don't stagnate in terms of the lists we like to experiment with.

Bobby, who was playing in this game? Gus and James again?

By the way, looking forward to your next report Bobby. Well, done!

Thanks! I really have to agree that stagnation is not a problem at GameKastle. If anything things are moving too quickly and I don't have time to make any good lists!

This game is between Isaac and Walker. Gus and James is a good guess, their game will be the next battle report (Tala Squadron Z-Wings vs Tie Phantoms).