Attack on Actaeon Station

Rebel Briefing:

“Alright pilots. Settle down. As you know, we have been hitting the Imperials where they are weak for a few months in this sector. This has forced them to spread their resources thin in an attempt to cover everything. Military Intelligence has identified a space station that is crucial to the Imperial supply line called Actaeon Station. While we were investigating it to see if it’s a weak target, we have learned that Moff Jererrod will be inspecting this station very soon. This is too tempting a target to pass up! Not only do we get a chance to break their supply line, but we get a chance to take out the Moff of the whole sector!

Now, the Tantive IV will be brought in to take down Actaeon Station with its Turbo Lasers, but we haven’t fully checked out the defenses. Horton Salm will lead Gold Squadron on a torpedo run to help take it down. Green Squadron will run interference for them and try to clear a path. Garven Dreis will lead Red Squadron as a multi-purpose roll. If they need to protect the Tantive, then they can do it. The X-wings will also be loaded with Proton Torpedoes to if they need to lend a hand against Actaeon Station.

Good luck, and may the Force be with you.”

Actaeon Station

Captain Kagi was chatting with the bridge crew of a patrol VT-49 that was in for re-supply. They’ve been on long range patrols to protect shipping lanes against Rebel raids. Kagi remembers these kinds of missions before he became assigned as the personal pilot for the local Moff. It was Kagi’s duty to protect Moff Jererrod when he travels through his sector. To his credit, this Moff seemed competent and was active in his administration of military defense forces.

Suddenly, alarm klaxons sounded throughout the station. Warning over the intercom announced a Rebel attack and ordered all ships scrambled. Kagi knew that Moff Jererrod would want to stay on the bridge instead of running, so Kagi jumped into his cockpit and fired up the engine. It was his duty to ensure that the Moff was protected. To this end, the Captain started to broadcast signal codes that the Moff was still onboard his ship. This should throw the Rebels for a loop and perhaps save the station. Knowing all the attention that he would get, Captain Kagi fired up the Sensor Jammers.

Rebel Forces

CR-90 - Tantive IV title

• Fore Section = Single Turbolaser, Gunnery Team, Ionization Reactor, Mercenary Copilot
• Aft Section = Single Turbolaser, Quad Laser Turret, Engineering Team, Gunnery Team, Sensor Team, Backup Shield Generator, Chewbacca

Attack Wing

• Horton Salm = 2 x Proton Torpedo, Ion Turret
• Grey Squadron Pilot = 2 x Proton Torpedo, Ion Turret
• Gold Squadron Pilot = 2 x Proton Torpedo, Blaster Turret

Interceptor Wing

• Green Squadron Pilot = Cluster Missiles, Veteran Instinct
• Green Squadron Pilot = Cluster Missiles
• Prototype Pilot = Cluster Missiles

X-wings

• Garven Dreis = Proton Torpedo
• Red Squadron Pilot = Proton Torpedo
• Rookie Pilot = Proton Torpedo

Imperial Forces

Space Station

• Command Tower = Moff Jerjerrod, Sensor Team
• Section 1 = Quad Laser Turret, Proton Torpedo
• Section 2 = Single Turbolaser, Proton Torpedo
• Section 3 = Quad Laser Turret, Proton Torpedo
• Section 4 = Single Turbolaser, Proton Torpedo

Defense Squadron

• Black Squadron Pilot
• Obsidian Squadron Pilot
• Academy Pilot
• Academy Pilot

Interceptor Squadron

• Sabre Squadron Pilot = Autothrusters
• Avenger Squadron Pilot = Autothrusters
• Kir Kanos = Autothrusters

Bomber Squadron

• Gamma Squadron Pilot = Concussion Missiles, Proximity Mine
• Scimitar Squadron Pilot = Concussion Missiles, Proximity Mine
• Scimitar Squadron Pilot = Concussion Missiles, Proximity Mine

Nearby Ships

• Patrol Leader (VT-49) = Gunner
• Captain Kagi (Lambda) = Sensor Jammers

SETUP

Table was 6’x4’. Station was in the middle of the far 2x4 area. Rebels start off at R2 from their table edge. Deploy one squad at a time, starting with Imperials. Rebels have the imitative.

I know the Imperial strategy was to have the Tie Fighters screen the Tie Bombers while the Bombers drop their mines in the middle. The Interceptors deployed first in the back rear to not really commit as they are fast can and can get anywhere. The Decimator wanted to go up the far right side to go up the middle and distract the enemy enough to get them away from the station. Kagi was going to stick close to the station for anyone who made a fast run on the station to prevent them from making a quick punch.

Poor planning on the Imperial part put the high PS pilot next to the Bombers, which makes it hard for them to swing in behind them.

Also, the Tie Interceptors ended up a bit far from the fight to start with as it took two full turns of full speed w/ Boost to just get to the slow rolling Tie Fighters on the left side.

The Rebels decided to concentrate their ships in the middle. The A-wings zipped in from the edges to the flanks of the Y-wings. The X-wings moved up on the Y’s other side. Surprising to us, the Tantive IV hung back and stayed out of range. We were happy about this as it meant we weren’t getting hit!

Tie Bombers were all messed up at an angle and couldn’t all drop bombs in formation and not hit each other. That was my fault. I dropped Proximity Mines on two and ended up having the last Scimitar cut off to the side. The Tie Fighters moved up to engage and the Decimator flanked up to fire at X-wings. The Tie Interceptors were at R3 of everyone in the middle.

The Rebels in the middle concentrated fire on the Tie Fighters, who couldn’t roll evade dice to save their lives. Maybe it was that most were fresh from the Academy as those two died in one turn. The Tie Intercpetors fired at the A-wings, whom avoided most damage due to nimble flying. Kir Kanos was able to put in some extra damage, which helped.

The Rebels decided to concentrate their ships in the middle. The A-wings zipped in from the edges to the flanks of the Y-wings. The X-wings moved up on the Y’s other side. Surprising to us, the Tantive IV hung back and stayed out of range. We were happy about this as it meant we weren’t getting hit!

Tie Bombers were all messed up at an angle and couldn’t all drop bombs in formation and not hit each other. That was my fault. I dropped Proximity Mines on two and ended up having the last Scimitar cut off to the side. The Tie Fighters moved up to engage and the Decimator flanked up to fire at X-wings. The Tie Interceptors were at R3 of everyone in the middle.

The Rebels in the middle concentrated fire on the Tie Fighters, who couldn’t roll evade dice to save their lives. Maybe it was that most were fresh from the Academy as those two died in one turn. The Tie Intercpetors fired at the A-wings, whom avoided most damage due to nimble flying. Kir Kanos was able to put in some extra damage, which helped.

The Tantive IV did start to move up and get the Decimator in range. After several shots there, the VT-49 lost a number of shields. The X-wings also all veered in after the Patrol Leader. While it all was going to plan, it didn’t look good for the VT-49. The Tie Bomber that veered off targeted the Rookie. The Patrol Leader was able to knock off some shield while a Concussion Missile blasted the X-wing to dust. The VT-49 Patrol Leader didn’t last long enough to celebrate, though, as the other X-wings finished it off.

The other two Tie Bombers moved up and ignored commands to concentrate their TL’s on the same Y-wing. One fired and hit the shields of Horton while the other ended up firing main weapons in an attempt to take out a damaged A-wing. The Black Squadron Pilot was ionized by the Y-wings and shot down. The A-wings did some crazy maneuvers, but only managed to damage one Bomber. The Interceptors bumped into the A-wings, but crippled a few of them. One veered off to avoid more damage, but the Prototype pilot was blasted to oblivion after a near collision with a Y-wing. The A-wings did survive quite a bit of firepower. They were smoking, but most were still flying.

At this point, things had been looking grim for the Imperials. They had lost 3 Tie Fighters without finishing off a single enemy ship. It started to change with one X-wing and one A-wing down, but there were a lot fewer Imperial ships to stop them all. The Y-wings looked like they could buzz on through. The CR-90 surprisingly hung back and didn’t fire much. It started to move up and clip one of the Tie Bombers.

Here, the one Tie Bomber ended up barrel rolling closer to the X-wings, which saved its life. Red Leader bumped into him and the Red Squadie cruised right in his sights. Before it could fire, though, the Space Station guns opened fire. The main gun took out the shields and did some damage to the X-wing. It must’ve hit it’s stabilizers as it couldn’t avoid the Single Turbolaser and was blasted into oblivion! 6 green dice had only one evade.

The last Tie Fighter was shot up bad. One Tie Interceptor was taken out by concentrated Y-wing and A-wing fire. The Interceptors K-turned and one was promptly ionized. One Bomber cruised behind a Y-wing and shot up its shields a bit before being ionized in return.

The Tie Bomber with the last missile tried to K-turn to get an actual shot off on the Y-wing it TL’ed. It was just out of range. The A-wing here had a critical where you had to roll a damage die for red maneuvers. It did a K-turn and ended up taking off its last hull point when it broke apart. The CR-90 blasted a few hull points off both Bombers, but they evaded the Single Turbo Lasers better than the X-wing.

On the right, the Tie Bomber who didn’t drop his bombs cruised forward and dropped them right onto Garven Dreis! It knocked out his shields and gave him a hull damage. Red Leader then bumped into the Shuttle and couldn’t shoot. Oh, the Shuttle had taken some shield damage at one point from an X-wing attack.

At this point, the Imperials were feeling good. They had finally managed to take down a large number of Rebel ships and only the Y-wings were left. They had slowly mucked through the middle and not gunned for the station. Now, they were in the middle of a Tie Interceptor squad.

It wasn’t long before the Y-wings were taken down. We did lose the last Tie Fighter. Also, a Tie Bomber got blasted by the CR-90.

The Tantive IV rolls up and kills the other Tie Bomber. That’s the one that never fired his missile when he should’ve. After that, it kills the last Tie Bomber. It’s viscous with 5 red dice and TL.

The next turn, the Tantive IV rolls up and almost runs over the Shuttle! It missed by millimeters. It takes its frustration out on the last generic Tie Advanced and main guns land 5 hits. Direct Hit crit knocks it out.

Garven Dreis makes a run at Actaeon Station!

Gets the TL. Opens fire…and knocks out 3 shield from that section. Next….

At this point, we call it. We started late due to real life and it was close to midnight. There was little chance of the Tantive being to take down the Station and live through the sustained firepower of the remaining ships.

GAME THOUGHTS

I think the Rebels were too cautious. For one, the CR-90 didn’t get into the fight until too late. If it had been in range with its main guns, it would be destroying a ship a turn. Also, I think it was a mistake for the Rebels to bunch up like they did. It might play out better if the Y-wings take a flank and try to split the Imperial attention. It worked at first to concentrate their firepower, but then all the ships got muddled up and taken out.

Maybe I need to get a wider table? I don’t want to make it shorter as I think the distance is good. I don’t know if I can add on another 2 ft on the whole thing, though. That would make it 6’x6’? How would you move things in the middle?

Overall, a lot of fun! I might want to try it again next week to check out game balance. The Rebels had a hard time, but I think it was their strategy.

I would love to do a large game like this. I think the Rebels need some B-wings with some HLCs.

Once you start adding in things like HLC's and Phantoms, then the Epic ships tend to just die super fast.

Looks like a lot of fun! I should read up on this scenario so i can give some informed feedback, but it looks like a pretty cool scenario just from this batrep.

Awesome! How long did this scenario take? Interested in how long one turn took to play as well. It seems to drag out once we get above 200 pts/side.

Awesome! How long did this scenario take? Interested in how long one turn took to play as well. It seems to drag out once we get above 200 pts/side.

Well....a little hard to tell. We had at least one person who had only played once before, but she did quite well. We had 7 players, but sometimes that almost slows it down more as people get distracted when others come up to talk. Still...having each player with different PS ships helps A LOT.

Oh, and our Rebel player who undrestood Epic had to leave 1/2 way through. Those left didn't know the rules and were trying to figure it out as they played. So....hard to tell.

Overall....20 minutes per turn? Quicker when no one was shooting. Slower when it was a giant furball for 2-4 turns (but not that much slower).

I think if the Rebels also split up their attack formations it would probably speed things up (and be in their favor). The Tantive getting stuck in quicker would help reduce the enemy ships pretty fast, as well. Energy to boost main weapon attacks, TL, and Weapons Eng. is pretty mean.

Hey, a girl!

I'll get to try this again tonight, but I don't think I'll get to be around for the finish. I've got to leave early for family stuff, but I'll leave it in the good hands of a friend to finish. Not sure when I'll get to do a report, but might have to rely on him.

Hah, another terrorist attack foiled!

We had another game of it last week. I had to leave the game just as it was getting good as I had to pick my daughter up from her first job. She doesn't drive for 2 more weeks, so I'm still the chauffeure. The people who were left didn't really get the Space Station rules...just as it was able to start firing. They didn't read the card for the main gun on the tower. So, the station didn't really fire much at all.

Before it began, most players seemed to think that the Rebels stood little chance. The Station was too heavily defended and would rotate out the damage every turn. I pointed out that concentrated fire would destroy a section each round and after three turns, you could win. This was met with suspicion.

My main opponent and I had talked how to run this. Since the Rebels had hung too back, the main CR-90 player was going to be aggressive this game. Also, they spread out the ships with the Y-wings on one flank and the other ships on the other. The plan was to gun it for the station.

We had decided to have the Bombers go for the big ship in an attempt to take them out. The Tie Fighters should be enough to go after the slow Y-wings. Decimator would cover the Bombers as they wouldn't need cover for too long to fire their missiles. The Interceptors would try to go after the X-wings.

After first or second turn:

I was running the station and the Tie Bombers. For whatever reason, I thought I would K-turn on one bomber and drop my bombs. It wasn't until dials were down that I totally forgot I got stressed and couldn't drop the bombs. I was distracted by something out of game at this point and made this an idiot move. Really stupid. Other than that, one Bomber got a lock on front and one on the back. The Decimator came in and took a lot of shots. The Interceptors got some nice shots on the A-wings, but they evaded like Tie Fighters can only wish. I swear...what is it about A-wing Rebel players? They always seem to have crazy good luck. I wish my Tie Fighters rolled half as well.

Horton took some hits, but the Y-wings seemed to ionize a lot of Tie Fighters, making them pretty uneffective next turn and the turn after...as they got ionized again. It made it hard for them to turn around and get back into the fight.

One Tie Bomber fired and did a piddly single hit on the front, due to reinforcement. The other took down the back shields and got a crit through! One less energy for the ship each turn! The Bomber that flipped was destroyed before using any ordnance. Pitty. Besides that, other ships were shot up a bit. Oh, the VT-49 took out some shield on the front of the CR-90. Tie Bombers were pretty hurt (that were left), but only had 1 bomb left between them.

Space Station was almost in firing range and....my friends told me the time! I had to run. It's at this point they didn't realize that the station had R3-5 and it probably would've helped quite a bit.

I've got some pictures from what they took with a short blurp for each one.

"Y-wings pass the TIEs protecting the station's left, with several TIEs getting ionized in the exchange."

"Close quarters"

At this point, the Lambda was getting in range and I saw the Tantive coming right at her. So, I had turned Kagi to point towards the Y-wings and figured he might die in a blaze of torpedo glory. Still, he should get at least a single 3 attack die shot off. From what I gather, the shuttle was ionized and then run over by the Tantive! The CR-90 was focus fired down to 2 front hull left. When the CR-90 rammed the shuttle, you roll 2 red dice damage for it being the bigger base. It was 2 criticals! It destroyed the Tantive in the process. Hysterical!

"Shortly before the stricken Tantive IV rammed and destroyed the lambda, taking herself out in the process"

At this point, the Rebel fighters were largely untouched as the Imperials had focused on the Rebel frigate. Yes, it was destroyed, but lots of ships with ordnance were alive. They didn't see all the actions the station can do, such as REINFORCE to defend each section. I'm told it was pretty much destroying one section each turn. Har! So much for the vaunted invulnerability of the station!

"Last gasp for the station."

GAME THOUGHTS

I wasn't there for the whole game and they didn't get the rules completely. So, it wasn't quite a fair fight, but still, it wasn't too far off. I think the Imperial strategy to go for the frigate is a bad one. I think destroying the snub nosed fighters is the way to go and then go after the frigate with what's left. At that point, even little Tie Fighters will be effective vs the Tantaive IV as opposed to A-wings. I'm told the ion turrets really gave the Tie Fighters a hard time. I think it would be better to have the Tie Interceptors going after the Y-wings. Maybe even the VT-49 as it won't care about being ionized as much.

X-wings do really well in this scenario! They are fast enough to advance in the fight where I think B-wings would have a harder time staying relevant. B-wings are just too slow. Also, I don't want to give anything HLC's as I've found too many 4 dice attacks just ruins any epic game. So, with the ability to take the Torpedoes, they can dish out the pain to the Station or even the Tie Bombers. The 4 red dice with slight modifier for the Focus is good, but also Garven can pass on the Focus to give another ship a TL and Focus shot. Oh, and then the 3 red dice are great to just pour onto other targets. Close range at the enemy fighters or VT-49 can cause massive damage. I'm told the X-wings were instrumental in finishing off the station.

There was a 11 year old kid who had come up before and gotten sucked into the game. He got to play for an hour or so. He has the Core rules at home and he was super excited about playing with 101 comments. I was trying to run things and return loaned minis out from last time and it was pretty hectic. Still, I'm glad he got to play some as it's always good to get more gamers in the world.

There was another guy who had never played. I'm not sure if he wanted to learn or just happened to walk back and see us, but we roped him into the game. He ran the X-wings as they are pretty straight forward and I'm told he would like to be back next week, but doesn't have the minis. There are enough nice guys with spare minis to let him play, though.

There was a third guy for Armada, but no other players due to the holiday and we tried to get him into it, but he just watched.

So....I'd like to run it a third time and be there for the whole thing to make sure the rules are done right. At this point, I think it will be interesting to try the scenario with both sides having won a game. It will be a true test of the scenario as we have gotten some experience with it.

After that, there has been some clamouring for the Trench Run game again. I've got all the stuff and spent the time making it, so want to get my use out of it! There is a good appetite for epic games and fun scenarios. It's also great to pull in new players. It's a real nice change after the Regionals warm up and all the high competitive play to just fly some ships in a different format. It helps keep the game fresh.