Premise
During an inspection of a transport vessel, the Empire has detected cargo containing the strategic plans of the Rebellion. Although these plans are highly encrypted, both parties are aware that it is only a matter of time before the encryption will be broken.
All this has happened in a remote sector. The cargo is now on board of the Victory-Class Star Destroyer ‘Bonecrusher’. An infiltration party to blow up Bonecrusher did manage to severally cripple the Star Destroyer, but it survived the attempt, athough barely.
The Bonecrusher, accompanied by the Gladiator-class vessel Demolisher is now at a space dock on the edge of an asteroid belt for emergency repairs.
Both parties know the precariousness of the situation. The Bonecrusher needs to jump to a safer sector asap. The rebellion needs to destroy Bonecrusher. Assembling whatever ships can be spared, a desperate final attempt is staged…
Rebel Fleet
Nebulon B Support refit ‘Exodus'
Mon Mothma
Nebulon B Support refit ’Salvation'
Salvation
CR90-B ‘Dodonna’s Pride’
Dodonna’s Pride
CR-90B ‘Memories of Yavin'
Ion Cannon Batteries
Luke Skywalker X-Wing
3 x X-Wing
Imperial Fleet
Victory II ‘Bonecrusher’
Admiral Motti
Wulf Yularen
Gunnery Team
Point defence reroute
XI7 Turbolaser
—> This ship has 9 facedown hits. All shields are at value 0.
Gladiator I ‘Demolisher'
Intel Officer
Gunnery Team
Engine Techs
Expanded Launchers
Demolisher
4 x Tie-Fighter
3 x Tie-Bomber
1 x Tie Advanced
Set-up
See the map
The rebels set up at speed 2
The Imperial ships set up next to the Space Dock - pointing to the side of the rebel set up zone - at speed 0
The Imperial squadrons do not set up. They begin the game ‘in’ the space dock.
Special rules
The space dock
The space dock does not work as described in the rules. Instead it doubles the engineering points of the Bonecrusher up until the moment the Victory undocks. As of that moment, the space dock has no function other than as an obstacle.
Initiative
The rebels have the initiative
Hyperjumping and end of the game
At the end of the 5th turn starting with the turn that Bonecrusher accelerates to speed 1, the Victory jumps to hyperspace, winning the game.
Strategy
The rebel strategy is of course centered on speed: get asap to the Victory and destroy it.
The imperial strategy is twofold. Demolisher needs to protect the Victory by slowing down the rebels and destroying as many ships as possible (this most probably means that it will go down as well).
Biggest dilemma of course is how long to stay a sitting duck at speed 0 to repair the extensive damage. The combined damage on the Vic equals 47 engineering points. Using Wulf, when storing the engineering token on the first turn results in 12 engineering points every turn thereafter until unclamping from the space dock. This means that you need to be waiting for a total of 5 turns, at which time the rebel fleet will be surely upon you without you having access to your defence tokens. How long are you willing to stay still?
The first tryout
The rebels got to full speed as soon as possible and stayed together. The X-wings were neutralised by the Tie-Fighters while the Bombers and Advanced harassed the rebel ships.
Demolisher destroyed the Exodus and Memories of Yavin, but was destroyed on turn 5. However, the sacrifice meant that Bonecrusher was able to go to speed 1 before being shot at.
Bonecrusher stayed at speed 0 for 4 turns, with all but 1 hits repaired as well as 6 shields (3 front, 2 right, 1 back). However, the Vic was destroyed on turn 8 by a combined of fire and ramming. Three extremely badly-timed critical hits spelled its doom (a halving of engineering points on turn 6, a speed reduction and a loss of a attack die).
General
As noted in other topics, I am not a fan of the objectives system. After a number of death-matches, this is the first scenario that we played. It was nail-biting until last, with both sides convinced up until the final turn that they did not have a chance in hell to win…
Next Thursday, we play this a second time. If any of you would be playing this scenario, please post the results so that I can see if the play-balance is about right.
Note: this scenarios is also perfect for 3 players.
Any input and suggestions more than welcome...