So, I want to play the first mission from ye olde first Core set. You remember that mission? Or...maybe you just never played it? Well....I want to play it again. I want to come up with some fun lists to try it out with. The goal is to try to develop a fun list that isn't broken. Yeah, anyone can come up with some list that can punch the other's face in, but I want to think of a fun list that can win with good flying.

En route from Dantooine, a Rebel senator's fleet was ambushed by the Empire and nearly wiped out. The senator himself escaped in a shuttle, but a stray blast knocked out hisship's hyperdrive and sensors. Utterly reliant on his escort, the Rebel Senator can do little more than go straight forward and hope he reaches the outskirts of a friendly system soon. Unfortunately, the Imperial fleet has already dispatchedfighters to round up the survivors. Now, the Rebel escort must protect the Senator until he can reach safety, but the Imperials won't make it easy for them…

Shuttle starts in the middle and needs to get off the board. Can only do 1-2 forward and 1 bank. I can't recall how many hull/shield it has. A Rebel ship within R1 of the shuttle can issue an Evade action.

Imperials need to destroy the shuttle while Rebels need to save it.

Can probably swap out Scum for any of the factions, as well. Also, I wonder how it would work in reverse?

What would be a good list strategy for the Rebels? I can see with going for a few cheap Z-95's to ensure you can do the Protect action and give the shuttle an Evade. Besides that....what other ships would be good? I don't know if an A-wing would be good as it just doesn't have the firepower to stop the Imperials. B-wings would be effective to stop the enemy, especially if they are focusing on the shuttle. Hmm....maybe they would force your opponent to focus on the shuttle too much? Because it would take too to kill it? TLT Y-wing might not be a bad option. It has the range and can try to damage out the enemy? X-wings seem to be great as they have the speed and endurance to get to where they need to go. Any big turret ship is a bad idea as you just can't damage your opponents fast enough to stop them. E-wings might be too expensive, but maybe a low PS E-wing would be a good idea? It won't be the focus, right?

What about out of the box type ships? HWKs can bring you a crew. Kyle in a HWK with Jan Ors can dish out a free evade to the Shuttle. That might work, but it's a lot when you can just have a Z-95 use it's action for half the points.

What about the Imperials? What would be a good list for them? I can easily see going with a bunch of Tie Fighters is a good option. Just swarm the shuttle to blast it. Scream past the defenders and try to take it down. Go for ships like Mauler Mithel to get in range. Don't worry about formations or anything. Just zoom and boom. Backstabber, Dark Curse, and Scourge are all good options. If I went with 8 Academy, it might not be a fair fight, though.

Having some sort of Ion attack would be helpful to try to stop the shuttle. That means Ion Pulse Missile or Ion Torpedo. Not many Imperials can take that. Tie Bomber and Tie Punisher come to mind, but I wouldn't want to go too heavy on the alpha strike or it's just not a fun game. Maybe one of them? I've never used my Tie Punisher and maybe it's a good time to use it. I'd think Ion Torp would be good as it does damage and ionizes it. I could even see getting one of these and using it as bait while the rest zoom in.

TAP V1 is not a bad option for the Ion Pulse Missile. It can get in and get the shot off. Or...just using a Homing or Concussion Missile, too. Even without missiles, the V1 is a good ship to try. Inquisitor would be great to ping the enemy at a distance.

Tie Interceptors would be perfect as they are actually intercepting the enemy! I don't want to use a high ace like Soontir Fel as that just feels boring to me. For one, I see too much of him on the table and he just might be too powerful and destroy the fun atmosphere. Maybe pull out some of the generics or even B-list guys? That could be really fun! Maybe even someone like Lt. Lorrir would be fun to zip past the defenders? Or even Fel's Wrath? Maybe? He would definitely get his shot in! Maybe that's the shot that wins the game by destroying the shuttle?

A Decimator might not be a bad idea, either. If it moved fast and just tried to blast at the Shuttle, it might work. Cpt Oicunn can make sure no one wants to block him. I wouldn't load up on too many points, but I can see this working.

Tie Defender might almost be too powerful. Maybe. It would be worth a try. The defenders would have to have enough heavy hitters and concentrate fire on it to take it down. Hmm....that might actually be worth it.

Tie FO's could be good as they are fast, but have the extra shield to assist in getting there. Even the cheap generics would be worth it.

What types of lists would you guys run?

Here's one for Imperials:

Perhaps one fat 360 to fly near the Shuttle and a pair of hard hitters

Blue Novice T 70 (x2). IA, R2

Falcon Han plus some upgrades for a 50 pts ship. Perhaps Swarm Tactics to shoot first and protect the Shuttle.

Perhaps one fat 360 to fly near the Shuttle and a pair of hard hitters

Blue Novice T 70 (x2). IA, R2

Falcon Han plus some upgrades for a 50 pts ship. Perhaps Swarm Tactics to shoot first and protect the Shuttle.

See....I think a Fat Turret would be bad. If the enemy has a bunch of Tie Fighters, they can zip past everything and fire at the Shuttle. How long would it take 6 Tie Fighters to concentrate fire and take down the Shuttle? Not long in my book. The Fat Turret would be able to blast at one ship a turn. It just wouldn't be enough to protect the shuttle. I'd rather get 2 Z-95's than a Fat Turret to just sit and do 2 Protect actions a turn.

Here's a Rebel list I thought of that uses Bombs:

Instead of using the little shuttle piece, you should actually use a Lambda shuttle or an ORS. Maybe restrict it to 1 speed maneuvers only.

Instead of using the little shuttle piece, you should actually use a Lambda shuttle or an ORS. Maybe restrict it to 1 speed maneuvers only.

Well...it's the Rebels trying to escape, not the Imperials. That and the base size is much bigger for a Lambda than the shuttle, so it's a lot easier to get to the board edge with a bigger base.

Say, isn't there a third party company out there that makes the shuttle as a ship you can buy?

Instead of using the little shuttle piece, you should actually use a Lambda shuttle or an ORS. Maybe restrict it to 1 speed maneuvers only.

Well...it's the Rebels trying to escape, not the Imperials. That and the base size is much bigger for a Lambda than the shuttle, so it's a lot easier to get to the board edge with a bigger base.

Say, isn't there a third party company out there that makes the shuttle as a ship you can buy?

You could use a HWK.

The senator's shuttle is quite a bit longer than a small base. You might be surprised how quickly it can cross the table at speed 2.

I worry that 100 points of Imperials could burn down the shuttle in a turn and juat ignore whatever the rebels bring.

This is my favourite mission.

I've ran a dozen variants including swap sides, scum, and even epic with multiple transports.

The senator's shuttle is quite a bit longer than a small base. You might be surprised how quickly it can cross the table at speed 2.

I worry that 100 points of Imperials could burn down the shuttle in a turn and juat ignore whatever the rebels bring.

There is a problem scaling up escort missions like this one, yes. The more points on the table overall, the easier it is for attackers to win... but the Protect action does counteract this to at least some degree. If the Rebel player takes enough ships the shuttle can stack quite a few evade tokens.

Looking at this mission, the surest way to victory is probably maximum aggression on both sides. The Imperials need to either burn down the shuttle quickly or burn down the escorts quickly; the Rebels definitely need to burn the Imperials down quickly. An endurance battle is out of the question because the game has a definite time limit.

If I were building an Imperial fleet (to win), I'd bring Ordnance carriers with homing missiles. This could be some sort of Jonus+ list with bombers or perhaps TAPs. Homing missiles are really powerful in this mission because evade tokens can't be used against them, so the protect action won't be helpful to defend the shuttle. On the other hand, the Imperial attack squad needs to avoid any entanglements on their way in to hit the shuttle - they can't be spending their missiles on the rebel defenders.

A less cutthroat approach could be a classic TIE swarm, which you could use to put apply a lot of damage and action denial via blocking.

For the Rebels, I'd probably build a very aggressive list with a bit of control. I'd be tempted to try an Ion Torpedo carrier + Z95 swarm or A-Wing swarm, aiming to ionize the enemy and set them up for a close-in brawl while the shuttle makes its escape. I'd also look into K-Wings armed with Ion Torpedoes and Ion Bombs or conner nets to maximize control. After all, you only need to buy the shuttle enough time to escape.

Babaganoosh's thoughts are exactly why I love missions! If both sides think things through quite a bit, it can be real fun. You have to think about the mission and what would work.

One way to counter an Imperial Ordnance list would be to bring an ordnance list, yourself. So, Load up all sorts of ships that can have Missiles or Torpedoes. The Bombers wouldn't be able to fire theirs at you to blast you to pieces, but you can fire at them with no issues. The Rebels could really go with a lot of Z-95's w/ Concussion Missiles and GC. That could tear up any Imperial build, no matter what it is.

I know my opponent for this game, though, and he won't max anything. So, I don't want to do anything that's going to blow him out of the water and reduce the fun aspect.

I've thought about a K-wing, but am not sure if one K-wing with Extra Munitions is best, or two Y-wings with turrets and Bomb slots are better. Just thinking about it a little differently, I also could go with something like this:

No Sabine and no TLT. The Y-wings are less effective with the Dorsal Turret, but they can hang out near the shuttle and do the Protect Action. That could be 4 ships that are doing Protect Actions a turn and 4 Conner Nets to get through to get to the Shuttle. That would be a hard list for any Imperial to get through in time.

If I'm not mistaken, the escort mission is designed to be able to play with just the core set. With that in mind, it seems like a small force would be more appropriate than a full 100pt list. Why not limit your list to 50 or 60 pts just to make it more interesting?

If I'm not mistaken, the escort mission is designed to be able to play with just the core set. With that in mind, it seems like a small force would be more appropriate than a full 100pt list. Why not limit your list to 50 or 60 pts just to make it more interesting?

In the main book, it says they have built the missions to be played with full 100 pts, but in each mission they offer up a suggested list that is made from stuff only in the original set.

I've looked at and played the game with those lists. It's quite limiting. I'm happy to move on to 100 pts immediately. Also, I think it's more fun to do the same mission with as many toys. I like the idea of thinking about and trying to make work the same scenario with 100 pts. How can the Rebels stop the Imperials? How can the Imperials get through the Rebels? If you have a number of Rebel ships just sitting there and giving free Evade tokens to the Shuttle each round, it will be hard to kill it in time! You either need to throw A LOT of damage on the shuttle, or kill off enough of the escort to stop the Evade spam and do damage. I think it's a really cool new problem.

Or....maybe the Rebels want to go with throwing out Cluster Mines, Conner Nets, and Proximity Mines? That's also a cool strategy to try out. What can live through it all to get there and do enough damage in time?

Overall, it makes it a game within a game. It's still X-wing, but you can build crazy lists that would never work in a 100 pt death match.

Good guy fel's wrath. destroyed but still able to land the finisher on the transport.

I know some of these builds have Nets, Sabine, etc.

But I'm wondering if this would be a good mission for new players. Divide up the ships, perhaps 2 players per side.

I know some of these builds have Nets, Sabine, etc.

But I'm wondering if this would be a good mission for new players. Divide up the ships, perhaps 2 players per side.

Oh, it's definitely for beginners. That's why it's in the starter box. I want to see if it's still fun for experts!

I know some of these builds have Nets, Sabine, etc.

But I'm wondering if this would be a good mission for new players. Divide up the ships, perhaps 2 players per side.

Oh, it's definitely for beginners. That's why it's in the starter box. I want to see if it's still fun for experts!

I was thinking of using your squads though.

Otherwise I'll throw together a couple of simple TIE and X-Wing squads.

I came up with some more fun ones for Imperials:

It's a fun mission. We did a tournament with the attacker determined randomly at the start of the match.

So, I want to play the first mission from ye olde first Core set. You remember that mission? Or...maybe you just never played it? Well....I want to play it again.(...)

Shuttle starts in the middle and needs to get off the board. Can only do 1-2 forward and 1 bank. I can't recall how many hull/shield it has.

0/2/6/0 when using core set.

Upscaled to 0/2/6/6 when using 100pts.

Instead of using the little shuttle piece, you should actually use a Lambda shuttle or an ORS. Maybe restrict it to 1 speed maneuvers only.

Well...it's the Rebels trying to escape, not the Imperials. That and the base size is much bigger for a Lambda than the shuttle, so it's a lot easier to get to the board edge with a bigger base.

Say, isn't there a third party company out there that makes the shuttle as a ship you can buy?

Say, isn't there a third party company out there that makes the shuttle as a ship you can buy?

You can find a paper model on the net. Quite big, though.

Got a link? Maybe I can resize it?

This is a lot of fun! I played once as Rebels with Lando, Biggs and some other stuff, so Biggs could stack R2-F2 and Focus, and make it tough for the Imperials. Maybe not the most effective, but it was a fun wrench to throw in their plans. I don't play Biggs much any more.

I'm really liking what Advanced Targeting Computer TIE advanced can do. Maybe a couple of generics with a ship that can fire thread tracers to tag the shuttle -- unless, of course, the Rebels are running Biggs. That makes things a bit more complicated.

This is a lot of fun! I played once as Rebels with Lando, Biggs and some other stuff, so Biggs could stack R2-F2 and Focus, and make it tough for the Imperials. Maybe not the most effective, but it was a fun wrench to throw in their plans. I don't play Biggs much any more.

I'm really liking what Advanced Targeting Computer TIE advanced can do. Maybe a couple of generics with a ship that can fire thread tracers to tag the shuttle -- unless, of course, the Rebels are running Biggs. That makes things a bit more complicated.

Even then, though, the Imperials would need to be able to take out Biggs fast to then focus on the Shuttle. If you really tried, you can kill Biggs in a single round. It all depends on your list. That's where perhaps an Imperial Ordnance list might not be too powerful. It also depends on what else is in the Rebels list and can it slow them down enough so that they can't focus on either Biggs or the shuttle?

I like these games because you can replay them over and over again and the list types keep changing. If your opponent plays with Biggs and you just can't get through, I bet you can come up with a completely different type of a list that can smash it. Then, your opponent comes up with another type of list that he tries to combat yours, but you switch-a-roo and bring something completely different. I love these simple missions because you can do so many different things with them.

Instead of using the little shuttle piece, you should actually use a Lambda shuttle or an ORS. Maybe restrict it to 1 speed maneuvers only.

Well...it's the Rebels trying to escape, not the Imperials. That and the base size is much bigger for a Lambda than the shuttle, so it's a lot easier to get to the board edge with a bigger base.

Say, isn't there a third party company out there that makes the shuttle as a ship you can buy?

Couldn't you use a HWK as a transport or even a Mist Hunter. Too bad about a Lambda. That would be so thematically perfect.

I kind of want it to be the Senator Shuttle, though. I mean, what Senator is going to ride in a HWK? Maybe I'll just print something out to fit on top.