I took part in a rather large game yesterday. We'd been thinking about having a huge battle for a while and decided on a 900 point game. I went with my Rebels and the fleet list was...

Admiral Ackbar

MC80 + Home One + Raymus Antillies + Engineering Team + ECM + Redundant Shields + X17 Turbolasers

Assault Frigate A + Intel Officer + ECM + Enhanced Armaments

Assault Frigate A + Intel Officer + ECM + Enhanced Armaments

MC30c Scout Frigate + Foresight + Enhanced Armaments

MC30c Torpedo Frigate + Ordinance Experts + Assault Concussion Missiles

CR90 A + Jania’s Light + Leia Organa

GR-75 Medium Transport + Extended Hanger Bays

GR-75 Medium Transport + Extended Hanger Bays

Han Solo

10 X-Wing squadron

6 B-Wing squadron

The plan was to use Home One and the Assault Frigates to pummel my opponents ships at long range with their massive broadsides. Once the range closed I could launch anti-ship strikes with my B-wings with squadron commands from my GR-75's. Han Solo and the X-Wings would blunt my opponents squadrons and leave the B-Wings the room they needed to do their job. I really wanted another Assault Frigate but I only own two so I went for a couple of MC-30's as I don't use them very much and I had plenty of points spare.

I'm not 100% sure what my opponent took so I'll provide the bare bones of what I can recall...

Grand Moff Tarkin

ISD II + NK-7 + Redundant Shields + Gunnery Team + Quad Laser Turrets

ISD II + NK-7 + Redundant Shields + Gunnery Team + Quad Laser Turrets

VSD II + Expanded Hanger Bays + Wing Commander

VSD II + Expanded Hanger Bays + Wing Commander

GSD II + Ordinance Experts + Assault Concussion Missiles

GSD II + Ordinance Experts + Assault Concussion Missiles

Raider II + SW7

Raider II + SW7

Raider II + SW7

Gozanti Assault Carrier + Jamming Field + Booster Comms

8/10 TIE Fighter squadrons

6 TIE Interceptor squadrons

6 TIE Advanced squadrons

6 TIE Bomber squadrons

I was pretty dismayed at this point due to the sheer amount of stuff that was arrayed across the table. My opponent elected to go first and chose superior position from my missions so at least I could see his deployment and try to counter some of his advantage in numbers by concentrating my fleet. By the time he'd deployed his VSD's, Raiders and TIE bombers were on his left flank with his ISD's and GSD's on his right. His other squadrons were pretty much scattered in clumps across the whole board.

I decided to go for his right side as I reasoned that the VSD's would be too slow to get into the fight. I hoped to deal with the Gladiators as quickly as possible then concentrate on focusing down the ISD's. The game didn't start very well. I keep forgetting how far you can push forward TIE fighters with a squadron order and my Torpedo frigate which was hold the left flank of my concentrated deployment ended up getting swarmed and lost a chunk of its shields. My opponent did push his GSD's forward and I hoped to cause some real damage with my huge broadsides.

The second turn started well with Han Solo and a chunk of my X-Wings moving up to try to cover the Torpedo frigate but shooting was a massive disappointment. Despite some big broadsides all I managed to do was strip some shields from the GSD's and they'd both got into range to unload next turn. The Torpedo frigate's misery was complete as it got jumped by Raiders and ended up going to a barrage of blue dice having failed to achieve anything of worth. The only bright spot was Han Solo and the X-Wings which dealt with the first wave of TIE fighters but there was literally a tidal wave of squadrons bearing down on them with plenty of Raiders in support.

Turn three opened with the GSD's tearing into Home One. All shields were knocked out and massive damage was done to the hull. Anaemic return fire from the MC-80 failed to do much damage to the GSD's despite it being in a perfect position. I was getting a bid fed up at this point as it took the combined efforts of Home One, both Assault Frigates and the B-Wings to finish the two Gladiators off. The second Assault Frigate did swat a Raider out of existence with a single massive broadside which cheered me up a bit but this was cold comfort as one of the ISD's finished off Home One and my X-Wing squadrons were quickly being overwhelmed by a tidal wave of ship activated squadrons.

With the loss of Home One and a large chunk of my squadron cover the writing was pretty much on the wall at this point. I'd managed to slip Foresight and my CR90 past the Imperial battle line but I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to be able to extricate much else. Han Solo fought a lonely battle against over whelming odds finally going down as the TIE swarms rolled over my B-Wings. One of my Assault Frigates managed to slip away as the other got focused down by the two ISD's. With nothing left to lose I threw Foresight in a gamble to try to take down the damaged ISD. It wasn't to be though as the ISD slipped away and the Foresight ended up under the turbolasers of the VSD's which pounded it into scrap.

We totted up the final score but it was pretty obvious that the Imperials had scored a massive win.

Post mortem - Well that didn't go very well. So what went wrong and what would I have done differently?

1. Learn the lesson that the admiral doesn't always need to go on the ship I think that he 'should' go on. This is a mistake that I've made before and I really shouldn't have made this time around. Yes Home One seems to most obvious place for Ackbar but when it dies he goes as well and I'm left to fight the rest of the battle without his ability. I've have been far better off shoving him on the CR90 and just steering clear of the main battle. If he hadn't died I would have retained his ability until the end of the battle which could have provided the firepower to deal with at least one of the ISD's which would have worked out as a points swing of around 180/190. In itself it wouldn't have altered the outcome but it could well do in the next game I play.

2. Remember that red dice are fickle. I had some real let downs when it came to my shooting, especially in my second turn. I'd be throwing something like 7 red dice and be scoring a couple of points of damage. Over half the red dice I threw in the second turn came up blank; obviously I can't counter sheer bad luck but I think I could do with looking at something like Veteran Gunners to at least provide a chance to improve on an awful roll. Better damage on turn two could have dealt with at least one of Gladiators which would have massively improved the chances of Home One surviving for at least an extra turn.

3. TIE fighters used in a massive swarm can really hurt ships/everything else. My Torpedo Frigate got jumped by eight or nine TIE fighters/TIE interceptors which pretty much stripped a chunk of shields leaving it vulnerable to the Raiders which then finished it off. Not really sure how I'm going to counter it. I could escort these types of ships with squadrons but I'd then just watch my squadrons disappear under a wave of ship activated TIE fighters. The only times I've had any real success against the 'TIE wave' is when I've caught them when they've overextended and I've been able to chew them up piecemeal.

4. Han Solo is still pretty good. I think he took down four TIE squadrons by himself as well as holding out for far longer than the X-Wings that were supporting him. I'm starting to think that he and Dash Rendar might be a really good tag team to use in these kind of big games where you could be facing a lot of enemy squadrons. Bit of X-Wing support with Jan Ors to help keep them alive as long as possible. Maybe drop some YT-2400's and A-Wing squadron in to provide some extra anti squadron punch.

Here is my full list.

So No Jan Orrs, Rhymer, Dengar or Demolisher?

Those "This is a Crutch!!!" posters will be pleased.

Did you still use a 6x3 table and 6 turn game length for such a large game?

Yup. We did use the full width of the board for deployment and we found that 6 turns was fine. We talked after the game about the potential for going bigger and I think that we agreed that you'd need a bigger table or some kind of reinforcement rule that would represent ships/squadrons arriving out of hyperspace to join the battle as a second wave (maybe at the start of turn three). With an extra turn or two to let them get stuck in.

In the next big game I was thinking of taking a themed list around the Battle of Endor; Ackbar as the admiral on Home One (I'm really not learning am I). Then all of the iconic Rebel ships from the battle along with plenty of X,Y,B and A wing squadron. I can then spend an afternoon quoting the movie.

If you are playing Endor, you should try a custom objective like, "It's a Trap!"