Ok, everybody has seen several different trench run scenarios, including my own, for Xwing by now. I've been kicking around ideas for Death Star II over Endor for a few months, hammering out details and issues. Just finished prototyping the scenario tonight to test run on Tuesday night.

Scenario Templates

• One 14"x14" tile for the Reactor area (small, but give me a break here!)
• One 14"x7" deployment zone - entranceway to superstructure is a 4" opening on the center of one side lengthwise
• One starting tile 7"x7" with a 4" straight corridor from one end to the other to connect to the deployment zone
• Roughly Fifteen 7"x7" tiles with corners, T sections, straights, Y sections and obstacles each starting and ending the corridor at 4" across - shuffled and placed face down
• (pics to follow if this actually works)

Deployment

• Place the deployment zone and starting tile.
• Place the reactor area 28" (four template tiles) away from the end of the starting tile
• Put an empty can of coke roughly center of the reactor area tile to represent the reactor till I figure things out...
• Rebel forces deploy within the deployment zone and set dials
• Imperial forces deploy beginning of turn three

Special Rules

• Tile Placement - when a fighter enters the corridor on the last revealed tile a new tiles is placed. Each player alternates between drawing a tile and placing it beginning with the Imperial player. If insufficient tiles remaining, remove tiles from behind the Imperial fighters and shuffle into the 'deck.'
• Walls - If a ship base touches a wall it suffers ONE FACE DOWN damage card and the ship's course is corrected to run parallel to the corridor wall. If a ship's base lands completely outside the corridor it is immediately destroyed.
• A movement template cannot pass through walls to a tile that is not connected to the current tile by a corridor. (ie two parallel running corridors - I I ) The ship is immediately destroyed.
• No K-turns, T-rolls, or S-loops are permitted within the 7"x7" superstructure tiles
• Reactor has 5 hull and 0 agility

Updated 9/20/2017 - Clarifications and general updates

Forces - very likely to change... Balance starting point.

Rebels

• Lando, Daredevil, Nien Numb, Concussion Missiles
• Wedge, Stay on Target, R2 unit, Proton Torp, Integr Astro
• Green Sqdn, PTL, Proton Rockets
• Optional - Replace Lando with one Red Sqdn and one Grey Sqdn each with a single Proton Torp

or 110 points of thematic choice...

Imperials

• Two Avenger Sqdn with Autothrusters
• Three Obsidian Sqdn

or 95 points of thematic choice...

BANNED: Bombs, TLT

Edit: 9/20/2017 - Updated Imperial fighters and Rebel EPTs (giving Daredevil a try for extra maneuverability on Lando)

6 minutes ago, LagJanson said:

Forces - very likely to change... Balance starting point.

Rebels

• Lando, Adrenalin Rush, Nien Numb, Concussion Missiles
• Wedge, Stay on Target, R2 unit, Proton Torp, Integr Astro
• Green Sqdn, PTL
• Optional - Replace Lando with one Red Sqdn and one Grey Sqdn each with a single Proton Torp

or 110 points of thematic choice...

Imperials

• Three Avenger Sqdn with Autothrusters
• Two Obsidian Sqdn

or 95 points of thematic choice...

I understand wanting to keep points low, But i'm thinking bumping this to 200 points per side let's you add in stuff like Sootnir, tycho, arvel, istabim, etc.

Alright... Scenario is out there. J-bot nascar flyers combined with thematic mission building. At this point all I have tested is whether or not alternating players allows Rebels to connect to the reactor, which did infact work. There are only a couple of straight corridors and plenty of ways to turn so getting back on course is possible.

Any balance flaws jump at people? Just going to tag @Babaganoosh here specifically as he blows holes in my crazy ideas frequently.

Just now, FlyingAnchors said:

I understand wanting to keep points low, But i'm thinking bumping this to 200 points per side let's you add in stuff like Sootnir, tycho, arvel, istabim, etc.

I'm thinking time may be an issue. Bumping, literally, might be an issue as well. Rebels would just need to clog the corridor to allow a couple ships a free run to the reactor.

Rebel force needs to have Lando in the falcon, Wedge, and Tycho. plus at least one y-wing.

Imperial Force i don't think had any named pilots in canon or EU.. but lots of basic interceptors and TIE's works here so it evens out.

4 hours ago, mithril2098 said:

Rebel force needs to have Lando in the falcon, Wedge, and Tycho. plus at least one y-wing.

Imperial Force i don't think had any named pilots in canon or EU.. but lots of basic interceptors and TIE's works here so it evens out.

I had Tycho ready to go but decided to test run small. It's a short run so cramming in too many ships slants balance toward Rebel victory.

I'm not aware of any named Imperial pilots either...

9 minutes ago, LagJanson said:

I'm not aware of any named Imperial pilots either...

Which is a shame, since so many of the original Trench Run's TiE Pilots got named. What happened?

1 hour ago, DampfGecko said:

Which is a shame, since so many of the original Trench Run's TiE Pilots got named. What happened?

Not to distract too much from the OP, but I can help here.

The Original Trench Run TIE pilots were named only by virtue of Decipher giving them names in the Star Wars CCG in the early and mid 90s. This is where "Mauler Mithel," "Backstabber," and "Dark Curse" were first named (DS-61-2, DS-61-3, and DS-61-4 as official designations of their position in Black Squadron). In fact, a huge amount of information we now take for granted as part of the background of Star Wars was created by Decipher (and some earlier by West End Games), who both worked on creating content at a time when LucasFilm was much less controlling of its license holders.

When Death Star II came out as a Decipher CCG set, the TIEs in the Death Star's superstructure never all got named presumably because there were just too many other interesting craft and pilots to include. The set had to include capital ships, crew, and fighters on both sides. We did have lots of other characters we in X-Wing know and love created/named, like: Admiral Chiraneau, Jendon, Yorr, "Fel's Wrath," Turr Phennir, "Wampa," Jonus, and Rhymer to name a few... so the fact that those pilots have names owes a great debt to Decipher's CCG -- some examples posted below the fold). We do get a little insight into the TIEs that entered the Superstructure, though, as some were part of Scythe Squadron, a squadron with upgraded SFS maneuvering jets to make maneuvering in the superstructure a little easier, and this squadron was led by Major Mianda, Scythe 1, as seen below, with Lt. Hebsly piloting Scythe 3, and presumably these two were the TIE/lns in pursuit, which still leaves open a question of who the TIE/int were:





As to the Rebels in the Death Star Superstructure, pre-Disney the canon ships in the attack run were:

Wedge Antilles, Red 1 (X-Wing, hits reactor)
Jake Farrel, Green 4 (A-Wing, breaks off)
Tycho Celchu, Green 3 (A-Wing, breaks off)
Lando Calrissian, Gold 1 (YT-1300, hits reactor)
Horton Salm, Gray 1 (Y-Wing, breaks off)
Kier Santage, Red 7 (X-Wing, dies)

Post-Disney with the new canon, some of this changes, especially since Disney was lazy in assigning Callsigns and took some used by other pilots instead of just using the many open call signs in each squad:

Wedge and Lando are still clearly in the attack
Jake Farrel his Endor call-sign of "Green 4" now belongs to Shara Bey, but we still see "Jake" say "Copy, Gold Leader" on film so he's presumably in the attack run, just no longer Green 4, nor is his name confirmed in canon to be Jake Farrel
Horton Salm is no in the superstructure, as that Y-Wing with Lando has been identified as Norra Wexley, Gold 9 (though "Gray Leader" still appears on film)
Kier Santage we see this mustachio'ed X-Wing pilot blow-up, so he's there, but the name Kier Santage isn't confirmed canon
Tycho Celchu doesn't appear on film during the Battle of Endor, nor is he confirmed canon, so the identity of the second A-Wing in the structure is an open question




Some examples of the many pilots/squadrons that were named by Decipher's Death Star II ccg set:

1 hour ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

Some examples of the many pilots/squadrons that were named by Decipher's Death Star II ccg set:

Wow, this really makes me want to dig out all my Decipher CCG stuff and look through it again.

I still have boxes of Decipher CCG and WEG books. Most dusty and tucked away.

I like the ongoing tile placement during the game. That's better than laying the whole run out ahead of time.

The force balance looks good too, just eyeballing things. The Imperials having fewer points is a good move because they are doing most of the pursuit.

Areas of concern to think about

a) Rebel ships can go slower than Imperial ships can go. This is a counter-intuitive problem, but imagine that an x-wing is pursued by a TIE at close range. The X-wing dials in a 1-straight. The TIE dials in a 2-straight. The TIE moves farther than the X-wing, overshoots, and lands in front of it. Now the TIE is out of position to fire, and the X-wing has a free run to the reactor. With your pre-determined forces, you'll be fine (only wedge has a 1-straight that you need to worry about). But free-building lists could take advantage of this.

b) Bombs and turrets. One could build a 'thematic' Rebel list comprised of Y-wings with turrets, and maybe bombs (depending on your definitions). That kind of list could potentially wreck a lower-point Imperial list (especially if we're going to see cluster mines in the shaft). You should take steps to prevent this. Define what you consider thematic, then make sure there's no potentially abusive stuff in there.

c) Blocking. I imagine it would be a good idea to keep Lando in the rear of the rebel formation, go slow, and gum up the Impeial attack while the A-wing and Wedge speed ahead. With a 3-turn+ bumps head start, they might be able to make it to the reactor unmolested and bring it down, in what would be a very anticlimactic end to the game.

23 minutes ago, Babaganoosh said:

I like the ongoing tile placement during the game. That's better than laying the whole run out ahead of time.

The force balance looks good too, just eyeballing things. The Imperials having fewer points is a good move because they are doing most of the pursuit.

Areas of concern to think about

a) Rebel ships can go slower than Imperial ships can go. This is a counter-intuitive problem, but imagine that an x-wing is pursued by a TIE at close range. The X-wing dials in a 1-straight. The TIE dials in a 2-straight. The TIE moves farther than the X-wing, overshoots, and lands in front of it. Now the TIE is out of position to fire, and the X-wing has a free run to the reactor. With your pre-determined forces, you'll be fine (only wedge has a 1-straight that you need to worry about). But free-building lists could take advantage of this.

b) Bombs and turrets. One could build a 'thematic' Rebel list comprised of Y-wings with turrets, and maybe bombs (depending on your definitions). That kind of list could potentially wreck a lower-point Imperial list (especially if we're going to see cluster mines in the shaft). You should take steps to prevent this. Define what you consider thematic, then make sure there's no potentially abusive stuff in there.

c) Blocking. I imagine it would be a good idea to keep Lando in the rear of the rebel formation, go slow, and gum up the Impeial attack while the A-wing and Wedge speed ahead. With a 3-turn+ bumps head start, they might be able to make it to the reactor unmolested and bring it down, in what would be a very anticlimactic end to the game.

The random tile placement was the key attraction to the scenario. The Rebel fighters racing through blindly barely able to see what's coming next. They know roughly the direction they need to go, but will not know what turns may hit them. I've only played through tile placement with somebody to see if the path would connect to the reactor... did it, but it was on the last tile. The four way crossing and number of T sections really ate up the stack of tiles. I went back and drew up a few more to be safe. The final number and types of tiles isn't final as I'm sure somebody will send the fighters the wrong way and 'back to the surface.'

a) For most Rebel fighters, it's going to be pretty bad to get caught in the guns of many TIE Interceptors, regardless on whether it has actions. The TIEs also have a speed advantage to chase down fighters that try to sneak away if the Rebel player tries an early block. I have the concern about blocking as a tactic too though, and have been putting thought into it. It's one of the reasons I kept the point total low.

b) Bombs, yeah... I'd write them out of the scenario. No workaround possible here as the Imperials are really forced to chase the Rebels. As to turrets, it's why I put autothrusters on the Interceptors. The Falcon has a turret and I know people would love to throw TLT on Y-Wings... (I'd suspect TLT is broken anyway...) We'll see how it runs. I'm concerned about Y-Wing turret spam being an issue.

c) This is actually fairly closely tied to your concern (a) but obviously with greater emphasis on the Falcon in particular. Using Lando (or any YT-1300 to block) isn't quite as wonderful as it sounds. A 4" corridor with corners and abrupt changes means flying the Falcon is going to be a lot of planning ahead. You might be able to get away with a one straight once and a while, but hitting the walls hurts and once again, a one agility ship is going to get punished by TIEs in a domino block situation.

3 hours ago, LagJanson said:

The random tile placement was the key attraction to the scenario. The Rebel fighters racing through blindly barely able to see what's coming next. They know roughly the direction they need to go, but will not know what turns may hit them. (...) This is actually fairly closely tied to your concern (a) but obviously with greater emphasis on the Falcon in particular. Using Lando (or any YT-1300 to block) isn't quite as wonderful as it sounds. A 4" corridor with corners and abrupt changes means flying the Falcon is going to be a lot of planning ahead. You might be able to get away with a one straight once and a while, but hitting the walls hurts and once again, a one agility ship is going to get punished by TIEs in a domino block situation.

I like the idea of tile placement! (Looks like the board game Mississippi Queen). But the above issue came to my mind immediately. In the film the MF has plot armour and navigates with ease through almost impossible gaps, sustaining little damage. Here it is a large base requiring extremely good flying, whereas all others are small bases navigating with more ease through tight quarters. So its quite a temptation for the rebel player to use the MF as blocking plug instead of trying to reach the reactor core with it. So the MF stuffs the channels while Wedge speed unhindered ahead.

How to solve this? Maybe the MF has due to its advanced systems and Han modded systems a better idea where the reactor is. So when the MF is the lead ship (by at least 2"??), it gets to draw to 2 tiles and can choose one?

5 hours ago, Managarmr said:

How to solve this? Maybe the MF has due to its advanced systems and Han modded systems a better idea where the reactor is. So when the MF is the lead ship (by at least 2"??), it gets to draw to 2 tiles and can choose one?

That's... Not a bad idea, actually. Encourages somebody to actually take the Falcon through the Death Star

Ok. Play through went well, was fun but not without bugs and mistakes.

• Need a few more tiles. Ran out due to a long road taken and had to shuffle the first ones back into the deck. More curves, I think.
• Played fast. Generously timed maybe as much as 75 minutes, likely less.
• Rebels messed up deployment pretty bad... Order of activation blunder caused a lot of Rebel bumping.
• Rebel list... Adrenalin Rush on the Falcon? What was I thinking? The only red on the dial are K-turns! Also, no refit on the A-wing.
• Imperial list. Pretty good but way too powerful in the first few turns. Downgrade one Interceptor to another TIE Fighter
• Oops. Rebels have Initiative. Need to write that down.
• Falcon pilot was very good. Clipped a wall once, but that was it. TIEs murdered him but he bought precious time.
• Everything else was bouncing off walls and one Interceptor was killed by bumping three times.
• Wedge blew up the reactor on a lucky direct hit draw... With only one hull left...

Pictures in a shared Google album

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cwSduPkjTdr1GWDe2

The Death Star II reactor core has a shield protecting it. However an extremely skilled X-Wing pilot may be able to disable this shielding by destroying the power regulator in the tower next to the core...

Looks like a fun scenario; I'll have to try it out.

Whilst the focus is rightly on the run through the interior, I do wonder if a slightly larger setup area may help ease some of the initial congestion.

Perhaps a little too enthusiastically I had a quick tinker in paint shop too:

Straight_1 by Mark, on Flickr

Very nice, @WoofMcMoose. I planned to stencil and airbrush when I figured out the right balance of shaft types.

I had my moment of considering larger myself. Things sorted themselves out but I may add an extra straight on setup. Part of our problem is neither side actually considered how to enter the run and both sides had colossal bump issues they hadn't planned. One TIE fighter even struck the lip of the entrance first move due to a bump.

So, I'm thinking I could make a thematic narrative event if I can get things properly balanced out. Thoughts on this proposal? Basically four rounds and a final 5th ending. Similar idea to Shuttle Tydirium's narrative event, Grayskull. Admittedly, I've not put much thought in, but it seems wonderfully thematic and plausible.

1. "There's too many of them." - Rebel fighters engage Imperial wave of fighters. Rebels must survive for X turns before fleeing the map.
2. "Draw their fire away from the cruisers." - Protect a (corvette/GR75?) from Imperial fighters
3. "We've got to buy Han more time." - Engagement between the fleets. Throw down a corvette and GR75, use the turbolaser tokens on either side of the map to represent the fire zone between a Mon Cal cruiser and a Star Destroyer.
4. "The Shield is down!" - Breaththrough scenario - Rebel fighters need to push through Imperial fighters to exit far side of the map (Rebels deploy one/two fighters a turn...)
5. Death Star run - (Final Round - top players)
6. "Concentrate firepower" - Attempt to destroy Star Destroyer (Final Round - remaining players)

18 minutes ago, LagJanson said:

So, I'm thinking I could make a thematic narrative event if I can get things properly balanced out. Thoughts on this proposal? Basically four rounds and a final 5th ending. Similar idea to Shuttle Tydirium's narrative event, Grayskull. Admittedly, I've not put much thought in, but it seems wonderfully thematic and plausible.

1. "There's too many of them." - Rebel fighters engage Imperial wave of fighters. Rebels must survive for X turns before fleeing the map.
2. "Draw their fire away from the cruisers." - Protect a (corvette/GR75?) from Imperial fighters
3. "We've got to buy Han more time." - Engagement between the fleets. Throw down a corvette and GR75, use the turbolaser tokens on either side of the map to represent the fire zone between a Mon Cal cruiser and a Star Destroyer.
4. "The Shield is down!" - Breaththrough scenario - Rebel fighters need to push through Imperial fighters to exit far side of the map (Rebels deploy one/two fighters a turn...)
5. Death Star run - (Final Round - top players)
6. "Concentrate firepower" - Attempt to destroy Star Destroyer (Final Round - remaining players)

Sounds cool! Narratives are of course very ambitious things, but this would be pretty awesome.

You could always say that each bump is 1/2 hull or even one bump against the superstructure eliminates the ship regardless of shields. This is a scenario so special rules could/should allow this. That way it would keep some of the congestion down.

28 minutes ago, Ken at Sunrise said:

You could always say that each bump is 1/2 hull or even one bump against the superstructure eliminates the ship regardless of shields. This is a scenario so special rules could/should allow this. That way it would keep some of the congestion down.

The one facedown card damage per bump into the superstructure is pretty brutal. Most ships have only three strikes... It's enough to be painful and yet not enough for players to really feeling like they didn't have a chance. One hit may result in a very unfun playing situation - though accurate!

If I misunderstood your initial statement in that the bumps are for bumping other ships causing 0.5 damage... it encourages two things I'd like to avoid seeing...

• Desperate TIEs doing ramming attacks
• Rebel players trying to setoff a chain reaction bump

20 hours ago, LagJanson said:

The one facedown card damage per bump into the superstructure is pretty brutal. Most ships have only three strikes... It's enough to be painful and yet not enough for players to really feeling like they didn't have a chance. One hit may result in a very unfun playing situation - though accurate!

If I misunderstood your initial statement in that the bumps are for bumping other ships causing 0.5 damage... it encourages two things I'd like to avoid seeing...

• Desperate TIEs doing ramming attacks
• Rebel players trying to setoff a chain reaction bump

You didn't misunderstand. I was referring to bumping the super structure. But even at one facedown card, there can still be rebels that will clog the area.

17 minutes ago, Ken at Sunrise said:

You didn't misunderstand. I was referring to bumping the super structure. But even at one facedown card, there can still be rebels that will clog the area.

True. A Y-Wing can bump for a while, and can try to clog things up for the Imperials. We've learned however that multiple unmodified range one shots on an agility 1 ship generally melt it very quickly.

Something to keep in mind, the nature of the 'map' creates a very focused fire zone where the entire Imperial list often has one valid target... Some attempt at blocking was made, and the results were poor for the Rebels. After that the plan that worked better was trying to get around corners faster than the Imperials so that the walls were blocking line of sight and preventing a shot from happening. This seemed the better strategy with the ships available.

My gut feeling is dedicated blockers may buy a Rebel fighter a good lead on the reactor, but the Imperial ships tend to be faster and more maneuverable so catching up again is plausible. The Rebel player also has the problem of not knowing what the next tile will be, where as the Imperials have full knowledge of the maze between them and the Rebel fighters. In the first play through, Wedge had a huge lead... but one TIE Fighter took a different path to the reactor (apparently he knew a shortcut, he got there first) and one of the Interceptors caught up to get shots from behind. Wedge was down to one hull, no droid, when he took his shot to destroy the reactor. I'll have to test the dedicated blocking strategy more to see if taking two B-wings/Y-Wings and running them slow side by side is an issue. Obviously the first run was more to see if it works and was fun, next couple of runs should be made to see what breaks it.