A friend and I decided to get our first game of X-Wing 2.0 in since we had returned from GenCon with a core set each and both had picked up at least one conversion kit. My friend wanted to run the new scum Falcon he purchased and I knew I wanted to fly Inferno Squad together because of how cool and thematic it was that their abilities work off of each other.
We both put together a squad and met at a local game store to play out our first game in the new edition.
TLDR/Short Version: Our first game of second edition was a ton of fun and we had a great time flying both a new ship and old ships in new ways.
My list, Inferno Ace (193):
Iden Versio, TIE Fighter (40)
- Predator (2)
Gideon Hask, TIE Fighter (30)
- Predator (2)
Del Meeko, TIE Fighter (30)
- Predator (2)
Seyn Marana, TIE Fighter (30)
- Marksmanship (1)
Whisper, TIE Phantom (52)
- Juke (4)
vs.
Friend's list (196):
Han Solo, YT-1300 (54)
- Trick Shot (1)
- L3-37 (4)
- Engine Upgrade (9)
-
Lando's Millennium Falcon
(6)
- Other Stuff I Can't Remember
Lando Calrissian, Escape Craft (26)
Moralo Eval (72)
- Heavy Laster Canon (4)
- Boba Fett (4)
- Feedback Array (4)
- Other Stuff I Can't Remember
Setup
I took initiative and we set up 2.0 obstacles relatively loosely across the board. I deployed Inferno Squad together on the left side of the mat where it looked like I would have more room to maneuver and joust. Moalo Eval didn't deploy until after everything else because of Boba Fett, so I deployed Whisper on towards the middle of the mat. My friend then deployed Han Solo across from Whisper, but pointed to the left side of the board, in the direction that would eventually take him towards Inferno Squad. Then Moralo Eval deployed on the asteroid that was just to the right of Inferno Squad.
Turn 1
Moralo's deployment proved to be a costly one. The asteroid was far enough to the right of Inferno Squad that they could have flown right past it, but not so far to the right that it avoided their firing arcs. Come turn 1, I sent Inferno Squad 2-forward (which was as slow as I could get them to go) to try and avoid a bump as much as possible. Moralo Eval, possibly underestimating the Empire's elite special ops team, did a 1-bank towards the TIE Fighters. Whisper did a 3-bank to the left to try and catch Moralo in her firing arc. Meanwhile, Han Solo did a 3-bank to his left and then did a boost action for another 1-bank to the left to straighten himself out and send him straight towards Inferno Squad eventually.
The combat phase came and Moralo Eval was lucky to be just out of range of Whisper. But he soon learned the error of his ways (plus having hot red dice against my friend's cold, single green dice helped). A total of 9 damage was thrown at Moralo (Gideon gained the extra dice for the damage cards that Moralo gained from the rest of Inferno Squad shooting him) and the YV-666 only managed to get a single evade. I felt bad for my friend, but at least he'd still get to use Moralo for another round. The YV-666 shot back at Seyn but she managed to dodge what little damage was rolled.
Turn 2
Moralo Eval was close enough that it would have been easy for him to bump my squad if I tried to finish him off. So I chose to fly Inferno Squad past him by doing a 4-forward on each to try and chew up Han as he approached. Moralo flew past where my fighters had been and was clearly making for the board edge. Whisper moved 3-forward to try and get Moralo before he flew off the board edge. Han only moved 1-forward, not expecting the TIEs to come at him so soon.
Shooting happens again and Gideon takes a critical hit from Han, giving him a "Direct Hit!". Since the attack wasn't going to kill Gideon, I had chosen to save Iden's ability for later. The TIEs shot back at Han and managed to strip away his shields and put a little damage on him . Han was also unfortunate enough to be caught in all their bullseye arcs, so Predator rerolls all around! Though Seyn completely blanked out on her attack dice, so no Marksmanship combo for me. Whisper took a longshot at Moralo but failed to finish him off. Moralo shot at Seyn but she managed to endure the single hit he got on her. My friend was having really rough red dice and green dice rolls. After that first round of shooting, my red dice were evening out to average rolls.
Turn 3
Han was close enough that I knew I couldn't get all 4 of Inferno squad up to engage him without bumping him with Iden and Seyn (who were in the front of the four-square formation), which would throw the whole formation off. So I had Iden and Seyn fly 5-forward to pass Han while Gideon and Del both did 3-speed K-turns to turn around and catch Han if he had chosen to fly forward and pass my fighters. Moralo Eval used his ability to fly off of the left side of the board and would return to the board next round. Whisper did a 2-turn to the right to go after Han now that Moralo was gone for a bit. Han did a 2-turn to his left to avoid Giden and Del, then rotated his turret to catch Whisper in arc.
Unfortunately, Han's red dice were still cold and Whisper dodged what little damage was there. Whisper shot back and managed to get a hit on Han, allowing her to cloak with the gained Evade token at the end of the ground.
Turn 4 (my memory of exact movements from here on out gets fuzzy here)
At the beginning of the round, before setting dials, Moralo reappeared on the left board edge, but was placed right into the corner of my opponent's side of the board. Iden and Seyn both did 4-speed K-turns that unfortunately put them both at range 1 of Moralo, who had chosen a speed-0 move. Gideon and Del both went 2-forward to remove their stress tokens and get ready to turn around to try and reform the TIE Fighter formation. Han headed towards the right side of the board while keeping his turret rotated to keep it on Whisper. Whisper, in turn, chased after Han (after de-cloaking at the start of the round to try and stay in best position).
Han once again fired at Whisper and managed to knock a shield off her. Whisper fired back and added a little more damage to him and allowing her to cloak at the end of the ground. Moralo took a range 1 shot at Seyn, getting a nice three hits on her. Seyn's green dice completely blanked out but Iden was there to save her! With Iden's ability used, my TIE Fighters were now vulnerable to actually dying. Unfortunately none of them had a shot back at Moralo this round.
Turn 5
Whisper de-cloaked for the set up to continue chasing down Han. Iden and Seyn both did 3-forward moves to remove their stress in my attempt to still try reforming the TIE Fighter block while Gideon and Del did 3-speed K-turns. Moralo decided that shooting at my TIEs was a lost cause and instead did a turn to his right to bump into Iden and Seyn. Han continued towards the left side of the board with Whisper in hot pursuit.
Inferno Squad was once again without a shot, but Iden and Seyn were both damaged by the YV-666's Feedback Array. Whisper and Han fired at each other, with only Han taking damage and being left at 1 hull.
Turn 6
In my best formation flying maneuver I have ever done and will probably ever do again, Iden and Seyn both did 4-speed k-turns while Giden and Del both did 3-forward moves to get all four members of Inferno Squad back into exactly perfect four-square formation. In about exactly the same spot they had all broken apart too, I think. I was astounded that it came back together as well as it did. I had tried to get them all back together in their formation, but I'm always pretty terrible at judging distances without the maneuver tools so there was a good chance they would have bumped or ended up farther apart. Both I and my friend took a moment to marvel at how well that simple flying turned out.
Moralo didn't care much for that though so he charged forward for another bump into Iden and Seyn. Han was trying to curve around from right side of the board across my deployment area. But Whisper's de-cloaking shenanigans made sure she kept him in arc at all times.
With just a few rolls of the dice, both Han and Moralo Eval were finished off.
Summary
I think the biggest game changer was Moralo's deployment putting him in the firing arcs of all four members of Inferno Squad, and my dice rolls on attack being hot enough to bring him down to one hull on the first round of shooting. I'm glad the game went on for a while longer though instead of it going too quick. The TIE Phantom is fun to fly again and the loss of the single red dice felt pretty negligible with how well that ship still flies and the free evade token given from de-cloaking.
Lando's Falcon is really cool but my friend forgot to try deploying the escape craft when he had the chance. Though if the escape craft was supposed to be deployed when the Falcon was destroyed (like how the Ghost deploys the Phantom when destroyed), we forgot that. It was his expansion, so I didn't know the rules on it. Unfortunately deploying the escape craft probably wouldn't have made a difference.
It also probably didn't help that my squad probably works really well against large-base ships. All those bullseye arcs I could get are nice and the lack of multiple attacks per turn makes choosing a time to use Iden's ability much easier.
Inferno Squad's abilities work together just as well as they look like they would. I'll have to practice my formation flying more if I want to keep flying them. Despite the win, I still went three turns without any of them getting a shot at something. Still can't believe I managed to successfully form them back together after they split apart mid-way through the game.