So, since I bought my second Y-wing, I wanted to try them out by themselves. I first tried a 65 point game against 2 of my boys playing as 5 TIEs. They fairly easily took me down.

But what I really wanted to do, which I thought would be more balanced, was try 2 Y-wings vs. 2 TIE Advanced. So after I bought a second TIE advanced last night, I was able to try tonight round 2 against my daughter this time, for a 66 point game.

She was Darth and Marek, both with Marksmanship, and Darth with concussion missles. I was Dutch and Horton both with Ions, and one Proton Torp each.

The battle was longer than I expected. She played very well, and only made a couple maneuvering blunders. I think my maneuvering was pretty good considering the limitations of the craft.

A few observations:

1. She never got to use her cluster missles (though she had opportunity) before I killed Darth. I was able to use my proton torps from both pilots, but BOTH of them did NO damage. R2-D2 would have been a much better choice. But one of my goals with this experiment was to try to effectively use the Proton Torpedos. She got lucky rolls though, and I used them the first (and in one case, only) chance I got.

2. It ended as a battle between Horton and Marek, with Marek down to his last two hits I believe. These results lead me to believe that a 2 Y-wing squad is a challenge, but not impossible. Nevertheless, you have to count on a lot of luck.

3. I have seen some people that are not too sold on Marksmanship, but let me tell you, the extra critical hits made all the difference. When I finally got the card that said I had to discard a secondary weapon (after shooting my proton torpedo to no avail of course) I knew that was the end. With no Ion cannon and only one hull point left, I only finished the game to give my daughter the satisfaction of defeating me completely. Of course, I think I only rolled an eye for either attack or defense like twice during the whole game, so luck was not with me.

Still, just like every other game I have played, it was fun!

That's too bad you lost. Sounds like you were close, though. It was nice of you to let your daughter finish you off to the bitter end.

I don't want to commandeer your thread, but the game I just played really matches the thread title. Tonight I played a 60-point game. It ended up being Rebel vs. Rebel. Parakitor had Wedge and a Rookie Pilot. Wedge had R5-K6 and Marksmanship, while Rookie Pilot had R2-D2. I took two Gold Squadron Pilots. One had R5-D8 and the other had R2-F2. Both had one Proton Torpedo and one Ion Cannon Turret. Wedge and Rookie Pilot came from opposite sides to cut off R2-F2. R5-D8 came from the side to hit Wedge from outside his firing arc. Wedge fired first with a target lock and removed R2-F2's shields. R5-K6 gave him a renewed lock on R2-F2's ship. Wedge was in range 2 of both Y-wings who target locked him and fired proton torpedoes. Wedge did not survive the dual salvo.

Rookie Pilot scored more hits on R2-F2 but the hull was still functional. Next round he took two ion cannons, removing his shields. He drifted forward, and we played that R2-D2 could not repair his shields. R5-D8 moved to point-blank range. He took a mean hit from Rookie Pilot: 4 hits! Actually, two hits, and two crits. I had a tough choice to make: spend my focus to negate the critical hit but lose all my shields, or save my focus for attack and let the crit go through. I chose the latter and it was a Direct Hit. That was fine because I had the shields to take it. I rolled a crit, blank, and hit, but I still had one target lock and one focus. I used the target lock to reroll the blank and it came up focus, so I spent the focus to give me 2 hits and one crit. The Rookie Pilot only had 2 focus for defense, so he went down by the Y-wing's point-blank laser cannons!

It was exhilerating to have two Y-wings take out two X-wingns! And what's more, the Y-wings both survived the engagement. It was a very emotionally draining match for me, though. 2 Y-wings, although really fun and potentially deadly, truly is a challenging squad to play with.

Yeah, that was a great game. It ended way too fast. When Budgernaut decided to take the critical hit because he had enough hull (not shields) to take it, I knew I was sunk.

But we played again where I chose Darth Vader, Obsidian Squadron Pilot and Academy Pilot and I beat his Y-wings. I won't say it wasn't a close match, though. Those ion cannons, I tell ya: no fun to be on the wrong side of those babies.

magadizer said:

How was she never able to use the cluster missiles? Darth gets 2 actions, has 5 HP, and is facing 2 Y-Wings. Even if Vader was getting Ion Cannoned, he can still perform actions. That just doesn't make sense.

Marksmanship is a waste on most ships but is really good on a few. It seems to have been almost designed for Maarek Stele.

She was ABLE to use them, she had opportunity, but failed to do so either because she didn't realize it or perhaps thought the time was not right. She is only 12, and I think she just forgot they were an option. I don't think she had played with Vader or missiles before. I also sort of pressured her into taking that as the opposing squad because I wanted to see how this matchup might play out.

Also, the reason I wrote about that issue with the missiles was to suggest that perhaps the game was not as close as the results indicated. If an experienced or more tactically minded player had been facing me there is no way Vader would have gone down without at least firing off those missiles, and probably doing at least 1-2 damage given the weak agility of the Ys.