So we managed to put up a game for Millennium Wargaming Convention here in Austin based on the attack on the first Death Star ( trench run ).
It was a game that hosted 10 players, we were two referees, almost all of our players were first time X-wing players. We did some large sized cards that already included all the upgrades that had been selected by us for the forces.
The rebels had 6 X-wings and 4 Y-wings. Although we used the actual pilots form the game we did not identify them, we simply listed their call sign, red 1 , red 2, etc.. So players would have to have their SW trivia at hand to know who had Luke or things like that.
Imperials started with a CAP of 8 ties ( academy pilots ), on turn 3 Vader + 2 ties would come in, and they would get infinite reinforcements of varied quality.
Each side of the Death Star ( on the sides of the trench ) were 3x3 feet, so you had to go through a 3x3 board to get to the trench ( as a rebel ).
The turn limit was between 12-16 ( random ) with a turn tracker shaped after the observation screen from the bridge of the Death Star, upon running out of time the firing sequence provided the random variability for the final turns.
The trench was simplified by having no maneuvers but simply ships would move from one section to the next executing a special action called "stay on target" that prevented you from doing any attacks or of course other actions. For each stay on target the player would get a tracking counter and the final shot would be a number of red dice equal to tracking counters against a 3 dice defense ( the length of the trench meant the longest run would give you 4 reds. ) and you needed to score a critical hit.
There were towers in the trench but they would stop firing if tie fighters were in the trench within range. A hull hit on a ship would automatically push the ship out of the trench.
The towers on the surface where only obstacles.
We tested the scenario twice before the convention, one went for the rebels and one for the imperials. The convention game was the hardest fought game, half the rebels went down..
towards the end the only rebel ships that got on time to the firing line were wedge and a y-wing, wedge was attacked by tie fighters in the trench and a final hit pushed him out. The Y wing was the only one that could attempt the shot and despite the low probability an exceptional hit gave the victory to the rebels when everything seemed lost.
( Luke had special modifiers, but the Red 5 player stayed off the trench the whole battle engaging in dogfight ).
here are the pictures
critical time as rebels start getting into the trench
Vader on chasing mode
the final attack
you can see the crazy roll… "good shot kid, that was one in a million"
Attack on the Death Star in a box
The game went spectacular, the rules proved elegant enough for a convention ( I've summarized the basics ) to the point that many players assumed they were part of the basic rules from the game.
I believe everyone ended up being a convert into the game and we were asked to run the game in an upcoming convention…
It was a great game, I believe it is quited balanced, it includes every element in the rules that provide the feeling from Episode IV, the bigger "convention" style cards make the game easy to referee, and the natural three stage characteristics of the game ( initial dogfight on approach, entering the trench, the trench runs ) meant that tension was high for players during the whole game… It lasted the full 4 hours of convention session and it could have gone either way given that both side did very few tactical errors.
Can't wait to run this again, it is the prefect introductory game for fans… many of our players went straight to get some starter boxes..
And the Death Star was blown up by a Y-wing… something deep inside most of us like
cheers
Francisco
