Dear Diary,
I recently had an experience that I just had to talk about.
So, I decided to try a slightly different list. I hadn't really played with bombers much so I wanted to see what they could do. But, as is my usual, I tried something weird. My list:
Scimitar Squadron Pilot + Seismic Charges (18) x4 (72)
Turr Phennir + Stealth Device (28)
My opponent had:
Kyle Katarn + Determination + Blaster Turret + Recon Specialist + Moldy Crow (32)
Horton Salm + Blaster Turret + Proton Torpedoes + R5 Astromech (34)
Dutch Vander + Ion Turret + Proton Torpedoes + R5 Astromech (33)
This gave the him initiative. Asteroid placement was interesting. From my perspective, there were four asteroids in a perfect line down the right of the board, range two from the edge, and the other two were range two from my side of the board creating another line with the bottom asteroid of the right line, creating this perfect right angle. I setup my four tie bombers in a loose box formation to my left, just inside the furthest asteroid. He setup his Y-Wings and the HWK on my right, just on the far side of the asteroid, but angled in so they would fly right into the middle of the board. I placed Turr on my right, just inside the wall of asteroids, hoping to catch them on the flank.
First movement, I moved my bombers up two, bringing the formation roughly inline with the asteroids. He moved forward 2, bringing himself abreast of his asteroid, moving into the largely clear center. I rushed Turr forward five, then boosted into range.
Horton fired back at Turr at range 3, getting one hit. No problem. I roll my five evade dice and... 3 focuses and 2 blanks. BLAST! I take a damage, destroying the stealth device. Ok, it's just one damage. I fire at Kyle. Three hits. But Kyle rolls two evades and a focus, which he spends a focus token to ensure he evades everything. I barrel roll backwards, getting into range 3 and out of arc for Dutch. Kyle takes a range three shot with his primary weapon. One crit. I still have four dice to evade. I roll... three focus and a blank. CURSES! The crit gets through. And it is... Direct Hit. NOOOOOOOoooooo.... Turr is destroyed.
Next turn, I bank all my bombers in, creating a rough line, with two on the left forward of the two on the right. He moves forward slowly, into range 3. He decides now is the time to alpha strike one of the bombers. Both Y-Wings burn their proton torpedoes on one of the bombers in the back. With focus and rerolls in the case of Horton. He does a total of... 5 damage. It's alive! Return fire strips a couple shields off Horton.
Next turn, I move forward with all my craft except the leftmost bomber, which hooks into the right, largely clogging the area he has to move into. He moves slowly forward, with Horton bumping one bomber. He concentrates fire on the damaged bomber, destroying it as expected. I return fire, causing some more damage to the Y-Wings.
Next turn, the tables turn slightly. I drop all of my bombs. The bomber facing Horton does a K-Turn, the one on the right does a 3 forward to clear stress. The bomber that was facing the Y-Wings from the side does a 3 bank right to set up for a hard right next turn to get into arc. He moves forward two with Dutch and Kyle, and three forward with Horton. Right into the cluster of bombs. Horton actually lands on top of one charge, which is in range 1 of the other two charges, while the other two get hit by two each. 7 damage for 6 upgrade points is a bargain. This strips two shields of the pristine Dutch, gets one damage through to hull on Kyle, and seriously puts the hurt on Horton, putting him down to 1 hull. He then ions and blasts the Bomber which had done three forward, doing four damage to it in total. The bomber who K-turned has a range three shot on Horton and takes it. Two hits. And he rolls... one evade. Yes! Horton is out. It's three bombers versus a Y-Wing and Kyle.
Next turn, the bomber, still facing the wrong way, clears ion and barrel rolls left and back slightly, moving him closer to the center of the map. My rearmost bomber moves up two and the other bomber does a hard 3 right, then barrel rolls up and back, bringing his formation into arc. He moves forward slowly, though he is getting close to the asteroids on my side of the map. He manages to hit the closer bomber several times, ioning him and causing four damage. I fire back, hitting Kyle a couple times.
The out of position bomber is just too close to the edge of the map for me to feel safe about a 5 K-turn and it wouldn't get me a shot anyway, so i do a three hard left, then barrel roll towards me and back. He's still out of range and arc, but next turn he should be able to get into arc. My following Bomber banks towards where the Y-Wing and Kyle have to go if they decide not to pass through the second line of asteroids. My ioned Bomber trundles along. He continues banking up and away from my side of the board. He shoots back, but the ioned bomber manages to avoid the Ion cannon and only takes one more hull. My return fire gets two more damage onto the HWK.
The far bomber turns three hard again, now pointed towards me near the left side of the map, pointed directly at the asteroid in the lower left corner. My trailer Bomber slowly moves forward, as does the damaged one near me. He moves forward again. Firing this round sees the death of my heavily injured pursuit bomber and Kyle.
It's now two bombers, one heavily injured, versus Dutch with one shield left. I start to feel I can do this. I have a feeling that he's going to turn into the center of the map, trying to bring my bombers in range. I eyeball it and decide the best thing I can do it to K-Turn both bombers. The uninjured one K-turns perfectly, but I call the other one wrong and just barely land on the asteroid. Then I roll a damage. Curses! Still alive, but one hull isn't a great thing right now.
My fire sees the loss of that last Vander shield, but he is range 3 to my ships and pointed away from me, so he can't shoot either weapon. My next move, I move one forward with both bombers. The first one I move is the bomber on the asteroid, who then barrel rolls back and right, while my second one, moving into the space where the damage bomber just rolled out of, focuses. Dutch moves one forward, hoping that I would rush into or stray into range of his ion cannon. I cause another damage, putting the first damage card onto Dutch. He is still at range three to both my craft so he can't return fire.
I move forward one again, again barrel rolling with the damaged one and focusing with the undamaged bomber as his Y-Wing trundles along. This time, however, my damaged craft strayed into range two. One ion shot, with focus and target lock, results in three hits. Nothing I can do. That bomber is destroyed. I have on undamaged bomber versus a superior pilot with an ion turret, but now two damage on him after my return fire.
I know I need to avoid range 2, because he could easily ion lock me. I move slowly forward and he K-Turns, placing him out of range. He surprises me by banking right, putting him parallel with the edge of the board near his edge, facing my left as I move slowly forward, putting us both out of range. I sense a trap. If I turn towards him, I might get him in arc, but that would put me into range two and he could just ion me off the board. I decide to do a K-Turn, placing me well behind him as he moves forward, out of arc for me and out of range for Dutch. I move three forward to clear the stress because, again, if I chase him I get too close to the edge of the board. He moves forward as predicted.
Now, I'm at the wrong angle, but he's getting close to the edge of the board. He has to turn south or K-Turn now. I have a feeling he's going to K-Turn, so I decide to do the same thing. I feel I should be just out of range 2 and I can get him setup next turn to chase him down at Range 3 again. I do the K-Turn, and I was right, he also K-Turns. The range is measured and he is JUST range 2. No! He fires and gets three hits. No! My first damage, but now I'm stressed and ioned. I'm angled towards him but slightly in front of him. I trundle forward. He's just out of my arc again as he moves one forward. He ions again. Three hits. I take another damage and another ion. Still stressed.
I blunder forward again. He's still out of my arc. I'm still stressed. He fires. Three hits again. Curses. I move forward. Well within range one now. He moves forward. He shoots and... One hit. And I evade! Yes! I move one forward to clear the stress, then barrel roll back into the map and back as he K-Turns. Another Ion shot, but he's stressed and doesn't get any hits. Now, I'm in an interesting position. I'm still closer to the edge of the map than I'd like. I'm about abreast of the farthest north asteroid. I do a three bank to the right, then barrel roll. He's facing the wrong way and stressed, so he has to move forward two to clear it. We are out of range. I've got three hull left to his two, but that Ion cannon can lock me down. I do a three hard right, bringing me behind the asteroid. I then barrel roll closer to the edge of the map and back. He K-turns again, but is still way out of range, but won't be for long. That K-Turn lets me do a three hard right again, bringing me next to the asteroid facing to the left side of the map. he move boldly forward. He fires Ion cannon against me and BLAST. Three hits. Back to being ioned. But, I'm not stressed this time. I can deal with this. I fire back, and get one damage! Huzzah! I've got two hull to his one.
I move one forward. I realize that I'm just starting to pull alongside him. I barrel roll right in front of him. And I guess right, he moves one forward! He slams into me and can't shoot. No Ion for him this round. By now all the other X-Wing players are watching this epic duel.
I K-Turn. It's my only real option. He does as well. We are out of range. He's got one hull left so I decide to go for it. I move cautiously forward, as does he, so we both clear stress. I focus, as does he. We are in range 2. He fires first. He gets a hit and a focus, so he burns focus to change it to a hit. This could be it... and I roll one blank and one focus. I burn my focus token to survive, taking that fifth hull damage. I have one left. I fire, getting a hit and a focus. With no token, it's just one hit. Dutch rolls his one evade dice and... BLANK! Victory!
I didn't realize it until this writeup, but that one bomber pilot got all three kills, and was the one that dropped the only bomb to hit all three enemy craft. That's one tough little bomber pilot who is clearly getting a promotion. Probably to shuttle pilot, much to his chagrin.
This was one of the best games I have ever played. It was physically painful to lose Turr to a range three shot from the HWK's main gun, which is one dice, against my four evade dice. The pleasure of dropping three bombs right into where the enemy moved was perfect, bracketing their entire movement dial perfectly. The thrill of taking down Horton and Kyle in rapid succession. The frustration of hitting the asteroid and then getting ion locked. The pleasure of escaping the second ioning by rolling right in front of him. The nail biting final joust between two heavily damaged bombers. This is the type of game that you remember and one of the reasons this game is great.
Edit: I have no idea why I typed Fel instead of Turr in the title, but I can't change it. Also, spelling fixes.
Edited by SableGryphon
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