XWM Scenario: Training Day

Scenario:

A group of trainees undergoing combat flight training is ambushed by an elite force of enemy starfighters. The attackers have underestimated the number of trainees present but decide to press their attack, counting on the element of surprise and their superior skill to win the day.

Terrain:

The Flight Instructors have chosen an area relatively clear of debris. Three asteroids may be placed per 3’x3’ of playing area.

Victory Conditions:

Destroy all enemy ships.

Balance:

Reinforcements are optional - Feel free to include or exclude them, or deploy them after turn 2. (Reinforcements are primarily intended for use by players who arrive late to game night!). Always deploy equal amounts of reinforcements for each side.

For each Attack Squadron, include one Trainee squadron and one Flight Instructor shuttle.

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Mission Briefing: Trainees

All pilots, abort training exercise immediately! Enemy snubfighters are inbound at attack speed.

Disable all training safeties and engage the enemy. Remember your training, listen to your instructor, and you may just survive.

The enemy has the initiative.

Force Composition:

Trainee Squadron:

Budget-90pts

Restrictions- May only select ships of one type. Must select lowest PS pilot for each ship taken. No upgrades may be taken. Only small ships may be taken.

Flight Instructor’s Shuttle:

One Omicron group shuttle with no upgrades. Has the following special ability: “Once per combat phase, one friendly ship within range 1-2 of the Flight Instructor’s Shuttle may reroll any or all evade dice for one attack.”

Reinforcements:

Budget- 60pts + 20pts for upgrades only

Restrictions- May not take pilots of the lowest PS available for each ship taken.

Deployment:

Trainee Squadron: The Trainee Squadron(s) will be deployed in the center of the playing area

in a scattered formation. Players may choose to manually deploy the fighters across the table, or use the following method to achieve a random distribution - either way, the Trainee squadron(s) should be highly disorganized and spread out across the table.

To distribute the trainees, both players will alternate placing and facing the trainees on the table. The Trainee/Defending player places the first ship anywhere on the board that is a minimum of 1 range from the nearest table edge. That ship is then rotated by the attacking player to whatever facing they desire. Trainees may not be placed within range 1 of another trainee. Players alternate these roles until all trainees have been placed. The only restriction to facing is that ships within range 1-2 of a table edge may not face that edge at an angle of less than 45 degrees (no setting up your opponent to fly off the board!).

Flight Instructor’s Shuttle:

The Flight instructor's shuttle may deploy within range 2 of the center of the table.

Reinforcements: Reinforcements from either side may deploy within range 1 of any table edge in the end phase of turn 2.

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Mission Briefing: Attackers

Intelligence has obtained the training schedule of the enemy’s latest class of pilots. Your mission is to ambush these cadets and destroy them before they have a chance to become a real threat. The stolen documents do not specify how many trainees will be flying, but we are confident that your experienced, well-equipped pilots will be able to handle a few rookies without numerical superiority.

Good hunting!

You have the Initiative

Attack Squadron:

Budget- 80pts + 20pts for upgrades only.

Restrictions- May not take pilots of the lowest PS available for each ship taken.

Reinforcements :

Budget- 60pts + 20pts for upgrades only

Restrictions- May not take pilots of the lowest PS available for each ship taken.

Deployment:

Attack Squadron: Attack Squadrons deploy within range 1 of any table edge.

Reinforcements: Reinforcements from either side may deploy within range 1 of any table edge in the end phase of turn 2.

Looks like fun but I would delay reinforcements for the defenders to turn 3 and for the attackers till turn 6 to give the battle a real e b & flow

"Now the hunter becomes the hunted"

What Tren said!

Chris

Interesting idea; It makes sense as far as making a realistic and interesting story goes, but I worry about what it would do to balance. I really should make the reinforcements explicitly optional; they were included as an option for players to jump into games after they start.

Looks good. I had a scenario like this, but with me as the DM (Imperial) and my player as Rebels. Howlrunner conducting flight instruction for academy pilots in an asteroid field. Advanced maneuvers.

I like the scenario, but have a few questions.

1st - If the rebels are defending, do they still use a Lambda shuttle, or would they use an ORS?

2nd - Shouldn't the shuttle have a flight instructor on board... for flavor?

3rd - While the initial defenders are resticted to a single ship type, am I correct in assuming the attackers and both reinforcement squads can be of mixed composition, thier only restiction being no bottom PS of their respective model?

I love this idea for a scenario, I may have to give this a go at somepoint!

I like the scenario, but have a few questions.

1st - If the rebels are defending, do they still use a Lambda shuttle, or would they use an ORS?

2nd - Shouldn't the shuttle have a flight instructor on board... for flavor?

3rd - While the initial defenders are resticted to a single ship type, am I correct in assuming the attackers and both reinforcement squads can be of mixed composition, thier only restiction being no bottom PS of their respective model?

Good questions!

1: Yes, they still use the lambda shuttle. This is primarily for balance reasons, but I think it is justified fluff-wise from the rebels' use of shuttles in the X-wing computer game.

2: On one hand, yes it probably should have the flight instructor upgrade for fluff reasons, but on the other hand the special flight instructor ability it has (reroll evade dice of nearby ship) is much better. I didn't want it to get confusing, but having the upgrade might remind people that they have the special ability - i sometimes forget to use the evade reroll in my playtests.

3. Correct. This is to exaggerate the difference between the Trainees and all other forces.

If anyone gives this a try, let me know - this probably will need tweaking at some point.

I've run it three times at home with imperial defenders and gotten 2 trainee wins and one attacker win. When the trainees won it was a landslide, when the attackers won it was by a slim margin.

So I am leaning towards a nerf of the trainees as of now.