X-Wing Saturday Evening

X-Wing came was selected as the Saturday evening "game of the week" this weekend. Ziggy used a new Rebel list while I pulled out a Republic squadron I'd used before.

This Republic group is nearly a swarm. I reckon you need 6 or more for a proper swarm. Three Naboo Starfighters and two V-19s. All unnamed schlubs with topedoes and missiles. It's a decent and very fun group, but certainly fragile with a total of 25 hit points and Agility 2 all around. Pilot Skill 2 on all ships is another red flag.

Ziggy used a pair of fairly basic A-Wings (still very good) and high-end B- and Y- Wings.

The B-Wing goes full "joust-mode" and lines up on a Starfighter from the get-go. My ship gets hammered and gets saddled with two Jam tokens. In retaliation, the B-Wing eats two Plasma Torpedoes and its plentiful shields are quickly dropped.

The B-Wing quickly reverses its course and lines up a second shot on my damaged Naboo fighter. My ship is destroyed, and amazingly all the other seemingly easy shot opportunities from my other units at the B-Wing are fruitless. Gah! All that work to eliminate the best ship in the enemy group before the rest of the posse got in position, wasted.

Ol' number 17 (my right flanker) managed to catch up with that troublemaker a moment later and put him out to pasture. Elsewhere, the A-Wings caught up with one of the V-19s. Miraculously, my ship survived the barrage of rockets and blaster fire.

We them had a good old-fashioned twisty-turney for a while. One of my Naboo pilots chased the Y-Wing from a safe distance. The Y-Wing was equipped with an Ion Cannon Turret which was only effective out to medium range. I didn't get pictures of it, but the Y-Wing had dropped two Proton bombs, both of which had been terrifically placed and causing damage to my ships.

Moments later, one of the A-Wings fires its last Cluster Missile, catching a V-19 and Starfighter and destroying both! Curses! Those rotten Cluster Missiles had done nothing but disappoint Ziggy all evening and the very last one he had made it all back in one shot.

We ended the game there. It had been an excellent battle and not at all what I'd expected. My little trash mob performed well until luck finally caught up with it. Ziggy's become a big fan of A-Wings to my chagrin. Still, I like them better than the XXX flight he's used so often.