X Wing - The Campaign - Game 14 - Robot Wars

Robot Wars

This is a continuation of the X Wing Campaign, full explanation and details of Campaign rules are here.

Mission Briefing

"Gentlemen, today we fly in support of a major fleet action with a special mission.

Using the cover of the general mayhem of the main battle we need to to sneak in close to an Imperial Droid Fighter Carrier. The firepower of that ship will be being directed elsewhere and we hope they wont notice your small squadron sneak through.

Your ships have been equipped with specialised R2 units, drop them on the surface of the carrier, then guide them to a network port and download a virus onto their system whilst uploading important data about the carrier.

Once you've retrieved your R2 get out of there, expect some attention from the Droid Fighters who will defend their mother ship."

Pilot Upgrades - (from the ongoing Campaign)

Rick O'Shea bought himself some Lightening Reflexes.
Commander Wayne Kerr saved his cash.
Crank Case took the miserly option and saved.
Spike Sharpie turned up in a smart new E Wing.

Set Up

Scenario should be played on a space station map if avaliable

Rebel players set up on the top edge of the map.

Empire Set up is 2 Tie Droids per Rebel Player, PS is random from the Squadron Pilots (1,3 or 4) drawn at random from available cards. No random ships.

Place 6 markers on the table as shown to represent the data ports on the carrier deck.

Game lasts 10 turns.

Lack of model R2s lead to improvisation.

Special Rules

R2 units - Each Rebel ship carries an R2 unit externally, it can only drop the units onto the surface of the carrier in the final (Imperial) third of the map. It takes an action to drop the unit. Once on the surface the unit moves with a PS 0. The unit can move any 1 template or a straight 2. When it reaches a data point roll 1d6, on a 4,5 or 6 (if it fails try again next turn) the unit connects and spends the next turn up/downloading data. The unit then needs to be picked up and hyperspaced outta there ! (No you cant shot at them you evil Empire player, you).

OOHHH shiny E Wing

Jump to Hyperspace  - To leave the table you need to declare your attempt and then try and gain 2 critical hits, hits from previous rolls carry forward. You cannot attempt to jump until after turn 4.

Turn 1. Roll 3 attack die

Turn 2. Roll 3 attack die + Pilot Skill / 2 (round up)

Turn 3. Automatically jump

Tie Droid Fighters Mk2 - Usual rules, Tie Droids act and have stats as normal TIEs except,

1) Not effected by Stress, they never earn a stress token, so can red manoeuvre for free.

2) Droid pilots are immune to critical pilot hits just take the hit.

3) Droid fighters are fragile, they explode due to feedback on any Hull Critical regardless of the number of hull points left.

Tonight's comedy Empire moment, 4 Ties collide with each other in a rush to be the first to shoot at an E Wing

2 new Droid Fighters should appear at random for every three that are lost.

Victory Conditions

Rebel Victory -  Download more than half the R2 units, victory points are only given to those who successfully escape with a droid full of data.

Imperial Victory - Less than half of the R2 units are downloaded.

Draw - Any other result.

How did we get on

Sickness and shift work had thinned the ranks this evening and only four pilots took on the "might" of the empire this evening.

With individual victory conditions the Rebel players stumbled in the light of the glitter of personal glory and split up rather than adopting their usual tighter formation.

This led to tragedy early in the game as (queue solemn music, wailing and gnashing of teeth) Wayne Kerr was caught in the crossfire of 4 Tie Droids and shot down, he rolled the dice of death, a sharp intake of breath, A CRIT !!! R.I.P Wayne. Survivor of 7 (and a bit missions).

Goodbye Wayne

We allowed Chris to re-incarnate as Ensign Wayne Kerr Jnr, a son on a mission to avenge the death of his father, for a bit of a change he chose a HWK-290 which if he survived this game would automatically get him 7GC to upgrade with, however those GCs are hard to hold on with Tie Droids K turning around the place at will.

It was a week where rather than crashing into each other (apart from one notable comedy moment photographed above), asteroids and rolling hand full of blanks that the Empire actually had some decent dice. Tie Droids are a bit fragile (basically a standard Tie with the added ablity to blow up with a single crit hit). All the rebel ships had lost their shields towards the end of the game and only two R2 units got deployed before everyone jumped away.

WK Jnr survived (just) and with a succesful robot deployment has a few quid to trick out his Hawk, it will be interesting to see how this ship develops. Mostly ignored in a points / competition style game it could be quite useful in a campaign format

An honourable draw. As a scenario it would probably have worked better with more Rebels, as a campaign game it was a challenge for the Rebs.

Rebel Pilot results below,

Pilot Rick O'Shea (4) - B Wing, survived, 2 kills, 3GC - Totals, Missions 14, 3 GC, 17 kills

Pilot Spike Sharpie - E Wing (4),survived, 2 kills, 3GC - Totals, Missions 14, 5 GC, 13 kills

Pilot Crank Case - Y Wing (3) survived, 2 kills, 2GC - Totals, Missions 9, 5 GC 7 kills

Pilot Commander Wayne Kerr - Shot down and killed.

Pilot Ensign WK Jnr (1) - HWK-290, survived, 0 kills, 7 GC - Totals Missions 1, 7 GC, 0 kills

Not Present 

Pilot Pop Cicle - A Wing (3) not present - Totals, Missions 7, 10 GC, 2 kills

Pilot Captain Tangent - A Wing (3), not present, 0GC  - Totals, Missions 7, 6 GC, 0 kills

Pilot Oi M'Groin - Y Wing (2) not present - Totals, Missions 4, 3 GC 0 kills

Pilot Sir Jeremy Dodger - X Wing (2), Not Present - Totals Missions 3, 7 GC, 2 kills

Pilot Twiki Bond - A Wing (1), Not Present - Totals Missions 1, 6 GC, 0 kills

Roll of Honour

Pilot Brian RIP

Pilot Commander Wayne Kerr veteran of 7 Missions, RIP

Is that a Hawk !

Jim head mechanic in the Rebel Garage was busy down the local book shop looking for a Haynes Workshop Manual for a HWK-290.

Result (2 pts for a win, 1 for a draw)

Draw

Campaign overall score is, Empire 12 pts, Rebels 16 pts

X Wing madness will return with game 15 on 24th June, a big game with 3 huge ships, cue chaos.