I am a huge fan of the X-wing miniatures
game. In fact, it is possibly my favorite game. Why?
·
The rules make for a quick,
easy game with tons of customization. The use of cards to provide upgrades and
special rules along with a limited (albeit growing) set of abilities means that
awkward interactions and confusing rules are few and far in between.
·
It feels balanced. I’m not
talking tournament lists, but rather for casual play where you just grab cool
looking units. The games are usually pretty tight and it’s enjoyable even when
the dice go against you.
·
Painted models. The models come
pre-painted and ready to play without being ugly, soft plastic or lacking
detail. I can get a new set of ships and have them on the table in minutes.
This is exactly what happened with the batrep below. I had the models and they
were on the table, instead of waiting for me to assemble, paint and base like
most games.
·
Not super expensive. I buy each
set as it comes out. Sometimes this is 60 pounds, sometimes more. However,
that’s it. I don’t have to buy terrain, additional units (unless I’m doing
something spammy), rulebooks or anything else.
·
I’m not very good at it. This
may seem like a strange one. Why would I like something I’m bad at? Well, there’s
no push to win. Some games I’m quite good at (e.g. Warhammer 40k) and I feel
like I’m overly competitive at them. If I know I’m terrible (such as for Flames
of War or X-Wing), I can just enjoy the game for what it is.
·
My wife plays it. I have tried
very hard to get my wife into tabletop games. She plays boardgames with glee,
we play some hypercompetitive dominos and she does 100% of the application of
basing materials on my flames of war and other models, but tabletop games are a
struggle. She’s knows how to play warmachine and we’ve played that a ton, but I
feel that’s more to make me happy than her enjoying it. X-wing is the
exception. She actually enjoys the game and offers to play (instead of me
asking). Being able to whip out the table and play with an in-house opponent
means I get more games in and in a VERY casual playing environment.
On Friday, my wife went to the miniatures
store (shout out to Dark Sphere, London) to pick up some supplies for me since
I generally cannot get out of the office until after it closes. I’d asked her
to find out if the new scum and villainy models were out yet since I thought to
get some once they were released. She ended up not just asking, but buying a
copy of the large box with 2 Z-95s and 1 Y-wing, IG-88’s ship and the Starviper
from Shadows of the Empire. They were out of the interceptor but I was not
bothered at all.
We decided to play a quick game to try out
some of the new upgrades and ships. The game was a 100 point, kill-them-all
with me taking Scum and Villainy and her taking her usual rebel forces.
(my vicious opponent plotting against my poor pilots)
Lists:
Scum:
I chose to bring a list with few ships but
lots of fun toys. I normally play Imperial and bring a lot of ships, but this
time I thought that I should try out the new upgrades that came with the Scum
boxes.
The new upgrades are really wonderful. My
personal favorite is the autothrusters. Septy (my wife) loves to take Chewbacca
in the Falcon and the turret is always a nightmare for my interceptors.
Autothrusters should give me a chance to escape too much damage.
I love the new headhunter that gets an
additional attack die at 17 points for PS7. I thought to run him as a lone wolf
with outmaneuver to swoop in and put some hurt on isolated units. I also wanted
to try out the hot-shop blaster so that if I went head-to-head with another
ship I could get the last laugh as we passed.
I took the Starviper loaded to bear. The
virago title allows for a huge number of additional upgrades, and with this freedom
I took the accuracy corrector to ensure damage was done and inertial dampeners
to take advantage of enemy ships flying by. With Guri’s ability to get focus
through proximity to enemies even when stressed, I could use the inertial and
still have focused shots.
The Aggressor I took was IG88a, who gains
shields when enemies are destroyed. I thought by picking on weaker enemies he
could stay in the game longer. I gave him autothrusters and adrenaline rush.
Adrenaline rush with the turning-flip maneuver that this ship can do allows for
a really nasty trick.
Rebels:
Septy does not like to take a lot of
upgrades as she consistently forgets to use them when needed. Accordingly, her
lists tend to have a large number of ships that are bare-bones. Sometimes it
works really well, sometimes it falls flat on its face.
She started by taking Chewbacca with
intelligence agent. He is an absolute tank and still has the 3 shots with 360
degree arc. I would say that most games with her I end up facing the Y-1300.
She then added two rookie X-wings who are always solid. Finally, a
Chaardon-refit A-wing was added. More and more I find myself facing the
cheaper, missileless A-wings. They are quick as can be but lack firepower.
Battlefield: We threw out several asteroids
to make things interesting. We have been adding more and more obstacles to our
games as we get better at flying. Most of the time they just add challenge, but
when someone’s dice are off and their flying is bad they can prove to be a real
pain.
The battlemat used is actually a custom job.
My friend Raul’s father owned a print shop and he made it for me from a stock
photo online. When I moved from Romania to the U.S., I sold the mat to the
local gaming shop in Bucharest. After about a year or so, I realized that I
really liked it and wanted to start playing space games. My brother-in-law went
to the gaming shop and bought it back, and it made its way back to the States
and in my possession. Normally I end up selling things and then kicking myself
for losing them. At least with this I was able to get it back and in decent
shape.
The Battle:
The photos are taken at the beginning of
each turn before any movement and shooting.
Deployment:
Septy massed around the center with her
ships, while angling a single X-wing out to engage my Z-95 whose base can be
seen at the extreme top left. My other two ships positioned themselves to the
bottom right. We were both at 100 points, and were unsure who got the
initiative. We figured that the Imperials break ties, and so scum likely did
too and so we gave the bad guys the initiative.
Turn 1:
The flanking Z-95 and X-wing face off in a
head-to-head, while Septys forces zoom forward. IG88 and the Starviper move to
engage the flanks.
Septy had 9 total shots on IG88a (3 from
Chewie, 3 from the X-wing and 3 from the A-wing). I had a focus and 3 defence
dice. In a brilliant display of crap dice and excellent rebel shooting, IG88
lost all 4 of his shields and 2 hull points.
In return, the A-wing lost its shields and
took critical damage from return fire.
On the flank, the X-wing lost one shield
while inflicting 3 damage on the Z-95 including a critical that removed its
action bar. Ouch!
Turn 2:
(no picture)
Chewie turned sharp to the right straight
into an asteroid and taking one damage, as did the flanking X-wing. Septy’s
piloting was weak the entire game.
IG-88 set himself up for a close range pass
to kill the A-wing and whiffed, while the Starvipe flew towards Chewie and the
X-wing but could not hit the broad side of a barn. Chewie took off IG88’s
second to last damage.
The flanking Z-95 headhunter strips off the
shields of the flanking X-wing with his tricky hot-shot blaster to the rear.
All together, a pathetic turn for all
involved.
Turn 3:
Septy’s poor prototype pilot runs smack dab
into and asteroid and dies a sad, pathetic death.
IG88 turns into a perfect firing position
while running into Chewie and to keep the wookie’s guns off the wily droid.
The flanking Z-95 flips around and lights up
the flanking X-wing. My 17 point beast of a Scum/Villain ensures that the
rookie pilot never graduates to veteran status.
IG88 puts some damage on the X-wing
Turn 4:
IG-88 turn flips to chase Chewie and the X-wing
while the Starviper and Z-95 (freed from killing the X-wing) rush in to put on
damage.
IG88 puts several points of damage onto
Chewie but then falls to the quad lasers of the Wookie’s freighter.
Turn 5:
Chewie runs into the StarViper who uses the
damper to keep himself in position and safe from the Wookie. The Z-95 is out of
position but avoids death by dodging Chewies long range attacks. The X-Wing
takes two damage from the Starviper.
Turn 6:
The Z-95 headhunter rushes in to target the Wookie, while the Starviper flip turns to add additional punishment. In a brilliant display of gunnery, the Z-95 pumps three damage into the Wookie, who was outmaneuvered and unable to defend.
The Starviper then lined up his shot and
with the help of his pilot ability giving him focus, tacked on the additional 3
damage required to send Chewie to wookie heaven.
(Septy was VERY sad at losing Chewie)
Turn 6:
The X-wing was under the guns of
both remaining scum vessels and would shoot last. In a very expected turn of
events, the rookie was blown out of the sky by the Z-95 Headhunter and the Scum
took the day!
Conclusions:
I really like the new faction. It seems that
they have a lot of tricks with their upgrades and ships that change the playing
field. I especially love the turning-flip maneuver. Being able to not just flip
around but do so in a way that changes your orientation is quite powerful. I
wish the Starviper allowed for a normal K-turn in addition to a turning K-turn,
but you can’t have everything.
I’m unsure of the Aggressor where there aren’t
multiple on the battlefield. It seems quite expensive for what you get and it
does seem more fragile than most large ships. I will have to play it more (or
get a 2nd/3rd/4th) to see how it goes.
I think Septy needs to look into and utilize
more upgrades. Sometimes the flexibility they give you is worth its weight in
gold, and I know that using special abilities (such as the Z-95 pilot ability)
really helped me during the game.
I
think with some of the new abilities and pilots, a Z-95 horde could be quite
powerful. It is by far my favorite X-wing ship and I’d love to fly a few
around.
No comments:
Post a Comment