Star Eagles
So I wrote a custom scenario for Star Eagles and tried it out. Still needs some tweaking, but the first playtest ended exactly like the movie!
The scenario combined parts of the Star Eagles "Strike" and "Ground Strike" mission. The attacker had more forces than the defender. Might change this a bit, as the attacker easily won the scenario.
This would also play better on a 4x4 board. I only had 3x3 available.
The attackers start at the left edge. They have to get torpedo-armed craft into the zone on the right edge and launch torpedoes. Each X-wing and Y-wing only carry 1 torpedo. If they launch from the small area in the center right of the board, they get an extra launch die. If they entered that launch area from the "trench" running down the middle of the board, that's another extra die. Turns out those dice were needed, even by Ace pilot Luke.
Attacking Rebels get 2 Y-wings, 2 X-wings (one with Ace pilot), and the Falcon (with Veteran pilot, sorry Han.) The Falcon can't enter the board until at least 1 friendly is destroyed or leaves the board.
Defending Imperials get 2 waves of fighters. First wave is 4 TIEs. I used a mix of rookie and experienced pilots. Might just go with experienced pilots next time. 2nd wave can't enter until 2 TIEs are dead (I only have 4 TIE models). That wave is 2 TIEs, plus another Ace in his fancy fighter. Some guy that likes to wear black a lot. They also get 3 gun towers:
So, how did it go?
Well, first off, I forgot to take pictures for the first half of the game, sorry.
Halfway through the game, the Rebel Leader Sara throws the "Broken Arrow" card! Everybody on the board has to roll for ion damage. I ruled that included the towers, too. Of course, everybody passed except for one tower which collected 3 ion tokens! They were out of the fight for a bit.
The first Y-wing decided to veer out of the trench in the face of heavy gunfire. As it passed the gun turret, the Y-wing scored a direct hit and blew it up! (My standard lousy rolling). I love the free model I got from Thingiverse, it included a destroyed tower version:
The endgame is approaching. One Y-wing is dead. Vader and his wingmen are on the board. Luke has made it to the attack zone but was out of actions. Next turn he will launch his torpedo. Will he win? Tom steals Initiative from Sara. She steals it back.
Darth Vader uses his extra speed and lines up for a rear shot on Luke. Vader threw everything he had into the shot, using his extra activations for more attack dice. Thanks to Luke's evade action, Vader only scores one hit! Luke is hurt, but still in the fight.
But what's this? For her next activation, Sara chooses to bring in the Falcon. And she goes with the random arrival of FTL instead of a board edge. In true Sara fashion, her random roll drops the Falcon dead center in the middle of the action. And Han had one activation left, just enough to shoot at Vader enough to scare him.
Oh yeah, that TIE in front of the Falcon is shitting his pants right now...
Vader's wingman rolls in and takes an up-the-kilt shot on the Falcon. Han is having a bad day and blows his armor roll. The Falcon takes 2 damage! I never thought I would even scratch that thing.
It's the next turn. Sara stole initiative back. Luke activates and launches his torpedo. He really needed those 2 bonus dice, he only ended up getting lock-on with 1 die.
With dinner approaching, we called the game.
To adjust for the future, I want to try a deeper board (4x3?) and balance the forces a bit more. The towers work well, they are devastating but have to recharge between shots.
But the first wave of TIE fighters doesn't have to be rookies.
