Prime Opponent Sean and I decided to try out a 400-point game on the suggestion of many friends of ours. We got to work building lists and it was joyous! Having an extra 100 points really gives you a lot of flexibility! Sean ran the Rebs, and I piloted the Imperials. Sean had lower points and elected to go first. He chose "Intel Sweep" from my objectives.
The fleets:
Sean chose his naked Assault Frigate to be his objective ship, while I chose Corruptor.
After setup. I knew as long as Corruptor could survive four turns I'd have more objective tokens than Sean. I briefly considered turning Corruptor into the approaching Assault Frigates, but remembered that if Sean grabbed both of his tokens (top left) he'd get the 75 points from Intel Sweep.
Tarkin and the other VSD stare down the pair of Assault Frigates.
Bombers await orders behind a debris field. (Purhcased from
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Assault frigates accelerate to attack speed.
At the end of turn 1. No real action has occurred yet.
Corruptor does a sharp turn with a navigate command to get into the movement vector that will allow it to grab the objectives. With two Assault Frigates bearing down on it, I know it's gotta' weather quite a storm!
Corruptor is taking a beating, but the bombers have put the hurt on the Assault Frigate.
The end of 2. The VSDs have to be very careful!
Proximity alarms are going off, but Tarkin is keeping his officers in line.
Concentrated fire brings down the first Assault Frigate as Corruptor moves away, heading for the remaining intel tokens.
Bottom of 3. The bulk of the Rebel fleet is still out of range, but accelerating to attack speed.
Bottom of 4. Corruptor took a severe beating, but is still afloat. She's about to grab the final intel token and net the Imperials 75 points. She'll be doing nothing but engineering commands for the rest of the game.
The bulk of the fleets are now coming into range of each other.
Bombers hound Paragon, but her anti-squadron fire is hot tonight! The bombers take tremendous damage.
Only Rhymer remains, but Paragon has had her shields stripped away... until a well timed engineering command + token bring her back to fighting strength!
The VSDs are in a good position to utilize those front arcs and gunnery teams!
One observation about 400-point games: 3 hull-point squadrons must be wary. Here, I decide they are best served by running away! Er, I mean, going on extended patrol.
Bottom of five.
The Nebulons show up in a spectacular way!
But quickly learn to respect two VSDs with gunnery teams...
... as BOTH Nebulons go down hard.
They put a beating on Tarkin's VSD- no shields left and 7 damage cards!
But the day is his. Tarkin's vessel will need weeks in dry dock, but many Rebels were lost in this attack.
The end of the game.
The final tally is really ugly for the Rebels. Imperials score
75 from the objective, and destroyed
206 points worth of the Rebel fleet. The Imperials lost 3 TIE Bomber squadrons for a total of
27 points, making the final Margin of Victory
254.
Closing Thoughts:
*400 points was fun! The battle felt much more involved, and the last few turns weren't just a handful of ships flying away from each other! I look forward to trying more.
*Intel Sweep can be nasty with 3 VSDs, BUT I don't think Sean thought about how to counter it until after a turn or two in. I'm sure he won't let me pull that one over on him again!
*Nebulon B's side arcs, man - they're crap.
*That terrain from
Space Rocks is SO GOOD. It really made the table look perfect. Seriously, go order some. Free shipping, and 10 percent off with coupon code "IFF2015".
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