More fun in a galaxy far, far away! Sunday night is club night, so Simon and I set to. He had his splendid rebels and I the glorious might of the Empire.
Okay… At this point Simon’s rebels had claimed two supply tokens whereas I only had one. The was no way I was going to get the supplies held by his Wookies, unless I could call in an orbital strike, so I went after the one held by his Rebel Veterans on the flank. Veers had been potting away with his blaster pistol for a few turns and let me tell you, the old fella is a mean shot! Three white dice … two critical hits? No problem! Twice. With a bit of help from his Death Trooper bodyguard he had reduced the Rebel Veterans to just one man.
The mission cards were resolved as “Battle Lines” for deployment (very convenient), “Clear Conditions” (Phew! See later) and “Recover the supplies” as the objective. I was especially pleased to get clear conditions as my leader is General Veers and he has a fantastic command card, “Maximum Firepower”, that you really need to play in the first couple of turns due to the long minimum range involved.
Here’s a couple of pics of Simon’s lovely figures. I especially like Chewbacca and the squad of Wookies!
The early part of the game saw a lot of forward movement as each side sought to capture one of the five vital supply tokens. However, I’d been a bit more cautious and so was able to put a lot more shooting on to the Rebels. This seemed like a good idea, at least to begin with… Veers’ Maximum Firepower card had damaged the AT-RT, though its main weapon was still a threat to my AT-ST. The Death Troopers and AT-ST had put a lot of hurt on Chewbacca and he was looking pretty badly beaten up. The Speeder bikes had raced up on each flank and would soon be in what I hoped would be good flanking positions.
In one of many cinematic moments of the game, I decided the bikes would hurtle up the road between the buildings and hose the Rebel Veterans and Taun-tauns with their blaster cannons! With Stormtroopers in close support, how could they fail?!
Well … at first glance it might appear that the Rebel Veterans have vanished. But they are actually obscured by the building where they are congratulating themselves on a job well done by bringing down one of the bikes and damaging the other. However, there was one less Taun-taun. (Note to self: Taun-tauns are proper bad-ass, must get some for my Rebels, regardless of how bad they smell)
Back on the other side of the field things are hotting up! The Speeders have flanked the AT-RT and crippled it. Ahsoka (flippin’ Jedi) Tano has leapt forward to claim a supply token. The Wookies have been badly mauled by the AT-ST and Death Troopers. Worse still, for Simon at least, Chewbacca will need to be sent home in an ambulance. (Or, more accurately, a hearse)
With Chewie now a smoking pile of blaster shredded fur, a distraught Han hurls himself into the fray. The brave Speeder bike chap decides that Han is best dealt with by his Death Trooper colleagues and continues whizzing across the battlefield. The Death Trooper squad waste no time in dealing with their new High Value Target.
Meanwhile… the Empire’s right flank continues to enjoy a “deferred success scenario”. There is a supply token just by the door to the little round building but I don’t think the remaining Stormtrooper squad leader will be claiming it for the Empire. The Veterans, aided by the Taun-taun rider, have blasted the Stormtroopers halfway to the Outer Rim.
Here’s a moment to warm even Vader’s flinty heart. The AT-ST zeroed in on Ahsoka (oooh look at my lightsabres) Tano. For much of the game the pilot had been struggling to deal with repeated ion weapon attacks which had restricted his options somewhat. But not this turn! Aim… Fire! She was just within range 2 so the AT-ST could use everything it had, the main blaster cannons plus the sponson mounted light blasters. Simon rolled some superb defence dice and the badly wounded Ahsoka was able to deflect two shots back on the vehicle using her light sabres (which almost toppled it!) but one blaster shot made it through her valiant defence … and she was blown to smithereens!
If that didn’t cheer up old Vader, this almost certainly would! The Death Troopers (gotta love these guys!) and Stormtroopers, aided by Veers’ target spotting ability, gave Han everything they had. Not even a “Notorious Scoundrel” like Han could survive that.
On the other flank, the remaining Taun-taun rider had picked up a supply token and was heading for cover. But the Speeder Bikes were not about to let that happen. Again their blaster cannons roared, the rider fell, and the supplies tumbled in to the sand.
Only one pic left as the game was getting really tense (in a very good way I hasten to add). The Wookies, with one supply token in hand, attacked the Stormtroopers to prevent them from claiming a token. The combat was very one sided. I repeat, very one sided.
Simon decided to withdraw the remaining Veteran to a more covered position. But careful manoeuvring from one of the Speeder Bike squads meant they were just able to draw a bead on him. By avoiding potentially one blaster shot from a Stormtrooper, he’d strayed in to the path of two Speeder Bikes. Scratch one rebel and the supplies he carried.
This was basically the last dice roll of the game. So with one VP each we had to total up who lost the most points from their army. I’d knocked out 469 points of Rebels, whereas Simon had taken out 487 points of Empire. Victory by a mere 18 points!
It’s difficult in a blog AAR to convey just what a ding-ding belter of a game we had! So many cinematic and heroic moments along with high drama and daft comedy too! My thanks to Simon for being a great sport and a splendid opponent. Looking forward to more of this.
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