Seeds of Hope – Battle 1

(or “Formation Flying Demo” or “Fun with Ion Cannons”)

by Gallanteer (Rebel) vs STORM_BOLTER (Imperials)

Rebels start with Jan Ors in the Moldy Crow plus turret along Wedge and Biggs in their respective X-Wings.

Imperials have 3 TIE Fighters including Howlrunner plus Colonel Vessery’s TIE Defender with an Ion Cannon.

Turn 1 – All ships push forward. The rebels focussing their firepower on the TIE Defender and reducing its shields. Wedge get’s hit by an Ion blast from the Defender and Biggs soaks up a hit covering the Moldy Crow.

Turn 2 – Vessery miss times his K-turn but locks onto the limping Wedge. Wedge is left without a target because of the collision. The TIEs break off right in a tight formation. The Moldy Crow takes a shot at the nearest Fighter with it’s 360 degree cannon but misses. Jan locks in the first of seven Hyperspace coordinates needed to escape.

Turn 3 – The TIE Fighters continue their formation flying to sweep around the Rebel ships. Vessery breaks hard left in preparation for another K-Turn. The X-Wings plough forward covering the Moldy Crow which shoots at but misses the Defender with it’s equiped turret. The second hyperpace coordinate is generated.

Turn 4 – Luke and Biggs caused stress on the airframe of their X-Wings as the pulled K-Turns to face back at the TIE Fighters who were completing their perfectly executed formation swing around them to the rear. Jan Ors pressed on leaving her Rebel colleagues to cover her escape. Colonel Vessery easily pulled a K-Turn in his Defender and this time hit Biggs with a blast from his Ion Cannon. The X-Wings returned fire on the TIEs but only managed to hit one. The TIEs themselves then opened up and by the end of the turn, both Rebel snub fighters where billowing clouds of smoke behind them. Jan’s navicomputer failed to set the next coordinate.

Turn 5 (a dark time for the rebellion) – Jan broke hard right trying to put distance between herself and the chasing TIE pack. Behind her the X-Wings blasted forward into the ranks of the TIE Fighters trying to break up the formation and pick them off. The coordination of Colonel Vessery and the pack of fighters unleashed a barrage of fire into Biggs’ drifting X-Wing and Wedge as he tried to weave through the laser fire. Both snub fighters finally succumbed to the focussed hail of laser bolts and broke apart leaving Jan to hope that she would be able to jump to lightspeed before the TIEs got her. On cue, the next point was plotted. Three down, four to go!

Turn 6 – On her own and trying to buy time, Jan threw the Crow into a hard left turn hoping to keep out of reach of the chasing fighters. For the first time, and caused by the heroic efforts of Wedge and Luke, the TIEs became uncoordinated, causing the rearmost to collide with a friendly. The others shot at the Crow, taking down its shields. Jan managed to return fire on the Defender, reducing its shields in response as the navicomputer ticked forward.

Turn 7 – Jan was in a prime position to wrongfoot her pursuers. Angling to turn left she broke hard right. Only a single TIE predicted the move as the Colonel K-turned the wrong direction but managed to target lock the crow. The other two TIEs, with the formation broken, continued to interfere with each others manouevers.By the end of the turn, Jan only needed two more points plotted in order to jump to hyperspace.

Turn 8 – Jan decided to push it to the limit, moving straight forward, knowing she had just enough space to turn hard right and stay safe. The TIES, desperate to pursue, collided once again. Colonel Vessery in his reliable TIE Defender made the impossibly hard K-turn with ease once again. With his TIE squadron failing to find any targets and with the Crow still having hull integrity, he made a split second decision. The Defender’s Ion cannon found its mark for the third time, disabling the crow and essentially sealing her fate. The Ion blast disruption appeared to delay navicomputer again.

Turn 9 – The Crow drifted forward managing to stay on the board as the TIEs swung away and back into formation. The 6th out of 7 hyperspace coordinates was plotted but it was too late. The next turn  would see her fly out of the combat zone.

Conclusion

StormBolter gave an excellent demonstration of formation flying whilst Gallanteer’s usual unlucky dice throwing meant that he didn’t manage to kill a single enemy even with some focussed fire in turn 1 and 4. Also forgetting to use Jan’s ability to add an extra attack dice in the first turn probably didn’t help! But the big winner was Colonel Vessery and his Ion Cannon which hampered the Rebels and eventually won the game.

From a story point of view, it went to the wire, with Jan just needing a single last coordinate to make the jump and escape so it couldn’t have been much tighter!

Result

Campaign Score: Gallanteer (Rebels) 0 – STORM_BOLTER (Empire) 2