After such a successful campaign in Will of the Empire for the rebels (nope), Stormbolter and Gallanteer decided to try another huge ship campaign. This time we chose the one that came with the Gozanti class cruiser. It must be said that once again FFG have done an excellent job with the model, especially the way that TIEs can physically be docked onto it.
Battle 1
The aim to capture the satellites and keep the wing leader alive seemed quite straight forward for the rebels. After the dire showing of the previous campaign against the Raider, I had learnt a few lessons about combat against huge ships. It pained me to select Leebo in a YT-2400 rather than me (Han Solo) in the Falcon. But for all I love Han and his trusty ship, he’s way too expensive in a 100 point limit squad. Plus, the YT-2400’s ability to barrel roll would come in handy in a couple of games where positioning would be vital. Along with Leebo was a unique B-Wing and two cheap A-wings. None of them had upgrades. Stormy (Storm Bolter) had fattened up the Gozanti and taken two TIE Advanced fighters with extra cards.
It all started well with Leebo picking up the first satellite by the end of round 2. I was going for speed so that the slower Gozanti couldn’t keep up with my more manoeuverable ships (the B-Wing was the heavy support backup to take pot shots at the huge ship and sweep up the fighters). Both fighters has launched and already taken the freighter’s shields down but the nimble Correllian vessel was going to keep going at full pelt.
In the third turn round everything went pear shaped. Leebo was making a daring run across the bow of the Gozanti and was planning to pull a hard left turn and zooming full pelt along its flank in the tight gap between it and the play area, restricting movement of the Gozanti and the TIEs. Unfortunately, the gung ho droid pilot turned the YT into a laser sponge for the turret on the Gozanti and the TIEs (all of which had close range bonuses) and the game was over. Hmm, maybe the Falcon might have been a better choice with its stronger hull (and the best pilot in the galaxy).
Battle 2
With Leebo being a bit of a daft droid, the rebels gave him some countermeasures to offset his gung ho tendencies (and survive the docking round) and also sent along Lando to add that much needed human input. Dropping the B-Wing, another A-Wing test pilot was added and two of the fighters where given some rockets to slow the Gozanti down. The TIE advanced fighters had long since jumped to hyperspace so three TIE fighters where aboard the cruiser this time, including new pilot Wampa.
Several rounds progressed with initial manoeuvring of the rebels to try to flank the Gozanti. The fighters were a little late in launching after the huge ship had already been pounded an slightly damaged. The launch was effective though, and killed one of the rocket carrying A-Wings. They had not been able to launch because of some good flying by the Gozanti captain and it’s special ability to remove target locks. The second A-Wing did launch it’s rocket and heavily damaged the cruiser along with general fire from the remaining rebel ships.
The next round saw some excellent flying by Wampa. After destroying the snub fighter in the previous round he managed to turn and barrel roll into perfect formation in a very tight gap which I just had to applaud. One fighter had pressed ahead causing the YT to be surrounded by the three TIEs, although the lead was facing the wrong direction. Leebo was not quite in line to dock with the cruiser, being just out of range but alongside the rear of the vessel. Some more slight damage was done to the Gozanti and the nimble freighter successfully lost its shields.
Desperately needing energy, the Gozanti slowed down and the lead TIE made a right turn. Not quite predicting this, Leebo had powered ahead but drifted left which the imperials had predicted, but the sudden barrel roll to the right took them by surprise. However, the TIEs managed to keep the ship in their sights. With six damage on the Gozanti the rebels had a slightly better than even chance to dock. I rolled the dice and just managed to meet the requirements.
With the Gozanti unable to fire and one fighter out of position, only two TIEs could take a shot. Even at close range (which they weren’t) the Imperials could only through six attack dice against the five hull points on the YT. Lando also gave the freighter two evade tokens so the game was mathematically over and the imperials broke off the fight.
Battle 3
Free of the points burden of the Gozanti, I predicted Storm Bolter was going to field a TIE swarm, and so he did, 7 of them including Wampa, all in tight formation. Leebo once again took to the battlefield as Wing Leader, but this time was followed by a Hawk with an Ion Cannon to try and mess up the TIE formation and a K-Wing equipped with two Ion Bombs.
After initialling lining up a clear route the Gozanti would fly to escape an asteroid expectedly drifter into another position the rebels had to adjust their plans (ahem). Clear space? Where we’re going we don’t need clear space. One admittedly large asteroid lay in the Gozanti’s path, but the plan was simply to plough on through it regardless.
The first round everyone piled forward including the cruiser, only generating a small amount of energy. The second round was much the same except that the Hawk peeled off towards the fighters but the Ion Cannon missed its target and the Gozanti managed to replenish its shield up to full strength.
The third round the TIEs swung around to face the flank of the Gozanti managing to take down its shields an cause some initial damage to the controls, as it had after initial impact with the asteroid. Once again the hawk failed to disrupt the TIE formation apart from it’s presence causing some initial bumping and the K-wing damaged Wampa.
The fourth round was devastating. Leebo Managed to pass in front of the cruiser but the cruiser failed to fully pass the asteroid causing it to take another damage card. The Hawk slammed on the breaks and disrupted the TIE formation a little more. The K-wing slowed down in preparation to drop a bomb into the midst of the swarm next turn that was likely to affect the majority of them because they were still so tightly packed, allowing the Gozanti to press on full speed. This was not to be. With seven TIEs, many of them at close range, they were not to be denied. In a hail of laser fire, the cruiser’s controls went completely off line and it drifted helplessly off through space allowing the Imperials to recapture it. One more round may have made the difference, although the cruiser was still at least two turns from safety.
Damn asteroids.
Conclusion
A very fun campaign that was a lot more balanced than the raider campaign (or maybe I just played it slightly better).
With these two campaigns completed it leaves us with “The evacuation of Hoth” and “Point of no return” left to try out in terms of huge ship campaigns. With these two being for rebel ships, hopefully the evil galactic empire will not be so fruitful.
A couple of weeks ago, Gallanteer and I had a bit of an X-Wing weekend-gameathon which was very enjoyable (Gallanteer is the handsome one on the right, while I was on the left pulling my angry face…….) The final game we had was a bit of a test – on my newly finished 6’x3′ gaming table, how would the game mechanics stand up to a 300pts-a-side straight forward Imperials vs Rebels fight? In most of the games we’ve played on 3’x3′, each player has 3-4 ships max – this time, I think I had 15. How would we fare with such a large number of ships (oh, and the Tantive IV on the board as well as scenery)? 
Veteran Gamers UK 