Hi folks,
With Battletech Tuesday on hiatus while we get the new
campaign organised, the guys I game with have had a chance to dabble in a few
other random interests. A few nights ago we play-tested a custom Death Star trench
run for the X-Wing miniatures game, set just after Garven Dreis orders the
remaining Red Squadron ships to prepare for their attack run.
The game was highly enjoyable, even though we stopped and
started frequently to discuss and develop the rules of the scenario. The scenario rules we used, and the reasoning behind the design
decisions we made, follow on after the battle report.
For those who don’t want to invest that much time in reading
the technical side of things: the scenario was damn hard for the Rebels.
Battle Report
Battle Report
The Trench Run Scenario
We used rules which reflect what occurs in the movie as
closely as possible, which created a very strange gaming experience. More specifically,
what is good for the movie makes for a demoralising game for the Rebels… unless
of course they win very quickly due to a blisteringly arbitrary win condition. Prepared for this in advance, and being the group of guys that we are, we had a lot of fun and laughs. The scenario needs tinkering before I would unleash it on anyone
else though.
1: The Rebels
Here is a rundown of the Rebel force. Luke Skywalker
with Calculation can spend a focus to change one eyeball result to a critical
hit. One of these hits is required to hit the thermal exhaust port and win the
game, so I thought this would be a nice touch. Wedge is a TIE killer; with thoughtful
placement, Outmanoeuvre and his special ability, watch the TIE’s agility
advantage evaporate. The Millennium Falcon acts as the 2nd Rebel Wave,
which arrives when 50% casualties are incurred. Biggs… well, we all know why
Biggs is there… The Gold Squadron BTL-A4 Y-wing was there to represent the lone Y-wing you see escaping with Luke, Wedge and Han when the Deathstar blows up. We didn’t give it an astromech as the Y-wings clearly didn’t have them at the battle of Yavin.
The first wave of Imperials consists of 5 Black Squadron TIE
fighters and Dark Curse. As a 2nd wave we had Darth Vader with Predator
and an Advanced Targeting Computer (keep twisting that dial Darth…). His
wingmen Mauler Mithel and Howlrunner both had Wingman and Targeting Computer
(let’s all twist dials!).
3: The Death Star Trench
- Any ship with its base overlapping or at movement range 1 of the trench at the end of a turn may forgo its manoeuvre next turn, and instead "enter the trench". The ship is placed in the trench at the point nearest to it's last position and gets a free reorientation of facing.
- Any manoeuvres in the trench, other than straight moves, incur a 2 die attack.
- Any ships involved in a collision perform a random manoeuvre during the next turn.
- Ships outside the trench cannot draw line of site to ships inside the trench and vice versa.
4: The Thermal Exhaust Port
- Rolls 4 dice in defense to represent the difficulty of the shot.
- The Death Star can only be destroyed by proton torpedoes.
- Any ship, apart from Luke Skywalker’s X-wing, wishing to fire upon the exhaust port must maintain a target lock for at least 2 rounds. They can make no attacks while they maintain target lock (can only defend, and use focus or evade tokens). Luke Skywalker may instead spend a focus token.
- Rebel ships must fire their torpedoes at range 1 and score an uncancelled critical hit to destroy the Death Star.
5: Turbolaser Batteries (we used 2 in this game)
- 3 Hull points.
- During the skill level 0 step of the activation phase, rotate each turret to choose firing arc.
- Should it choose to fire, a turret rolls 4 attack dice against all ships at range 2-3 in its firing arc.
- The defender doubles his/her agility value against these attacks.
- Action. Reduce the agility of a ship within range 1-3 by 1 (to a minimum of 1). You cannot fire this turn.
Points to Ponder
Wade made a good point at the end of the game; there are two ways to approach this scenario as the Rebel player. You can go for the objective, in which case you will either win quickly or the TIE swarm will catch up with you and pull you apart. Alternatively, you can ignore the objective and thin out or destroy the TIE swarm like a normal game, in which case you may as well not have the objective. Setting a time limit will remove this choice, as this forces the Rebel player to gun for the exhaust port, but this still leaves the game in a precarious position: win as quickly as possible with a "1 in a million shot" or (far more likely) miss and face the TIE swarm from hell.
For what it is worth, I suggest:
- Reducing the points assigned to the Imperials. Darth and friends didn't even make it onto the board, as they weren't needed. Seriously, there is no fat in an Episode IV Imperial force...
- Allowing the Rebel ships unlimited proton torpedo shots. They need them.
- When the Falcon arrives, bring it on within range 3 of the Rebel ship closest to the exhaust port, so that it can begin supporting the Rebels immediately.
- Reduce the defense dice of the exhaust port (2 perhaps). Getting an uncancelled critical hit is hard enough.
See you across the table,
M4cr0
No comments:
Post a Comment