X-wing 100 point battle

Played X-wing again this weekend with David, and we also introduced the game to Joakim down at the club. After having played through the introduction scenario Joakim was up to speed on the rules and we played a 100 vs 100 point battle with me handling the Rebel Alliance and Joakim and David sharing the Imperial command (Joakim handling 2 Tie Interceptors and David 4 Tie fighters).

The lists looked like this

Rebels

Wedge Antilles:
Skill card: Marksmanship
Astro mech: R2-F2
Secondary weapons: Proton torpedo

Gray squadron Y-wing:
Astro mech: R5-k6
Secondary weapons: Proton torpedo and Ion cannon

Gray squadron Y-wing:
Astro mech: R2 astromech
Secondary weapons: Proton torpedo and Ion cannon
______
100 points


Empire
Tie  Fighters
2x Academy Pilot
Night Beast
Dark Curse

Tie Interceptors
Turr Phennnir
Saber Squadron pilot
________
100 points

This was the first battle in which I got to try out my freshly arrived Y-wings. I wanted to try out their full potential so I made them quite expensive with both astro mech, torpedo and ion cannon upgrades. The Ion cannon feels like an essential upgrade but it comes at 5 points which is quite expensive.

I deployed my trio of Rebel fighters so that they would face the 4 Tie Fighters, target locked and fired proton torpedoes hoping to at least destroy or cripple 3 ships. The result was quite disappointing though, with just minimal damage done and no destroyed enemy ships. I did damage both Tie Fighter characters (Dark Curse and Night Beast) though. As both sides closed in a barrage of guns opened up on both sides, in the chaotic shootout the Imperials focuse all their fire on the leftmost Y-wing which was shot down. However as the area between the asteroids was relatively cramped the 6 Imperial ships ended up colliding with each other and ended up facing all kinds of weird angles in the next turn which allowed the Rebel ships to shoot down both Tie Fighter characters (Dark Curse and Night Beast).

The turn thereafter the Rebels managed to shoot down one Tie interceptor and thing started to look bright for the Rebels, the remaining Tie Fighters took some damage and were just about going to be shot down while the last Tie Interceptor was destroyed.  Unfortunately this was when Wedge Antilles X-wing was destroyed. and the remaining Y-wing took the beating of a lifetime which reduced its shield to zero and its hull to a single point.

The remaining Tie Fighters and Y-wing broke off and all three made a 4 move with a U-turn which ended in a Mexican standoff. The Y-wing fired at the only enemy ship which could fire back - which also happened to be just about ready to die - but failed to inflict the necessary hit. The return fire on the other hand struck, the Y-wing which failed its agility roll and was destroyed.

It was a great session with a very tense endgame moment. I feel Wedge Antilles is a superb asset to the Rebel side as he reduces the agility of the target ship by 1, something that can bring  down Tie Fighters a bit more easily. On the other hand all rebel ships are so expensive it's very hard to make a balanced list with variety and characters.

We talked about list building after the game and realized you could have 8!! Tie-Fighter acadamy pilots in an Imperial "Tie-Fighter swarm", but you can only max out on 4 X-wings or Y-wings if you go for the cheapest options without upgrades. You can face the Tie-Swarm with 5 A-wings, though I don't think that's a good counter measure as the A-wings will be outshot and have but 1 more hit point than a Tie Fighter. Better to keep things interesting in friendly games than to degenerate into a min/maxed tournament mindset.