AAR: Imperial Crackdown Scenario 1

Before you ask... AAR? Means After-Action Report ^_^

Welcome to the first X-Wing AAR of my blog. Glad to have you. We know you have many choices for your blog-reading, but we here at Dropship Inbound thank you for choosing us. Now sit back, enjoy a refreshing distilled-bean beverage or your choice of poison, and we'll soon be at dice-flinging altitude.

Last night marked the first time in a good while that I had been able to get some gaming in. Luckily, my good friend/nemesis, Drew, had just got a new collection of Wave 8 ships and wanted to start the scenarios included with the Gozanti-class Cruiser.

I'm a Star Destroyer, really! See I'm wedge-shaped and look at the TIE's!

First off, Cruiser?? I'll accept it being called an "Assault Carrier", but c'mon, it's not a Star Destroyer. It's not even a Raider. It's a small military vessel built for speed and deploying fighters. It's a Corvette at best, or a Patrol Carrier more specifically. Aside from the bogus classification, I like the ship overall though. Especially considering what happened in the scenario last night.

Overview: 
Scenario 1 sets the scene of a beleaguered Imperial crew trying to track down the pesky kids, the Rebels, who have been egging their transports for months now. Don't they know how hard it is to wash that stuff off? On a whim, a Gozanti Patrol Carrier decides to check out what amounts to a back alley and, surprise, finds a group of the ruffians working on some satellites.

Forces:
Imperial Forces

• Gozanti w/ Docking Clamps, Dual Laser Turret(DLT), Broadcast Array, "Vector", & Agent Kallus
• 2x Academy Pilots
• "Scourge"
• "Youngster" w/ Predator  

Rebels

• "Kanan Jarrus" VCX-100 w/ "Ghost", "Chopper", Recon Spec., Ion Turret, & Adv. Sensors
• "Sabine Wren" Atk Shuttle w/ Predator & "Phantom"
• Blue Squadron Novice w/ AT & R2 Astromech

Objective:

• Imperials - Dispatch that pesky Rebel Scum, especially the Wing Leader
• Rebels - Capture 3 satellites and escape -or- Destroy the Gozanti

Setup

Darn kids! Get off my lawn!

Set up was pretty straightforward and we immediately got down to playing.

Turn 1

Umm... it's looking right at us...

Turn 1 was pretty standard setup. I took the Kanan and T-70 left with the Sabine docked for now. Drew took his Gozanti and started driving towards me. Aside from jabs back and forth and making sure we ran the turn order correct, it wasn't that exciting.

Turn 2

The Gozanti Strikes!!!

Turn 2 saw the action get the Spinal Tap treatment. I made a pretty casual bank towards the 1st objective and set myself up for a future run up the side. Drew's Imperials had something to say about that and the Gozanti dove right for me and unleashed a furious hornets nest of TIE's. The initiative was well and truly in his favor. I hoped to thin the herd with some opening salvos from the Ghost and the T-70, but my dice about were as awake as I've been feeling lately. Range 1, 5 Atk Dice shot on the lead Academy Pilot with no focus token. No brainer right? 2 hits, 3 blanks. Ugh... Easily dodged by the young recruit. My follow-up Ion cannon shot to try and hose Scourge was also avoided.

Feeling ever so confident after that impressive display, my T-70 tried to pounce on Youngster and having already used up his focus on a dodge from her shots, my 4 dice yielded me 1 hit... Dice Gods, how have I offended thee?!

Meanwhile, on the winning side, the Imp's laid into the evade-less Ghost. Luckily, the combination of Kanan and the Recon Spec. nerfed his Range 1 advantage and the subsequent Dual Laser fire from the Gozanti. All said and done, I lost 5 shields in the first salvo. Not too bad, but not having a response hurt.

Turn 3

Turn 2 put me on the back foot. The sudden TIE swarm mixed with a lackluster response and a cluster of maneuvering issues in front of me, I had to come up with something or else this story would be "I turned left and I got blown up".

The Ace in the Hole delivered!

I knew I had to punch through the swarm if I was to even have a chance of gaining any range on the TIEs. Luckily, I had a Lando-esque moment of reasoning deciding to dive in on the Gozanti in hopes of getting the TIEs to go from piling on the Ghost to defending the Gozanti. Luckily, it partially worked. The TIE's turned and flipped to get behind me but instead of facing them, I dove in towards the Gozanti. I also risked eliminating my rear arc and deployed Sabine who did a dramatic loop to enter the fray, right behind a cocky Academy recruit.

The damage came fast and furious at that point. Youngster scored 1 glancing blow to the T-70's shields and Scourge punched through the Ghost's armor and dealt me a crit. Damnit! A Console Fire. Not good.

My Rebels responded in kind. Now focused on the big ship in front of me, both the Ghost and the T-70 laid into it, eliminating the shields and scoring a crit of our own (a docking clamp hit.. ugh). Sabine, though, made the Academy Pilot wish he had studied abroad for another semester and reduced him to 1 hull. Lovely Predator rerolls ^_^.

Still the Academy Pups love them some Youngster and her Predator helped them almost cripple the Ghost. Now reduced to a mere 4 hull... I was again able to evade the worst with Kanan's ability.

Overall, this turn revealed the shocking vulnerability of both the Ghost and the Gozanti. Sure it's great having monster hull and shields, but a concentrated swarm of red dice from multiple outlets will bring either of the big brutes to their knees. At the moment I started shooting, Drew realized that my Ghost had more hull, shields, and less Atk Dice than his Gozanti. Ruh-roh-Rorge.

Turn 5

That was too close...

 Turn 5 and now both Drew and I are in the same spot. My Ghost, crippled with a console fire and running out of steam, and a mountain of TIEs on my tail. His Gozanti, hurt and shaken, but still confident with its 360 deg deathdealer. Movement wise, I had a choice to make, turn towards the middle of the board or see if I can clear the big boy and keep my action. As you can see, I choose the later and, WHEW!, did I cut that close. Not only that, I had enough space to still do a tight turn to get myself back on the board. That is, if my Ghost held out. Sabine drove towards the Gozanti for a second salvo. My T-70, banked to avoid the big ship but still was hoping to snag a glancing blow (and I had been Jammed in the turn previous, so my maneuvering options were limited).

Drew, feeling vulnerable again swarmed with the TIEs and turned his big ship to the left... RIGHT INTO MY T-70!

Take that Abrams-Wing!

Argh! Now I really was in deep bantha poodoo. But, the movie pilot's death was not in vain. As luck would have it, I lost a X-Wing, but Drew last his chance to get back shields. I'd like to think a faint glimmer of hope shown from an imaginary cloud onto my ships.

The combat phase was a nice turn around for me. The TIEs were unable to score any significant damage or were looking the other way. Combined with a bad console fire roll and the Gozanti's guns, though, I was now down to 2 Hull. He even scored another crit, a Weapons malfunction! The glimmer was fading. My response? Beautiful. Oh Sabine, you beautiful Mandalorian punk, how I love you. Capitalizing on the big ship's loss of shields, She laid into him with a full spread of 4 atk dice. Combined with losing a hull from the collision and an Ion Turret shot, Drew's carrier was dropped to 4 hull.

But with 2 hull, my Ghost struggling to stay on the board, and time running out, how could I not accept the inevitable? Well...

Turn 6

HOPE IS KINDLED!

Turn 6 saw Drew send his TIEs to try and stop Sabine from having her way with the Gozanti and leaving the job of winning the game to his big guy. I kept the Ghost on the board with a tight turn and let Sabine loose (her ability is pretty powerful) on the main target. Movement was pretty straightforward, until... Drew maneuvered the carrier right over top of Youngster! OH WINDS OF FORTUNE! Not only did that eliminate his most dangerous TIE, but it also prevented him from yet again recovering shields! Also, without Youngster's PS6, Sabine was all clear.

Range 1, 4 Atk Dice, a predator reroll of 2 dice....

CUE THE VICTORY MUSIC!

Boom. Got him. What a roller-coaster! Literally that game was nowhere near in the bag for me. Honestly, if the Gozanti had gotten off a return salvo, it was likely the Imperials would have won the day. Still, Sabine "MVP" Wren was the star.

Rebels win the day, Imperials are missing a ship, and next time Drew and I switch places. Time to get my Authoritarian Regime on...

Closing Thoughts

1. You're awesome for reading this far and I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Now go be excellent with the rest of your day!
2. The combined threat of the DLT and the Vector-swarm is a brutal ship-killing combination. Seriously, I was losing that game since turn 2 because of that combo and the annoying pilot ability of Youngster. 
3. Youngster has a very bright future in X-Wing... 
4. Sabine Wren FTEW! Wow are Attack Shuttles a potent little ball of death. Kudos to those with enough disposable cash to field 4 of those in a squadron. A turret, a crew, 3 atk dice, and a possible EPT. I forsee them becoming popular as well.
5. Outrageous luck absolutely won the day for the Rebels. I really wish I could say it was "all part of the plan" (Joker voice), but two turns of collisions in a row really lead to the outrageous swing in that battle.

Until next time, you stay classy.