Biggs' Rebel Forces
Luke Skywalker
- Jedi Mind Trick
- Battle Meditation
T-47 Airspeeder
- Wedge Antilles
- Ax-108 Ground Buzzer
- Comms Jammer
AT-RT (x2)
- AT-RT Laser Cannon
Rebel Troopers (x3)
- Rebel Trooper
- MPL-S7 Ion Trooper (x1)
- Z-6 Trooper (x2)
Ambush, Push, Assault, Son of Skywalker, My Ally is the Force, Return of the Jedi, Standing Orders
Chris's Imperial Detachment
Darth Vader
- Battle Meditation
- Saber Throw
- Force Choke
Speeder Bikes
Stormtroopers (x3)
- Stormtrooper
- DLT-19 Stormtrooper (x2)
- HH-12 Stormtrooper (x1)
AT-ST
- General Weiss
- 88 Twin Blaster Cannon
- AT-ST Mortar Launcher
Ambush, Push, Assault, Implacable, New Ways to Motivate Them, Master of Evil, Standing Orders
Setting Up
Here's the map we'd be fighting over. Aside from the standard baracades (we set them up from our own supply) there were also some rock formations. The "Arch" on my left side, the big rock of the three in the middle, and the highest face of the right hill were "height 2" and thus could make flying my Airspeeder more difficult. The hill itself was "height 1" so troopers could clamber down safely in 2 actions, or quickly in 1.
Chris chose Blue player, and cleared out Limited Visibility, not wanting to miss the chance to take mortar shots with his AT-ST on the initial rounds. I got rid of the "standard" long side deployment, in favor of Major Offensive, expecting it would hold up as "Disarray" was the final Red setup card. Chris cleared out the Blue card to give "Breakthrough" and I cleared out "Rapid Reinforcements" in favor of "Clear Conditions", giving us our battlefield.


The Battle
I did not get a picture of Round 1, but I played "Standing Orders" to his "Assault", and selected my Airspeeder as I wanted it to go last (the idea being to Last / First it and get as much damage / suppression as I could at the top of Round 2. His Speederbikes moved out towards the hill, while the Rocket Troopers held in place and shot at my Hill-side AT-RT which had just stumbled into their range.
Round 2 began with an "Ambush" against his "Master of Evil", again with the Airspeeder. I got my Airspeeder into the middle of his deployment, suppressing his rocket troopers and getting some hits off on the AT-ST. He pivoted his AT-ST and lit up my Airspeeder with most of his guns. It would not be able to activate again (though it didn't die until Round 3), but this was enough for me to move up and take the middle of the board with my troopers. His Speeder Bikes were still harassing my flank by the hill though, so I was forced to focus fire on them with the AT-RT and Hilltop Z-6 Troopers. Vader activated last, after my Ion Troopers moved a bit to close, suppressing them for the start of Turn 3.
With no support, the speeders couldn't hold up to the AT-RT and Trooper fire. Round 3 had "Son of Skywalker" give the magic refreshing dodge tokens to my troopers which had been spending the previous turns hustling into position, but Vader was ready with "New Ways to Motivate You" and he won the roll off for priority. I was able to move up the other Z-6 unit which split fire between his HH-6 Rocket Stormtroopers and the Speeder Bikes, further suppressing the former, and wiping out the later. Vader "motivated" the rocket troopers, which were down to just the squad leader and the rocket, so after shooting, the HH-6 Trooper died and the commander moved to slightly more safe position. Vader himself moved up to deal with the Z-6 Trooper squad hiding near the pillar, choking one and tossing his saber at another.

I figured Luke would be able to live through one round of Vader, so I went with "Assault" while Chris went for broke with "Implacable". Vader beat on Luke, then got a lucky draw and immediately beat on him again, but only got 4 damage across. I had given orders to Luke and my two AT-RTs, so all that was in my pool were my troopers, so I was able to activate in the best order possible, getting my AT-RT from the hill, and the Z-6 Troopers moving towards the objective, and pinning down his BTL Troopers. Unfortunately they got lucky, clearing 2 of their 3 suppression tokens and damaging my AT-RT.

I knew at this point my only chance was to take out Vader (who had 3 damage on him, but no dodge tokens left). "Son of Skywalker" was my choice, while he went with "Push", giving orders to Vader and his AT-ST. I rolled hot with Luke though, taking Vader off the board! The AT-ST suppressed everyone it could, and without a Dark Lord of the Sith telling them not to, the BTL Troopers began to panic, running most of the way off the map.

Too little too late for the game, because Luke had already made a "Push", which was enough to get 2 of my Troopers and the last surviving AT-RT into the deployment zone, for 3 Victory Points. Chris's other BTL Stormtrooper squad had made it close, but a last minute move by my Ion Troopers got them into melee, stopping their charge.
Thoughts and Impressions
One nice thing I've seen about the game is by looking at the cards you used throughout the game, you can help refresh your memory of what you did at what point.
- Suppression (and Ions) are KING. The difference between an enemy with an Aim token or one that moved into a good position and one that has to hold in place to shoot is immense. The AT-ST wasn't able to move after Turn 2 because I had an Ion trooper pointed at it, and that's pretty darn good - I took away a good 1/3 of its potential actions.
- The game is sadly much, much more random than Armada. Because of defense dice, you can't count on... much. This in turn makes Suppression even more of a king of the battlefield, because it doesn't care that you didn't hit anything, it only cares that you could have.
![]() |
Standing Orders added for completeness |
- On a related note: Standing Orders is a great Turn 1 card, at least until Leia and Veers show up with a chance to suppress something Turn 1. Being able to pick something and have that go last is really, really good, especially for a key unit like an Airspeeder. The AT-ST could have benefited from this as well, if it didn't want to go first to lob mortar fire.
- Speeder Bikes are good, but can get themselves into trouble by getting away from your supporting troopers. Likewise, Airspeeders are good, but I accidentally wound up making my opponent spend way too many resources dealing with them.
- I can't wait to get my next game in. Also I painted my squad leaders after the game. Tried to make one a Chiss, but wound up with more of a Yandu. Base coat and wash on them right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment