X-Wing: B-Wing and TIE Bomber in action

In the last few weeks, I've been both building up my X-Wing collection and getting in more games vs John and Chris. I've now picked up two starter boxes, a B-Wing, a TIE Bomber, a YT-1300 and the Firespray so finally the days of relying on John to lend me the odd TIE fighter are behind me. 

I've got almost all the ships I'really HAD to have... well I do think I need a TIE Interceptor or three. I don't know that they are all that effective but the are fun to use and look awesome. I borrowed one from John for these two games as my Firespray hadn't arrived. The first clash was actually vs John - who has already posted about it and somehow made a virtue of contnually colliding with asteroids. 

 John had three Y-Wings, led by Grey Leader himself, Horton. He also had a nippy A-Wing to try and work the flanks with. I borrowed Tur Phennir (a TIE Interceptor Ace) from John and also took four TIEs and a TIE Bomber. I could have taken six TIEs and the Bomber but think the TIE swarm is a little bit much.
My early tactics were somewhat unorthodox as didn't rush in and instead wanted to draw the foolish Rebel Scum to the middle of the asteroid field.... and their doom. Why? Well I did have a new BOMBER:

In John's version of the story, the Bomber never got any ordnance away but I think he forgot the concussion missile he smacked in a Y-Wing (Horton?) on the first pass. Then, of course, the Y-Wing ran forward onto a little surprise...

Oddly enough, what stuck with me most from the game was the ostensibly suicidal behaviour or his Awing Pilot. It did seem to pay off though as it quickly saw him through my TIE screen and then there he was cutting around into my flank. Luckily, A-Wings aren't that heavily gunned and this one had no missiles on board.

While firing missiles and dropping Seismic charges was hilarious, John's Y-Wings were able to shadow the Interceptor and the bomber and keep them from turning much (though they can still move sideways by barrel rolling) and chipped away at my ships. First the Interceptor went down as being nimble and boosting is no good if your intended prey have a 360 degree firing arc.

Then My bomber got the same attention, with one Y-Wing basically flying parallel to it and shooting at it until it died, with it's last missile un-fired.

All was not lost for the Heroes of the Empire (remember, they fight to protect you from terrorists and insurgents) as there were still four of the best ships in the game to go to work on those Y-Wings. 12pt TIE fighters are awesome, even if you aren't using a swarm backed by Howlrunner. The Rebels were quickly having their shields stripped while struggling to land hits on the nimble little things.

This is the move I was most proud of. I must be getting the hang of X-Wing's movement system as I managed to pull three of the TIES back into a firing line while turning around an asteroid. That's right John, you fly around asteroids. the unfortunate target of the impending volley of blaster fire was Grey Leader.

And so it went for the rest of the battle. I lost the bomber and the the Interceptor but the relaible TIEs hunted as a pack and slotted Y-Wing after Y-Wing. I think that A-Wing may have eluded me though. One more glorious Imperial Victory!

Game two saw me using the same lot vs Chris, who had my Rebels. He was the first to get to try out my new B-Wing. the B-Wing is even more of a Tank than the Y-Wing or TIE bomber but lacks the turret of a Y-Wing or cheapness of the B-Wing. However, it can have a heavy laser and targeting computer. Since the Firespray wasn't here yet, there was no heavy laser for Chris to use. However, he did learn from my mistakes and have Chewie Pilot the Falcon and also took an X-Wing with R2D2. Chris' approach to the game was to focus all fire on the TIE Bomber to destroy it before it got any missiles or bombs away. It managed to just survive the torrent of fire, with one HP remaining, to get it's first missile away and then rush forward to drop its seismic charge on the Rebels. Then it was so much drifting wreckage.

I was having a really good time at the start of the game. Solid hits were being landed and I was making good headway stripping down all the hitpoints (basically Chewie makes it all hitpoints) on the Falcon while adding the odd hit to the X-Wing. Not even Chewie's work with teh Sci-Fi wrench could save that YT-1300 from all the attention it got. However, I never really finished off the X-Wing, while Chris managed to again finish off the Bomber and the Interceptor. Then TIEs began to fall as a B-Wing and an X-Wing aren't quite the easy mark for TIEs that a Y-Wing is.

In fact, once I lost the Interceptor the writing was on the wall for me, though I didn't realise it yet. What followed was several turns of me trying to land hits enough to do something to the Rebels while I lost TIE after TIE and that X-Wing flew around regenerating it's shields. Well played, Chris. And yes good call in that I definitely should have killed the X-Wing first so as to reduce your firepower early. A B-Wing and an X-Wing together were far too lethal for me to handle in the late game.

So an ignoble defeat to those rag tag revolutionaries. Oh well, at least they were my ships that beat me!

Here is the full lot. Four TIEs, a Bomber, and a Firespray VS Two X-Wings, a B-Wing and a YT-1300. Both sides now have plenty of options and there is easily enough for two 100pt lists, with choices.