X:Wing Batrep Chewie vs Carnor Jax

 I dropped by John's place last Sunday, for a game of X-Wing. In an odd turn of events, I was going to play the Rebels, and John the Empire.... what was he cooking up? Phantoms? Unsure as I was, it didn't matter. Since I had traded a B-Wing to Jason for another TIE, I have two X-Wings, the Falcon, and an A-Wing. If you put the Chaardan refit on an A-Wing and take two Rookies, you can fit these together with Chewie and a small upgrade. I took "draw their fire". What John actually had was the Imperial Guard Tie Carnor Jax (no evade tokens within range one bubble), another Interceptor (both of them had Stealth Devices, of course) and two bombers with Ion Torpedoes and seismic charges.

Chewie and his small wing of green Rebel pilots were tasked with screening an important supply convoy in the leadup to the battle of Endor. Somehow, the small unit of bombers and their escorts had slipped through the outer pickets and it was up to the rookies to stop them. Red 12 was on his first combat mission. He had his shields stripped by as storm of Tie Interceptor fire and then suffered an unlucky reactor failure and died in the opening minutes of the battle.

The Imperials were content to make ordered sweeps up and down, past the hapless Rebel pilots. Simple, obvious tactics, but more than enough to take out one, after another, Rebel pilot. All the while, Carnor Jax circled the flanks, seeking to pick off yet more easy prey and pad out his unwarranted kill-count. Instead, he found the looming shape of the Millennium Falcon and his stealth device was no match for a pair of quad lasers on turrets.

Unfortunately for the Rebels, Red 13 and Blue 7 were knocked out not long after Carnor Jax and then a pair of Bomber and the Interceptor were left circling the beleaguered Millennium Falcon.  Several fusillades of quad laser fire were directed at the Interceptor. A lucky crit did damage its weapondry but they just couldn't get that crucial last hits. All the while, the Imperials whittled away at the Falcon. Then came Chewie's big break: Inexplicably, an Imperial bomber dropped a seismic charge in the path of the Tie Interceptor.

It obviously rattled the pilot so bad that he was caught flat footed in the face of a final volley from the Falcon and smashed out of space. Another Bomber followed quickly him. However, despite Chewie running everywhere with his space-wrench, the Falcon was trailing bits of broken engine parts. All it took was one last pass from the reaming bomber and the Rebels were done.

Well done, John. A super tense and close game and a lot of laughs at the crazy things that happened. I think that if those bombers had another piece of cheap ordnance each, they'd be a lot scarier and your use of the new Ion Pulse cards has got me thinking about fielding a pair myself. Me, I really should fly in formation if I am going to take "draw their fire". Poor Red 12 bought it pointlessly when Chewie could have saved him. I probably would have been better off as the actual titled Millennium Falcon though, as the evade token would have been very handy one it was all alone and getting whittled down. Thanks for reading.