Bounty hunters. We don't need that scum.

This week I was up against Rob, and I was itching to try the "Preystalker" mission that came with the Firespray-31 / Slave 1 model. Giving Rob the option of choosing a faction, his decision revolved entirely along me having no A-Wings in my collection and he went with Imperials. He had 90 points to use, selecting the following:

• Bounty hunter in a Firespay-31
• Mauler Mithel (Tie Fighter)
• Dark Curse (Tie Fighter)
• 2 x Academy pilots (Tie Fighter)

I had to choose one of my pilots  to be the bounty. His base cost doubles, but he gains an additional elite pilot talent and an additional up to 10 points discount to all of his upgrades. I had 150 points to play with, not easy with my paltry collection of a Millenium Falcon, two Y-Wings and three X-Wings. I wanted to be competitive and so ignored the Y-Wings. My eventual list was:

• Luke Skywalker as the bounty, in an X-Wing with Marksmanship, Determination and R2-D2.
• Han Solo in the Millenium Falcon with Draw Their Fire
• Two Rookie Pilots in X-Wings (possibly with droid upgrades, I forget)

(apologies for the awful lighting, the Imperials were jamming our signal)Deployment saw Han and Luke in the middle, with a Rookie Pilot covering on each wing. Rob deployed heavily to port.

Turn one saw everyone light up their afterburners. Han ploughed ahead while Luke broke left seeking the relatively Imperial-free left side of the mat. The right Rookie raced ahead to engage the entire Imperial squadron on his own, while the left Rookie turned toward the rest of the game. 80% of the Imperials raced toward the Rookie opposite them, blasting him to pieces, while Dark Curse sped towards the Millenium Falcon and Luke.

The Falcon broke right to engage the Imperials while Luke and the remaining Rookie both locked on to Dark Curse but battled to anticipate his moves and bring him into their firing arc. The Imperial Ties banked right, headed for the remaing three Rebel ships, while the bounty hunter broke left, anticipating Han not remembering that they have aft-facing weapons too...

Disaster strikes! The Falcon, having weathered a lot of hits, finally succumbs to Imperial fire and is blown to bits. Only having one evade die has really hamstrung Han's wagon. Two remaining X-Wings have the huge task of destroying the five Imperial ships.

Forming up in line abreast, the X-Wings surge towards the bounty hunter and his Mauler Tie escort, pursued by an Academy pilot and Dark Curse who's still lit up by their target locks like a Christmas tree. The X-Wings blow an Academy pilot out of the sky.

But the pursuing Tie's and the bounty hunter's sneaky rear weapons gun down the remaining Rookie, and Luke is on his own!

At this point I'd like to remind readers that the Imperial objective has always been to kill the bounty, ie Luke. Keen-eyed followers will note that Rob has killed everything except the bounty. His defence was the Falcon was just too vulnerable to pass up. I'm just saying.

Luke lights up his engines, the bounty is in hot pursuit of the bounty hunter, both straying dangerously close to the table edge and the ignoble death that awaits should they cross it. There are some long shots from the remaining Tie's but Luke's ability to always change one focus defence die into an evade buys him  a lot of time. Luke keeps hammering away at the bounty hunter's shields and inflicts some damage.

Air traffic control rears its ugly head and disaster strikes, again. For the Imperials this time, as the bounty hunter misjudges his turning circle and departs from the table counting as destroyed. He also earns six points on his licence and is banned from flying for three months. Luke celebrates until he realises his pursuit has brought him dangerously close to the same edge-shaped death and he's in a ride with no reverse gear.

Slamming the engine down into granny gear he begins the slow process of sharp turns back to the playing area, while a gaggle of Tie's descend upon him.

After several agonising game turns involving slow turns Luke races off with the Ties in hot pursuit, green pew-pew death chasing him all the way.

 Sneakily flinging his ship around 180 degrees, Luke hammers into the Ties with guns blazing, causing damage but no losses. He is finally able to make use of the target lock he got on Dark Curse in turn 1!

Though he's able to evade the firing arcs of two of the fighters, one Tie pilot scores an amazing string of hits and Luke is blown to bits. Victory for the Imperials!

I'm not quite sure why I'm having no luck with what is supposed to be a very easy list, Han Solo and some X-Wings. Luke lasted much longer than I expected, and I put that down to his ability to always turn a focus defence die into an evade. I'm trying not to think about how my +-120 points of Rebels were so bested by 90 points of Imperials...

What good is a reward if you ain't around to use it?

This week Darth Phil felt inclined to give his Imperial fleet another run, giving me a chance to try the "Han shoots first" list I read about online. Apparently it is foolproof... apparently.

The Millenium Falcon crewed by Han and Luke is accompanied by a rookie X-Wing pilot and Biggs Darklighter. Biggs has an unusual rule, if a friendly ship within range 1 is targeted and the enemy is able to target Biggs instead, they must do so. I took him as a fire magnet to protect the Falcon, and because it's always amusing to taunt those pilots who manage to die before Biggs! Facing the Rebels were two pods of Imperials. on the port side a Tie Interceptor with two Academy pilots in Tie Fighters, and to starboard Marek Steele in his Advanced Tie Fighter also escorted by two Academy pilots in Tie Fighters. Green pew-pew death hurts just as much as red pew-pew, and there sure is going to be a lot more of it.

The Rebel ships advanced at full speed, while to the two Imperial pincers closed but not enough for either to be in weapons range.

Next turn and the fleets collide! Those with a keen eye will find the lack of Biggs in this picture... disturbing.
 With every ship happening to be in range, and all the Imperials forced to target Biggs, he went down in a blazing heap. Marek got a lock on the Falcon, and some Imperial ships were damaged but none lost.

The Falcon ploughs through, it's facing not important as it's turret weapons have an all-round arc of fire. The Rookie pulls hard to starboard to engage the Imperials, themselves either ploughing ahead or pulling a Koiogran turn to turn 180 degrees. The Falcon blasts Marek's shields while the Imperials whittle down the shields of the rookie and the Falcon.

A Tie fighter is knocked out, but still hideously outnumbered and lacking shields the rookie is blown to bits! Han hits the accelerator and the Falcon tries to put distance between itself and the remaining Imperials.

Keeping the Imperials at arm's length, Han manages some impressive rolls to inflict damage to Steele's Advanced Tie Fighter. The Imperials have by now blasted the shields of the Falcon away and the chase is on!

Performing a sneaky Koiogran Turn of its own, the Falcon turns to face the Imperial ships. More damage inflicted to some of the fighters, and more hits on the Falcon keeping Chewbacca busy. Will Han bolt right ahead or break left?

As if reading his mind, the Imperials guessed Han will head straight for them, and there's a collossal collision coming! The Falcon blasts its enemies bravely, but there is just too many of them and the Falcon is blown to pieces in the fusillade - another Imperial victory!

While the Tie Fighter swarm is an air traffic control disaster with many misjudgements causing collisions and costing the Fighters their valuable evade action tokens, it remains very challenging to beat. Taking Biggs was a real mistake, as this forced the Imperials to focus their fire on him and remove him from the game. The Rebels managed to damage quite a few of the Imperials but not focussing fire and destroying them outright meant they remained to return fire and eventually grab the win.

It's an old code sir, but it checks out

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an Imperial shuttle escorted by no less than four academy pilots in Tie fighters was making its way through the Eneftiess system. Known for its piracy (and cheap, flat beer) it was no surprise that they were jumped by smuggler Han Solo and a couple of X-Wing pilots, one from red squadron and the other his padawan rookie pilot.

The Imperial fleet steamed slightly to port, in a formation wrapped tighter than Han Solo in cryptonite. The Millenium Falcon deployed far left and proceeded to lazily circle to starboard like a gunship, using its turret weapons to rain red tainted pew-pew death. The X-Wings rushed up at fully speed, eager to win some medals. As movement orders each turn are all planned in advance and kept secret, it's natural to see some creative air traffic control. Despite there only being seven ships navigating nine square feet of space, a scrum quickly developed in two turns

The rebel pilots had it on good authority there was a significant bounty to be had in the destruction of the Imperial shuttle, rumoured to be carrying an emergency shipment of Kiwi's finest helmet polish for a certain Darth Vader. This led to all their fire being directed at the shuttle, which led to the Tie fighters living much longer than they expected to. While the rebels pounded the shuttle's shields, the Imperials pummelled the rebels' own shields.

The shuttle eventually makes a break through the swirling dogfight and legs it, with the piece of junk that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs in pursuit. The X-Wings (badly damaged and soon to be ex-wings) put one Tie fighter down, and having read somewhere that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, head right for the shuttle, pursued by a triplet of Tie fighters.

The Tie Fighters finally take the remaining two X-Wings down, but not before they add some damage to the shuttle. True to his name, Captain Solo sweeps around to engage the shuttle and its escorts all on his own.

Success! The shuttle is finally unable to hold out and collapses in a fiery storm of silence because in space no-one can hear you scream. Or burn. The Tie Fighters have by now pummelled half of the Millenium Falcon into little bits that even Chewbacca couldn't put back together. Han decides to put some space between him and the fighters, hoping to engage them one at a time, and locks in his course....

...leading him off the table. Fail. Counting as being destroyed, it leads to an Imperial victory for some very surprised academy pilots, who needed to look it up in a dictionary.

This game was great fun, rather than the fiery death and endless collisions everywhere that's encountered when using only small ships, the larger ships provide some neat abilities and provide good anchors to the game.