Going Big With X-wing

On a whim, we decided to change things up this weekend and break out an old standby, X-wing Miniatures Game.  Maybe it was the new movie coming out this week or just seeing all those great little ships sadly sitting on the shelf with no pew-pews to be heard.  Either way, we decided to rectify that situation and since we knew we’d make a night of it, we should go big.  Epic-ly big.

It’s been a while since I hit X-wing and even longer since I’ve seen the Epic rules and Huge ships but we did some homework and wrote up some 300 point lists. That was the easy part. Setting up was another 2+ hours trying find all my ships and cards and setting up a 6×3 table space.  Eventually we got it all settled and were ready to play.

In a break from my norm, I decided to go Empire as I wanted to play with the Gozanti Cruisers.  My friend had recently picked up the new Scum C-ROC Huge ship so he found some list ideas and cobbled it all together:

Gozanti-class Cruiser (40)
Darth Vader (3)
Mara Jade (3)
Dual Laser Turret (5)
Backup Shield Generator (3)
Docking Clamps (0)
Optimized Generators (5)
Vector (2)

“Epsilon Leader” (19)

“Howlrunner” (18)
Swarm Tactics (2)

“Scourge” (17)
Push the Limit (3)

“Dark Curse” (16)

“Backstabber” (16)

“Winged Gundark” (15)

“Night Beast” (15)

“Wampa” (14)

“Chaser” (14)

Gozanti-class Cruiser (40)
Fleet Officer (3)
Tactician (2)
Dual Laser Turret (5)
Docking Clamps (0)
Optimized Generators (5)

Soontir Fel (27)
Push the Limit (3)
Autothrusters (2)
Stealth Device (3)
Royal Guard TIE (0)

Total: 300

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I really love the carrier concept of the Gozantis so I was going all in on them while my friend brought almost every bounty hunter he could muster.  It was then pointed out that I was basically playing a small Flotilla from Armada:

So much for being “Epic.”  Still on that table, those Gozantis and a mess of TIE Fighters make for a pretty grand game.

After setting up, I did get a bit concerned that I brought all these little TIE Fighters to battle with a bunch of heavy hitting Scum large ships including the tanky YV-666, Tractor Beaming Mist Hunter and Shadow Caster, “I’m-immune-to-my-own-bombs” Scurrg nightmare, and a Zuckus + Dengar C-ROC.  I wasn’t really maxing out my ability to swarm TIE Fighters so I was concerned they wouldn’t have enough individual punch to go through all these specialized damaging ships.

I set up initially to attack the C-ROC but after all those heavy hitters crammed in on my left flank, I had to send my heavy Gozanti (Vader led) over that way or risk getting flanked and lose that whole side of the board. I charged my other Gozanti straight on at the C-ROC, knowing that it can’t shoot at range 1 but I could.  Fel and Epsilon Leader headed for the Scums weak left flank and totally whiffed against a bunch of crappy Binayre Pirates.  This would happen throughout the game. Those guys could do no wrong- max out damage on attacks and take no damage on return.

Vader’s Gozanti got pummeled by the YV-666 and a couple of hard-hitting heavy laser cannon Scyks.  Enough to get a crit through the hull and damage one of my docking clamps, releasing “Night Beast” a bit earlier.  My plan of keeping these TIEs safe and launching them behind my enemies wasn’t going to last.

Over the next two rounds, I launch all my fighters as everything starts to swarm around the Gozantis.  Vader’s big G is lit up like a Christmas tree as I try and totally fail to run anything over in multiple attempts of ramming maneuvers.  My other Gozanti has come directly at the C-ROC and neither of us blinked so now we were slowly grinding on each other until one or both of us are destroyed.

I did have Fel and some additional TIEs coming at him so hopefully I would wreck that C-ROC shortly and be free to join in the battle on my left side.

This swarm takes its toll on Vader’s Gozanti and gets me down to one measly hull.  To make things worse, Vader is sucked out a hull breach and likely very pissed at his force.  When they find him, I’m sure many more will die.  We did have our first casualty of the match as I took down one of the heavy laser Scyks before he could kill me off.

Soontir Fel pulls off his cheater defense against an overclocked 6 dice attack from the C-ROC.  Lucky rolls are the only reason why he stayed up against the four hits he tried to rain down on me.  My return fire and constant ramming ended up finally taking the C-ROC down.  My Gozanti came out pretty well in the exchange since the only damage it was taking was from the ramming.

It was getting really late so we decided to call the game at this point.  After that initial and brutal exchange the now Vader-less Gozanti caused most everyone to veer off course and the few remaining attacks couldn’t bring her down.  She was still at one hull and I’m sure eventually she’d fall if we brought the game to full conclusion but as it stood, I lost about 3 TIE Fighters and the Scum lost their C-ROC, YV-666, and a Scyk.  Victory was mine but it seemed like the game was still open enough big Scum ships left to cause problems (especially that annoying Scurrg bomber).

Epic X-wing was interesting and not a format that I’ve played a lot.  While it was fun, I didn’t really get the dogfighting feel that a normal smaller game of X-wing typically evokes.  It seems to evoke those chaotic ending battles you see in the movies, which is great but we’ll need to get more organized to run it again.  The set and execution of an Epic game is just too big of a time investment for a regular game night.  As I was borrowing my friend’s Gozanti to run two of them, he asked if I liked running both and would buy a second one.  I came away from the battle thinking that I really enjoy the options and mechanics that the Gozantis offer but two is likely overkill.  That being said, I think I’d still like to run the double Gozanti just for the sheer fun of dropping that many ships on the board in one round so another ship my be in my future.