Battle Report #92: Maddox vs Rask

I get another game against Minions in their new Blindwater theme force, this time it's Maddox vs Rask!

Major Beth Maddox (75 points)

Theme: Storm Division
Objective: Bunker

Major Beth Maddox (Maddox1)
* Squire
* 2x Charger
* Ironclad
Journeyman Warcaster
* Firefly
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Major Katherine Laddermore
Stormblade Captain
2x5 Storm Lances
6 Stormblades
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard

Rask (75 points)

Theme: The Blindwater Congregation
Objective: Fuel Cache

Rask
* 2x Blackhide Wrastler
Wrong Eye
* Snapjaw
Bog Trog Mist Speaker
Totem Hunter
3x5 Gatorman Posse
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Deployment

I win the die roll and go for a balanced setup.

Round 1

I run up outside his run to engage ranges.

Rask move up, walls and feats. I think feating this early might be a mistake. Possible skewing the setup a bit so that Lances on one side cannot get vision and doubling up gators on the other side might allow him to feat in round 2 instead.

Round 2

I respond by pulling back. Going first gave me so much space!

Gators are now forced to run up towards me, or just allow me to shoot turn after turn.

Round 4

Storm Lances charge in and start killing Gators.

Gators make a fort in the center, kill a few models, but I am clearly up on attrition.

Fort Rask!

Round 5

A Wrastler admonitions and I fail to kill it. I block as many lanes to Maddox as I can, just in case.

I lose a few Lances.

I run out on the clock, but in friendly games we just keep playing! The Ironclad moves in, knocks Rask down, and kills him.

Post Mortem

This hard for Rask, especially where the scenario is so dead! I think it is vital that Rask does not feat bottom of 1.

X-Wing (#2): Han/Poe vs Vader/Soontir/Omega Ace/Interceptor

First 100 point game! I had a couple of friends over. We played a couple of games of Dominion, then I did a starter set game of X-Wing. After that we decided to try a 100 point match and see how it went. I had a 100 point Rebel List ready, My opponents wanted to play some more TIEs, so we threw together a quick 100 point list with 4 TIEs.

Rebel: Han and Poe (100)

Han Solo (61) - YT-1300

C-3PO (3), Luke Skywalker (7), Millennium Falcon (1), Engine Upgrade (4)

Poe Dameron (39) - T-70 X-Wing

Adrenaline Rush (1), Proton Torpedoes (4), R5-P9 (3)

Sith Lords ready for some dogfighting

Imperium: Vader and TIEs (99)

Darth Vader (32) - TIE Advanced

Adv. Homing Missiles (3)

Soontir Fel (29) - TIE Interceptor

Elusiveness (2)

Zeta Squadron Pilot (18) - TIE/FO Fighter

Weapons Guidance (2)

"Omega Ace" (20) - TIE/FO Fighter

Deployment

We fight over a blue planet with some tasteful flower arrangements this time. Our board size is probably not correct.

Round 1

Left side TIE fighters go full tilt, and so does the Omega Ace. It lands within Range 3 of the Falcon. Han rolls two hits and a crit, Omega Ace rolls no evades, and of course I flip the Direct Hit card for an extra damage. Omega Ace goes down in flames.

Round 2

I figure that I will just try to boost the Falcon past things to get max use out of the turret, while Poe tries to get some good positions. I fire at Darth with everything but Evade + Focus saves him from any damage. Falcon gets a shield knocked off.

Round 3

The Interceptor gets deleted by the Falcon. The other TIEs have removed the Falcon's shields by now. C3PO is really crazy good, basically he gives one guaranteed Evade every round. I notice after the game that we have misplayed C3PO, we used his evade multiple times in a round. Sorry guys! It's my first time playing a beefed up Falcon!

Round 4

Poe gets blocked by the TIE, but he has only loses one shield from Vader. Falcon keeps going in big circles.

Round 5

The Falcon lands in sight of everyone and takes a couple of real damage. I score a crit on the TIE/fo and it loses 1 agility.

Round 6

The TIE gets shot off the board. Poe lands a hit on Vader.

Round 7

The Force fails the Dark Lord and he spins out of control, but he will be back later!

Post Mortem

We are noobs, but this did not feel evenly matched, The Falcon with all the rerolls murders the weaker TIEs. And of course since we are new the Falcon ignoring firing arcs is pretty great, probably that gets less good as we get better at predicting. I was super lucky to shoot the first TIE off the board in the first turn, though. I misplayed C3PO, but the Falcon had 6 hull left at the end, so it would not have changed the end result.

X-Wing (#1): Darth Vader vs Luke Skywalker

After dinner & homework were done, Theodor Odin got to open the TIE Advanced pack I had traded for yesterday. Of course he decided to take Darth Vader for a spin, and I picked Luke Skywalker to make it a proper father-son fight. Each got a rookie sidekick and off we went.

Rebel (54 points)

Looks like someone's math was a bit off, Rebels seem to be fighting two points up.

Luke Skywalker X-Wing (28), BB-8 (2)
Blue Squadron Novice T-70 X-Wing (24)

Imperium (52 points)

Darth Vader TIE Advanced (29), Squad Leader (2), Cluster Missiles (4)
Epsilon Squadron Pilot TIE/fo Fighter (15), Weapons Guidance (2)

Round 1

Again, we are fighting in the skies over planet Flower IV. Everyone moves up and takes Focus. Everyone shoots and misses.

Round 2

The TIE fighter reverses course, but I move slowly and both my X-Wings can fire at it. I do some damage, but it survives. Darth fires a point blank salvo at the rookie but everything misses.

Round 3

Luke does a Koiogran turn and gets the Epsilon TIE/fo in its sights. All the shots hit and down it goes. Some shots from Vader knock off a couple of Luke's shields.

Round 4

Vader fires a double salvo of cluster missiles at poor Luke, who's Force is decidedly not with him at all. Luke is obliterated.

Round 5

The poor rookie X-Wing has no chance against the Dark Lord. First he gets target locked, focused, and then blinded by a critical hit, and cannot retaliate.

Round 6

Vader moves in for the kill and fires a focused salvo at point blank range. Blue Squadron Novice goes down in flames.

Post Mortem

A cinematic interpretation of the fight, showing how Darth Vader deals with anyone foolish enough to oppose the power of the dark side.

The young Sith adds insult to injury with a victory dab.

X-Wing: I am not all that surprised by this turn of events

5 days have passed since my first encounter with X-Wing.

Monday Morning

You can't really hate Monday mornings when they start with a demo game with Project Manager Trond before all the status meetings commence.

Monday Evening

I bought an X-Wing lot from a buddy, and traded in an unopened board game I had laying around at the FLGS. The result:

Imperial: Slave 1, Shuttle, 2x TIE Fighter, TIE Bomber, TIE Advanced, TIE Interceptor.

Rebel: X-Wing, Millenium Falcon, A-Wing, B-Wing

My son had to eat dinner and do homework before he got to check out all the phat l00t. Then he spent an hour reading cards (with some help with translations), and planning his next awesome Imperial fleet! 

X-Wing: The first game is free

After the Maddox vs Maelok game, I see that Mikkel and Renate have brought a bunch of X-Wing. I have heard it's good. Mikkel sets up a demo game to show me how to roll with the TIEs.

Thursday

Veteran resistance pilot Poe Dameron faces off against a couple of rookie First Order TIE fighters.

After a lot of maneuvering and dice rolling, one of my TIEs makes a suitably cinematic crash into an asteroid. My last TIE blasts Poe to pieces.

First impressions? Game was fun and mechanics are simple. Movement system reminds me a little of Full Thrust. It's ridiculously unrealistic, but certainly fits the physics-defying world of Star Wars. Short round times, lots of randomness, and parallel execution in the planning phase seems to make this the perfect game for kids, and of course the hidden planning makes for some opportunities for bluffing and second-guessing.

So my hypothesis is that my 10 year old son will love this. This must be tested. FOR SCIENCE!

Friday

The second game is less free. Here we go.

Saturday Morning

We field two n00b TIE pilots against a n00b X-Wing.

Epsilon and Zeta vs Blue. Fight!

Pretty fun to try to guess what daddy is planning!

Where to turn, where to turn...

I will leave who won as an exercise for the reader.

The First Order successfully splats Blue Squadron Novice

 Sunday Morning

We pit one single souped up Zeta Ace against the hapless Blue Squadron Novice.

Eat Double Direct Hits, Blue Squadron Novice!

Another victory for the forces of darkness, here exemplified by my son.

Sunday Evening

Finally, the Resistance gets its revenge! Poe Dameron dispatches one TIE fighter with his Proton Torpedoes, and the other one gets shot to bits after some hefty maneuvering around the asteroids.

OK, this was awesome! My son was wildly enthusiastic and quite happy to frag his old man all through the weekend. Tomorrow I am buying a small lot of X-Wing miniatures from someone who wasn't using them...

Battle Report #91: Maddox vs Maelok

I go visit the other miniature games club in Oslo, called OMSK (Oslo Miniatyrspillklubb). The club is kid friendly and open to all miniature games systems. It also has much worse lighting conditions, so I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos! The other tables were mostly people playing Age of Sigmar, Kings of War, and X-Wing.

I am playing my future team-mate in an upcoming team tournament at 2D6, Merete. It's the first game we play against each other.

Major Beth Maddox (75 points)

Theme: Storm Division

Major Beth Maddox (Maddox1)
* Squire
* 2x Charger
* Ironclad
Journeyman Warcaster
* Firefly
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Major Katherine Laddermore
Stormblade Captain
2x5 Storm Lances
6 Stormblades
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard

Maelok the Dreadbound (75 points)

Theme: Blindwater Congregation

Maelok the Dreadbound (Maelok1)
* 2x Blackhide Wrastler
* Blind Walker
* Bull Snapper
* Swamp Horror
2x Gatorman Witch Doctor
Swamp Gobber Chef
2x5 Gatorman Posse
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Deployment

We are playing incursion. I go first and just line up, weighted towards the left since that forest could be a pain the ass for Maelok. Maelok puts one Posse on each flank and the heavies in the middle.

Round 1

I move up so that I am a bit outside run-to-engage range. Maddox casts Onslaught, since the center is full of scenery.

Maelok flanks wide with both posse. I think that is a mistake against a more maneoverable list like mine that also shoots harder. Better to go in and force the issue, rather than risk several turns of gunfire and/or have units far away from the action. Left flank Posse get Death Pact.

Round 2

I think that I maybe can take out the left hand Wrastler without feating, but I leave it at two boxes. I kill all the Posse I can reach, and jam in a few Lances (which is pointless, due to Maelok's feat).

In hindsight I should either have feated and ensured the Heavy kill, or just stayed a bit back and taken a round of shooting.

Maelok feats. The left flank Posse are blocked out by their own forest, and without Posse the attack volume is too low. I lose most of the left side Lances but have a ton of stuff left and the right hand side.

Round 3

I feat. The Ironclad goes in and slams the right hand Wrastler and Maelok to the ground. Together with some Charger shots both the heavies die. On the right hand side, Lances and Stormblades clear out almost everything. The Captain caps the center flag.

2-0

Maddox is outside the threat ranges and there is not much Maelok can do at this point. Maelok spends all his fury doing as much damage as he can.

3-0

The Chargers take aim and execute poor Maelok.

Post Mortem

This was a new list for Merete, and she forgot to use Mortality (and Venom sprays are great against Stormblades)!

I think this matchup is in Maddox' favor. I outthreat the list both in range and melee, and my feat punches through Maelok's feat. I would think the list is better against other Cygnar lists that rely more heavily on shooting. Removing 8 box ARM 16-20 Posse is not easy at range, and Minions punch really hard when they get in with the +5 POW swing from Rage + Mortality.