X Wing: First game with TIE Interceptors

Managed to get a game of X Wing in against Phil No Pain Saturday night. Been itching to get X Wing back on the table for ages and in particular to try out flying the TIE Interceptor.


Have had a crush on the looks of this ship since seeing Return of the Jedi as a kid and have had four models kicking around but just hadn't gotten around to fielding them. The number of actions these babies have on their card, great Attack and Agility and their super nimble maneuver dial looked real fun but with only 3 hull a piece and relatively high cost the question was how long would I be able to keep them alive.


So as this was Phil's first game we picked his list together;

Han Solo + Gunner
Biggs Darklighter
Dagger Squadron Pilot
[100pts]

Nothing fancy there. Han is solid at dishing out hits and the 360 fire arc would mitigate my maneuver advantage. The Dagger and X wing both kick out 3 dice each and add a lot of defense. Squadron has 14 Hull, 12 Shields and 9 Attack Dice, ouch.

My first stab at a TIE Interceptor list;

Avenger Squadron Pilot
Sabre Squadron Pilot + Push the Limit
Sabre Squadron Pilot + Push the Limit
Turr Phenir + Expose + Stealth Device
[100pts]

Sabres with PTL looked pretty solid, being able to take two actions a turn for a stress token is sweet when combined with a maneuver dial with so many green maneuvers. Turr sounded fun with his free, boost or barrel roll action after an attack and I slapped on Expose so he could dish out an extra red dice and mitigate the loss of a green with the stealth device. The list kicks out 12 Attack Dice but with only 12 Hull it has to work twice as hard as the Rebels who have 26 total Hull and Shields.

So what happened...





Started off well, managed to avoid getting tonked on my first pass by using split deployment and then doing a runner from left to right and managed to focus my ships on the B Wing stripping its shields and reducing it to a single hull point.









Falcon swung in and took out my Avenger pilot who had been dawdling around. But I got Turr lined up to finish him off, dodged Hans fire and ...




I fluffed a 5 dice attack on the B Wing. 1 damage from 5 dice which was dodged by the B-Wing who finished him off with return fire.

This is what happens when you fluff 5 reds

Two things here, I didn't really need to expose Turr, should have gone for a different action, a single evade would have kept him in the fight. I think expose is going to be great when you have a shot but no retunr fire coming your way. Second thing I was so boggled by Turr rolling 4 blanks out of 5 that I forgot his free barrel roll/boost action. It's touch and go from the picture if this would have got me out of the B Wings LOS but need to remember to at least try!

Phil no Pain, Rebel Scum

I blame the beer, plus it was St Davids day so no Englishman expects an easy time in a Welsh mans house. :)

Managed to get the B Wing with my 2 remaining Interceptors but it was too much of an uphill struggle from there and the rebels had a comfortable win. Biggs was down to 2 Hull and the Falcon had lost a few shields (more due to Phil getting to grips with the nuances of dodging asteroids).

It was good fun and Phil enjoyed his first game. The Interceptors were glass cannons but were great fun to fly and I'm looking forward to trying again with them.

My MVP were the two sabers with Push The Limit. Having the evade and focus action is sweet and keeps them alive a lot longer. Only problem with them is the PS of 4 meant that aside from the B Wing they moved before the other rebel ships and it was impossible to make the most of their barrel roll as I had no idea where the X wing or Falcon would end up.

Next I want to try four Royal Guard Interceptors with Push The Limit.