Star Wars Mini: Starship Battles

Last nigh my Master, Shin'ichi, and I sat down to a game of Star Wars Mini: Starship Battles. We decided to play a 300 point faction game. To fill you in, each ship is assigned a number value. You create your fleet and the total worth can not be more than 300 points. Shin'ichi started with his Super Star Destroyer, with a single Star Destroyer on each side. My fleet consisted of a Mon Calamari Star Defender flanked by a Republic Assault ship on the starboard and a Venator-Class Star Destroyer on the port side.

As our fleet approached each other, I launched 7 starfighters (3 Y-Wings, 3 X-Wings, and 1 B-Wing) as a screen against Shin'ichi. He was only able to launch a Tie Bomber, two Tie Fighters, and an Interceptor. As Shin'ichi's figher screen wasn't established yet, my Assault ship fired a Proton Torpedo at his Star Destroyer, causing the first damage in the battle.

As our fighters engaged, Shin'ichi slowly began losing his starfighters. He lost his interceptor, and a tie fighter in the first phase. I too took losses as one y-wing and one x-wing were blown away. In the next phase Shin'ichi lost more starfighters while my starfighters went an engaged the Super Star Destroyer. Do you ever get a voice in your head saying, "That was a [Expletive Deleted] move?" Well that turned out to be true as the SSD swatted my two starfighters away. I swear I could hear the gunners laughing as they targeted my ships and opened fire. By the end of the next phase, we both lost our starfighter screens so it was down to a classic starship battle.

Going head to head, my Assault ship didn't last long against a Star Destroyer. Two rounds later, I was down a ship with the SSD barring down on my fleet. I had to act fast or it was good bye for me. My Star Defender took out a weary Star Destroyer in one round, but in doing so it left my Venator alone against another Star Destroyer and the SSD. The Venator held it's own, taking quite a bit of damage on the port side, but it was dealing the same amount against the Star Destroyer. The next phase was a nightmare for my Venator crew. The SSD drew within range of rear of my Venator. With a SD on my port and a SSD on the stern, it was lights out. I took so much damage, running was a very good action. However, that was not my intentions.

On my next phase, I turned my damaged Venator towards the SSD. I was going down in a blaze of glory. I opened fire at the SSD doing minor damage but it was enough to make her glow in the blackness of space. My Star Defender finally was making its approach to the battle but it was too late. The SSD opened fire and destroyed what was left of my Venator.

Now it was down to my one ship against Shin'ichi's two. I was pinned in a corner of the map but my Star Defender was not going to be able to match up against a SSD and a SD. We both lined up our guns, said our peace, and open fire. Shin'ichi was using the SD as a Screen for the SSD. I did quite a bit a damage to the SD and I think I could have taken it out in my next phase.

The final dagger to my fleet came during the initiative phase. Throughout the whole game, Shin'ichi was able to win two initiative rounds. Twice he rolled a 20 to win only to be matched by my own die. (one time he rolled a 17 only to be matched by me). Each time he lost the next roll. On this particular round, we both rolled a 15. On the re-roll he rolled a ballsy 19 to my 16. In Star Wars starship battle, the lose gets to move first, while the winner gets to attack first.

I moved my ship to the best possible spot to attack the SD and defend myself against the SSD. Shin'ichi countered by moving the SD as a screen. The SD was definitely going down this round if I can survive the attacks. Except Shin'ichi did something I didn't even see possible. After his moving phase, he was able to manuever both ships to attack the same starboard side of my ship. The whole time I was arranging my ship to be attacked on different sides, to minimize the damage and avoid a concentration. Shin'ichi did the one thing I was hoping he couldn't do. The SSD opened fired on my starboard side, tearing open the hull. The SD then open fired on my exposed hull making quite an explosion.

This game looks very interesting to me at the game shop... very interesting.

Reminds me of a battle last week in my SW D20 roleplay game, Legacy era- 4 Imperial TIE's against an aging modified Theta shuttle and an XJ3 X-wing. Guess who won?

You might be surprised, as the older models were crewed by force-users.

2 TIE's were blown to dust, 2 got away, one with heavy damage. The X-wing was lightly damaged, and the theta class shuttle took moderate to heavy damage.

Kill count:

Theta (Force adept/soldier pilot), one TIE kill via concussion missle. One damaged via ion cannon.
X-wing (sith pilot) : one TIE kill via lasers. One damaged.

Very nice. I am going to pick up some Star Wars d 20 books. Shin'ichi has requested a Star Wars based RPG and I am currently writing out the details of the campaign. Do you use miniatures in your games. I know the new system that Wizards of the Coast released is mini friendly. I tend to use minis now to help visualize the game.

Yes, we use minis when we can... if you need any D20 advice or material, I have it. I'll be sending Shin'Ichi some information in a week or so.

very nice. Are you using the Living Force d20 or the new Saga edition?

hmm, reminds me of the battlefleet gothic warhammer 40k game.. sounds cool

Minis are cool, my friend and I pooled our money together and bought several of those Episode III sets.

my favorite is the Champions of the Force set

This thread inspired me to go buy the Endor mission pack.

Great fun, it is.

*Sklib shoots stuff with his AT-ST*

lol.. its made me want a battlefleet gothic force.. unfortunatly i also need a load of models for my craftworld eldar army (damn are those shining spears expensive).

http://boards1.wizards.com/leaving.php?des...ared/fcrjtx97yc

Neat little tool for your minis, organizing squads and such on your computer.

Interesting... I'll check it out