Nicon 2015 Saga

Well this weekend Mark, Andrew and Myself will be heading to Thames to play at Nicon the North island war gaming convention. We will be playing Saga 8 games over two days 6 games will be 6pts and 2 games will be 4pts. Just thought I would do a quick post of what I would be using.

The Army

2pts of Warriors

2 more pts of Warriors

1pt of Hirdmen (Viking body guard)

1pt of Viking Beserkers (Psycho assault guys)

My warlord and his trusty hound

Horse and cart aka Baggage used for one of the missions. Still have to flock and snow base it.

My second piece of baggage. A Viking burial cart.

X-Wing Escalation at Cerberus Games

The I had an enjoyable Sunday of gaming playing X-wing at Cerberus Games doing an escalation event they were running I played 4 games vs a good mixture of ships factions and people.

Game 1 was 60pts vs my x-wing sparing partner Michael we both were Rebel and knew each others play style and strategy well so I expected a close fight.

My 2 B-wings vs Mikes A-wing and E-wing

Auto Blasters open fire

Everyone scatters to regroup

With the E-wing gone I can make quick work of the A-wing

Or so i thought he managed to take out one of my ships before i downed him.

So after a close win vs Michael It wasn't long before round 2 started. Game 2 was 90pts vs Steven Morris he would be using scum and villainy a faction I had only played once so far so I expected plenty of surprising under handed tactics buy the scum forces.

My 2 B-wings and Wedge in he X-wing vs 2 Z95 head hunters a HWK-290 and a star viper

In the first volley my B-wings take out a Z95

Steven concentrates fire on my B-wings knowing how good my auto blasters are and a B-wing Dies.

Another B-wing goes this isn't looking good for Wedge

Wedge not happy with losing his wing men the systematically hunts down and kills every last ship in Steven's squadron.

This game was a classic example of it ain't over till the fat lady sings as they say being down 3 ships to one is usually game over but good dice and good use of skills kept me in this game for a win. Game 3 would be 120pts vs Paul Johnson he was using the evil forces of the Empire. Can you tell I'm a Rebel player.

Paul's forces consisted of 4 Tie fighters and 2 Tie interceptors. My force had the addition of Garven in his X-wing.

First blood to me as a Tie fighter burns

I lose a B-wing and an X-wing in the next round of combat

another Tie fighter dies. Could Garven repeat Wedges heroics from the last game.

Sadly Not but before his demise he took another Tie fighter with him.

With Paul concentrating massive firepower on my ships I just couldn't evade all that fire. Especially with the B-wings only having 1 evade dice per combat. A good win to Paul I must get my self one of the laser line things he had great for seeing if you are in L.O.S. Game 4 was 150pts and the final round this would be vs Lincon Hely he was using scum forces so I got to triple my scum playing experience.

I had a Y-wing piloted by Horton Salm Lincon had a Firespray, Z95, HWk-290, Star viper and a Y-wing

I lose an X-wing in the first exchange of fire

The second X-wing goes down in quick succession. My Y-wing keeps Lincon's Y-wing Ionized

I kill the Z95 and start to damage other ships trying to kill all the smaller stuff so every one can the focus on the Firespray.

I down His Z95 leaving his 2 ships but in the end we ran out of time but had it gone on much longer I would of lost anyway. I had two very damaged ships where as Lincon had an untouched Firespary and only slight damage to his star viper.

In the end I had a great days gaming my brother Brent had fun too meeting new people he played Empire and was really happy to get a win. I think overall I finished 10th out of 16 players. The main downside to my list was the lack of evade dice which cost me in the last 2 games i think with my B-wings being such magnets for punishment and the X-wings only having 5 hit points ment it didn't take long to die with such a small force. But I look forward to the next one.

X-wing Escalation Practice games

After our big 2v2 battle on ANZAC weekend Brent and myself decided after dinner to play out all 4 rounds of the upcoming X-wing Escalation event that Cerberus Games will be running. So we played 4 games withe the first being 60pts the 2nd being 90pts the third being 120pts and the final round being 150pts. We also wanted to stick to the strict time limit that many war gaming events use so we would keep our game play quick.

This Is my list lots of firepower and hit points but not much in evasion

Game - 1 - 60pts

My 2 B-wings vs Brent's two Tie fighters and Tie interceptor.

The maneuvering begins

B-wing comes in for its attack run.

1 Tie down 2 to go game only went for a turn or to more and as once it was and even match up ship wise Brent couldn't keep up with the damage being dealt

Game - 2 - 90pts

This time I had Wedge join the fray and Brent had A Tie Phantom join in. I hadn't faced one of these before.

The very first shot of the game set the tone for this game. 1 Tie interceptor dead off the bat.

The phantom and its cloak was interesting to deal with.

We where both down to 2 ships each then in a a few more turns I had this one sown up.

Game - 3 - 120pts

Setup - Garven in his X-wing joined me and Brent had 2 more high rank Tie fighters join the Fray.

Pleasantries are exchanged in the only was possible in Star wars

Both B-wings eye up the phantom before it slips away into its cloak.

The Tie interceptor and tie fighter make short work of Garven the tide is already swinging in Brent's favour.

With the phantom gone the B-wings split one to go after Garven's killers and the other to help Wedge

The fighting gets up close and personal which suits my B-wings auto-blasters.

The B-wings finish off two Tie fighters quickly swinging the battle back in my favour. Brent had some very average rolling for defense. The dice gods had abandoned him.

I lose a B-wing even with his bad rolling Brent isn't making it easy. But in the end the auto-blaster on my B-wing tears through the 2 remaining ships giving me a 3rd round win.

Game - 4 - 150pts

For the final round I had Horton Salm in his Y-wing and Brent had a 2nd Tie interceptor join in.

The X-wing work to contain the threat on this flank before Brent can get help there.

Brent has had enought of these B-wings and all 4 ships on this flank attack the one ship killing him very quickly.

losing a B-wing and an X-wing in the same turn really hurt my chances in this one but I will fight on.

It was down to 4 onto 2

A quick volley of fire from both my ships takes out Brent's interceptor. But the Y-wing quickly dies for his troubles.

And then there was 1 with a damaged X-wing I couldn't fend off both ships and fell in the end to Brent well done sir.

Well we managed to stick the the time limited in each game with only a few Min's to spare in some games. While it was good to see how our lists worked, Doing all 4 games vs each other wouldn't be truly indicative of how good or bad our lists could be. As one list might be more suited for fighting another type of list and there for suffer vs another where the result could be the same for each game as the same lists faced each other again and again. As we both knew that each game we play would be vs a different opponent we weren't too worried but it gave us an idea anyway  of what we might of been missing. Thanks for the good nights gaming Bro.