Star Wars Minis, Starship Battles
A bit of background first, I’m an old time Star Wars fan. My childhood was pretty much defined by the original trilogy and I remember fondly the old Action figures, comic books, even that trashy novel by Alan Dean Foster! :p
In highschool I was an X-Wing (and Tie Fighter) addict, and while I remember little of the details, I was strongly impressed by the depth and complexity of tactics thoose games created. I suppose they were partially responsible for my adult fascination with military wargaming from WWII to more modern stuff.
Today I like fast paced games that simulate the meta aspects of combat more than stuff that attempts to simulate every bullet on the battlefield, mostly because computer games (largely the Combat Mission series) made me realize that it was much better to let machines to that kind of work. If I’m going to play in real life, I find that playing with minis beats the stuffing out of the old cardboard counters I gre up with. However I get no enjoyment at all out of the painting, so I’m a big advocate of the style of collectible miniatures games like WotC has been producing. I guess that as a visual designer in real life, painting is too much like work!
Today I don’t really think much about Star Wars since I can’t possibly stand to watch the movies again (I’ll fall asleep, usually during some action sequence). I had seen Starship Battles for sale many times at Borders, but I wasn’t seriously tempted because the mix of new movie units, and I didn’t really want to make the investment in a new game. However with the end of Battlestar Galactica this spring, I was really jonesing for some space combat gaming, and I had even started to figure out a simple game system to let me pit Colonial vs Cylon. So I initially justified taking the plunge to buying Starship Battles as ‘research’ for my project.
After picking up a starter set and two boosters cheap on eBay, my interest increased considerably. I was enthralled by the lovely little models – much more detailed and better painted than the Axis & Allies minis! Memories of what ’serious’ Star Wars could be like came flooding back from highschool and so I decided to pick up enough singles to play a decent Rebellion era game.
While I waited for my order to arrive I decided to read up on strategy and scenarios and soon became quite concerned. So many negative reviews regarding the lack of range rules. Had I just invested in a lemon that would only be worth the value of the miniatures? Was my only hope overly complex house rules? It was with some trepidation that I embarked upon my first game.
I choose a 300 point meeting engagement on the regulation starmap, with regulation set up 3 squares from the edge. Since I’m a classic Star Wars fan, I had both fleets constructed purely from Rebellion era ships.
The scenario I imagined was that the Rebels had lured away the majority of the Executor’s Star Destroyer escort with some kind of decoy, and were attempting a daring strike to take out Vader’s flagship. Because in the movies (and the X-wing games) the Rebels are usually at a capital ship disadvantage I decided to not bring the Viscount, and instead load up on all the Class 2 and 3 ships I could afford.
The Imperials started in orbit around a planet with:
1 Super Star Destroyer
1 Star Destroyer
1 Interdictor Cruiser
3 Tie Fighters
2 Tie Fighter Aces
3 Tie Interceptors
2 Tie Bombers
1 Darth Vader’s Tie Fighter.
The Rebels jumped in with:
1 MC Cruiser
2 Assault Firgate
1 Cruiser
2 Transport
1 Y wing
1 B wing
2 X wing
1 X wing ace
1 Luke Skywalker’s X wing
I really had very little idea what I was doing when I set up or selected this fleet as became obvious in the first round.
With the Interdictor in play the Imperials automatically won the initiative. This guaranteed that the Executor was in position to open the battle with a devastating broadside right into Home One. A command order of “power to front shields!” was not enough as the Super Star Destroyer’s turbolasers and ion cannons continued to pummel the Rebel flagship, and the poor Mon Calamari Cruiser didn’t even last the round. Only Luke’s X-wing squadron managed to get deployed in time to escape the devastation (I notice the official rules never mention how many fighters an individual fighter mini is supposed to represent, but I imagine this is to keep the concepts simple. In my mind each fighter represents a squad of at least 3 fighters, but quite possibly 5 or 7).
As the Imperials focused their fire on my two carriers, I realized my only hope was to launch as many fighters as I could. However the Interdictor effectively squashed that plan. In the Rebel attack phase I focused all my fire on the Interdictor until I had dealt enough damage to ensure that it’s gravity well generators would be offline next turn. Then I switched fire to the Star Destroyer to try and reduce the Imperial’s launch capability.
At the end of the first round the Rebels only had two X-wings deployed, and had already lost their primary carrier. The Imperials had lost the use of their Interdictor’s anti-launch capability, but still had all their capital ships and two fighter squadrons ‘in the air’.
In the next few turns the Rebel Transports rushed forward to provide support to the anemic fighter screen, which in turn was trying to keep the Tie fighters, especialy Vader away from my sole remaining carrier, the Rebel Cruiser. The Assault Frigates concentrated on the Star Destroyer, slowly inching their way up the two sides of the board, trying to get in position for flank shots to the Star Destroyer’s weaker flanks.
It was however, a futile effort. By the end of turn three, the concentrated fire from three Imperial capital ships had obliterated the Rebel Cruiser. Half of my fighter force was eliminated before it even got on into play! Oh noes!
In the mid-board, Luke and Vader dusted it up with a few other fighters and Transport support. By the barest margin Vader was knocked out of combat, but so was Luke, and the remaining Rebel fighters were easy pickings for the steady stream of Tie’s deployed from the Executor.
I thought about jumping away to safety with what little fleet I still had, but I had also just sunk the Star Destroyer, and the Interdictor was crippled, easy pickings. If I could only destroy the Executor I might still be able to snatch a meaningful victory from the jaws of defeat. I decided to gamble all and sent my surviving fighters and transports to menace the Executor’s right flank, while the Frigates finished off the Interdictor and moved into position to surround the Executor.
Alas that too was a vain hope. While I did knock out the Interdictor, and manage to deplete the Executor to it’s damaged card side, my Transports practically evaporated under the attention of the Super Star Destroyer. Soon the Executor turned it’s turbo lasers to the two Frigates and made quick work of them in turn, with some support from the Tie Bombers.
Lord Vader’s life pod was picked up, and repairs began post haste upon the Executor – the still untarnished symbol of Imperial dominion. The Emperor was pleased to hear that the Rebels had squandered their forces upon this foolish sneak attack with no significant strategic objective.
Oh well, guess I’ll pretend this happened after the Empire Strike’s Back but before Jedi… 
So what did I think?
Well I was delighted by the chance to play in the Star Wars universe. Since I knew many of the pitfalls of range-less rules I wasn’t surprised by it, and perhaps because of that, not too bothered by it either. I was a surprised by how quickly my capital ships sunk! I realize that’s part of the point of keeping the games quick and short, but I felt that their survivability was a little too short for the number of significant gameplay decisions I had an opportunity to make. More than anything that felt the most off from my conception of the Star Wars universe.
All in all that first game was a blast. I could create an interesting narrative that fit perfectly with the movies. The miniatures looked awesome as all heck when out on the board. Best of all, despite my fears there was (limited) opportunity for maneuver driven by the desire to flank, and line up for broadsides and spinal attacks.
I realize I made a serious strategic error in not creating a rebel fleet with sufficient fighter launch capability, and so am setting up a second run through with a second Rebel Cruiser and a few more fighters instead of my Assault Frigate. I’m also going to be much more careful about deployment! The Imperials for their part are cutting down on their fighters (they had way too many an never launched them all) and instead are bringing Boba Fett and Slave-One into the next fight. We’ll see what round two looks like…
With regards to all the concerns about range, I’m not sure I think you need it on a regulation board. I also feel like 300 points is the absolute max you should try and cram on this. I think for a larger playing surface (like the 3′x3′ star mat I have now ordered… *cough*) some kind of range effects will be needed. My gut however tells me that the 5-class# is too constrictive. In fact I really dislike the idea of setting range by class since it seems that for real Star Wars flavor all capital ship weapons have roughly the same effective range (it’s just a matter of how many of them you cram onto a SSD that makes it so awesome). In particular I’m interested more in modifiers for making distant and smaller class ships harder to hit, rather than per class weapon range limits. Now real Star Wars flavor may be futile since the whole Interdictor fighter launch impair ability also makes no sense, but hey…
All in all I feel like I got my money’s worth. A bit of Star Wars geekiness. Some lovely models. Some rules to learn from and deconstruct. Even if the game turns out to not be one that I can seriously invest in playing with stock rules, I am still happy. I got a nice looking and easy to pick up minis game that I can use as a basis for other projects and a gateway-game for folks interested in wargaming.
Are you talking about the computer games, where you could move shields back and forth and otherwise manage the energy? Those were pretty nice but I’m pretty sure I was a graduate student when they appeared. It was the 486 era in fact.
Man… In elementary school, just about the first game I ever played was X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter. Knew absolutely zero on how to play it, but it was as cool as heck.
In high school, I started playing it again just for fun, back in the days when Microsoft Online Gaming was still operating. I got pretty decent at the Tie-Advanced… But then, it soon ended.
Yah, thoose were the games! I think I may have played mine on a 386. I fondly recall toggling X-wing fire control from serial to “linked” fire where all four cannons would fire at the same time. Reduced your chances of hitting, but increased the damage if you did.
Ah, back when Star Wars was cool…
I didn’t quite understand this when I first read it. But when I checked it out a third time, it all became clear. Thanks for the idea. Definitely something to think about.
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