Rogue Squadron- Battle for the Corellian Ale

At Gamer Nation Con 5, I ran an X-Wing event that I had originally tried a few years ago. It was a silly event designed to be more about having fun flying ships around the table than being a super competitive X-wing match. So was born the Battle for the Corellian Ale.

The premise is that a cargo ship has broken down while carrying a valuable supply of Corellian Ale. Hearing this, scum of all sort race to claim the price. Chief among them, Heroes of the Rebellion and native Corellians, Han Solo, Wedge Antilles, Dash Rendar, and Corran Horn. Despite the important struggle they face against the Empire, they can’t let this precious cargo from their homeworld fall into the hands of just anyone. Only a true Corellian could appreciate the smooth flavor.

Three sides compete with each other to claim as many casks of Ale as they can before the time runs out. Each team has two players controlling two ships. I wanted to keep things manageable and each player only controlling two ships helps that. I considered giving each player only one ship but when trying to balance Han Solo against Wedge Antilles there was a huge power difference. Fortunately, two ship lists work out quite well.

Rules

The three sides are placed equidistant from the downed freighter (played by a C-ROC model). Multiple cargo containers (using the plethora of unused mission tokens acquired over the years) designate the ale. Each different tile is worth a different amount of points.
To pick up a cargo token a ship must take an action when it is at range one of a token. Once acquired it can be taken by anyone else and moves with you.
A ship with a tractor beam can give up its attack to acquire a cargo token at range 1-3 in arc.
If a ship takes a stress, ion token, or tractor token it loses control of the cargo.
To score, a ship must fly off the edge of the board through an enemy’s start zone. The ship respawns at the start of the next round.
Destroying a ship is not final. The team that gets the kill scores a bonus token which are used to break ties at the end of the game. The destroyed ship sits out the next round but then respawns.
All upgrades that are expended remain expended even after respawn.
Seismic Torpedo can be used to destroy cargo tiles. A debris field is put in its place.

For the honor of Corellia- The Rebellion

Han Solo + Corran Horn

This was a great opportunity to try out Nu-Han. His power is really valuable in this format but not too powerful. The C-ROC counted as an enemy ship so he was still range 3 from any cargo round one and then he still had to go through an enemy fleet to escape with it.

Dash Rendar + Wedge Antilles

Dash with Outrider and an Ion Cannon? WTF? Normally, pretty dumb. But in this case, because ion tokens force a ship to lose control of their cargo, it’s actually very helpful.

Law and Order- The Empire

Lieutenant Dormitz + Kylo Ren

Dormitz has such a fun ability that really isn’t worth using most of the time. But not in this case. Allowing destroyed allies to respawn near you even in the middle of the game made this ship a lot of fun and presented tough choices for each team.

Captain Oicunn + Major Vynder

Ramming speed! This is a fun combo. Oicunn rams people trying to hold them in place while Vynder SLAMs around the board. With the title he’s able to fire either cannon. Normally these cannons are pretty meh, but he’s a great cargo stealer.

We just want booze- Scummy Scum

Bossk + Constable Zuvio

Zuvio is all about the control. Ion bombs, tractor array, EMP device. He’s going to stop you, search your ship for illegal booze. And then steal it from you. He’s a real example of Jakku justice.

Ketsu + Tel Trevura

Ketsu gets to try and prevent ships escaping using her special tractor tokens or her tactician. Meanwhile, Tel is the perfect rum runner. With Adrenaline Rush he can fly in, acquire some cargo and then still has his red maneuvers as an option when necessary. His ion discharger helps him lose the cargo due to ion tokens.

Results Summary

I made the mistake of setting up the game board long ways. Everyone had to go too far to get the ale and it took to long. But, if you set up the C-ROC in the center of two maps, on one side, then all three factions can be placed essentially one mat’s length away. This plus our limited time frame meant no one actually got away with any cargo and it came down to tie breaker points.

Beyond that, it was a lot of fun for everyone to play. Each team debated offense vs defense, keeping some ships back to block others’ escape.