X-Wing is a terrific tournament-game, fast-paced and well-balanced for competitive events, but to take a break from the competitive 100 vs 100 tournament scenario we’ve been playing, some of our local players and I decided to do try something a little different:

A 2 vs 2 battle over the surface of the planet Hoth. Here’s a brief battle report and some photos from the game that I hope will inspire other people to try different sizes and formats.

This 4 player, 200 v 200 game was played on a 4×4 board, which gives a playing area considerably larger than 3×3. We increased the obstacle count to 9, ranging from AT-Asteroids to Taun-Taun-Debris. The game looked great, played to conclusion in less than 2 hours, and frankly everyone had a great time.



Leela and Matt’s Rebels

Han Solo YT-1300

Jake Farell A-Wing

Green Squadron A-Wing

Chewbacca YT-1300

Corran Horn Ewing – R2D2 Engine Upgrade Predator

(That’s an E-Wing that clocks in at 46 points, a remarkable price for a 5 HP fighter, but IMHO one of the few that can justify that sort of price tag).

Innocent and Doobleg’s Empire

Shuttle – Darth Vader

Phantom – Echo

Phantom – Whisper

Shuttle – Colonel Jendon, Heavy Laser Cannon

(At the start of the Combat phase, you may assign 1 of your blue target lock tokens to a friendly ship at Range 1 if it does not have a blue target lock token.)

3 Tie Bombers

Tie Bomber – Captain Jonus

(When another friendly ship at Range 1 attacks with a secondary weapon, it may reroll up to 2 attack dice)

The centre of the rebel base is held by Chewie in the Century Hawk YT-1300 and Corran Horn in a Snowspeeder (it just felt more appropriate for this game!)

The Empire’s Heavy Laser Cannon shuttle starts towards the hidden Rebel Base, flanked by tie bombers and lead by Vessery.

The rebels attempt a refused flank deployment, not having the numbers to spread out to meet the Imperials one-for-one.

Chewie cuts across the centre. Stage one of the Imperial’s plan commences, as Jendon is able to assign Target Locks at any range and distribute them to his allies. This means that as the Rebels approach, Chewbacca’s YT is getting lit up with Locks that will guide missiles into his craft.

The rebels skirt around the AT-Asteroids but can’t afford to delay the battle by too much – the Imperials advantage grows with every long-range Target lock placed.

Tie Bombers glide up the field, before making a sharp turn towards their prey.

A Green Squadron pilot curves gracefully around the Taun Tauns below.

The Empire orders an Advance, and the battle is rapidly compressed into one third of the board as all pilots jockey for shots in this target-rich environment.

Corran Horn’s Snowspeeder engages a shuttle head-on, ignoring the two almost untouchable phantoms in the distance in order to score more certain hits. The Shuttle took 3 damage, giving one in return.

Ships roar over the ice, lasers blasting.

The Phantoms open fire with their vicious 4-shot guns, while the Bombers engage from the flank, angling in towards the Wookie.

Chewbacca screams into a hard turn, finishing his move mere millimetres from the enemy but still managing to get his action. He is festooned with Locks though, and about to come under massive firepower.

All hell breaks loose, Han solo rushing to Chewie’s support and firing into a phantom as Corran dives through the gap. Corran had double-tapped in the last round, and used this one to recharge a shield.

Chewie managed to take out a bomber but under the firepower of almost the entire Imperial invasion force was shot down himself. The target-locked missiles and rerolls from Jendon made sure that even 5 shields and 8 hull couldn’t last forever.

An A-Wing managed to put 2 hits on an otherwise untouched Imperial Shuttle. Alert to even the smallest weakness, Corran swooped in, hit it 4 times and then another 4 in the end phase for a remarkable 8 damage to take it out in a single turn.

Bombers duel the snowspeeder as it tries to regain shields.

A combination of bomber phantom firepower and Darth Vader take out an A-Wing.

Corran takes out another bomber – cementing his position as Man of the Match.

The Rebel defenders have now been reduced to Han Solo, Corran Horn and an Awing, but it is the Imperials who are closer to breaking under pressure. Han comes under fire as he manages to strip a couple hull from a bomber, before he and Corran finish it and its comrade off. A this point, Leela had managed to keep her Han Solo’s hull intact and my Corran Horn had managed to finish the game on full health and shield despite taking about 8 hits during it. Thanks R2!

A Rebel Victory, Hoth is saved!

This frenetic battle was a tremendous amount of fun, as witnessed by the fact that we immediately played another 2v2 Battle for Hoth (come on, this is what Sundays are made for!). I’d highly recommend trying out larger scale games with multiple players to any X-Wing players; it definitely does not require the addition of the larger ships to make a 200 vs 200 point battle possible.

Give it a try!