7TV Strikes Back

At the club this week myself and Rich played out our follow up game of 7TV Star Wars following the Empire's comprehensive victory a couple of weeks ago in capturing everyone except Luke.

Back to Tatooine the heroes are being held in a Hutt controlled enclave that happens to have a handy carbonation facility, doubtless for flash-freezing those who fail to make their interest payments on time!

Empire forces of Vader plus Stormtroopers in the enclave, Rebel Rescue Force stage right featuring Luke, Leia, Lando and Golden-Rod himself!

Said facility is in the compound on the top left of the above shot. As long as its manned I'd add D6 to its countdown track each turn looking for the magic number of 25. I'd even practised a number of evil chuckles to accompany!

The local Overlord and his many minions look on. As the Empire player I was earning VPs for carbonation and also interrogating as many of the locals as possible in the never ending quest for "Rebel Scum".

Qui-Gon Jinn adopts the default Jedi cunning disguise of  a hooded cloak and infiltrates the enclave and locates the target compound. Has Rich learnt from last time out?

Vader rolls well for his Cameo and appears on Turn 1, though in his haste to gloat over his captives brushes aside the old hermit in his not at all suspicious brown robes that no-one of any interest anywhere in the galaxy ever wears......

Hypnotise Jedi mind tricks at the gate and on one of the patrols do the job. Just another couple of happy newlyweds honey-mooning on Tatooine with their protocol droid. Ahhh!

Qui-Gon quaffs his Invisibility Serum (Gadget) which just about takes effect after a Dodgy Gadget event card and a far bit of Luck is expended. Potentially and early game-changer!

Left to their own devices the Rebel Troopers storm through the main gates somewhat ineffectually only to be shot to pieces and then run-over by a Dewback. Cue evil grin :)

Back at the compound its all kicked off. With the Carbonator running at 19 points Vader is too little to handle all the Rebel stars by himself and Han's freezing is stopped in its tracks.

Despite using Telekinesis to throw a crate through Luke and Lando he's forced to withdraw whilst taking a quick swipe at Leia on the way out. Even with all of his Luck and Heroic Surge spent he's still dangerous but can't stop the inevitable. The captives are released!

Despite mounting Rebel casualties the released prisoners keep them from having to take Morale checks and the game is swinging one way.

The Empire changes tactics concentrating on taking down the remaining Rebel Troopers and their transports. Vader's Telekinesis is useful once again being used to smash Luke's speeder into a wall quickly destroying it!

The blood-lusted Dewback Rams Lando's speeder damaging it heavily but taking itself and its rider out in the process though thankfully modern stunt-trickery ensures that no animals were actually harmed. Shame about the stunt-man though!

In vicious display of squeaky balloons Qui-Gon and Luke gang up on a rapidly wearing Vader for an inevitable result though as always He'll Return!

In the closing scenes Lando crashes his speeder which is quickly Stormtroopered taking out the last few Rebel Troopers and dragging off Lando. Hopefully he's got a decent agent!

With both sides on Morale checks we called it as I doubted the Stormtroopers would last too long without Vader. The Rebellion have done the job at a high cost, though get a Solid Victory on VPs 10 - 5.

Post game analysis centred around the cast lists. I had fun as the Empire and have learned to co-ordinate the use of Minions to make them much more effective. I pushed Rich hard, wiping out his Rebel Trooper Minions, Shaking his cast into taking Morale checks and capturing a Co-Star, Lando.

But with only one Star myself in Vader it was always and uphill struggle without the Luck, Gadgets and Skills at my disposable to have a decent crack at his big names. Vader has 2 Luck, Leia 5 to herself! Once Vader was down and the captives released I was facing 8 Stars and Co-Stars including 3 Jedi. Even with the released captives unable to attack they were still impossible for Stormtroopers to take down.

Just a matter of balance and as we discussed there aren't that many named Empire characters. There is the Coruscant Gaurd and a number of Commando types as well as any number of Bounty Hunters other than Mr Fett.

For a mutil-player campaign you each pick a faction and then generate your own charcaters. Each episode Luke / Vader et al can make various Cameo appearances on either side fitting in with campaign results to date to provide a central narrative.

Wookiepedia to the fore!