The third and final battle in Turn 1 of our Corellian Conflict Campaign saw the Rebel Commander Eric attacking the system of Phemis. This was an out-of the way system with little strategic value, but the staunch defenders of the Empire, commanded by Grand Admiral Scott, were there to save the loyal citizens of the Empire.
The 3rd Fleet was dispatched to intercept the Rebel forces; it consisted of:
Imperial II Class Star Destroyer "Redoubtable" (flagship) – Gunnery Team, Admiral Konstantine
Interdictor Class Combat Refit "Inflexible"– XX-9 Turbolasers
Raider I Class Corvette "Alert"
Arquiteris Class Command Cruise "Stalwart" – Reinforced Bulkheads
5 x TIE Fighter
The mission chosen was "Contested Outpost" This allowed me to place an unarmed neutral space station which would give victory points to the most powerful force close to it.
The Rebel fleet consisted of:
1 x MC80 Command Cruiser (flagship)- High Capacity ion Turbines, Admiral Dodonna
1 x Assault Frigate Mark IIB- Tactical Expert
2 X Nebulon B Escort Frigates
2 x X-Wing
1 x Y-Wing
‘Ghost' piloted by Hera Syndulla
We placed the obstacles as normal and then I placed the contested space station as close to where I planned to deploy my ships as possible. We then placed our ships in the normal fashion, each alternating placing ships and squadrons.
I placed my two biggest ships opposite the outpost planning to grab it early and then hang on to rack up victory points. Eric responded with his flagship also opposite, but then he stuck his assault frigate and one Nebulon way over to his right. I decided to put my remaining ships on the opposite flank but still close in to my big ships. In this fashion I hoped to keep his frigates on my left out of the action as long as possible while I concentrated on his other two ships—and so it proved.
Imperial Deployment – a nice, tight formation!
Rebel Deployment – they are awfully spread out! No discipline, My lord!
Turn 1
The imperials advanced at speed 2, but the Star Destroyer and Interdictor both banked Navigate tokens, planning to slow down the next turn once they were close to the space station. The MC80 came on at speed 2, as well and turned to open up its impressive broadside. But in doing so it got even farther away from the assault frigate. It was all alone facing nearly my whole fleet! At the end of movement I was close enough to claim victory points from the station. There was no firing.
Turn 2
With the Rebels forced to move first, I was able to time the engagement as I wanted. I moved all my other ships except for the star destroyer and waited for the MC 80 to move. When it did, not only did it collide with the interdictor cruiser it was within medium range of Redoubtable! My Star Destroyer had a Squadron command and that allowed me to move four of my TIE fighters into the MC 80's broadside arc and fire. This is where the fighters proved their worth. Even though they only rolled one die apiece, it was four separate attacks and the MC 80's defense tokens weren't worth much. Eric didn't want to use them up with the Star Destroyer's massive forward batteries yet to fire, so each fighter fired unopposed. Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Four hits! The MC 80's starboard shield went down and a hit was scored! Then it was Redoubtable's turn! Nine hits and an accuracy! I negated his brace command and even with his redirect token I still took down his forward shield and put five more hits on it! The Rebel flagship was nearly destroyed!
Over on the far right, the "Alert" and the "Stalwart" put some hits on the Nebulon and in the center, the rebel fighters swarmed in and killed a TIE fighter.
Hot action in the center!
Turn 3
The rebels were in a fix. Eric activated the MC 80 first, knowing it was not going to survive long. It unloaded everything it could at my Star Destroyer and the Interdictor, but I was able to brace or redirect enough damage that nothing got through. And then the MC 80 veered around the "Inflexible" only to crash into "Stalwart"! Each ship took a damage card and the rebel flagship broke apart! This was too much for the rebel rabble and their other ships altered course to escape. The "Alert" and "Stalwart" continued to exchange fire with the Nebulon and hurt it badly, but couldn't destroy it. Only the Rebel fighters showed much spirit, destroying two more TIE fighter squadrons, although the "Redoubtable's anti-fighter weapons shot down quite a few in return.
Turn 4
The Rebels were powering up their hyperdrives to escape and the Imperial forces could not turn around to pursue quickly enough. Another TIE squadron was destroyed by the deadly Hera Syndulla, and the Star Destroyer picked off a few more X-Wings, but at the end of the turn they all hypered out leaving the Imperials the field of victory. A shame I hadn't bought the Grav Well Generator for "Inflexible" to prevent such a thing. Next time I will have one!
End of Campaign Turn 1
This concluded the first campaign turn. The Empire took advantage of its victories to build new bases on Nubia and Polanis, both rich systems, but didn't bother with nearly worthless Phemis. The Empire scored 4 Campaign points toward ultimate victory against none for the Rebellion, which meant it will have the initiative during the next turn.
Overall, the Empire was doing very well. They had destroyed a number of rebel ships for the loss of only one of their own and a handful of fighters. They had 40 refit points to repair damaged ships and 142 resource points (after spending 30 on the two new bases) to buy new ships and equipment for next turn. The rebels had 35 refit points and 128 resource points, but they had far more damage to repair unless they wanted to take scarred ships into action next turn and risk losing them for good.
Both fleets drew apart to lick their wounds and make plans for the next encounter!