Star Wars X-Wing: Space Aces in Wild Space

We're back, baby...and welcome to the Wild Space Saga!  This is the first of a series of campaigns that are set in our brand new (non-canonical) campaign setting for Star Wars games.

Check out the basic background on the Birthwell space and comment to join the scenario and see where it develops!

Secret Nav-Points in the Unknown Regions

The Alliance base at Teboraun City on Teyyaun is currently being prepared for use by advance forces on the surface.  Hampered by local resistance from crime lords calling themselves Neo-Privateer Guilds, the Alliance must attempt to clear all hostile forces patrolling the narrow conduits through the nebulae around the Birthwell, without alerting Imperial patrols on the other side.

To that end, Alliance squadrons in Wild Space have been called up to perform this duty at the edge of the Unknown Reaches.  Entering the Birthwell from the galactic East, they must secure the nav-points starting at Narrow Gap.  The mission is time sensitive - Alliance blockade runners are entering the Birthwell bound for Teyyaun at Pit Point soon, and Bluecap Squadron will be required to escort them in safely to supply materials to the ground crews...

Campaign Rules

The campaign will consist of 6 engagements broken into two scenarios each.  Every set of scenarios will correspond to action at a particular point along Bluecap Squadron's mission.  In each scenario, they must attempt to destroy or scatter enemy squadrons based on the outcome of the sorties.  The specific rules and size to use for each scenario is listed below on the Campaign chart.

At the end of the campaign, a team victory will be declared for the team with the most victories.  In the event of a tie, the final scenario will be played again to determine a tiebreaker.  Despite this win or loss, this is only the beginning.  The total outcomes along the Nav-Points will determine setup for the next part of the Wild Space Saga in various games we'll be linking together.

Imperial Interdictions

The Empire is not really involved with the conflict in the Birthwell, being only slightly aware that anything is happening at all.  However, Imperial patrols in Wild Space have picked up frequency lately.  To that end, it's possible these long-range patrols may chase suspicious-flying vehicles into the Unknown Regions.

At any point in the campaign, should an Imperial player challenge the inhabitants of the Birthwell, a special Interdiction scenario will be played.  The Imperial player can choose a faction to attack (or can attack both) and impose upon them a scenario of their choosing.  The Alliance and Scum factions can ally (splitting the total squadron values) or not (making it a 3-way fracas) to fight off the Imperials.

This takes place outside the normal campaign structure and can occur as often as the Imperial player may deem necessary (it may be necessary to fight the Imperials for quite some time).  For every win the Imperial player obtains during these phases, Imperial Influence goes up in the Birthwell.  Imperial Influence will be noted on the scoreboard and this will help determine setups in later campaigns and scenarios.  In addition, mark the points along Bluecap Squadrons' path where the interdictions take place - this will setup Imperial intelligence / blind-spots in the campaigns to come.

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"Bluecap-4 to Bluecap-8 ... bet you he's gonna run!"

Results and Ongoing

                        

Star Wars Portal

Despite everything you may think to the contrary, Star Wars is still the most consistently popular tag on any of Iron Seer's sites.  I know, right?  I still dig Star Wars even if I got more Imperial than First Order on my table.  So, as we move into 2021 it's probably a good idea to get all this sorted, especially if we want to reference it later.

Speaking of references, this post will be updated as new Star Wars posts hit.  I still have so many unopened ships I want to devalue by opening.  I also plan to make a great many more 'pew-pew' noises.

Last Entry: 05/16/21

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• Star Wars Campaigns
• The Edge of Wild Space - (05/16/21)
• Space Aces in Wild Space - (03/28/21)
• Journey to Wild Space - (08/26/18)
• Journey to Wild Space Campaign Material - (09/09/18)
• Rogue Star Wars - (06/10/18)
• Battle Report: Jedi Temple Heist - (07/15/18)
• Battle Report: Bothawui Run - (08/05/18)
• Post-Game Sequence - (09/27/20)
• Cloak of the Sith - (03/11/18)
• Random Deathwind Corridor Missions - (04/01/18)
• Cloak of the Sith Final Stage - (02/17/19)
• Star Wars Articles
• X-Wing 2.0 - It's a Clone War - (08/02/20)
• Rogue Star Wars Mayhem, Inc. - (01/20/19)
• Rogue Star Wars Buru Brothers Shipping & Handling Team - (05/27/18)
• Rogue Star Wars Imperial Hunter-Killer Team - (03/04/18)
• Rogue Star Wars Rebellion Tech-Partisans Team - (02/11/17)
• Star Wars Miniatures - (12/03/17)
• Top 5 Reasons Armada is Also - (10/15/17)
• Top 5 Reasons X-Wing is Still Cool - (10/08/17)

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More to come!

Reverse Format 5/16/21

It's a Clone War

Inspirobot reminds us not to squander what we have.

X-Wing 2.0 seems to have a lot of issues at the present.

I've read about how folks aren't happy with it (competitively speaking) after recent events.  I won't go into any of that now, it's irrelevant.  It is merely an aside that seems to reinforce my recalcitrance to replace all my X-Wing gear with the exact same stuff but different.

My unwillingness to attempt to liquidate all the cardboard and general recalcitrance to buy all new cardboard to replace the other cardboard doesn't mean I'm a fogey who wants to be stuck in the past.  Instead, I think I've come to a happy medium regarding X-Wing.

For me, the Galactic Civil War will be where most of my current gaming lies.  All those TIE fighters, X-Wings and such...I'm not going to try to update 75+ fighters per team.  By the time I'm done collecting all that, it would be time to trade in the chips for a 3rd asinine edition.  X-Wing 1.0 is a great game though, so we'll just leave that there.

For 2.0...I had thought, well, let's do the Clone Wars.  They didn't release any Clone Wars era ships in 1.0...not with "Republic" stamped on it, anyway.  Certainly, they didn't release and CIS droid ships.  So, it only makes sense to move forward with the new edition, in an entirely new theater.  Basically, it will be a totally different game to me.

For the same price it would take to upgrade one of my factions (maybe) I can pretty much pick up the rules and both faction starters for CIS and Republic.  That doesn't give me such willies, honestly...considering it will be a good handful of totally new ships.  That's kind of exciting.

Yeah...but I'm not going to do that.  

2.0 and Star Wars in general seems - dead.  At least in my part of the woods.  The move to 2.0 absolutely destroyed the 'scene'.  The last movies pretty much guaranteed that everyone has a bad taste in their mouth now, all by themselves.  Throw in a pointless change to a new system requiring everything to be bought again and...well, the worst part is this is well before COVID came along and shut everything else down.

What seemed so awesome a few years ago has lost it's lustre.  All the potential for returning Star Wars to a dominant setting used in games everywhere has been terminated.  I guess that's what happens when every company involved decides to metaphorically shoot themselves in the head.

For now, I'm hunting down the last few 1.0 ships I don't already have.  A TIE Defender and Shadow Caster is on the way here now, via some Ebay.  There's only about three more from the entire 1.0 run that has eluded me so far, so that's something.  Besides, if I really want some clone fighters and jedi ships I can always fire up Photoshop and make something nice for myself.  

X-Wing: Cloak of the Sith Round 2 Commences!

Cloak of the Sith Challonge!

Our longest running campaign has been the first X-Wing 1.0 campaign launched on this site, mostly because we do all kinds of stuff and have too many things going on at once but hey.  The final stage has begun, at last!

You learn pretty quick they are ALL definitely hiding contraband.

By far the biggest winners of the campaign so far are the Deathwind Cartels, a.k.a. Scum & Villainy faction.  So much so, in fact, that the last round of games won't actually change that fact - the Cartel has seriously secured victory throughout the Deathwind Corridor.  All that remains is a few last sorties on both Alliance and Imperial assets as the two withdraw from the theater.

Cornered and alone, the crack Imperial pilots have state-of-the-art fighters...but they are still all alone.

Coming in solid at second, the Rebels could conceivably lose their ranking in the last round if the Imperial blockade is successful at every turn.  Further, the pirates must be dissuaded from destroying any more Alliance assets - assets needed to combat the hated Empire. The Imperials are thus the real threat the rebellion faces moving into Round 2, which is a MUCH shorter timeline to completion.

Getting caught all alone in the drifts of Deathwind Corridor will spell doom for anyone, however.

The lowest of scores so far, the Imperial team has struggled in the Cloak of the Sith.  Though Imperial forces clean up on the ground (where they land) their fleet has been hit hard by the guerilla tactics of both the Rebellion and the pirates.  Yet, there is still a chance to defeat the rebel scum before the area is abandoned to lawlessness and cutthroats.  It will be dicey, but in order to truly advance the Imperials will have to be utterly ruthless.

As Round 2 begins, Alliance and Imperial forces are in full retreat from the Cloak of the Sith.
Pirates are all over, coming out in droves as the larger fleets begin to bleed.  The cartels control the Deathwind Corridor and the Cloak of the Sith...but will the Imperials put an end to the Alliance fleet before it can rally for it's next mission?

Just a few sorties remain!

Random Deathwind Corridor Missions

Heavily armed and highly organized coalitions of mercenaries and pirates roam Deathwind Corridor.

We've been playing a lot of the standard scenario, and it's been brought to my attention that we need more missions for the campaign / general play.  Our group generally has always enjoyed the dynamic that the forces are built before the scenario determined, but in X-Wing that's not the practice.  You might not think it would, but it's actually kept us from playing a lot of the missions as part of campaign play.  This post will set up the framework we will use going forward for choosing missions to make for a more chaotic, interesting campaign.

First, let's talk about terminology.  Besides the places in the galaxy they refer to, Deathwind Corridor and the Cloak of the Sith have specific meaning to us.  Herein, the term 'Deathwind Corridor' refers to the general metagame we have created.  You might see this as the background setting for most of the campaigns we are going to run in the Star Wars galaxy across several rulesets.  Though we may bounce around the galaxy, the Deathwind Corridor will always be our pirate hidey-hole.  The 'Cloak of the Sith' refers to the title of the current, ongoing campaign.

Mission Procedure (X-Wing 1e)

1. Select Game Size
• Squadron Size 100-300 for Standard games.
• Squadron Size 300-500 for Epic games.
2. Determine Scenario
• Mission
• Any mission can be agreed upon and played.
• Random Mission
• 100 point squadrons can dice for scenario; see below. 
• Sortie (Standard Game)
• Any non-mission game 100-300 points in squadron size.
• Epic
• A Standard mission with Epic ships 300-500 points in squadron size.

The players can choose any type of scenario they like, or they can roll a random mission from the table below.  These missions are most usable with generic, 100 point squadrons with no other squadron restrictions than normal.  If any issues arise, this post will be updated to reflect any modifications with the mission selection.

Squadrons can be selected at any point during the mission selection / setup phases, though both players should be done around the same time.  Many squadrons are formed beforehand, and that's fine.  It doesn't really matter, with our metagame.

Random Mission Lists
We have lots of dice, so we can use a D12.

1. Mission 1: Political Escort
2. Mission 2: Asteroid Run
3. Mission 3: Dark Whispers
4. Mission 4: Den of Thieves
5. Mission 5: Preystalker
6. Mission 6: Undeniable Assets (Lambda-class Shuttle Expansion Pack)
7. Mission 7: Cutting the Cord
8. Mission 9: Jump To Subspace
9. Mission 17: Disable the Relays  (Imperial Veterans Expansion Pack)
10. Mission 18m: Outer Rim Raid
11. Mission 20: Patrol Ambush  (U-wing Expansion Pack)
12. Mission F1: Ambush

All of this is just for starters.  Eventually we will provide variants for Epic ships, and maybe even complications for Standard Sorties to shake it up.  Get out there and shoot down the enemy!

X-Wing: Cloak of the Sith Campaign

*Updated 6/12/2018*

Image: Wookieepedia and mySWRPG.com.

Welcome to Iron Seer's first campaign!

We intend for there to be several campaigns going on at once, and because of this there may be some slow movement on some of them.  Never fear - the time limits are gone!  In fact, it's set up to be a sustained campaign.  In the past we've actually had them go on well over a year before we reigned it back to focus on one at a time, but we're opening the floodgates now.  When everything is in place, you can be guaranteed no matter which minis you want to move you can have your game recorded for posterity with Iron Seer!

Star Wars X-Wing has been a favorite since it burst onto the scene a few years ago, and pretty much everyone who's into games that I know digs this one.  For this campaign, there will be three factions vying for supremacy of the Manda-Roon Merchant Route, the Death Wind Corridor and the other space around Roon, Ryloth and Manda.

The Rebellion's Battle Fleet Tarquinas has been mustering near Ryloth for the past while, and after Imperial aggression around the Cloak of the Sith, has been forced to relocate to a remote area outside the Cloak.  From here, the Battle Group must contend with enemy fighters all along the Cloak, from Imperial TIEs swarming Ryloth or Manda to pirate scum pouring out of Death Wind Corridor.  It is the responsibility of the Alliance Flight Commanders to protect the secret of the mustering Battle Fleet, and to perform military action against the enemies of the Rebellion as it is necessary.

Imperial Expeditionary Fleet Naugrelas arrived in the sector near Manda and at least one large fleet scale action has occurred around the Cloak, though the Imperials balk at flying into it.  Instead, carriers and escort ships have been sent in for patrols looking for pirates, and hoping for rebels.  Recently, the Imperials scaled back their efforts to move more capital ships into the Cloak itself...but space stations are reportedly being built for the purpose of monitoring and attacking unauthorized ships on both ends of Death Wind Corridor and the Manda Route.

For their part, the Death Wind Cartels seem united.  They hate everyone, and they want all the big ships OUT.  Indiscriminately attacking all military vessels, it seems they are united behind one thing: the ejection of the larger Galactic Civil War so they can go back to murdering each other in peace.

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Campaign Rules

• Teams
• Signup on our Facebook Group and declare your faction.  Obviously, you'll need to be somewhat local to play in the campaign (at least for now).
• If you have a Challonge account or want to make one, you can add your name and face to our Challonge team page!
• Matches
• Matches are best of three games.  Sets are counted for each game played, and the match goes to the first player to achieve two wins against their opponent.
• 100 Squadron Points available per game.
• For 3 person games, one commander will run an allied faction squadron 'under the banner' of the other commander.  For 4 person games, two games will be drawn on the campaign record with each commander squaring off against one of the opposing commanders.
• Team and Pilot Ranking
• The team that accrues the most match wins will win the campaign and move the narrative forward.
• Individual Pilots will be given a ranking based on the number of sorties and their success rate.  The Player with the highest individual rank will be declared Galactic Fighter Ace by the Iron Seer and everyone will have to live with that until a new one is crowned.
• The player that has played the most games sets the Battle Level.  The difference between the Battle Level and your number of sorties will affect your individual ranking, meaning you will not win the campaign if you win one game.

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Note to Graphic Designers:  Mind the S-Foils.

Top 5 Reasons X-Wing is Still Cool

So, I'm into Star Wars X-Wing.

Pish-posh, how does this belong on a miniatures wargames blog?  Well, the answer is self-evident - it's a wargame, with miniatures.  Realism aside.  We ARE playing Star Wars, after all.

Anyway, why should you care?

#5 - It's easy.

Like SO easy.  A few weeks after starting your collection you'll have a nice fleet, star mat, storage, yadda yadda.  Ok, so what I meant was it's easy to PLAY, to TEACH, and most of all to TRANSPORT.  So I guess really that's three reasons, but to me it's all the same.  You're welcome.

Rebels 2017

#4 - The Rebel Fleet

You need more X-Wings, alright cuz?  I always liked X-Wings - they are like, iconic or something.  Dead sexy, they are ... all in a formation and all...

Scum 2017

#3 - The Scum Fleet

Really though, the entire scum fleet is sexier than the X-Wing.  I mean really.  Even that Y-Wing looks cool.  Also - turret squadrons rule.

Imperial 2017

#2 - The Imperial Fleet

Even my cat knows what a TIE fighter is and what it can do.  The quintessential villains of the Rebellion Era, the Galactic Empire is a freakshow of space nazi proportions destined to explode in nearly every game.  Every collection deserves a few handfuls.

#1 - Pew-Pew

By far the best reason to collect and play X-Wing is the fact that you now have a reason to make blaster and spaceship noises, so therefore do not need to make excuses anymore.  To anyone.  "The TIE itself entices one to vocalize."