Massacre at Mos Eisley (or 'I find my lack of Storm Troopers disturbing')

Tatooine last Friday a rebel strike force headed into the outskirts of Mos Eisley looking to pick up some much needed supplies. The force consisted of a mixed force of Rebel Troopers and Wookies led by Han Solo, Chewbacca and Cassian Endor and supported by some armour in the form of a pair of AT-RT walkers.  A heavy force for a routine supply run, but rumour had it that the Wookies were desperate for a promised batch of hair conditioner after months in the hot desert sun.

Han Solo with his squad

Rebel Walker and supporting troops

Unfortunately the Empire had got word of the operation and had sent a strong force of Stormtroopers to destroy the Rebels supported by a light tank and led by Boba Fett and the Dark Lord himself Darth Rob, I mean Vader.

Darth Vader leads his men into battle

The Imperial Tank proudly advancing

The Empire arrived with Boba Fett leading a force of Stormtroopers towards the landing pad, recently vacated by the Millenium Falcon, whilst Lord Vader supported his flank in the town.  The Imperial tank took the centre while two further squads of Stormtroopers took the far end of the battlefield near the imperial jail.

The Rebels countered with a strong force of infantry in the centre with Han, Chewbacca and the Wookies heading to the Landing pad.  Further troops and Cassian advanced towards the jail and one of the walkers supported each flank.  The forces were evenly matched in points although it was obvious the Rebels were more numerous. The imperial tank and Boba Fett both being high value units of which much was expected by the Dark Lord.

Mos Eisley with the jail in the foreground and the Landing Pad in the distance

Turn 1 saw both sides advancing into town with some long range sniping seeing the Rebels take a slight lead in casualties although little was achieved by either side.

Boba Fett orders his men into the Landing Pad

Turn 2 saw contact all along the board with Landos forces engaging the Imperials near the jail, Boba Fett and his men advancing on Han and Chewie and the Imperial tank advancing across the board only to get ambushed by two rebel squads.  Lord Vader was however somewhat lonely as he failed to get into contact with the Rebels and his squad took considerable casualties from long range rebel fire.  This turn the fire was considerably more effective with the imperials definitely getting the worst of the deal and a couple of squads being really hollowed out.  The tank also took several big hits and Lord Robs confidence started to weaken.

The Butchers Bill starts to mount

The Imperial Tank gets badly dented.

Turn 3 and the imperial tank was damaged and lost its mobility, advancing without infantry support had always been risky and with a rebel anti tank squad on each flank things were never going to end well.  The rebel Veteran squad took some heavy hits in exchange and the squad leader found himself alone.  On the jail house flank the Imperial squads realised facing an AT-RT  was painful as the Imperial Shore Troopers were wiped out and a regular squad decimated.  The Imperials were confident their Anti tank missile would sort out the walker but then realised they were within its minimum range, cry's of pain came from the Imperial commander.

Meanwhile in the landing pad things were also going badly for the empire.  Boba Fett had managed to hurt Chewbacca, but only enough to make him angry.  The main Wookie squad had engaged the Stormtroopers in melee and were busy ripping their arms off , Han Solo looked on but with everyone in Melee there were no viable targets to shoot at. 

A lone Storm Trooper tries in vain to hold off the rebel advance

A lone Storm Trooper gets beaten by Wookies, because he's worth it.

With the end of Turn 3 Imperial morale collapsed and Rob conceded the game.  In hindsight Rob admitted Boba Fett and the tank had been expensive choices that hadn't really delivered.  What he needed was more men as the rebel advantage in numbers had given me the advantage.  Personally I thought the tank had tied up a reasonable part of the rebel infantry but Boba had indeed achieved little beyond annoying Chewbacca.  In my opinion though the real damp squib had been Darth Vader.  Limited by low movement the Dark Lord had been isolated killing one rebel trooper and inflicting a point of damage on the walker.  Not very cost effective.  My own infantry were fairly squishy, but with three extra units on the board compared to the Empire I had the capacity to absorb damage which the Empire lacked. 

The game was played using the Star Wars Legion rules and took about three and a half hours to play three turns.  Partly this is because Rob and I don't play very often and so ended up repeatedly checking the rule book, however I think with the number of units we were playing the game is a fairly slow one.

Will the Empire strike back? Stay turned to find out. 

Chris