So, my brother and I were chatting the other day and I was wondering what people thought about a Rebels vs. Imperials scenario to replicate the classic opening scene from Star Wars where Darth Vader's ship disables the Tantive IV and captures Princess Leia. I think it would be fun to run a Star Wars minis scenario for this where the Imperial player has the goal of recovering the stolen Death Star plans and capturing the princess while the Rebels need to hold off the Imps until the plans can be placed in R2-D2 and jettisoned in the escape pod. I don't have my one scenario book handy so maybe some or all of this has been outlined in the Ultimate Missions - Rebel Storm book.
I'd like to have this be something that could be run in less than 2 hours.
Curiously, what would you use for deck plans for the Tantive IV and/or what posters, Galaxy Tiles, etc. would you use?
What scenario rules would you set? For example, where do the rebels setup, can the Imperial player know initially which miniatures are the Princess vs. the droids? I assume all Imperials enter via the door they cut open. How many rounds before Vader arrives?
How many miniatures would you include? I assume the rebel side is fixed, but can the Imperials keep bringing in more stormtroopers at some rate? It's a given that if the rebels don't block the Imperials well enough that in time the superior Imperial force will overrun them and win.
Which miniatures would you include? I assume the base stormtrooper and rebel trooper (grey uniforms with white helmets) plus Vader (which version?) and Leia and the Droids. But other commander types, droids, etc.?
I'd love to hear what people think.
L
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Take a look at the death star scenes, count how many storm troopers are in a squad. This would be the size of the waves. accoring to Wookiepedia and Imperial Class Star Destroyer could hold up to 9,700 Infantry, but the TIE boarding craft that was used could only hold about 12 at a time. The Tantive IV itself only held about 90 people, 45 of which were crew.
I would add one gray suit imperial navy commander per wave if there's a mini for a generic one. They were the ones searching the escape pod and telling Lord Vader about said escape pod leaving.
As for the rebel side - we know there were multiple protocol droids on board (I think 2 others are shown in the scene) Looks like there are 3 different minis for White helmet rebel troopers, and a bunch for run of the mill stormtroopers, not sure if they have different stats game-wise or not. Might want to include the Bothan spy who ave the princess the plans. he wasn't on the ship at the time, but I'm sure he was at one point, and played a major part of the story. Obviously "Princess Leia, Senator" and a R2-D2 and C3PO, Prolly the R5 astromech produced later (see below). Might want to splatter in some random rebels such as "Corellian Security Officer" and a "rebel pilot" for Captain Antillies
I don't know the minis game, but discussing it with someone who does, he sugested "Well, there are a couple of units that have a special reinforcements ability that allow you to add up to 30 points of non-unique units (usually restricted to a faction or something- maybe "trooper" units in this case) if your initiative roll is exactly 5, 10, 15, or 20... so maybe assigning this ability to an Imperial commander for the duration of this scenario is appriopriate (if a suitable unit doesn't already have it) or just giving that ability to the imperial side, not attached to a unit.
there was a "stealth" game mechanic built into a few of the scenarios WotC posted online, where the player set up tokens instead of the actual pieces, 2 tokens per actual unit being deployed. I think one had to be desginated as the "actual" unit when placed on the map- a face-down marker of some kind so they look identical when placed, but could be picked up to see which one is really the unit. Then an enemy unit with line-of-sight to one of the tokens could determine whether it was the real one or not (they might have had to trade their attack for this, I forget). A similar rule could be used for R2-D2 and leia if there are supposed to be multiple droids on the ship, allowing the Rebel player to use decoys and such.
And since the Imperials are all coming from 1 direction, it doesn't seem like they'd be able to intercept the plans as the character just sprints from the deployment zone to the escape pods... unless maybe Leia and R2 have to deploy at opposite ends of the map. This way Leia has to hand off the plans, and THEN R2 has to get to an escape pod.
If R2 is destroyed, R5 from champions of the force is activated as a backup.
Other than that, maybe give some of the rebels a benefit like "advantageous cover" (bigger Def bonus from cover) since they know the ship better than the Imperials, but only if the scenario seems too unbalanced."
Thanks, these are some really great suggestions. I need to dig out the minis and review the stat cards. I agree that it makes sense that Leia and R2 need to start at different ends of the map or it could easily be too quick for the Rebels to get the plans off ship.
Hold your fire, there's no life forms aboard - in the film, the Imperial gunners don't shoot down the escape pod because they don't detect any life forms. That said, what if they did? Should there be an option that a living crew member be able to hand carry the plans in a pinch assuming the droids fail - but with a good chance of getting shot down?
What about the possibility of duplicate copies of the Death Star plans?
I'm probably starting to over complicate it.
L
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Thanks, these are some really great suggestions. I need to dig out the minis and review the stat cards. I agree that it makes sense that Leia and R2 need to start at different ends of the map or it could easily be too quick for the Rebels to get the plans off ship.
Hold your fire, there's no life forms aboard - in the film, the Imperial gunners don't shoot down the escape pod because they don't detect any life forms. That said, what if they did? Should there be an option that a living crew member be able to hand carry the plans in a pinch assuming the droids fail - but with a good chance of getting shot down?
What about the possibility of duplicate copies of the Death Star plans?
I'm probably starting to over complicate it.
L
I have a feeling the 100+ turbolaser batteries would cut any lifepod with life forms on it to smitherines.... they have better aim then stormtroopers during the death star trench run. I would go with 'if they could be duplicated they would have'. and the leia could take the disc out of R2 and put it into another astromech (glancing through, it looks like there are 3 that were released)