My Wife Saves The Day: Fantasy Flight’s Corellian Corvette–just in time
I work hard, and I am involved in a lot of real life crusading on many fronts, and part of my stress management—especially lately—for the last year has been the new Fantasy Flight Game, X-Wing Miniatures. It is so fun, and so exciting, that I could literally speak on it for hours and hours without a single pause. It is good in so many ways that I find it’s creativity and contents redeeming in intellectual recharging leaving me to spend much of my spare time in the world one can create within its framework as a tabletop game. My love of the game has been so intense that due to the new Epic Play format which requires a tabletop play area of 3’ X 6’ I had to find something better to set up these huge games involving the new capital ships and rules associated with them. My wife found some really large fold up tables and benches that will allow the setup of this massive game just in time for the new Corellian CR90 Corvette which is coming out this week and has had my interest for nearly a year now.
The next two weeks for me involves a lot of X-Wing playing, some of it requiring traveling. So it’s been on my mind. This very interesting Corellian Corvette ship is coming out right in time for some of these events, and just weeks after this release is the distribution of the Wave 4 ships, which will feature the E-Wing—specifically the Corren Horn card I am very eager to put my hands on. My previous weekend was busy learning how to fly these big ships, and tracking down a second game mat to encompass the second half of the gigantic play area for Epic Play and Cinematic play. My wife found a match to the one we already have from a remote distributer out-of-state and ordered it ahead of our pressing weekend events. But that left us looking for a proper set of tables that could be set up and moved around easily depending on where we were playing.
My wife again found the perfect set; a pair of fold up 8’ X 2 ½’ tables that put together side by side gives plenty of play surface. Such an area is just too big for most dining room tables and is nearly impossible to travel with. She found these tables at Wal-Mart along with matching bench chairs that easily can be packed up and traveled with so that X-Wing Miniatures can now go anywhere in the world we wish to take it. After receiving my Rebel Transport, CLICK HERE TO REVIEW, I had been stuck trying to figure out how to play it and still have room to spread out all the other items it takes to play the game comfortably. One problem we have in our family is that when we have large get together events, the women tend to conjugate in the kitchen talking while the men and boys all want to play something—like X-Wing. But then we have to wait for the dining room table to be clear so we can play, it leaves us impatiently waiting for dinner to be over so we can gain control of the dining room table—which ruins the purpose of a nice dinner to begin with. With these new tables it will no longer be a problem. I can set the game up outside, in the living room, in the basement, in an upstairs room, anywhere we want.
I love that the game is getting so big. It is exciting for me, because I love all the complexity of having massive scenarios of strategic opportunity. It is interesting to me to have so many variables above and beyond a few ships dog fighting to the death. And my collection is getting so large, that setting up everything literally takes up an entire large room. The Rebel Transport which came out a few weeks ago showed me quickly that more space would be needed because once the Corellian Corvette comes out; space would become a necessity leaving me scrambling for solutions ahead of its release. Below are the stats and benefits of the new CR90 as described by Fantasy Flight Games.
The Corellian CR90 Corvette in Combat
At ninety squad points, the Corellian CR90 Corvette eats up a massive chunk of your available resources, so how does it hold up in battle?
For starters, the CR90 features a primary weapon with an attack value of “4” that can fire at enemy ships as far away as Range “5.” Accordingly, if you’re approaching your squad-building with an eye toward your economy of attack dice, shields, and hull points, the CR90 forces another wrinkle into the equations. By firing before other ships are even in range, the CR90 is effectively adding actions and attack dice to your squad.
Then, how about those shields and hull points? Both the fore and aft sections of the CR90 feature their own shield and hull point values, and altogether, between the two, the ninety points you spend on the CR90 nets you eight shields and sixteen hull points. That makes the CR90 a rather difficult starship to destroy, especially when you factor in the ability to reinforce either the fore or aft section, adding an evade result to each attack against that section made during the round.
Even after the CR90 takes a pounding, it can use the recover action to spend energy to recover shields. The result is that if your opponent doesn’t throw absolutely everything against your CR90, it has a good chance of surviving and recovering to turn the tide back in your favor. Of course, if your opponent does focus all of his guns against the CR90, that means your other ships are free to wreak havoc.
Meanwhile, the CR90 can spend energy to fire powerful secondary weapons like Single Turbolasers and Quad Laser Cannons. Because you can equip up to two of these hardpoint weapons on the CR90’s fore section and another on the aft section, your CR90 may perform as many as four attacks each turn, all with attack values starting at three or four.
The CR90 also has access to a number of upgrades that simply aren’t available to smaller ships. For example, the Rebel Transport Expansion Pack introduced several members of the Echo Base command, including Toryn Farr, Carlist Rieekan, and Jan Dodonna. It also introduced the WED-15 Repair Droid, which could partner with the R2-D2 from the Tantive IV Expansion Pack to work fast repairs on your ship every turn. Also in the Tantive IV Expansion Pack, Raymus Antilles works wonders when his CR90 is supported by starfighters with Ion Cannon Turrets or Ion Cannons.
Finally, as a huge ship, the CR90 simply obliterates any small or large starships that get in its way. If a small or large starship gets caught in its path, that ship is destroyed… no attack rolls necessary. This means that the mere presence of a Corellian CR90 Corvette in your squad is likely to force your opponent to adjust his intended flight patterns.All together, the CR90 can harness its raw bulk, its primary and secondary weapons, and its many possible crew options in order to punch gaping holes in enemy squadrons.
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4821
The new Epic Rules allow for up to 300 point squads which means there will be a lot going on during a game which can quickly become overwhelming. So it was refreshing that my wife found such a wonderful solution at Wal-Mart—of all places. For just over $300 dollars I had my problem solved so that 12 people could sit around this massive table top and play X-Wing Miniatures comfortably—and still spread out all our stat cards and squad builds without struggling to find space around the periphery of the game mats. The tables work so well I would have paid $1,000 for them—they are that good.
For me this whole hobby experience has become a bit like a model train obsession. Fantasy Flight Games has done such a good job of hitting that market and giving such well made models something useful to do. The CR90 will just add a tremendous layer of mythology to an already deeply involving game. I probably spent 6 hours alone over this past Saturday just reading through all my cards in preparation for the events coming up over the next couple of weekends. The game itself isn’t that expensive, but with ships like the CR90 costing around a hundred dollars of actual money, this is a hobby that can chew through several thousand dollars, which is where I’m at.
The money is worth it because when I set up that world and play the game, a lot of the nonsense going on outside in reality gets put on pause for me. It manages stress in ways that might otherwise become unbearably overwhelming. It allows players to live in a mythology that isn’t imposed upon by a story teller, but is happing by the decisions made by the players and it has a logic to it that fits my real world concerns. So it’s an exciting time for me—especially in the world X-Wing Miniatures. There is a lot for me to look forward to regarding that hobby, and I am so happy to have the leisure which that game brings to spend my time with and share with the people who matter most to me.
Sometimes the best things in life are the smallest—and this is one of them which ironically is growing in EPIC proportions.
Rich Hoffman
