Heroes of the Aturi Cluster is a completely new way to play X Wing. It sticks to the basics (move with a dial, roll red dice to attack and green dice to defend) but introduces a host of new mission objectives and several new actions (like jumping to hyperspace or defending a target). The missions tend to start with a handful of Rebel ships on the board, and a handful of TIE fighters. The TIEs are controlled using a brilliant AI chart:
You follow the steps on the left, roll a D6 and see where the TIEs will end up. Charts in the same style exist for a variety of different AI controlled ships, and contain an immaculate blend of random and predictable moves so that even the most seasoned X Wing player will sometimes be caught out by the AI. Using the AI chart seems complicated to start with but it's very intuitive and once you've played a mission or two it will come easily.
As most missions progress, more and more waves of TIE fighters will enter the fray, keeping the pressure on the Rebels the whole time.
My local group has played probably half a dozen missions and so far only been successful once. We've come very close a few times, and had to end some missions early because of time constraints at the local store, but we've never really felt like we didn't have a chance. And now that most of us are a level or two into the game, I think we've got a really good chance at rolling along now.
I took the files downloaded from Dockingbay416 and had them printed at Pazzaz Printing in Morewell, Victoria, which is near where I live. These guys were very professional, and got the job done quickly and to an extremely high standard. I then spent two evenings watching Star Wars movies and cutting the various components out. I initially tried to get the files printed by Office Choice or Office Works or one of those printing services, but unless you literally just want to print a Word document, these places lack the facilities and experience to do the job. You will need to go to a professional printing shop. To get the booklet, all the cards and the various terrain and stuff printed cost me ~$150. This is pretty expensive compared to some of the prices from America that I've seen posted online, but after getting quotes from several Aussie printers, it seemed to be pretty competitive. I can only assume printing is just more expensive here.
In our specific campaign we have allowed two players to use scum ships, fighting alongside our rebel squadron for personal gain. There's a long history of scum and villainy aiding the rebellion after all. Han Solo himself was a smuggler before he was a rebellion general! So we've slightly modified the rules, allowing our Scum players to start in Z-95 Headhunters, and upgrade to Scyks and Starvipers as they desire. We've allowed one player to upgrade to an E-Wing despite them being the ugliest thing to ever fly, because they're his favourite ship and it felt a bit mean to disallow it.
For the Starviper and E-Wing, because their stats and actions are straight up better than a lot of other ships, we insisted that a pilot must be level five before moving into them, as opposed to level four to access A-Wings, B-Wings and HWK-290s, and that moving into an E-Wing or Starviper would impose a 5 point fee. This means they can have their favourite ships, but it'll take them a bit longer to get all the flashy upgrades to go with them.
We've got another games night this week so hopefully will get two missions in. Maybe we'll get lucky and get a win this time!
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