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Starship Battles Preview 6Techno Union Starfighter and Utapaun Starfighter | ||||
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Starting this month, you'll be able to recreate your favorite Star Wars space battles and dream up new skirmishes of your own with the Star Wars Miniatures Starship Battles game. Choose your allegiance (Light Side or Dark Side), build your fleet, and conquer the galaxy -- or defend it! Today, we've got the last in a series of previews of the new miniatures. In this final sneak peek, Sterling Hershey and Gary Sarli give some little-seen ships their due in a head-to-head contest between Light Side and Dark Side starfighters. Techno Union Starfighter
This starfighter was built to Techno Union specs in hidden (and unwanted) factories on Utapau and other CIS-controlled worlds. It is usually piloted by a standard B1 Battledroid and doesn't normally include standard life support systems. The ship is small, lightly armed, and inexpensive to produce. It performs acceptably in space combat, but it excels as an atmospheric interceptor. The starfighter is a good match for one of its primary opponents, the Utapaun P-38. (For more details on the ship, check out the book Revenge of the Sith: Incredible Cross Sections. In the Star Wars Miniatures Starship Battles game, the Techno Union Starfighter is also a light, inexpensive starfighter. In fact, at a cost of only 2 points, it's the least expensive ship in the game. At a minimum, the Dark Side player can add it to his fleet simply as a way of spending his last few points. However, while the Techo Union Starfighter is cheap, it's not worthless. The ship's Defense rivals that of several more expensive fighters. Its Laser Cannon is less accurate than similar weapons found on heavier fighters, but the Damage it deals is still lethal to opposing Class 4 ships. Star Wars Miniatures Statistics Preview Faction: Dark Side FULL STRENGTH REDUCED STRENGTH Star Wars Roleplaying Game Statistics Feethan Ottraw Scalable Assemblies Mankvim-814 Light Interceptor (aka Techno Union Starfighter) Class: Starfighter Weapon: Twin laser cannon; Fire Arc: Front; Attack Bonus: +6 (+2 size, +0 crew, +4 fire control) or +2/+2 (+2 size, +0 crew, +4 fire control, –4 multifire); Damage: 2d10 x 2; Max Range: Short. Utapaun P-38 Starfighter
The P-38's superior sensor suite grants a +2 equipment bonus on all Computer Use checks made to operate the sensors. In addition, its jammer is specifically tuned to interfere with droid sensors, confusing their maneuvering heuristics and granting an additional +2 bonus on attacks against droid-piloted starships such as the Droid Starfighter or the Tri-fighter. When the Separatists occupied Utapau during the Clone Wars, Port Administrator Tion Medon ordered the militia to hide its starfighter forces (including squadrons of P-38s) in the sinkholes and caves that dot the surface of the planet. After the arrival of General Kenobi, these starfighters were readied to aid the Republic in liberating the planet from Grievous and his droids. In the Star Wars Miniatures Starship Battles game, the Utapaun P-38 Starfighter is a cheap way to add a fighter to your fleet. In fact, compared to almost any other fighter in the game, its only real advantage is its low cost. Thus, you can afford of lot of them if you want to create starfighter screens to slow down enemy attacks, and almost any fleet can afford a P-38 or two as "filler" for its last few points. Still, the P-38 has one notable advantage against a particular type of opponent: If the enemy fleet makes use of droid fighters, the P-38 will chew through them fairly effectively. In this way, the starfighters can help to nullify the greatest asset of the Vulture Droids. Those ships might be Infinite, but the P-38 will keep them from staying on the board for long, forcing your opponent to spend a round re-launching his Vultures instead of maneuvering to engage your fighters or assault your capital ships. Star Wars Miniatures Statistics Preview Faction: Light Side FULL STRENGTH REDUCED STRENGTH Star Wars Roleplaying Game Statistics Utapaun Porax-38 Starfighter Class: Starfighter Weapon: Laser cannons (2 fire-linked); Fire Arc: Front; Attack Bonus: +8 (+2 size, +2 crew, +4 fire control); Damage: 5d10 x 2; Max Range: Short. About the AuthorsGary M. Sarli is a freelance writer and editor whose credits include the Saga Edition Rulebook and Ultimate Adversaries (Star Wars Roleplaying Game), and Power of Faerūn and Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells (Dungeons & Dragons). He also moderates on the Wizards.COMmunity message boards as WizO the Hutt, cheerfully feeding Code of Conduct violators to the Sarlacc. Gary recently opened GMSarli Games, an online retailer specializing in non-random miniatures packs designed for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Sterling Hershey has been a full-time architect and freelance game designer for over 10 years. He authored and contributed to many of West End Games' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game products and later contributed to Star Wars Gamer Magazine. These days, he writes regular Star Wars Miniatures scenarios for the Wizards of the Coast website, and he also wrote the Scenario Book for the recently released Attack on Endor Scenario Pack. Gaming in a galaxy far, far away is the focus of his starwars.com blog, Delusions of Grandeur. Sterling lives in the Midwest with his wife, Mary. | ||||
Star Wars products often include characters and vehicles that aren't central to the main storyline. The Techno Union Starfighter doesn't fall into that category because it can clearly be seen in the Battle over Utap -- no, wait, that blur was the P-38. No matter, because it had a pivotal role in Episode III's opening battle scene. Didn't it? Well, there are dozens of ships in those shots, so one of them might be the Techno Union Starfighter. In any case, lesser-known ships and characters add depth to the Star Wars universe, and their roles are often expanded by subsequent books, comics, games, and other publications.
Built by Buuper Torsckil Abbey Devices (a manufacturer native to Utapau), the Porax-38 fighter has good sensor and jamming capabilities, robust shield generators, a limited hyperdrive allowing it to carry out raids against nearby systems, and twin laser cannons. Its cockpit is designed to hold the Utai natives (such as the varactyl wranglers seen in Revenge of the Sith) rather than the taller Pau'an who rule that planet. As such, Humans and other Medium-size characters would have to modify the ship to be able to use it, but Small characters (such as Ewoks or Jawas) find the fighter very comfortable.
