Imperial list // Rebel list // VASSAL file

Today we’ve got a bad case of either infanticide or fratricide. But which will it be? Rexler, Wedge, and Sabine have been wiped from the board, netting each player 101 points. Believe it or not the game is a tie so far! There are 15 minutes left in the match. Both pilots are full on force, Vader has not expended a single Afterburners charge, while Luke has open S-foils, 1 Proton Torp charge, and 1 R2 Astromech charge. Both players have already managed to grab locks on one another. It’s a battle of force and wits.

Solution to last puzzle: Fun Condition

Solution



A reasonable amount of discussion on this one. Certainly more can be said to exhaust all the scenarios this puzzle presents, but the solution below covers what is probably the most likely scenario to see in this position.

So first up it should be noted that if the ships go for a draw, Vader is rolling 2 dice while while Luke is rolling 3 dice in a final salvo. So if Vader chooses to run for 15 minutes (theoretically possible), he’s in for slightly worse odds on the final salvo. Both ships need to do 3 damage to each other for half-points, but since Vader costs 93 points and Luke costs 89, it is not sufficient for the Imperial player to trade half-pointed ships here. So the question becomes: which ship is in the better position now?

Forum user Yearfire was the first to point out that

Closing the S-foils and boosting into a k-turn with Luke covers most of Vader’s options with the last proton.

This is correct. Note that barrel rolling left or right followed by a k-turn leaves Luke in a position where Vader can super-BR left or right and 1 straight, bumping into Luke leaving Luke stressed and Vader behind him. Not a great spot!

Yearfire continues:

The BR+3-turn should get Vader out of arc if he guesses the right k-turn (at least with Afterburners), and maybe range if he goes the wrong way. But if Luke does anything else than the k-turn, it’s a bad move. If Vader had more time I would dial in the 5-straight, but as is the 3-turn left would be my move.

Yearfire is correct here: It doesn’t matter whether Vader dials in a 3-hard left or right, the result will clear arc and range of either boost/BR of Luke’s. If Vader guessed the same direction as Luke, an unstressed Vader is now likely to catch Luke’s tail next round with a 3-Tallon!

Reddit user u/Elr3d was close to this with his suggestion!

I would have Vader dial a 3-bank.

Alas, a 3-bank after a Super-BR will catch an arc if you move towards the center of the map or catch a rock if you move to the outside!

It also works fine for the Vader player to dial in a 5-straight. This will put Vader out of range of both 4-k positions after a Super-BR forward and an Afterburners boost! However, this leaves Luke in a nice position to catch Vader in a wider arc next round for a Proton shot!

In the final analysis, as the Luke player I would probably be doing the boost > 4-k, and as the Vader player I would be 3-turning. But the puzzle is sort of intentionally very complex. What if the players are able to head-sim out this scenario and bring the game to a whole new level?