Epic Star Wars Battles – Battle of Yavin
by Trent McCrow

The Star Wars Trading Card Game is just that; a game. Sometimes it is easy to forget the “G” in SWTCG and we tend to focus our deck building and play style of the SWTCG on winning at all costs! Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with building decks to win, in fact I encourage you to do your best in this endeavor, but it is also important to have fun while playing the game. Even though I get great pleasure when I successfully build a deck that consistently wins, I get even more joy out of playing the game with my friends and by recreating some of the Epic Battles that took place in the Star Wars Universe!

What I’d like to do today is take a look at one of those Epic Battles, show you how you can recreate some of the best moments from the movies and play them with your TCG cards. What I have always liked about the SWTCG is the fact that you can fight in all three arena’s Space, Ground and Character and the TCG also provides Missions and Battles for your units to complete as well as Equipment to fight with and Locations to do the fighting! The SWTCG is set up perfectly to reenact the Movies and I’ll do my best to help you “Play, Love, Live the SWTCG!”

The Battle of Yavin took place mostly in Space and there wasn’t much involvement (in actual battle) by personal and units on the ground. Both decks focus on the Space arena with supporting units in Character and Ground. So here are the decks:

	Battle of Yavin - Light Side
	1x Biggs Darklighter (A) 1x Chewbacca (C) 1x Garven Dreis (A) 1x General Dodonna (A) 1x Han Solo (B) 1x Jek Porkins (A) 1x Jon 'Dutch' Vander (A) 3x Luke Skywalker (E) 1x Princess Leia (D) 1x R2-D2 (D) 2x Rebel Pilot 1x Tiree (A) 1x Wedge Antilles (A)		2x Planetary Defense Turret 4x Rebel Control Post 4x Rebel Defense Team 2x Yavin 4 Hangar Base		1x Luke's X-Wing (A) 1x Luke's X-wing (B) 1x Luke’s X-Wing (D) 1x Luke’s X-Wing (E) 1x Millennium Falcon (C) 2x X-wing Attack Formation 2x X-Wing Escort 1x X-wing Red One 1x X-wing Red Squadron 1x X-wing Red Ten 1x X-wing Red Three 1x X-wing Red Two 1x Y-wing Gold Squadron 1x Y-wing Gold Two
	2x Astromech Assistance 2x Blow This Thing 2x Death Star Plans 2x Stabilize Deflectors 2x Starfighter's End 2x Synchronized Assault		2x Deflectors Activated 2x Plan of Attack 1x Second Wave		1x Yavin Base
	4x Targeting Computer				Totals: 16 Character 12 Ground 16 Space 12 Battle 5 Mission 1 Location 4 Equipment 66 Total Cards

	Battle of Yavin - Dark Side
	1x Darth Vader (D) 2x Death Star Trooper 2x Death Star Turbolaser Gunner 3x Grand Moff Tarkin (B) 2x TIE Fighter Elite Pilot 2x TIE Fighter Pilot		3x Death Star Cannon Tower 4x Death Star Guard Squad 1x Death Star Hangar Bay 3x Death Star Turbolaser Tower 4x Imperial Control Station		3x Death Star (A) 1x Death Star (B) 1x Death Star (C) 3x TIE Fighter DS-55-6 4x TIE Fighter DS-61-9 2x TIE Fighter Escort 1x Vader's TIE Fighter (A) 1x Vader's TIE Fighter (B) 1x Vader’s TIE Fighter (C)
	3x Blast It! 1x Blaster Barrage 1x Countermeasures 2x Han's Evasion 1x Heavy Fire Zone 2x Retreat Underground 2x Pilot's Dodge 2x Vader's Fury 1x Vader's Leadership		1x Take the Initiative 2x Tarkin Doctrine		1x Death Star Control Room
					Totals: 12 Character 15 Ground 17 Space 15 Battle 3 Mission 1 Location 0 Equipment 63 Total Cards

Download these decks and other deck articles for LackeyCCG here.

OK, so now that you have the decks, it is time to start the Epic Battle. For these Epic Battles you can just play the game as usual or you could go with the following fixed setup and then continue to play as normal. I suggest you try the fixed set up and see if your game mirrors what happens in the Battle of Yavin. You might be surprised to find that the Death Star survives and crushes the Rebellion!

Once you have the Fixed Setup sorted, then shuffle your decks. The Light Side player gets 25 build points and the Dark Side player gets 30 build points. Continue the Setup phase as norma.

The above fixed setups are designed to make sure the major players are in the game and to ensure that the recreation of the Battle of Yavin is as accurate as possible. This idea originally came from Matt Hyra in his WOTC article "Great Battles in Star Wars History". Enjoy and“Play, Love, Live the SWTCG!”