Greetings to all, my apologies for not getting to this sooner but I guess I’ll take my turn recanting the highlights from my WAMPA matches as they unfolded.
Round 1 – Walking to the table I kept muttering, boy I hope I don’t see Bastila today; as if on queue Josh’s “OR Assassins” were waiting with, Bastila, Atton Jaq, HK-47 and (3) Iggy Jr’s. I packed a Czerka to cover the Bastila eventuality to focus on the first strike power of the Stormie without Weir’s CE. Josh won map choice (Commander’s Office) I chose the inside and was happy with my setup for the shooting lanes and door control triggers. First round Josh began moving his squad up and quickly burned through his activations without triggering ABM, leaving Atton & Lobot exposed just past the outer bulkhead door. As I out activated him I was able to drop the doors and then got my Stormies heated up for action and delivered my Imp Dignitary into gambit. As the attacks ensued, Atton failed his second save after the double/twin hit 3 out of 4 times. Lobot got the twin from my last activated Stormie and IG-86 got the double and then I triggered the extra attack from the Imp Officer. An unexpected (68) points 1st round, pretty much gave me the victory. 1-0
Round 2 – I was matched up against Marcous’s Mace LotLS “BMF on the Hilt” squad. I went with my standard reinforcements for this battle (R7 & four Rodian Brutes) and Marcous won map choice and selected Theed Palace. I elected to go on the left side and was content with my setup options, first round initiative determined and I deferred. Marcus dropped the far side lecture hall door with his first R7 to expose my Uggie & Diggy and moved Rex out with his next to acts to take his shots. Rex killed the Uggie but because he had LoS on my Stormie he couldn’t blast the Diggy. He then locked the door with his other R7 and towed Mace into the Atrium. I moved my Brutes up after my R7 dropped the outside door to the speeder room; first brute opened the door the Atrium and second brute ran up under cover, then I swapped in a Stormie for Brute and began the assault on Windu. Mace endured (6) attacks and was forced to burn all available FP’s on LSR. By the end of the round Mace was down to 60 hp’s, with my Stormie only taking 10 pts of damage. Next round with initiative I piled on Windu at the outset and he went down having no FP’s left to reflect. Mop up was on after that for a (3) pt victory. 2-0
Round 3 – Next up was Eric and his Naboo double death shot “T-Virus Troopers.” As with my first two matches I lost map choice, which in this case worked out in my favor as Eric chose his map (Commander’s Office) and I again went with my standard reinforcements for this battle (R7 & 4 Brutes). I selected the inside and was content with my setup options. Round one acted as positioning, I was able to move up a Brute and swap in my Imp Dig into the turbolift gaining gambit, after deferring initiative to Eric. Eric proceeded to move the bulk of his capital pieces (Queen Amidala, Plo & Panaka) into the command center room; Plo JM was towed into gambit range by Doombot. After checking the card for Panaka, I saw that he was my main objective once I got the chance. In round two and the initiative, I swapped a Brute for Stormie to get my shots on Panaka. Killing Panaka via the help of the accurate shot from Veers was what really enabled me to win the match, as his troopers lost their twin/quad ds attacks. The match was a positional chess game with Eric, as the battle was a grinder for all 60 minutes! There was a minor game mechanics error (mainly forgetful) on both of our parts, which we discovered and corrected with Ian’s adjudication’s. 3-0
Round 4 – If familiarity breeds contempt then my round four match was a prime example, as I faced off with CaptainGig who was using my CIS squad “Iggy & the Stooges” against it creator. For the first time I won map choice which was bittersweet as I actually would have preferred to fight again on Commander’s Office, which was Steve’s map. However I elected to go with Smuggler’s Base with my standard reinforcements and Steve chose the right side for his setup. Round one, I ran my Brutes up to clog the way against the bugs and got my Imp Dig swapped into the command center for gambit. Steve began moving the drones up across the board to get set for the swarm. As with my round three match, this match turned out to be a back and forth affair; wherein positioning within the shooting lanes was key in order for me to nickel and dime the Drone population. The thirty acts in this squad was another advantage as decisions on piece movement chewed up time. Steve’s uncanny ability to repeatedly save his drones from destruction was both annoying and comical at the same time, as Weir blasted several Drones but was only able to bag one kill. The key moments of the skirmish occurred when one of my Stormie’s was able gain a shooting lane and took out the IG-86 from with the command center. After which I then executed a timely swap out of said Stormie for a brute. I guess Steve was prepping to launch Sora for his twin attack run w/Sith Rage, who he had been quietly moving up over the course of two rounds. That swap move froze the forthcoming attack and when time was eventually called I had the two point victory and secured the # 1 seed for the playoffs. 4-0
Semi-final – Well after Eric announced he had to leave, a reshuffling of the 2, 3 & 4 slots was determined and with that I faced off against Darth Malus and his “Mace in Your Face” squad. This match was to be the bloodbath of the day and the match that I nearly lost but I’ll get to that soon enough. Feeling pretty good that I was facing another Doombot/Mace towing extravaganza I elected to choose my map after winning the die roll. Chris elected to setup on the right side protecting Mas and his Chagrian MC in the back. I chose my usual reinforcements and set myself to the task of getting my Stormies in position. First round, same MO on my part, Brutes rush up to outer command center door then swap in Imp Dig for Gambit. Much the same for Chris as he was getting the Doombot ready to deliver the Mace payload with Ahsoka, Rex, Darman, Crumb & Human Bodyguard following behind. Middle of the second round I got a bit too cute with Weir’s placement by moving him up too soon by the Shuttle. I thought Chris was going to go with Doombot and then launch Mace and still I don’t know why he didn’t go for it right there and then. Instead he elected to wade Windu into the command center fray after he finished his squad movements. I recalled Chris debating with himself whether or not to take the gamble as failure would most likely cripple his chances. Presently, I had two Stormie positioned at the entry point to the command center and Windu came in GMA/BMF and mowed Stormie down after a valiant effort with his Shield rolls. However, the worst truly was about to come as Chris announced his attack on Stormie #2, to which my incredulous response was “what attack?” Chris then reminded me of Ahsoka’s commander effect granting the BMF rolling cleave, at which point my eyes became big as saucers! However the real “worst” was about to happen, all of Chris’ attacks with Windu did not yield a single crit with his Vaapad mastery, a trend which continued with his RC opportunity (the turning point). Had he been able to crit me, there is no doubt with only one Stormie left that I would most likely have been defeated. I proceeded to concentrate 12 of the next 14 attacks on Windu and was able to take him out. Round three the carnage continued as I was able to take out the Human Bodyguard and wounded Rex, both of us scored gambit in rounds two & three. As we enter round four Chris pressed by delivering Rex out to take his shots on Weir and he was able to kill him at which point I then proceeded to kill Rex, as a Single shot was all that was required. Also during the round, Crumb & the Doombot were collateral toast as well. However, Ahsoka killed Stormie #2 but eventually the timer went off and when the smoke from the BlasTech’s cleared, the final score was 130 to 80. WHAT A BATTLE, now on to the final!!! 5-0
Final – After nearly 7 hours including break time, it was time for the climactic finish to the day’s events and the battle for the Windu FX lightsaber. My “General Veeirdness” was pitted against Archdeluxe’s “Revan Redux” in the final and for the first time all day I did not enjoy the Master Tactician field advantage. Paul won map choice and selected the Rancor Pit; I chose the right side and brought in my usual reinforcements. I placed a number of my utility pieces including both of my door control (Lobot & R7) within the top right double door room by the cells. My objective was to keep Darth Revan, Slum Lord (props to Steve on that one) away from Mas and Ozzel. The match was a slow plodder in the early rounds, as we both setup in our respective gambit spots and I elected to setup a picket line in the gap with my Brutes and the Diggy in order to get AOO freebies on Revan should he come a calling. Paul looked like he wanted to run Revan in to get at Mas & Ozzel but the problem was I had door control, as he had only one R7, so he had to make do with killing my Uggie instead. Another problem he faced was with Weir, Veers and Thrawn’s positioning at the back would have drawn him into the Stormies cross hairs. Any swap of Maul SI or Kaan and they’d go down like a lead bricks against my shooters, so he had limited swap options. On round two, I made an unforced error by running my Stormie up on Paul’s side of gambit in an attempt to take out Kaan. My problem was I landed the Stormie adjacent to two of his mousies thereby forcing me to waste my double twin on them instead of Kaan but I was able to get Kaan with the extra attacks from the Imp Officer. However my overzealous advance and mistake cost me Stormie #1, as Maul advanced and cut him down before I could get his dog tags off. By round three it seemed to me that Paul’s frustration with my setup was boiling over as he elected to roll up Revan who in turn then whacked & killed a non-point Brute, after which he was forced to swap Gha Nacht in and I then dispatched the Trandosian toadie with a Brute to great delight (WOOT). The next move made by Paul was to advance Kaan up to the picket line, which really surprised me as he had only 10 hps and he certainly was going to go down since he was now out in the open. I took this opportunity to take my shots knowing that if I killed Kaan I’d only lose my Imp Dig on points. My first shot hit Kaan and he used Illusion on the attack from Stormie #2 & succeeded in avoid this attack. However as a result this turned Kaan’s thought bomb into a dud, since Lord Kaan was no MoTF. Rounds four and five saw a lot of piece spinning; I felt during these rounds as if Paul was trying to bait me to go after Revan on his side of the map but having already made one unforced error a second could be ill afforded. During round six Revan ended up killing another Brute and then having to swap in Sidiogram from another gimme 11pts. On round seven, I had gotten Stormie # 2 up and ready to take on Maul in the center of the map as Paul had made his move and was able to get him down to 20 hit pts on his 3 of 4 attacks but the last attack missed. Maul then cut down Stormie #2 and I proceeded to attack with Stormie #3 to finish off Maul, my first shots missed but the third got him and effectively ended the match.
The Empire remained undefeated and the first ever WAMPA STOMPA champ was crowned! 6-0 What a day and what an event!!! Till 2012…. Editorial Comment – It was great to play against seven different squads, although this seemingly is tough to accomplish, once you get to the playoffs most times. Once again, I cannot say enough about the job Ian, Roy and Chris made in conducting this event. IMO this event is the standard on which all other regional events should attempt to equal and be judged against. Cheers gentlemen, you are to be applauded one last time! Hopefully we’ll see many of you at our WNY regional in 2012.
DARPH NADER
_________________ You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll kiss three bucks goodbye...
|