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Short preface before I get to the tournament results. About a month ago I traded for a brand new Luke and Yoda, but could never find a way to use him effectively. He was just a novelty item that was fun to play. But then we had a couple of threads in this forum on his viability in tournament play, and I threw in my two cents and said without support he's weak, though what support he needed I wasn't sure. Well, thanks to you guys in the community, a few you brought up some very good uses of him (billiv15, adder, fool, and others I can’t think of) and pointed out precisely the support that he needs to be effective. So I toyed around with a few of them, especially the ones mentioned in the 100 point forum. I ended up being very pleased with the squad of Luke and Yoda with Princess Leia in 100 point format. I threw in 3 ugnaughts for activations instead of the bodyguard, and away I went.
First opponent:
Han, Scoundrel
Obi-wan, FS
Princess Leia
Some forgettable fringe support
Standard 100 point Han Cannon, and the #2 player in the state. We played on his map, the destroyed base. I set up inside. I took my time making my way to the turbolifts to gain gambit, forcing him to come to me, and picking up as many force points as I could. He ventured a tad too far, and I took the AoOs running up 12 to his Han. 40 damage twin, Leia ran up, 50 damage twin. Dead Han Cannon and game. Not sure if he didn't expect the 12 space twin attack or what, but clearly an error on his part. He told me it didn't matter anyways as I would have tracked him down reflecting the whole way. I wasn't complaining. 1-0.
Second Opponent
Exar Kun
Ugnaught x5
Self explanatory build. I won my map (Cloud City) and side (inside). I used my uggies to get into gambit on the first turn and waited for him to come to me. He was playing pretty timid the whole time, aware of what Loda could do. At one point he got to the door to the gambit room but without blowing the door. I force pushed him back, killing his uggy and putting 30 on Exar. When he finally did get inside I put some hurt on him. He won one initiative in base contact with Loda, but I negated his sith rage (he didn't want to waste the force points trying to Sith Sorcery me) and he did his 60 damage (I wouldn’t have let him essence out). I killed him on the ensuing attack. 2-0.
Third Opponent
Bacara
Sev x2
Scorch
Elite Clone x2
Uggies
100 point Super-stealth. He won map on his starship, but I won side, taking the good side. I advanced all my figures into the corner to gain gambit and force him to come to me. This frustrated him a tad and he made his way slowly to the gambit while setting up peripheral shooters to get some line of sight on my figs. He ventured a little too close with his Scorch and I nailed him, retreating back into the corner afterwards. With the big points lead now, he had to extend to do some damage. When he ventured close enough, I felt safe exposing Loda to take out his clones. After killing all but Bacara, I won on points. 3-0.
Fourth Opponent
Boba Fett, Mercenary
Storm Commando x2
Probe Droid
Interesting squad, kind of a mini swiss army knife without guaranteed initiative. I was a little surprised he was also 3-0 but I assumed he played on his map a lot, which was the Death Star. The nice open gambit area with those shooters would have been killer. But luckily for me, I won map and side, taking the inside of Cloud City again. Once again, I advanced into gambit on turn 1, and moved the rest of my team in on the subsequent round. He made great use of intuition to take a shot, but I reflected it back. When his Boba Fett retreated, but stayed in range, and I felt comfortable with my force points, I ran out, and using Leia, put 90 damage on Boba Fett. I won the critical next turn initiative (beating both his recon rolls) and killed Boba Fett. The Storm Commandos quickly followed suit. The only damage he did to me the entire game was the self-destruct from the probe droid. 4-0 and the tournament.
So there you go. Thanks to everyone who threw their two cents in and proving once again what a useful tool this forum and SWM community is. I’d like to tell you guys that I had a tough match-up to see how Loda stacks up against an adverse build, but to be honest nobody was prepared for Loda being used this day. At my LGS, I think everyone chalked him up to only being viable in 200 point, and some of the better players shared my opinion that he just couldn’t do enough damage. But given the right support, he is a beast. I think Loda took a total of 80 damage the entire tournament and that was from Exar winning initiative and a late game shot I didn’t care about. Not only that, but stun was almost rendered useless because I was doing so much damage, nobody lived to have the stun make any difference. I’d like to use him in 150 point soon, but I expect people at the store have a little more respect for Loda and will be more prepared next time. So again, thank you all, and I hope this was informative for you.
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