200 Point in Abington, MA
I wanted to play a 200 pt B&B but with an different twist. For some reason, I really wanted to try out Veers, Hologram so I plugged him into the place normally reserved for my Lando, Dashing Scoundrel. I also tossed in a Felucian Stormtrooper Commander for the added Defense, and away I went (I’ll try to keep this short).

My Squad:

Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter 75
Grand Admiral Thrawn 37
Mas Amedda 8
General Veers, Hologram 17
Felucian Stormtrooper Commander 16
Stormtrooper x6 30
Raxus Prime Trooper x2 10
Ugnaught Demolitionist x2 6

Map: Invisible Hand
Total: 199


First Opponent:

A kid using Boba Fett, Apprentice Redeemed, Princess Leia, and a whole bunch of Rebel Troopers with a Verpine Tech. Some filler (R2, Quarrens, Uggies, Camaasi, etc.). Strategy was something like activate people using the Verpine ability with the troopers and then slam them with the Apprentice, Boba, and Leia. I wasn’t too worried.

I won map, and he won side taking the left on the Invisible Hand. I wanted the right anyways. I got a trooper with Veers to the throne in the throne room, and blew both doors using an ugnaught swap by the beginning of turn two. I had noticed that he kept all his troopers together with Leia as they marched down the main hall. With both doors open, I didn’t want him to break up his squad. Well, he took the bait, leading with Boba and the Apprentice and leaving everybody else as is. I unleashed Fire Support Mission, killing 8 figures. Swap, swap, swap, game. Game lasted 10 minutes and there wasn’t much strategy, so not much more worth mentioning. 1-0.


Second Opponent:

Standard 200 point Broken Boba squad with Boba BH, 3x JWM, Amidala, Lando, Sev, R2, and Ugnaught.

I won map and side and took the same side as the first game. I utilized the same set up and strategy, blowing both doors, and setting up Veers for an early FSM. Of course, this opponent wasn’t going to keep his figures together like the last, but just the threat of the attack from Veers was enough for him to play differently. He couldn’t get to my commanders in the far right hallways so resorted to trying to kill activations. He extended into the central gambit room, trying to stay out of LOS. His Boba needed a 15 to hit my troopers, so he would move forward and try to flamethrow any who got too close, using a JWM as a meat shield. I swapped in and killed the JWM, and then set my sights on how to get rid of Boba. At the same time he extended himself around the side with the rest of his squad. Eventually, I got a Raxus Prime in to base Boba (he hadn’t accounted for Wall climber when he positioned him) and killed him on the next round. Still, a lot of my troopers had gone down, much to my own carelessness.

With him extending what remained of his force around the side, AWAY from my Veers-empowered troopers, and into the heart of my commanders, I noticed he had kept them within two of one another. I ran a trooper to the end of the hall to get a line of sight (which he was careful to avoid). The next round, I won the auto-init, empowered a trooper, and SWAPPED him to the other position. He realized what I was doing and tried to get a JWM there to stop him, but couldn’t reach, so he just moved what he could and hoped for the best. Fire Support Missin: Amidala – FAILED save, JWM – FAILED save, Sev – FAILED Save. Three saves, all fails. Horrible luck. Not only that, but the JWM couldn’t re-roll his save since my trooper was within 6 of Thrawn. With his squad all but decimated, it was up to Vader to easily sweep up the pieces. 2-0.


Third Opponent:

Best player in the state, and the only person to regularly beat me at my LGS. He was playing standard Lord Vader B&B, with Lando, a Storm Commando, and Lobot, and brought in some really funky stuff with the reserves, including an Amanin Scout for some really cool 18 square wall-climbing swap. Was going to be an interesting chess match, where neither of us could bet on auto-initiative.

We had the same map, and I got the same side AGAIN. And once again, I set up the same way, with a 27 defense trooper on the throne, and Veers behind him. Both doors were blown open within a few turns and I had line of sight to a lot of his fodder. The best part about Veers hologram is it’s a guaranteed 10 damage regardless of cover. If you can see them, and they have 10 HP, they are dead, regardless of making the save. And so he did his best to advance his swap fodder out of line of sight, but I was still able to pick them off one at a time. For this game, rather than be the aggressor, I stayed back and let him come to me, picking off as many swap figures as I could. The result was a mismatch in activations, which I quickly had the upper hand. He was gaining gambit points, while I was gaining them the old fashioned way. When time was getting late (we had a lot of activations to chew through, so the game was running very long) he gave me an ultimatum. It was between his advancing Amanin Scout (coming around for my commanders) or Lord Vader himself, coming through the other way. My choices were to take out the Amanin before he swapped Lord Vader and do some serious damage to Thrawn and/or Mas (in this case, his Lord Vader would have run unchecked against my troopers), or attack his Lord Vader, swap some damage, and let his Amanin get into the home base. I had to take out the Amanin with a Vader swap. It was the safe option. So I did, but instead of attacking the troopers like I thought he would, he Force lept over my wall of troopers to get into position to attack Thrawn next turn. It was at this point I realized it was a desperation move. I had killed most of his fodder and there were only a few minutes left. He had to do some catastrophic damage to make up the point difference or it was over. His target was Thrawn, and he had to win initiative and hope for a crit to win.

He did win initiative, and used Force leap and Sith Rage outside the force bubble, before moving in, but he didn’t get the crit. Just 60 damage. He swapped out for Mas Amedda, hoping I’d ignore him for the tantalizing morsel of Lando hanging out nearby, but I knew Mas's cunning would have killed Thrawn with an 11 or higher, and I didn’t take the bait. I killed his Mas and activated out to end the round. I won on points by a landslide. 3-0 and the tournament.

Afterwards my opponent told me 3 things had killed him. 1) The Felucian is nasty. The only person he had that was capable of hitting my troopers was Lord Vader, and he couldn’t get close enough without the threat of a counter swap (worth noting I’ve been using the Felucian in my B&B builds since it came out. Just gives so much more staying power to the fodder). 2) I played defensively, and made him come to me, giving me opportunity to take out any advancing swap fodder (I learned too many hard lessons about playing aggressively towards this player. 3) Veers, Hologram. He is an automatic swap killer. He actually had Grans (with stealth) in cover, but it didn’t matter. They die all the same with FSM. Nasty, nasty, nasty. The threat of the 60 alone is enough to shake people, especially when the trooper in question has great line of sight and a 27 defense (nevermind the ability to be swapped to where he can do the most damage).

So there you go. Obviously, the final game was far more intricate than I present it here. People compare SWM to a big game of chess sometimes, and that final game certainly was, with neither player wanting to give up the middle ground and both checking each other at every more. The difference maker, as I said, was surprisingly, Veers Hologram and my ability to swap tagged troopers. I initially put him in for fun and just for a fear factor, but I had no idea how devastating he could be. Especially with the ability to swap a tagged trooper into position to unleash a surprise FSM, or just a simple auto-kill on an opposing weak piece. Combined with the Felucian, I could auto kill his troopers, while he couldn't even hit mine.

So for anybody debating the usefulness of the clear blue guy, use this review as a testament to at least one person who found him incredibly useful in a DCI tournament. I was pleasantly surprised.

Congrats on beating the number 1 player in your state! Yeah, the Veers Hologram is definitely very useful, works great against swarms. Makes it even harder for the opponent to space out their pieces.

Looks like you have a pretty lively play group. Care to send a few up to Maine for me? I haven't used the holoVeers yet, but I am looking forward to breaking him out this weekend at the LGS

Nicely done! I used Veers Hologram in a 200 pt Opportunist Troopers squad back in December and did exceptionally well with it. Keeping the FSM-boosted Trooper under Thrawn's Ysalimiri bubble is key.

For what it's worth, Lord Vader can't use Leap/Rage outside the bubble like you said your opponent did. Leap is fine, but Rage has to be used when the attacks are declared. It works just the same as the difference between Han Stormtrooper's CE and the Ithorian's CE. If an Aqualish Assassin tries to attack Juno Eclipse, he can run in from 12 squares out, because you check for Han ST's CE at the beginning of the turn. But it wouldn't get the +4/+10 bonus from the Ithorian, because you check for that when you actually make the attack. Rage works the same way. You have to actually spend the Force Point for Rage when you make the attacks. You can't 'store' it. Like I said, doesn't make a difference, since you won anyways, but might be good to mention to your opponent for the future.

Thanks for the tip Lobo. I just looked it up on the FAQs and you are indeed correct. Funny thing is, I think I'm the one that told him he could do that. Well at least it didn't matter or I would have kicked myself.