2/10/08 – 150 point tournament; Abington, MAThere are lots of good players at my store, however I’ve always felt many of the “meta” squads that are seen at Gencon and such aren’t seen as often as you would expect. Broken Boba is extremely common, a spattering of Black & Blue, and some super-stealth are about as complicated as they get. Don’t get me wrong, in the hands of good players they are anything but easy to deal with, but I just never saw some squads that I thought would be a staple at 150.
So, a few weeks ago, I sold out and decided to play San Hill, thinking I’d be doing everyone a favor. I decided to go with a very common version, as you’ll see below (and ended up with Lando, DS as my reinforcements every time). I also decided to play on Mustafar, since I had never seen it used at my store and thought it would throw them for a loop. On my map, the plan was to kill a piece, and hide to force them to come at me. They couldn’t get gambit without getting killed, and couldn’t charge me without getting killed. Cheap, but effective. I’d also like to point out this tactic is quite poignant taking into consideration the recent talk on the definition of stalling and if the gambit system is flawed (more on that at the end).
I think I'm a pretty good player, but had never played San competitively, and I certainly know how tough it is to play. So I went in thinking this might be hard. That may have been a little short-sighted. Here we go:
My squad:San Hill 10
Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter 62
Aurra Sing, Jedi Hunter 41
Lobot 27
Lando, Dashing Scoundrel (rein.) 0
Ugnaught Demolitionist x3 9
Map: Mustafar
Total: 149
First Opponent:Boba Fett 50
Vader’s Apprentice, Redeemed 48
Princess Leia 20
R2-D2 8
Wookiee Freedom Fighter 14
Mon Calamari Medic 8
Map: Cloud City?
Total: 148
Hmm… well he might have had an ugnaught also thrown in there as well that put him over the build total. I can’t remember. Oh well. So this was a local kid, who’s not too bad. I won map and side for my first match-up which was a good start. I took the right hand side of Mustafar, which meant he was immediately pinned down on the lower left. So I activated San and my uggies until he was activated out, predictably hiding in the lower left room. I opened the door he was hiding behind with Lobot, killed the WFF, and hurt the Apprentice. However, I goofed on Lobot’s placement, and when I lost initiative, he force pushed Aurra out of the way and shot Lobot with Leia to killed him. Bad rookie San Hill mistake by me, and one I wouldn’t make again. So I went back into hiding. Hoping he would come after me. He did, and I proceeded to dismantle him piece by piece. The kid said the combination of San with that map was an almost impossible combo to beat. I just smiled, leaving no hint of how dominant San Hill squads are in the world at large. 1-0.
Second Opponent:Jedi Weapon Master x2 50*
Clone Commander Bacara 23
Clone Commando Sev x2 30*
Clone Commando Fixer 15*
R2, Astromech 9
Queen Amidala (* = rapport) 16
Ugnaught Demolitionist x2 6
Map: Ruined Base
Total: 149
Very good player. He was playing Jedi Weapon Masters with some super-stealth thrown in. I knew I HAD to win map for this one. Not much for super-stealth to hide behind on Mustafar. Luckily for me, I won map AND side, and took the same set up as before. Now, even though this guy is a good player, I still felt the need to explain to him San Hill, and he said he knew how he worked. So he activated out, staying as well hidden as he could behind a door which he kept locked with R2. However, one of his line of sights wasn’t quite what he thought it was, and using Lobot and Boba, I narrowly picked off his R2. He blamed San Hill’s activating for his premature placement, but I’d like to think it was just good placement by me.
So now that I had a 9 point head start on him, I put the ball in his court. I jumped back and hid where he couldn’t get to me. He stayed put as well, not advancing to get gambit (which would kill him) or trying to attack me (which would kill him). He even had some super-stealth in line of sight, which of course I couldn’t target. So for 3 rounds, neither of us moved, and he realized with time ticking, he couldn’t win unless he killed some of my fodder to make up for the points. He cautiously moved his super-stealth around to try and get a shot (which he couldn’t).
Finally, he made the mistake I was waiting for, placing one of his Sevs in a position that I could maneuver around (through the top rooms) and shoot him without cover. Lobot opened a door, Aurra jumped out, and killed him. Now I had a much bigger points lead that no amount of fodder killing would make up. Coupled with the fact neither of us moved for like 4 or 5 rounds, time was running very short. He had to run at me and kill a big piece, or lose. The first weapon master died before he even made it all the way across the board, and what few pieces he got into gambit died soon afterwards. Time ran out, without me losing a single piece. Crappy way to win, but that was the plan. I still felt dirty. 2-0.
Third Opponent:Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter 62
Vader’s Apprentice, Redeemed 48
Lando, Dashing Scoundrel 18
2-1B 17
Ugnaught Demolitionist 3
Map: Starship (hardback)
Total: 148
Ok, this was a little kid who did me a favor. He had never seen my map before, so when he won map roll, he chose mine (with a little persuasion by me pointing out he could force push me into lava, which, lets face it, is an irresistible notion to kids and adults alike). Then, when he won side, he chose the bad one, loving the fact he could set up on the isolated island with Boba Fett. Cool.
So we played and I ended up killing his Lando and Boba Fett somewhat early. I also put a lot of damage on his apprentice, but due to my Boba rolling a 1 against 2-1B, he had plenty of time to retreat, hide, and heal up completely. So he stayed in one room and hid and didn’t come out since he knew he would die if he stuck his head out. Of course, I passed every single time. Finally, he says that this game is dumb because it’s going to be a draw, and I tell him that I have a points lead, and so I just have to stay put and I’ll win when time runs out. He looks at me and says “you’re not really going to do that are you?” and I look right back at him and say “yup.” So he says that stupid and unfair and concedes. I’m evil. Poor kid. 3-0.
Fourth Opponent:Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter 62
Jedi Weapon Master x2 52
R2-D2, Astromech Droid 9
Lando Calrissian, Dashing Scoundrel 18
Ugnaught Demolitionist (x3) 9
Map: Cloud City
Total: 150
Ok, here we go with a real game. Broken Boba being played by a good player. Of course we were both undefeated going into this last game. For those of you at Gencon 07, this matchup should look completely uninspired, and it was. With him having the door and wall heavy Cloud City map, and with the ridiculous staying power of the weapon masters, I thought that I would have to win map to have a chance. We rolled. I lost. We rolled for side. I lost. Crap. Of all times for the rolls to go against me, this was not it. Still, I figured I am still a good player, and San Hill is my friend. I also remembered my mantra that if you go into a match expecting to lose, you will. So I decided I was going to just straight out-play him and win.
So I’m on the platform side, with everybody hidden in the far room behind closed doors. We roll initiative and I roll a 1, getting reserves. This is good. I bring in a bodyguard droid to protect the masses. I wait until he activates out, and for the second time today, used Lobot to open the door he was behind, and pop R2 on the first turn. Gotta love the mistakes. Now I have door control and a points lead. I hit one of his JWM a few times and then retreat.
Now the second round was interesting. He saw the mistake he made in leaving R2 and one of his weapon masters in the line of fire, and withdrew into the gambit room where I couldn’t see him. I would have to come out to shoot him. So after he shot at my Lobot (who was saved by my new bodyguard droid) I decided to withdraw Lobot in case I needed him for later, and kill everything I could see, which were his ugnaughts. That would give me complete door control over him, but with him at 20 gambit points, I still had to make the big move.
So I decided to suck it up and do something I hadn’t done all day: be aggressive. I used my activation control to advance on his position at the end of a round, and put Aurra Sing and Lando in striking distance of his weapon masters. At this point, he realized his Boba was a target and retreated him into one of the hallways for safety. He ended up winning initiative the next round and putting a lot of damage on Aurra Sing, but Aurra Sing, Jedi Hunter is a beast. She moved between both his weapon masters and did blaster barrage. Twin attacks on both for 30 damage each. Include his missed blocks and one JWM went down, while the other was seriously hurt. My Lando finished him off.
After some messing around trying to shoot his Boba and Lando (both of which kept making every single evade save), I finally got it down to my whole squad vs. his full health Boba Fett. It was hard, because the only person who was close to him was Aurra Sing and she barely had any life left, while nobody else had any clear shots at him. So I decided Aurra would die anyways and I just attacked anyways and pinned him down next to the central turbolifts. Now, my opponent had been careful to avoid being too aggressive, but he was being a little too timid now. He decided to attack Aurra, and then withdraw into the neighboring turbolift for safety against my advancing shooters. Inside the turbolift, he would gain gambit points, and even though I killed a lot of his pieces, he might be able to pull off a victory on points alone unless I kill him.
Then I saw it. I added up the victory points to make sure I would win and saw that I would. I looked at my opponent and said, “Sorry, man, I just won” and he looked at me confused. I blew the hallway door (that Lobot had locked shut) with an ugnaught, giving me line of sight to the turbolift. I then moved Lobot 12 squares into the wide open and overrided a new door: the turbolift. His full-health Boba Fett Bounty Hunter was locked away indefinitely. Boom goes the dynamite. 4-0. Tournament over.
Post Tournament Thoughts:Ok, a few things here. Nobody at my LGS had really seen San Hill, and no one had played on that map. It wasn’t even a contest. Nobody knew what to do. Second, everybody made mistakes against this squad, and every big mistake won me the game. Even when I did make mistakes myself, I adapted and made up for them quickly.
Now, how do I feel about San Hill? Well, it works. It’s cheap, somewhat difficult to play, and not really that much fun. The only fun in it is that it is challenging to play, which for me, is fun. You can’t sleep walk your way to a victory like Broken Boba. Every person I played got aggravated with my tactics. They couldn’t get gambit on the open map, and they couldn’t cross the board. I win on points. Even when I didn’t win map, the fact I went last every round killed my opponent. It didn’t matter where he went, he couldn’t hide. In my defense I thought I played it pretty well, though by no means masterfully.
As for the tactics themselves, this game told me a lot of things that I found quite poignant regarding the stalling and gambit topics that were being discussed recently (as well as which maps should be legal). Those threads might be a better place to address this, but I can use this game in point to address my feeling better. First off, squads that are slow to play aren’t really stalling. You have to go out of your way to slow down the game beyond the what logic would say it should take. San Hill and swarm squads certainly slow down the game, but I would not consider it a “stall squad” since you actually need that time to run them. Second, changing the gambit rules or point system to induce confrontation only works if gambit actually means something. In this game, on mustafar (or any open map for that matter), it didn’t matter. If you can’t gain gambit safely, there is no point getting it at all. And at that point, killing a single piece and retreating to safety is the same type of tactics that induced gambit rules in the first place, being 1 override short of the “kill-one-figure-and-lock-yourself-in-a-room-until-time-is-called” tactic. Until I myself used this tactic, I didn’t realize how unfair some of the open maps are. Though I wouldn’t call for them to be banned quite yet, they certainly, for the time being, swing the advantage hugely to a shoot-and-hide squad.
So there’s my 2 week old, long-winded recap about using a squad the rest of you are far too familiar with. But hopefully it is of interest to see how someone who is new to it used San Hill and an obscure map effectively against an LGS that was not familiar with either. Now I’m going to go take a hot shower to wash the guilt off my soul.
