The 150-point constructed tournament at MegaCon in Orlando turned out very well. We had 15 players sign up -- nearly double of last year’s turn-out.

There was a mix of experienced and new players. And we had a very wide variety of squad types.

++++++++++

The Squads (as they placed):

1 = Fett BH/R2/JWMx2/Lobot (Lando DS)

2 = Luke’s Snowspeeder/Golan/Shaak/2-1B/Uggie Tech x2

3 = Fett BH/Yoda of D/Luke HPU/Juno/R2/Uggie x2

4 = Fett BH/Jango BH/Lando DS/R2/Uggie

5 = Caamasi Noble x4/Rodian Hunt Master/Wicket/Rodian Scoundrel x3/Advance Scout x 4/Nom Anor

6 = Fett BH/Jango BH/Lando DS/R2/Uggie

7 = Zuckuss/Bossk/Lando Clarissian/Dengar/Aurra JH/Quarren Assassin/Battle Droid/Nikto Solider/Uggie

8 = Jango BH/Aurra Sing/Mando Supercommando x2/Bespin Guard x2

9 = Mas/Jabba CL/Chagrian Merc. Cmdr./Gamorrean Thug x5/Tusken Raider Sniper x4/Mustafarian Solider

10 = Jango BH/Mando Commander x2/Mando Solider x2/Ewok Warrior

11 = Dengar BH/Jabba the Hutt/Zuckuss/Greedo/Bossk/Fett Enf./Uggie

12 = Mandalore/Mando Blade Master x3/Mando Warrior/Uggie x3/Human Blaster for Hire

13 = Boushh/Dengar BH/IG-88 BH/ Jango BH

14 = Rodian Hunt Master/Wicket/Leia HC/Weequay Leader/Ewok x12/Ewok Warrior x8/Ithorian Commander

15 = Thrawn/Lando HOT/Imp. Officer/Heavy Stormtrooper x2/Sandtrooper x2/Stormtrooper x4/Probe Droid/Mas

++++++++++

Since I was running the tournament, I didn’t get to sit and watch the games, but here are some highlights:


- Within three minutes of the start of the first round, player #15 quit. He was upset because he was paired against a player with a "power squad" and ended up on the bad end of the Arena map. He complained that he’d brought a "fun squad" and didn’t want to play against people who were playing GenCon-type squads.


- If you noticed, two players had the exact same squad: Jango/Boba/Lando/R2/Uggie. They said they had play tested and figured that squad could defeat the GenCon winning squads (and the Fett/JWM/R2 squad specifically). Since neither placed in the top three, I’d be interested in seeing if this build shows up later or if it’ll be dropped.


- The player with the Nobles got a bye on the first round, but totally hosed the Mandalore squad in round two. The Nobles player blocked hallways and totally prevented the melee squad from approaching. He essentially sat back and popped off the Mandos. Worked like a charm. That time.

Round three he faced the first-place player, who used double-override to lock his Nobles away from the rest of the squad. In round four he faced a Jango team on the Arena map. Flight and Sniper essentially nerfed his entire build.

Overall, an interesting one-trick pony that worked beautifully once, but fell apart against GenCon-esque builds.


- The second-place player was a 16-year-old from my local group. I’ve played against similar squads of his, and I know he’s tough with it. He parked the Golan in Gambit every time, healed Shaak with 2-1B a lot, and Mobiled with the Snowspeeder.

He took down both Jango/Boba squads and had no problem against the Jango/Mando squad. He didn’t do so well when the first-place player based Shaak with both JWMs and Fett took out 2-1B, the Golan and the Snowspeeder.


- One of the coolest things was on the day before the tournament I’d helped a brand-new player learn the game. We sat and constructed him a squad based on the limited figures he had and he ended up taking 7th place.


The Fun and Odd:

Player #11 was dressed in a screen-accurate 300 costume. So, we had a half-naked Spartan playing a Bounty Hunters squad.

A 501st friend of ours stopped by in his Stormtrooper armor, then returned later in his Grievous costume. I took some time while he and his son were there to show his son the game. Junior was all about buying some minis as soon as Dad got out of costume.

Since we were in the Main Hall, we were placed next to the autograph area. Got to see Fat Mamma from “Who Wants to be a Superhero” sign autographs and do photos with fans. Toward the end, they were having a casting call for the series, so there were all sorts of people in strange “hero” costumes milling around.

Cool turn-out! Sounds like you had fun.


This doesn't surprise me. I take it they brought Geonosis as their map as well, from one of your later comments. Somebody who obviously wanted to win pretty bad, lol.


This guy is lucky as it seems like he didn't have to play on Bespin at all, as either the Golan or the SS would've got stuck. That's a gutsy squad to play at 150.


Please....That Thrawn squad would've been able to take out a good number of those other squads. Of course, he really needed to have Piett in there, but he still would have had a decent chance against quite a few of the other squads.


IMO, this will never compete against the top squads we saw at GenCon last year, let alone the new stuff that has come up since. They have no way to deal with an MTB engine for one, and an MTB-based squad will eliminate either Boba or Jango in one round. San Hill will VERY easily get ahead in points at the very beginning, and then shred whoever tries to cross the board to engage. B&B....yeah. This squad would get diced by either a JH or Lord Vader build VERY quickly, as 5 activations is NO WHERE near enough to deal with B&B, even if played by a mediocre player. It's not a bad basis for a squad, but WAY too few activations for 150 points. You're basically banking on getting a Disintegration with that squad, and you'll never gain any gambit points without leaving a major piece exposed.

Yup. Even though all I got to do was watch/judge/plug in results, I enjoyed myself.




Fett/JWM/R2 was using the Death Star map, not the Arena. The Jango/Boba squads brought the Arenas.




Ah, that's the beauty of a tiny little meta. There wasn't a whole lot of map-screwing going on. Huges are "safe" to play. (I wouldn't take them to a constructed tournament...but that didn't stop #2.)




It had potential...but not so much with the player in question. This is the same person who tried to tell everybody before we started that you could only have one Fringe character per squad because "DCI is 'all scenario' play and it says so in the rule book."




I'm thinking they were making a hate-squad specifically for Fett/JWM/R2 and didn't bother testing (or did a poor job of testing) against high-activation armies. Fortunately for them, they didn't run into anybody with San Hill or a MTB. (Another local-meta thing...people I've seen can't seem to get over the idea of "restricting" themselves to one activation and/or killing off their own figs.)

Eh...it's still not too much of a hate squad. Sure, Jango can handle the JWMs without too much trouble, but if the opponent is the least bit competant, neither Jango or Boba BH should get shots off on the JWMs as they advance at least a little ways across the board. Also, if you bring activations in with Lobot instead of Lando DS, then all of a sudden, the Boba/Jango combo is at HUGE activation disadvantage, and the other guy controls the board. Not to mention the fact that a few Ugos here and there could really screw up Jango or Lando being able to take shots at the JWMs.



Hahaha, yeah. It's funny, there's still only a couple folks at our stores that will run San Hill, as it's just not easy to get the hang of it, IMO. And I've gone 2 or 3 weeks undefeated, using a MTB here and there, yet nobody else seems to have picked up on that yet.

Great report!



A sight to see I'm sure!

Thanks for the report!!!

I went to MegaCon in 05 when I still lived in Daytona.

I will be in Orlando on June 14th for Florida States of SWCCG. You should hold another event that weekend. SW Weekends will also be at Disney!!!

Since I'm in the 501st, I'll be in the SWW parades at Studios those weekends. So I won't be able to run any SWM tournaments that month.

Who is running the SWCCG tournament?

John Y from Ocala......we used to have monthly events on OBT when I lived there.

I moved but I think he still has monthly events but I only go to Orlando for States and Regionals.