Last night we played 100 points at ACME, and I decided to give the Mandos a try. Somebody else had run a similar squad a few weeks back when I was playing Vong, and while I still won, he didn't play the Mando squad very well. So, I thought he should've had a better chance to beat me, and I figured I might have a decent shot at doing well with them. Plus....who doesn't love to play Mandos??
Anyways, my squad was...
Boba Fett, Merc Commander
Mando Gunslinger x2
Ugo x3
First round, playing against Lackey, who was running Luke's Landspeeder, Rauntaun, Bothan Noble, Leia of CC, R2, and a couple Ugs. He chose Echo Base for his map, so I made him set up first. I won the first init, and lined up a nice hairline LOS to drop a Missles 30 on the Landspeeder, the Bothan and 2 of the Ugs. I think he failed the save for the Speeder and an Ug, but saved the Bothan, which I was most hoping he'd lose. Oh well. I followed up with a Gunslinger killing an Ug, and ended my phase with the Gunslinger basically playing meatshield for Fett. This worked great, since between Evade and a 21 Defense in cover, his Landspeeder had a tough time hitting my Gunslingers, let alone Fett, who he was hardly able to target until the end of the game since I continually kept the Gunslingers up front. I won the key init on the 2nd round and with all the middle doors opened, killed the Bothan and the Rauntaun. From there, clean up started. I swung an Ug around the outside of the bunker to get some safe Gambit points, and utilized some of the doors and such inside the bunker to keep Fett protected. Lackey finally killed one of the Gunslingers, but it wasn't enough. Deflect couldn't save him when I was raining down 6 shots per round, and landed at least 3 crits with the Gunslingers (1 or 2 he altered). Lobo 1-0.
2nd game was against James (FrakkinMando), running Mara Jade Jedi, Garm, Dodonna, and then a Turret and MCTS for Reinforcements. I kept telling him ahead of time that the Turret was the wrong choice, especially with Boba having Penetration. We played on Throne Room, and I got the Throne side of the map. Well, round 2, he got his movement mixed up a small bit, and allowed my Boba to get two shots on an unactivated Mara, and I landed both hits, putting 60 on her. At that point, he started kind of turtling, working to wipe out my Ugs (who were trying to hold gambit), since he had the 5 point lead with the early gambit. Was not really meant to be though, as I won init in a later round, and promptly rolled back-to-back crits on the Turret with Boba. With Penetraion 10 and Cunning, that's 100 damage. Then I turned around and rolled a 19 with one of my gunslingers and killed the Turret. At that point, James knew it was going to come down to an init, so he bum-rushed Boba with Mara. However, I won the init, and killed Mara to end the game (Boba and 2 Gunslingers and near full HP vs. Garm and Dodonna at that point). Lobo 2-0
3rd game was against StriderRe80, and this one I was a bit worried about, especially without any solid init control for myself. He was running Han Scoundrel, Bothan Noble, Leia of CC, R2, Obi Ghost, and a few Ugs. Once again we played on Throne Room and I got the throne side (happened every time I played this map, lol). End of the 2nd round, I advanced Boba into the center room, at an angle where Han would not be able to get any shots on him (Han was hiding towards the very end of the hallway still). I won initiative, and I had set Boba up for just this occasion. I move out 6, and kill the Bothan Noble and R2 with the Double/Cunning. Then my Gunslinger follows up by shooting Leia for 20. Han and Leia each put 20 on Boba that round, but then I won init again the following round, finished off Leia, and then Han failed one of his Evade saves against Boba's Double/Cunning. With Boba hiding around walls, I forced Han to close in. It more or less came down to a couple of inits, and he still had a shot at winning if he had been able to shoot Boba consistently. But I kept using either the Gunslingers or my Ugs to base Han and mess with his ability to target Boba. Eventually, I won an init where a Gunslinger was already based against Han, and Boba was only 4 or 5 squares away, and that sealed the game. Lobo 3-0.
4th game was against Joshua, who is one of the younger kids, and I was impressed that he made it to 2-1 at that point. Of course, he was running a Vong squad that I gave him.
He had 3 Vong JHs, Shaper, Wicket, Caamasi Noble, 2 Ugs. Once again, I had the throne side of the Throne Room. He advanced straight down the center hallway, which I thought was dumb at first, but ended up not being too terrible. With both doors closed at the beginning of the 2nd round, he managed to get his Shaper into a good hiding spot. I did get some Cunning Attacks on one of the JHs though, dropping it to 20 HP on this round. He won init on the following round, and tried to Thud Bug both Boba and a Gunslinger, but they both made their saves (JHs were too far away to attack, as I kept my shooters all at the very back of the throne area). A follow-up JH managed to activate one of the Gunslingers with a Thud Bug, but it didn't matter much, as the gunslingers couldn't do much damage with 10 base vs. Crab Armor 6 anyways (he couldn't target Boba for that Thud Bug, which was lucky). I believe Boba finished off the low HP JH that round. Eventally, knowing there was really only one way to kill me before I killed him, he had to advance the Shaper and Wicket. I won the next init though, and killed the Shaper. From there, it was mostly a game of whittling down the two remaining JHs. Wicket died soon thereafter, and with the JHs needing 8's to hit the Gunslingers, but the Gunslingers only needing 3's when Cunning was in play, it was very much in my favor. Only ended up losing the one Gunslinger and one Ugo. Lobo 4-0.
Our prize support for the night was kind of lousy. Opened 3 boosters and got 2 Deliah's and a Nyna. But had a fun time, and I got to play Mandos, so that was enough for me.
Some other notable squads for the night that people had fun with, though didn't end up on top: Luke HPU, 2 Turrets, and filler. He did decently against a couple of the other people, though struggled against the Vong from what I understand. Also had a Boba BH, Bothan Noble x2, and I can't remember what the last piece was, but it wasn't an Ugnaught, so he struggled with door control a couple times throughout the night. He got a couple Disintegrations, but only against pieces with like 20 hp, lol. He's a slightly newer player, and just got the Boba BH about a week ago, so he's still trying to figure out the best ways to run him. We had 9 people total, so I don't remember exactly what the other squads were.
Was interesting to see a couple people running Leia of CC tonight. Last time we did 100 points, two different people ran Vader Unleashed, Nyna, and Kel Dor BHs, so I know that's why some of the guys ran this Leia last night. Funny enough though, other than Mara Jade, there was no other Stealth being played, so it didn't matter. Funny how local metas can shift that way.
