(I know, lame title
, but oh well!)
I'll start off by saying I had a great time. I know everyone says it but it really was nice to put some faces with the names I see on the boards. It was especially nice to meet Ulic (Drew). He's a great guy and I really enjoyed the conversations we had. As well Sithfan and Curtis (sorry, forgot your screename) invited me to play with them up in Burnaby BC on Saturdays. It might work a little better with my schedule so, hopefully I'll be seeing them again soon!
Shinja (Aaron) did a great job of judging, and running the tournament. There were no real big questions or problems that I saw or heard of, hopefully Shinja felt the same way. There seemed to be a lot of line of site questions, don't know if that's normal or not. So, thank you Aaron, for giving up a weekend of family time and playing yourself to run the tourney for the rest of us. Also, thanks to Theteneyedman, and CherryPenguin (Shinja's wife) for helping Aaron out.
This thing is super long (I doubt anyone will read it all). It's basically a tale of good fun and great competition (and forgetting accurate at the worst time
). Those of you whom I played, the details are fuzzy, sorry if I missed or mixed something up.
And again, it was a pleasure to meet everyone! Overall it was a day well spent!
Well, I ended up in third. Much better than I thought I would end up considering there where some very good players there. After much thought, I played the following squad of my own creation:
--Mando Scout--
57 Boba Fett, Mercenary Commander
21 GenoHaradan Assassin
38 Mandalorian Scout x2
13 Czerka Scientist
10 Jawa Scout
5 Caamasi Noble
6 Ugnaught Demolitionist x2
(150pts. 9 activations)
I brought the Death Star Map. After looking hard at all the available maps I felt this one provided the most opportunity for my squad to hold the center of the map with good covering fire. It worked really well to start off in the hanger, great initial cover and secondary cover if I had to move my whole squad toward the middle.
People at the tourney asked me why the Czerka rather than the Mando Captain? Not only does she affect the GH Assassin and the Jawa Scout but, when thinking what I would face I considered the possibility of Loda and how to bust through his force points. I thought the best way would be to hit him with the double jolt shot from Boba, figuring that most likely my opponent would reflect the shot back spending two force points. Then he would also be forced to make two saves of 11 for each of my shots, one for the reflect and one for the jolt. With MOTF that gave him one chance for a reroll out of four saves. I figured one or two would get through (turns out I was right but, I'll go through that later), and now he's activated. With the Mando Scouts I then can pound at him 4 times a piece with opportunist and chew through some more points.
Why the Caamasi? I used him as a shield for GHA and to gain gambit first round on the Death Star Map. He came in handy a few times later in some of my games providing cover to help with some of my mobile attacks.
Why the Jawa Scout? I love him! With stealth I was able to get him pretty close in most of my games, even getting a couple of spotter shots off, and a shot on the Speeder. He's also a good little scrub killer at plus 6.
And the biggest question of all, why the GHA rather than another Mando Scout? Well, the 20 defense is great but the poison blade with mobile works really well. The way I figured to use him was to park him in gambit and then assassinate
whatever figs my opponent brought to the middle, so loner came into affect for me quite often. The scouts would then just sit back on either side of the hanger door for covering fire, never out of range of my Czerka or Boba.
Round 1: Death Star, from the hanger.
I played Curtis (don't remember his screen name) from BC. He ended up in second place overall. He was running a New Republic squad (Wedge, Jaina, Han Smug, Mara, Doddona, Caamasi and activations?). This match was a barn burner, we both played very careful. He got an angle on my Caamasi, (I didn't think he'd go down that quick but, there are some great angles on that map) and then I got the same shot off with my Jawa to kill his. I went ahead with the gambit lead for a bit. Then he ended up sneaking in through the power coupling chamber with Mara and getting an angle on my Czerka and that ended up being the difference. My biggest mistake in this match was when I won the first initiative I gave him first go even though I would have been able to shoot an Ug who was holding the door open for Mara and Wedge. If I'd have shot him, the door would have closed and locked the other two in the room for another turn at least, and I'd have had the point lead right off. Overall a good first match, and truly a test in patience.
Round 2: Death Star, from the hanger.
This match was against Jack? (I'm bad with names sorry if I mess yours up!) He was running a Caamasi noble swarm with a Kel Dor, Nyna Calixte, and Boba Bounty Hunter and Lobot. I knocked Lobot off with a long shot from Boba in the second or third round, and then knocked a few of his Caamasi's off with the Jawa sneaking around at odd angles. At this point he bum rushed me with everything. I used the GHA to slaughter Nyna with a cunning while still remaining in gambit. He killed my Jawa, then I knocked off his Kel Dor with one of my Scouts. At this point Boba BH was in the hanger with me. He killed the Czerka, so no jolt and no twin. I took some shots and then just backed away from him when time was called. A very interesting squad and fun to play against. Jack was a great guy, and I'd love to play with him again.
Round 3: Mos Eisley? (junk pile) on the right side.
This match was against Darth Massey Sith Lord from Vancouver WA. He's a guy I've been wanting to meet for some time as I've spoken with and read his stuff on the board for a while. Great guy and another great match. He was running Boba Merc, the new Malak, Lobot, and filler; a few Grans, a few ewoks, and a few Ug's. I placed my Boba in a very stupid position and he intuitioned and won some initiatives to get some hits in with his Boba. I was able to knock off an ug and a gran, but neither for points, before I retreated to cover. He ended up putting all of his figs in the room in the top/middle of the map and I got my GHA and Caamasi to the middle. We were even on gambit then I believed he knocked off my Jawa. I made a break for the now locked door on the bottom of the room to blow it with an ug. He won init killed my ug with an ewok, I killed his ewok and had no other support in the area. At this point time was running down, but I stayed patient and worked my other ug and now Boba into a position for a missile attack on the pile in the middle of the room collecting gambit. The problem was I needed Boba to be where my ug had to be to blow the door, and this time his second ewok failed. He ended up killing him, with Boba I think. I ran my GHA to the door on the back side of the room as a decoy, then killed the ewok in the door with a scout. He spread his characters out, but also away from the right hand door. I ran up and had a perfect missile shot on Lobot and a gran. He failed both his saves and time ran out. We were actually both surprised, me pleasantly and him not so much. He said he was setting up shots for the next round rather than thinking about the end of time as I was. That's why he ran everyone away from the door. All he'd of had to do was to run a full health Malak up to the door and I wouldn't have had that shot. Great match, and really a great guy. I hope to meet up with DMSL again!
Round 4: Muunlist, from the conference room side.
I played Mandaloreresurector from Vancouver WA as well. His squad was: Jaded Remix; Han GH, Mara, Wedge, Dodona, 2 Gran Raiders, and 5 Uggos. This was my only match that didn't go to time. He crushed me with activations and then gambit points, not to mention most of my figs. I didn't want to get in a position to be based by Mara, so I gave up on gambit. The other thing that killed me with this squad was Wedge's CE. It kind of sucks when you have a hard time killing a gran because of evade! He bunched Wedge, Han, Mara and a Gran behind the statue in the middle gaining gambit points basically from the second round. I knocked off an ug moved most of my guys out with Boba we traded some hits, I got a missile shot in on Han, and then he moved in with Mara. I actually lasted a couple of rounds, be he took me down. I then dropped Mara with the last of my scouts. I took out the Gran in the middle and I think I got Han, (kind of fuzzy). He dropped the GHA and then that was it. I had 25 points on the board and he had 30 gambit points. I felt very unprepared for that map, especially against that squad. I definitely struggled against the NR Wedge squads. Very fun match though, would love to play it again and be a little more aggressive.
At this point I was told by Shinja that the 2-2 people were on the bubble for going into the knock out round. I ended up being the eighth seed. So, of course I drew the number one seed Slie.
Slie was playing a Loda squad with Leia, Lando DS, Dodonna, a bodyguard and a bunch of Ugs. We played on the Deathstar map and again had the hanger side. I jumped out and grabbed gambit with my Caamasi and GHA. He sat in the left corner of the map until the third round before moving up. I pushed the rest of my force up in the second round to their secondary position. Instead of holding the wall line inside the hanger, I was now holding the next wall towards the middle. He brought all three of his main figs right to the middle within reach of my GHA. I won initiative, and mulled over what to do. This was the exact reason I brought the Czerka with Boba, to chew through force points and jolt Loda. I was considering taking an accurate shot at Leia but then told myself to stick with the plan. (I'm a little fuzzy on the details here so bare with me). I hit with my first shot, he reflected, it failed, he rerolled and it landed. I missed my save and took ten, he made his jolt save. The next attack hit, and he reflected again, he made the save and I made mine. He then failed the jolt save, couldn't reroll and was activated. I then pounded him with the scouts, GHA and the Jawa. He took some damage, passed some to the bodyguard and then we went to the next round. At the beginning of the round he had at least 12 force points, by the end he was down to one or two. He did take out my Jawa with Lando this round. He won initiative and moved Loda up to knock of the Czerka. I took a chance and made a missile attack on Lando, who was adjacent to Leia and the bodyguard. Lando failed, he had the BG take the damage, and the BG was gone. Leia failed, but made her reroll. I then moved up with the GHA to Lando, and hit with the cunning poison blade and he failed his save, so Lando was dead. I got some more damage in on Loda with the Scouts as he was still down to 1 or two force points. We all ended up in the middle by the GHA during the next round. He killed the GHA, and a scout. All I had was one chance with Boba to land both of his hits (Loda had 40 HP left and 3FP). I moved adjacent and needed a 7 to hit. My first roll hit, he reflected it failed, he rerolled it failed again and he took the damage. No more force points, I roll my last attack and rolled a 7. That was maybe 30 seconds short of time and we each had a few activations. With my gambit lead I won. A great game, really can't say enough about how much fun that was. Especially when I had thought out that exact scenario and my plan actually worked!
The semifinal was against the eventual champion, Robin. He was playing with Flea's Speedy cannon and I won map and chose the Deathstar. I started in the hanger again. I went out to my normal position in gambit in hopes of luring the speeder out. He came out and found a spot to shoot at an Ug and killed him. The problem he had was once he was out, I was able to hit him. I got him with a shot from Boba the next round so he was down to 60 damage left. We played cat and mouse for awhile, I got a shot on the speeder with the Jawa, so now he's down to 40 left. Then he decided to bum rush the GHA with the speeder and Leia. He won init. killed the GHA and moved the speeder to the hallway by the jail cells. I killed Leia with one of the scouts and then he was trying to figure out how to avoid me getting a shot on the speeder. So he opened the door and had a full health Han come out saying that would force me to shoot Han instead of the speeder because now he's the closest enemy in cover. I said, "What a great move. Man, that was really smart!" and took my remaining, including Boba's, shots at Han. He won init., moved the speeder in and locked the door, moved Han up further after killing my Jawa, and I couldn't hit him for the life of me. That was time and he won. Shinja walked by and looked a little surprised when I said he won, then I explained what happened to Sithfan (great guy, by the way) and he looked at me puzzled and said, "Accurate?"
In every tourney I've ever been in, I've always forgotten an ability at least once. Surely I could have hit for 40 damage with my Boba and my remaining Scout with Opportunist! Robin said he felt like he cheated me but, I assured him it was all my fault. Stupid mistake at the worst possible time but, oh well!
So, Robin ended up beating Curtis (the first guy I played) in the final. I was half watching the match, but more interested in talking and trading figs.
For my troubles I won an Anakin on Stap without a stat card. It's on a nice wooden trophy base and is hand painted with a little bit of fake turf and rock on the base. It really is pretty cool looking. I figure I'll wait until the set comes out and see if WOTC will send/sell me a card. I was also awarded three KOTOR boosters and pulled an Obi and a Draay. I needed the Draay and traded the Obi for a Young Krayt Dragon.
The tournament was really fun, and there were some great players there. Hopefully we can do this again next year!
