Well I'll try to post more about this regional tomorrow but I will definetly say it was the best one I've attended. More details after some sleep.

Tim Ballard wins another regional in Kokomo, this time over Graham in a match of two really top-notch players. Was a really great event with players from all over the place. Kudos to everyone from Atlanta, Tennessee, and New York for travelling such a long way and adding a lot of real skill and fun to the entire weekend (Friday tile wars as well). Les will have to break down each team and player if he has that information but there were people from: New York, Chicago, Central or Southern Illinois, Northern Indiana, Central Indiana, Southern Indiana, Atlanta, and Tennessee - sorry if I forgot anyone.

I was 4-1 with 10 points playing the Cantina Map and O/R pilot/jedi squad. I had in it: Bastila, Carth, Atton 'Jaq' Rand, O/R Senator, 3 x mouse droids, 1 ugnaught demo, Klatoonian Captain, Jedi Battlemaster, and a Jedi Diplomat. I had been playtesting this squad for a while in the leadup to the regional and had found a lot of success with it with the rotating piece being the Jedi Diplomat (whom I decided to play minutes before leaving and having never used that piece before...a bit risky). I have used in that slot 3 x Chadra Fan pilots, another Battlemaster, Dash (I can't hit enough with), and a Jedi Shadow. I missed the Shadow the most with the ability to take out doors if necessary as I more than once had to use Atton to open doors because I had lost the ugnaught previously.

GAME 1 (Cantina Map) was against Peter and a fine double bubble ysilimiri (spelling?) squad with 2 Zann Consortium Defilers Tyber Zahn, Ozzel, etc. It was a grind as we both had to be careful and I was always worried as he outactivated me with his base squad and even more so because of Ozzel. Not being to reroll misses or evades from his players inside the bubble(s) was new to me and made it especially difficult. A real low-scoring game that I finally won when he needed to kill at least a 20+ cost piece and I swooped in a full health Battlemaster to deflect or eat up any final damage he might have done. I killed like a Defiler a bit more I can't remember had 5 or 6 rounds of gambit. He killed the ugnaught, 2 or maybe all my mouse droids, and at least one lower cost piece. It was like 60-50 (forgive me on the actual total) and I went to 1-0 with 2 points.

GAME 2 (Ruined Base) was against an Illinois player whose name I have forgotten who also finished 4-1 later with his only loss coming to me in this game. He was using an evading, tempo, cunning, levitating, han shooter Rebel squad. Like the Ozzel squad I really hate playing Dodonna and being badly outactivated. This was a fun little game however as Bastila greatly shuts down what the Rebels can do and they are effectively in total caution and self-preservation mode when her ABM is going. He had 11 mouse droids (thanks to some with Lobot) and used them as a wall for most of the game until I could get them out of the way with Lightsaber sweeps and mutiple attacks to clear the way. Having almost killed Han early, he levitated him out of the way and to the rear and I had to begin hacking my way through the mouse droids. I actually had Atton badly hurt in the early going and simply moved him into the gambit safe place on the lift and I could GM double out and back with speed 8 when needed. I fought with the Diplomat, Battlemaster, Carth, and even the Klatoonian Captain in the latter half of the game. In the last portion of the game he was using Deena Shan to disrupt and so I could not get off the Senator's free attack for anyone which I knew would cause me to get a 2 point win. He really tried in the last round to get off a last ditch effort to kill Atton, but I had two well placed mouse droids he had to base and he could not get to Atton. No matter, I scored like 130 points killing Han, Rieken, Lobot, ERC, and had 5 or 6 rounds of gambit and went to 2-0 with 4 points.

GAME 3 (Ruined Base) against Lou's O/R squad. He really didn't have shooters other than Atton, but this "mirror match" against another O/R squad was not close unfortunately for me. It was positioning early and by outactivating Lou I saw a chance to deal some nice damage his Atton with Carth at the end of I think round 2. I charged in to his room full Jedi but was more than willing to trade Carth for his Atton as I feel Atton can deal more later and I would still have him left with the rest of my squad and he would have no shooters then. After dropping 40 on Atton, we went to initiative and he won it and killed my Carth. I almost never pin my hopes on a won initiative and this will serve to remind me why that is so, if I won it I would have killed Atton (he might have avoided defeat) and failing that the game greatly swung to Lou. Then I pressed to kill his shooter and others but he had the advantage. When I finally killed Atton I think on a reroll he managed to avoid defeat. He slowly progressed and actually killed most if not everyone as I came out to fight and not stop the inevitable. Lou wins a lopsided 3 point game. I am now 2-1 with 4 points.

GAME 4 (Throne Room) against Daniel's Han, Leia, Dodonna, and Chewie to bodyguard squad. Going into the regional I had not playtested against any tempo control squads since there had not been a lot I had noticed being played in other regionals. This was 3 such squads in my first four games. To compound my difficulty, I picked the side of the map that Daniel hoped I would setting him up on his preferred side and placement. He gets off a shot on Atton early before Atton had went in round 1 and dropped 30 dmg. on him making me very nervous about his future prospects. I was on the right side of the map and Daniel had huge shooting alleys to work. I moved under cover room to room until I finally got in the center gambit room and moved in the Battlemaster, Atton, Carth, and the Diplomat. It was a dance as Daniel killed the ugnaught before he could blow the main door facing to the left and down the long hall. In this way Daniel could use Lobot hidden at the end of the long hall to lock the door after he'd done his business. This was a really fun game with a lot happening all game and made really interesting after Graham (who finished his game ultra fast) came over and said he'd give me $20 if I beat Daniel. Well, the game was back and forth with Daniel missing many many shots needing like 4's I think on Atton I believe (could've be Carth but he might have been dead then...not sure) and me trying to kill Han who couldn't evade thanks to ABM while he sent the damage to Chewie and a Human Bodyguard adjacent to him. Let me tell you it was hard work to stay alive and deal out 160 HP of damage that was eaten up by them. Finally I think he would have killed Atton but I made the evade thanks to a reroll. I then tracked down a retreating Han and Leia before heading after Lobot and Dodonna. A 3 point win for me to go to 3-1 with 7 points. I gladly took Graham's $20 Daniel bounty and then gave $10 back to Graham in appreciation for them driving so far to play in the regional...thanks for the ice cream funded by Graham it was extra nice and free!

GAME 5 (Grand Plaza) against Jake and his Yobuck, Pananka, Rex, R2, and Windu squad. I had played this map before against almost the same squad and new how I wanted to position to protect the Senator and others from getting decimated on a gallop and subsequent swap in of Mace. I was on the right side of the map and in the lower hand protected corner. I had Jake outactivated and new I could set up free Senator shots after his moves had ceased. He gallops in half way to take out a mouse I had opening a door at the lower right shutting the door. No gambit the entire game by the way until the last 2 rounds. I move around again the next round and open and blow the same door with an ugnaught and drop some damage from afar with Atton on Yoda. I pull apart my shooters near my protected grouping of Jedi and Senator anticipating the gallop and swap. He gallops and swaps taking his 2 activations and basing Atton. I do some big damage on him and then give a free attack to Atton doing even more. He kills Atton but is at least at 1/2 health or less and I use ABM to prevent him from leaving if I lose initiative. I pull up the Battlemaster and Diplomat (still with diplomat on since they have done nothing) next to Mace. He does some damage to the Battlemaster and I finish him with the Jedi and Carth. All this time Jake is trying to get Rex into the fight and when he finally arrives I have Carth blocked by a mouse droid. Jake has hurt Bastila a great deal and but after killing Yoda she is still alive. After Jake goes after Bastila after winning initiative with Yoda, I know I can kill him with Carth's speed 8 and cunning which drops him as he had a bit of damage from the round earlier with the Klatoonian Captain hitting from long range. Jake kills Bastila with a Rodian the next round and I have Carth, Captain, and both Jedi left against Mas, and Panaka. Jake is classy as always and runs to the fight to get the game over. 3 points for me to go to 4-1 with 10 points.

I love how your squad worked and played Wacoblaze. Also just an FYI your second round opponent is named Shawn.

My day at the regional went extremely well. My squad for the day..

Map: Rhen Var
1x Jaina Solo, Sword of the Jedi
1x Han Solo, Galatic Hero
1x R2/CP30, Galatic Hero
1x General Wedge Antilles
1x Leia Skywalker, Jedi Knight
1x Luke Force Spirit
2x Uggie
1x R7

I tend to love tank squad so the goal here was to get as many save rolls as possible. Also I was trying to go against the current trend of commander heavy squads.

My first round was a tough one right from the start. I got the eventual winner of the tournament Tim. Thankfully I won the map. The first turn was rather uneventful as we worked our way towards gambit. However turn two Tim saw an opportunity to set up an effective and quick win situation by offing my door control with his Arica and Cad Bane. I missed the evade rolls and found myself without door control. Winning the next init, I found myself in a very tough decision. Do I send in Jaina and R2/C3PO so I could use Leia's commander effect or send in both my attackers? Well I made the wrong choice sending in Jaina and R2 instead of Jaina and Han. I managed to put 60 on Cad but he followed up by killing both Jaina and R2/3PO. I conceded the match at that point since I was pretty well beat.

Round 2 I played another player from Chicago. I liked how his squad was set up to build it right on the spot with Lobot, Zann and Palleon. He also interestingly had it built around Zann Defilers. In this match I was able to get to Gambit first and get rooted in. That really created a nice situation for myself since everyone had Mobile attack at least and I could pop in and out of gambit attacking any in coming attackers. This game was my first chance to really show how good Greater Mobile and Master speed really is.

Next was Lunch. I would say that was a pretty good round LOL. We all went to a really nice local Mexican resturaunt. I'm honestly not normally a Mexican fan but with everyone else going there why should I be different right? Once there the ambiance was great. It also turned out my Seafood Pancho Salad was also amazing. It was a salad consisting of Lettuce, Tomato, cheese, shrimp, fake crab (cod) and scallops. Just a pile of seafood on cheese... Doesn't get much better then that in food LOL.

Alright well 1-1, very well fed and feeling really positive going into round 3. However that bubble was burst a bit when they called my pairing out. I got Jake. To make it worse, he was play Yobuck and CritDu. Now as odd as this sounds I never have played against Yobuck ever. So I was bit unsure how to handle the situation. I was praying that I won the map since Rhen Var would have slowed him down significantly. That wasn't so and we were playing on Muun Palace. I took the side with the room and for the first round spread out my pieces as much as possible. With Leia's commander effect I have to kinda keep her close to either Han or Jaina and as I worked her close to Han, Jake saw his chance to strike. Next think I know Leia, Wedge and after some missed saved rolls Jaina. Yeah... I lost that one LOL.

Things were feeling pretty bleak as I sat down for round 4. It didn't get any better when Randy put out Handmaidens backed by Bastilla. I have had enough problem with these things when I played Bastilla... I won map thankfully and this I felt gave me a shot at winning with the ability to keep the shooters within my Mobile attack range. This match I decided to play my squad a bit like Mace in the Face.. Go attack, attack some more and not fuss over my commander effects. The next goal was to try to kill off any Handmaidens that haven't activated if I got a chance. After five rounds or so I had a heavily beat up Jaina and Han and I had just Atris and Bastilla. I still had my R7 so I played a door locking game with them to rack up gambit pts in an attempt to only make me have to defeat Bastilla since I didn't think with my current situation I could take them both out. It turns out I was right since Bastilla had a lot of force pts built up for Lightsaber Defense. I won the match with 11 rounds and 45pts of Gambit.

Going into Round 5 I really thought I had caught lightning in a bottle and was lucky to be even in my record. The next round I got a gentleman named Jack from Ohio and low and behold he pulled out the exact same squad as Randy.. To make it worse he won map so we were playing on my much hated Throne Room map. The round before I heard Daniel refer to the side of the Throne room map with the Throne the killing fields so I set up my squad on the other side inside of the large room. Round 1 and two I hugged the walls first being inside of the large room then on my side of Gambit. Round 3 I decided to take the same approach as I did last game and just run in and attack. Once again it was an even worse beat up Jaina and Han (Both at ten hp remaining) vs Bastilla and Atris. Same approach again I lock them out until they manage to get in, then try to drop Bastilla since she had the lower defense. This game had the nearly the same result as round 4. Dropping Bastilla with 45 gambit pts for the win.

9th place, 9 pts.

This Regional also had a lot of really cool side prizes. Because of the last two games I tied for first on rounds played (36) and took the most rounds of gambit (27).

I think if I played this squad again I would make two changes. Leia and C3PO/R2 would come out for Ganner and Talon Karrde.

The other really funny story of this event was based on the Tusken Chief. I have a friend who more often then not thinks far outside of the box. As a joke Shawn Cunningham and I bet him that if he built a squad around a figure of mine and Shawn's choosing and finished in the top half of the standings we would pay him back his tournament admission. Well as you will see in results he did it finishing just under me at tenth, and for icing on the cake he got the prize for most rounds at 35 since I had already got the gambit win.

First regional for me this year was a blast!! Can't wait for Danville in a few weeks. So without further ado, I shall start getting down to business. 

My squad: 

--Corran and Cad(4th Place Kokomo Regionals, 2012)--
60 Corran Horn, Jedi Master
54 Cad Bane
27 Lobot
22 R2-D2 and C-3PO, Galactic Heroes
18 Klatooinian Captain
9 General Dodonna
3 Mouse Droid
6 Ugnaught Demolitionist x2

(199pts. 9 activations)
My Map: Throne room. 

Round 1- 
opponent: John M. 
Squad: Imperial Troopers with insane defense. 
I won map roll. 

His squad was imperial 501st with crazy Def in cover with all their bonuses. I immediately noticed he didn't have any Thrawn or Palleon in his squad. He had Vader Imp Com to boost the troopers defense even without cover. I quickly sent Corran, TBSV, an Ugo, and the Klatoo into gambit behind the wall so his troops couldn't get to me. It was basically a game of cat and mouse while he slowly advanced with his troops for a few rounds(while keeping them in cover) Cad Bane had not hit any of his attacks because he needed 20s. Once they all got close enough, I unleashed my Corran and R2PO towards his troops. Corran took out 2 and damaged 1 trooper, making his remaining troopers lose Squad Firepower. Cad was then able to kill a disrupted trooper finally. He then moved Vader adjacent to Corran, which pretty much sealed the deal since after I finished off Vader with Corran and my Twilek. After that it was easy clean up. 3 point win. 

Round 2- 
Opponent: Bronson, 
Squad: Lord Vader Swap.
We both had the same map. 

This I won completely due to mistakes made by Bronson, however I was able to pull off a nice 12 square run with GMA and Triple to give Vader a nice 90 damage from Corran. It came down to a showdown between Vader and Corran, after he had already killed my Cad and I killed his Palleon. Vader based Corran and LS assaulted, I Force absorbed this and then finished off the remaining hit points of Lord Vader. Bronson then conceded. I had Corran with 60 left, and everyone else at full(except for dead Cad and Uggie) 3 point win

Round 3-
Opponent: Graham 
Squad: IG-86s with twin and extra defense from HK.
I won map.

Yikes. This was a bad match up. At first you might not think so because of all the evade I have, however HK-47 having disruptive really was the game changer here. I eventually realized that I had to move Corran in to actually do something instead of sit there and be blasted. Graham was smart enough to take out my disruptive first then blast away at Corran. Corran quickly went down with the rest of my squad, ending in 
his IG-86s starting a witch hunt after my Cad Bane. Loss, 2-1. Even though it wa a loss Graham made it a really enjoyable game!  

Round 4-
Opponent: Jack(forgot his last name) 
Squad: Echanis with Bastila and Atris.
I won map roll. 

At first glance I thought my shot at the final 4 was gone considering I lost to a variant of this squad many times. Within the first round he opened up doors with his 2 Astro Droids and was able to hit Corran with an Echani, and miss my Twilek with his Greedo BH. The TBSV and my Cad Bane were able to finish them off and run into cover, which was huge! I kept most of my guys behind walls and moved them into the room with gambit. I wasn't afraid of losin Cad cause of stealth. As soon as he moved 2 Echanis closer to gambit I ran Corran out to beat on them, and bodyguarded some of the damage. Next round Bastila was out of force points so no ABM, I was able to move and finish off the last of the Echanis leaving only his Briana, Atris, and Bastila at full with my Corran down to 80, everything else at full (except I lost R2PO to the Echanis the earlier round)
I had forgotten briana could shoot so she was able to get Corran down to 60, I then advanced the rest of my squad while Corran killed off Briana(however she was able to get him down to 30) 
I locked Bastila and Atris in the room at the end of the round. Beginning of the round I won init and went first spinning Dodanna. After he activated both Atris and Bastila I opened up the door and blasted away with Cad, the Klatoo, the TBSV, and ran Corran in to put 90 on Atris. He then won init and smacked Corran with Bastila to take him down to 10 hit points left. I then finished off Bastila and Atris with Cad and Corran defeating his entire squad with my only loss being R2PO, a mouse, and an Ugo. 3 pt win.

Round 5-
Opponent: Tim B
Squad: Stealth N' Blue(and Palleon too!) 
We both had the same map.

Due to the Swiss rounds I got paired up against Tim(who was undefeated) Another bad match up, that combined with playing against one of the best players in the world made it almost impossible. The game started and immediately when down hill, he was able to get shots off on all my guys, except Cad, killing diff everything except the Klatoo, a mouse, the Twilek, and Corran. It was pretty much game over after he went in for the 2nd round of shooting killing the Klatoo with Arica, and then finishing off everything(including my Cad Bane this time) only leaving my TBSV left. Tim had kept himself out of gambit the whole game, which I thought was weird at first, but then I realized what he was doing. At the beginning of the game I jokingly said to Tim "hey if you let me win we'll still both make it to the finals!" I never thought he'd actually consider it. He then explained his reasons why. By keeping me in he then had a good match up in the top 4 which he knew he could beat. The game ended when he moved all this pieces slowly around gambit towards my TBSV and giving him free AoOs. After a few "rounds" his whole squad was defeated except an R7. He then locked us both apart to make it a 2 pt "victory" for me. Tim later then won the whole thing, so I guess winning isn't always the best strategy sometimes Thanks again to Tim B! Great guy and amazing player! Hope you enjoyed the mountain dew  

Top 4:
Round 1- 
Graham...again haha. 

Well like last time this was really hard game for me. I played more cautious and was actually able to kill a few mice and grunts in his squad. However when it came down to it I still had to make a move with Corran. 
I was proud of myself for getting more points then last time even though I still lost. That disruptive really was a game changer for that match up! Graham player everything super well, and placed his mice flawlessly! again a really fun game even though I lost! 

Ended my day taking 4th place, with 2 trophies(4th and one of the  Head hunters) and the Tie Pilot Helmet! 

Super fun day, great experience as always. Great to see everyone there, I can't wait to see some of you again in Danville! Thanks for the warm welcome back into the game, thanks to all the prizes donated by the mapmakers and Eric, they're awesome. And thanks of coarse to the Kokomo guys for hosting an amazing tournament!  

To the Danville crew:
Meet again, soon we will...

Good Afternoon,

Well that was a great tourney lots of great people and lots of great games.

I ended up playing rebel commandos. I jokingly named it A.D.D Rebels because on the ride up to kokomo the whole car was joking about how the squad was doing two different things; rebel c anon and rebel commandos. They said that it was fitting since I have a hard time keeping my mind on track.
Squad list for A.D.D Rebels
General Dodonna-9
General Rieekan-14
General Crix Madine-16
Deena Shan-12
Han Solo, Smuggler-27
Luke Skywalker, Rebel Commando-27
Princess Leia-20
Elite Rebel Commando x2-16
Lobot-27
Mouse Droid x5-3
Map: Broken Base
Game plan for the squad double disruptive to really help screw things up a bit, with triple override to help preserve the squad from deep striking squads, leia to of course reactivate anyone she sees fit, and of course Luke so I can throw Han or ERC where ever I see fit.
Lobot of course just for answers, each of the squad reviews will have everything that he brought in.

Round 1-Amanda-Mando death shot w/ self destruct- Map-Bothan Spy Net
Amanda was a very fun match, I had a lot of fun playing against her. She won map so I set up on the side with the decoding lab and tactical surveillance centre. I moved Crix, a mouse, Han, Luke, and an erc to the door in the tacticall centre while moving an ERC, leia, deeana and a mouse down the long command centre moving to the door . On that same round she had moved her 7 point death shot guys down the hall across from the detention block. Having pre vizla in the detention block as well as jaster in that area as well. She had the twin captain and one of the 7 pointers in the other hall right in front of the erc and leia. I don’t remember who won the roll for initiative however this round jaster came out into the open and do to everything else having cloaked and being unable to target them, mouse droid opened the door to the command center hall way allowing a shot to be taken by leia on a cloaked guy the reactivated Han shot for 50, the following initative I shot for 30 with an ERC and killed jaster that same round the twin captain fell aswell, erc ran got a shot for 10 Leia shot hit for 20 reactivated erc and shot for 20 killing him, then the following round I had moved han and luke out into gambit were her 7 pointers were located at chopped them down pre vizla moved up but some damage on han, however then the following initiave pre put more on and han then finished him off with 40 then leia reactivating him and shooting again for 50. In the midst of everything one of her deathshot raidersrolled a 1 and went to my side as well. During this match Lobot brought in figrin D’an and a wicket, now that I think of it im not completely sure why I brought in wicket however figrin was defiantly a winner during that match he made 7 save rolls thanks to evade and draw fire.

Round 2-Mike- OR pilots
I won the map roll and we ended up on broken base, his squad had bastilla, atton, carth, jbm, and jedi diplomat. Lobot brought in 6 mouse droids, I thought if I could stall him with mice walls while abm goes on then I should be fine, well once again I got the oustside of the map which was fine I went in through the hole in the wall and tried holding up in the and also in the hall, I believe that it is atton with door control im not real good with OR, but I ended up putting about 70 on him and then he held him in gambit and with greater mobile attack he was able to pop out and shoot or stand far enough back and open door if was needed. He ended up killing off Han so I was unable to accurate shot his door control off and moved diplomat and JBM up into the frey of things, I tried postponing the inevitable by thwoing mouse droids in the way of them but that didn’t work he ended up throwing diplomat into them and and wiped out a lot and it was bad news on my half. I don’t remember all of it however came down to time and I was unable to take anything else out he had great placement on his mouse droids and made it were I was just out of reach, I was short to many points not enough time and bottom line mike played a damn good game.

Round 3- Jon-Imperial March
I won he map roll on this one, mainly due to the fact that he was unaware of bringing your own map. But he took the inside room which was a great choice for his squad he was aiming on having is 501st stortroopers having over 30 defense in cover. Practically impossible for my ERC’s to hit and really only leaving han as the main shooter. Jon was a great guy and I enjoyed playing with him however unfortaintly the game did not go good he had no forms of door gimmick, override, or uggies. I stood back popped off shots when I was able to killing something here and something there, he then realized that I would be able to lock and shoot the entire game and just piece his entire army off slowly but surely. He conceded but it was a good game and a great guy. Lobot brought in 6 mouse droids so I could garuntee to out activate him.
Round 4-Chris Elwell- Tusken Raiders with Arica and thrawn- Peaceful City
Chris won the map roll on this one we ended up setting up and it seems as if it doesn’t matter if we are at home or somewhere else the rulebooks get thrown on the table. Thing I can say for elwell is he can always seem to make the weirdest stuff work regardless on how obscure it is. That is why we gave him the bet we wanted to see what he could do put on the spot. First round of initiative was pretty slow with just moving forward I did drop one tusken in the first round thanks to being able to throw Han about. The next round was pretty intense he started to move his tuskens up in to my face and I had to bring out my disruptive, it started to slow him down a lot, he had lost his cunning attack and his other pluses to hit. However he still managed to break things down. But then he ended finally when he had an opening he swapped a tusken who was just out of range of disruptive and brought arica in for a good round of blaster barrage, taking out quite a few mouse droids, and me make a couple of evade save, he had put damage on quite some people. I returned fire and ended up hitting for 40 with Han. He won initative thanks to master tactician and went to town, he let me go first I tried with ERC to get to arica but couldn’t get to her. He swapped out and couple more tuskens dropped and some of my guys went down as well. Next initiative I went and got to arica killing her off, after a couple more initiatives chris had realized that it was a loosing battle and just concieded. Chris and I have been friends for a long time and seems that regardless on the game me and him bring the a game when we sit against each other. Thanks man for a great game. Lobot brought in Treadwell for the tuskens with stealth and arica and 3 mouse droids

Round 5- Gerry- storm commandos
I met Gerry in Lansing, great guy and great game. He had lost the map roll and we ended up on broken base, he took the inside of the building. He set up his guys all very well, at first he had nina for super stealth in there, as he had that I was was sitting there thinking how am I going to get a round ss, this match is going to suck. Well he droped her out and brought in a storm commando instead, he said that he would have better chance to put more damage on my guys instead. Lobot brought in against him Treadwell and figrin d’an. The game was a very intense game he had broughten in rodian brutes and salacious crumb for reserves as well of his lobot. During the game I was able to pop out hit a couple rodians and I was thinking I am in the clear because by 30 mins in all that had been killed was 2-3 brutes and my mouse droid. I forgot brutes didn’t count for points, however I had been in gambit one turn earlier than him, because he was going to swap someone into gambit on his side however in the first round I had set up to take a shot with han and reactivate han with leia off on general weirs. He had to use is swap to get him out of the line of fire. Well by the time that the round was called and round was told to be finish, Gerry had moved his guys as far over being a wall and out of the big room, he looked at me and said well boss I think it is all done and he would have one by 3 points because the only figure that had dropped was a mouse droid, well, I looked at him and said not yet im killing a commando before were done, he didn’t see it and I had out activated him still so I had left one override, luke, han, leia and a mouse droid, I opened the door with ERC, ran mouse down the hall moved luke 6 squares through han the other 6 ran the full amount to open the door which was withing 6 squares of the mouse droid reactivated han with leia and hit the already hurt commando with 50 damage being unable to shields off enough damage the final score was lkike 3-4 gambits and a mouse to 3-4 gambits and a commando. This game was intense all the way to the end, Gerry great game you kept me on my toes the entire time. Thanks

Top 4
Round 1-Tim Ballard-Thrawn swap with arica and cad-Thone room
Well this match can be summed up very quickly and very painfully, I believe the word is call a massacre. Yeah that is fitting enough. It was bad news, arica did a great job doing what she does and cad being clean yep good game. I did drop arica and I think that was it, but yeah tim great job man at another regional win.

Round 2- Wes-Corran and Cad
I won the map roll and ended up on the outside again, he set up with most of his guys next to the inside of the wall in the big room. I knew that the previous round cad ate me alive, and was not looking forward to corran with his absorb energy ability at all, so I did what I knew would be best without compromising my squad to a complete loss, I went for a lock out. He had moved most of his guys out the door on the side of the big room of to the area with the wall and the door, leaving his two ugnaughts in the big room. I of course locked the door he was close enough to get into and ran luke up threw han up and into the big room with a mouse droid within 6 squares, I shot the first ugnaught and reactivated him with leia killing the other one. I had won the initiative retreated han back far enough and hid, and locked the doors yet again, he had lobot and dodonna on the opposite side of where his main squad was located. That round without any blood shed and with me in gambit. The following turn he activated his characters and moved lobot one square ahead of dodonna, I reopened the door and ran luke throw han and ran a mouse droid and reactivated han with leia killing lobot. Leaving lobot in the open with corran horn, cad bane, and momaw behind the far corner. In my head I thought this is going to suck I migh have just sacrificed han to the dogs (cad). Well he had won initiative and instead of moving cad out three squares and shooting him with 4 shots he moved momaw to the door way and went to town with war throat killing 2 mouse droids I retreated han and locked door. Unfortainaly that was the end of tha match, I knew cad could school my shooters with no problem, and corran is a beast. So I locked him out for the rest of the match winning because of the drop of lobot. Wes you are a good player man and it was a good game, I would be stupid to say that I wasn’t scared of your squad, because I was I knew you could do a number to me real quick.
But thanks for the experience guys it was great, I came out in third place winning the star wars old republic game, also won the most 20 rolled in the tournament, and won the best custom. All in all it was a great day. Looking forward to danville’s here in three weeks, I just hope that my work will let me off because right now there is some talk about having to have a mandatory Saturday on that day.

I was pleased with the tourney overall.
I ran Black-N-Green (the mean and green smashing machine)

Yobuck
Mace
Rex
R2
Panaka
Mas
Sparti
Brute x2

Only 9 activations.
A different kind of squad and feel than what I'm used to,
And only played like 1-2 times before the regional.

First round against Lou,
I win map and choose my map (muunilist plaza)
He picks the side with the room and sets up there.
He had a lot of beef to get through with a Jedi diplomat and 2-3 battlemasters surrounding Bastilla and a diplomat
He clustered near the door but not opening it. With him winning inits like the whole game he could wait till r2 went then open and shoot and lock door.
With me losing inits I knew I had one choice run in and hope for the best. It didn't work out. Oh well but it played fast and Lou gets a 3 pnt win.
0 points for me

Next I played Chris and his vong squad of da gara quedneks x2 lobot, yomin, nen yim, a couple scouts, can't remember the rest. He brought in greedo bh with lobot and a hunter with da gara he killed r2 early with greedo and a plasma eel. Yobuck runs and hits the hunter and greedo who then snared him mid gallop but that also snared him next to his master shapered quednek, so I swapped in mace and mace kills the quednek. Later mace takes about 3 AoO's to base and kill dagara while yoda and Rex took out his other quednek, just clean up the rest of the game. I just don't think he could handle the speed to get right up to his commanders. Oh he won map roll and played on his map (asteroid base). The one interesting thing I remember is that they ruled thud bug as auto 10 damage and a save for activation. I don't ever remember it being that way but maybe they changed somthing that I was unaware of, regardless that's the way it was ruled so that's the way it was played.
3 pnts for me.

Round 3, playing against Audri and her evadeing, rerolling, double disruptive squad with Han, Jaina sotj, leia, wedge, r2po, fodder. My first plan was to take out her pieces that can't evade or reroll, with her having no movement breakers I knew where each of her guys can get. After r2po goes and a previous tow I am able to Rex and his greater mobile to move to a spot where han and r2po are equidistant from me then back after killing r2po, taking out one of her disruptive and ce extending piece, forcing her to move leia up, when leia moves 1 square to far I am able to tow yobuck and run him 16 with master speed to end adjacent to leia and wedge gallop both and put the regular atk on leia. I swap in mace and go to town on the puny Jedi and silly pilot named wedge. She then moves in Jaina and next round when I atk her and roll a crit she fails her parry save and I absorb the fp reroll. She just called it after that when she just had Han and an r7 to go against my entire squad.
3 pnts for me
6 overall.

Round 4 against ben running vader legacy, dash, mith thrawn, GARY (aka mister face) and activation/swap fodder. I was a little worried about this matchup when he really spread his guys out. I can't leave myself exposed or I'll die in a hurry with dash triple twin with cunning and opportunist he can deal 120 win init and deal 120 more vader is always swinging for 30 with cunning and opportunist. I would use master speed with yoda and gallop 26 to kill sometimes only 1 sometimes 2 scrubs and get him back out of the way. After 1 time I thought he was out of the way he moved an r7 12 to override a door to then move a gran raider 12 then swaped in vader who then used a fp to move faster and get to yoda and smack for 30 failed block he wins init and goes first with vader, crits, failed block save and hit hit 140 on yoda just like that as much as I want to atk with yoda I can't if I don't deal damage to vader now, he will just be replaced by a scrub so I swap out yoda for the smashing machine and smack vader, 1 crit and vader has 20 left vader failed every djem so save, I was actually hoping he would make one so I could kill him with a riposte but as it is vader swaps out he tried to corner me by moving the amanin scout up next to Rex and still have line of site on yoda. He was trying to force me to use Rex to kill the amanin or Rex wouldn't have the chance to move and atk another piece that Rex had planned to take out. I couldn't let the amanin live but Rex was the last piece I wanted to use so I move a brute up next to the amanin (which if he was able to swap next round dash would kill Rex and the brute not yoda but that's making it to complicated just everything that's going on in my head) and hit the scout, sparti goes and shoots and misses, dash moves up to hit mace a couple times I think 1 hit maybe 2 don't remember but my second brute goes and hits the scout (just what I needed) now yoda can gallop over the scout and kill the scrub next to mace. Rex can now move and shoot at dash who made 2 evades and failed 2 dash takes 40 I move r2 up in front of Rex, he wins init and takes out yoda and tries to finish mace but he would have needed to hit all of them I think but missed, Rex gets towed and moves to base and kill dash and his last swap piece besides mas and mister face I move a brute swap in mace to base taking a missed AoO from mas to base mas, thrawn and mister. Game over
I win 3 pnts
9 pnts overall

Round 5 against mike and his OR shooters. I didnt want to hope for crits so I was trying to play 60 and I was missing atks with mace rolling 1s, 2s, and 3s (literally, nothing higher) forcing me to reroll later in the round and hope for crits but again missed and missed. I couldnt hit at all with mace when he should be my guaranteed 60, me missing atks and failing every block, reflect, splash save (except one with mas when the game was already over) sealed the game for mike, mike set up well and I did everything I could to try and overcome but die rolls were not having any of it. The one high point for me is when a brute (when the game was in hand) moved and killed Bastilla. When the game was over and mike had a chance at making the top 4, I wasn't going to sit back and hide forcing it to go to time. I moved my pieces straight at him and would run a brute past a battle master giving him the AoO to kill me quickly.
I lose 3 pnts for mike. He just missed the top 4 but that win moved him up in the standings to 5th I think. Overall I finished 8th and was satisfied with how I played. Move on to epic duos

I ran bane and "jaq" with throne room as my map of choice. First matched I crushed a lah bro smash on my map by seperating czulkank after from warmaster by locking the door forcing the warmaster to move all the way around, and by that time daddy lah was just about finished if not then he was dead. I was a little worried when I started failing tons of orbalisk saves and djem so saves. Bane took 130 fast but with jaq shooting with rage 2 was just to much for him to handle once he was finnished, warmaster was easy with 10 base and no charging.

2nd round I face a bane/zannah squad and lose map we play on his map (canteena). Crappy map for me as the doors are to close so even if I do lock one it's easy to get through the other. Zannah sick with her saves and him winning like every init, sealed the game for him. Next round against Gerry from NY playing bane/zannah as well, this time I win map and and after some lightsaber throwing and raging and both banes being at least half dead, I proceed to keep bane out of the center by locking him out. He moves around to the small door around the corner and I move jaq up 8 with a fp shoot at zannah and lock that door. It was very frustrating for him. Imagine the final fight of bane vs zannah this time with jaq on banes squad. The book would have ended completely different it took a while to burn through all zannahs saves and fp but eventually I did. He did end up killing my bane with his zannah but Thanx to avoid defeat which I forgot about untill Gerry reminded me (Thanx Gerry) bane survives with 10 and kills his zannah to finish off his more than half dead bane who is still locked out. I win

After the top 4 was already finished and still another round of epics left to play we looked at the standings and saw a clear winner so just called it there. With a tie for second and the time being so late. I along with the guy who I was tied for second with (2-1, our only loss being to the clear winner) sorry I can't remember his name decided to just roll off for 2nd and I rolled a 20 so I win 2nd place in epic duos. After thinking about it more there was extra tie breaker results that we could have looked into but this was simple to do at a late hour and people being tired and tired of thinking and trying to get home.

Great tourny, great turnout, with a stacked house of good players with chicago, michigan, atl and other states. With my buddy Tim putting Chicago up on top again. Way to go Tim, wish I could have played in the finals with you again like last year.
S-E-V-E-N!!!!
Tim opened the door for me to make the top 4, all I had to do was win my match against mike but I guess my dice just said "Screw you Tim, you'll have to play without Jake". But that's ok after the horrible play that I've been doing all year, an 8th at this regional with this line up is well accepted.

Sounds like everyone had a great time! Sorry I missed it (I'm in the middle of planning a wedding and that kind of takes precedence over almost everything else except GenCon, lol).

First off let me say that you Shawn most certainly deserved the win; as I believe looking at the standings if I had won I might very well have eeked into the playoffs.

Yet again, I do not learn from past mistakes, although Han Smuggo was your only accurate shooter I should not have underestimated him by dropping Nyna (oh well). It was a very good match filled with the requisite tension worthy of a playoff match.

So much dancing so little time.

I would like to thank the IN crew for hosting a great regional event, although the 8.5 HR drive was a drag it was well worth it to have a chance to play against a field loaded with quality players. Congrats to Tim, way to steamroll! Bronson and Shawn our matches will resonate with me for a long while, as they were flipping intense. Jake, once again a memorable encounter worthy of the absurd, a pox on you Atton Jaq!

It was great to finally meet some of the ATL crew and btw... Daniel. SteveO found your Map and he'll be looking to send it along. Mental note to all future Kokomo Regional attendees when Les says, "hey they have giant margaritas," go to BK instead!

Tons of laughs to be sure! Hey Graham did you guys see that freaky tree on the way to Les'? LOL and btw I didn't run the stop sign (allegedly)

Finally a Death Star size thanks to Les for his hospitality!!!

Thanks for all these reports, guys! It feels like I was there. And yeah, I was wondering when someone would play Stealth 'n Blue again (Pallaeon helps that squad SO much).


For the future, this ruling was incorrect. The save vs Thud Bug is to prevent both the 10dmg and the paralysis. If you fail the save you suffer both effects, but if you make the save you are completely unaffected.

I am glad you all had a great time.

First note to the ATL and NY guys, if you can see a 1/2 mile in both directions, stop signs with the white rings are optional at least in IN.

I had a great time. I have not unpacked all my SWM stuff yet, but when I come across the squad sheets I will try to post them. However I leave for ATL Tue. morning and will not get back till Thur night. So it might be a while. Plus somebody told me the deadline for the Scum and Villainy set is coming up to be sent to the printers. I know you all want to see squads but I am sure you would like new cards in August more.

Wrong, Wes, winning is the only strategy; anything else is flat out cheating...

That's a pretty horrible thing to do, in my opinion. Losing a game intentionally so you can potentially have an easy win in the finals? Pretty underhanded, especially when it was shown that he could win within the first 3 rounds. If that happened to me, I would concede in the end. It's not a legit win for me and I guess I'm too ethical to allow that to happen. It's not playing accurately and instead making "under the table" deals.

Well, certainly an interesting weekend for me. Didn't finish great, but this was by far the toughest lineup I've had to play at a regional. I went imperial with pilot Vader and GARY. Vader and Dash both have opportunist and cunning, and Dash gets an extra attack from Vader.

Darth Vader, Legacy of the Force
Dash Rendar, renegade smuggler
Grand Admiral Rulf Yage
M'Thrawn
Mas Amedda
Amanin Scout
Gran Raider x3
Rodian Brute x2
R7
uggy x2

Round 1 versus Scott with double sith sorcery and Exar Kun spirit. He won map and we played on Broken Base. I took the inside and ran up towards the middle door first round, opening it to invite him in since he diodn't have much of any shooters. Second round he was able to run up and activate Vader to keep Vader from doing anything. I got some shots off with Dash and locked the main door. Then I ran the amanin up through the little broken room and swapped in GARY to take a couple shots at Figrin to try getting rid of distraction, but he bodyguarded the damage with Ponda Boba. Third round he blew open the door and Used Freedon Nadd to activate Vader and Dash, but he had finally moved Freedon and Naga adjacent to Vader so they could attack him. Start of next turn Vader was able to finish off Figrin and put a couple hits on Freedon. Freedon did the sorcery again, but Dash made the save and ran out to kill off Freedon. Next turn Vader killed Naga to finish the game. 3 points and a win against a HOF'er to start the day, that made me feel pretty good.

Round 2 versus Joe(I think) with GGDAC and a single lancer. This one could have given me a very hard time, but Joe was unfamiliar with playing the Lancer, and left it in a spot where dash was able to base it and kill it off the first activation of the second round. He had a destroyer droind with advanced shields 2 roll up, but with Vader and the Amanin hitting it for 30 damage a shot, the shields couldn't keep it alive for long. My MVP that game was GARY though. He was able to get hit GGDAC twice at the end of a round for 40, and finish him off with 2 shots at the start of the next round. 2-0, 6 points and a break for lunch.

I decided against having a couple giant beers at lunch since I was undefeated, but after my afternoon matchups I wish I would have had a few drinks. Round 3 against Tim and his Arica/Cad Bane squad. We played on my map (cargo docks), but Tim had lobot and brought in an MTB and some mice against me, which helped win the game for him. First round was standard moving and swapping around. Second round I moved Dash up to what I thought would be a safe place for him. Tim was able to move one of his swap pieces close and swapped Bane in. Bane based Dash and killed him pretty easily. It was all downhill from there as he holed up in the room in the back corner and jammed up Vader with his mouse droids. 2-1 now.

Round 4 against Jake with Yobuck, Mace, and Rex with swapping. We played on my map, and this game was crazy. I spread everything out at the start so he couldn’t kill too much of my swap fodder in one run through with Yoda. Standard round one with positioning. Round 2 Yoda did a run through and killed off a Gran and an uggy, but I was able to run a second Gran up near Yoda at the end of the turn. I swapped in Vader and ran up to hit Yoda for 30. Start of the next round Vader went first and critted, dropping another 110 on Yoda. He swapped Mace in for Yoda and Mace got a crit to put 120 back on Vader. Vader missed all 4 Djem so saves and left Mace untouched. I then made the mistake of running the amanin into the middle of his people in the thought of swapping in Dash, but then decided to Swap Vader away from Mace instead. He managed to hit the Amanin twice with brutes and finish it off with a Yoda run through. I forget how exactly it went after that. I think I was able to swap in Vader to kill off Yoda, or Dash killed him and put some damage on Mace. In the end taking 120 from Mace was too much and I was left with just Gary, Thrawn, and Mas against Mace and a full hp Rex. 2-2

Round 5 I faced against Lou with Bastilla, Atton, a Jedi Seer, and some battlemasters. Dash ran out and got 12 shots off against the seer, and only hit twice, both of which were evaded if I remember correctly. Dash was based and quickly killed. I manage to run my amanin behind his squad and get close to Bastilla. She dropped her meditation to attack it first, but it survived and I swapped in Vader. He killed off Bastilla, but with Atton still running around with 2 full health battlemasters, it didn’t take long for him to finish off Vader. 2-3

So a good start, but a bad ending for me. I don’t feel too bad about it though considering the level of the competition I was facing there. I faced 3 hall of famers and Jake, so I don’t feel too bad about about how I finished.

That was my immediate reaction to that as well, I'm glad others agree. I checked Penalty Guidelines to see if throwing a game intentionally was in there, but it's not. Closest thing was Randomly Determining the Winner or Bribery and Wagering which are both DQ's.

Why was what Tim did wrong? It is not against any of the floor rules. Setting yourself or others up in the top cut has been going on in competitions forever. The goal of a player playing in a tournament is to win it. Setting yourself for an easier top cut situation is certainly a way to do that.

This would be a DQ as well, if caught during the tourney. At this point, it is nothing more than a warning (to anyone); this behavior (if the intent is proven AT THE DISCRETION OF THE JUDGE) will result in an immediate disqualification.

I am just flat out done with this type of behavior/attitude of bending the rules to the letter rather than the spirit.

So which is worse ? Starting the game early or manipulating the tournament standings by throwing a game.

Really? Maybe in Magic, but lets face it, in the gaming world Magic players' values and ideals hold little weight due to their general lack of credibility.

This certainly isn't done in sports, and I know I've had this attitude once in some other games only to realize how wrong it is.

The floor rules merely instill the spirit of the game, they will never be comprehensive enough to cover the letter of the game.

Sounds like we will be getting an update to them in July then...going to have to empower the judge's discretion thing a little bit more. When I figure out how I want to word it I'll post it.

This one: