As requested, here is my play report from last night.

This was only my 3rd, 4th, and 5th time playing this squad, but here it is:

--DD2 Lancer--
57 General Grievous, Droid Army Commander
36 Darth Sidious
36 Series II Destroyer Droid
30 IG Lancer Droid
16 IG-86 Assassin Droid
12 Gha Nachkt
3 Ugnaught Demolitionist
10 Mouse Droid x5

(200pts. 12 activations)

I found it to be much more durable...and maybe even more dangerous than the double lancer squad. The DD2 lasts a LONG time with decent save rolls.

First match:
I played against Weeks, who had a modified version of Deri's regional winner, dropping Han GH for Dash/JagR7
--Mara and the Cheese Factory--
45 Mara Jade, Jedi
29 Ganner Rhysode
28 Dash Rendar, Renegade Smuggler
27 Lobot
23 Anakin Solo
12 Gha Nachkt
10 Jagged Fel
9 General Dodonna
7 R7 Astromech Droid
x2 uggies
x3 mouse droids

(200pts. 13 activations)

Weeks brought an MTB and 6 mice as Reinforcements. He won map, so we played on Ravaged Base. I chose to set up on the left, because that's how Jason Kiernan (the Lancer Master!) set up when he and I played in the Michigan Regional last year. Weeks locked doors in my face, so I just set up my Lancer in the gambit turbolift, with the DD2 blocking access to it. This forced Mara to take a twin aoo (40dmg) to get into position, and then another twin aoo (40 again) to move to base the Lancer and DD2 for an assault. She hit all her attacks so my Lancer died, but my DD2's shields blocked 20dmg (out of 40) and I killed her off immediately afterward. So I had traded my Lancer for Mara, and I had not even gotten a strafe...I didn't think I was in great position (despite the 15pt points lead from the exchange). However, Weeks made a mistake by leaving Dash in a shootable position at the end of the round, but then when he auto-won init to begin the next round, he had scrolled his map, so that he forgot to move Dash...he just spun a piece instead. So I moved and attacked with the DD2 and then pawned it, hitting Dash on all 6 shots, of which Dash evaded 2. Now I was in a very solid position, with Ganner and Anakin as Weeks' only true threats. He made a good move at the end of that round to Unleash with Anakin and kill most of my fodder as well as my DD2 (failed the UTF save). Then when he won the next init, he needed my IG86 droid to fail the UTF save, but I rolled an 11. Now it was a full GGDAC, Sidious, and a 30 hp IG-86 vs Ganner and some fodder. Weeks conceded at this point. 1-0

Second match:
I played against Joruus, who played his Landspeeder Cannon Deathtank squad, the one that got him 3rd place at Gencon last year. He won map, so we played on ThroneRoom, and I set up on the left. I just kept pawning the Lancer to strafe out and back each round, taking 2-3 of his fodder pieces on each run. Then, in the middle of the 3rd or 4th round, Joruus made a placement mistake, leaving Rieekan in a place where I could draw LOS with my IG86 to Rieekan and him alone, so I killed Rieekan and changed the face of the game. Next round, my IG86 tried to kill Juno (no evade), but I rolled a 1, so she lived with 10 hp. At the end of that round, Joruus moved the Landspeeder, Ferus, and HanTaun all the way up, and killed a mouse so that he had a clear shot on my IG86 (who was at 50 hp). The LS hit the 30dmg shot but missed the twin (and the fprr), so my IG86 survived with 20hp. Joruus won the next init, but allowed me to go first, since he realized that I could do a deadly strafe with my Lancer, which would kill both Leia and the Bothan, in addition to Juno and some fodder. So I shot for 0 dmg (rolled 2 3s) with my IG86 and moved it to safety. He then used Leia to give HanTaun a cunning shot for 40dmg to kill my DD2, which was at 20hp. I followed up with a strafe, putting damage on Han, Luke, Ferus, Juno (killing her), and then a mouse and the Bothan. Ferus and GGDAC had a duel at the end of the round, with Ferus doing 40dmg and GGDAC hitting all 3 of his attacks for 60dmg (Ferus blocked successfully). I won the next init and tripled again with GGDAC, hitting 1 of 3, but Ferus couldn't make the block to save his life. Somewhere in there Gha critted Han for 20dmg, which proved to be significant, because it left Han at 30 hp for Sidious to kill off with a zap. At this point it was a 100 hp Landspeeder and Leia and Dodonna vs GGDAC, Sidious, an IG86, Gha, and some 28 def Mice, and Joruus conceded. 2-0

Third round:
We decided to play anyway, even though I had technically already won our 4-player tournament. I played against Echo the Champion (not Echo the Dolphin...he doesn't play SWM). Echo was playing

55 GOWK
41 Atris
26 JWM
44 Echani Handmaiden x2
09 R2
and 25pts of fodder (Ugs, Mice, and a Gran)

I finally won map roll, and so we played on Theed. Echo let me set up first, so I chose the left. Lancers love first-round strafes, so I went for a strafe, hoping to kill R2, an ug, and a Handmaiden, as well as put some damage on the JWM (who riposted for 20)dmg. However, Atris had used Meditation, so I was hitting at +10 rather than +14, which turned out to be a game-changer. Because of GOWK's CE (which I forgot to take into account when planning my move), I missed one of my attacks on the Handmaiden (rolled a 7 needing 9s...needing 5s without Meditation), and so the place where I had chosen to land, which would've been entirely safe for the next round, was now not so safe. Echo used that Handmaiden which had survived the strafe to step out and put the last 20dmg on my Lancer. We both remarked afterward that this was the moment that changed the game. If I had killed the Echani, then there was no way Echo could've killed my Lancer, even if he had won init; that would've allowed me to strafe something else again before going back home for repairs. So Atris' Meditation saved the day. After that, it was a game of Handmaidens trying to shoot through my DD2's shields (didn't take long) and my pieces trying tho shoot through GOWK's SSM. I eventually got GOWK down to 70 hp, but I lost my DD2. Atris being able to Meditate for 5 rounds makes a HUGE difference in a game. Then, you add to that the fact that GOWK's CE adds 4 to Def, and it was virtually impossible for me to hit Echo's pieces. His JWM and GOWK made short work of the rest of my pieces. Near the end of the game, Weeks and Joruus joined our game and Weeks asked how on earth the two Echani Handmaidens had survived against a Lancer. I replied that I had made a few dumb mistakes, and that Atris' Meditation had saved the day. 2-1

It was a lot of fun to play with competitive squads against Tier 1 players again. I personally like the way that the DD2/Lancer combo plays, more than the Double Lancer. It's more durable, and it still has a lot of damage output. But I'm not an expert with Lancers, so I guess I'll have to leave it to other people to decide if my assessment is true or not.

Since I won the tournament, I got to choose next week's format. I chose Boris' Epic SWM format, which is my favorite way to play SWM. It's a great way to play expensive pieces which you wouldn't normally play, and use them in expensive combos you couldn't normally use.

Nice in depth report Trev. The victory of the Handmaidens is very surprising indeed. Hopefully I can get my Vassal update to work and join in some time.

My squad.

Mara
Ganner
Dash
Lobizzle
Anakin
Gha
Jag
Donnatello
r7
x2 uggie
x2 mice

First game vs tint ^ he reported it up there. If i had ran dash away like i had planned i could have made a game of it.

Second Game vs Daniel (Echo)

he had GOWK, Atris, JWM, 2 echani, r2 and filler.

I went a little risky and brought in the MTB, Felucian, uggie, mouse from lobot. End of round 2 i lobbed anakin deep and ran the MTB in behind him. Anakin killed r2 and most of his fodder in the blast the echani saved so she was at 10. Game went back and forth with kills till it was gowk at 50 atris at full vs my ganner at 10 and the rest of my squad (except mara and anakin).

Game changer was gowk spending 2 fp's to base ganner at 10 hp and rolling a 1 so ganner lived. Game ended with me getting the W after a really close call.

Note:Mara did at least 300 damage to gowk and he took 0. Total BS screw gowk and the the horse he rode in on. the only damage gowk took was unleash for 30, 1 push from anakin, and 7 pushes from ganner to kill him.

Last game vs Phil and his landspeeder tank. I went with 10 mice. I was able to outact and toss dash in to drop 80 on hantaun/ferus then run away. The next init i got off a 130 damage assualt on the landspeeder/ferus. he spent his shots to kill mara. The next init i lobbed in anakin and killed what was left. He conceded as i still had 50hp dash and a bunch of acts vs his mostly dead squad.


So i went 2-1 with no disruptive in New Republic. I could have gone 3-0 had i been a little more careful with dash, but that's why we practice so we don't do stupid stuff when it matters. I will pat myself on the back for having the stones to go MTB vs lancer that idea worked out great lol.

Reserves?

Ha, nice slow grind on Gowk David.

Last week, I played against an all melee 30 D Gowk Squad. In the end game I based Gowk from 8 squares with Luke Commando and landed double crits! First time I've ever done that. Next round I won init, thanks to up until that point useless Riekeen's Recon, and had Leia shoot one in the wind with free attack going to Luke to finish him off. Lucky win, but always feels good to crush down Gowk.

Hmmmm, was wanting to win this thing tonight, but you guys are starting in like 35 minutes yes?

No, we're starting in 2.5 hours, at 7:00 EDT. It's currently 4:30 (ish) EDT. By all means, build a squad and join us! It'll be fun.

Oooooo. Just signed into my Baseball draft. I didn't realize it's auction style this year, will hang in there until Pujols is mine.

Next week's game:

Faction Pure

200 points

1 unique commander

Commander Effects that prevent or alter being targeted may not be used. (basically just Super-Stealth)

The remaining figures must be non-unique and contain the word(s) or SA Trooper, Soldier, Commando, Warrior, or Battle Droid.

Additionally, non-unique figures with a name that contains some form of military rank may be included. Old Republic Commander or Captain are ones that come to mind immediately.

I think this gives a variety of builds with no single one being too overpowering...

Hey Saturday Night Mini guys it's Sunday, how'd it go? Loved the write ups from last week.

Hrrrrm.

Well I played:

Atris
Flobi and
General Windu for my three CE's

Then Mas, Cad Bade, Dash, Aurra Sing, R2AM, and 8 Echani Handmaidens for my remaining 16.

The first game was against weeks who played a bunch of Mandalorians that didn't stay on the board long enough to keep track of . I won map and he choose left. This pretty much left me with a ton of shooting lanes and 8 shots to do it in. I was able to get in through the top area and pick off a couple of his commanders and some fodder for first blood. Then Jaina traded herself for an Echani HAndmaiden.

2nd game was against TinT.

He played Wedge, Leia, and GMLS for his CE's. Then Ganner, Han, Kyle, Jaina, Cade some ugos, some mice and some diplomats. He won map, but I still had solid shooting lanes. It was a toss up between allowing evade or getting into Disruptive and he was making some very frustrating evade saves. The game was tight all the way to the end. I had tracked down Wedge all the way on his side of the map, who then ran on a won init. I was out of position at that point and the rounds of gambit he had were enough to put him up by like 15 at that point (since I couldn't get Wedge).


Now I killed two birds with one stone, since I got on to bump this thread for tonight

Next Weeks Format

Rainbow Wars!

7 Activations, 300 points, no factions.

Every Character in your squad must have a differant colored lightsaber.

Each Character is treated as having melee attack. (mara and Cade can't shoot)

So come on out and join us next week for more vassal minis action!

But we can still use them? If so, what's the cost reduction?

Ya you can use em. No cost reduction, mara still does 120, cade can still heal 40 and do 80.

Well, that's silly reasoning. I'd only consider Mara still worth it anyway and no one plays cade even when he can shoot. There are far better blue lightsabers.

I think we should make a rule that the blade must be showing. Otherwise I am playing GMLS (clear) and Saesee Tin (Green)

Sora would be an exception since his Vassal piece shows lightsaber blades...red I believe.

I feel like I am missing something

7 Acts=7 colors

Greed, Blue, Yellow, Red, Purple =5

White=6 but is only on 3 figs Draco, Fel, Knights

Orange=7, but is only on 1 fig (sentinel)

Am I?

Edit: How much would it change the theme if it were one of every or all of one?

Finally got a squad ready...

Gmls doesn't have a lightsaber. Nice try though

That's why I pointed out that it should be showing, because he does according to game rules. According to this, I wasn't so sure, and would it have been green or clear...

While practicing for this game, Shawn and I began discussing how this format is kind of ruined in person after the V-sets.

For most of the uniques, Canon would overrule I think, but what about figures like the Jedi Seer and what not where I have seen a myriad of different lightsaber colors attached.

So in person, do you go with the custom? the RCM? something else?