Yes, the Michigan Regional was already a week ago, but I left with my family for a week of vacation almost right away after getting back from the Regional, so I haven't had time to post yet. We just got home this evening.
Before I go any further, I've gotta send out some big thanks to Eric for PMing me only 3 days before the event, and persuading me to come (it wasn't hard to persuade me at all!) and then driving with me to Lansing (and getting lost on the way). As always, it was a blast to hang out with you! And yeah, that car trouble...that was a story we'll tell our grandchildren some day, about when we used to drive cars using an antiquated fuel called "gasoline" to power the car engines so that they could move on hard surfaces called "roads," and when cars required the “key” to turn the ignition before they would start, and when a CAA-Plus Membership paid for itself in spades...yep, that story will be a classic!
Oh, right, back on topic....
Big thanks also to James Wys, who (along with Lou) hosted us at his house, and who also did a masterful job judging the whole tournament and keeping things moving seamlessly and at a quick pace.
After reading Deri’s report of the Chicago regional, I became more interested in using Han GH as a competitive option again. I’ve always loved Kyle (especially since Wedge came in), so it was hard to part with him, but in the end I’m glad I made the choice I did. Here was my squad:
Legacy of the Ganner (because so many figs were from the LotF set)
50 Han GH
45 Mara Jedi
29 Ganner
28 Dash RS
27 Lobot
10 Jagged Fel
09 Dodonna
198 pts, 7 activations (+20 pts of reinforcements)
Map: Commander’s Office (aka Ravaged Base)
I was hesitant about only using 198 pts, but I found that Lobot’s customizability was so much more of an asset than those extra 2 pts in the build total.
Round 1: vs Jason (urbanjedi), who ran GGDAC/Sid/IG-86/Lancerx2/Gha/Fodder.
When I saw what Jason was running, I thought to myself, “Well, maybe I can at least go 4-1.” I brought in a Kel Dor with Lobot and won the map, so we played on Ravag...Commander’s Office. Jason chose the inside, so I set up in the usual location outside. Before the end of the first round, Jason had already strafed my Lobot and Dash, killing Lobot and leaving Dash at 30hp. I killed that Lancer to end the round, and didn’t concern myself with gambit (neither did he); I knew I’d just have to kill his lancers if I was going to even have a hope of surviving. In the second round, I had all my pieces protected by Han’s Disruptive (including my KelDor, d’oh!) and so his strafe wasn’t quite so devastating. The two key things here were that 1) the Lancer rolled a 2 against Dash (leaving him at 10hp), and 2) my Keldor survived because, while it was outside the Disruptive zone, it was in such a place that the Lancer would still be inside the zone when it strafed the Keldor. Jason was able to retreat his Lancer back to the bottom of the map near his starting area, where he thought it was safe. However, I was able to pull off the 18-square Mara move, levitating her to within 6 of the Lancer, and then moving in for an assault, which killed it off to end the round. Now it was my low-health Mara, 10hp Dash, 20hp Jagged, 50hp Ganner, and 70hp Han vs Jason’s full Sidious, GGDAC, and IG-86. I won the next init, and so I made the move that Jason later said won me the game: I levitated Han in beside Mara, where his IG-86 was disrupted, and had to target Han (without Opportunist), whom he could not base. When it was my turn, Han killed the IG-86 and from that point on it was mostly just cleanup, with my 4 pieces able to overwhelm his Sid and GGDAC. Our first 2 rounds took 30 minutes, but once both lancers were dead, neither of us was needing to count squares along multiple routes anymore, and we ended up completing 10 rounds or so, with a full victory for me.
1-0 (50 minutes)
Round 2: vs Ray (don’t know his screenname), who ran Rebels with Shaak Ti JM/LukeCommando/AnakinFS/Han Smuggler/ERCx3/Crix/Rieekan/Dodonna/fodder. His map was the Throne Room; he won the roll, so I started on the left side.
This game was one that I would like to have back, since I now see a number of tactical errors that I made, which lost me the game. It started well, with my levitated Han putting 60dmg on his unactivated Han, who failed both his evade saves, and with me having gambit but him not. I made a mistake in levitating Dash to kill Han the next round, rather than saving him to deal with Shaak Ti; my Dash died to 2 crits from ERCs, who then died, along with Luke, to a Mara assault next round. Han died to Shaak Ti, which hurt. Then Ganner died to her 50dmg crit (Ray must’ve rolled 4-5 crits that game, seriously!) Eventually it came down to my 80hp Mara vs his 120hp Shaak Ti, with both of us having fodder and minor attackers; whoever killed the other’s main piece would have the game won. I won the init, but elected to shoot and kill Rieekan, rather than taking the bold move and assaulting Shaak (with combined fire from Dodonna and Jagged) for the win. He then moved in with Shaak to put 20dmg on Mara (failed block), then won init and attacked Mara for the last 60dmg (again a failed block). If any of those last 3 dice results were different, I could’ve still pulled it out, but I had already made a number of mistakes to let it even get that far, so I deserved my loss.
1-1 (45 minutes) Now I have to win my next 3, if I still want to make the Top 4 and win one of those awesome trophies made by Jake!
Round 3: vs Eric (Ruhk), who ran Kyle/Mara/Ganner/Dash/Jagged/Dodonna/R7/filler. As an aside, WHY did it have to work this way? Why do I always end up playing my best friends long before the playoffs? Neither of us were excited about playing each other at this point, because we both knew that one of us was going to hereby prevent the other from making the playoffs.
My reinforcements were max activations, so that I out-activated Eric by 1. We played on Commander’s Office, with me on the outside again. Eric made an excellent move with a Levitated Dash to snipe my ug and then put 10dmg on my Han (failed evade). Now I had to be very careful with Han, since he was at 80hp and a ripe target for his flying Dash to finish off. But as most NR mirror-matches seem to go, this one came down to whoever won init on the engagement round, since the middle door was locked. I won init and let Eric go first. Then on my turn, rather than sending Mara in to kill Eric’s Mara (and subsequently die to Kyle/Dash), I opened the smaller door below the main door, and put 60dmg on his Mara with my Han. Because of how I placed my figs, Eric couldn’t get his Mara far enough into my area, and so when he did attack, she wasn’t nearly as effective. After that point, the game ended pretty quickly. I should note that my attack dice were disgusting in this match; Eric recounted that I only missed 1 attack roll the whole game, including Han hitting all of his attacks against both Kyle and Mara. That’s the thing with Han: when he can roll those 10s (vs 24 Def, which seems to be required vs most main pieces), he’s outstanding, but when he can’t roll, then he’s a frustrating waste of 50 points. This was a tough tactical match, and even though I managed to pull out a win, it was disappointing because it meant that I kept Eric out of the playoffs.
2-1 (40 minutes)
Round 4: vs Matt Gurney (Gurneywars), who ran VaderScourge/Thrawn/Ragnosx2/Mas/Ozzel/fodder. I won the map roll, and again I ended up on the outside.
As Matt described in his report, there came a crucial point when my 80hp Mara (due to a Ragnos Zap in the prior round) assaulted his 120hp unactivated Vader, missing 1 attack, leaving him at 30 hp. He responded by double-attacking, which I survived with a successful block. In hindsight, LS Throw would’ve been the better choice here, since it would’ve negated Mara’s chance to block and therefore would’ve been an auto-kill on anything but 1s. Even so, it would've still been his 30hp Vader and Ragnos vs the rest of my squad, who were all at full hp. I won the next init and killed Vader, after which I only had to worry about his Ragnos and fodder.
3-1 (40 minutes)
Round 5: vs Lou (Lou), who ran GMY/JWM/3/Dash/R2/R7/mice/ugs. I brought Wicket and fodder for reinforcements. We both had the same map, and I started on the outside of the Commander’s Office map for the fourth time that day.
The first round and a half were all positioning, as normal. But then near the end of the 2nd round, Lou ran a JWM 8 squares to put 20dmg on Han. At that point, Dash, Jagged, Wicket and Han were unable to finish him off, either due to poor attack rolls (Dash missed needing a 5 for the kill), or successful deflect rolls (2x). So I had to use Ganner to push the JWM to death, rather than go after Yoda with Mara. The next round I made a boneheaded move with Ganner/Mara, hoping to kill Dash but failing, which only ended up getting her swarmed and killed; his Dash lasted until nearly the end of the match with those last 10hp. We kept trading pieces until it came down to my Ganner and Dash vs his 10hp Dash, 30hp JWM, and full-hp JWM...and fodder for both of us. I levitated Dash out to kill his Dash, then he killed my Ganner. Now it was JWM x2 vs Dash and Lobot. I won init and decided that it’s all-or-nothing, so I went first with Dash and attacked the 30 hp JWM, needing 9s...I hit 3 of them, but Lou made the crucial deflect, which meant that he could do 80dmg to Dash that round, which finished the game.
In hindsight, while Lou’s save dice were insanely good (5x I had his pieces killed, and 5x he made his Deflect/Block saves!), and while my dice weren’t good at all, I lost this game for myself. As I look back at the game, there are a bunch of moves that I either didn’t see at the time, or chose not to take, and they could’ve made a huge difference in the game. As it was, had Lou’s save dice gone the other way a couple of times, or had my attacks hit, I could’ve possibly pulled out a win. But lots of credit to Lou: he played his Jedi-beef squad very well and deserved the win (and eventual 3rd place) in the Regional!
3-2 (50 minutes)
The entire tournament was a wonderful experience, and my only regret was that we didn't have enough time to finish watching the Star Wars Holiday Special on Friday night...oh wait, I don't regret that at all!
In that case, I guess my only regret was the bone-headed moves I made at various points, which cost me those games; but hey, I learned a lot from those losses (more than from the victories), and so I’m even grateful for them. I also ended up being the only person who beat the eventual Regional Champion, and that’s gotta count for something.
All in all, it was a blast. Each of my opponents was great to play against, the competition was intense, the group spirit throughout the event was superb, and I learned a lot. This was also my first non-Gencon and non-Vassal tournament, and I came to it with only 72 hours notice! Definitely a memorable and enjoyable experience, that’s for sure. Once again, I offer much thanks to everyone involved. I can’t wait for the Toronto Regional, coming up in June!