As mentioned, my squad was Skybuck.
Map: Smuggler's Base
Yoda on Kybuck
General Skywalker
Dash Rendar Rebel Smuggler
Lobot
Captain Panaka
R2-D2 Astromech Droid
Mas Amedda
Gran Raider
Ugnaught Demolitionist
Round 1 vs Gerry Russell (Darth Nader), playing Serious Sidiousness
Map: Jabba's Palace
Darth Sidious
Sora Bulq
IG-Lancer Droid
Lobot
General Whorme Loathsome
IG-86 Assassin Droid
Gha Nacht
San Hill
Battle Droid Officer
Mouse Droid x 4
Gerry won the map roll, so we played on Jabba’s Palace. I chose the left side. Nothing significant happened in the first round, until Gerry pawned the lancer and then strafed my Panaka, Mas, and Lobot. He had expected to kill Lobot, but he forgot about Panaka’s BG ability, and Lobot lived. Gerry won the next init and could’ve strafed my figs again, but instead elected to fly 24 squares back home. I prevented that from working though, by running 16 with Yobuck and killing the lancer. Then during the next phase I towed Anakin up to go and kill the IG-86 droid; now Gerry’s only damage-dealing pieces were Sora Bulq and Sidious. After that, it was pretty much clean-up. 1-0
Round 2 vs Luke Cook (son of YoBuckKiller), playing Lord Vader’s Date
Map: Commander's Office
Lord Vader
Thrawn
Arica
Lobot
Admiral Ozzel
R7 Astromech
Mas Amedda
Salacious Crumb
Gran Raider
Rodian Brute
This game was insane. I won the map roll, so we played on Smuggler’s Base, and Luke chose the left side. In the first round, I got off a huge gallop with Yobuck, killing a grand total of 2 Grans (yay); then I swapped him for a Rodian. The problem was that Yobuck’s new position was within 24 squares of my opponent’s Amanin Scout...who proceeded to wheel 18 and turn into Lord Vader, who then Overwhelmingly Assaulted Yobuck (with a crit, no less) for 160 damage.
At this point, I figured, “I’m screwed. But I’ll give it my best anyway.” So I proceeded to advance Dash forward (via the bottom corridor) and tow Anakin up through the gambit zone. Meanwhile, Luke was having Lord Vader go to town on Panaka and Lobot. I knew I was behind on points anyway, so I just had to take away LV’s support, or I’d never take him down. The next round, my Dash moved forward to take some shots...the first 2 killed Luke’s activated Ozzel, and now Dash needed two 5s to kill his un-activated Lobot...and I rolled a 3.
That round I also towed Anakin up so that he could base Mas and Thrawn for a crucial kill. Mas crit on his aoo (30dmg), and so I thought, “Hey, cool...now I can djem-so him to death (momentum)” but I failed the save and the fprr. So I instead killed Mas with one attack and put 30dmg on Thrawn with the other. This was crucial, since it meant that Lord Vader was now stuck on the other side of the map, far from the rest of my pieces, which left Arica as the only real damage-dealer to protect Luke’s squishies. Arica moved in to attack Ani, and he took 20dmg more (down to 50 hp). Luke won the next init, of course, so Arica attacked Ani again, and hit both shots...and I failed my Deflect. I thought he was dead, but then I remembered that Vader’s CE was not in effect, since Mas was gone. So Ani survived with 10 hp! He killed Thrawn with a double attack, and Dash moved in to finish off Lobot and put some damage on Arica. At this point Luke’s Amanin scout could’ve killed Anakin (my dice were betraying me this game), but missed the attack. Dash killed Arica and the Amanin died, which left Luke with Lord Vader and his R7 droid, who were now coming toward me out of gambit. I was now in the lead for the first time in the game, but my Anakin was 10 hp away from death. His Vader was at 90 hp due to two successful momentum strikes from heroic scrubs. I won that initiative, and towed Dash into the top room/walkway and locked the door (didn’t want Vader to base them and kill them on init). Vader then moved forward toward Anakin. I tried for some more scrub heroics, but it was not meant to be. So I now had a crucial decision to make: I could move Anakin 8 squares to hit Vader for 60dmg, leaving him at 30 (and HOPE for init), or I could run 16 squares like a scared cat. I said, “Gotta do it for fun!” and moved in for the attacks. I figured that, even if Vader killed off Anakin the next round, Dash could possibly do the final 30dmg to him. As it turned out, though, I won the next init and Anakin hit both his attacks (needing 9s) by rolling two 16s to finish Lord Vader and earn a full victory. This was, far and away, one of the closest, most epic games I have played in a LONG time. Luke was pretty bummed, but as you can see from the first post in this thread, he recovered nicely afterward.
2-0.
At this point we broke for lunch, after which Eric and I both knew we’d be playing each other; it ALWAYS happens. And yep, it happened again.
Round 3: Eric Frost (Ruhk), playing Ganner's Banner
Map: Smuggler's Base
Kyle Katarn JBM
Mara Jade Jedi
Ganner Ryhsode
Dash Rendar RS
Jagged Fel
General Dodonna
R7 Astromech
Camaasi Noble
Mouse Droid
Ugnaught Demolitonist x 3
This game was a chess match, with both of us trying to out-maneuver the other. Nothing happened in the first round (me on the left, Eric on the right), not even a single gallop, because Kyle and his mates were sticking in a fairly cohesive turtle shell, entry into which would spell suicide for Yobuck. And other than Eric killing a scrub that I had foolishly left for him, nothing happened in the second round either. But at the end of the second round, Eric’s damage dealers were advanced into the top room/corridor, while the rest of his pieces/scrubs were lagging behind. So in the third round, I got to finally make a significant gallop, which killed all/most of Eric’s fodder, as well as Dodonna. I now had the activation lead, and I ended up putting 50 damage on Mara, while still being able to keep Anakin protected and bodyguarded. The next round, Mara levitated in to Cunning-Assault Panaka, and rolled a crit, which meant that Anakin now took 30dmg (successful Deflect) rather than 0. By this point Mara was at 20hp, and she needed to die, or I’d lose the game. I was considering double-attacking with Anakin (needing 8s), but Eric had been too good with his Blocks so far, so I wisely chose to Push her to death. Later that round, my Dash took some shots on Eric’s Dash, and couldn’t roll above a 5 more than twice, so his Dash took 20dmg after a failed evade save. At this point Kyle (who had been tangling with Yobuck back on the other side of the wall) was unable to advance far enough to hurt Anakin. Yobuck charged in to put the last 50dmg on Eric’s Dash, which left Eric with Kyle (not in great position) and Ganner vs my Anakin, Dash, and Yobuck. At this point it was mostly just cleanup, but time was called. Eric has this annoying habit of beating me in tournaments, so I was lucky to pull this one out. 3-0.
That put me at the top of the heap as the only person with an undefeated record, which meant that the regular rounds were now finished.
1st Trevor Payton 3-0
2nd Luke Cook 2-1
3rd Eric Frost 2-1
4th Neil McMillan 2-1
If Eric had beaten me that last game then the swiss rounds still would’ve been over, since he would’ve been the only undefeated player. Anyway, after giving out some sweet prizes to the 5th and 6th place finishers, we started the playoff rounds.
There was some confusion about how to work the pairings in the playoff round: some thought that we would just re-pair the top 4 players, while others thought we should have 1st and 4th place pair off, and 2nd and 3rd place pair off (which was normally how it worked, from what I understood). But we went with the software pairings anyway, and so, wonder of wonders, I (1st place) had to play Eric (3rd place) again.
Semi-Finals (aka Round 4) vs Eric Frost (Ruhk) again.
Our setup was the same as before, but the result was oh-so different. This time, I set up for a first-round gallop on Eric’s pieces, by towing Yobuck into the top room/corridor and opening the door on the eastern side of the room. This left an unactivated Yobuck for Mara to shoot (she needed 12s to hit, so I figured he’d take 20dmg)...but she rolled a 19 and another hit, so Yobuck instead took 50 dmg, which turned out to be the game-changer. With his other activation Kyle moved up to keep Yobuck from coming in to kill some fodder (and Jagged) before swapping out. So instead, I had to gallop past Kyle and Ganner, bringing me down to 50hp by the end of the gallop. But I did manage to kill some fodder and put 30 dmg on Dash and Ganner before swapping away to safety. Oh, I also ended up losing R2 to some shots by Eric’s Dash. So the first round didn’t work out so well for me. The next round was mostly just maneuvering. However, I was able to draw a LOS to an activated Dodonna from outside of the south end of the gambit zone. Mara and Ganner were in the way, but since they had Stealth and were in cover, Dodonna was the only legal target; I swapped Dash to that location and proceeded to roll two 2s and a 6 (needing two 7s for the kill), so Dodonna lived with 10 hp. That move, while it was clever and could’ve been significant if I had killed Dodonna, actually only served to lose me the game, because it left Dash too far forward, and within range of a Levi-Mara assault (she missed twice as well, needing 3s). Yobuck charged in for 30dmg on her (she made yet another block), and then Kyle shut them all down by basing Dash and Yobuck. Yobuck had 50hp and Dash had 10, while Mara had 80 and Kyle had 120 or something. Either way, it didn’t matter. I knew I’d lose both Dash and Yobuck that round, and that the game was already lost, so when I won init I hoped for some insane luck (that Eric would miss 1 of his 3 aoo’s even after fprr’s),but it wasn’t meant to be. Yobuck died. Afterward I realized I should’ve just double-attacked Mara to bring her to 40 hp rather than hoping Eric would miss one of his attacks. Either way, the tide had turned, and there was no way I would be able to pull this one out. Yobuck and Dash died that round, Panaka after that, and Anakin after that. Eric just plain smoked me, that’s the only way to describe it. 3-1, and I’m now competing for 3rd place.
Consolation-Finals (aka Round 5) vs Neil McMillan, playing Commando Delta
Zuckuss Bounty Hunter
Han Solo Smuggler
Luke Skywalker Rebel Commando
Princess Leia
Rebel Commando Strike Leader
Elite Rebel Commando x 2
General Crix Madine
General Rieekan
R7 Astromech Droid
Mouse Droid
This was a Rebel squad without Dodonna, so it wasn’t too difficult for my squad to take down. I out-activated him, so I was able to Tow-Gallop into Leia for 30dmg, then swap for Dash, who ran over and killed Han with Momentum. Then Neil won init and shot at Dash with his ERC, but I made both evades, and then proceeded to charge back to finish off Leia. Dash died, but only after he managed to take out the Han/Leia cannon, which was this squad’s biggest threat. After that, I towed and swapped Anakin and Yobuck around enough to kill both of Neil’s ERCs and then Crix and so on, and finally finishing with Luke. 4-1 on the day, and 3rd place.
In the 20 minutes left after my last game, I watched the EPIC finish of Eric and Luke’s Finals match. I’ll let them tell the story, but I’ll just say that it was exciting to watch.
I’ve gotta say, it was a really fun day. It was great to have our friends from Buffalo join us, and we’re hoping to see them again soon. The folks at Comic Book Connection were good hosts, and it looks like next year’s Ontario Regional will be returning to that location...hopefully more of the London guys can make it to their own regional next year!
Thanks to Josh (AG7) for judging, and Don for lunch, and to everyone else for making it a fun and memorable day!
PS: Oh, and you guys HAVE to see some of the shirts that people were wearing! Luke Cook and Eric Frost both had EPIC shirts...maybe somebody has pictures.
