Well here is just as good a place as any I guess to post my tourney report. Here's what I played.
--Red Zone Cuba--
62 Darth Revan, Sith Lord
36 Atton "Jaq" Rand
36 Lord Kaan
27 Lobot
16 Grand Admiral Rulf Yage
14 Exar Kun, Dark Force Spirit
6 Mouse Droid x2
3 Ugnaught Demolitionist
(200pts. 9 activations)
If you know anything about me you know I love Mystery Science Theater 3000. Red Zone Cuba is a movie on the show that is the worst movie ever made. It was so bad, I felt like my brain was running out of my head. Very similar to what happens to people hit by thought bomb.
Round 1 vs Jon:Cad, Nom, Tyber Zann, Spit CE guy, workers
Well I have a squad based completely around people not having force immunity, so this one sounded annoying. So I refer to my Lobot spreadsheet and bring in Momow Nadan and a caamasi noble.
After some setup I see a path that nets me 8 of his 11 bombs with a momow blast. I say "hell ya" and blow those bastards away. Jon was under the impression that war throat targeted (it doesn't) so a whole bunch of bombs went off for nothing. The next round Kaan hustles 14 by spending one of Exar's FP's to get within 6 of both Cad and Tyber Zann. I won init and blew up Kaan. Both Cad and Tyber fail their saves and go on to power Kyle Katarn in a later story arc. After that it was mop up for Revan and Atton.
3 points.
Round 2 vs Cliff:Naboo Trooper Swarm
I brought in 4 Caamasi Nobles, I'll discuss my strategy for them in this matchup later.
So Cliff and his brother Andrew are some local kids that play in charlotte that are pretty famous amongst us for being undefeated vs Daniel (he lost to cliff in round 1 making him 0-3 lifetime vs them). Cliff is a really good player to be 12. At the start I asked him if he wanted to see my cards and he said no. In round 2 I'm able to hustle Revan 20 squares and swap in Kaan to nuke his Mon Mothma, Queen, Panaka, Mas Ameda, Yularen, and 10 of his 16 troopers. He then asks to see Kaan's card. From there Atton and Revan cleaned up. Cliff's uggies hit litterally every time they attacked meaning Revan ended the game with 50 HP. The initial bomb was enough to give me the edge though.
6 points.
Round 3 vs Andrew:The exact same thing cliff played on the exact same map.
I used the nobles again and in this game they worked great.
Andrew talked with Cliff over lunch about what my squad was built to do and made it a point to only let me get 4 or 5 troopers with the bomb. Round 1 I run Revan into Gambit on his map (Muunlist) and charge the nobles up as well. I stuck Exar on Revan thinking that revan getting to 30 damage hits would be much more useful then Atton getting renewal. Atton already does 30 a shot vs the 30HP troopers so I didn't want any damage overage.
I end up trading Kaan for 5 troopers. Wasn't really worth it now that I think about it, but it did make Andrew let his guard down. Once Kaan was dead he didn't think I had any more tricks
. With my 4 Nobles in gambit I set them up so if he wanted to shoot them he had to draw line of sight to Exar. Exar isn't a diplomat so he couldn't shoot them. I then used the nobles to base his troopers and have Atton kill them. They can't deathshot a noble so I was able to get 3 troopers that way.
In round 4 I found a way to move revan 20 squares and set Atton up for cunning shots on both Yularen and Mas "self five!". Atton capped both of them and actually moved further into his backfield so only 2 troopers could shoot at him. Andrew's dice then decided they didn't want to help anymore and he missed 10 out of 12 shots on Atton with his troopers late in the game. With Mas dead Revan started smiting duty and Gary came out and killed a few as well. End game it was Revan vs 4 Troopers, some uggies, and the Queen. Revan put on his clownstomping shoes and cleaned it up for the win.
9 points.
Round 4 vs Graham:New Nomi, Atton, Bossk TH, Bastilla, Lobot, Wicket, fodder.
Brought in a Human BG, and 3 brutes.
In this game I decided to smoke some crack and pull out my noob playbook. It was over in 20 minutes after I decide to. #1 Put Revan beside Kaan as I had a good thought bomb setup. #2 leave my Atton in the middle of nowhere out of cover. #3 move Lobot into gambit as he had all of his Attackers alive. and #4 Have Revan killed by Wicket. Poor choices indeed. I also got hit by Nomi's force light so Kaan couldn't even blow up. SMH. At least Daniel was doing worse then me.
9 points.
Round 5 vs Nick:Jaina Sword, scouts, Bardan, QM, Cap.
Brought in 5 Brutes and a Noble.
Nick was extremely concerned about my thought bomb going off. SO much so that he let me have full reign over gambit and didn't advance. Didn't matter to me as I had double override vs his 0, and I could both outact him, and autowin init. After he figured out his spacing for thought bomb I ran revan 18 to get within 6 of a scout. Won Init, killed a scout, swapped for a brute. After a few rounds he picked up that I wasn't going to thought bomb him. So Jaina ran up and tried to push the assualt. Atton was having none of that BS and took her down to 30 with some rage fueled shots. Kaan hustled over 14 squares and killed her with a Double Attack at init (causes he has Bravado!!). After Jaina died I send revan after his other scout and do the same trick again. Atton and Kaan then tag team the fodder, captain, and QM. I think I only lost an uggie in this game. Always feels good to beat the crap out of Nick.
12 points
So in round 5 Graham lost to Nate and we had 4 guys at 4-1 in the top 4. My only loss was to Graham and I beat Jon so I got 1st after swiss (3 regionals in a row for those keeping score). I got the rematch vs Jon in the semis.
Semi Finals vs Jon: Vong spit swarm.
Take the above game and Ctrl + C, Ctrl + P that in here. Jon couldn't figure out a way to both advance his dudes fast enough to threaten my setup and keep them far enough spread out that they wouldn't all get Ithorian beatboxed to death. I was also able to base Cad with Atton who murdered him very quickly (cause he has cunning!). Jon made his first top 4 after narrowly missing them for a long time. Vong got some love!
Finals vs Graham.
I decided to scrap that Noob Handbook and trade it in for some Art of War. I didn't rush in and decided to take 5 brutes and a Caamasi so I could outact him. I used the airducts on my map (Bespin) to try and trap one of his attackers in. Bossk moved in to stun mortar Atton and a brute and I made both saves (WIN!). Atton then hit 1 shot back on bossk getting him down to 80 (perfectly setup for the bomb). Nomi runs into gambit and Revan charges down to both #1. try and get her to burn some fp's so stupid ass force light doesn't nerf my big trick and try and widdle her down to 80 or less so Kaan can kill her. Only problem with that is Nomi has Jedi Reflexes (facepalm) lucky for me fortune smiled on me and Nomi had to reroll twice to hit revan on the Aoo. Revan got 2 hits in to drop her to 100 and at init Assualted again and got 30 more in. Revan then Master speeded away into safety. The round before I moved GARY up to take a shot at a piece of fodder. I possitioned him so Atton would have LOS only if he moved further into the middle. Bossk also moved down to help fire away at my dudes.
So big move in the game. Nomi (70 HP), Bossk (80 HP), Atton (80 HP), and that little furry jerk Wicket were all lined up perfectly for the bomb. I moved Exar kun up and used Dark Aura and had it all planned out. Stupidly I forgot Nomi hadn't moved yet and she wisely spent the force point to kill Exar. I still had my move so i ran Kaan in to blow up. At init Bossk died, both atton and nomi made the save and they dropped down into very killable range. They both ran back to wait for Bastilla's backup to arrive. Revan ran out and at init charged forward to kill atton. At that point Graham called it. Nomi at 30 and bastilla at full is no match for my full atton and revan at 70. I still had some screening fodder too. We also had a ton of driving to do so we headed out. I finally got another one!
Some things I learned.
Atton Jaq Rand is currently the best shooter in the game.
If you can outact Bastilla you can beat her. Even with a commander heavy squad.
Read every card before you start playing. Stupid Force Light.
Props to Spry for running a fun event and for my Boba Fett trophy. To the Riciardi's for their sweet customs. Tim for posting the squad idea (mine is differant, I used an uggie instead of a brute lol). To my wife for letting me use one of our few days off together to play minis. And also to Graham for making Finals after not knowing what his squad was until he sat down for his first matchup.
SWM FTW!