Finally, the Vassal Regional had arrived! I had been waiting for this day for months. There were about 3 or 4 Regionals in my area this year, but each one of them took place on a weekend when I was unable to attend…so I was bound and determined to make this one happen.
My squad:
--This Party's Over--
65 Mace Windu, Legacy of the Light Side
55 General Obi-Wan Kenobi
33 Captain Rex
27 Lobot
9 R2-D2, Astromech Droid
5 Rodian Diplomat
6 Ugnaught Demolitionist x2
(200pts. 8 activations)
Map: Cloud City
Round 1 vs DieAndBeMetal (Christian Threet), playing NR with Han, Mara, Jaden, Ganner.
I brought Dr. E and a Gran. I won the map roll (Cloud City) and DABM chose the bottom-left area of the map, while I set up in the top-right. In round 2 I towed Rex to shoot 4x at Han, amazingly hitting all 4, but Han only took 20dmg thanks to equally amazing evade saves. At the end of the round DABM levitated Jaden up to zap Obi, Rex, and R2. Han then shot my 40hp Rex twice, hitting both…but then I made my Avoid Defeat save (thanks Dr!). I won the next init and killed off Jaden with Mace, and then changed the game by moving Mace down to block the door adjacent to Ganner. Now he couldn’t levitate very easily (without provoking an aoo), and Mace had already activated so Han and Mara wouldn’t be doing much damage if they could even hit him. Obi came in and put some damage on Han. To start the next round, Mace went on a crit spree, critting Mara (absorbed her block) and killing off some other things. After that it was mostly cleanup. 3pts
Round 2 vs Tim Hight (Minitank HT), playing Revan, Dessel, Atton.
Dr E and a Gran for reinforcements again. We both had the same map and I lost the roll, so I set up on the left of Cloud City. He out-acted me by 4 or 5, so he was able to use Revan to drop Dessel into my area; he won init the next round and killed R2 with Blast Cannon, then ran away, hoping to save Dessel. However, I was able to track him down and put enough damage on him to drop him before he could do much more damage. Later when my whole squad was sitting in the center gambit room, Revan snuck Atton down under me to take out Lobot and Dr E, but he survived thanks to his Avoid Defeat saves. Bit by bit, I was whittling down Tim’s activations with Rex while GOWK and Mace gained FP and waited for an opening. Finally I got it and dropped Revan, with Atton falling shortly afterward. Mace’s Force Absorb is tremendously useful when you roll a crit…. 6pts
Round 3 vs Oliver Simpson (OhMyGOWK), playing Bastilla, Atton, Carth, Dash, Senator, and Klat Capt.
Momaw Nadon and Salacious Crumb. He won the map roll, so we played on Rancor pit and I set up in the cage on the left side of the map. In the first round Rex jumped up and popped 2 of Oliver’s activations. However, later on in the round I had a brain fart and moved GOWK into gambit while forgetting that he was screening R2 from fire. Oliver jumped on this and used Carth (running 16) and the Senator to kill R2. This didn’t look good at all, because now I had no delivery system for Momaw, and Rex would be in serious trouble vs his shooters’ high mobility. I won the next init and popped 2 more activations with Rex and placed him in a safer location. ABM was active at this point, so Oliver pressed the attack against Mace, reducing him to 40hp and stripping him of all his fp. I won the next init so I used Mace’s last breath to run up and kill Carth (at 20hp) and the Klat Capt (so Rex could now be of use against Atton). However, at this point Oliver’s dice failed him royally. Between the end of the one round and the middle of the next, Atton must’ve had 4 or even 5 chances to kill Mace needing a 9, but failed them all. GOWK and Rex made sure that Atton didn’t live long enough to try again, and then it was just Dash and Bastilla, and it went pretty quickly after that. Because I lost R2 early to such a dumb mistake, this was probably my hardest match all day. If Oliver could’ve had the dice with Atton he might’ve won it. 9pts
At this point, the Swiss rounds were over. OhMyGOWK was on his way to church, and so the other 3 players who were in the playoffs decided together that we’d be happy to wait 2 hours before starting the semifinal matches.
Semifinals vs Oliver Simpson again.
Same map roll, same reinforcements for me, but no dumb R2 mistake this time. I was able to kill off his Senator with Rex on a tricky LOS in the 2nd or 3rd round, which eliminated some of the crazy deep-strike options that Oliver was able to use in the game before. There was a particularly significant point in the game where Oliver won init and ran Carth 8 squares (past 2 Ugs) to base and kill Rex, needing 3s…he rolled a hit and a 2. Rex then killed Carth and survived the game to put out a bunch more damage as the game progressed. If it had worked, I would’ve been at a severe disadvantage. But as it was, I was able to kill off Atton and Dash and then Bastilla, losing only R2 and some fodder. Momaw made the final kills by using War Throat at the end of one round and the beginning of the next. Mace lived to the end with 40hp. 12pts (not like points mattered anymore in the playoffs)
Finals vs David Miller (dougplatypus), playing Bastilla, Atton, Carth, Battlemaster, Seer, Senator.
Evazan and Gran again…they’re so useful. I won the map roll so we played on Cloud City, and David let me set up first so I chose the left. I had learned in the past games to be especially careful vs OR shooters who do 40dmg per shot. I used Rex sneakily to kill off some activations (including the Senator) in the first few rounds, while Mace and GOWK played hard-to-hit and slowly advanced. Eventually the time came to strike: I towed Mace in to attack Wicket (crucial) and the Seer with my 3 attacks (missed the Jedi Ref attack, and Mace Absorbed the fprr). I got a crit/flurry when attacking the unactivated Seer, which was significant, because that was up to 60dmg that Mace didn’t have to contend with on the return attack. Obi then moved into position for the next round (always think ahead!). Things were now positioned so that if I won init Obi would be able to push 5 of David’s guys (it would hit Mace too, but he’s a big boy). I did win the init, so I killed 2 mice and put 30dmg on the Battlemaster and Carth and Atton; I pushed Atton into the pit just outside of gambit, and he failed the first pit save but made it on the fprr, and the Battlemaster made his save too. David responded with a good move by using Carth to move 8 and get no-cover shots on my un-activated Mace; then he rolled a crit (60dmg!) but I made the Reflect save and he missed his twin attack. Mace could’ve been at 40 hp or less, but instead he remained at 120. With Dr E's help Mace then went to town on Atton and the JBM while Rex killed Lobot and more fodder. By this point all my attack pieces were on David’s side of the board and he was in full retreat; it was just another round or two before the rest of his pieces were finished off, with the final strike being GOWK’s game-ending Force Push on Bastilla. That Force Push in the middle of the map is what really broke things open…until then, it was really tense. 15pts, 5-0 on the day. I love Mace.
I didn’t know what to expect going into the tournament, but it turns out that Mace was a good choice because he can wreck the OR in the right circumstances. But it does take some careful timing; as one of my opponents said, “When it’s Mace vs OR it’s either ‘I kill you or you kill me,’” and I think that’s correct. Unless you can put some damage on Carth/Atton beforehand, you’re taking a huge risk to send Mace in, because ABM means that his 22 Defense won’t hold up for long vs their 40- and 50-dmg shots. If the piece you don’t kill can hit some return shots and then wins initiative the next round, Mace is cooked. GOWK is a great support for Mace…not just because of the CE (which is always nice), but because he can take point and absorb shots until it’s time to move in.
Major props to all my opponents; they played well and were very enjoyable to game with. More than once I heard them say that they'd love to have more regular Vassal tourneys, and I agree. We'll have to see what we can do about that....