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 Post subject: The Championship Run
PostPosted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:05 pm 
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By the time Saturday morning rolled around I was beat. It had been 2 hard days of gaming and beer with little sleep.

On Wednesday night, after trying to match Lexx pitcher for pitcher before heading back to the room with Ted and Lisa, sleep didn’t happen until about 3am.
Thursday started at 7:00 am (6 am Central time). The lines for tickets at GenCon were obscene even at that early hour so I missed the HOF breakfast. I waited for Tim to arrive as I had picked up his badge the night previously. He was running late as he thought the 150 started at 10am (and hour later than advertized) and we were stuggling to get there for 9 after I reminded him whilst in the line. We barely made the tourney only for it to be delayed 45 mins due to excessive ticket lines. Thursday was just 2 tourneys (150 and 200) and I ended 7-1. However, we didn’t leave the convention center until about 11:30. I quaffed a few bevies and headed back to the room by about 2 and totally bombed.
Friday started a little later with a dodgy steak and shake drive through, fast food that was anything but, almost missing the 100 points at 10 am (seeing a pattern?). The 100 point tourney took over 6 hours leaving less than 2 hours between the end of the 100 and the start of the team event. We were switching rooms that day, moving from Ted and Lisas room to one in the Westin attached to the conference center. As a result, most of the 2 hour gap was moving luggage with a quick few pints and pizza before the next event.
Team event started and we went 2-1 (got smoked first round by the champs) before dropping for the TileWars tourney. Won the TileWars but it finished at 3am.
Wandered back to the room and slept on the floor putting my head down at about 4am.

Getting up at 9 was a struggle to say the least. No time for breakfast I contented myself with a cup of tea and set down. Registration was closing as I got to the hall, signed up fast and wandered around chatting to Bill, Matt, Lobo, Jon and anyone else who would listen to take my mind of the hornets nest in my stomach. My 150 squad performed great on Thursday but I had faced no speeder squad. I knew I couldn’t avoid it in this tourney (I went 11 games in the regional’s without facing General ObiWan Kenobi so my luck couldn’t possibly hold out like that again) and felt that I needed my map to really compete. Not a comforting thought leaving your chances essentially to a coin flip. Anyway, here is the squad

Han Smuggler
Luke rebel Commando
Princess Leia
Elite Rebel Commando
General Crix Madine
General Reeiken
General Dodonna
R2 Extenze
Obi Ghost
Uggie


I call it Lobbin’ Luke as the main gimmick is Luke lobbing the ERC or Han around for shots but that focuses too much one element really. Levitating Commando Cannon is probably a bit more apt.

The 1st pairings were up and I faced a new player first, he ran this

Vader Unleashed
Emperor on Throne
Arica
Moff Calixte
Ozzel
Duros Smuggler

He won map and we played on his Deathstar map. This game was essentially a non-event. The 1st round lock out was there but I decided to play it out using the game to get into the habit of levitating pieces around. He put the throne in the command room and so I knew I would never have to deal with it. His auto 40 Damage (dmg) and high defence (D) kept the game slow and it took about 40-50 minutes to finally finish Vader and Arica. He rolled reserves and brought in a witch but with the levitation back and fore he had to keep spreading the dmg around. About 3 or 4 of my pieces had been gripped in the end. The kill shot was performed by Han who was levitated from behind the tractor beam wall adjacent to Vader. 2 shots and 80 dmg later and Vader was no more. Luke cleaned up the rest.
It was an easy game, slow, but probably good preparation.
1-0

2nd round pairing went up and as I sat down my stomach wrung with an adrenalin dump.
I was facing Jason Alvey (not sure of his screen name) with a Double override speeder build.

Luke SS
Lobot
Han Smug
Leia
Reeiken
Dodonna
R2

Map = Taris

I had faced Jason in TileWars where he ran a T1 swarm. He played well and I knew this would be tough. He took a uggie Tech, 2 mice and 2 uggies with Lobot.
I lost map and my heart sank.
I set up on the Sewer Side aiming to start picking off his activations as he played the center with his freebies. I knew that the best way for me to counter was to play fast, pick off his activations until it was low enough for me to launch a counter strike. I knew I’d be about 20 points in the hole by then but any other way of playing against the speeder on Taris just doesn’t work unless the opponent plays too aggressive or makes an error.
Jason then surprised the heck out of me on the first round. I had activated out and he used his double override and a mouse to open all the bottom room doors and flew the speeder 36 squares to the broken sewer wall to get LOS on my entire squad.
I felt like I was sitting in sinking sand. His nearest target was Dodonna. If he died I had no chance to equalize activations, would be forced to advance across no-mans land and would probably suffer a loss and lose any hope of top 8 finish.
Init – I rolled a 17, he rolled a 14.
One chance to save myself, use the anti speeder gimmick (Leia Induced Cunning Commando; LICC). Leia moved and shot but missed. She gave her CE to the ERC, I rolled 19. Jason rolled the save, a 7, FP reroll a 3. 60 dmg reduced to 50. I rolled the twin, 18; Jason rolled the save, a 9. Dead Speeder.
I kind of felt bad for Jason and my demeanor showed as such; he had set up a great move only for it to lose to a low percentage tactic. However, inside I was on cloud 9. 1st speeder confrontation and the anti-speeder tech worked perfectly. We played the game on but he was forced to press as I picked off his free gambit getters. I managed to snake Lobot later on and we finished the game after about 50 mins. I apologize for the lack of details but adrenaline weakens the memory and I was buzzing.
2-0

3rd Round Pairings went up and I was to face Rubin Reyes (Grand Admiral).
Rubin had come 2nd in the Jedi Challenge and I knew that there was going to be no more free passes like the 1st round.
He had a double override Yobuck and Rex build.

Yobuck
Rex
Panaka
Clobot
R2
Mas
2 grans
Uggies

Train Station.

He had my map which left me feeling comfortable as my squad really performs best on this map but his double override, tow, swap, gallop and quad gun made me cautious.
He advanced across the top platform with R2 and towed a gran who ran to the top door for the swap. I took a chance and levitated the ERC to a position where his gran has stealth and smoked R2. This caught Rubin off guard and he felt compelled to respond by swapping in Rex who lit up Reeiken. This cost him Rex who then died to Han + Leia. Yobuck advanced and galloped after init hurting pretty much my whole squad. My counter attack failed to finish off Yoda and in the next round he finished off Han. I was able to finish Yobuck leaving him with Lobot, Panaka and a few grans. I pressed forwards and ended the game in the next 2 or 3 rounds.
The levitation on the train station caught its first victim.
2-0

We had a break then and I was relieved to finally get the chance to eat. I had a good start to the day but I knew there was the steepest climb to come with the inevitable match offs against more speeders.
Went to the Mall with Tim and we were both a bit spaced out having had little sleep and been concentrating hard. I had some dodgy Cajun chicken that sank like a brick in my stomach and a massive diet coke. Tim left and John arrived. We hung around until we decided it was time to leave. Half way back to the hall John realized he had left his squad so we hurried back. Then on the way back the Cajun Chicken, Coke and nerves forced me to make a highly uncomfortable pit stop which made me a few mins late for the next match.

Ozzie Waller was waiting for me when I arrived (owaller3 on bloomilk) and I apologized profusely for my tardiness, he was cool about it and I checked out his squad.

Yobuck
Rex
Dash
R2 astro
Fodder (uggies and stuff)

I got my map and he deferred set up to me. I set up in my regular huddle in the top left train carriage above the retractable bridge. He moved forward and left Dash in a place where I could get a shot after a tow levitation and override. Han had 2 shots on him and one got through putting him at 30 hp. He won init and moved Dash who was threatened by my cunning ERC. He moved from the top train to the lower train but it wasn’t safe enough for him and levitation of Han, R2 override and leia meant that Dash died before getting a shot off. Once that happened the writing was on the wall. Unfortunately, I’m not really sure what happened after that. I know Ozzies luck didn’t improve, he must have got a gallop off but I think he ended up killing Leia and then getting battered by Luke and the ERC but i’m struggling to remember the details. I remember Ozzie being very frustrated mainly and playing against my squad on my map was good reason to feel like that.
The levitation caught its second victim. I won after about 40 mins giving me a brief reprieve to contemplate being over half way in swiss and being undefeated.
4-0

4th round pairings went up and I drew Lobostele (Aaron Brueckman). My attitude returned to the sinking feeling I had against Jason. I knew he had the speeder, I knew he had Taris and I knew he was one of the best players I’d face that day.
I can’t remember if he had Juno or activations as his last 8 points but it was basically

Luke SS
Lobot
Han Smug
Leia
Reeiken
Dodonna

He brought grans and mice with a couple of uggies.
I lost map and set up at the top of the sewers with an uggie to protect Dodonna should he try Jasons fast assault tact (he didn’t have double override but I wasn’t taking any chances). Aaron knew his strengths though, and was obviously fearful of the ERC. The first round we positioned and then he started firing fodder into gambit. I picked off a mouse and a gran but netted no points. In about the 3rd round, he left Han one square out from the fence and I was able to get a levitation shot with the ERC. 1st shot was a crit and Lobo failed the save, Han took 40. My excitement peaked, finishing Han would put me ahead and make a board wide rush much more doable with half his power lost, all I needed was to roll a 9+ and for him to fail. I rolled…… 8.
Doh!
For grins Aaron rolled the save and rolled a 4. I’m not sure if really wanted to know that.
Aaron learnt from his mistake and continued accumulating points while protecting his pieces. I had to advance and used Levitation to speed my pieces across the top path to provide blocks and cover. I risked R2 for a chance to either take on the Speeder with the ERC or get a shot on Han with my Han, it cost me R2 as Lobo gave me the Han Shot instead of the speeder. I managed to work a shot on his non-activated Han with my Han who was ordered to fire by my Leia. I can’t remember if it missed or it was evaded but his Han lived and mine died in the return volley. I had my 2 chances. I think I might have killed leia at some point and I moved Luke forward to try for a levitation shot with the ERC next round but time was up and I lost convincingly. It was disappointed to lose but happy that I had actually been competitive on a map that really didn’t do me any favors.
4-1

The games weren’t getting any easier but I was determined not to drop anymore. However, I was paired off against Philip Carlisle (Joruus Cbaoth) who had gone undefeated in TileWars, showed solid play all weekend and not to mention last time we played on Vassal he beat me. He had a cannon variant with the Landspeeder instead of the snowspeeder

Lukes Landspeeder
Han smuggler
Leia
Reiken
Dodonna
R2 extenze
4 uggies
4 mice

At first I was kind of glad it wasn’t Lukes Snowspeeder but then I realized that a) my ion guns do nothing to it b) it can get around the train station much easier than the snowspeeder c) it has deflect so even adjacent non-melee attacks can get the dmg avoided d) it has more tricks up its sleeve like alter and jedi mind trick.
I won map – Huge.
He deferred set up to me and I set up in my usual area (top left passenger carriage). He set up on the opposite side of the lower platform which allowed him more room to maneuver.
Phil wasted no time in this game using his high speed and Force to advance down the platform making a bee line for my squad. He used mice to provide cover and kept his big pieces out of LOS. With few HP to spare to prevent a rush I chose Crix to take point hoping his Disruptive would give Phil some issues. At the end of the second round with my shots falling on evading uggies for no score, Phil used force to base Crix and put 40 on him.
Luckily, Recon gave me initiative and I chose to use the ERC to base the speeder to get his cunning before Crix died. I shot twice, once combining fire with Crix on the 1st shot and the 2nd with Dodonna. Phil failed his deflect and took 60. He then killed Crix and backed up as far as he could. The rest of my squad went hightailing after the speeder. I set Luke up for 8 square greater mobile attacks while Han and Leia fired another volley into the speeder. Somewhere along the way his speeder got hurt more. Phil began constructing a fodder wall to prevent Luke reaching it next round and used his Han and Leia to return fire on my Han and Leia. The next round or two were the most frantic of the whole tournament, everyone got involved; Reeiken, Dodonna, Leia, Han, Commando, Speeder, Uggies Luke and mice. It felt like the Tantive IV in the beginning of a New Hope and it was just a blur. I threw a grenade on the fodder screen hitting the speeder and clearing about 2-3 pieces of fodder, he started replacing pieces, I think he might have killed leia or Han with the speeder (possibly the ERC?) luke based the speeder, Reeiken hit han, dodonna got an uggie. I won init and killed the Speeder and based Han. Han had a chance to kill Luke but I made both deflect saves. Won init again, smoked Han with luke and ran to base Leia. With leia and fodder left on the board he conceded. Can’t remember what I had left, either han or leia (Crix, ERC dead) and the other stuff.
The match was very frantic and what won it for me was Luke commando going nuts with attacks, deflect saves and me winning init. Somewhere during the frantic round I was certain I had lost it but Luke had by far his best offensive game of the championship and I pulled it off.
5-1

So I was feeling a bit more upbeat having improved my chances of getting to the top 8, that was until the pairings came down and I was paired up against Eric Frost (Ruhk).
It was another speeder, another good player and another player who had bested me before, this time in the 100 points tourney a day earlier. He was running classic Slow Cannon, 1st seen competitively in the Chicago regionals by Tim Ballard (timmerb123).

Luke SS
Lobot
Han Smug
Leia
Reeiken
Dodonna
Juno

I won map for the 3rd time on the day and he deferred set up so I took my usual spot. He then set up opposite me and unbeknownst to him gave me the chance of levitation commando cannon. He won init and gave it to me and I made the 1st major mistake of the day. The only piece holding the back passenger door open was an uggie and I moved it to the wrong side of the train carriage. This closed the door on the rest of my team, something I didn’t notice. When he spun Dodonna I was well excited to take the ‘free’ LICC. When I tried to levitate Eric pointed out my error and I deflated. It might not have come off, but with a low chance of success you need to make every shot count. I had to spin Dodonna and he moved a mouse to block the speeder as a target. This left me nothing for the ERC and he out activated me so the speeder would not get hit by an opportunist Han. He then moved his fodder pieces out and I started trying to pick them off. He got 1st round gambit and shots were fired in the next round through the center doors. My ERC took some shots on the speeder and perhaps landed one. I had a length of the train shot on Juno with Han, I thought Juno was activated but she had just been turned in a mistake. I managed to get some dmg on the speeder but not before he was able to swoop down the center to base and kill it with a leia volley. I had Luke nearby so when I won init I was able to move 8 and kill the speeder. However, Eric made an excellent move at the end of the round by disrupting Luke with Juno and hitting him twice with Han. This time, Luke made no deflect saves and he died putting me in a points hole. With my cunning cannon gone and being out activated Eric played cleverly and cautiously staying ahead in points and pulling off the win.
5-2

I was mortified and lamented my mistake. I grumbled and groaned until the final positions of Swiss were announced. It got all the way from #21 down to 10th without Tim, Philip and I being mentioned. We were all standing together and the next name out would have missed out. I felt like I was on American Idol.
Unfortunately for Tim, his name was next, and he missed out even more closely than his 11th place finish in 2007. Still, the Jedi Challenge Title was his.

Finishing 7th made me ecstatic and I bundled off to freshen up. A few pints at Hooters later and I still felt hyper for making the 8 so we stopped off at the RAM for a couple more to relax.
Nothing worked I couldn’t stop thinking about my upcoming match with Shinja. I took a shower and tried to kip but only after 4:30 did I get rest.













Up at 8:30 and got changed, picked up the fig bag and set off. Cold in summer through lack of sleep, I kept my hood up until the tea I was drinking warmed me. Every one of the other 7 was there. Final preparations and we’re placed; we each knew who we’d face;

Shinja (Aaron Shockley)

Lukes Speeder
Lobot
Princess Leia
Elite Rebel Commando
General Crix Madine
General reeiken
General Dodonna
Uggie

His map was the Chancellors Starship. I lost to a speeder on the Chancellors starship the night before in the team tourney. However, in a roll that characterized the day for me I won Map choice.
On the train station his speeder was exposed once off the back wall and its maneuverability is limited. Shinja commented that the levitation made it hard to predict my movements which indicated he knew that he couldn’t avoid the shots for too long. Shinja moved off the back rapidly and played center racking up points while I lined up LICCs and shots on his speeder keeping my figures hidden behind doors and using luke to take figure into and out of LOS. I had several volleys but the 13s didn’t come easily and when they hit each was evaded without need for force. Finally, I lined up a LICC on the speeder (Leia Induced Cunning Commando), the 1st shot got through and hit the speeder for 50dmg after DR. He made evade on the second shot the 2nd shot I extended for the shot and he retaliated to kill the ERC. I moved Luke to engage the speeder. That exposed R2 and he took him out as well as Crix and an uggie just before Luke finished the speeder.
The final round was extremely close. He’d killed my only chance of standing in gambit and he stood to gain 5 putting him 2 points ahead and time was done.
Han was 14 away from a door with LOS to the ERC but so was leia. Han moved up, and then Leia spent force to get adjacent, she opened the door and ordered Han to shoo for the kill shot;
I rolled a 5 (hit) followed by Shinja’s evade save … 9.

A game won on the last roll. Shinja was gutted, I was elated; an epic game.

A few minutes respite and then onto the semifinal.
The next match was incredibly interesting. It was Frank Bakers Gungan tank with Yobuck support.


Yoda on Kybuck
CaptainTarpuls
Gungan Shieldbearer
Queen Amidala
3x Gungan Artillerists
R2 Astromech
Youngling
Uggies

I’d heard how he played this, moving the tank slowly keeping Yobuck as the high defense piece that non-accurate shooters had to target. He used Cestas and shield reflects to weaken foes until Yobuck could finish with a gallop and Tow. A clever tactic that would mean one Leia induced opportunist reflect from the shield bearer and Han would die in a gallop.
I won map choice for the 2nd time that day and he deferred set up so I set up in my usual location. He set up kitty corner from me and we rolled for init.
After fodder pieces had been moved he started moving his gungans forward. As most of my figures were near the bottom corner he felt fairly safe moving the gungans onto the top platform. However, as many of my opponents found out, a quick levitation of Han to a door, a mobile shot and retreat and I’d picked off one of his Artillerists. Franks reaction spoke volumes and he quickly repositioned so the shieldbearer protected the rest of his pieces and out Yobuck out front. I had the feeling levitation on the train station caught another victim. Next round more positioning and he ended up taking the center with Yobuck as he looked to start a gallop. His position, with yobuck being the only piece outside the tank, allowed a levitaition Han/leia cannon onto to yobuck that put 90 on him. I won init and contemplating my options I took the twin cunning on yobuck with the ERC putting another 60 on yobuck and leaving him at 10 hp. My aggressive play allowed Frank to counter with a few Cesta volleys that put Han at 10 hp remaining and wounded Leia. I backed up Han and he galloped, finished Leia and ran back to the Tank. Luke and Crix advanced. He towed his shield bearer to Cesta Crix but forgot about disruptive. I had a chance to finish r2 and the shield bearer on the next round but missed both. He continued to Cesta Crix but the disruptive and stealth messed up Franks dmg output. I moved Luke up and set up the ERC for the kill on Yoda. Won init and killed Yoda with a point blank shot with the ERC but my ERC died in the retaliation Crix moved up to take a shot and the rest of my team kept hidden from cestas.
Frank then won init and I think he got confused and thought he could activate 2, towed with r2 and went to take a shot but when he realized he couldn’t Luke sliced up the Queen. Crix finished an artillerist but got himself killed. Luke took a Cesta but it was all for nowt as Luke got init and killed the shield bearer and an artillerist basically sealing the game.

Several things started happening at once, Frank and I shook hands, Jim came over and asked me to write out my squad and told me to roll for the map, Dean congratulated me and Bill was asking for my squad. It was a bit frantic as I tried to get my head around the idea I had made the finals. I began writing down my squad and then Bill came back, declared his reinforcements of a BGD, 2 mice and an uggie and rolled the most important roll of the day…
4
I rolled an 11 and took map for the 3rd time that day, I couldn’t believe my luck.

I finished off my squad list and packed up my stuff in-between people congratulating me and set off to the corner where Jim had indicated we would play.
Bill was already sat in front of the map making sure he sat with the map facing him. I dropped my stuff off and went for a quick toilet break.
My mind was in a state of quiet calm. I’d achieved more than my goal of the top 8, I’d reached the final. My squad performed better than I expected beating 2 of the 4 speeder squads I’d faced and I began to content myself that I had nothing more to achieve. Somewhere between the toilet and the game table my mindset changed. I resolved myself that 2nd wouldn’t cut it. I had the map and I’d been having my share of luck and I decided to put everything out there. I met Frank on the way back and shook his hand as I paced back to the table.

You can follow my commentary with the stream here

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1995266

Bill deferred side choice and I set up in my usual spot. This set up gave Bill fewer options and he was either forced to set up completely hidden but with restricted movement for the speeder or have much greater range but suffer from having the speeder exposed from the 1st turn. He chose the former strategy hiding his speeder on the right side extension bridge.
The 1st round was uneventful. I knew that he couldn’t get gambit without using the speeder and moving his speeder of his back rank would expose it to shots so I sat and pretty much shuffled my pieces, my only significant move was positioning an ughnaught to open a door. Bill spent the 1st round moving his fodder forward carefully keeping out of potential LOS he moved his bodyguard and Lobot across the top of the map opening a door for the path of the speeder to the center. He had to get through 2 doors to get the speeder to the center and the crates across the top prevented the speeder squeezing through to get shots at my pieces. The last movement of the round he brought his speeder off the back rank next to his bodyguard. We then rolled for init which he won.
A minute or so passed as he asked a couple of rules questions about the interaction of Bodyguard, ion gun and mounted weapon. When NickName and Dean confirmed that the bodyguard would take the full dmg given to the speeder and essentially die in one shot he retreated his speeder to safety so that he could develop his pieces safely and have a better shot of getting a good exchange. After he moved that piece back I realized that I could ambush his speeder at the point where he had the two doors to get through which would cause a chokepoint for his speeder if the doors could still be controlled. So I began advancing, I moved General Madine to open the door to the lower platform and made the mistake of opening the front door of the carriage that resulted in the first tense part of the game. Bill kept moving his fodder forward. I levitated my ERC as far as I could with Luke and ran him to the crates within a few squares of ‘chokepoint’. Lobot was near the chokepoint also so I figured speeder or Lobot would give a good points haul. Bill moved a mouse worth points into the gambit area and I took a mobile shot with Han which missed. However, when Leia tried the same she rolled a 20 and netted my 1st points of the game (19 mins). I tapped out and Bill then set up for the shot on Crix (20 mins). He moved Han into position at almost the opposite area from Crix, opened the door in the carriage which Crix was exposed to and let Leia give Han the shot. He needed anything but a 1 and so the shot hit. Losing Crix would swing the game as I would be forced on the offensive and the speeder would be unlikely to surface until I could restore a points lead. Seeing as I was outactivated that would have been very difficult.
However, thanks to Reeiken Crix had Evade so I rolled for what I felt was the game……20.
Phew.
Immediately after that shot, we rolled for init which I won. I moved Crix to a location where I couldn’t get LOS on any other figure and shot the Camassi (22-3 mins in). I hit and Bill failed his save, putting me 8 points up and now with good position as Crix mobiled into a spot safe from Han and the speeder. I began moving more of my pieces up to the choke point and moved the ERC to with 6 of the choke point and opened the door that Crix had left closed. I moved my pieces up along the same platform as Bill continued his steady destruction of door along the other train. I moved my Han and Leia onto the bottom platform and Bill moved his Han to get a cross fire line on the ERC if the doors were open, leia moved to support Han and the speeder came out taking shots on my Han who had moved in front of Leia on the advance, one evaded and one hit putting him at 50 Hp. The speeder based the BGD that had moved forward to stop adjacent shots on the speeder.
This set up a very interesting initiative, Luke Commando and the ERC were in close striking range but the speeder was equally poised to take shots at Han.
We rolled init and Bill won it choosing me to go first (35 mins). My choices at the moment were difficult. My Han was exposed and allowing Leia and the Speeder shots on him would surely be his death, the BDG was causing issues for my ERC who needed to get adjacent to insure dmg. Weighing my options I decided that Luke was my Sac. It would take adjacent hits to insure dmg on Luke due to evade and even then Luke’s deflect could keep him alive possibly for more attacks next round. So I used Luke to move 8 with force and put a one hit kill on the BGD netting no points but offering up Luke as a points exchange for more options (35-36 mins). Bill thought it through and possibly decided that he could get a kill on Luke and retreat before I finished the speeder, it would put it down to the next init. So he based and took 2 shots with the speeder and 2 with Leia (38 mins). Luke Commando deflected one but failed the crucial Deflect (for 30 dmg) putting me behind by 19. The death of Luke was bitter sweet as his death had cleared the path for my ERC to do what he was put in the squad for, smoke speeders. He moved up adjacent and plugged speeder hitting one out of two shots, then Leia followed, hit the speeder which failed its Evade and allowed the ERC to put another 2 hits on the speeder (40 mins). (So I rolled 2 above 13, one above 9 and one above 17 in 5 rolls, not bad). That put the speeder down to 20 HP left. I was hoping to get the speeder down to 50 so that the next init with the ERC would kill it but now it gave me a chance with Han. Bill then moved Lobot out as counter bait for Han and also to hold open a door so that his Han can get some counterfire. With advent of a big init I needed to move R2 into a place for Recon and I also found a door that would hinder General Dodonna and General Reeiken from opening doors for Han (47 mins). This took the Han out for a crucial round and Bill chose not to move him as a result. I took a shot at the speeder with Han but the speeder evaded it (49 mins). This set up the championship initiative. If Bill wins he can keep the speeder alive by either killing the ERC or just shooting and moving. If I won init the speeder would be dead and it would seal the game.
We both set up recon Bill rolled a 7 and I rolled a 20. His next roll was a 14.
Winning initiative allowed me to move with Leia adjacent to lobot with the force and kill him, then letting the ERC finish the speeder needing a 5 or a 9 to hit. The ERC finished the speeder in one activation and still had its turn to go (51 mins).
Bill tried to trap the ERC with an uggie and I to used my R2 override to lock the door Han was trying to shoot through (54 mins). Reeiken then attempted to move to open another door but the ERC killed the blocking ughnaught, retreated and locked a 2nd door (58 mins) leaving Han with one Leia inspired Han shot on my leia (59 mins). Leia used the force and evaded the blow with another 20 roll essentially sealing the game at 60 mins.

A great game for me that was punctuated by 4, 20 roll on crucial rolls.

I was exhausted but incredibly elated and the next 24 hrs were just a blur as the combination of exhaustion and elation produced a weird high that persisted through my 1st wedding anniversary celebrations.

In summary, the significant rolls seemed to go my way during the 10 matches. I’ve always said you need a mixture of skill and luck to win these big tournaments and this is a great example of it. You build and play yourself into positions where the luck decides your fate. The anti-speeder gimmick worked when it needed to but I think the real MVP of my squad for the tourney was Luke and his levitation. He allowed the Han Cannon great flexibility so that Han was seldom left in LOS at the end of the round, giving Han great movement and even greater survivability than the speeder squads give. Not only did Luke add this extra dimension to the Han Cannon but his power output served as a very solid threat once people were drawn forward. Lukes distinction as a Commando allowed easy addition of the ERC and General Madine for the anti-speeder. The ERC functioned as a fantastic low cost secondary threat and tech piece and Crixs disruptive was very important in a few matches.

The tourney was a blast. Everyone I played against was cordial and a lot of fun to play. It was very smoothly run and I give a lot of thanks to Jim Fraizer and Deam Miller for ensuring that it was so much fun.

Can’t wait to have a go at it again!!!!

Happy Gaming

Fingersandteeth

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 Post subject: Re: The Championship Run
PostPosted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:56 am 
Imperial Dignitaries
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Great write-up, Deri! However, in your finals match vs Bill, your Han took the shot at Lobot (who evaded it) rather than at the Speeder.

Congrats on the championship win! :)

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 Post subject: Re: The Championship Run
PostPosted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:35 pm 
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thereisnotry wrote:
Great write-up, Deri! However, in your finals match vs Bill, your Han took the shot at Lobot (who evaded it) rather than at the Speeder.

Congrats on the championship win! :)


Ahh, Thanks Trevor. That makes more sence to the move Bill was telling me i missed after the game. I should have used Crix to disrupt Lobot before the shot. Could've been big if i lost Init.

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 Post subject: Re: The Championship Run
PostPosted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:51 pm 
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fingersandteeth wrote:
I grumbled and groaned until the final positions of Swiss were announced. It got all the way from #21 down to 10th without Tim, Philip and I being mentioned. We were all standing together and the next name out would have missed out. I felt like I was on American Idol.
Unfortunately for Tim, his name was next, and he missed out even more closely than his 11th place finish in 2007. Still, the Jedi Challenge Title was his.

10th in 2007, actually. :D I think I might have traded the Jedi Challenge title for just being a top eight finalist. Oh well - all I have to do is improve one more place again.

fingersandteeth wrote:
Finishing 7th made me ecstatic and I bundled off to freshen up. A few pints at Hooters later and I still felt hyper for making the 8 so we stopped off at the RAM for a couple more to relax.
Nothing worked I couldn’t stop thinking about my upcoming match with Shinja. I took a shower and tried to kip but only after 4:30 did I get rest.


I'll add that at the Ram we brainstormed a few new TILE design ideas to share with Mapmaker, on bar napkins, slightly stained with beer.

Back at the room Deri still wouldn't go to sleep. We had to practically brow beat him into sleeping. Our other roomie Mark was teaching him Magic at 4am. We're all gaming addicts - no doubt about that!


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