Well, i tend to play a lot of TileWars. Being good friends with the creators helps and sometimes when we don't fancy playing a 2 hr 200 pointer or whatever (we tend to play games to the end) we end up with TileWars as our substitute. Through my playing i've found that the NR are beasts by having the strongest disruptive in the game. Commander Effects can get pretty ridiculous in TileWars so Kyle Katarn JBM tends to make everything honest, which is why i call this squad
Mano a ManoKyle Katarn JBM
Han Galactic Hero
Mara Jade jedi
Ossus Guardian
General Wedge Antillies
There are obviously other tricks to this squad. Han Galactic hero prevents Master Tactician issues, MTB issues and any recon. It makes virtually any initiative (except Anticipation) 50/50. Mara is your one turn Kill that allows this squad to function with so few members. Han picks off Priests, Shapers, Czerkas, Droid Officers, Geonosians and any other weak commander that dares to stay in LOS. The Ossus is a brickhouse that prevents targeted force powers and takes a hell of a lot of killing so he is a great door opener not too mention a help against other jedi squads. Wedge is the sole commander effect that aids in keeping Kyle , Mara and the Ossus from taking too much dmg from the opposite Back Ranks.
I played on the Broken Edifice.
My 1st game was against a Kid who built a Grievous DAC droid squad. He brought a
Huge Crab Droid
Grievous DAC
2 super battle droid commanders
2 Super Battle Droid
Security Battle Droids
Geonosian Overseer
BDO
There were probably some other stuff. The pillars and my set up ensured the Crab Droid would not get twin or onto my square. Mara assaulted the crab droid very early putting 120 on it. Han took out the overseer but it took him 2 shots so the BDO was kept alive. Kyle Assaulted and killed the Crab droid as well as a security battle droid. The droids started returning fire and Kyle took a decent amount of dmg. I then ran the Ossus forward to kill another Battle Droid and he took the fire. Wedge took a shot on the BDO. His grievous was able to get a shot on Mara. The next round the carnage continued with Han picking off 2 30 hp droids and Mara finishing off another couple. Soon it was Grievous v almost my whole team. Kyle got involved assaulting Grievous and took a couple of hits but riposted one. Next round Mara finished Grievous and it was all done.
The next round I was against Jason Alvey who played a fearsome looking T1 swarm he had called “Beef”
Grievous DAC
4 X t1
A bgd droid?
IG droid?
Geonosian Overseer
BDO
This was a frightening match up that was made easier by 2 things, his main dmg dealers were large and positioning my ossus 2 squares directly behind the front pillar meant that the T1s couldn’t squeeze past a character on my square. I moved the Ossus with my 1st move and he spun he overseer and BDO to make life hard for Han. Mara moved up and assaulted one T1 and Kyle moved up to finish it. Mara took a hit from a T1 in return but blocked the one that landed whereas Kyle took a 40 dmg hit and riposted. Han took two shots to take out the Geonosian and give the T1s at the front single attacks. The T1s started Lifting each other around spreading the dmg so that It was Hard for Mara and Kyle to finish the remainder. After another T1 went down Kyle bit the dust after a few more hits and a failed evade save after grievous’s Gun. Han moved forward to put the front row in his disruptive field and Mara started using hit and run assaults to finish the remainder of the T1s. Han plugged away at the back support finishing the BDO and finally starting to lay into grievous with some good rolls. A cunning twin from Mara.
My 3rd round match up I faced a NR squad with similarities to mine but no Kyle.
Mara Jade, Jedi
Kol Skywalker
Dash Smuggler
Ossus?
Can’t remember much from the game, I went after Mara 1st, trying to avoid contact with Kol until his big killer went down. Kyle got a decent grenade off to begin with and the ossus set up a block for when the jedi tried to run past they got hit with his JH twins. I feel quite embarrased for my memory failing me in this one as it was a tense game.
The Dice worked in my favor and I pulled off the win.
Last Match was against Mark Sparks. He had a Mando Accurate Canderous Cannon squad.
Boba Merc Commander
Canderous Ordo
Mandalorian Captain
Madalorian Quatermaster
2 x mandalorian Scouts
Mandalorian Gunslinger
This match was really pretty back and forth. I set up so that I could rush his square fast and I think my first move was to move up Kyle and grenade a cluster that disrupted most of his pieces dropping Canderous to 3 shots. Still he lit up my people with Boba with Han taking 60. Mara moved up and assaulted the 2 scouts; Han may have landed a shot on one of the captains. I won init, and feeling comfortable about where I was at and took 2 AoOs with Mara to assault Boba. 2 crits later and Mara was down to 30 hp. She finished Boba but Ordo finished her off. My ossus moved up to take Fire from Kyle whilst han tried to land shots on the Captain and quartermaster. Han didn’t last too much longer and nor did my Ossus as the last couple of rounds saw Kyle and Wedge v Ordo, the quartermaster and the captain. Kyle and wedge finished off the captian and moved up to base ordo who had to move to get one shot. The round ended with Kyle and Ordo based Kyle at 100 and Ordo at 120. He won init and layed into Kyle but rolled appaulingly (6,5, 8). Kyle tripled, won init and tripled killing ordo without taking any dmg. The rest was mop up.
4-0
I won some boosters for my troubles
The TileWars tourney was a blast to play in coming across pretty interesting build concepts seen all over. It was always a frantic game with decent amounts of strategy and carnage as you’d expect.
The timing issues with TileWars was unfortunate. Without pointing fingers, the team tourney started late (where it had 4 hours to complete the scheduled 3 rounds) and that pushed the TileWars tourney start back as many people (myself included) had entered into both tournaments.
As a general Point to note; tourneys over the weekend ran long. The epitome of it for me was the 6hrs the 100 point tourney took on Friday. I don't blame Jim, Ray or Dean or any of the judges because handing in slips is down to the players and the return of the following round pairs is due to the people on the stage behind the computer. There is no doubt in my mind that the rate limiting step of processing the tournament occurred between submitting results and getting them. If results take 30 mins to come back, its not acceptable. Perhaps the stage is not where SWM results should be processed. A laptop operating from the league table with the correct software is all that's required to run these tourneys and if the stage isn't quick enough there is no reason it can't be taken care of by people closer to the events.
Even with TileWars starting when it did it came as a shock to me that it lasted until 3-3.30 as games several games seemed to take far longer than was expected. Peoples play speed seems to be an increasingly larger issue in all formats but I was particularly surprised to see it emerge in a format that is lauded for its quick matches. I think you just have to take the time down to 45 mins and leave it at that. Some games will just go that long but an hour for the game is ridiculous.
Still, 27 players is awesome for the format particularly with the conflicting time issues detracting from its players base.
With more tiles the format can only grow.
Here's to the continued success of this frantic TileWars format and a better temporal fit to next years GenCon!!!