I’ll apologize in advance for the length of this. I had fun writing it up.
Well, I ended up deciding to go with Deri’s squad from Chicago. My first thought when I saw his squad 2 weeks ago was “Oh wow, that’s awesome and looks like a TON of fun!” I just hadn’t looked at NR a whole lot yet, because I didn’t have Ganner. So, I had to borrow a Ganner to play it, lol, but more on that later.
So, my squad was same as Dennis posted for his, but I kept the Ugo and Mouse Droid in the squad itself.
My first game was against Corey, one of the Owensboro guys, running a Rebel squad, which I’m very familiar with. It was similar to what I played in Chicago, just with another ERC instead of Juno and some activations (so squad had Luke RC, Han Smug, Crix, ERCx2, etc.). So I knew well how to play against it. We played on Ruined Base, with me starting on the outside. The first round or 2 was mostly positioning, but in round 3 I think, he made a slight error, and gave me the chance to levitate Mara around to a spot where I could easily assault an unactivated Han Smuggler and kill him. Han tried to off Crix to take away his Cunning and missed his 2nd shot by 1 (a running theme with Han throughout the day, lol). I made a critical error at one point, in that I moved Anakin up the central hallway, because the middle door was locked. I won the next init and had Mara Assault and kill Luke, and then on Corey’s turn, he wisely blew the door open, and then an ERC easily dispatched Anakin with Cunning +20. Oops! I had positioned Anakin there expecting Mara to survive not too much longer, but I learned a valuable lesson in advancing Anakin too soon, lol. Han finally finished off Crix at that point though, and I started the mop up, with Corey only having one ERC and his commanders/activations left at that point. He played a good game, and I told him afterwards that honestly the only mistakes he made were to have Han so far forward in his squad, and then he left Princess Leia in the background the entire game and never used her nice +7 to shoot at anything. Other than that though, good game! Lobo 1-0
Round 2 was against Graham from Atlanta with his Yobuck squad, with Panaka, Rex, Dash, and Ferus. We played on Ruined Base, and he started on the outside. This was a tough match. I brought an R7, an Ugo and 5 Mouse Droids I think for Reinforcements. I used a tad bit of bait in the form of Lobot to get Yoda under Han’s Disruptive, but my rolling kept me from fully capitalizing on it after that point. I made some really fun moves though, like using Ganner’s Force Push 2 to move Yobuck 2 squares and into one of the turbolifts. Looking back at it now, I probably should have just Overrided him into the room altogether, and really given myself a chance to go after the other pieces. But I thought I could finish Yoda off with a won init on the next round. But I lost that next init, and Yoda activated, keeping Mara from being able to kill him. So I chose to have Mara go kill Dash instead, who had closed to within 6. Han and Ganner tried to finish off Yobuck, but I missed 2 out of the 4 attacks I think, leaving Yoda alive till the next round. I was able to finish Yoda off, but by then, R2 had towed Rex into the fray, and he immediately blasted Han out of existence. At that point, Mara was down to only 40 HP or so left thanks to Ferus’ hitting all his attacks, and me failing at least 1 block. Rex made quick work of Mara and his R2 locked my Anakin into a room, sealing away my last chance to win. We then realized that it didn’t matter who won the next init. If I went first, I had to take my 1 activation to open the turbolift door first, and then Graham could just re-lock it and kill my R7. If Graham went first, he just killed my R7 and that was it. So at that point it was over. Lobo 1-1
This match was against the squad Madman played in his 4th round: Gen Skywalker, JWM x3, Cmdr Ahsoka, Dark Woman, R2 Astromech, R7, and Mas. We played on his Muunlist map. I brought in an R7, a Felucian, and 3 Mouse Droids for this game. He set up in the room and used Dark Woman’s Phase to move her into gambit on the first round, which was a solid move against most opponents, but not my squad. I levitated Mara forward, and ran to base TDW and hit her for only 20 I think. Then I won init and assaulted to finish her off. He advanced the rest of his squad across the top rooms, while we played door games and I tried to funnel him the direction I wanted. He managed to get one JWM all the way behind my squad and used some Momentum/Rolling Cleave to wipe out Dodonna and some of my activations, but while he was doing that, I was busy killing another JWM and then levitating Mara to go try and kill Gen Skywalker. Here’s where I started to get worried, as Mara did a Cunning Assault on Gen Skywalker and I rolled a 5, 4, 1, and 1, lol. Luckily the 5 and 4 were hits and he didn’t chose to LS Defense those. But not what I expected, haha. So I had to wait till the next round to finish off Han and then go after Ahsoka. Meanwhile, Han did pretty decent this game and killed R2 in one shot, and put 30 on a JWM. Force Push was fun this game too, as I didn’t have to worry about Momentum, and was able to force the JWMs to blow FPs on Assault instead. My Felucian even got his Force Blast off on a JWM who failed his save, lol. The Felucian finally died, and Mara came back out to the middle to help deal with one of the JWMs, while Ganner levitated Anakin in to hit Ahsoka and the last JWM with Unleash. From there, it was simple mop-up. Lobo 2-1
Round 4 was a fun game with Seth, aka Disturbed1, which he already described. I’ll write about it too though, as I remember a couple things he didn’t mention. We played on Ruined Base, and I started on the outside. I ran the Muun Tactics Broker and 6 Mouse Droids for my reinforcements, and that just did him in. With the MTBs guarantee for init, I made the semi-risky move at the end of Round 1 to levitate Han up front, and run all the way up to the central hallway door. Win init with the MTB, pop Jag since he didn’t benefit from Wedge’s CE, and then move back 6 to be just within the room above the hallway. Granted, Han was still adjacent to the door, so Dash was still able to shoot him, but needed those 13s now, and I think he missed all or I evaded the ones that landed. At the end of the round, he had Mara in the turbolifts for gambit, and I levitate my Mara around to Twin for 40. Then won init via MTB again and Cunning/Assault = dead Mara. He brought out Kyle to do the Grenades on my Han/Dodonna, which was a very nice on his part, as I was stupid enough to leave Dodonna there, haha. I got semi-lucky on the rolls though, and then I used Han and his Disruptive to put some damage on Kyle, and then Ganner Levitated Mara back into the hallway, and locked the door behind Kyle, sealing him in with my whole squad. I won init again and finished off Kyle. He blew the door, and shot Mara as described before, and killed her, but by then I had the game firmly in hand. I thought it was quite awesome of Seth that he played the game out just so I could use Unleash the Force, lol. Lobo 3-1
Going into the final game, and this was one of the few squads I had seen earlier in the day that I really dreaded having to play. Honestly, all said and done, I shouldn’t have made it into the finals, Brandon should have. I just got lucky. We played on Ruined Base, and Brandon had a decent build, at least as a counter to mine I thought, with Lord Vader, Mith’rawn, Ozzel, Lobot, and a ton of activations. He started with 20 thanks to Lobot. I went with the 10 Mouse Droids route for my Reinforcements, hoping to keep things as even in activations as possible. But Brandon rolled his magic 6 for Reserves on the first round, and brought in an RPT and an Evo Trooper, giving him a solid advantage. I knew I was in trouble. I started the 2nd round by moving Han into a position where he could start picking off activations, but I made a crucial mistake in separating him too far from Anakin and some of my other pieces. At the end of the 2nd round, Brandon was able to move his Caamasi 12, swap in Vader, and then Assault my Anakin and Gha Nachkt, getting a solid lead in points. Honestly, at this point, he should’ve had the game won. I lost the next init, and thought I was surely sunk. But Brandon decided to be gutsy and go for more points, and moved to kill my Lobot. This allowed me to reposition Han and trap Vader under Disruptive, and then Assault with Mara and hit twice with Ganner. I then lost the next initiative (this was a running theme, and made me wish I had used the MTB, lol), and Vader did an Assault on Mara, landing a Critical in the midst of it all. Here the luck turned in my favor, and I made my Block save on the crit, and on my turn, I dropped Vader to 10 HP with Mara, and then Ganner finished him off with a FP. From that point on, I went into clean-up mode. Ganner moved to the lower door of the room, and did his “None Shall Pass!” work for the rest of the game. Between him and some Mouse Droids, I effectively blocked anything else from coming in that way. Han made easy work of the RPT and Evo with Accurate/Cunning, and though the Geno tried to harass me a bit, he missed a couple key attacks. I managed to come out on top. But as I pointed out before, if Brandon had simply swapped out Vader after killing my Anakin/Gha, he would’ve been up by 35 points, making a VERY uphill battle for me at that point, that I honestly don’t think I could’ve won. Particularly funny about this game, was that even with my Han nerfing Master Tactician, Brandon still won nearly every initiative, lol. Anyways, Lobo 4-1 and into the Top 4!
Semi-finals against Greg from Atlanta, running Kyle, Mara, Dash, Jag, Ganner, Dodonna, and filler. We both had ruined base, and he started on the outside. Since I out-activated him, I brought in MTB/Mouse Droids again, and it was the MVP of this matchup once again. We positioned mostly in Rounds 1 and 2, with my Han failing his shots by 1 again (rolled a 5, needing a 6) while trying to off Greg’s R7. The end of Round 2 was where I made my first strike though. Greg thought he’d counted things out, and I thought he had too at first, but then I found a way to levitate Mara, and run her 6 to base Dash. An assault and good enough rolling later, and Dash was dead. I won the next init thanks to MTB, and had to decide whether to go after his Mara or Ganner. I finally decided that I could base Ganner and put myself 8 squares from either Mara or Kyle (meaning my Mara would survive till next round), which I decided was more tactically sound. Barring bad rolls, I would take away his movement breaker, and even if I did roll bad, hopefully Han could shoot Ganner to finish off the last 10-40 HP. But I made the rolls and Ganner died. Greg continued to play semi-defensive even after this, and left his Mara at range, shooting to put 20 on my Mara, and then Kyle used Lightning. I won the next init again, and went for the kill on Mara, but made the dreaded missed attack roll, and she was left alive with 20 HP. He killed my Mara at that point, but by then, I knew I had it. Ganner then levitated Anakin into the Fray, who had 6 or 7 FPs by now, and he was able to do an Unleash that hit everything in Greg’s squad except his R7. It killed Mara, Dodonna, his Caamasi, and any Ugos that were left, and put 30 on Jag and Kyle. Han then finished off Jag and put some more damage on Kyle. At this point, I think Greg knew he was done, so instead of trying to kill Anakin, he tried to distance himself and just get points by killing my fodder that had advanced. But I won the next init again, and Han put 60 on Kyle, followed by another Unleash the Force to finish the game. On to the finals!
I certainly won’t lie at this point. I REALLY hoped Daniel Stephens was going to win the game against Gray. The game went really back and forth, and it seemed like Dan had a good chance at a couple points. But I honestly knew I had a much better chance against Dan’s squad than against Gray’s, simply because I had just beat Greg’s nearly identical squad, and had beat Disturbed1’s similar build earlier in the day, with both of those wins coming thanks to the MTB. And I figured that tactic would work well a third time. But alas, it was not to be. As were several other things over the next hour, haha.
The game against Gray was intense beyond belief. We played on Ruined Base and he took the inside. I went with R7, Ugo, and 5 Mouse Droids for reinforcements this time, and looking back, I really wish I had gone with 7 Mouse Droids and 2 Ugos. I was scared of his potential for Triple Override via Lobot’s reinforcements (which is what he did), and I thought I wanted Double-Override myself. But looking back at it, I could’ve had one more activation, and it would’ve made a nice difference, especially in Round 2. And I would’ve had 3 Ugos, which probably would have been plenty enough to blow the doors I needed to in order to pull off a win. Hindsight 20/20.
Anyways, Gray wisely let me get first round gambit without trying to get it himself, since the only way he could was to somewhat expose the Speeder, and a lost init at that point would mean Mara would annihilate it. Maybe that’s what happened against Daniel, as the Speeder and Mara were dead kind of quick in that game, haha. In the 2nd round, I decided that the game would likely just become a stale mate, and he had already activated the Speeder, Leia, and the Bothan, so I started to press my charge. My Han moved up and shot his Han, and he failed his Evade, and I had to leave my Han in the open in order to open the lower door of the middle room, so Ganner could levitate Mara the next round. Here’s where my luck really started to change, though I didn’t notice it yet. His Han shoots back at my Han and rolls a crit, and I fail my evade. OUCH! (This is where it occurs to me that having that ONE more activation would’ve let me wait till after Han had activated…oh well) Ganner then runs up directly behind Han and levitates Mara out into the middle hallway, and then she runs 12 to put herself squarely in the middle of Gray’s squad, where I had options to Assault just about anything I wanted. I win init and Mara moves 6 into position where she can hit both Han and Leia with Assault, and thanks to my Han’s hit the previous round, manages to drop both of them. Gray makes a solid move here and instead of worrying about Mara too much, he moves his ERC to fire on Han with Cunning, and he hits both shots, and I fail my 2nd Evade. Not the end of the world though, or so I thought. From here though, Gray starts hitting like every single attack roll he launches, lol, putting 40 on Ganner and dropping Mara to 60 left by the end of the round. He tried to keep the Speeder somewhat away from Mara, and thought she had to move 7 to Assault the Speeder, while I’m looking at it from my side and thinking “Nope, I can move 6 this way. Sweet, he doesn’t realize that.” Well, of course, the inevitable happens next. I roll an 18 for init, and you guessed it, he rolls a 19. Even without Rieekan’s Recon. He moves his ERC to base Mara, and then combines fire with Rieekan on the first shot and Dodonna on the 2nd one. At that point, I only had Ganner and Anakin left, so I go for broke, levitate Anakin up, and he moves to the middle of Gray’s squad for an Unleash that puts 30 on Crix and the Speeder (after a failed FP re-roll! Darn!), but most importantly, kills the Bothan. Gray can’t do much else this round, and I know, that if I can win the next init, I’ve still got a shot, as I could do unleash again and finish off Crix, maybe get the ERC, and hit the Speeder again too. But I lost that init as well, and his ERC annihilated Anakin, leaving me with no options at that point, with a 70 HP speeder and ERC vs. my 60 (or maybe less by then?) Ganner. So with a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us, I conceded. Great game!!!
So overall, it was an absolutely awesome day. I sort of was hoping Gray would just concede at the very beginning of the game, since it was my birthday and stuff, but I guess it would've helped if I told him it was my birthday and that I was expecting him to give me the 1st place win for a birthday present.....
Seriously though, just like last year, I am SO glad I made the trip to Owensboro and see everybody there, and get to play some awesome games. The competition was much better this year, I thought, and it seemed like a lot of people have really improved their playing and squad building since last year. I met some new folks, and got to see some I knew from before, so it was very cool.
Once again, congrats to Gray for building a solid squad and running it superbly well. You're the only Regional winner so far for 2010 who was completely undefeated, and that definitely says something. I look forward to a re-match or at least a chance to redeem myself at GenCon.