Just want to first say, thanks for putting me and Jason up for the night so we could play in your guys' regional! We both had a great time, and I'm proud of our 6th place/7th place showing (yes I outranked Jason in this tournament, thank you very much Bill
) at the event.
All last week, I tinkered with the idea of a crazy squad design that I am keeping close to the chest for the time being because I may still pull it out at another upcoming tournament and don't want too many people to see it before it hits the table. However, as we were driving down there (about 5-6 hour trip one way) we were detoured around I-24, which added an hour to the drive. It was somewhere during this slow, rigourous trek across 2-lane highway traffic that I decided going so far, I shouldn't goof around.
So I pulled out my "Netdeck 2010" squad, which is basically fingersandteeth's Chicago regional winning squad:
50 Han Solo, Galactic Hero
45 Mara Jade, Jedi
29 Ganner Rhysode
27 Lobot
23 Anakin Solo
12 Gha Nackt
09 General Dodonna
03 ugnaught Demolitionist
02 Mouse Droid
Map- Ravaged Base
Last week, at the Owensboro regional, I ran a Camaasi instead of the Ug/Mouse combo. This time I put it back to Deri's build, just to see if there was any difference. Well all I can say is that in a field of 30 players last week, I finished 10th and this week in a field of 23 players, I finished 6th. You be the judge.
Game 1 vs. Jarred, who had Vader LotF, Thrawn, Cad Bane, Moff Nyna, Storm Commando, Mas.
We played on Ravaged Base and I set up outside (which is where this squad wants to start, honestly). It was pretty straight forward. I outactivated even without reinforcements, and so I brought in a couple of R7's and 3 Mice (this was a standard default reinforcement for me through most of the games I have played with this squad). I levitated Mara up to hit Cad, lost Mara, and then let Anakin UtF a couple of times. After that it was Vader against my entire NR build (sans Mara, of course). The guy who played the squad was very cool the whole game and I was pleased to see him walk away with the sportsmanship award.
1-0
Game 2 was vs. Shadow Stormtroopers with Moff Nyna, filler
On Bespin, this guy didn't have Ozzel, and so I simply outactivated him. I could tell he was probably a newer/less experienced player, and for the first time in a long time, I had to refrain from giving my opponent strategic advice because it was an advantage for me either way. He had Mara at 20 and missed an attack with Scourge Vader, but didn't reroll with a Force point. Telling him this, even to be helpful, would have just put Anakin into play, and so I didn't say anything. It was a tough call.
2-0
Game 3
This was against Graham. I'm not going to lie, the guy just outplayed me, and I relied too much on Dodonna. If I had not, I would have won. I had 2 chances to finish off Rex and I blew both of them because I didn't want to activate 2 characters. It was an important reminder that being able to choose 1 doesn't mean I should always do so.
2-1
This game was against David Weeks on Muunilist. Now, before I go any further, I want to explain my thought process (I know Dean is reading this one!) Anyway, I brought a bunch of different reinforcements with me for this tournament. I wanted to test some different ideas, different strategies. Weeks brought Yobuck and Plo Koon (the new one) with Rex. Most of my games were being decided in the first six rounds, so I figured this was a good time to test the MTB. All I had to do was win initiative in the first 4 rounds, kill Yobuck, kill Rex, and then either the game would be won, or Mara would die and I would UtF to kill the MTB. I figured, what the heck?
Total mistake, coupled by another mistake. He towed up Yobuck, and I could have levitated Mara but I miscounted the squares and so I activated Han instead. Then I realized what I had done wrong. She could have based Yobuck AND assaulted! Doh!!
Because of my blunder, he was able to run to the back row and take out all of my MTB fodder. I went on to lose both Han and Anakin, and eventually died to my own foolishness. I will never again field the MTB in a major event as part of this squad. When Anakin died I could hear Dean scream, "No exit strategy!" in my head. LOL
2-2
Game 5
Well at this point I knew I was out of contention for top 4, so I just went back to auto-pilot. I figured I'd either face someone having a tough day, or a good opponent who just had a rough pair of breaks. Turns out I got paired against someone who seemed to be right in the middle of that combination. THe kid had Twilek Black Sun Vigos with Grand Admiral Thrawn, Imperial Gov. Tarkin, Ozzel, Xizor, and a pair of Czerkas. I used Han to kill one of the Czerkas, then sent Mara running after the TBSVs. He conceded when I killed the last one.
3-2, 6th place
Good enough to get 2 boosters, so I was happy. Jason finished 7th with Mandos. I'll let him tell you about that. Both of us only lost games to the top 4 winners, so I felt pretty good about that.