Had a busy 4 days of playing, visiting, and little sleeping.
Played in the 150 Thur. and went a measly 1-3 with Seps. and 1 lancer...myeh. Mystery Map was fun and went 2-2 one of which was a hilarious game (I sadly lost) where Daniel towed and the hammerhead jedi with R2 and repulsed killing my R2 astro and my Yoda on Kybuck when I missed 2 saves as he headed down the pit, hole, or whatever it was on the mystery map. Really liked my squad that can do a lot and cover a lot of ground. R2 Astro, Mace LOTLS, Yoda Kybuck, 5 x Gungan Artillerists, and Tarpals. Fast, fun, and not a lot of stress, it puts a lot on the opponent and they have to worry so much about the distance I can cover that they can't deal with the Gungans.
Friday was a light day for me and played only in the championships. Went 3-3 with 9 points losing to Bill, Lou, and Tim. At 3-1 with 9 points, I played Lou with the same record and points. I won map (Jabba's Palace) and felt I could win the game. We both played OR but I had more shooters and could cover a lot of ground. It was a great game played very fast with it being over in like 7 or 8 rounds and in about 40 or 45 minutes tops. Lou fell behind early and was behind for much of the game. We both felt I would win for most of the game and the end was not determined until the last 2 minutes. He won 210-182 and had his Bastila down to 20 HP left and a Senator hidden away. At one point mid to late in the match I missed like 4 shots on Bastila needing low numbers and that really proved to be the difference. What a fun game and my chance to make the top 8 (I'd have went to 12 points and 4-1). Next I lost to Tim like 105-48 to finish at 3-3 with 9 points and finished 12th. My highlight was beating Ian's and his championship squad from last year, although I felt bad as his dice rolls were not kind. I played my OR pilot squad I really like and play pretty well of: 2 x mouse, 2 x uggie, Bastila, Kl. Captain, Jaq, Carth, Jedi Battlemaster, OR Senator and a Jedi Diplomat.
Saturday was a long day. I played in the Tile wars going 2-2 with Jar Jar, Mace, Yoda (free re-rolls), HK-47, 2 x gungan artillerist. I like the event and always have fun playing it. Next up was the really fun team Royal Rumble (kudos to Ray for making it the team event) which was full of smack talk, unbelievable rolls and interactions (only possible in this format) and pieces that rarely get played but are fun in the format. Poaching is the key in this format and provides another form of strategy such as making sure you kill someone you attack or do just enough damage so an opponent cannot finish off the piece and steal the points. The Indiana team (Bryan Hole - Dark Dracul, Randy Barker, and myself) started out smoking in our first match finishing at or just outside 1st place. Randy killed well over 400 points out of 900 possible on the board while Bryan killed way over 350 and I killed 351. I played X-1 Viper Droid and Cad Bane, Mace and Ganner, and Mara Jade and Freedon Nadd. In the 2nd match I played a super tight score with Deri and ? (my mind is mush forgive me) with Deri and I scoring 286 each and ? scoring in the low 300's. Bryan scored low and Randy as well as people seemed to gang on them in the 2nd game and we finished actually toward or at the bottom. No matter, it was a lot of fun with smack talk, rum, a late start and finish, and great pictures of the winners (Deri, Ray, and Wes) with the belt. To finish it off, Randy bought the last 10 custom boosters that they had and we played a 4 man sealed of our own until well after 2 AM.
Sunday, way too early after staying up so late. Played in the 500 point Epic event and had fun with 9 or 10 players. The only disappointment was the low number of players. If I had a nickle for everyone that had great ideas for Epic squads and commented about them during the day - well I'd have 40 or 50 cents haha. I do wish people had played in the event as it was fun. We played 3 rounds and amazingly, I won with a 3-0 record beating Jim in the final game which we ended too soon after Jim thought he heard them call time when it was the game group right behind us calling time. I played Separatists: Epic Darth, Proxy to copy his stats, 3 x IG-86's, Grievous for twin and +4/+4, Lancer, Sidious, BDO, IG-88 with Pulse Cannon, X-1 Viper Droid (my MVP), mouse droid, ugnaught demo, R7, Geo Overseer, and T-Series Tactical droid. It was a load and I could block for my entire squad with the X-1 and shooters without accurate had to shoot at their own peril. Learned my lesson before in this format after Bastila shut down my Twin attacks and put in the Geonosian to be sure to get double if that happened and double twin if not interrupted. The X-1 could shoot for +16 at 30 dmg twinning or double twinning if not moving on his own. He could be pawned if need be for another twin, and even after init from the T-Series, move 2 and twin again.
What a fun weekend with special thanks to Ray as usual for running everything and making sure everyone felt included. Thanks to all those volunteering to judge, run the computers, and mass battles and Laura and Jason for the great custom work as well as Eric for his great trophies. Cannot wait until next weekend. Congrats to all the winners and to Jim for the sportsmanship award very rightly deserved. One cool final thing I noticed and noted when it happened: the young player that played all weekend (alas I have forgotten his name but he has played in years past as well) dropped his box and his dice and all went everywhere. Several people instantly got down and helped him pick everything up. I know that seems like no big deal but I really thought it was great how quickly people helped him which hopefully prevented him from suffering any embarassment. What a great group of people.
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