8 players. - I think 1 Rebel, 1 Scum, 6 Imperial (various trooper builds)
First, the build-
Luke
Leia
eSaboteur
eSaboteur
Gideon
C3P0
Targeting Computer
Balance of the Force
On a Diplomatic Mission
Couple of things:
Leia- I was going back and forth over Leia and Echo Troopers. I ended up flipping a coin in the car on the way over and the choice was Leia. She ended up being a huge reason why I won, but still not 100% that she's better in that slot than EBT.
Balance of the Force- I had 2 Targeting computers and my command deck was at 15 points. But, I wanted to add Maximum Fire power. So- essentially, I chose Maximum Firepower over Targeting Computer.
Command Deck:
Son of Skywalker
Maximum Firepower
Squad Swarm
Lock On
Inspiring Speech
Slippery Target x2
Explosive Weaponry
Negation
I Can Feel It
Dead-eye
Take Imitative
Urgency
Hard to Hit
Element of Surprise
I didn't take notes on any of these matches, so, it's only what I can remember. Sorry-
Match 1- Al - running Troopers w/ HKs - Cantina Gossip
He has initiative and places up next to the Cantina. I set everyone except 2 Sabs to go up the side. He gets early VP and sends about 1/2 of his troops each direction. I move Luke / Leia up to the terminal and set up for round 2 and use the two sabs at the bottom to take out 1 Trooper and contest the other terminal. Second round between Luke, Leia, Sabs I clear most of the Cantina, at the bottom of the map, the sabs shoot and run, and one popped off a Slippery Target to survive an extra turn. MVP- C3P0 saved Leia from a lot of damage. 41-20 something
Match 2- James- Troopers w/ Kayn - Incoming Transmission
Why command cards win games. James wins initiative and chooses the tile with the pit. I set 2 Sabs next to the door and everyone else at the middle door. Game starts kind of waiting to see who will be the first to open the door. He has an officer and a group of troopers at the door. Even if he opens it first, I don't think I am going to go in anyway. Then he plays Kayn's card- so, that cleared up any doubt I had. I moved Luke down to the middle terminal, then Leia next to him (I think I took out 1 trooper), he moved to the bottom objective, and had a heavy trooper at the 3rd objective. In my hand I was holding Explosive Weapon, Massive Fire Power, and Squad Swarm--- and all four Sabs on that tile. At the bottom next to the objective he had 4 troopers in an L shape and a heavy trooper next to the objective. I took a bit to decide- did I want to take down the Heavy Trooper or go for the group- I went for the group- none of my Sabs were focused (I focused Luke and Leia round 1). So, I got initiative round 2- he didn't take---- First Sab moves down- I play Explosive Weapon- roll 1 surge... next sab, kill one, other 3 have 3 damage each- Squad Swarm- next sab finishes off the 3 troopers at the bottom (or maybe there was one left- don't remember)- last sab takes down the Heavy Trooper with Massive Firepower. Even before the errata, not sure I had such a decisive play with sabs. That left a bad taste in James' mouth.... and I don't blame him, I'd feel the same way. He hit Leia pretty hard, so, I shot and ran with Leia and Luke. Game was still somewhat in the balance, he made a run at killing Gideon and trying to steal the last objective, but thanks to a slippery target a sab moved and blocked his path. MVP- Sabs 40- don't remember
Match 3- Jason- Trooper swarm /w officer support - Cantina Weapons
Jason is a pretty good player and I don't think I can win this one. I started with Initiative- and choose the cantina entrance. A weakness of troopers is their 4 movement. Between that, and Luke / Leia / Sabs 5 movement, I was able to capture 3 of the objective tokens. The cost was he was able to eliminate Leia at the start of turn 2. I was able to take out 1 trooper group for 9 points, and had two other groups down to 1 figure left. But couldn't kill off the last one without risking losing Luke or a Sab (he had taken out one of each of the sabs groups). At the end of a round he had moved his objective carrier (snow trooper) up to try and take down Luke and failed. I moved Luke up and killed the snow trooper. Grabbed the token- which allowed me to get 20 VP from the objectives. Originally I thought I had only killed one group, but, I had to kill 2 or the numbers don't add up.But, objective, 2 groups and Gideon FTW. MVP- 20 points from Objective tokens.
Final thoughts- Sabs are still pretty good. Still not sure on Leia vs EBT. I won't be playing the same list in the next Store Championship. No Sabs, No Luke, No Leia. Well, maybe Leia.
Great event, thanks to Jason for running it, Giga for hosting, and the participants for making it a pretty awesome experience.