Just attended a great regionals at Epic Loot games in Springfield ohio!

Had 30 guys to start, so the TO upped the rounds to four, and then a final cut for the head to head match up. It was a 12 hour day of armada filled with awesomeness!!

Lots of cool swag and fun toys to add to the armada kit!

After much consternation, I decided to NOT use my bye. It was hilarious, because I earned an 8 and my margin was just like 8 points above the bye level....hehe... BUT, it was fun to play!

No actual recorded stuff so all from my old memory, but here is a rough aar:

My list: Kitted Demo, 4 raiders, Vader, IG88, Boba, 2x TIe advance (19 bid. I always went first)

First ROund: MOn motha, AF, 2x Mc30 (foresight). Host of bombers. Played hyperspace assault. So, I easily outdeployed. Lined up his mc30 for a turn two kill. He hyperspaced between raiders. I killed the hyperspacer mc30, then theforesight with demo. He heavily damaged a few raiders and demo, so I just ran. Lost one tie advanced. 8-2

Second ROund: I had to take my medicine at this point..hehe... I literally have blanked the entire game.. I cant even remember if it was rebs or imps.. Regardless, I got an 8-2

Third Round: Ackbar, 4x corvetter TRC, 2 a wings. Hyperspace assault. I outdeployed again and aimed straight at the nose of the Mc80. He was moving speed 2 and engine teched ahead. I struck on turn one. Killed it on turn two. However, I had to run over an asteroid on the way in causing a structural damage crit. I had to double ram to finish it off so was at one hull left. Unfortunately the fusillade of TRC corvettes finished off Demo. At this point the raiders were outgunned so we just ran! This was a really fun game of maneuver for the last four rounds. Ended up LITERALLY exactly the same score each. 207 apiece (thanks for a great game Bill!)

Round Four: Screed, Demo, Raider, ISD2, 4 ties, 2 firesprays. Contested outpost. I was able to outdeploy with Demo and lined him up for his demo. His demo move 3+1 and got in range. I struck on turn 1/2 and killed it. Then, I had a "mongol circle" formed around his ISD. The demo turned in sharp behind ISD and the outpost. Turn 4/5 killed the ISD. Turn six, had his raider encircled. He had to move into range of someone. My demo had just enough "oompf" to get a side arc turn six shot into the raider. Rolled 2 hits, 2 blanks. rerolled all. I needed 7 with brace and apt to kill it. OE gave me crit, hit, 2 blanks. VADER!! Reroll all but the crit. Got 3 crit/hit, hit Dead raider. hehe... fun game and fun finish. 9-0 (he snagged 4 outpost chits)

After four rounds I was at 30 points. The two head to head were at 31 and 32. So I landed in third with a buddy Nick tied at 30.

Didn't have the energy to hand for the 1030pm head to head game, so no clue who won

It was a great tournament, with lots of great new friends and well run by Epic Loot Games and Jared the TO. Learned some new things and new tricks! Looking forward to the next regional next week!

Mike

Nice! What'd you score!? Prizes, I mean.

Gratz mike! List sounds very intereeting. Were the raiders kitted at all?

Nice! What'd you score!? Prizes, I mean.

Top 8 got 2 Ackbar cards, acrylic turn marker and borders, and translucent dice. The store was great and also gave out some nice playmats that they make as well.

Had a good time and the store adding a unique set of two 3x3 mats for the top eight was a really nice touch.

Drunk tarkin was seriously at my game store??? My local game store. On the one tournament that I was stuck at drill for???? Blah. Out in a tent in 30 degree snowing weather in Indiana. Playing with C4... Missed regionals. Sadface.

Didn't you know that Drill is always on the weekend of something you want to do? I have made 1 store championship because everything else is on Drill weekend.

Drunk tarkin was seriously at my game store??? My local game store. On the one tournament that I was stuck at drill for???? Blah. Out in a tent in 30 degree snowing weather in Indiana. Playing with C4... Missed regionals. Sadface.

Come to Pittsburgh Regionals then.

Drunk tarkin was seriously at my game store??? My local game store. On the one tournament that I was stuck at drill for???? Blah. Out in a tent in 30 degree snowing weather in Indiana. Playing with C4... Missed regionals. Sadface.

Oh come on, you can't be completely sad if you have a chance to play with C4

@Mad - my demo was: IO, OE, APT, ET, the raiders were 2x empty, 1x Vader, 1x Ruthless strategists + impetuous. Did 80ish percent of the killing with Demo. A couple raiders got kills on an Mc30 and one snagged a corvette. The squads were money. They lived long enough to hold up an 8 squad list and against a no squad list did some significant black dice damage.

All in all a great time!

As an aside, must plan for proper hydration....sitting when able....good sleep the night before....snacks in your kit bag....and general energy management. 4 round with a potential fifth in one day is brutal Its like a test of endurance as well as gaming skill! hehe..

@Mad - my demo was: IO, OE, APT, ET, the raiders were 2x empty, 1x Vader, 1x Ruthless strategists + impetuous. Did 80ish percent of the killing with Demo. A couple raiders got kills on an Mc30 and one snagged a corvette. The squads were money. They lived long enough to hold up an 8 squad list and against a no squad list did some significant black dice damage.

All in all a great time!

As an aside, must plan for proper hydration....sitting when able....good sleep the night before....snacks in your kit bag....and general energy management. 4 round with a potential fifth in one day is brutal Its like a test of endurance as well as gaming skill! hehe..

Yes! I knew after round two I was in trouble, but it was a happy sort of misery getting those last two games in.

I figured I'd make my own post about this OH tourney, but McMann did a heckuva job kicking it off I figured I didn't need to waste front page space by starting a new one. Bear in mind these are just observations from one regional event and therefore not presented as some definitive evidence of the global list-building zeitgeist etc. I don't believe there is such a thing. With that out of the way, here are some throwaway observations!

1.) Seemed like 75% of the players were pushing Imperial.

2.) Of them, it seemed like the majority were using some form variation on Rhymerball and either three ships or two ISDs. This observation could be influenced by my own list (2 GSD 1 ISD Rhymerball) and the lists I faced during my four rounds, which follow:

• Two ISD2 xmas trees with Rhymerball.
• Five-ship Demo MSU (DeMSU)
• Two ISD2 xmas trees with Rhymerball
• Three VSD1 with Rhymerball

3) Rhymerball on Rhymerball games made me miss the "fun" Wave 1 days of two mirror Assault Frigate lists swirling each other. For starters, having Rhymer, Intel, Rogue/Non-Rouge, Bomber/Non-Bomber mixed up everywhere is already a real chess match; but when you combine that with the fact that people are trying to play both quickly and precisely for 10+ hours ... by my final game I was nowhere near as willing to be "flexible" with opponents moving their squadrons as I was at the beginning. When all the important rules (Engaged, Rhymer, Intel, Escort) trigger off of being within Distance 1 of a small game piece it makes a huge difference if everything is just being fudged. You can't just eyeball it since often making it into or out of these Distance 1 bubbles is a big deal, and while bumping models is a part of the game, I saw a ton of measuring liberties. I don't blame anyone for this - the game needs to move along and in a Rhymerball vs. Rhymerball matchup where there are a good 24 units to carefully move every turn, many of them shooting nearly every turn thanks to Rhymer, this is a challenge - but I just can't say emphatically enough that if you're going to play a list with so many tiny moving parts you should not be offended if your opponent asks for rulers on the table, etc. Floating a ruler over the top of a two ships and six squadrons furball to estimate a measurement certainly speeds up the game; but if that's all anyone ever does, I have a feeling they also never find that their squadrons end up out of whatever range they're hoping to get to. "It's amazing! My squadrons always had the range to engage the enemy, my intel always hit all the nearby squadrons, and my rogues always made it to within one of Rhymer and medium range of the ship!" Yyyeah, rrright.

The bummer here is that many people take it as an insult or a challenge if their opponent asks for a true measurement rather than a hovering-eight-inches-above-the-table-estimate. It's really not. Rhymerball is all about getting every individual piece working together, and to succeed every piece has to be within Distance 1 of something, so yes, fudging a quarter inch here and there is something you can't do. It messes up the balance of the system if all your Firesprays can move Distance 3.33! As a guy that just played four intense, enjoyable games with a Rhymerball, I say call us out whenever you feel like something looks odd. More importantly, its up to us as players to talk to our opponents while we're moving things around so we can avoid this situation. Telling your opponent, before you pick up the model, "I'm activating this Jumpmaster and my goal is to get within Distance 1 of these three enemy squadrons, I think I can get to here, what about you?" is going to lead to a much better experience than hovering your range ruler over a squadron, putting the range ruler down, picking up a squadron, and placing it somewhere else without saying a word.

4) I forgot a big lesson from the days before Wave 1! For many reasons I won't get into now, some players want to turtle-up. Makes sense, given the list they're pushing and the list their opponents are pushing, to not leave the relative safety of one or two table edges behind them. Cool. Just don't forget as you head into your Regionals that if you see a fat list deploying at speed 1 with a cloud of squadrons and hugging the table edges, nothing says you need to go towards it, particularly when turn 1 starts and they start dropping to speed 0. I played a couple games against this style and had mixed results. Make them come out or take the 5-5 draw. Everything they're doing is within the rules to do and as a matter of fact a completely viable strategy - I lost a game to this style and the player went on to the final tiebreaker for 1st - but playing into their strength by charging into it is what they're counting on. If they want to corner just let them set there and decide how many 5-5s they want to walk away from the tourney with.

5) Where was the Demolisher being propelled by tons of activations (DeMSU)? I know McMann had a version and another guy, but as predicted by some it certainly wasn't everywhere or even prevalent. I'd say the Rhymerball was more prevalent by a long shot.

6) Both players going into the 5th (!!!!!!!) round tie breaker had used a bye. I know there were others with byes who did not make top 8. Do with that info what you will! Depends on the player, I guess. I was certainly burned out bad by that fourth game but I still would not use a bye if I had one.

7) Exhausting but worth it. NY Regionals here I come!

8) Motti, Motti, Motti, Mot-tay everywhere.

Motti, Mot-tay everywhere.

And not a Tarkin to Token...

Since I am able to make it to two regionals, I think I might flip flop and use the bye at the second regional, just to see if I like it or not. I figured I wouldn't use it in Raleigh since the drive to the regional there is a grueling 20 minute slog and I wouldn't have to drive so much after all was said and done.

Sounds like this tournament had a really good turn out, though!

Ugh...that sounds like a tedious tournament. I know you were not trying to depict it that way but I would be pretty bored fighting mirror(ish) lists all day. I really hope the regionals I go to are a bit more diverse but I am sure each one will hold similar patterns with other favorite builds. I suspect the WVA one will have a lot of MC-80 Double Whale Ackbar builds but I am not sure what the NC one will hold. Maybe Caldias can comment on their meta.

Rhymerball v Rhymerball was definitely not tedious. I think intense was the word I used. Would I have liked to have played against a broader mix? Sure, but it's tough for me to complain about facing a Rhymerball if I was playing one too!

Rhymerball v Rhymerball was definitely not tedious. I think intense was the word I used. Would I have liked to have played against a broader mix? Sure, but it's tough for me to complain about facing a Rhymerball if I was playing one too!

I hear you and I was just stating it would be boring for me. My weekly game is usually against a Rhymer ball so I like to play other lists for that reason alone. One of the things I like about Armada is how diverse the lists can be and one of the things I look forward to when playing in outer areas.

Great write up and good points for sure!

Interestingly, I did not face a single rhymer all four games. But you are right, I saw MANY ISD carrier fleets with rhymer swirling around

I didn't want to say the "thing", but you were spot on with loose measuring and flippant maneuvers (which I can be guilty of at times as well) being common. Its a regionals...it needs to be locked up tight with all the ranges/manueuvers, etc.. Agreed on that.

One thing that was a bit troubling also.... players getting 10-0s due to their opponents quitting mid game. Concessions suck. Especially when a personality clash causes a breakdown in communication (read: someone is a ******) and a normal person cant take it any longer and says, "This is a game...youre an ass...bye bye" This, unfortunately happened on a couple occasions I am aware of....and had significant impact on the final standings. While the TO may not have known the details, stuff like this needs to be eradicated. It has a major impact on the results. Has a major impact on the fun level of the those involved with dealing with players like that.....and, leaves a bad taste.....

I had four wonderful opponents. Made friends with all...exchanged numbers.... etc..etc. Great times. There is no reason to be an ass level 10 and cause your opponent to quit just to get a 10-0 concession. Nuff said...

I was at a neighboring table to one incident but I wasn't directly involved so won't throw in any sideline commentary. I was playing my own game, what the heck do I know? All that said, it is terrible to have scores influenced by people dropping for any reason outside of an emergency.

I'm really excited for more Regionals - it was great playing at such a big event and I'd never even met, much less played, any of my opponents before.

I ended up finishing second at this regional, so I'll throw my experience on the day in here. Congrats to Daniel on the win, both of our games were really close, and he piloted his list extremely well in the final game, despite both of us being really tired. Here's my list:

ISD-II

Motti

Ruthless Strategists

ECM

ISD-II

Relentless

Ruthless Strategists

ECM

Rhymer

Dengar

TIE Advanced

TIE Bomber x7

1st Round:

Used my Regional Bye - Check with your TO on how much these are worth before using one. Our TO was using the official FFG tourney software, which put it in as a 9-1. If the tourney is only 3 rounds, or your TO scores it as an 8-2, I probably wouldn't use the bye if I'm trying to win (would probably still use it if I was just trying for top 8).

2nd Round:

I am blanking on my opponent's name, but he was a super nice guy. He was running ISD, naked VSD, Demo, Howlrunner, 2 TIEs, and 2 Interceptors with Vader as his Admiral. Ruthless Strategists absolutely wrecked his squadron force, leaving my rhymerball to pretty much do whatever it wanted the entire game. He flew his ISD and VSD straight at me while Demo flanked the side. The ISD and VSD went down very fast, and his Demolisher managed to take one of my ISD's down. I managed to barely scrape out the kill on the Demolisher during round 6, and with 4 contested outpost tokens, I got a solid 9-1 win.

3rd Round:

This game was against Daniel (the eventual winner for the day). He was running 3 VSD's, all with boosted comms, 1 with Motti, the other 2 with Flight Controllers. His Rhymerball had Rhymer, Dengar, 2 TIE Advanced, 2 Firesprays, and 4 Bombers. We both made one big mistake each during the game. He underestimated the power of Ruthless Strategists, and I had a turn where I shot at his Motti, and then moved, trying to position so that I had a double arc on Motti and also was close enough that he would ram me and have to go back to the same position and I would have the shot next turn. I misjudged the move and ended up only having him in my side arc, which left me with not enough firepower focused on any one ship to kill it. We ended up both realizing on the last turn that neither of us would be able to drop one of the other's ships, so it ended up being a battle of activating bombers to go behind the other guy's ship and try to get superior positions tokens during round 6. No ships died, the game was really close, ending in a 5-5.

4th Round:

So in Tarkin's earlier post, he mentions an "incident" at a neighboring table. That was this game. My opponent was running an MC80 with Engine Techs and 4 TRC90's with Ackbar on one of them, along with 2 A-Wings. He chose Advanced Gunnery as the objective and put it on Ackbar's CR90. The A-Wings managed to kill the TIE Advanced before getting killed by Ruthless, leaving Rhymer and friends to do their work. As to the "incident", it began when my opponent forgot to set one of his CR90 command dials. We played through two ship activations before he realized it when he went to go activate that ship. He wanted to be able to set it then and there, but that seemed not right to me since we had already activated ships, so I told him I would get the judge and ask what the correct thing to do was. This illicited a string of F-words directed at me, and statements like, "I see how it's going to F---ing be. So this is how we're going to f---ing play it." Anyways, the judge came over and ruled that the dial should just stay as whatever it was last turn. It happened to be a concentrate fire, which was probably what he wanted it to be anyways, but despite the call which ended up not hurting my opponent, he remained angry. At this point, I'll mention that I was a huge nerd from a young age, so I got bullied a lot in elementary and middle school. As a grown-ass man who works for himself, is happily married, and has a kid, I hadn't felt like someone was trying to bully me in a long time, and this was honestly the first time I've ever experienced something like this while playing a board game. I stayed calm and didn't let him get into my head and kept playing the game, just with no more friendliness. So later in the round was where it really got bad. On my first activation, I used a squad command, moving Rhymer and 3 bombers down to soften up a CR90 before my objective ship double tapped it. At this point Rhymer has 2 health left so I purposefully measure a different CR90's arc (not the one I'm about to blow up) to make sure that Rhymer ends up only in it's side arc, forcing my opponent to choose between shooting at my ISD or anti-squadron fire. On my opponent's turn, he measures the arc, then "bumps" the CR90, and adjusts it so that Rhymer is now in the front arc. This is when the argument really heats up, because Rhymer is kind of a big deal in a list with 7 bombers, and I had intentionally made sure that this shot didn't exist when I moved Rhymer. Anyways, I get the judge, who ends up saying that since he didn't see it, he could only go off of where the ship was now. I say ok, and my opponent gets to take the shot (which hits). So at this point my opponent is really really ticked off (despite both judge calls seeming to favor him), so I get some more expletives thrown my way. Of course, on my next activation, my sleeve bumps my other ISD, and my opponent starts yelling at me, before I even adjust it back or anything. I tell him he can adjust it back for me if he'd like, but he demands very loudly and with some profanity that we get the judge. Long story short, the judge ends up standing at our table the remainder of the game, which was absolutely fine by me. I finished killing 3 of the 4 CR90s and both A-Wings, losing only the TIE Advanced, for an 8-2. My takeaway from this game was two things: One, we shouldn't ever get offended if the other player wants to get a judge's call on something. It's fine to disagree, and if you do, it's way easier to have a third party mediate the dispute, especially in a timed game. You just have to be fine with whatever the judge decides. Two, if you ever have an experience like I did, just remain calm and keep going. As my opponent was shouting at me, that episode of It's Always Sunny where they are saying "Reason Will Prevail!" came into my head, so then whenever he said stuff I was just picturing Mac and Charlie yelling "Pickles Will Prevail!" in my head.

Championship Game:

This was against Daniel from round 3. Again, the game was incredibly good. We both corrected our mistakes from our previous game with each other. He showed the proper respect to the Ruthless Strategists and I did a better job of trying to focus fire. Ultimately, his slightly more powerful Rhymerball prevailed, and he was able to kill my advanced and then tie up all my bombers with his non-heavy advantage. I was trying to kill Motti, while he focused down one of my ISD's. In the end, his Motti survived by one hull point while my ISD ended up dying on his last activation of the turn. At that point, he had 3 ships to my one, was first player, and had squad superiority going into turn 5 of a Superior Positions game. I had woken up at 5:30 AM, it was almost midnight, and I had a 3 hour drive home, so I extended my hand in congratulations to Daniel, who played a pretty much flawless (as far as I could tell) game after such a long day.

On the whole, the day was fantastic. Special thanks to Jared, the TO, for his hard work and patience.

And if you're going to a regional soon, find a way to deal with Rhymer and friends.

Thanks much for the "throwaway" observations from both you guys!

I was a trigger pull from launching up there for this event, but I had just returned home from a weeklong trip on Friday, so felt the 3.5 hts drive up and back on Saturday would have been a bit much. I'm rather glad I ditched the idea after I heard about the 10:30pm start time for the last round!!! You're great AARs and observations help lessen "the suck" of not being able to make it. I so wanted a rematch from my last Store Championship with McMann and wanted to chat with Tarkin, who I know from WWPD FoW/Bolt Action days.

You're wright ups might have convinced me to go Rebel for the 23 April Regionals in Louisville. I'd like to help with the Imperial-Rebel balance, but I've got to say I've also felt the draw of the ISD/Rhymer Ball! I nearly played it at my last Store Championship but went with Rebels at the last minuite...and did well...until McMann's "Five-ship Demo MSU (DeMSU)" obliterated my fleet! Thanks for that new acronym Tarkin!!!

I am disappointed to hear about the looseness with measuring and worst of all, some player personality disorders. I guess if you get 30 payers packed into a game store and you will get a few.

McMann, if the Indianapolis Regionals go real late like this one did, expect me to take you up on the lodging offer. You'd be welcome to do the same at my place if the April 23rd Louisville Regional go late.

I'm thinking about talking with the TO or the owner of the store in Phoenix and give relay what happened at this one. I think if the TO made a little announcement before the tournament start that this is a competitive event and all measurements will be judged accordingly and what is the proper way to measure with the movement tool, 1 tool rule, careful bumping ships, that good sportsmanship is expected I think it would go a long way to help minimize some of this stuff. At least it will give you the backing of the TO and you already know what is acceptable and you can say. Per the TO at the start you need to measure that squadron move, sorry. We have a player or two in our community that can get quite agitated very easily just for pointing out potentially game changing things they are doing with the lack of discipline in measuring and moving correctly. Bumping your ship 5 degrees is huge when you are trying to stay out of firing arcs etc..

Pittsburgh....for a tournament!!? NOOOOOoooooooooo

Pittsburgh makes me drunk and then it rains.

Pittsburgh means a trip to the Church Brew Works