Montana Regionals
I (Jon Conley) was flying: Whisper/VI/ACD/Kallus/FCS, Omega Leader/Comm Relay/Juke, Yorr/Palpatine/Electronic Baffle – 100 points
I decided this year I’d like to step up my competitive game, so I traveled for a 2 nd regionals! I picked Montana because it was going to be about a month after Denver, less than an 8 hour drive, and I could plan it out. On the way up I got a flat tire a couple hours outside Billings, Justin Mazout and James Lewis (carpoolmates) joked I should save the nail as it would provide me good luck (or soak up all the bad luck, or something). Yes this is foreshadowing. I also took the Electronic Baffle in favor if any intiative bid as I'm comfortable with Whisper as an arc dodger against PS9. I've used the baffle to great effect in Hoth as its great to get the shuttle to an edge of an asteroid field, block a lane, and fight out in front of it. You can use OGP or Yorr's shot for the emperor if you need, using it mostly for defense and the occasional kill shot or crit-hail-mary.
Matches: Round 1: Bruce Miller – Fel/Vader/Carnor
I lost the flip and Bruce chose to give me initiative. Very strange game where I move all my ships first, but I was able to close it out with a whisper K turn over a rock (Yorr provided stress removal). He also landed Carnor on that rock and the shuttle took care of him. Win: 100-33
Round 2: Andrew Miller – Chiraneau/Fel
I don’t remember much of this match, other than Andrew and I circling the board a TON at the end. He nuked Omega Leader with Chiraneau and was down to 2 hull. He had the opportunity to get one of Whisper’s shields but declined to kill his Decimator to do so. RAC had the crit that made his PS a 0. Eventually, Fel Whisper and the Shuttle were left, shuttle with about ½ health left. Whisper and Fel kept circling and the shuttle came in for a shot, then circled back around. Eventually, Whisper with 1 health was able to get Fel. CRAZY amounts of flying and circling in this game. For the amount of dodge/dip/duck/dive/dodging done its amazing the imperials didn’t hit rocks. Win 100-42
Round 3: Micah Edwards – Biggs/Shield/R2D2, Ghost with lots of nasty stuff
Micah’s ghost had a bunch of stuff on it like accuracy corrector, shuttle, and autoblaster turret. I had to stay outside range one, so I ran the shuttle in. I may have got one or two shields off biggs beforehand (and due to range 3 on it the turn before, the ghost was down to one shield), but then in one turn I decloaked whisper forward, then 4k’d about 2 cm behind biggs. Range 1 whisper shot dealt a bunch of damage and the shuttle finished him off (whisper got actions, thanks yorr!) Biggs never got to use R2D2, then it was a matter of pouring damage onto the Ghost. Finally got Whisper into range 1 of the ghost and killed it before it could fire. Full flankers took out the now ejected attack shuttle. Win 100-16
Round 4: Jeremy Jenks – 4x Black Crackshot, Wampa, Omega Leader/Juke/Comm Relay
There are some matches where your dice will absolutely do that thing where you roll in a .1 of .1%. This was mine. Round 2 I screamed Whisper over a rock to what I though was the edge of a range 3 shot. It was about 2mm from Whisper having a shot to get the cloak. Since she wasn’t cloaked, it was easy for Jeremy to predict her movement next turn. Then I didn’t roll any evades at all for him to even crackshot on the next turn. Both Whisper and Omega Leader at range 2/3 were annihilated, so I conceded the shuttle and we played again. (first game was about 10 minutes)
During the 2
nd
game we played, he went forward 5 again on the initial turn and I sent the shuttle bank 2 to joust (rule of 11, they were outside shooting range barely), then sent the shuttle forward 3 into his fleet causing lots of bumps as I had initiative again. The shuttle didn’t move much, tons of bumps happened, dice swung the other way, and I completely wiped his fleet. Too bad for me that was the 2
nd
game! Ah well, I’m learning how to deal with crack swarms now so its good. Excellent for Jeremy to hang out and play another game instead of taking an hour break. We were done with the 2
nd
game in about 35 minutes and joked about best 2 of 3, but just called it there as others were also finishing up.
Loss 14-100
Round 5: Paul Guidas – Bossk/Dengar (zuckuss instead of 4lom in this popular build)
Paul’s build took Zuckuss instead of 4Lom. Paul won the coin toss and we talked over initiative situations for a few minutes. Paul decided to take it, knowing that If it came down to Dengar and Whisper he wouldn’t get the revenge shot. We setup in opposite corners. I sprinted my shuttle in a joust towards him, he was flying cautiously with his ships. Once in range, he did a lot of damage to the shuttle but after that it was bump city. Dengar had to 4k to keep arc on ships, and neither ship was able to fire rockets/torpedoes. Oddly enough, the exact situation we talked about came through: Dengar shoots whisper, doesn’t kill her, Whisper shoots back, kills Dengar, meaning he can’t activate the revenge shot. He eventually got the shuttle down but Dengar was dead and Bossk had 1 HP left. It was all over because both ships were behind his anyway. We talked a bit about how to approach things differently as I play the same list. Win 100-33.
I made top 8! Did the same thing I did last year, snuck in for some dice at the last minute. Only the top 2 people ID’d and Jeremy Jenks was the top person with 25 points. I think 37 showed up, 4 byes were used, I don’t think anyone that was 3-2 made it into the cut. TONS of prizes were raffled out on top of the regular kit: 11 small ships, 4 large ones, a raider, and FFG playmats for top 4. We payed $25 to play and it was definitely worth it!
Top 8 match: Justin Mazout with his boy band list (Jake/Kyle/Poe)
I’ve played against this list before. As I did all day, I put the nail that we pulled out of my tire over Yorr. I mentioned to Justin that I hadn’t told anyone else yet (none knew the story of the nail) and pointed it out. He got really excited/concerned “IT’S THE $#!%^#$ ^&*()ING NAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!”. We laughed hysterically and I won the coin toss giving him the initiative. This list has prockets on Jake, and Justin is a master at keeping Kyle in range 3 to give Jake that focus token to get him into range 1 at the last second. If he had initiative, I could at least plan moves around Jake a little better to keep him at range 2. Put Kallus on Poe I think. Anyway, Jake and Poe went after Whisper who was taking the long way in, Yorr and Omega Leader went after Kyle. Purposely landed Yorr on a rock to setup future turns. Everything missed first round of combat and Jake/Poe were kept at range 2. Whisper shoots forward, Jake and Poe go by, Omega Leader sloops behind Kyle and almost one-shots him (Hit/Crit/Crit – first crit was Direct hit and 2 nd one was major explosion!) Cleans up Kyle on the next turn, Jake was down to 2 hull, Poe was full. Poe goes in behind the Shuttle who’s out of the asteroid field and coming up the side again, takes him down after a couple turns. Its now up to Omega Leader to close it out (might have been done had OL been able to finish off Jake, but at this juncture dice favored Jake and Poe). Justin wins it and heads to Top 4 (for a 2 nd time with this list, the other was North Carolina!), saying I should have never told him about the nail. We laughed again and that was the end of my run. Loss 100-30
Top 4 match, Justin just couldn’t quite close out Tyson Spark’s Chewie/Chopper list (Poe eventually died to Chewie 1 on 1) but netted him a sweet Bespin playmat and a coin. Dan was able to win the battle of attrition against Jeremy giving Jeremy his first loss on the day. Dan Hars and Tyson blitzed out a top 2 match with Dan being the winner of the event with his Corran/Biggs/Wes list again (same as Salt lake the week before).
10/10 would attend in Montana again, especially at KAB Sportscards and Collectibles!
Edited by jonnyd