Beware of the massive wall of text below...
The first half is my report of the regional. The second half is some general thoughts on the current meta and advice for those going to tournaments or regionals themselves.
First of all, I want to give a huge shoutout to Mothership Books and Games in Austin, TX. If you’re ever in the area, drop by. The management and judge are all fantastic people. They pitched in extra prize support just because and everything ran very smoothly. This was the second regional I’ve been to there and both times were fantastic experiences.
For those that didn’t know, the now on-hiatus Mandalorian Tactics podcast was created by myself and J.D. that is referenced below. The circumstances that led me to putting it on hold are clearing up, so hopefully we will be live again soon. I unfortunately didn’t get to attend worlds. With the hot streak I’ve been on, I’m really bummed that I had to forfeit the opportunity. Thankfully, May worlds is just a short 6 months away. Until the podcast comes back, I hope the following summary will suffice.
My list was the following:
2x Elite Stormtrooper
1x Elite Heavy Stormtrooper
Agent Blaise
2x Imperial Officer
Rule By Fear
Zillo Technique
Cross Training
Targeting Computer
Command Deck:
Grenadier
Comm Disruption
Lock On
Reinforcements (2)
Negation
Jump Jets
Camouflage
Intelligence Leak
Planning
Espionage Mastery
Element of Surprise
Urgency
Take Initiative
Celebration
Regarding the list, it isn’t anything new. I’ve been testing all sorts of 2x eISB lists since besting came out utilizing the spy synergies that the ISB’s and Blaise have. I still maintain that eISB’s are one of the best units in the game, but ultimately, the trooper command cards are too strong to not play right now. The person that won Origins played a list very, very similar to this, and and recently Daniel won worlds with this list swapping a cross training for a rule by fear. There are pros and cons to each, but I definitely feel that digging the two extra cards deep to fuel the hand for Zillo and Blaise discards makes it imperative to fit the rule by fear into this specific list.
For the command deck, I am honestly not sure what the cards were that Daniel played, but I imagine they are mostly the same. The list kinda builds itself as you have 7 points in the usual trooper cards, Blaise’s card, and comm disruption. With all the cross training and white die lists, lock on is a no brainer. The accuracy can come in handy when they tough luck a blue die out of your pool after a reroll too. Celebration was a call based on the amount of blaise and gideon/3p0 that is in the meta these days. At its worst, its 1 defense for Zillo. Its more playable to me now that there is a use for it in the lists that don’t play unique figures.
To set the stage:
14 players
4 rounds of swiss followed by cut to top 8.
7 of the players came from my local meta in Dallas. Unfortunately, that means overlap of having to play each other.
Round 1: (Constant Motion)
My opponent is Isaac. Isaac is a player that made top 8 of the Austin regional earlier this year and top 4 of the Dallas regional. I was on bantha lists around that time and it turns out that Isaac was on something similar to his previous list for this tournament. His list was:
Luke
2x Elite Echo Base Trooper
2x Elite Smuggler
Gideon
3p0
On a Diplomatic Mission (Gideon)
This scenario is 100% determined by the play at the bottom of the map. Controlling the tokens at the bottom has been the difference in every game for me on Constant Motion. Putting too many units into the middle can often be the mistake that can cost a player the game. I start on the side without the difficult terrain as Isaac chose the other on initiative.
Isaac does a great job denying early use of Blaise for me. I took two of the cross trained troopers into the middle to hopefully convince Isaac to engage with me there with the echo’s that he had placed near the door in deployment. Isaac does bring 3 echoes into the middle, allowing me to start to make my plays towards the bottom. I eventually get the shot with my last activation of the round after starting to move the troopers towards the bottom. I look at Isaac’s hand and see Grenadier, Son of Skywalker, and Fleet Footed. Ouch. I had drawn into my grenadier with rule by fear, but did not have a good multi-target spot, so it was a no-brainer to trade grenadiers with interrogate. Two Luke activations is a small price to pay to avoid eating a grenade on 5-6 troopers that I have moved all to the bottom. Round 1 is 4-0 with me getting control of one objective.
Round two I saw the hand again and took away a negation leaving heart of freedom for me to comm disruption later in the round. Unfortunately, Blaise was the first thing to die to the echo base troopers leaving me unable to counter the Heart of Freedom as I was left with one spy. I had put 7-8 damage on Luke and watched it evaporate over the course of his next two activations. A clutch dodge on a storm in the middle kept the EBT’s in the middle to take the terminal away. Fortunately, that was my game plan and it worked. I picked off the Echo that had come down from deployment and beat the other in the middle as well. 2 sets of 8 points from the tokens, one Smuggler that had come to the bottom (the other to the top terminal), and gideon/3p0 puts me at 38 with control of 2 objectives going into the last round.
40-20.
Round 2: (Reconnaissance)
My opponent this time was a local player that I had not previously met. Andy began in the side with the stairs. His list was as follows:
2x HK Assassin Droid
Bossk
Greedo
Nexu
Gideon
C3PO
Temporary Alliance
Devious Scheme
Explosive Armaments
This match was interesting as it seemed Andy wanted to really setup focused explosive shots on the HK’s. It becomes apparent to me and I plan accordingly. I took down my door very early in the 1st round with another activation of stormtroopers in striking distance to discourage him opening his own door. I believe he might have accidentally blocked himself from being able to open it at the end of round 1 or simply did not want to face the stormtroopers. I moved one of the stormtroopers up to the red square close to the stairs so that I can place my camera and see everyone behind his closed door. One of the keys to playing this list is using the slow movement and armor plating of the heavies to your advantage. Use them to block line of sight (yes, it is possible) and to eat up shots. Andy was able to get 9 points from cameras and the heavy activation, but I was able to take out both of the focused HK assassin droids before they were able to take those explosive shots, riding the snowball from there. Bossk was surprised by my elements. I celebrated the death of Greedo.. Andy was a fun opponent and had some of the coolest bling with his 3d printed accessories.
40-17, 2-0
Round 3: (To your stations)
This match is against Tim aka T-BOSS from Dallas. I played time twice last regional season, last playing him in the semifinals of the Dallas regional. Luckily, I came away with the win back then. We’ve been sparring partners for the weeks leading to this tournament and he landed on playing the following list:
Elite Snowtroopers
2x Elite Stormtroopers
Elite ISB’s
Imperial Officer
Cross training
Rule by Fear
Zillo Technique
We are on the blaise map again, but this time I’m on the side with the stairs. I don’t remember specifics on this one, but I do remember ripping a reinforcements card away. I was able to get a hidden blast shot with the heavies (always hide them with blaise triggers) onto a couple of troopers that were where the door used to be. The key to beating stormtroopers simply comes down to good blocking/positioning to prevent shots on yourself and maneuvering in a way that ensure wiping activations in one fell swoop. I know that sounds easier than it is, but if you truly plan for the start to setup for shots on specific units, it can be done. Early in round 2 i was able to take out the full suite of cross trained troopers with my own troopers. Tim took out Blaise first, and got 6 points from objectives as he had taken ISBs down to the bottom turrets in the first round. I then began to work on the snow troopers, again focusing on unit by unit until the activation was gone, sniping an officer while I was at it. From there, it was taking out the ISB’s and the spy camera points gave me the last push I needed. Playing eSnows is a great call with Zillo. the increased amount of “lives with one” instances makes them even better and coming back. Unfortunately for Tim, we played on the most close-quartered map and its a lot harder to play the long game when I can play with max harassment.
40-24, 3-0
Round 4:
As I alluded to earlier, this is where I face J.D. He and I have been close friends about as long as I’ve been playing non-mtg board/card games a couple of years ago. I met him when I went to an Android Netrunner weekly meet up and eventually he got me into playing Imperial Assault skirmish this January. In the past year I’ve gone from novice playing jank lists like “2 Fleek 4 Kashyyyk” to winning store champs in Tulsa and the spring Dallas regional and the Austin regional this weekend. I owe a lot to JD for teaching me at first and being a great player to practice and learn with.
JD was on a list of my own creation. I felt with the map changes, that Blaise was not as strong as the round 1 shots are a bit harder to orchestrate. A minor change, but enough for me to explore things not as silly as “shoot a door so hard i look at your hand.” The list is:
2 Elite ISB
2 Elite Stormtrooper
2 Officer
Rule by Fear
Zillo technique
2x cross training
This list is similar to the one that I’m playing, but the command deck goes deeper into the spy synergies with cards like Strategic Shift and Data Theft. If I didn’t know this list and deck intimately, I would definitely hate to go up against it unaware.
In the semifinals of the Tulsa regional in the spring I had conceded to JD to let him have a chance to take it down. JD was gracious and repaid the favor by conceding here to give us some time to think and relax. As we were the only two 4-0, the concession was still a guaranteed top 8, and likely 1-2 seed anyway. Not to bring up old pain points, but at least the intentional draw shared the points!
4-0
After some BBQ and a short break, we’re back to play out the cut. A bit of breakdown for the cut for those interested:
Top 4 seeds were Dallas, with the rest from Austin/San Antonio. Good showing for my local meta!
Here’s the sad news (coming from someone who loves all factions and diversity in high level play):
7 of the 8 were imperial stormtrooper based lists. JD was the 2nd seed, so we’re on opposite sides of the bracket. 3rd seed is Tim on snowtroopers, and 4th seed was the lone rebel player, James. I didn’t play James but I believe he was on the list that Desmond played at worlds. 5th seed was the same list I was playing, 6th and 7th on assorted Elite and Regular troopers, and 8th seed was Colby. There were a couple of mercenary lists, but unfortunately, the highest was the 9th seed.
As 1st seed, I drew Colby in the first round of the cut.
Quarterfinals (Lair of the Dianoga)
The bantha map didn’t get drawn for the first 4 rounds, so its back to back in the dianoga’s lair. Colby is on a unique list, similar to what he piloted to top 8 in the last regional at Austin:
Tank
2x Elite stormtrooper
2x Stormtrooper
Colby takes initiative and leaves me with the old cantina deployment zone. I know that the blaise shot is important here to take away reinforcements or grenadier, so I start with elite stormtroopers shooting the dianoga and then blaise. I’m able to rip a reinforcements from him and then proceed to see a spectacle. My dice went cold and with blaise and 6 elite stormtroopers, I did a total of 4 damage to the dianoga. Meanwhile, Colby’s are red hot. 3 damage from regular storms, and 7 from the elite storms. I stop trying to shoot the dianoga as I want to try to deny the finishing blow. Colby moved into the hallway with some regular storms, so I took the heavies down the hallway. I definitely don’t favor playing regular storms. Being able to just shoot them all and kill them in one shot is rough.
At the beginning of the second round, Colby was able to finish off the Dianoga with a 9 damage shot from the tank and I lose the fight 21-4. The good news for me is that at the end of the first round, the dianoga nailed 4 elites and the tank for one damage, meaning the grenade I dropped for 3 damage on most of those targets was a huge boon. Colby made a good reaction moving the tank in order to block my shots to the damaged ones. Again, cold dice, even with rerolls left me with only finishing off one storm trooper with 3 shots with it already at 4 damage and no zillo. Nobody said it would be easy!
With blaise, I was able to know all the hidden information and was able to play just the board. I ended up finishing off the elite stormtroopers with some double moves of stormtroopers to pincer around the side and middle. I only lost the heavy stormtroopers after the major objective loss I had.
40-29, on to semifinals.
Semifinals (One Man’s Trash):
My favorite match of the day. This round is against Robert. Robert is on the same list that I am, and we actually spoke for a while at the end of round two about his dislike for the bantha and the blaise list.
His list:
Scroll up, same as mine! Mirror Match.
I again start in the same deployment zone as last round. I setup this time to feign opening the door with the heavies, and get to work on the door to the crates immediately. As I thankfully rolled the win on initiative, I was able to act first in the spy v spy blaise-off. I start with the cross trained trooper to shoot the door, and use intelligence leak. I started this way to have a better idea of what to do with blaise. I see 2 reinforcements, intel leak, and change of plans. I take the reinforcements and eat the two damage. I knowingly leave the intel leak behind with comm disruption, reinforcements and I think jump jets in hand. If he activates blaise and takes the reinforcements from me, then we are on even ground and i still have a comm disrupt for the other reinforcements. He goes with blaise and shoots the door. I show the hand and he gets rid of my comm disruption with his other reinforcements. The mental fatigue can be real after these matches. I asked him if he wanted to use intel leak before he passed back to me and he decided he wanted to wait to use it. I then immediately activated blaise and used jump jets to take away the intel leak. I knew it was a brutal line to take after his mistake, but we’re in the semifinals of a regional, and I have to play towards victory. I felt bad, but I did try to be a friendly player and remind him that he could play it then.
I didn’t get a good feel for his background in the game, but he played very cleverly with the officers and blocked very well. I personally think this game is about being a great defensive, controlling player, not just about getting aggressive and chucking dice. This game felt like a heavyweight bout swapping hay-makers. I decide to be more of an aggressor in the middle and go after the crates while taking shots. I end up getting blasted with the heavies. Great reroll for Robert into surge was brutal. He uses change of plans and I then realize that I’m about to lose an entire squad to what is likely a grenade drawn at the end of the first round. My intuition turned out to be correct and by moving an officer up and moving one of the squad’s troopers back behind kept him alive. Sadly, not for long. The heavies toss the said grenade and after going into the tank for a bit, he decides to move up further to shoot the officer protecting the stormtrooper that lived. Once again, the surge reigns supreme wiping the officer and the full squad of storms. I was able to officer move the heavy around the corner that was hidden from blaise to chase down the last storm of his cross trained squad with lock on in hand in case of a dodge. Robert reads my play correctly, but unfortunately couldn’t get his officers far enough to protect him and I wipe the squad.
As i mentioned earlier, it appeared as though I was going to make a play for the terminal behind the doors, but after seeing 2 of his 3 elite storms go in, I pulled away from the door and left them stranded. The amount of extra movements and actions that Robert would have to spend to come around the backside would be too much time wasted, so I need to capitalize. As soon as one of his activations touched one of those troops, I activated my cross trained troopers into the middle to start grabbing up more crates and moving towards the terminal instead of my deployment zone where his troops were headed. We trade some potshots back and forth in the middle, and I realize that I’m sitting on 12 points worth of crates in two turns and slowly shoot and move my way towards the terminal while taking out his last heavy with my way-too-late-to-the-party grenade and shot, and swing the last 20 points at the end of the round.
40-29. On to the finals.
Finals (To Your Stations!)
I usually play very quickly. The last round being a slug-fest led me to almost to time, so I knew immediately after finishing that my finals opponent would be none other than J.D.. I posted his list earlier under round 4. This was an interesting matchup for many reasons. We’ve split most of our matches historically, but this was by far the greatest stakes for us to play. I’ve been going back and forth between about 7 different lists the past 3 weeks getting ready for the regional. One of those lists that I feel is well-poised to beat any list in the meta is the list that I recommended to JD to play at Worlds and he liked it enough to take it to this tournament. I knew I had no easy task before me. That said, even I lost, there’s not many other people I’d rather beat me. Plus my list would be winning, so win-win!!
To the match.
This was the equivalent of speed chess. I know his list in and out, including command cards. I also have played him more than anyone, so we play possibly the fastest match I’ve ever played. I position properly with heavies to entice shots there and I’m ok to lose them. He also knows they have to die or I start the blast train. He makes a move to the bottom two stations and I double move my cross trained storms up to the top turret to contest and setup for a good chance in the next round. I swipe a reinforcements out of hand and see no comm disrupt or grenade. But, we both draw two cards and I draw into my grenade. I go into the tank and weigh some thoughts. If i don't act with blaise first, I can’t steal the comm disruption he might have drawn. If he drew the grenade, I’m going to get hit hard. If he drew intel leak, he could steal my grenade. I decide to make use of my grenade while I can instead of making the blaise play. Whoops!
Jd activates his storms that were contesting with my cross trained troops and plays grenade, data theft. His two drawn cards were data theft and grenade! What a beatdown. So I lose all three troopers at once to two grenades. I nNever got to shoot with them and never got to roll one of the white die that is oh-so-juicy against anything that rolls surge for +2. I played great players all day, and both my other matches in the cut were brutal starts that I had to persevere and come back from. You can’t come this far to let such a rough turn of events stop you from trying.
I finish off one of his elite storm activations and snag one of the ISBs. I also position to contest his terminal to shut off the oppressive command cards he might draw. JD didn’t draw into comms or negation and I take initiative, wiping another ISB. (again, kill acts of storms, not singular). With both ISB activations being crippled, I take out the officer. I’m down to a stormtrooper squad, blaise, and officers, with JD being down to officers and storms. The storms were still near the top turret, so I made a move to the bottom and killed one officer controlling a station and shoot the other to put 1-2 damage on it depending on JD’s use of zillo. He didn’t see at that second that I was aiming to finish it with the turret as it was the last act of the round, so he correctly did not spend the card as it wouldn’t have mattered. I only get the 3 points, but get 2 more for finishing off the officer. It would have been 8 had I gotten the kill there. JD is left with just the stormtroopers at the start of his turn. He decided to activate troopers to take what he can get with 3 shots instead of passing and risking losing one. He takes out the elite heavy, but as I take out the last remaining ISB hiding by the terminal, I simply do nothing with the remaining activations and get the 6 remaining points needed at the end of the round.
40-24, Champion!
If you’ve read this far, I’d like to share a few thoughts that can hopefully help anyone hoping to go make their mark and participate in a tournament of this caliber.
First of all, Blaise is what I feel is a necessary evil with the state of the game currently. Stormtroopers oppressiveness is not the rerolls. We have tough luck. It isn’t really the reinforcements and grenadier. We have comm disruption and intelligence leak. We have tons of pierce the we can overwhelm zillo with. To me, its the ability to deny points, be consistent on attack, hide and reinforce, and ultimately deny points. It is the sum of all of these things that leads to the tough matches playing anything that isn’t the stormtrooper.
Here’s how you can have a better matchup against stormtroopers:
The list I played is able to consistently check their hand and take away reinforcements. It can intelligence leak their grenades. It plays the same game, but with the tools to fight back. Lock on with heavy to take away the dodge from cross trained troopers. Blaise every turn until he dies is more information and more opportunities to take away the reinforcements. You’re playing two spies to comm disrupt the reinforce if they draw it at the end of the round. Unfortunately, you’re employing the same tactics.
So you don’t want to play stormtroopers? That’s fine. HK’s are great at stopping the dodge, and can roll the 6-7 damage needed to get through zillo (Focused as they usually should be if you’re playing them in a list). Bantha is great at stepping all over them. Crush into jundland with grislly contest can one shot luke (which happened in round 4 at this tournament).
Elite rebel troopers can outrange, and pierce every time. Zillo can only exhaust once.
Don’t want to play bantha? Don’t want to play merc’s/hk’s? Don’t like elite rebel troopers need to stay in the same spot? If you’re not playing any of the above, you’re likely to be playing less figures than most stormtrooper lists. You need to make your shots worth it. Make it a mini-game. Make your rounds a game to see if you can maneuver and kill the whole activation in one round. Don’t give them the opportunity to hide or reinforce. Wait to use activation that can take those shots until they’ve moved. Don’t let them have the opportunity to run away with the last guy. Accept that you might take a shot you don’t want to to get deep into their territory to make sure you finish the activation, period. Its so much easier to kill 6 stormtroopers than 8, always. You can also manage the focused shots you'll take depending on when you make your move.
JD is a long time trooper player and this advice comes from many, many games against different flavors. When 87.5% of the cut is stormtroopers, you need to be ready to play against them. Different metas are always going to yield different lists, but troopers are too good to not see at all.
Also, I’d like to stress the importance of straying from the path that promo is leading us down. I know that nobody likes to listen to people talk about “well back in this game or that game”, but its important to make the reference. I played a lot of MTG and tracking your life total and your opponents life total is mandatory. Failure to maintain the state can lead to warnings and eventually game loss. Keeping track of every point change and both player totals is commonplace. In several store championships and regionals, I can not remember a single instance of my opponent keeping track of my point total in the game. I’ve seen various life counters from Star Wars LCG dials, to LOTR LCG dials, to damage placed out in front, to the new ones made by FFG as prize support.
I have in front of me as I wrote all of this, the notepads of every game with every point change. I can look back and remember when and what was killed, but most importantly when it was objectives versus kills. This not only helps me at looking back and thinking about the games, but it provides me with knowledge. I know at all times what point total my opponent is at. I don’t have to ask. I can quickly do the math with what objectives are left, and what units and activations I have left and which are activated and which are not. It gives me insight into what my opponents plans will be. It is very easy to get wrapped up in what we are doing on a specific turn to the point that we forget to play command cards. I know that an opponents point total is towards the bottom of the list, but think about it this way. The less hidden information there is, the more you can react to what they’re doing. Having a better idea of what your opponent is likely to do several activations from now hidden information that you now have slight access to. You have to remember that what your opponent is going to do is hidden information. Thinking about what you would do in their place is derived information and so important in determing how to use your activations.
Hidden information leads me towards my final point. Variance in games helps level the playing field. There are several great articles online about variance and playing the different levels of variance. There are some things that you can not control in this game. You ca nott ultimately control dice rolls. You can not ultimately control command cards. Some games you don’t draw the cards that make your list tick. I’ve had games with the bantha that I’ve started with fleet, rally, urgency in hand. If only I could mulligan that hand into three new cards, I’d have a better chance of winning that game. I lost 17 points in difference agains the dianoga over dice rolls, and that was with my own rerolls.
This game is very unique in analyzing after the fact. We can so easily get wrapped up in blaming dice rolls. “If I only rolled this one side on the dice, I’d have had that game!” “If only you hadn’t rolled the 3 on the trample!” There is a lot of variance. We can’t control what we can’t control. What we can do, is manage what we can control. If we were to play games with no command decks, there’d be a different set of lists as a lot of synergies would be gone. Ive done this a lot in teaching the game, and its a great way to focus on the fundamentals. This game is ultimately a tactical game! Making the right decisions on when to activate what can’t accurately be reviewed if you aren’t recording the game or you have perfect recollection of every step of the way.
If you don’t want to deal with bad beats and tough variance, you can play lists that minimize aspects of the variance.
Stormtroopers smooth dice.
Blaise lets you see all of the command cards, even if you aren’t taking them away. Knowledge of hidden info removes variance.
Heavy stormtroopers are much much better units with surges. Blaise hide triggers and target computer decreases variance in ability to blast.
I’d strongly recommend playing this list to get a feel for playing with less variance. Play without command cards. Record games. Focus on your decision making and accept variance. Learn to live with the variance and become a better tactician. Don't fall into the traps of blaming the variance afterward. Somewhere in most games, there was a tactical decision made by your opponent that was better than you expected. Find those moments. Think about how you could have seen it coming or how you could have reacted differently. Hopefully this advice helps. I can’t claim to be an amazing player, but I have had great success in my time playing and I hope to prove myself on the larger stages in the coming year. Hopefully this can spark some interesting discussion.
Edited by Pikachewbacca
