Attendance was 20 players with 4 rounds of Swiss - I apologise in advance that I can't remember details of all my opponents lists / games, but I will try and give what details I can and to answer any questions you may have.
My List:
[8] Shyla Varad
[8] Elite Gamorrean Guard
[8] Elite Gamorrean Guard
[6] Jabba the Hutt
[5] Vinto Hreeda
[4] Hired Guns
[1] Devious Scheme
[3] Assassinate
[2] Grisly Contest
[2] Heightened Reflexes
[2] Parting Blow
[2] Parting Blow
[1] Draw!
[1] Negation
[1] Pummel
[1] Pummel
[0] Element of Surprise
[0] Fleet Footed
[0] Opportunistic
[0] Planning
[0] Take Initiative
[0] Urgency
Game 1 – Lair of the Dianoga – Coruscant Landfill
Played against Justin Reid with his Rebel Force User list, which I believe was:
[12] Jedi Luke
[8] Leia
[7] Obi Wan
[7] Diala
[6] Davith
[0] Heroic Effort
I realised as soon as I saw Justin’s list that I was not going to be able to compete on the Dianoga so settled for trying to hammer his list while he took down the Dianoga. I think I was helped somewhat in this by the fact that Justin had not played against Shyla and so wasn’t expecting her Mandalorian Whip.
Luke hit the Dianoga, then Shyla ran in and whipped him round towards my deployment zone for the Gamorrean’s to walk in and finish off at the start of round 2. I lost one of the Hired Guns and Justin took down the Dianoga but with Luke gone and Diala going the long way round to get to Jabba I was able to focus on one area of his list at a time and get the win.
Win
Game 2 – Gaining Favour – Anchorhead Cantina
Played against Ian Wardle from the Cloud City Assault podcast, I’m going to try and get his list from him as I can’t for the life of me remember what it was and will fill in my recollections of the game once I have that.
Sorry Ian mate!
I do remember we had a good chat about his podcast and my YouTube channel afterwards and he hung around after the cut to watch the rest of the games which showed a level of commitment!
Game 3 – Line of Fire – Anchorhead Cantina
Played against Rob Walker who I’ve seen around at Regionals last year and at Nationals, a decent player but I know my list has a strong matchup against Bantha’s and this game proved as much.
[9] Bantha
[1] Last Resort
[8] HK Assassin Droids
[1] Targeting Computer
[7] Weequay Pirates
[6] Jabba
[3] Gideon
[2] C3P0
[1] Beast Tamer
[1] Temporary Alliance
[1] Unshakable
I moved Shyla round to the terminal after using Hired Guns to open the door and Rob’s Weequay’s took a shot or two before the Bantha came round to trample on her. I responded with Gamorrean’s and hit the Bantha for 11 DMG before Jundland Terror put Shyla on 2 remaining and Last Resort saw the end of Shyla when the Gamorrean’s finished him off at the start of the next round. The second group left two Weequays on 1 Health each which Vinto duly finished off.
Rob’s list obviously worked ok for him as he ended top 8 however I think once the Bantha is gone it struggles with just the 4 attacks.
Win
Game 4 – Reconnaissance – ISB Headquarters
At this point there are 3 of us at 3-0, myself, Alistair Scott (UK Nationals Champ), and Peter Smith, Alistair gets a matchup against a 2-1 (boo hiss) and I play Peter with a very similar list to mine.
[8] Shyla
[6] Jabba
[5] Vinto
[4] Greedo
[1] Temporary Alliance
[12] Jedi Luke
[1] Motivation
[3] Gideon
This was a crazy tight match. Towards the end of round 1 Luke pushed forward and I felt I had an opportunity as he may have over extended. In goes Shyla and whips Luke round and does a decent amount of damage with the Gammoreans also getting a hit or two in afterwards (I think). Luke went down at the start of round 2 without having gotten his focused attack in due to Parting Blow, and all was looking great until his Shyla smashed my Shyla. It all ended up in a bit of a mess and came down to 2 Gamorrean’s needing to finish off Jabba (Approx 4 health left I think) with the last activations of the round, otherwise he would have won on cameras.
Win
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Top 8 – One Man’s Trash – Coruscant Landfill
Opponent - Rob Griffin who I think I’ve met before at the Exeter Regionals, his friend Tim I believe knocked me out last year with his Nexu’s!
Sadly I don’t remember much about the list or the game, it was a long day and I was just excited to have gotten my dice! Apologies Rob mate. If you can send me your list I will probably remember the details of the game!
I do have a vague recollection that Rob was saying Black Market hadn't been doing much for him all day so I believe he was running Scum, but aside from that I just can't remember
Win
Semi Final – To Your Stations! – ISB Headquarters
Opponent – Paul O’Boyle - I’d not played Paul before but looking at his list I didn’t think I would have too many problems as I didn’t really rate the eSabs… Oh dear was I wrong
[12] Jedi Luke
[1] Motivation
[8] Leia
[7] eSabs
[7] eSabs
[3] Gideon
[2] C3PO
Started really well with the Hired guns opening my door and tempting his Sabs to come down through his door. Charged the Gamorreans round onto the objectives and Shyla pulled one eSab down and did 4 damage to him, allowing Vinto to move up and shoot the other one twice (first shot focused), killing both Sabs. The response was brutal though with Luke running 8 and hitting a Gamorrean, then Son of Skywalker to finish him off and go contest the other terminal. Meanwhile the other unit of Sabs show what double Pierce 2 thinks of Black dice and down a Gamorrean from the other unit.
The rest of the game was a bit after I finished Luke off 2 nd activation of round 2. I remember at the end of the game spending a good 10 minutes weighing things up, the score was 38-33 to me and C3PO was sitting contesting my objective in the corridor having dodged Shyla’s attack to avoid me taking the win on her activation. If it stays like it was my opponent can move and take two of the stations for 38-39 then activate Gideon first next round for game. I had already hit C3PO with Shyla once during her activation and he’d dodged, and was convinced I’d lost the game (asked for a moment to double check before I conceded)
I decided to carry on, as essentially I felt my opponent had game, but I felt I had to play to the end. I’m very thankful that I did! I took the shot with Jabba ordering Shyla to make a hit and killed C3PO, then my opponent made a misplay. Rather than moving Leia in to contest my objective, he moved to the other objective to put himself on 39. (I think in his head he was hoping to kill Shyla with Leia)
With much relief I claimed my station at the end of the round and we ended it at 42-39, I think had my opponent contested the objective instead we would have been 39-36 to me and with another round to go it would have just depended on dice/cards.
Win
Final – One Man’s Trash – Coruscant Landfill
Rematch vs Peter Smith
[8] Shyla
[6] Jabba
[5] Vinto
[4] Greedo
[1] Temporary Alliance
[12] Jedi Luke
[1] Motivation
[3] Gideon
I was worried about facing this list again as it was such a close game last time out at the end of Swiss, however I feel this is my lists best Map so I was overjoyed to see it come up.
I think Peter played it right as he ignored his door (same as I normally do with a melee heavy list) and ran down to the bottom terminal to fight it out down there. It turned into a bit of a brawl then and whilst tight throughout I felt I probably had the advantage in a straight up close quarters fight. Peter was a great opponent throughout both our games and made some really strong plays as well as being very sporting, just what you want in an opponent at a high level competitive match, lots of figures felt like they were just out of reach for me to finish off! In the end I had Jabba, Vinto, one Guard (5 dmg) and a Hired gun (1 dmg) left going into the last turn and felt like I’d got it wrapped up at around 38- 31… At which point Peter activated Jabba, moved forward, bullied the Guard for 3dmg to kill him(no cards left in deck) then moved forward and played Grisly Contest to kill the Hired gun to put him to 39!!! Dear me I shouldn’t have been so confident in marching that Hired Gun forwards to shoot!
Vinto proved why he was my mvp on the day however and kept calm in the heat of the moment to pick up a crate and run it in for the win.
Win
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Wow what a day, 7 games and shattered come the end of it, 3 very, very close games and I had a great time, with every opponent being fun to play and chat with. I am convinced that both myself and my opponents were making poor plays after the cut due to fatigue, but I was really chuffed to have managed to pull through in the end and win my first Regional event!
Apologies some of the above is probably badly written, or has large gaps in my recollection, but I thought it was worth posting what I remember of the day and take from it what you can, or feel free to ignore! J
Thanks to all my opponents on the day, to Dave for my lift up to the event, Simon at Big Orbit for hosting, and to Alistair and the guys on the BoardWars.eu Discord channel (Another great podcast) for their advice.
If anyone has any more questions about the list or games feel free to ask, I’ll be playing again at the Exeter Regionals this week and will try and take some notes after games to have more of a record (I believe some games are being streamed there as well)
If you’ve taken the time to read all that, well done, and thanks!
Finally - Shameless plug for my chan : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX2s5lxMBwUWQyyUg_znJsA
RoyalRich
Edited by RoyalRichAdding shameless channel plug!