I went to the Regionals at the Wizard’s Chest in Denver. First off, it’s an amazing place, with a huge selection of games, but also costumes and other fun stuff. Check it out!
My list:
Deployment:
[2] C-3P0
[3] Gideon Argus
[0] Heroic Effort
[5] Jyn Odan
[8] Leia Organa
[12] Luke Skywalker (Jedi)
[7] Obi-Wan Kenobi
[3] R2-D2
Command:
[1] Blitz
[1] Deflection
[0] Devotion
[0] Element of Surprise
[0] Force Rush
[2] Force Surge
[2] Heart of Freedom
[1] Hit and Run
[0] I Can Feel It
[1] I Must Go Alone
[1] Negation
[2] One in a Million
[1] Single Purpose
[3] Son of Skywalker
[0] Take Initiative
My plan, like most people running the twins, is to cycle through command deck as fast as possible in order to draw Son of Skywalker and then keep cycling that as often as possible. More on this “plan” later.
I had to borrow Force Rush from my new friend Jesse, who I’d just met at the competition, since I had misplaced mine, and my friend Olaf lent me his copy of Heroic Effort. (Olaf ran double Rancors!!!) There were 12 people there. We had four rounds of robin, then cut to top 8. I did not take notes, please forgive my memory. There were a LOT of Rebels and Mercenaries. I think one single person brought Imperials, but I never played them.
Round 1. James.
My opponent James was an excellent fellow. An older chap who had been playing wargames since the 70’s (which might have been, oh, before I was born). His son had driven them to the competition. But while he had a lot of experience in other games, he was brand new to Imperial Assault.
He brought Boba Fett, IG-88 with Targeting Computer, and eHKs with Last Resort, and Under Duress. Our mission was In the Line of Fire. He passed quite a few turns, but then ran his HKs forward. Focused Obi-Wan made short work of one. Then he ran IG down and put some damage on Kenobi, but Luke was able to run in and slay both IG-88 and the remaining HK, leaving my entire list against Boba Fett. It took longer than I thought, and I lost Kenobi. Boba’s a tough old bastard. I had drawn Son of Skywalker round 3, but didn’t use it.
Win.
Round 2. Matt.
Matt’s a really nice guy who knows the rules very well. Super chill, even when things don’t go his way. Really cool to play against. He brought a Rancor w/ Beast Tamer, Jabba, two sets of reg HKs, and some eWeequays. Lair of the Dianoga.
My tactic on this Dianoga was to ignore the creature in the middle, let my opponent waste shots on it, while I move my figures along the doored hallway and leap into his middle. That way the opponent isn’t concentrating on me, and then at the last moment, run in with my Pierce 3 guys and steal the kill in order to shore up the objectives points. To a limited degree, that’s what happened, but Kenobi died before he could do much, and I blinked and he took out R2 quickly enough. I focused Jyn and ran her all the way across the trash compactor and into his middle, then used One in a Million to slay his HK, and she gummed up his plans after that. At 30-28 or some such, it came down to time, and time was called as I had finished my last activation. We asked, and since we hadn’t gone through end of round, nor passed initiative yet, that the game was over. Over, with my Luke on 1 health remaining facing a focused Weequay at range 5 with init. Matt was cool, said them’s the breaks, and chuckled into clean up. I never saw Devotion or Son of Skywalker.
Win.
Round 3. Jesse.
Jesse had let me borrow his Force Rush card. I said I wouldn’t use it against him. I think I lied. Jesse was lots of fun to play with, and obviously knew his stuff. He brought Jabba, eGamorreans, Bossk, rHKs, eWeequays, Black Market and … First Strike. Gaining Favor was our chosen battleground.
He ran Bossk up and interacted with the patron at the cross section with most of his forces behind him, and while I could have slain Bossk at the end of Turn 1, I was boneheaded and forgot something, so I had to use my first activation of Turn 2 to do it… after he got Trandoshan Terror off. That set me back a little. He killed Kenobi (a running theme), but then Jyn got a stun on one of the Gamorreans over in the bar area. Leia killed an HK, Jyn killed a Pirate, and R2 killed an HK that was on his last leg, surprising everyone. I appeared in command. Then, things took a dreadful turn.
I had forgotten that there were these things called Objectives in this fight? Suddenly, as I look on in horror, I realized that I had withdrawn my forces from the terrible wrath of the Gamorreans which Jesse has positioned on the patrons. I watched as one Gamorrean interacted twice to secure two more patrons, and the second moved and interacted with the last. Boom, +18vps.
I tried to move Leia in to block off his last weequay from taking a shot at Jyn (who had 1 remaining health), but instead he just killed Leia with Assassinate and Positioning Advantage and Heightened Reflexes. Tallied himself up to 46 points. There are only 2 cards in my Command Deck remaining, they are Devotion and Son of Skywalker. Jesse went on to be undefeated in the Round Robin.
Loss.
Round 4. Kyle.
My first sort of mirror match. Kyle was seemingly new to the game, he knew his figures and the rules though, and was just a pretty cool dude. Kyle brought Jedi Luke, Obi-Wan, Leia, Gideon, Davith, Alliance Smuggler, and 3PO. One Man’s Trash was our battleground.
I pretended to be interested in the crates enough to open the door, but I attempted to feint before I moved everyone into the hallway with the doors. Kyle’s first action was to use Devotion to draw Son of Skywalker. I am immediately jealous. I open the door to the terminal, and he follows suit, and this is to be our fight. He runs Skywalker all the way down the hall and eliminates R2 and wallops Jyn. Turn 2 begins, he kills Jyn and hits Obi-Wan pretty hard, but still hasn’t used Son of Skywalker, and is down to about 5 health remaining on Luke. Leia steps up and shoots him. Does about 2 damage or something. Gideon, the only person who could take a shot because of where he was placed, shoots him and does like 2 damage. Luke Son of Skywalkers and kills Leia, kills Gideon. Obi-Wan goes, steps up all focused. Luke Dodges. Uhhh…. Okay. Luke steps up for Luke on Luke action. Swings and his Luke DODGES AGAIN! And then Luke swings and his Luke DODGES AGAINNNNN!?!?!
My head explodes. He’s able to kill Kenobi and then runs in and slays C-3PO for 40 points. The End. I go off and gnash my teeth while banging my head against the wall. 4 cards left in my command deck. Still haven’t seen Devotion or SoS. Kyle is sympathetic and apologizes for his luck. He’s a good guy.
Loss.
So at the end, I’m 2-2. However, due to strength of schedule, I squeak into Top 4.
Here, I must thank and show appreciation to my fellow players. My babysitter (also my mom, Hi Mom!) was blowing up my phone asking me when I’d be there, because this was my first regionals and I didn’t know, so I said I’d pick them up by 5. Here it is 5:15pm and just starting the Top 4. All involved eschewed the offered break so that we could play immediately. So thank you Matt, thank you Kyle, and thank you Jesse.
Top 4. Jesse.
We laughed at the rematch. He was undefeated, I had barely squeaked in. We drew our battleground, and it was Gaining Favor, the same board we had played on and that he had won by snagging his last 3 patrons in one round. I vowed not to let that happen. He vowed to not let R2 kill an HK again.
He was far more cautious this time, starting in the sand deployment and taking Bossk out to the side instead of right up the middle. I did my delay thing until pouncing with Skywalker. He had placed a Weequay as bait next to the red box on the cross section, knowing that Luke would have to run 7 spaces to get to him. I did, and killed him, and end of turn, and I was going to gain initiative. However this time, he used Take Initiative from me before I could move Skywalker out of danger, and two HKs (one focused) were able to land something like 13 damage on Luke. It was almost like he had planned the whole thing.
I hid a wimpering Luke. I moved Obi-Wan up near the patrons in the cantina area, determined not to make it so easy for him to get those. I moved Jyn up as well, but they were facing a Gamorrean, Bossk, and a Weequay. A grand melee began. I lost Jyn, put some damage on Bossk, and then moved Leia WAY up to get off Battlefield Leadership with Kenobi and double team killed the Gamorrean. The Weequay then slew Obi-Wan with his special concoction of Assassinate and Heightened Reflexes.
For some reason, I had thought that Bossk had gone. I moved Leia to the side and killed the Weequay. He moved Bossk all the way down through the crossed hallway to get a ranged 3 shot with Luke who was hiding near the patron in the side room. He had me. He needed to do 3 points with Bossk.
Luke Dodged.
The turn ended. He had initiative. Bossk went again. Ranged 3 shot on Luke needed 3 points of damage. Luke. Dodged. And that was it. I could win by interacting with the patron so I did. As fuming mad as I was last game over the stupid Dodge multiple times, I was able to scrape by on luck alone and do the same thing. Didn’t deserve that win.
Still haven’t played Son of Skywalker.
Win.
Final Table. Matt.
Matt is the guy I played against for Lair of the Dianoga, but this time our match up was on One Man’s Trash. Rancor, Beast Tamer, Jabba, 2 rHKs, and eWeequays.
He deployed in the sand. I made a marginal attempt to pretend I was going into the trash compactor, by deploying Luke close by, but everyone else was lined up for the top hallway. He deployed his Rancor against the doored hallway, Jabba in the back corner.
He used his HKs to shoot the door, but couldn’t get through. I moved R2 up and opened my hallway door. He used his weequays to shoot the trash door but couldn’t get through. I used Gideon to focus Kenobi and move him up 2 spaces. He focused the Rancor with Jabba and drew a card. I ran focused Kenobi all the way up next to his hallway door. He shot the trash door for the final time with his HK, then used the 2nd HK to run up and open the door in front of Kenobi. I couldn’t get line of sight with Leia on his HK who had opened the door, so I took a range 9 shot at the Rancor and hit it for 3 damage.
His rancor moved in with Beast Tamer, stopped on Obi-Wan. Crush for 4. Pummel. Focused attack for 7 and then non-focused for 4. Focused Kenobi dies without taking a swing. Last activation, Luke uses Urgency to run 6 spaces next to the Rancor and focus hits him, then hits him again leaving 3 health on the beast.
End of turn. I draw Negation. Start of turn. I can’t remember if it was here or later in the match, but he tries to take initiative, and I Negation. Luke goes and kills the rancor, then runs up and one-shots the HK. Jabba focuses an HK. I think I moved Jyn down towards the red terminal.
At this point, Matt goes for the crates. He has 2 weequays and 3 HKs to move them. But then… Son of Skywalker. First time in the tournament I play it. Luke runs in and swipes at Jabba, then kills an HK. Leia runs up and shoots at someone, cycle SoS back in. We go, I draw SoS again. From there, it gets difficult for Matt. Jabba died, I put 5 damage on an HK and 5 on a weequay, so Matt stops shooting at Luke, but Luke keeps swinging. Leia gets a long range shot off and kills another HK, putting Son of Skywalker back in the deck where there are only two cards left, and since I control a terminal I’m going to get it again.
Matt concedes with 1 HK and 1 Weequay left so as not to draw out the match any longer. My thank you, Matt.
Win.
Matt took 2nd in his 2nd regional in a row. I again appreciate all those who helped me out by lending me cards and for skipping breaks.
I like my list and will try to stick with it. I had thought about replacing Jyn with MHD so that I could heal Luke or Leia, but I got a lot out of Jyn being able to run her in (once focused) into enemy lines and completely disrupt opponent plans.
I think Luke hits like a truck, but he becomes your centerpiece, far more than Leia. My entire list was disposable other than him, and while I never lost him, it would have made my team crumble if I had. Jabba’s mercenaries are far less fragile than the Rebel supporting cast in my opinion. And I think Imperials are going to need something to bring them back to tournaments.