Here’s my write up for the Manhattan, KS regional last Saturday – February 18^th. First off, big thanks to Justin for running the tourney and to Goblin Games for hosting us!

I'm going to post this in three chunks (2 Chapters and an Appendix) so you can pick up wherever you want and come back easily – because this thing got looong! Each of these will be their own separate comment on this thread.

1. My list and tourney through cut to top 8

2. Elimination games and Final – with a few impressions I had about the day.

3. Appendix - Top 8 lists

Leading up to the tourney we expected somewhere between 8-10 people. We knew six of us from Salina/McPherson play group were going. But we got there and had a surprising turnout of 16 players! I took two of my high school students with me, and we had the three other people from our local play group in McPherson. Here’s a quick overview of the tournament lists with a couple interesting stats:

9 Mercenary teams – Only 1 Rancor. There were no Banthas

5 Rebel teams – 4 had Jedi Lukes

2 Imperial teams – 1 list w/Terro/2x Dewback with Blaise/E Jets, and the other a Grand Inquisitor list

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My list for the day was an 8 Activation Mercenary List I got most of the idea from my friend Matt (we’ll hear more about him later). We play together, and in a recent casual tourney he ran a similar list to beat me. I liked it but decided to tweak the activations and then we both talked a lot about how the command cards should change. We ended up with identical activation teams for this regional but our command cards differed in two places. He used to run smuggled supplies for a wombo combo with Vinto – that plus one surge for the whole round was usable on 3 attacks in a Vinto activation (with draw!), then you could also order a hit with Jabba, and use change of plans from E Weequays to bring Vinto back for another two attacks. Potentially 6 surges from one card (plus the others sure) is pretty sick when it happens but we both ended up thinking it was pumping too much into Vinto and liked the utility of the list we ended up with better.

So here’s my version of the list:

Jabba

Gideon

3P0

2x E Weequays

Vinto

Greedo

Hired Guns

Black Market

Temporary Alliance

Command Cards:

3 – Assassinate

3 – On The Lam (we both dropped Squad Swarm and Smuggled Supplies to make room for this two days before the tournament – was a great decision!)

2 – Tools for the Job

2 – Heightened Reflexes

1 – Change Of Plans

1 – Strength In Numbers

1 – Negation

1 – Draw!

1 – Tough Luck

0 – Celebration

0 – To the Limit (Matt had Toxic Dart)

0 – Take Initiative

0 – Stimulants

0 – Planning

0 – Opportunistic (Matt had Element of Surprise)

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First Match – Versus David - To Your Stations (ISB Headquarters)

David was running a rebel list with Jedi Luke, Obi, E Alliance Rangers, Gideon, 3P0, R2, and Balance of the Force. He was a great opponent. David had initiative but allowed me to set up in the Jabba Nook on the stair side deployment. David moved up his Obi wan to stand in the hallway by the two stations so he could keep me from interacting with them. So I gave up on those first round and did more to get guys focused and ready for round 2. I did run my hired gun over to the single station in the “safe spot” behind the impassable terrain. But last activation, David double moved Jedi Luke and slaughtered the Hired Gun to take control of all three stations end of round 1. 11-0. Ouch.

Beginning of round 2, David tried to take initiative but I had negation. So I shot Luke with some focused Equays, Luke ran next to them to get line of sight on Vinto, who On The Lam’d to get away, and Luke settled for attacking Greedo with his second attack – Greedo survived. I then brought my other two unfocused Equays in to shoot luke – got 2 through and 2 through, played Assassinate to kill Luke! Things are looking up (and I learned later I killed him with SOS in his hand!). But then his E Rangers killed Vinto with a long shot, and then Greedo, but Greedo took one down with him. David moved someone up to re- control the two stations. End of round he controls 2 and me 1. 28-21 David.

Last round, I tried to play take initiative and got negated…He plays call the vanguard, comes in and snipes my focused Equay and kills him. Obi came in with first activation and killed another Equay. At that point, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out a way I could wipe just the right people out – took out 3P0 and Celebrated for 7 points but that ended up being the last of what I could take out. David finished it off killing 3P0 and holding one station still to put him at 41 points. 40-28 – Good job David!

So I started the day off with a loss and needing to win the next three to guarantee a cut to top 8. No pressure at all. Good news/spoiler, David ended up being undefeated in Swiss and thus the top seed. So that helped me and makes me feel a little better! I’m 0-1, but both of my students won their games so that was encouraging!

Second Match – Versus Brad – Reconnaissance (ISB Headquarters)

Brad was running Jabba, Boba Fett w/Prey on the Weak, E Trandoshans, Hired Guns, Greedo, Black Market, and Devious Scheme? Brad is from our local playgroup. He’s a great guy and loves playing Boba – and boy it's hard to take down the Fett! So I decided to ignore him and kill everyone else first. Pretty sure I opened my door early with Hired Guns, and then when he opened his I shot his Greedo with some Equays, killed him and celebrated for 9 points. He fired back at an Equay who survived. Then I moved up with the other Equays to shoot at the E Trandos before they could cover the distance. Damaged one pretty bad, so he ran behind cover at his terminal. The other came closer, but I brought Vinto in and finished him off while also taking out a Hired Gun. So Brad brings Boba into the fight in the middle of my guys. Kills an Equay. End of round we drop the cams – mine for 2 and his for 5. He black markets for a point. I reveal Assassinate and don’t spend the vp and put it back on top of the deck.

Turn 2 Boba slides through my guys to shoot at Vinto.

It’s looking like a really big attack, so I play On the Lam and get out of dodge.

Vinto’s only taken damage from walking by Boba once in each round (forgot that was a thing but better than dying). Boba then uses the rest of his movement to get out of the middle of my team. Vinto takes his turn to run up to the Hired Gun and Trando on the terminal and finish them both off.

At this point I’ve taken out everyone but the Fett and Jabba, but I moved up my full set of Equays to shoot at Boba, then play change of plans to exhaust the single Equay and bring the duo back. Attacked again, tough lucked a Boba defense die and assassinated him.

In the end, I just had too many activations for Boba to deal with and was able to get those E Trandos before they could really hurt me. If I’d have lost some of my firepower I don’t know if I could have taken Boba out. 40-11 – Good game and Brad was a great sport.

At this point I’m sitting 1-1. One student is now 2-0 the other is 1-1. Things are looking up! We all get a 30 minute break to get ready for the next round. At this point, I'm asking around how people are doing and trying to figure out how many 2-2's will make the cut. And I find out there are 5 2-0 players when there should only be 4. We found out there was an accidental recording of Matt as losing his first game when he won and is actually 2-0. So they fixed the pairings up as much as possible, and we moved on. At least we found the mistake before it went on any further.

Third Match – Versus Donovan – Lair of the Dianoga (Coruscant Landfill)

Donovan was running the Grand Inquisitor with E Jets, royal guards, E storm troopers, 3x Officers, and Zillo. This is the first time I've played Donovan and he's from our play group. He's relatively new to the game, but he's already won a game today, so I don't know what to expect.

He got iniative and set up in the outside deployment. First round, he opens the door and shoots at the Dianoga with his stormtroopers. Does a few points of damage. We position most of our guys in the hallway and the doors are open. He's got an officer, guard, officer sandwhich, and I bring up some weequays to shoot at his royal guard. Near the end of the round, he brings up the GI. I injured him a little, and then move Greedo up to focused shoot him. I rolled 8 damage to his Dodge (he was standing next to a royal guard so it was infinity+1).

Oh well. End of round 0-0 but he left his stormies too close to the dianoga and they all took 2 damage. I snuck in to take control of the hall terminal and maybe the far terminal too (he might have been contesting.

Second round, GI moves up and plays force lightning to stun and damage an Equay, Vinto, Greedo and 3P0! Forgot about that card. GI runs behind his line of guys.

I'm left to shoot what I can and end of round I've taken out an officer, royal guard, and E Jet in the hall and he's taken out my hired gun in the hall. Donovan learned his lesson on the dianoga and left him behind to bring his stormies back towards the hall. End round 2 I'm up 13-2.

Round 3 he's got the initiative and runs up the GI to focused lightsaber throw at Vinto, plays Hunt Them Down to make the huge attack. I decide it's time to play On The Lam and end the attack. So he runs back and I advance. I hunt down the GI and play celebration for 14 points. And then move Vinto up to pump some damage into the stormtroopers killing 2 with Vinto and all three before the round. Tagged one more officer to finish. I win 40-2. This is the first time I think Donovan played the Dianoga mission so I have confidence he's going to come back with a vengeance next time we play! But he's a super guy to play with!

Now I'm sitting at 2-1 and at least know there's a shot for me to make top 8. My 2-0 student lost and my 1-1 won, so we're all sitting at 2-1. Pairings are announced and the bad news hits – I have to play Karson, one of my students.

Fourth Match – Versus Karson – One Man's Trash (Coruscant Landfill)

Karson is running a 2x Elite Alliance Rangers, E Echo, Gideon, 3P0, Balance of the Force, Rebel High Command list. We've played each other a bunch in practice and while I've won the majority, I don't like playing his list – the games are very easy to swing one way or the other.

He deployed in the outside zone. He starts off by destroying the door to the trash with a set of Rangers.

And runs an echo in with some extra movement points from Gideon to bring back some trash to score that round. I think the doors are all open by the end of the round, all his snipers are going around the top/corner of the outside area. I have Greedo on my side of the corner focused. End of round he scores the box and had killed a Hired Gun – 6-0 him.

Second round I was able to take Greedo up and one shot an Alliance Ranger, he put 5 damage on Greedo though. He ends up killing Greedo next, and I'm able to do some damage. I snipe that ranger to finish him off with an Equay. I move the rest of my guys up the straight hallway versus his Echo's and a ranger, but I run Vinto in to get Gideon and 3P0, with Draw! and an Assassinate in there, while pinging damage all around. That Echo was left with a couple damage after it was over.

He gets a Hired Gun in there. End of round 2 – Black Market shows me On the Lam – this time I discard it for 3 vp. 20-12.

Round three, I'm finally feeling like I have the upper hand since I've thinned the rangers without losing my Equays/Vinto. So we trade back and forth in the hallway and his Echo's soak up some damage. But I kill a Ranger over there with Vinto, while pinging some more damage. He's decided his only hope is to score trash with three of his Rangers in the far terminal and has moved over there previous turn and now is picking them up and sitting next to the terminals.

So I go with one set of Equays to kill one ranger and then change of plans to set those Equays back up and kill another one. I'm up to 35 points now and run up to put the final damage on an Echo to win.

This game was a lot closer than the final score – damage was everywhere and if I'd ignored the trash rangers it'd have been 25-24 me and gone to another round – but that change of plans and a timely stimulants helped my plan to take them out. So I won it 40-12.

At the end of Swiss – I've managed to pull off 3 straight wins and I know I'm guaranteed into top 8. But both students are now 2-2 so it's not looking great for our team overall. They read off the standings Dave (my first round opponent) is in first with 4-0 and Matt has managed to win all his games to be 4-0 with the same list I'm running. Pretty sure Brystrom from the boards here got 3^rd seating. I get placed 5^th. Karson gets 7^th and Corban pulls off the 8^th spot! So all three of us made the cut and Matt's undefeated!

Read the next comment for elimination rounds and my impressions for the day. The comment after that will be an appendix of the top 8 lists. Thanks for reading!

Top Eight Round – Versus Patrick – Line of Fire (Anchorhead Cantina – Formerly Known as “Bar”)

Patrick was part of the three man crew from KC – they all made the cut too – congrats and great group of guys! Patrick just got done playing against Matt before the cut. So he wasn't too excited to see the same list again. He was running Jabba, Shyla, E Weequay, Greedo, Temporary Alliance, E Alliance Rangers, and 3P0.

I deployed in the outside top hallway – I think it's much more suited to sniping since you can step around the corner and come back towards the deployment zone and I like to run focused Greedo over to the single wall corner where he can shot out into the bar room and most places don't have line of sight back to him. So, I do some focusing up, give an HG 2 movement points from Gideon, run that guy to the far terminal, use the other to open my door while everyone else is sitting safely in the deployment zone. I run my greedo up to his spot. He's got Shyla perched in the bar room using the blocking terrain space corner for safety from my deployment zone but Greedo sees her. Patrick runs his focused Greedo and extends one to the right to get line of sight to Greedo. All I know is Greedo shot first...pretty sure we decided mine got to shoot first. Pretty sure both survived. Near the end of the round, he opens his door and I go with a set of Equays to kill one of his Equays.

End of round one: I'm up 5-0 and black market reveal a tough luck and pay one to draw it: 4-0.

Round 2 – Things get hairy real quick. I honestly don't know the order here, but my greedo dies . I ran Vinto up and did three attacks (Draw!) with a tools for the job in there to kill Greedo, an Alliance Ranger, and leave another Alliance Ranger with four damage on him after all that.

Pretty sure he goes with his Rangers to kill Vinto – after putting a price on his head...ouch. 10 points.

Somewhere in here I did an order hit (probably with too the limit) but I'm not sure if that was before Vinto died with Vinto or after with an Equay to finish off an Equay. I just know I did it because I kept track of score.

Not sure where we were at the end of round two because I didn't take a card that cost anything from black market and for some reason I wrote down all the rest of the points as being in round two but we had to make it to round three. Odds are good we were at I'm down 12-15 because of my order hit.

Round three - All I know is I killed all of his rangers who were injured. He got me down to one Equay.

I think we made it into round four – I know time was called after we were in a round and so I was wracking my brain on how to finish this because I realized I'd let Shyla live too long and actually needed to kill her to win. Rookie mistake, should have sat down at the beginning of this game and done the math to start and seen I could kill his whole team but still needed Jabba or Shyla to win – need to get better at doing that.

So, I killed 3P0 and celebrated for 7 points. I know I've finally taken the lead at 34 to 30 here. And the only things he has left are Shyla and Jabba. I have one Equay, 2 Hired Guns, 3P0, Gideon and Jabba. Maybe I can win. I do some damage to Shyla and think, I've got to get 3P0 out of range, so I play opportunistic not thinking, he points out 3P0 isn't scum...yep. Forgot about that in my angst to get out of there. So my dread comes true and he runs Shyla over to 3P0 and kills him (he wasn't standing next to any allies so couldn't reroll – mistake) and celebrates – hes' now up 37-34.

So now I've got an Equay and 2 Hired Guns and Jabba to take down a Shyla with 2 damage on her. Pretty sure I focused the Equay with stimulants from a Hired Gun, shot Shyla with the other Hired Gun. Shot her with the focused Equay, then played change of plans on Jabba to bring back the Hired Guns. Shot with one adjacent to Shyla, then moved away, he played dirty trick. How much strain does that do? 3? Took it as damage to kill my hired gun and shoot back – roll a great attack to get Shyla within 2 damage of dying. Take the hired gun off and write down the score – you won man...But he thought he was at 36 because of a miscalculation on his 3P0 celebration – he wrote down 6 and I wrote down 7 because of Jabba.

There was no getting around it. I did want to see what my other Hired Gun would roll so we did it and he got exactly two damage through and would have killed her.

I honestly didn't think there was enough damage on the best rolls with what I had left to pull it off but that was one of the closest games I've ever played. Hats off to Patrick for pulling it off. I had a great on the lam in there somewhere, it was definitely my favorite card of the day! And I'm pretty sure Patrick used a call the vanguard – go away card! - to do some damage or kill something too. I also drew through my entire deck by this time so I knew even making it to the end of the round couldn't bump me up somehow.

So, first elimination round – I lost to Patrick – Corban lost to David and Karson lost to Matt. We're all done but Matt is still going strong!

Final Four – Now we follow Matt vs. Patrick – Gaining Favor – (Anchorhead Cantina)

Just a refresher, Matt is basically running the same list as me (two different command cards) and Patrick, well see last game for that list. Matt deployed in the desert and Patrick in the bottom indoor zone. I didn’t watch much of the beginning of this game – was analyzing my previous and letting my brain unwind. But I’ve got enough notes and pics to get something out of this. Patrick started out with initiative. First round is all maneuvering and focusing/hiding up. Shyla is up in the middle of the map again back to the single wall at the bottom of the middle cantina room with two patrons. Patrick’s door is closed – Matt’s is open.

Second round, initiative passes to Matt. Matt starts with his focused and hidden red Equays. Moves up and attacks Shyla with both, plays an offensive command card or two, and that’s a dead Shyla and the Ewoks rejoice with jubilant celebration. Matt’s up 13-0. Wish I would have done that in my game instead of let her live (I also didn't take any pics of this game until after Shyla had died, oops!) Patrick, responds by interacting with Greedo on a patron, and falling back to focus guys and regroup. Matt does similar with Gideon and Jabba. Matt interacts with two patrons from Hired Guns. Rangers go and attack an unactivated yellow Equay. Takes multiple shots to take him down. 18-7 Matt.

Now that the door is open, Matt runs in with Vinto, plays Draw! And does three attacks on rangers.

He follows up with a change of plans to exhaust his yellow Equay who needs to mourn his recently departed buddy, and ready the deadly orange duo again. Followed by an immediate strength in numbers to go with the orange Equays! Down go the two alliance rangers who are injured. Patrick responds with his Equays to kill Greedo. End of round Matt’s black market shows on the lam so he spends 3 points to get it taking him down from 28 points to 25. End of round two – 25 -12 Matt.

Third round, Patrick has initiative and goes with his ranger to kill an Equay bringing him up to 17 points. He’s still got a full set of Equays and Greedo to matt’s two single Equays and Vinto – still a mess to try and win on kills for Matt.

But Patrick’s ranger doesn’t contest either remaining patron. Matt goes with his hired guns to interact with the final two patrons to score 5 and 10 more points to snag the victory!

Game over 40-17.

Championship Game – Matt versus Dane – Lair of the Dianoga (Coruscant Landfill)

Dane beat David in the semi’s to move on to the championship. Dane’s running rebels with Jedi Luke, elite alliance rangers, wookiee warriors, Gideon, 3P0, and surprise - Mak Eshka’rey! Dane sets up in the inside deployment with initiative and Matt is outside in the desert.

First round, lots of maneuvering and focusing up. Matt has his hired guns at both terminals. But Dane goes for a long shot with his rangers to kill an unactivated Equay of Matt’s. Dane kills the focused hired gun in the hallway on the terminal, but the Hired Gun parting shots to put four damage on a ranger! Very end of round, Jedi Luke plays an urgency and does a double move for 10 to get to the far terminal and slaughter the poor Hired Gun there. Matt’s black market shows an assassinate, so he spends three VP taking us to – End of round 1 – 8 to 2 Dane is in the lead –

Things don’t exactly look good for Matt.

Second round - Dane calls the vanguard and poor Gideon dies! So Matt runs Vinto over to shoot at Luke on the far terminal.

Vinto gets a toxic dart onto Luke for the weaken, and attacks some. Plays assassinate and Luke has taken 11 damage. Matt plays strength in numbers to bring greedo (unfocused) in for hopefully a final shot! Rolls 2 surges…ouch. But weakened Luke still takes 3 damage and a bleed for 14 total damage. Somewhere in there Matt heightened reflexed a Luke dodge too. So weakened and bleeding Luke activated next, removed bleeding and ran around the corner far enough that he might live the whole game. Matt goes with his Equays next to do four damage to an e ranger and five to a wookiee. Then he change of plans to re-up those Equays exhausting his single figure set of Equays. Dane has his wookiees in a diagonal wall and Matt has his Equay up next to them having shot through the corner of the wookiee wall. So Dane brings his ranger up to point blank shoot the Weequay.

Matt on the lams. Activates the Weequays and prowls and shoots the damaged wookiee with both Weequays to kill it.

End of round 2 – 11-7 Dane still up but now it’s a game again.

Third round –

Matt takes initiative and with it he downs the uninjured ranger! Dane only has one ranger left with four damage on it. Moves the ranger up and shoots the single Weequay activation who has 3 damage already. He lives with one! Just kidding, heightened reflexes for the confirmed kill. That Weequay didn’t get to shoot this round but he did his job last round by bringing back his buddies. Matt goes with Vinto to run up to Mak who is now sitting on the far terminal. Vinto does one damage in the first attack…But second attack hits for four and kills Mak – and Matt brings out the teddy bears again to dance and celebrate for an 8 point Mak. Dane runs Luke back up 8 spaces to swing at Vinto and slices him down and responds with a rival gang of Ewoks to gain four more points before the end of the round.

Matt’s black market gains him another point by discarding “draw!” bringing us to – End of round – 24-21 with Dane still in the lead.

Fourth Round – Dane has guaranteed initiative, but runs Luke back around the corner towards the terminal where 3P0 is waiting to be a distraction. Even though he’s sitting on 14/16 health, he’ll have a double surge block if he gets attacked. Matt goes with Weequays and stim focuses to hit the wookiee for 5, and he tough lucks the wookiee defense die putting one more damage through to kill it. Then Matt’s 3P0 opens the door to the Dianoga, and then moves Greedo up to shoot Dane’s 3P0 with an element of surprise – dead 3P0 by Luke.

Matt’s in the lead now 29-24.

Dane goes with his Gideon, doesn’t get a kill. Jabba orders a hit on the Jedi Master with Greedo – and Luke dodges! 27-24. Dane plays the Son of Skywalker after Jabba’s activation to run up and kill Greedo. Greedo parting shots and Luke dodges again! Dane’s in the lead now 28-27. But Matt still has two Weequays to Dane’s Ranger and Gideon. End of round 4 – 28-27 Dane.

Fifth Round – Matt has the initiative and shoots Luke – no more pesky dodges with raider going on.

They kill Luke and his 12+1 from Jabba puts Matt at an even 40 for the win. Wow! What a game! Dane played awesome and was definitely pushing his list in all the right ways. But in the end, Matt’s command cards and extra activations were too much to chew through. Congrats to Matt on winning the 2017 Manhattan Regionals.

Some impressions/thoughts for the day:

I really like this list – it's a ton of fun to play and there's lots of deployment shenanigans with change of plans, strength in numbers, and the synergy that everyone (except the rebel care package) is a smuggler and everyone else but Hired Guns/Jabba is a hunter.

Two cards to take away defense dice – Tough Luck and Heightened Reflexes – is good, but I really do think I want to go back to three with element of surprise. Matt ran it, and there were many times I really wish I had it too, and honestly, opportunistic (the card I played instead) didn't help me at all this tournament.

Celebration is awesome with Jabba and there's almost always someone to use it on.

On The Lam was my favorite card all day – it was clutch and helped out a lot to be able to negate powerful attacks. It's also a super frustrating card for your opponent to have happen – mind games.

On that note, I hate “Call the Vanguard” and by hate, I mean I hate that I can't use it in my list Seriously though, because it targets 4+cost troopers and has the mini activation pre-initiative it can be game changing.

E Alliance Rangers are rough to fight – they snipe farther and hit harder with their inherent pierce than the Equays and HK's and being a 3 figure activation is very strong and versatile.

Toxic Dart – Matt's other different command card from me (I ran to the limit for Jabba and some others, but found it didn't make too much of a difference), was very effective at making shots against Jedi Luke, Obi-Wan and Shyla better with the auto weaken. That and the fact it's not an action and it's stronger than I first gave it credit for. That and the fact that my losses on the day were because Luke took too long to kill/Obi Wan area control and then I didn't focus Shyla soon enough (and Call the Vanguard in both games), toxic dart (and element of surprise) would have helped a lot.

Black Market opens up so many doors – don't need that 3 point cc? Score it! Need it? Pay for it or go first with Jabba knowing it's coming. Negation is on top of my deck, grab that for a point! You get the idea. Jabba can take the strain (I've seen a few people snipe the fat slug – Karson loves to when he can do it but I've also seen lots of people just ignore him) but another fun thing to try is take the strain as damage on a hired gun and end of round three kill him off for hopefully a focused attack by then.

Thank you again to everyone who came out and played (and you if you’ve read this far!). It was a great tournament and fun to meet everyone. And congrats to the 3 guys from KC who all made top 4, lots of fun to play with them and all classy! Hope you’ve enjoyed this write up, and that’s it!

Don't forget the appendix below if you want to read the top 8 lists.

Top 8 Lists after Swiss – 3 Rebels, 1 Imperial, 4 Scum

1. Rebels

Jedi Knight Luke

E. Alliance Rangers

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Gideon

R2-D2

3P0

Balance of the Force

2. Matt – Scum

E Weequay

E Weequay

Jabba

Vinto

Greedo

Hired Guns

Gideon

3P0

Temporary Alliance

Black Market

3. Scum

Shyla

Vinto

Jabba

E Weequay

E Gamorrean

Greedo

Devious Scheme

Black Market

4. Scum

Jabba

Shyla

E Weequay

Greedo

E Alliance Rangers

Gideon

Temporary Alliance

5. My list – Scum

E Weequay

E Weequay

Jabba

Vinto

Greedo

Hired Guns

Gideon

3P0

Temporary Alliance

Black Market

6. Rebels

Jedi Knight Luke

E Alliance Ranger

Wookiee Warrior

Mak Eshka'rey

3P0

Gideon

7. Karson – Rebels

E Alliance Ranger

E Alliance Ranger

E Echo Base Trooper

Gideon

3P0

Rebel High Command

Balance of the Force

8. Corban – Imperial

Captain Terro

Feeding Frenzy

Agent Blaise

Dewback Rider

Dewback Rider

E Jet Trooper

Targeting Computer

E Jet Trooper

Targeting Computer

No Zillo

Great write up! Congrats on your play! I vaguely considered coming out to this one, but from NW Arkansas it was too much of a trek.

-ryanjamal

Thanks for being a teacher!

Cool write up. I agree, as I run JLuke/Obi, I despise On The Lam and I want to tear that card up whenever I see it.

My favorite Mercenaries now are Jabba, Vinto, Shyla, and the ePigs. Well, I say favorite, but they are really the most dreaded. Shyla's ability to drag figures (pronounced Jeh-dai Loo-k) out into the open in order to be maimed by the rest of her friends is scary. You seem to have a good handle on Vinto though, and your eWees appear to be your MVPs with the Change in Plans card.

I'm surprised at the lack of ePigs in your local scene. The Gamorreans are tough stuff. 8 Health rolling Black+1 usually? My buddy runs two elite Gamorreans and will use them like others would use J-Luke. He'll wait until the end of round 1 to double move them unapologetically into the middle of your forces and just wreak havoc. Whatever you might have been planning goes straight out the window.

Also thanks for being a teacher again.

On 2/26/2017 at 10:51 AM, R5D8 said:

Thanks for being a teacher!

Cool write up. I agree, as I run JLuke/Obi, I despise On The Lam and I want to tear that card up whenever I see it.

My favorite Mercenaries now are Jabba, Vinto, Shyla, and the ePigs. Well, I say favorite, but they are really the most dreaded. Shyla's ability to drag figures (pronounced Jeh-dai Loo-k) out into the open in order to be maimed by the rest of her friends is scary. You seem to have a good handle on Vinto though, and your eWees appear to be your MVPs with the Change in Plans card.

I'm surprised at the lack of ePigs in your local scene. The Gamorreans are tough stuff. 8 Health rolling Black+1 usually? My buddy runs two elite Gamorreans and will use them like others would use J-Luke. He'll wait until the end of round 1 to double move them unapologetically into the middle of your forces and just wreak havoc. Whatever you might have been planning goes straight out the window.

Also thanks for being a teacher again.

Thanks for the thanks - I'm more of a non-traditional teacher but I work with 6-12 grade students still

Yeah, I was a little surprised by the lack of E gamorreans in the top 8. But honestly, it's because half the scum lists in top eight were me and matt. Patrick brought in e alliance rangers which are expensive but make it more like matt and I's list sniper wise. And Bryce had the pigs in his list and used them well from what I gather.

Change of plans is definitely huge with the equays and even other hunters/smugglers depending on what needs to be done and who's able to be activated. And strength in numbers is awesome when you can use it to wipe a figure or activation out before they go.

We definitely want to try out the double pigs and get some practice against and with them

I can't decide which I like better. eQuays or eWees.

It's Weequays and eQuays for me :-)

-ryanjamal

Thanks a lot for this wonderful report! Really enjoy pictures

Great write up, almost seems to me that Dane would have been better off letting Matt sit near Jabba and just taken a few shots at the Dianoga. This is why I don't like Wookie Warriors in this list, they got great HP but they are just to **** slow. With some Echo Base Troopers up in the top hallway and his Rangers pinging the Dianoga he probably had that match. Great stroke of luck by Matt to draw the right cards at the right time, and unbelievable dodges by Luke to stay alive that long. Seems like it was a great final.

Thanks for the write up. Dane absolutely crushed me first round of the cut. Glad to see he made it to the final, it was a brutal and well played list.

This is Matt from up above. I thought I’d add a quick rundown of my games earlier in the tournament. Especially because rounds 3 and 4 of swiss were against Patrick and Dane leading to rematches in the semis and final. I don’t remember the exact lists of my opponents, but I do have my scoresheets to remind me.

This was my first major tournament other than some local store tournaments and I’ve been playing since some time between the Bantha Rider and Bespin Gambit.

Round 1 vs Alex - To your stations

He was running scum with a Rancor, Beast Tamer, HKs, eWeequays, Jabba, and Shyla. I’m not 100% sure on that.

Alex said he hadn’t played since the last round of regionals and he was a good sport. I deployed in the room with the circle things and he was at the end with the stairs. While I was activating my supports he ran his trained rancor up and opened his door and then parked one space outside my door. I ended up opening it up with a hired gun who looked rather oblivious of his potential fate standing below the massive arms of the rancor. The other one went to the T and parked at a station. He moved his HKs down the stairs and had his weequays and shyla in the next hallway up from his deployment zone. I managed to down his Rancor before the turn was up and we both scored one objective. I don’t remember the details from there, but I eliminated his 2 HKs and 2 Weequays for 20 points putting me at 33. He took out a weequay, but I managed to hold all 3 stations at the end of round 2 for 9 points to get the victory.

Round 2 vs Chris - Reconnaissance

Chris had a scum list with Vinto, Jabba, Bossk, HKs, eWeequays, Gideon, and an Alliance Smuggler. I was in the square deployment and he was in the T-shaped one by the stairs. He double moved his HKs to my side of the T hallway and had Vinto at a corner where his door was. His A.S. had opened the door and was on the terminal. I pushed up the hallway and managed to take out Vinto, an HK, and the smuggler turn 1. He managed to get a hired gun that I think whiffed on a range 2 parting shot vs an HK. End of round 1 I got 4 points from cams he got 3 making it 18 to 6. I started off round 2 taking out Bossk before he could indiscriminately blast my mass of figures coming up the hallway. I think I did this with a strength in numbers and Vinto/Greedo combo because he managed to take out those too next. I got his Gideon and an HK. He ordered a hit, but it didn’t score him a kill. End of round 2 I had knocked out all but one figure a camera could see and he got 4 points from cameras making the score 37 to 19. I eliminated one of his weequay to secure the victory in round 3.

Round 3 vs Dane - Lair of the dianoga (This was the same scenario as the finals)

I took the indoor deployment and he got the outside one. I started with initiative. After we both did our supporting actions/passing I sent a focused hired gun down the near hall to grab the terminal and the other top open the door to the trash room. He conceded that hallway (never opening his door the whole game) and went straight for the dianoga starting with his eRangers. I know somehwere in there I manage to activate one group of weequays and Greedo to put 4 damage on the Dianoga. His rangers and Luke put some serious hurt on the dianoga with only Luke being in the room. At this point the dianoga had 6 or 8 health remaining and I had one group of weequays left maybe one was focused and he had the potential to play son of skywalker which he had because he used devotion earlier with c-3p0. I took one shot at the dianoga and whiffed so I just prowled with the other Equay setting up for next turn. He played son of skywalker and rolled 3 single surges on his first attack doing two whole damage. Since he was already committed he attacked again and left the dianoga with 2 health and then moved back into his doorway with all the rangers. So at this point it’s the end of round 1 and he has 14 damage on it vs my 4 and I had somehow managed to kill one of his rangers (I think it was over by the other terminal and I shot it diagonally with a focused weequay and probably played a cc). He takes 2 damage from the dianoga on Luke and maybe a ranger and a wookie too. I’m feeling pretty good about my turn because I have take initiative in hand. Too bad he had Call the Vanguard in *his* hand. He plays that before I make my bid for initiative and eliminates the dianoga scoring a whopping 21 points for it. The score is now 9 to 21. I decide not to take initiative because he’s still in a far away position with nothing worth spending two activations on (one for the initiative) so I let him go. I eliminate a ranger and Mak (celebration - it won’t be the last time) in a fight over by the terminal. He runs Luke into that fight and takes out Vinto. I remember running a hired gun up at this point and shooting a one health Luke that was hiding behind some figures at point blank. We go to turn 3 and I spend 1 VP on the black market to draw something making the score 34 to 26 in my favor. By now his wookies finish their slog across the garbage bog and I play on the lam to avoid an attack and blast them with all my waiting troops. These two wookies give me the win 44(40) to 26.

Round 4 vs Patrick - One man’s trash

I again had the inside deployment and he had the outside one. I move my c-3p0 like I’m going to set up a defensive spot near the locked door and run two hired guns around the long way to sit right by 2 boxes. He counters by running Greedo and Shyla around to the terminal with Greedo back a little so he can take out the hired guns without getting parting shot. At this point I bum rush the hallway with all my guys and he opens his door and takes out an equay with his rangers. I manage to take out all 3 of his rangers turn 1 making the score 15 to 5 in my favor. Round 2 I get both his equay and a celebratory c-3p0 without losing anything on that side. He takes out my hired guns and heads back with Shyla and Greedo. End of round 2 the score is 32 to 11. Round 3 I score his Jabba and he gets 2 more equay. I take out Shyla to score 9 and win.

Round of 8 vs Karson - Line of fire

I deployed inside and he deployed outside. We both focused up and opened our doors. His first round was really rough. Karson played it spot on, but I on the lam’d a huge focused attack from him to run up and claim the middle terminal as far back and on his side as I could with a focused and hidden weequay. He took another ranger shot and his two rerolled blues came up as both 2 accuracy 1 surge sides. He took a focused shot at my c3p0 and when he rerolled I played tough luck to make him lose the range he needed to hit. Then he attack 3cp0 again who dodged (I think it was only my second of the day at this point). He got both my hired guns round 1. I ran Greedo all the way to his terminal to draw 3 cards at the end of the round because I spent most all of them first turn avoiding 2 focused attacks. He plays Call the Vanguard and takes out Greedo who takes a ranger with him before Round 2 even really gets underway. At this point I’m laying on the damage and making him reroll all his 3 block black dice (and he rolled a bunch of them). The game ended 42 to 12, but I really don’t think that does it justice. His 3 massive trooper groups were tough to fight and I used all the tricks just to survive the initial onslaught.

See above for the excellent reports on the last two games from Masterchiefspiff.

I think the reason Dane ignored the dianoga in the final match was because it didn’t work out for him the first time around. His words were, “That’s where wookies go to die.” The end of that game was really close too, because both of my remaining equay had ⅚ damage on them.

Thanks to Goblin Games and Justin for the tournament and thank you to everyone that played. It was a great experience. And an extra special thanks to Spiff for being awesome giving me a ride home

In a couple of spots you say you Tough Lucked a defense die (on Fett and a Wookie), were they re-rolling defense dice (possibly with Hard to Hit or Guardian Stance)? Just wanted to make sure I understand that card correctly.

37 minutes ago, leacher said:

In a couple of spots you say you Tough Lucked a defense die (on Fett and a Wookie), were they re-rolling defense dice (possibly with Hard to Hit or Guardian Stance)? Just wanted to make sure I understand that card correctly.

Probably a forced reroll from a Weequay pirate and then Tough Luck.

Just now, brystrom1 said:

Probably a forced reroll from a Weequay pirate and then Tough Luck.

ooh... that is devious!

1 hour ago, leacher said:

ooh... that is devious!

Yes, that's what we tended to do. It's a third defense die removal in our cc deck. Though it can save your own guy in a pinch sometimes if the opponent has a reroll on offense, it's more often I've found myself having them reroll their defense and many times planning to tough luck it regardless to kill secure.