I have been into skirmish for a year and some change now. My first tournament was the spring 2016 Regionals at Covenant in Tulsa and since then I haven’t looked back. My friend John ( @Brigadierblu) and I then made the trek to Gen Con last summer (my first!) and I managed to place 10th, which bolstered my confidence that I was doing some things right. That led me to Regionals this past winter, which I again attended at Tulsa, though with a smaller showing of only seven people. I was the only undefeated player after the swiss rounds but managed to lose in the first round after the cut. Before that time, I had been like 0-5 against the Vader’s Finest guys, but I finally eked out a win against both of them, so even though I didn’t win the Regional, I was still feeling confident about my list.
And that brings me to Worlds. Simply put, it was a blast. Joined as always by John, I had a great time playing some fantastic games of skirmish and getting to meet a lot of people I had mostly only known on the boards. So, to @Masterchiefspiff, @dietz057 , @brettpkelly, @HustlenFett, Mythical Mothman, the Vader’s Finest guys, and a host of others, thanks for making this community so great!
Which brings me to my list:
Deployment
Jedi Luke 12
Obiwan 7
eSabs with targeting computer 8
Lando 6
Gideon 3
C3PO 2
Alliance Smuggler 2
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Command Cards
Son of Skywalker
Heart of Freedom
Force Surge
Lock on
Comm Disruption
Cheat to Win
Intelligence Leak
Stealth Tactics
Negation
Planning
Devotion
Urgency
Take Initiative
Positioning Advantage
Element of Surprise
I really love this list. My basic strategy is to focus my Sabs first turn and hopefully draw Son of Skywalker J (I have a two in three chance of drawing it by the end of my first turn with devotion in my deck, and drawing planning can increase those odds). I push either Luke or Obiwan up with Gideon and position myself for hitting hard at the end of the activation, or readying myself for the beginning of my second turn. I sometimes use Lando as bait, moving him up to take a long shot at an enemy figure (replacing a die with a blue die), and then unloading on whatever moves up with my Sabs, who can hit farther than one might expect, especially with targeting computer. And then Luke and Obiwan go to work. They usually earn their points before they go down, if they do at all. A lot of my games came down to who had initiative (or take initiative) at the right time.
I don’t know if I saw anyone else running something like it. Mostly, if I saw Rebels it was a Luke and eRangers list. It’s true that it doesn’t have the reliable consistency of the Merc lists anchored by the twin sets of eQuays, with their six health, black die, and reroll ability, nor does it have their access to those wicked hunter cards, or the ability to chain activations with Squad Swarm and Strength in Numbers. It’s got the swinginess of the white die and of command card draw (where in the world is my Son of Skywalker?). But it packs a punch and can a lot of times do enough damage in the initial onslaught that I can gain the stronger footing before my opponent gets the draw of his best cards. Plus, it’s versatile enough to compete in both objective-heavy scenarios and the slugfests, and it favors an aggressive style that suits me. Overall, it’s a lot of fun.
So, how did I do? Well, obviously since I think this (super seekret J) list is so great, I won Worlds…okay, not quite.
My goal was to make the top 16 cut, and I missed out on that by essentially a die roll, going 4-3 and ending up 31st, which felt respectable and earned me a set of those shiny new dice. My losses were all close (I lost my last game, the one that I think would have pushed me into the top 16, 39-40), and I was competitive in all of my losses up until the end.
Round Summary
Round 1: Anchorhead Cantina, Patrons Scenario
I played against a really nice guy (I’ve forgotten almost everyone’s name, so if I played you please post a comment below so I can match a name and a face) who was running two eQuays, ePigs, Vinto, Jabba, and the Rebel care package. This game was close down to the end, but I drew Son of Skywalker at the right time and Luke slaughtered his remaining power units, allowing me to snag a couple of patrons for the win. Tough game against a really solid opponent.
1-0!
Round 2: Jabba’s map, the crates scenario
My opponent this time was running Rebels (yay!), with Jedi Luke, Leia, regular Rangers, regular Echo Base Troopers, Gideon, and C3PO. It was a stranger list, as I hadn’t seen the regular versions of the Rangers and Echoes, and I hadn’t faced Leia for a while, but I am always wary when Skywalkers abound. Ultimately, this game ended quickly. I opened my door and then moved Lando out to take a shot at a Ranger who had moved up. That drew Leia out, which ultimately cost him that unit. I moved up with one of my sabs to do 7 damage to her, and the used my other to kill the Ranger she was next to and use blast to finish her off. Then at the end of the round, I used urgency to move up to get off two attacks on his Luke, followed by (again) Son of Skywalker to get in two more, doing exactly four damage each attack to kill him. I had initiative start of the next round and killed two more units with Luke and at that point we called it.
2-0!
Round 3: ISB, To Your Stations scenario
This was another close match. I played against another Merc list, identical to the list I played first round with an Alliance Smuggler and Black Market instead of Gideon. This map plays to my strengths with Obiwan and Luke holding down the hallway with two stations. There was an intense brawl on the tile that held the doors, but in the end my force user brawlers were too much.
3-0!
I was pretty excited, being ranked 4th with my strength of schedule at the lunch break, but that’s when the day started to turn on me.
Round 4: ISB, camera scenario
This match was against Felipe, a really great guy who went on to make the top 16 cut. He had ePigs, Bossk, Vinto, Onar (Curse you Onar!!!!), Jabba, and Rebel Care Package.
I think I should have won this game, but some bad luck and some poor play cost me the game.
To be honest, I hadn’t thought much of Onar before this game, for one good reason: I’m an idiot J. Man, he wrecked me. First turn, Felipe focused his ePigs and Onar. We ignored the doors and met at the plus-sign-shaped tile with the obstacle on it. I managed to get Bossk down to almost dead, but unfortunately he saw that Luke could reach him with urgency on the last turn and moved his ePigs up to block him off. I took out his ePigs quickly, but Bossk managed to cling to life for longer than he should have. I attacked him with Gideon, but that left him with one life left, and then I attacked with my smuggler, but Bossk rolled that dratted X. But like an idiot I had neglected to use my element of surprise on him (saving it for my focused Lando to hit Vinto hard), and that swung things. Onar carved through Luke and Obiwan and in the end I think I lost this one with around 35 points to his 40.
Onar is the perfect counter to figures like Luke and Obiwan, who have much of their strength invested in their cleave 3. This was one I wish I could have back, but it was a great game.
3-1
Round 5: Jabba’s map, New Ownership scenario
This was against a typical Imperial list (At last!): 2x eJets, Captain Terro, 2x dewbacks, 2x officers, with Zillo and some upgrades (maybe feeding frenzy on both dewbacks and targeting computer on the eJets?). I also sort of feel like I should have pulled this one out, but in the end I let him rack up too many objective points. I opted to not open the door, which I think was a mistake considering his list. He dropped one of his eJets into the pit and moved a dewback to the upper stash, netting him 8 points a turn. I took the one in the center tile, meaning that I had to gain an extra 4 per round to stay even, which I thought I could do. I got some bad rolls that left a few figures at one health left, and that cost me activations to finish them off. Hats off to my opponent, though, who forced me to get out of position to finish off his guys. Another close match that I ended up in the 30s (and had a strong figure advantage at the end), but he got to 40 before I could.
3-2
My goal for the first day was to go 4-1, but I ended up ranked 24th, so I had a strong chance of getting dice and an outside chance of making the top cut.
Day Two
Round 6: Anchorhead Cantina, crates mission
My opponent ran a 39-point list, a savvy move to ensure initiative against non-Merc lists. He had Terro with a 1-point upgrade (Survivalist, I think), 2x Dewbacks with feeding frenzy, Blaise, eStormies, an officer, Zillo, and Rule by Fear. This game swung my way early on, and even though it was somewhat close I held the edge the whole game. I was able to take out Blaise and Terro before either was too much of a factor. And the eStormies just don’t put out enough damage against someone with an autoevade, particularly Obiwan with his black die.
4-2!
Round 7: ISB map, cameras scenario
This was a great game. I played against James, who ended up in the top 4. His list was Jabba, Greedo, Vinto, 2x eQuays, ePigs (I think), and well, that doesn’t add up right, so I don’t know J (feel free to chime in if you recall his list). This came down to the wire. I took an early beating with Obiwan, who went down early and managed to whiff on his only attack against a focused Greedo. That I thought would do me in, but luckily Luke carved through his ranks effectively, aided yet again by a Son of Skywalker. I managed to get him down to just a single eQuay and Jabb, with my remaining units being an almost dead smuggler and Gideon and Lando (both at full health). Unfortunately, I only managed to get his eQuay down to two health left on the next-to-last round, leaving me with only 39 points. He had initiative and got his last four points by annihilating Gideon with his slew of command cards. I’m pretty sure I could have picked up an extra point if I had positioned better at one point to place a better camera, but hats off to James who held his eQuay back and advanced him at just the right time.
4-3
Four-Player Skirmish
On Saturday there was the two-round fun four-player free-for-all tournament, my first time trying out four player, and it was a lot of fun! I ended up with a list that resembled the top 16 lists, mainly because I wanted to take Onar for a spin (really loving that guy). I won my first round and placed second in my second (John sniped @dietz057 's Bossk, one-shotting him with a regular Weequay and a host of hunter cards just before I could get to 40), but that’s not saying much. The point was to have fun, and with four player free for all there was plenty of fun to be had. Just when you thought you had the upper hand, someone on the other side of the map negates your positioning advantage or blasts you with a turret. Other than finding out later that I walked away with @dietz057 ’s 0-0-0 (again, sorry about that! It’s in the mail!), I had a great time.
Final Thoughts
FFG put on a good show. IA didn’t have quite the drama of Xwing O_o, but with 128 players in the field the game was well represented. The prizes were good, but it was rather annoying that the prize wall was only open from 12:00-6:00, especially considering a lot of people were earning tickets Saturday night and leaving Sunday morning (myself included). I also would have liked to see more side events. There was some down time, which I happily filled with an IMAX 3D showing of Guardians of the Galaxy 2, but there easily could have been another side tourney going on. Still, a good time was had by all, and I hope to make this a yearly pilgrimage for me.
I could have done a little better, but I think my list had a good showing. There’s been a lot of hand wringing about the state of the meta and the dominance of the Mercs. But truly, I think these Rebels are all right. The Mercs do have a greater consistency, so they are likely to do better in the top 16 of a major tournament like this, but I think this list is only a hair’s breadth separated from those Mercs. And with exciting things to come for all factions (I’m a Rebel player through and through, but even I want to try out a Vader and Palp list), I think we’re in a great place. What’s more, the lists that are dominating are fun to play and create exciting games (much more so than running your last eStormie to the furthest corner to hide).
My other takeaway is that I am finally going to get into playing on Vassal. I have yet to tackle online play, but I’d love to get in some games with those of you who are active on there. I loved hanging out with those I met, and I really enjoyed the competitive play at Worlds. Brigadierblu and I are about the only consistent players around here (Northwest Arkansas). We drive over to Tulsa on occasion, but even that scene is sparsely populated. I host some local tourneys, but that’s mainly for fun rather than competition (most of the people who play have less than a handful of games under their belt). So, once I figure out how to do this whole Vassal thing, expect to see me on there (and I’d love to pit my Worlds list against yours! It’d be fun to match up with people I didn’t get to play against!).
Until then, happy gaming!
-ryanjamal
Dare to be different!