Hi guys,

I'll try and type up a full report later but I went to a Store Champs over the weekend at Kirton Games and it was another great event by those guys with 16 players, which seems to be a really good field for a Store Champs.

You can see a full stream of the top table for the day currently on twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/164583965

If you'd prefer the final has been uploaded to YouTube already (with commentary) and is available "here"

I played against a good spread of lists through the day, 2 Rebel, 2 Scum pre cut, then a Rebel and Scum after the cut.

My list was:

eWeequay x2

Vinto Hreeda

Hera Syndulla

Hired Guns

C1-10P

Gideon Argus

eJawa Scavenger

C3P0

Devious Scheme

Temporary Alliance

-----------------------------------

Assassinate

Disorient

Draw!

Element of Surprise

Heightened Reflexes

On the Lam

Planning

Shoot the Messenger

Squad Swarm

Strength in Numbers

Take Initiative

Tools for the Job

Urgency

Wild Attack

-----------------------------------

I'll perhaps try and add some detail to these at a later time if people are interested but for now a basic rundown is:

Game 1: Against Justin Smith who had made the trip down from Swindon and was running a Scum list with Rancor/Bantha/Jabba/Vinto/eWeequay on Nal Hutta Swamps (Raining Freight)

This started off in a funny fashion as Justin passed a couple of times then when it came to move realised that he couldn't move either the Rancor or the Bantha out of his deployment zone... He'd started them off next to each other in the top deployment zone which meant that neither of them had enough space to manoeuvre to get out.

That would have been a horrible way to lose a game so I agreed to let him move one of the two massive figures and trade places with Jabba, which allowed them to get out. What followed from there was a close game as the Bantha seemed to take a heck of a lot to kill with that health pool and the Rancor game down and put some hurt on my Weequays. My Hired Guns had done me proud grabbing crates though and I eventually managed to get both Rancor and Bantha down for a 36 to 34 point win. Phew, nervy start!

Game 2: Against Tim Bland one of the Kirton partners. Tim was running Shyla and Vinto with eWeequay, eSabs and eRangers and we were playing the Spoils of Crime mission on Jabba's Palace. I took the preferable deployment side (The Terminal down some stairs is a bit more shielded) This one ended a bit messy with Squad Swarm Weequay's being massively effective and pretty much ending the game start of turn 2.

Game 3: Dave Perks, a good friend and one of my regular opponents on StarWarsStreaming running IG88, 2 x eWeequay, Onar, Gideon, C3PO, Jawa (I think that's roughly it) again on the Jabba's Palace map and New Ownership this time.

Think that this one should be view-able on the Twitch Stream so I won't go into too much detail here.

Game 4: The small task of overcoming current UK National Champion Alistair Scott and I was very nervous about this one. I've yet to beat Alistair and he knocked me out of Nationals in last years Semi Finals as well as beating me in the Exeter Regionals Final so I wasn't confident going into it. Having said that with 3 wins each we were pretty confident we would make the cut regardless. Alistair was playing eRanger, eWeequay, Vinto, Jabba, Gideon, C3PO, eJawa, Black Market and we were on the Cantina map for the first time playing Gaining Favour.

Again I shan't go into too much detail here as it should be view-able on the Twitch Stream

After this we cut to top 4 which consisted of myself, Alistair, Dave (my R3 opponent) and Matt (A friend from work and another regular on the channel)

Semi Final: Matt Levers - playing against my own figures! Matt was running Jedi Luke, eRangers, Obi-Wan, Gideon, C3PO, 2 x Smuggler and we played Cantina again and Line of Fire this time. Hired Guns did what they're there to do and ran in 20pts which along with Luke, Obi and a Smuggler was enough for game.

Again shan't go into a lot of detail as this is available on the twitch stream with commentary.

Final: Well I was going to have to do this the hard way if I did win, facing up against Alistair again and even less confident this time, being that it was on the Ranger favourable map Nal Hutta Swamps (Shielded) I've detailed Alistair's list above and this one is available on YouTube if you wanted to watch.

TLDR: I was really happy come the end of the day to be taking home my Store Championship Plaque:

Other winners were Tim Bishop with Best Painted with his Imperial squad and Simon Greenaway who took home a copy of Twin Shadows as the Wooden Spoon prize (Sponsored by StarWarsStreaming)

Thanks to everyone I met on the day and was great to see some new faces (You need to drag your dad and brother down next time Matt!) as well as some familiar ones in Alistair and the Greenaways.

Sadly I can't make Nationals (my daughters birthday) so I imagine I'm now waiting for Regionals next year!

RoyalRich

Hi Rich! Probably won't come to Nationals either, but looking forward for next Regionals (if we go to the same and we use our bie, I'll buy you a coffee/tea :)).

Personally, I really like battle reports when the video is available: if you can explain what you wanted to do at the beginning, what you were thinking through the game, it's even more interesting when we can watch how it went

Congrats, Rich. I watched the game last night. Very close. Might have been even tighter as I believe Alistair forgot to score a couple of your figures he eliminated. Good game. I also thought the rangers would own the swamp.

2 hours ago, FixB said:

Hi Rich! Probably won't come to Nationals either, but looking forward for next Regionals (if we go to the same and we use our bie, I'll buy you a coffee/tea :)).

Personally, I really like battle reports when the video is available: if you can explain what you wanted to do at the beginning, what you were thinking through the game, it's even more interesting when we can watch how it went

Sounds great mate, I'll see what I can make when we get to that time, I'm hoping Kirton will get one again and I will make that for sure, plus whatever else I can get to (family willing)

Not sure I understand the battle report bit mate, some commentary on what went on from my point of view in the games?

Reviewing my own performance there were several learnings I need to take, I'll list a couple for now.

I made 2 big mistakes in the final that could have cost me the game, firstly I only added 2 points instead of 3 for the jawa I killed with the weequay, that would have had me only requiring 1 terminal instead of 2 at the end and could have been huge.

The other was my jawa moving to open up the double shot from vinto, I knew him being there was preventing vinto taking that shot but for some reason in the moment just decided to move him backwards!

I also played strength in numbers at the wrong time but covered up my mistake by going with the jawa in the final, that was a real waste of a card that could have been impactful but I think going in hard with vinto at that time would have potentially cost me the game. (I made a mistake with strength in numbers in my first game against Alistair as well, had I gone with my weequays before he moved his weequay out of sight I could have finished that game much earlier)

There's a few thoughts anyway, not sure if people find that sort of thing interesting so don't normally go into as much detail other than in my own head when reviewing my play

Rich

Thanks Rich: I dont know for the others, but I do find this quite interesting

Again: well done.

I also hope to be at Kirton if they do a Regional... As you said: depending on the date

I really enjoyed watching the game. I vote for the two guys commenting to be the commentators at worlds! Knowledgeable and entertaining!

On 8/7/2017 at 6:58 AM, RoyalRich said:

Other winners were Tim Bishop with Best Painted with his Imperial squad and Simon Greenaway who took home a copy of Twin Shadows as the Wooden Spoon prize (Sponsored by StarWarsStreaming)

How many usually show up for your store championships. Sounds like you have a solid group. My area group has talked of doing "Best Painting" and other such awards. Wooden Spoon awards would be awesome as well. Given that I've found myself playing to not be in last place in 2 recent tourneys, it would be a real struggle not to thrown the games haha. Not sure my pride could take a last place finish unless I was truly defeated.

I think this is the first Store Champs they've done. We have a good playgroup and probably have about 10-12 semi regular players in the area plus those that travel to us for events.

Kirton always put on great events and I believe for the last two years have hosted the largest regionals for Imperial Assault anywhere (Not high, 30ish, but they don't seem to be that well attended anywhere else)

They always tend to put on Best Painted but maybe that's because they're much more used to running tabletop game events like 40k or Age of Sigmar, in which painting is a much more common sight than in Imperial Assault (Most of us all have painted figures as we come from that background)

Wooden spoon was really just me having a copy of Twin Shadows lying around not being used and wanted to give something back whilst raising awareness of my YouTube channel Nobody knew there was a wooden spoon prize until the end of the day and the young lad who won it (one of the Greenaways who are a regular sight at UK X-Wing/IA events) was really chuffed so I couldn't have been happier with the impact

Wow, 30 is awesome. From across the pond, I thought our Kansas regional was solid at 18. Again solid all around.

that meta looks really dull, seems to be full of the same units over and over again, Mercs with Rebels

7 hours ago, Darth evil said:

that meta looks really dull, seems to be full of the same units over and over again, Mercs with Rebels

I'd disagree, there was a huge amount of variety, but this is what played on the top table. I'm not sure what else you would want sorry.

That's was a 4 jawa list, couple of Ig88 lists, couple of luke lists, wookie points denial list , a Rancor and bantha list, couple of imperial lists with and without grand inquisitor.

I felt it was pretty healthy really, particularly given its quite a competitive bunch of players.

Is worth noting that myself and Alistair (and I think others) had brought more "fun" lists for the q3 event they ran after the cut, one of us had an ugnaught list and the other had a strain list with trandos and jawas, but we had our top lists out for the store champs.

Would be interested in hearing what you would like to see.

Not Ugnaut swarms ? ?

-ryanjamal

See those of us whove never seen an ugnaught swarm on the table would love to see one.