15 hours ago, Georgedpalpatine said:

I love the emperor’s lightning effect!

I had all but written off the eSentry Droids after seeing them play quite ineffectually a couple of times. I’m impressed that you’ve started strongly with them!

Thanks! I just snipped the lightning off an old Heroclix mini and glued it on. I'm no professional painter; I just try and make the models look decent.

E Sentries are amazing. I originally wrote them off as Tier III, then moved them to Tier II. I might be moving them to Tier I after this weekend. They've been amazing all around!

28 minutes ago, theaficionado said:

Thanks! I just snipped the lightning off an old Heroclix mini and glued it on. I'm no professional painter; I just try and make the models look decent.

E Sentries are amazing. I originally wrote them off as Tier III, then moved them to Tier II. I might be moving them to Tier I after this weekend. They've been amazing all around!

Seems like they would work really well in your list. 4 Jets can contest objectives, and the Sentries can stay back to take mid-long range shots. Seems like they really have consistency going for them, and activating 2 figs in a row that can dish up to 6 dmg long range on their own is pretty nice (or way more if both pull off 2 attacks). I would imagine most opponents would rather take out the jets and the Emperor rather than worry about the Sentries, so the lower health of 8 isnt as bad since they wont be shot at as much earlier on.

i'd be curious to know whats in both Imp command decks, my SC winning list is pretty much the 1st place list but i was using 2 eJets

1 Hour 45 until kickoff.

Michael (Empire) vs Daniel (Rebel)
Kenny (Empire) vs Liam (Scum)
Dutch (Scum) vs Jason (Scum)
Evan (Rebel) vs Josh (Rebel)

Mathematically, the eSentries are one of the strongest units in the game. Whether or not it transfers to the actual board is another thing, but it seems like you are doing well with it.

And I'm out.

I made a huge blunder on the first turn, completely forgetting that my opponent could open the door.
I was too busy playing around a huge Bantha charge that I completely forgot that his Weequays could just open the door and shoot down my guys.

To elaborate, the game didn't end there. The Emperor got Crushed and Terrored to death on the first turn, but I managed to drop the Bantha before it activated on T2 (by Taking Initiative). I got some tricky plays off with Change of Plans, and the Sentries did some solid work, but it wasn't enough, and I collapsed at the beginning of the 3rd turn.

Jason won his game against Dutch, all other games are still going.

Fun note: The Top 4 will end up being:

Queensland vs NSW

ACT vs Victoria

The battle of the states!

Michael just lost to Daniel, meaning both Imperial Players are out.

We're guaranteed to see a Rebel v Scum final.

Currently it's:

Liam vs Jason
Daniel vs Evan

The final is coming!

Evan (Rebels) vs Liam (Scum)

Rebels! Rebels! Rebels! ?

-ryanjamal

Im curious how he is using Jared. I cant seem to make him work.

Well, he just used him to win the Australian National Championships!

Evan defeats Liam BY TIEBREAKER 40-40 in the final.

36 minutes ago, theaficionado said:

Well, he just used him to win the Australian National Championships!

Evan defeats Liam BY TIEBREAKER 40-40 in the final.

Whoa whoa that sounds epic. We need the deets

They'll come in due time!

Thanks for following everyone! Watch out for Evan at FFG Worlds next year. He's coming for gold!

By tiebreaker! ???

-ryanjamal

Such an interesting range of lists, faith in the game restored.

I'm going to put up a summary of the final now because it was pretty interesting and it's still fresh in my mind.

Granted, this is really only the final parts of the game, as I was playing in a casual side event and missed most of the early game.

The score at the moment is Liam 18 v Evan 23.

Evan's current units: Jarrod, J4X, Ko-Tun (5 HP remaining), Gideon, 3 Elite Alliance Rangers (1 HP remaining, 6 HP remaining [Hidden], 7 HP remaining), Chopper.
Liam's current units: 2 Weequay Pirate [Focus + Hidden], Vinto, C-3P0, Gideon

Ko-Tun and the Weequays are yet to activate this round. Liam's turn.

Things were looking pretty dire for Liam, so he took two big gambits. First, he took a Range 9 shot at Ko-Tun with one of his Weequay Pirates, and managed to snipe her following the reroll (denying the activation). This was followed by a Range 9 shot with the other Weequay at Gideon, which also ended him. With the end of round scoring, this put Liam at 32 v Evan's 23. Those big gambles had paid off hugely!

Liam stole initiative next round and led off with the Weequays, killing the 1HP ranger with one and taking an objective, while the other ran to the side to take another. Liam now stood at 36 points, with Vinto and Gideon left to go, and with three objectives held.

Jarrod lept into action, launching himself at Vinto (sitting on the central objective) with a Deathblow and +1 damage from a Ko-Tun token. Enter a big roll:

Jarrod: 2 Damage + 2 Surges + 1 Inherent Damage + 1 Damage from Power Token + 2 Damage from Deathblow
Vinto: 1 Block

Surge for Pierce 2 + 2 Damage = 8 damage! An exact kill on Vinto!

Evan 28 vs Liam 36.

Liam passes with only Gideon up. Evan moves Chopper to claim an objective. Both players now hold two objectives each.

Liam ponders his next play for a while, goes to take a shot with Gideon, then reconsiders it. He thinks on it a little longer, meticulously pondering his options. He ends up going for a shot at Jarrod with Gideon (we'll come back to this). Jarrod takes 1 damage.

Evan's got two rangers left, one hidden, one not. He's got Heart of Freedom and Ready Weapons as the only relevant command cards in hand. Liam is all out.

Evan counts how far away he is from the only objective he can possibly move to. 7 squares. That's just too far to move with Heart of Freedom and still take a shot. He can get close enough to ignore the shield on the Weequay with one of his rangers, but not the other if he's intending on playing Ready Weapons. He decides to stay at Range 5, and ready his guns...

Two very solid attacks later, and the Weequay is down. Evan goes to 32 points. It's the end of the round, and both players hit 40 exactly from objectives.

The first tiebreaker is all that's needed, as Evan has notably more points than Liam does from unit kills (Evan still has Jarrod, two Rangers, and Chopper, while Liam only has a single Weequay Pirate, Gideon, and C-3P0).

Remember when I said we'd come back to that Gideon moment?

You see, Liam could have opted to move Gideon up next to the shield, contesting it and preventing Evan from gaining the 4 points. This would have secured the win for Liam, or at least made it extra ordinarily difficult for Evan to have managed to tie it there. He would have had to attack the Weequay with his hidden Ranger from within the shield radius, and then rolled 4 damage (1/9 chance) while Liam rolled only 1 block (1/3 chance). That brings it to a grand total of a 1/27 chance! He would have then had to run the other ranger to contest Liam's objective, which would have put the score to 36 all instead of 40 all.

A climactic finish to a well run tournament. Congrats to Evan and Liam for putting on a great show and making it to the finals!

Thanks for the excellent updates on the day Kenny

@IamtheBendu Jarrod is honestly a bit of a struggle - his attacks can hurt something shocking but as a melee character he can get dropped pretty quickly. I try to leave him until late in the first round and send him where there isn't much resistance - the speed means you can really get to wherever you need to be. Having the extra Spy for Intelligence Leak and Comm Disruption is handy too.

My command cards were:
Assassinate
Call the Vanguard
Comm Disruption
Concentrate Fire
Deathblow
Element of Surprise
Field Supply
Heart of Freedom
Intellegence Leak
Officer's Training
Planning
Ready Weapons
Right Back At Ya!
Single Purpose
Take Initiative

This is awesome! Thanks for keeping us updated. I'm really excited by the diversity right now.

@theaficionado i would love to hear more about your experience and thoughts on eSentry droids.

5 hours ago, Asvaldr said:

@theaficionado i would love to hear more about your experience and thoughts on eSentry droids.

Ya good call. I played some games against them last week. If you let them get in close, you're toast. I've heard Paul Heaver compare them to e-weequays, but better. He may be right.

26 minutes ago, NeverBetTheFett said:

Ya good call. I played some games against them last week. If you let them get in close, you're toast. I've heard Paul Heaver compare them to e-weequays, but better. He may be right.

Sturdy as an eEcho, shoots almost like a quay. So yes, I would say mr Heaver has a point. The cost is high though.

2 hours ago, Ram said:

Sturdy as an eEcho, shoots almost like a quay. So yes, I would say mr Heaver has a point. The cost is high though.

That high cost is to keep us from completely overwhelming our opponents with them and things like Squad Swarm, eOfficers, Soren, etc.

The most intriguing unit from HotE box is the Clawdite, but I think these Sentries are my favorite. I've had success letting them be 2nd billing with Iggy & low-cost Hunters and I'm working on lists where a dual deployment of eSentries lead other Troopers.

Because my son has dibs on all Trooper lists when we play together, I haven't played them as much as I'd wanted. "Here, look at how cool Han Solo is," I say, trying to tempt him. But he is devoted to the Imps.

5 hours ago, NeverBetTheFett said:

Ya good call. I played some games against them last week. If you let them get in close, you're toast. I've heard Paul Heaver compare them to e-weequays, but better. He may be right.

You mention in close because of multi-fire?

I think a big question is when to/not multifire.