http://tabletopadmiral.com/imperialassault/088a8105841c3e0b0b6600000000008f9495569e68cf7792351c2bd2939c

saving you a click (unless you wanna see command cards):

Rangers, Ko-Tun, Hera, Chopper, Gideon, Mak, C3PO, Smuggler, Smuggler, Rebel High Command

The list that somehow gets me all the Swiss round victories but loses at the very finals of each tournament I've been to (2 Regionals, 1 National so far).

1st Game vs Nader who was running eSentries, eSentries, eJets, eJets, Officer, Officer, Zillo and I think Rule by Fear?

Map was Nal Hutta Swamps - Shielded A

Well at least he had snipers of his own against mine! He started with Inspiring Speech and Ready Weapons to beef up both eSentries groups and move on up a bit from his deployment zone (he got the "bad" zone), using both his officers to act as a shield against my lines of fire.

Round 1 I took out both Officers, one eJet and scored 2 shielded objectives, he took control of 1. 16-4

Round 2 I only managed to score 5pts by killing 1 sentry while he scored 2 rangers, chopper, a smuggler and scored 1 objective. 21-18

Round 3 I removed 2 eJets, a second eSentry and scored 1 objective - at that point his other group of eSentries didnt have good lines of fire and still had all their Hit tokens from Ready weapons unused, I managed to position myself well enough - though I lost Hera, the 2nd smuggler and he also got one objective.

Game ends with time at 38-28

2nd game vs Michael who was running IG88, eWeequays, eWeequays, Greedo, C3PO, Gideon, eJawa, Black Market, Focused on the Kill

Map was Jabba's Palace - Spoils of Crime A

So 2 opponents with Hunters about to duke it out... Luck was definitely the #1 deciding factor here.

We both opened our doors (though he did hesitate a while before actually opening it), my smugglers went after crates and both of us did the usual focus with C3PO and Gideon onto whatever we needed it. He made the first offensive move I believe, using one of his eWeequays to move toward the middle and take a shot at me.
However what happened next pretty much decided how the game was gonna go: Mak with a focus decided to take a shot at the eWeequay. Rolled 2 blues, 1 green: 2 Hits, 2 Hits, 2 Hits. eWeequay got 3 blocks I played Positioning Advantage and used Hera's ability gives me the Surge for Critical Hit: Dead eWeequay - opponent discards a random card - he made me pick one of his 3 cards - Blaze of Glory. When the stars align perfectly for someone... otherwise that IG88 was going to be in my face real fast and shredding me apart!

So round 1 I killed... 3 eWeequays, Greedo and scored 1 crate for 2 pts while he got Hera and a Ranger, played Black Market for a card losing 1 VP. 18-7

Round 2 I finished off the 4th eWeequay, shot Gideon dead, scored 2 crates - he didn't get anything and played the Black Market command card this time to get +3 VP but at that point we shook hands and it was over.

3rd game vs Andrew playing Vader, eJets, eJets, rJets, rJets, Officer, Officer, Zillo, Rule by Hatred

Map was Mos Eisley Back Alleys - Stashed Away A

We both went for some crates but he also pushed up his Vader with an officer into the middle corridor... I looked at my hand of cards and the only one I had for my hunters was Heightened Reflexes. Took a shot at him with Ko-Tun at first: 3 damage went through. Its a start. None of his Jets were really in a good position to be shot at unless I also exposed myself to a next round 3 dice attack from them. So lets just try our luck at vader and open him up! Hera, 3 Rangers, Mak too I think, maybe not, in any case, he also rushed me with vader and slashed at Ko-Tun. At that point Vader was 1 health away from being removed.. he did roll pretty high on all his defense rolls but I was getting good damage through, removing one of his first 3 blocks right away with Heightened Reflexes... but still not enough for a kill, was it going to give him a end of round attack?

Nope. Chopper hadn't activated yet and used Ram on Vader: I rolled the surge.. no damage! But he was adjacent to a terminal so you know what, I zapped him dead with System Shock! Unfortunately for all of that effort, he had positioned himself to contest my crates and take 4 crates of his own: 13-8 at the end of round 1.

We only got to play 2 rounds and we should've had a 3rd round but at least for me, a lucky X dodge on Mak saved his life and on round 2 I killed 2 eJets, 2 rJets, scored no crates while he killed Ko-Tun, a smuggler and scored 3 more crates for a final scored of 25-23. Really wanted that 3rd round to clean things up.

4th game vs Logan running a Heroic Effort list consisting of Han Solo, Leia, Drokatta, Hera, Mak, Gideon, C3PO and On a diplomatic Mission for Gideon

Map was Nal Hutta Swamps - Raining Freight B

Initiative got me the good deployment zone and most likely played in my favor. I didn't keep score per game round properly here but his first turn payed out more than mine. I believe I only scored 1 crate while he got my chopper (long range snipe by Drokkatta, blasting 2 damage onto a ranger) and his Han Solo went for a end of round shot to finish the wounded ranger, he also got a crate.

Afterward though, he had brought Leia and Drokatta on the Left corridor (left from my deployment zone), Han and Hera were in the center, Mak, Gideon and C3PO were somewhat out of reach. He killed a smuggler and collected one or 2 more crates on 2nd turn while I got only 2 crates I believe - so score was 6-13 I think by then

3rd round is where I finally managed to score big points by killing both Leia (using Ko-Tun's Dead Precise ability from a ranger because he did roll an X with Leia!) and then finishing up Drokatta that I had wounded on turn 1 for 4 dmg. I also killed Hera that round or the next while he also got my Hera at one point with Han solo.

Scored some more crates and I sniped Mak at one point too, bringing my score to 36. He managed to get my Ko-Tun and C3PO but no more crates, ending the game at 36-26 since I was auto-scoring 2 crates next round. He did forget Gideon's free VP each turn but I also forgot stuff.. happens to all of us!

5th game vs Ivan with eRangers, Drokkatta, Ahsoka, Gideon, C3PO, 3 Smugglers

Map was Jabba's Palace - New Ownership B

I won initiative roll and left him with the exposed deployment area - the one with a long corridor to the terminal, while I had the stairs terminal. This payed up pretty nicely because Ahsoka was placed on the corner near a door and so I only had to kill a smuggler to then take shots at her. First round I got the smuggler and sat on one stash, Ahsoka lost 9 HP and so he placed her in a way he though I couldnt shoot her but still had a chance to drop on me next round but my Hera moved and took a shot - he was checking Mak who was behind Hera but didn't account for Hera or though he was safe, Hera managed to roll enough range and damage - Dead Ahsoka (and he didn't roll any X). On his side, his rangers sniped one of my rangers that I had left just like Ahsoka in the deployment: on an exposed corner. Thats fine, he did't shoot Hera or Mak at least!

Score at that point was 14-4

round 2 I did a lot of damage on Drokatta and killed a 2nd smuggler, one ranger and scored 1 stash. He only got 1 of my smugglers, rest was hiding from his rangers. Drokatta shot at Hera, doing 5 Damage so I dropped her into the Rancor Pit which is where I killed the smuggler that round. At that point he had his rangers, c3PO and Gideon in a corner who couldnt come out to take any shots - needing to reposition while I scored stashes, Drokatta badly wounded and the 3rd smuggler on 1 hp. He conceded at that point, seeing no way to regain momentum. 24-6 was the final score.

5-0 going into the top 8!

Rematch vs Andrew and his Vader + double eJets, double rJets, double Officer, Zillo

Map was Jabba's Palace - Spoils of Crime A

It took him a very very long time to think about what to do while I had just opened my door and sent my Smugglers to grab some crates. He didn't open his door until very late so I didn't get to shoot anything with ease with my rangers. Took me 2 shots, one from focused mak and one from hera, to kill a rJet I could see, bad roll on Mak and good defense on his side, oh well~ He also killed one of my smugglers with end of round vader I think maybe ? Round one ended after a long time and I was hoping we were having at least 3 rounds this time. Score 4-2 (I got a crate and rJet, he got my smuggler)

Round 2 I killed an Officer, 2 eJets and scored 1 crate. He killed Mak, Chopper, Hera and scored a crate. 16-14

Round 3 - time was called shortly after we started that round - I had just used everything with my Rangers and managed to score 2 rJets and a 3rd eJet and he took a good 10 minutes probably to think out his Vader move but with Negation in my hand I stopped him 1 movement point short from taking a swing at Ko-Tun or get an end of round to finish a wounded ranger which would've given him an 11 point swing. Vader was out of steam, I won 24-14

And onto the Top 4!

Another rematch, this time sadly, on the very same map we played before, same mission and same initiative roll.

Rematch vs Logan running a Heroic Effort list consisting of Han Solo, Leia, Drokatta, Hera, Mak, Gideon, C3PO and On a diplomatic Mission for Gideon

Map was Nal Hutta Swamps - Raining Freight B

The game went somewhat the same way in a different order, he tried not to bring Leia and Drokkatta on the same side but that meant Leia wasn't contributing her extra shot to anyone.

My first offensive move was to shoot C3PO with a focus + hit token Mak (to remove the X roll) but I ran short a few accuracy, even playing Officer's training on Mak to get one reroll but it failed me (reroll 2 accuracy + surge into 2 accuracy + hit) And I believe I wasn't even making the 4 damage to kill him anyway... oh well. Managed to get him anyway with a ranger afterward. He didn't forget on a diplomatic mission this game and scored a crate on first round. Nothing from Han for now as I hid better this time~ Shot Mak at his terminal but failed to kill him. (Out of range again)

Round 2 I managed to finish off Mak using Hera's ability on a ranger to do the 4 damage and total range~ thats out of the way! Picked up 2 crates and also killed Hera which I had wounded with a ranger. Said ranger was shot dead by Han and 2 crates picked up plus Gideon's On a diplomatic mission - score at that point 13-12

Round 3 I threw everything at Leia and Han with my rangers (Han had been wounded for 2 hp the previous round, Leia for 6 but recovered 2). Leia I got with the first ranger, Han I managed to pull off the remaining 10 hp at the last minute by remembering Hera's ability, otherwise he was running away with 1 hp left on him. No On the Lam to save him. One of my rangers stunned from covering fire was left exposed but at that point I had the game pretty much done and won. Crates would easily get me to 40. We stopped at 35-18

And onto the finals against my friend Carl who was running Vader, eJets, eJets, eRiots, Officer, Officer, Zillo, Rule by Fear.
Rule by Fear and a good starting hand is crazy. Vader is going to do whatever he wants and ruin your day~ Which sadly is what happened here!

Map was Jabba's Palace - New Ownership B

He managed to get both my smugglers on round 1 and that would have a lasting effect on trying to control the stashes for points... I managed to get an eJet and one eRiot but no stash on round 1 (since he removed both my smugglers) and he scored 2 stashes. 7-12 to start off...

Round 2 I misplayed and I realize this now - using Ko-Tun to Call the Vanguard and then play Ko-Tun right away to take finish off the eJet he started but was short 1 to kill him.. and Carl did roll almost only 3 blocks the entire game, ugh! But anyway, after shooting twice with Ko-Tun I went to hide him near C3PO and the rest of my crew - big mistake there as that drew Vader in and with all the brawler and force user cards, he had all the movement and range to kill Ko-Tun and he also got Mak and one more stash scored that round, while finishing off a 1 hp eJet and 1 stash was all I could do. 17-26

Final round I managed to get another eJet and the last eRiot but he got a ranger and Hera... plus Chopper who was on 1 hull and his officer rolled 2 hits and I couldnt roll anything above 1 block to save myself.. chopper dropping there gave him the point swing due to stash control, he finished with 41 points to my 32 (2 stashes scored).

I think bringing KoTun near everyone else instead of splitting up, giving Vader all the time in the world to slice whoever he wanted lost me the game~ or had chopper not died when he did I might have had a small chance at a come back.. Luck is part of it and tiny mistakes catch up to you big time!

One day I'll win a tournament! going 7 victories in a row is pretty nice still, for someone who started playing in January this year

6 minutes ago, Kalandros said:

http://tabletopadmiral.com/imperialassault/088a8105841c3e0b0b6600000000008f9495569e68cf7792351c2bd2939c

saving you a click (unless you wanna see command cards):

Rangers, Ko-Tun, Hera, Chopper, Gideon, Mak, C3PO, Smuggler, Smuggler, Rebel High Command

Nice! How has your list done against AT-DP lists?

I havent played that list against an AT-DP - depends on the map and mission maybe but I could open up an AT-DP very fast... I did destroy vader in a single round with only 1 command card (heightened reflexes).. so I believe if its not hidden, its going down

I find it interesting that there aren't any DP's in that list as Vader, Emperor, DP has taken out just about every Regionals this season here in Aus. The issue is that even if you can take it down in a single round you now haven't touched Vader and he's in your face which the Rangers do not appreciate.

Vader, Emperor and AT-DP leaves you 10 points for something else and with those 3 models you aren't going to play mission objectives much.

I'd have to see it in action~

But anyway, I had a few close games that were down to luck~ Anyone can win with the correct cards in hand and a good plan, then its up to luck.

Such a great writeup! I love that you got so much mileage out of Ko-Tun!

14 minutes ago, kennydkbrown said:

Such a great writeup! I love that you got so much mileage out of Ko-Tun!

I love Ko-Tun, focused he is great for surprising first round sniping

Kalandros is this a rematch from the Toronto regional? Or was that someone else who played this carl in the final?

Also love to see Ko-run rangers in the final, I have tried using him but my opponent just b lines for him with Vader and gg. I guess the key is to start the kite early? Or focus Vader down?

4 hours ago, FrogTrigger said:

Kalandros is this a rematch from the Toronto regional? Or was that someone else who played this carl in the final?

Also love to see Ko-run rangers in the final, I have tried using him but my opponent just b lines for him with Vader and gg. I guess the key is to start the kite early? Or focus Vader down?

A rematch indeed, but on a different map and mission~

And kiting Vader is what I did wrong in this instance, I didn't kite in a split so I was all bunched up when vader played literally all of his movement cards - force user / brawler and just ruined my day after he had a ton of 3 blocks (again ) with his eJets and eRiots and I had no such luck on defense dice. I might've focused down vader at one point but I would've needed to be extremely lucky to get him down at all - and would've left me quite exposed after if I didnt finish him up, so I just cleaned up everything else but it wasnt enough. 1 Jet, 1 Officer and vader were left alive when he scored the final 7 pts (officer rolled 2 hits against 1 hp chopper and I rolled only 1 block, a single extra block would've kept me an extra turn to possible win it). Having to always waste extra attacks to finish each figure is really painful to someone's plan. He didn't even need to zillo many cards I think, just the pierce cancel and maybe he zillo'd a card once or twice at most.

Brutal. I've been playing a rebel smuggler list and have also really struggled against Vader. Is he just the hard counter? I would think many activations would be his kryptonite because if he's just taking out little figures each round that's a win..

1 hour ago, FrogTrigger said:

Brutal. I've been playing a rebel smuggler list and have also really struggled against Vader. Is he just the hard counter? I would think many activations would be his kryptonite because if he's just taking out little figures each round that's a win..

The rest of his list make it hard to gain mission points unless you take care of them, so you're not taking care of Vader while doing that.
Its either throw everything at Vader to kill him (and if you miss him by a few health points, good luck chasing him around) or you take care of the rest and let Vader roam free. Its really a tough decision and depends on too many things. One game I killed Vader right away because he was my only viable target, the other game I ignored Vader completely. Mission is important, position is important, etc.

A great job finishing at the top table at both Regionals and Nationals! I've said that this game is so great right now because you can do well with any faction. You proved that you also don't need a "beast" (Han, Luke, Chewy, Vader, IG) in your list. Although maybe we should add Ko-Tun to the list of "beasts" in this game?

46 minutes ago, NeverBetTheFett said:

Although maybe we should add Ko-Tun to the list of "beasts" in this game?

Hmmmmmmmm ... no.

Ko-Tun brings in one decent 3 dice attack (4 with focus) and support. She's no beast by herself, but she helps beef up an attack and prevent a Dodge result if you position your figurines properly. Its more mental gymnastics to make it all work.

Great writeup again Kalandros!
I really enjoyed both finals we had recently and I must admit that last weekends final matchup and map/mission selection was a lot in my favor!
Things went well for me after all, but I must say I did not feel confident against his list knowing he had to potential to split Vader in half very quickly!

Any streams available from this tournament kalandros?

34 minutes ago, FrogTrigger said:

Any streams available from this tournament kalandros?

Sadly VTTV was busy covering all of the other Star Wars games (X-wing, Destinty, and Armada). But I recorded it and will post it this week sometime. I hope you speak French!

I was at the same tournament over the weekend, and since I played a few of the same people I hope that @Kalandros doesn't mind if I hijack his thread a bit to add my own report. And please pardon the fact that it’s the length of a short novel! I’m just excited to finally get to write one of these

This was my first time at any kind of major tournament. I’ve been playing lots of campaign since the onset, but I first picked up skirmish over the summer just before HotE dropped. After my first tournament (a store championship) I was hooked, and when I heard that the Nationals were coming up in Toronto I figured that it might be cool to fly over from Nova Scotia to check it out. I was able to meet up with a friend of mine from school to give me an extra excuse for the trip, and all in all I’m glad I went because I had a really great time.

Truth be told I didn’t know what to have for expectations, but I’d done alright in some games locally so I’d hoped that I could at least stay competitive. I’d also made plans to get in a few Vassal games before going over (and even made it as far as installing the program and joining the Discord channel) but life got in the way and I didn’t get a chance. Oh well, what can you do. Here we go!

First off, the list: http://tabletopadmiral.com/imperialassault/lists/3029/

That’s the full link above if you want to see the command cards, but in short I was trying to theme things around the Endor landing party from RotJ. Most of my cards were based around hunters, to give my rangers a bit of extra pop while my opponent was hopefully focused on Han or Chewie.

Han (w/ upgrade)

Chewie (w/ upgrade)

Elite Rangers

3P0

Gideon

Regular Smuggler

I almost dropped Gideon for R2 (and a more consistent theme), but in the end I figured that if I were travelling all that way that I’d be better off trying to stay competitive. I knew going into it that my list has some strengths but also some pretty glaring weaknesses. On the good side it hits hard – really hard. Even someone like Vader can fall pretty quickly if he’s left in the open and I get any kind of dice luck. It also can be tough for my opponent to figure out who to target: going after anyone but Chewie can trigger Debts Repaid, but focusing on Chewbacca leaves lots of time for the rest of my list to poke holes in you. On the negative side, though, I don’t have any real “grabbers” other than the smuggler, meaning that I can have a tough go on missions that aren’t focused on objective control.

Match 1 was again Michael, who was running IG-88, 2 eWeequays, Greedo, eJawa, RCP, and Black Market. We played on Nal Hutta Shielded (which is usually good for me) but he had some ranged shooters as well and I got stuck with the open, swampy deployment zone (not so good).

We started out with the usual focus/hiding shenanigans, with him keeping his units in cover so that my rangers couldn’t really take any pot shots. I sent my Chewie out fairly early to grab the objective to my left, which also meant that I could “safely” move my smuggler down the right-hand corridor knowing that Debts Repaid would trigger if my opponent decided to kill him. That put me up early, but there was still a lot of game left.

Starting round two, I first activated the rangers to try to do pick off some of his figures from range. My first focused ranger went against his Greedo who was sitting near his terminal - Dodge. Ok, well, if at first you don’t succeed… let’s try the second focused ranger – Dodge (#GIA). Well now – not exactly the start that I was looking for! Rather that waste a focused ranger shot I played Heightened Reflexes to cancel his die result and do 5 damage, but I still had no kills to show for the two focused ranger shots. The third one didn’t have a great target, so she moved up a bit and found a nice corner to hide in.

It’s been a few days now, and to be honest I don’t really remember how the next shots went as we traded fire. I know at one point I had to decide with Chewie whether to move him up an extra space to be sure of the accuracy (but leave him exposed) or to take a bit more of a chance with the shot and to have enough movement to bring him back to cover. I chose to take the sure shot (maybe I was still having visions of missing Greedo?) and got the kill I needed, but he got subsequently wrecked by IG-88 afterwards (Blaze of Glory, losing my Assassinate to strain in the process) in what I think was my biggest mistake of the game. I also got greedy with some ranger shots, not wanting to “waste” a focused shot taking out a one-health figure, but in the end I whiffed a bit on my rolls and ended up with two one-health weequays sitting on objectives and 0 points instead of one full-health guy and 4.

Coming to the end of the last round I knew that, assuming he ran for the objectives, the only way I could possibly get enough points was to kill Iggy and the only way to do THAT would be to bait him into attacking Solo, dodging at least one of his two attacks, and firing at him with both my return fire and the end-of-round attack. On the bright side he took the bait, but on the not-so-bright side Han went down in a hail of blasterfire.

Overall this was a fun game, but more importantly it was one where I could look back and identify a number of mistakes that I made. I think that with a bit more practice I can hopefully improve on that going forward.

Record: 0-1. I knew at this point that if I was going to make the top-8 cut that I was going to need to run the table (or pretty close to it) for the rest of the day.

Match 2 was against Jesse, an X-Wing player who had come up from Michigan and was playing with his friend’s IA stuff while waiting for his buddies in the X-Wing tournament to get knocked out. His list was a bunch of imperial heavy hitters with Vader, Palp, AT-DP, BT and a couple of officers.

We were playing on Jabba’s map, and Jesse made the mistake of opening his door early. My Rangers did their Ranger thing, killing off BT and bringing his AT-DP over the 9-pt threshold before either got a chance to do much of anything. He dropped his walker down into the rancor pit, and after Chewie stunned Vader and the rangers finished off Palpatine Han jumped down after the AT-DP to finish him off. After that I picked up all of the boxes, winning on points at the end of round 3.

Record: 1-1

Lunch happened now and would not normally be worth mentioning, except for….

Pre-match 3: Panic!

I sat down against my match three opponent ready to go, pulling my army out of my bag and putting it on the table and… wait, what’s this? I’m missing one of my rangers! Gah! I looked everywhere, under all the tables, in every pocket of my bag – nada. What’s worse, over lunch time my previous opponent had left to return home to Michigan. If he had accidentally put my figure in his kit… well, I think it was safe to say that I would not be getting it back in time for the tourney.

Luckily, @NeverBetTheFett came to my rescue twice over. First he lent me a Jawa figure, which my round 3 opponent graciously allowed me to count as a ranger, and second he found my actual ranger sitting on a chair about 15 minutes later. Sooooo with that drama over and done with (phew!) I was ready to start:

Actual Match 3

This match was against John on Mos Eisley Stashed Away, who was running what was by far my favourite list I faced all day. Jawa, Jawa, Jawa, Jawa, Jawa, Jawa, Jabba, Chopper, IG, Black Market, Under Duress and… First Strike. Wait, what??? Yep, we each started off the game with 4 VP.

Basically, if a card had the word “VP” or the word “strain” on it then John had it in his list. He took pot shots with Jawas from 12+ just to haggle (Chewie’s white die evades were my saving grace here!). Every second command card that he turned over prompted me to say: “huh? What does that one do?”

But lo and behold, this ended up as a really close game! I started by forgoing most of my usual strategy and fanning out to claim as many objectives as possible since he didn’t have much in his list that could hurt me. I think I got maybe 8 objective points in the first round to his 2? He used chopper to shock my 3P0 early on, but since I didn’t have to worry about a big damage spike I camped Han next to his door so that I could take down chopper with Han’s end of round attack after the door opened. Then the dice were thrown and… triple block kept him hanging on by a single hit point! He went first to fry 3P0 the next round, celebrating the victory, and then used Jabba to put a 4VP price on Chewie’s head. Eventually (after slamming that accursed droid) Chewie went down to another IG-88 blaze of glory, I killed Jawa after Jawa, and going into the final round he was down to Iggy and Jabba and I had only lost 3P0 and Chewbacca. We tallied up the victory points from the boxes and it was 39-32. So, this one is all but done, right? Well that’s what I thought, until he played…Chaotic Force!

Seriously folks, this card is so OP . He rolled a 3 on his accuracy, meaning that three of my figures had to take three strain each. The problem was that his Punishing Strike had already all but depleted my deck, and I could only prevent a single point of that from being straight damage. My smuggler was wiped clean off the board and one of my rangers was reduced to a single health (thank goodness I was able to prevent the one damage here or that would have been the end of the game!). The score was now 39-35, and with Jabba’s bonus killing that last ranger would have put him at 40.

The good news, though, is that I had initiative (he tried to take it, but thankfully I had negate). I got that ranger the **** out of dodge and one of the others was out of position to do anything so I ran her away as well. On the one hand I could have just ran with my third (focused) ranger and tried to wait out the clock, but with his crazy hand of command cards I really had no idea what kind of shenanigans he could pull. I figured that if I had a chance of losing that I’d rather go out shooting, so I took a long snipe at an 8-health Jabba. Assassinate netted me 9 damage, which was enough to bring to a close the weirdest game I’ve ever played.

Record: 2-1

Match 4

This one was against Andrew, who was running the Vader and a bajillion jet troopers list that @Kalandros played twice in his report to start this thread. I knew that, other than the first game, this would probably be the most important match of the day when it came time to calculate my strength of schedule. The map was Raining Freight on Nal Hutta, and even though Andrew “won” initiative he gave me the bottom (non-swampy) deployment zone. So far, so good!

Now Andrew is a bit of a (self-confessed) slow player, but we did manage to start round 3 before time was called. The good news is that he is also a super-friendly guy, so I enjoyed chatting with him throughout the game.

I started off with my usual opening, focusing with 3P0 and moving him into position and then focusing with Gideon and moving my smuggler up a few spaces so that he could grab one of the crates on round one. Unfortunately, Andrew knew his game plan going in and he played it to perfection. His first two moves were with officers, and each time he moved one of his rJets a few spaces out of his zone. On his third activation, before I got a chance to move my smuggler, he moved his jets out to grab both of the crates that my smuggler could reach. That right there pretty much set the tone for the game – Andrew would move his jets out into my shooting gallery, I’d one-shot them with one of my big hitters, but by that point they had already grabbed an objective and made back their two points. I also moved my smuggler up to the little hiding place between the two red squares in the centre swamp tile, ready to pounce on the crates the next round.

At the end of round one he put his crates into the middle swamp. I did the same – unfortunately there was nowhere else that I could place them that would be close enough for my units to get to. I figured that I’d use my initiative to activate my smuggler and hoover up as many as I could before he got blasted.

Unfortunately, though, Andrew had drawn Take Initiative and I had no way to negate it. That meant he started the round with a pair of e-jets – not only did they grab all of the crates but one of them also flew up and tagged my smuggler (then grabbed another crate with his fly-by movement). This was the turning point in the game if there was one – I believe that at this point Andrew had grabbed 18 points worth of crates and there wasn’t much I could do to come back from that in the limited number of rounds. I spent the rest of round two blowing apart trooper after trooper, but when the elites got too damaged he ran them back towards his deployment zone and at least one got away, hiding behind the red blocking terrain. I had no crates to place at the end of round 2, but he put both of his beside one of my rangers before deftly cleaving her in two with Vader (and leaving the crates far away from my remaining figures).

Starting round three I had initiative, and the only damage I had suffered was losing the smuggler, the ranger, and 3P0 (double-force-choked by Vader end of round 1/early in round 2). I planned out my turn and, assuming that I could get somewhat lucky and roll a 3-damage slam with chewie to kill one of his officers, I could have finished off every figure he had except for Vader. But then I ran the numbers… even if I did all that, he could still just grab the two crates tucked away next to Vader and he would have been ahead by 2 points. We shook on it without playing out the round.

So on the one hand this was a disappointing loss since cost me my chance at the cut, but on the other hand I didn’t actually mind it because looking back at the game I don’t think that there was really anything more that I could have done. Running all my Rangers/Han out into the middle is pretty much a death sentence against Vader, so that one’s out. I guess if I could replay the game knowing exactly what I know now I could have positioned my smuggler to go out and grab a crate with my first activation, but I’m not going to be too hard on myself for missing that one. Really this one was just a combination of Andrew sticking to his (well thought-out) game plan and his being able to Take Initiative at the right time. Que sera, sera, as they say.

Match 5 was against Bailey, who was a younger player up from Michigan but also a player who had placed fourth at Nationals last year (so no slouch!). He was playing an interesting Imperial list that brought in Jabba and a set of eQuays in a temporary alliance. The rest of his list was (I believe) e-Sentries, BT, a set of e-Jets (?) and officers/Zillo to round it out.

I won’t go into too much detail on this game (since this post is already way too long) but sufficed to say the dice gods were on my side. First he took a charged shot at my ranger from something like 7 range which missed accuracy. After that his two focused, hidden Weequay attacks went into a roll of 4 blocks with Chewie and a Han dodge (who killed his target with return fire). My dice worked a lot better, and going into round three he had lost BT, palp, his sentries and a weequay and I was still at full strength. He decided to call it there, and after that there was nothing to do but wait around for the cut to be announced.

Record: 3-2

So that was that, and as expected I lost out on the cut due to strength of schedule. I think that I did just well enough in this tournament to be problematic – enough success to want to come back and try again next year, but I also missed the cut which really makes me want to come back and try again next year! My wife is now rightly afraid that this may become an annual event .

Final aside: my ranger/Han list's only two losses on the day were both on Nal Hutta. Go figure!

Actual final aside: Despite constantly moving Chewie early I only got to play Debts Repaid once all day, in my first game. And I never drew On the Lam at all!

Anyways, that’s it from me. A big thank you to everyone who organized the tournament – I really had an awesome time. I think I’m ready to retire my list, though (I’ve been using pretty much the same one since I started), so now I’m patiently waiting to see what goodies the next expansion will bring. Hello, Mr. Grand Admiral!

37 minutes ago, ManateeX said:

He took pot shots with Jawas from 12+ just to haggle

The attack must not miss to be allowed to surge Harass so if it doesn't make accuracy then it misses.. I doubt he can make range that far ever.

Nvm I cant read

1 hour ago, Kalandros said:

The attack must not miss to be allowed to surge Harass so if it doesn't make accuracy then it misses.. I doubt he can make range that far ever.

Bargain (eJawa) doesn't require accuracy

1 hour ago, eBentl said:

Bargain (eJawa) doesn't require accuracy

No but Harass which deals Strain which means double cards with Under Duress does require the attack to hit even if it does 0 damage and he had 4 regular Jawas.

1 minute ago, Kalandros said:

No but Harass which deals Strain which means double cards with Under Duress does require the attack to hit even if it does 0 damage and he had 4 regular Jawas.

True, but he had 6 Jawa (2 elite) and the bit talking about range 12 shots was for 'haggle' (Bargain)

20 minutes ago, eBentl said:

True, but he had 6 Jawa (2 elite) and the bit talking about range 12 shots was for 'haggle' (Bargain)

Ah thats the Campaign version of it, didn't make the link to eJawas.

one thing i noticed is that Nal Hutta was played 3 times, Jabba's Palace 3 times and Mos Eisley only once, that seems off to me.