Played UK Tournament at the weekend, this was my first time playing also and turned out to be a great learning experience for me, my list was as follows:
My Army:
1x Lord Vader (Force Choke, Force Reflexes & Saber Throw)
2x Snowtroopers (Flamer, Snow Trooper & Impact Grenades)
3x Stormtroopers (DLT-19)
1x Stormtrooper (DLT-19, Stormtrooper & Concussion Grenades)
2x Speeder Bikes
Tournament Setup : 6 players, 3 rebels vs 3 imperials so store decided to keep it thematic and play 3 matches with each player playing every player of the opposing faction.
Match 1: Against Leia 5x Rebel Troopers 1x Fleet Troopers & 3x AT-RTs
Setup: Recover Supplies, Disarray, Rapid Reinforcements
With 5 crates setup, I decided put back 2 squads of snowtroopers in reserve as they are short ranged and hoped to get them in close at full strength mid game. my opponent deployed most of his forces in the most heavily fortified corner and deployed lightly in the other.
Turn 1: Leia Opened to start with Bombardment, damaging 2 speeder bikes and suppressing a stormtrooper squad in the far corner. I moved Vader up with stormtroopers towards the objectives and very little cover to rely on. The AT-RTs took out a speeder bike before they could activate and units focus fired Vader, even with his dodge token he had around 3 wounds at the end of turn 1.
Turn 2: Leia provided 2 trooper units the ability to move up when given orders nullifying the cover I managed to grab and setup Vader to die in turn two after getting a saber throw off netting 1 kill. More bikes got destroyed and I managed to kill maybe 2 rebel trooper miniatures before Vader died so early on. And damage and AT-RT a few wounds. The flamer troopers came on the board, but already activated to my disappointment and I could not get them in behind my opponent as a couple of units had yet to move out of the deployment zone.
Turn 3: Using ambush I got to activate my Snow troopers first who charged some newly deployed fleet troopers, lobbing 11 Black dice at my opponent I managed to get 2 hits 1 of which was blocked... (What are the odds?) I then started taking a few more inquiries and I could tell my opponent was starting to feel sorry for me, taking shots of nullified units with only the leader remaining rather than me yet to activate Snow Troopers. Speaking of which the second group of snow troopers split first between a squad and AT-RTs getting a few kills and a couple of wounds on the walker. but at this point my opponent had about 3 more activations than myself.
Turn 4: My left flank was destroyed, the later deployment of Snowtroopers on that side crippled the fleet trooper unit but was soon overwhelmed, conceded saying turn 4 would be our last and we finished our roles me ending completely tabled by round 4.
Conclusion: Well my dice roles were terrible, especially my roles on Red Defence dice, however my opponent was more experienced and had a better plan to deal with the Disarray deployment setup, he picked the strongest fortification on the table and mounted his forces there, I decided to split my forces evenly thinking I could grab and run with the majority objectives more effectively, this decision coupled with my understanding of how Rapid Reinforcement works was ultimately my undoing, and the DLT-19s were just not enough to take on 3 AT-RTs alone, the table lacked cover leading to Vader’s early demise.
Match 2: Against Leia, 5x Rebel Troopers 1x Fleet Troopers & 3x AT-RTs with Laser Cannons
Setup: Recover Supplies, Long March, Hostile Environment
The map was a beautiful Hoth inspired setups with lines of long fortifications, however the long march turned all this cover into a series of straight corridors. With 5 crates setup, I decided I tried to place my high value targets last seeing where he would place the AT-RTs who could easily see over most terrain and pick of my forces in the first couple of rounds.
Turn 1: A very simple round with all forces advancing, getting close to crates and getting into range.
Turn 2: My opponent opened with bombardment, luckily nowhere near as effective as the previous game and took 1 trooper casualty, The AT-RTs started picking off forces and both teams secured 2 crates on their side of the map.
Turn 3: Round 3 was a tough one, my Snowtroopers were still trying to get into range and his fleet troopers managed to 1 shot a squad of my Stormtrooper units, I could feel I was not going to win the fight here as the AT-RTs had weekends my units more than my DLTs were able to. Snow speeders has damaged a couple of AT-RTs but the Z-6s made short work of them. So, this was all going to come down to victory points, I needed to prevent my opponent from securing the 3rd objective. so, I retreated with my 2 crates and prepared to weather the storm.
Turn 4: Vader, 1x Storm Trooper & 1x Snowtrooper Unit, all charged up, Saber Throw, Impact Grenades & Flamethrowers decimated 2 trooper units and disabled an AT-RT. the return volleys were all on Vader in Heavy cover armed with a Dodge token, who was also in striking distance of the centre objective token. He took a couple of wounds and earned a great reputation. opponents moved all his troopers to the centre objective, armed with implacable, Vader exited his cover killing 1 trooper unit, forcing him to drop a crate and then activating and killing a 2nd unit who picked up the central objective. many wounds were taken, and Vader hang on to one wound for round 5. putting me in the lead for a flicker of time with 2 Objectives to 1.
Round 5: I got the jump again, activated Vader and killed another trooper unit, but with Leia and 3 trooper units remaining plus all the AT-RTs still able to shoot, Vader was soon defeated. And my retreating snow troopers took a peppering.
Round 6: Started, my opponent picked up 2 objectives and started aggressively chasing 1 of objective holders determined to widen the victory scoring. in the end that unit survived with 1 miniature remaining, ending the score in a loss for me 3 -2.
Conclusion: So, I struggled again, and had very little to answer for in the first 2 rounds of the Long March against bombardment and 3x AT-RTs with Laser Cannons, other than charging with my Speeder Bikes which ended in their quick deaths, the lack of cover meant that movement was predictable and TBH my only saving grace came down to 2 very lucky attacks and Vader’s great defensive roles which made him feel incredibly powerful for 2 rounds. I was hoping to force the draw, but by the end of round 5 I could see that was impossible.
Match 3: Against Leia, Luke, 4x Rebel Troopers 1x Fleet Troopers & 1x Snow Troopers with Wedge
Setup: Recover Supplies, Battle Lines, Hostile Environment
The map was a fantastic Mars inspired setup with a healthy amount of area and Industrial LOS blocking terrain. I put a line of troops front and centre against Luke, Leia, Fleet and some troopers and had my speeder bikes on the flanks against the Snow Speeder and an ion Trooper Unit.
Turn 1: I moved up and stayed out of line of site until I got to activate the speeder bikes, I decided to take a shot at the Ion Trooper flank and diminished that squad to just the heavy and the leader, a later pot shot from storm troopers DLT-19 took the heavy out also opening up that flank entirely, my opponent started pushing with Luke towards the centre crate in some area terrain and I pushed with my snow troopers and Vader for a big conflict. The Snow speeder activated taking out a trooper or two and my speeders went last on that flank getting a coupled of wounds in.
Turn 2: I was determined to get Vader in close as my opponent, I went all in and landed Luke on the centre objective, he took 2 wounds from a saber throw and got surrounded by my snow troopers, in reaction to this he moved up Leia onto a high position and pushed out some fleet troopers to support. The speeder bikes started peppering his two units running back with his two crates, meanwhile I had yet to pick mine up as I felt no threat in losing these objectives and wanted to focus on prevention of losing to cowardice damaging both his token runners and supressing his 1 strong Z-6 team remaining. the Snow speeder took a couple more troopers out and I focussed on it with DLT-19s causing a couple of wounds and I started wondering if I was wasting my activations on this unit.
Turn 3: My opponent opened with Bombardment from Leia, but she only had 2 valid targets, this resulted in 1 wound on a speeder bike and meant I could activate my snow troopers who one shotted his fleet trooper unit backing up Luke. Much to my fortune I activated Vader shortly after who strolled over the difficult terrain, Force choked my opponents heavy and threw another saber at a retreating Luke. The final blow for my opponent was when he decided to fly at one of my stormtrooper units, who then got to activate and throw a bunch of Impact grenades at it, taking it out of the game. The speeders bikes continued to pick off retreating units leaving my opponent reeling.
Turn 4: I opened with Implacable again and charged Vader at Luke taking the kill, at this point the store owner wondered over and commented on the fact he had never seen both Luke & Leia killed in a single game together. shortly after this passing comment Vader activated again, threw a light saber at Leia leaving her with a couple of wounds left. My speeder biked and snow troopers mopped up the fleeing troopers and my DLT-19 positions started picking up the objectives on my end of the board.
Turn 5: The game was nearly over at this point but we decided to play on, I activated Vader finishing off Leia, and the speeder biked managed to land right on top of some industrial crates shooting down on the final few troopers remaining. I picked up 1 more objective, putting me in the lead at 4-0
Conclusion: So, my opponents dice roles were generally bad or average at best, his defensive roles were poor and my offensive roles were generally statically relevant. However, I think the fact he focussed on tokens while I focussed on suppression impact and getting a few kills to lesson those black dice were much to his detriment, he also failed to realise my Snowtroopers were carrying Impact grenades which took his expensive asset off the board early. This was the first game I was able to make good use of the Snow Troopers and my second where Vader proved his worth decimating Luke, & Leia and forcing his hand against this villain leaving my flanks to pick off and suppress from distance relatively uncontested.
Final Thoughts:
My List: I was the only Imperial running Vader and I think I know why, in a few setups or objective types he is difficult to have an impact, not play on some tables with very little cover and he just gets focus fired very quickly.
Rebel Lists: The strongest players were running 6 Trooper Units & 3 AT-RTs + Leia, I was a shame to see so few people running my favourite units thematically speaking, but this setup is a tough nut to crack, the range advantage Imperials have been nullified quickly with these units on the table and my point investment in Vader and close range Snowtroopers meant they had to survive until Round 3 to have any impact. Playing Battle Lines was a breath of fresh air and I was so thankful for a decent amount of terrain.
Terrain: The owners clearly had not played too much Legion; the tables were scattered with some light terrain leaving almost end to end visibility across the board entire board. a few LOS blocking elements would have played to my strength and I think that you could easily build a list of AT-RTs, Snipers and Z-6s and easily win most matchups.
Objectives: I only played Recover Supplies, I would like to have seen more objective types, to see how these mix things up. Battle Lines really opened up some opportunities for flanking I never saw in other matches and I do wonder if all this choice makes the game more fun to play...
Anyway, had a blast, won some token gesture prizes and spent some money on Han Solo and Rebel Commandos to cheer myself up, looking forward to the next game.