First and foremost thanks to Brad for a great job judging! He traveled quite a distance to help us all out. May I also say he did as well as could be reasonably expected in juggling pairing a little on the fly when non-sensical pairings popped up. After Wizards left us high and dry without updated software, Brad had to use a program created by Aaron (basically finished the night before from what I understand) for the first time, so it was a little extra mental exercise for him to double check mentally each round.
Speaking of - thanks to Aaron (lobostele) for the pairing program. Pairing accurately would have been next to impossible without it. Sorry he couldn't have been at the tourney sooner.
Last, but certainly not least thanks to Lexx and all the guys at Chicagoland games for giving up the space at the store and providing prize support, and as always being as big supporter of Star Wars minis!
Congrats to Deri for winning it, and Jonny B and Jake K the other finalists.
My Squad:
Sir Lance-a-lotGeneral Greivous, Droid Army Commander
Darth Sidious
IG Lancer Droid
Lobot
Gha Gnackt
Human bodyguard
San Hill
Battle Droid Officer
R7 Astromech Droid
Mouse Droid
Preferred Reinforcements:
Muun Tactics Broker + Mouse Droids x6
-or (VS "Never Tell Me the Odds" and high activations - Mouse Droids x10)Map: Ravaged Base
Round 1 vs Jake S (Michigan) He brought
General Greivous, Droid Army Commander
Lobot
Jedi Hunter Droid x2
IG-86 x2
San Hill
(Don't remember the rest exactly - fodder?)
First off - I completely spaced that using a MTB vs San Hill gives auto reserves every round, and brought him in. Whoops! I thought that lost me the game straight off. In hind sight, it was the right choice. Since I out-activated and had double-override, it didn't matter how many repair droids or BG droids Jake brought, I kept on eating them up with the lancer. It did take longer, but all those reserves do count for points. Jake's squad was powerful (especially vs force users), but not a good match-up for my squad.
Result: Win (3 points)
Round 2 vs Deri MorganHe brought:
Han Solo galactic Hero
Mara Jade, Jedi
Ganner Rhysode
Lobot
Anakin Skywalker
Gha Gnackt
General Dodanna
Ugnaught Demolitionist
Mouse Droid
We both brought 10 mouse droids (I think I sold him on the power of Gha Gnackt last year.
) This match-up came down to 2 things. #1 I had 10 base activations (20 with the mice) - Deri had 9 base activations (19 with mice). When you are playing to out-activate, you gotta out activate. #2 One misplacement of is Lobot. It gave me just the distance I needed to swoop in and lance his Lobot and get back to safety. Then he had little choice but to aggressively advance while I locked doors ad tried to strafe safely. Time ended and I came out with a 2 point victory, after a tough close match.
Result: Win (2 points)
Round 3 vs Lou VHe brought
Grand Master Yoda
Dash Rendar, Renegade Smuggler
Jedi Weapons Master x2
The Dark Woman
R2-D2 Astromech Droid
R7 Astromech Droid (?)
Ugnaught Demolitionist x2
Mouse Droid x7
We played on his map (Bespin) and I chose inside (Is there really any choice here?). I lined up along the top to have a quicker shot down the ducts to the only building on his side of the map. He his his scrubs in the back room, but put his hitters right out on the landing pad. It was a bad match-up from the start, and unlike our match-up at marmalade dog - the map gave him no spot to prevent me from strafing. I decimated his team at the end of the first round, going around his JWMs (plenty of room to do that on the landing pad), and killing Dash and R2, and finishing of Dark woman at the beginning of the next round, and ending up poised to waste his fodder in the back room next round. He had no choice but to advance for the rest of my squad, but wasn't going to get far after losing door control. Then I came back through with the Lancer and him having 2 JWMs and GM Yoda vs my whole squad. I zap, blaster, lock Yoda. Make him activate, then unlock and repeat. Yoda Dies, and I get the JWMs down to lancer killing levels. One is out of FPs and the Lancer is fuuly repaired by now so I strafe the 2 JWMs to death.
Result: Win (3 points)
Round 4 vs Mark CrudoHe brought:
Han Solo galactic Hero
Mara Jade, Jedi
Ganner Rhysode
Lobot
Gha Gnackt
General Dodanna
R7 Astromech Droid
Ugnaught Demolitionist x2
Mouse Droid x 7
Mark won map and we played on his map (Bespin again). I brought my 10 mice, and he brought Garindan and Wicket. I lined up along the top and so did he. Luckily (he didn't have more mice to bring with Lobot) I still out-activated him, and that made a huge difference. He started to advance, and I did an end of the round strafe killing his R7 and some scrubs, coming back to safety. He then advanced further down the duct, and I threw a bunch of mice in the duct to stop his advance. He eventually killed my Lobot, but not before a couple more strafes and Han, Ganner and Mara were all dangerously low, and his Lobot was too far back to be very effective. I finished off his big boys just as I was whittling down my own activations with the MTB.
Result: Win (3 points)
At this point I was the only undefeated player, but we (unfortunately) had to play another round.
Round 5 vs Jonny BHe brought:
Darth Vader, Sith Apprentice
Thrawn (Mitth'raw'nuruodo)
Arica
Dash Rendar, Renegade Smuggler
Lobot
Arden Lynn
Mas Amedda
(fodder)
He won map roll and we played on his Rancor Pit. I chose the side with all the rooms, but it didn't matter. Jonny placed his figures very well, and I couldn't risk strafing Vader, so they we're safely tucked away. I had a chance to double strafe Arden Lyn at the end of the round, but I couldn't finish her off and make it back to safety, so I just moved up a bit and locked the door. I just basically waited for round 2 (mistake #1). I then didn't sacrifice San Hill (mistake #2) with the MTB. So he moved Arden Lynn up to the locked door. Since I couldn't activate 2, there wasn't much I could do, so I just burned an activation (mistake #3). He swapped in Arica, and there was still nothing I could do, so I burned another activation (mistake #4). He then unlocks the door, and comes in for a devastating Blaster Barrage. Killing my Bg first, then Gha, and a bunch of fodder, and then taking 40 off the rest. Man, sniper BB is nasty. Downhill from there. I finished her off and then he runs down the rest.
Result: Loss (3 point for Jonny)
So here was the records after Swiss:
Deri #1 (12 points) Lost to a 4-1 record <Tim>
Jonny #2 (12 points) Lost to a 3-2 record <Mark>
Tim #3 (11 points) Lost to a 4-1 record <Jonny>
Jake #4 (11 points) Lost to a 2-3 record <Bill>
Semi-Finals vs Jonny BSo - I get a rematch vs Jonny. I won map this time, and Jonny chose inside of the ravaged base. I was able to kill off his Lobot and 1 uggie, but he had one left. He advanced Arden Lynn and a Caamasi Noble he brought through Lobot's reinforcements. He was able to blow 1 door, and I simply locked the next one in line, trying to prevent the swap. I didn't realize that do to crumbled walls, there was a very winding route to boardwide CEs. So he swapped in Arica, and she banged up quite a bit of my squad. Finished her off along with Arden Lynn, and essentially sacrificed the Lancer to kill Dash. So it was Vader vs Sidious and Grievous. I whittled Vader down to 40hp, Sidious had 50 hp left. I won the MTB aided init, and zapped Vader. He then killed Sidous, which put Jonny ahead in the end. He swapped out Vader for the win. After the match I realized if I had zapped Vader with sidious and backed up (taking only 40 on the AoO, surviving barring a crit), he couldn't have gotten around Grievous to finish him off, and I would have won. Oh well - hindsight 20/20. Jonny played well and earned the win.
Result: Loss (2 point win for Jonny)
Consolation Finals vs Jake KHe brought:
Shado Vao
Mara Jade, Jedi
Ganner Rhysode
Dash Rendar, Renegade Smuggler
Lobot
Jagged Fel
General Dodonna
Ugnaught Demolitionist (?)
Then for the honor of 3rd place braggin' rights, I played Jake K (who lost to Deri in the Semi-finals). We played on Ravaged Base, I was outside. He had Shado Vao, which made me pick my route very carefully with the Lancer. He was dangerous, because he could kill the lancer from 8 squares away (move faster + precision <MotF2>), or 20 with Ganner. But - since I out-activated, and had an MTB (No Han GH to face here!) I had 72 sqaures to strafe and return. I was able to kill a bunch of fodder and Lobot, and it was downhill for him after that. He made EVERY save with Shado and Mara's blocks, but eventually I whittled them down. I finally killed Mara and basically sacrificed the Lancer to kill Dash, leaving him with only Shado (who was all up in Grievous's buisness) and a badly wounded Ganner. He had to sacrifice Ganner to kill the Lancer, and Grievous and Sidious finished off Shado.
Final 4 Standings:
Deri #1 (12 points) Lost to a 4-1 record <Tim>
Jonny #2 (12 points) Lost to a 3-2 record <Mark>
Tim #3 (11 points) Lost to a 4-1 record <Jonny>
Jake #4 (11 points) Lost to a 2-3 record <Bill>
I can't complain about 3rd place, but of course it would have been nice to win it again. Deri said he was glad he didn't have to face me again, because he thought my squad had a serious advantage over his (if there is an edge, it is only a slight one in my opinion.) I don't honestly think I would have beat Deri again (hard enough to beat him once, much less 2 times in a single tournament. In fact - I think I can safely say nobody has ever done that!) It was interesting that the top 3 were sort of rock, paper, scissors. I beat Deri, Jonny beat me, and Deri beat Jonny. But all that matters is making the finals and then winning the next 2, and Deri did that.
Hope I can make some more regionals, but I can't be sure due to work. I had a blast at this one though!