I've got some time this morning, so I might as well post my play report. My (much-hyped on SHNN, and soon to be waaaay over-exposed in Regional play) squad:
--Mace in the Face (7th place, 2012 Michigan Regionals)--
65 Mace Windu, Legacy of the Light Side
47 General Skywalker
23 Captain Panaka
23 Foul Moudama
9 R2-D2, Astromech Droid
8 Mas Amedda
8 R7 Astromech Droid
5 Spaarti Clone Trooper Demolitionist
12 Rodian Brute x4
(200pts. 12 activations)
The first round I drew Bob Clark, a local player, who was working with an Omega Squad build. I won map roll (my map was Cantina), and he set up mostly in the storage room. We converged in the private lounge around the end of round 1, and I ran Mace in to start round 2. Unfortunately, even with two force points, I failed to rolled a critical, and with his shields 2, I think I only put about 30-40 damage on one guy (instead of killing or grievously wounding several, as I had hoped). Then Bob unloaded on Mace and, by the time he got out of there, he was down to 10 hp. At this point, we've each made a few kills, and I'm somewhat up on points with gambit, but there's no way to insure my victory without risking Mace. In the end, I come up just short, and Bob manages to survive. 0-1
My second round appointment was John, another local player. John's a younger player who just recently started playing with us. John was running a Separatist squad with Grievous, Supreme Commander, a Jedi Hunter Droid, Savage Oppress, and Count Dooku of Serenno. He set up in the atrium on my map, and promptly advanced Savage and Grievous down the left side, while Count Dooku headed up the middle. Unfortunately, he wasn't anticipating the insane range of my squad, which closed on Savage and Grievous very quickly. I killed Grievous with Mace (including a crit), and got some good hits on Savage with Anakin. The next round, I moved Mace back in to finish Savage off, while the rest of my squad focused on Count Dooku and the droids. There wasn't much John could do to combat both the range and the damage output of my squad, and the rest of his squad went down pretty quickly. 1-1, 3 points
Third round, I drew Ben Ferguson and his Cad Bane/Jedi Exile combo. I knew that Cad Bane had to be my biggest target in this situation--even without the Exile's CE, he's still too brutal to have around. One of the strengths of my squad is that the Momentum allows Mace to kill 80-90 HP shooters, like Cad, in one activation, without needing to roll a critical. So I sat back and watched where he put Cad Bane, so I could figure out how to get there. I won map roll again, and I was set up on the Atrium side, with Ben's squad starting in the storage room. Ben clustered Cad, Aurra Sing, and a Jedi Watchman together in one of the doorways, so I would have to run past the Watchman to get to the other two. I didn't really mind taking the one AoO with Cad Bane as the prize (and maybe even putting some damage on Aurra, as well), so I towed, lifted, and ran into the middle of them. I riposted the Watchman's AoO (20 damage on him), and laid into Cad Bane. The second attack was a critical, which killed him and generated a flurry on Aurra Sing--another crit, another flurry. I think I rolled a total of three crits in a row, but maybe once the second attack had totally resolved, I rolled another crit on the third. In any case, by the end of this sequence, all three of his figures were dead. In the next two rounds, Mace and Ani tracked down the rest of his squad and handled them similarly. I honestly felt a little bit bad about this one--I've been on the receiving end of enough dice-based beatings to know how much it sucks. However, this match did confirm the squad's potential for me. 2-1, 6 points.
In the fourth round, I was paired with Chris Elwell, playing Bastilla, Master Thon, Carth, and Jaq Rand. Even though my squad doesn't rely on CEs that much (they help, but the squad still functions without them), I knew I needed to get to Bastilla first round, if possible. I knew I probably wouldn't last that long against his shooters at +10 damage. I won map roll; he set up in the Atrium. I knew from playtesting with Jason that I could get to the stairs leading into the Atrium first round, but no further, so I probably couldn't get to her unless he moved her. During the first round, I moved my Rodians into place to get as many doors open as possible, towed up Foul, ran up Ani, and swapped in Mace, then waited. I was sort of expecting Chris to activate ABM first round, and I wasn't sure how far up I wanted to go in that case. However, he made the decision to move Bastilla up a few squares, to the stairs leading into the Atrium. As soon as I saw that, I knew I probably had him, because I could get to Bastilla AND not have to worry about her force ability this round. I ran in with Mace, triggering a few (missed) AoOs, and promptly took out Bastilla with my attacks, including a crit. I could have stayed there into the next round and taken my chances, but I knew he still had some firepower left, and I thought I would need Mace at least for Master Thon, if not his shooters. Also, I'd positioned my tower/lifter/swappers carefully enough that I wouldn't lose much ground by swapping out. So, at the beginning of round 2, I swapped out Mace for a Rodian. Chris got some shots on Foul, but not enough to kill him, and then my forces came charging back in, taking out Carth and the Baron Do Sage, and putting some damage on Thon. After that, it was just a question of taking the AoOs from Thon to keep my momentum going (particularly with Ani) and landing enough hits, between the attacks, ripostes, and Djem Sos, to take him down. 3-1, 9 points
As Jason mentioned, my last round was against Chris from NY and his Mando death shots. This is the first time all day I DIDN'T win map roll (he had Muun Grand Plaza), and I knew this squad was trouble. I was probably also a little complacent, since I knew I was going to be at least 3-2, and that was all I hoped for going in. Whatever the case, I wasn't as aggressive as I needed to be with the squad, and I wound up pretty much a sitting duck. I did have a nice moment when I used Panaka to Bodyguard a shot on R2 from the Jawa Scavenger, but, otherwise, the squad didn't do a whole lot. That's not to take anything away from Chris, who played well and brought something I wasn't expecting to see. However, for my own memories of the event, I do wish I'd played a little harder and taken a few more risks. Oh well, there's always next tournament, right? 3-2, 9 points
Overall, I wound up in 7th place, which is by far my best finish at one of these things, and ahead of two HOFers. I also won the squad award, making three of those so far. So all in all, a pretty great day for the urbans.
Also, our local player Will's pairing software got its first real try-out at this event, and it worked GREAT!
We were so happy that so many people showed up. Hope to see most of you at future regionals