LowerHuttACon is the second biggest event in the Save11 Calendar - last year we had 14 players, and we're hoping for about 16 this year. It's a 200 point constructed tournament, and the newest sets, Galactic Heroes and the Old Republic will be legal.



The tournament will be held in Taita, Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Registrations start at 1pm, the tournament starts at 2pm. If you're in New Zealand (or willing to fly!) and want more details, PM me.

We are using Restricted Map List B, so the six legal maps are:
Rancor Pen
Jabba’s Palace
Anchorhead
Cantina
Cliffside Citadel
Simulation Deck

First prize is a Felcor, while there are nice new Christopher West maps for 2nd and 3rd place.

You can see the tournament results from last year here: http://www.bloomilk.com/forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=10698 Last year the Top 5 was dominated by Vong and Mace squads, but I'm expecting a more diverse meta this year.

I'll post a bigger report in a day or two, but to confirm:

- we had 18 players
- the tournament was won by Dr Daman, running his Strike the Right Corde squad (Thrawn, Cad Bane, Morrigan Corde, Pellaeon at http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/126993/strike-the-right-corde). It was a good reward for a player who's put in a lot of work over the last year or two, and good to see a mostly non v-set squad win.
- other top 4 squads: Cad Bane Bounty Hunter/IG-88s/Poggle Bombs in 2nd, a Sith squad featuring Malgus/HK-47/Bandon/Exar FS, and another Cad Bane Bounty Hunter squad finished equal on points for 3rd and 4th and we need to go back and work out the tie break.
- faction breakdown:
Old Republic: 1
Separatist: 3
Republic: 4
Sith: 4
Yuuzhan Vong: 3 (all performed pretty solidly, all quite different)
New Republic: 2
Imperial: 1
- there was one Naboo Pilot squad, that finished about mid table
- there were two Caedus squads, and neither finished higher than 14th

Wow.... No Rebel or Mandos ran AT ALL!?!?! That is insane. 3 Vong tho, I like to see that. Sith and Republic with 4, but I'm really curious as to who and what was ran with the otherr 3 Sith squads?

Thanks you TheHutts for the update, any and all information, play reports, and complete squad build would be much appreciated!

I guess one of two factions are always going to miss out in getting run in an 18 squad tournament. I was fully expecting some Mandos to show up though - Kelborn's awesome, new, and exciting.

Apart from Malgus, the other 3 Sith squads all finished in the bottom five: one was the Vergere/Malgus/Caedus combo, one was Caedus/Sith Bastila/Bandon, and one was Nihilus and Zannah.

With Republic, there was a neat Klat Assassin deathshot squad that finished mid-table.

OK - here are full squad lists too. The order for players tied on points isn't exact - we had a few complications with the system, so some strength of schedule tie-breaks still need finalising. Note that in NZ tournaments, we award 1 point to the loser if they make it to 100 points. We didn't actually play the planned final, as we had to vacate the building, and both players were happy that Dr Daman would be able to win the final as he did with the pool game between the two top players:

13 points:
Dr Daman:
Imperials
Lobot
Thrawn
Ozzel
Pellaeon
Morrigan Corde
Mouse *2
Ug
Mas
Cad Bane
Rodian * 4

12 points:
Sharron:
Separatist
Cad Bane BH
IG-88A
IG-88 Assassin
Poggle
10 bombs
San Hill
Lobot

11 points:
TheHutts
Sith
Malgus
HK-47 AD
Bandon
Lobot
Mouse * 4
Ugnaught * 3

bevj21:
Separatist
Aurra
Cad
Grievous
Hondo
Lobot
R7
Ug
Mice * 3

9 points:
Darth O:
New Republic
IG-88A
Mara Jade Jedi
IG88 Assassin
Ganner
Dodonna
R7
Mouse*3
Rodian
Ugnaught

Mike Moore Smuggler
Republic
Youngling * 9
Spaarti * 2
R7
R2
Jorus
QG JM
Anakin Chosen One
Amidala
Rodian
Mouse Droid

8 points:
kezzamachine:
Yuuzhan Vong
Sheodai
Quorreal
Nei Rin
YV JH
YV JH
Fanatic
Yammosk
Zonoma * 2
Lobot

kfcswaitingforyou:
Old Republic
Bastila
Satele
IG-88A
IG-88 Assassin Droids
R7
Ugnaught
Lobot

7 points:
Ian
Republic:
Mon Mothma
Panaka of Theed
Klat Capt
Queen Amidala
Admiral Yularen
Naboo * 8
R2-D2
Rodian
Spaarti * 2

Henko:
Yuuzhan Vong
Fanatic
Advance Agent Officer
Warmaster Nas Choka
Yammosk
YV Ossus Guardian
Jedi Hunter
Nen Yim
Priest
Ugnaught

6 points:
Alex:
Republic
Mon Mothma
Admiral Yularen
Lobot, CLO
Jabba Crime Lord
Klat Assassin * 9
Mas
Ugnaught * 3

dobbo:
New Republic
Luke GH
Jarael
Cade BH
Dodonna
Marn
Yoda FS
Ponda
Ugnaught

5 points:
Stuart:
Yuuzhan Vong
Worker * 6
Nom Anor
Nen Yim
Czerka
Agent Officer
Ugnaught
Domain Subaltern
Zam Wesell

4 points:
Glyn:
Republic
GOWK
Master Yoda
Dark Woman
Qui-Gon FS
R2-D2 Astromech Droid
R4
Spaarti * 2
Ugnaught
Mako

Danny:
Sith
Sith Bastila
Darth Caedus
Wyllrok
Exar DFS
4 Recruits
R7
Ugnaught

3 points:
savagerancor:
Sith
Darth Caedus
Darth Malgus
Squib
2 Recruits
R7
Vergere
Ragnos

2 points:
Baz:
Sith
Nihilus
Zannah
Traya
Marka Ragnos DFS
R7
Sith Recruit * 3
Mous * 2

Dan:
Separatist
Grievous HoH
Cad Bane BH
Lobot
Savage
Nightsister
Camaasi
Ug *2
Mouse
Camaasi
Salacious
Ug * 2

Thank you as always for the play reports, they are always very interesting to read and sounds like a great tournament! Plus very interesting to see what folks are thinking about with GH pieces.

So i was told by Sharron that I had to run a Thrawn swap squad for this tournament. I really enjoy playing those squads, but in previous tournaments I've played mostly Republic as the new pieces that had just come out just looked fun. Having just won our Vassal tournament I wasn't too worried about running something I thought was super competitive and just wanted to have fun playing the pieces i love so much. Turns out it was a good thing to do. I looked at the new pieces that V-set 5 introduced and started to try forming a squad I thought wouldn't get wiped off the table and still had a bit of an edge. Unfortunately I couldn't come up with anything I liked. So I decided to use my Strike the Right Corde squad which I designed a few months back. It's obviously a take on the classic Stealth and Blue but with Morrigan instead of Arica and some tweaking to get Pellaeon in there. I like Morrigan more than Arica for a few reasons. She can put out more unavoidable damage than Arica and has a built in movement breaker. So this is how it went.....

Round 1: Rafufu (Mon Mothma, Yularen, Jabba CL, 9 Klat Assdassins) On Cantina.
Reinforcements: Amanin, Rodian Brute and a Gran Raider
When I saw this squad across the table, my hopes of having a good start looked like they'd take a big hit. Cloaked shooters that SD and had deathshot v's my 2 shooters was going to be very hard as basing them wasn't an option. My only hope was to use my massive movement to get into his back line and destroy his commanders. I lost map roll so we used Rafuf's Cantina map. I deferred set-up to react to his placement (in hind-sight i should have taken the left to negate his cover) and ended up on the right. Round 1 was moving pieces into position and Rafufu slowly made his way into the cantina. Round 2 was when the action happened. I started moving towards the top corridor to where his Mas was but i still left an option for getting to the middle of the cantina. After he'd moved all his pieces (and moving Mas out from the proposed threat) I made my move. The amanin rolled 18 squares towards the back of the cantina and thrawn swapped Cad in to kill Mas and CLObot, taking away his door control and CE range. after that it was a case of getting as far in as possible to hit the commanders. I knew I wasn't going to get 3 points so eventually settled for 2. Rafufu had a great squad and I think I was quite lucky to beat him as this was a terror match up had he been more aggressive. 2 Points

Round 2: Darth O (IG-88A, IG-88 AD, Mara Jedi, Ganner, Dodonna) on Jabba's Palace
Reinforcements: Amanin, Rodian Brute and a Gran Raider
This was the 3rd time Darth O and I had faced off in the last month or so. We played each other in the Vassal Swiss round and again in the final. Both times I fell like I was lucky to win, but that's just how the dice fall I guess. Seeing a squad with only a few big hitter like mine, I figured I had a really good chance here. Darth O had 12 acts and Dodonna but i had 17 with Ozzel, so I was always gonna out act him. I started on the right giving me the better door control options. In round 1 was where i was hoping to make my big move in all my games and this game started perfectly for me. Darth O moved his pieces around while I just hung back and tapped most of mine. He decided to run Mara into gambit towards the end of round. I used a Rodian to open the top door in the Grand Atrium, then ran the Aminan up to Mara to base her and swapped in Cad. Needing to not roll 1's, he dispatched her and moved away. In the next few rounds, Darth O made some fantastic moves to take out Cad using IG-88AD and Ganner, so I was looking at a 2 point win without my big hitter. Morrigan excelled in the end-game, taking out Ganner and Dodonna and setting up massive points lead that Darth O couldn't over come. Time was called and it was another victory, all be it too close for me. 4 points.

Round 3: Kezzamachine (Shedao Shai, Quorreal, Lobot, Nei Rin, 2 YV JH, Fanatic, Yammosk) on Jabba's Palace
Reinforcements: 5x Rodian brutes and a Caamasi Noble
I looked at this squad and thought my run was over. Kez could bring in quite a reinforcements and almost match my acts if his Zonoma's had LoS. I thought for all money he'd use the yammosk to steal my swap CE, but he stole Ozzel's and i have to say, that was the error that won me this game. Kez set-up on the right and I on the left. Round 1 was a very slow round with each of us moving 1 unit at a time. I out acted Kez by 3 pieces and used them to have Lobot open the Valet Station Door and swap Cad up to take out one of the YV JHs and his YV Ossus Protector. I then moved him behind the caamasi who was blocking the small door, stopping his troops from running up to him and thus saving me from swapping him out first turn of round 2. This gave me a much handier act lead and from then on it was just a matter of out act, swap in Cad or Morrigan and pick of pieces one-by-one. Kez was good enough to start running his pieces up so as to not prolong the game and hand me a 3 pointer. 7 Points

Round 4: Sharron (Cad BH, IG-88A, IG-88AD, Poggle, 10 Drones, San, Lobot) on Jabba's Palace
Reinforcements: 5x Rodian brutes and a Caamasi Noble
Sharron and I had been play testing our squads together for the last month, but we always vowed never to run the squads against each other until we met in competition. We both knew the others squad inside and out so this was going to be the make or break game for me. If I lost, I was probably out. If I won, I'd have a really good chance of taking it out. Sharron used Lobot to bring in the MTB and some mouse droids to negate my Master Tac. I lost map roll, but Sharron was also using Jabba's Palace so this worked out well for me as I got to set up on the right which was my preferred starting end in testing. Round 1 was moving pieces forward. We both had the same number of acts and moved my pieces up and left them all in cover so that CBBH couldn't Furious Assault many if he got the chance. Sharron made one mistake in the first round, putting 2 drones in an easy shooting lane for Cad to swap in, kill them, move back in through the door and have Lobot lock it after him. If I can't take out a big piece on the first round, I will always try and whittle down an opponents acts. Even if it's just one or two 3 point pieces, it makes round two a lot easier to make that big play. In round 2, Sharron started to set up his move for CBBH and IG-88AD. He managed to get an Atrium door unlocked and started to shoot at Morigan. I don't think she made more than 20% of her evade saves all day and this was no exception so she felt the pain a little there. but having out acted Sharron, I swapped Cad in for Morrigan and took some shots at IG-88AD. His shield saves were as bad as my evades, making just one and leaving him on 10HP. Lobot locked the door and that was the end of round 2. Sharron won initiative with the MTB was slowly losing acts from it. He used an Uggie to blow open the door and at this point i knew Morrigan was gone as he could rock CBBH in and FA her and some low cost pieces. So i charged her up to a point where IG-88AD had no cover and finished him off, hoping her evade would see her through. Of course it didn't and IG-88A finished her off easily. Sharron moved a MD in behind CBBH to try protect him with Hostage Shield and I totally didn't see it and ran my Cad towards his to try take him out. The MD failed the HS save and soaked up 40 damage for CBBH leaving him at 40 HP. I moved Cad back inside and into cover but CBBH with his movement chased him down easy. Needing to not roll 1's he hit the first shot then rolled a 1 on the next. Now he could win Int and chase him down for the kill. I swapped Cad out for a Rodian who hit CBBH and just added insult to injury. It was easy for me to chase CBBH down and finish him off and that was pretty much game, with Sharron now out to get as many points as possible. 10 Points

Round 5: Bevj21 (Aurra, Grievous, Hondo, Cad Bane BH) on Jabba's Palace
Reinforcements: Amanin, Uggie and a Gran Raider
Bev's a great player and won our last Major title at HamilCon earlier in the year, but for some reason I always seem to have his number and havent lost to him yet. I won map roll and Bev chose to set up on the right. Round one had Bev bringing his force up to just inside the Atrium doors and me just tapping some pieces waiting for my big chance. After he'd finished moving all his pieces, I ran the Amanin adjacent to the top Atrium door and swapped in Cad who shot Aurra to pieces and moved back towards the centre gambit area. Round 2 saw Bev take a shot at Cad with Hondo but he made his evade save and not having twin hurt him considerably. I waited for Bev to move his pieces around and he managed to form a rather effective Mouse Droid wall to protect Hondo and CBBH. I used Lobot to open the bottom Atrium door and swapped Cad in next to it to take out an unguarded Grievous. Cad then moved away and around a corner, but not far enough, as at the start of round 3 Bev managed to hit him with Hondo and leave him sitting on 40HP. he then guarded Hondo with a MD so I couldn't use Cad to take him out that turn. Cad put some damage on Hondo and then retreated further to save himself from a Furious Assault from CBBH. Bev then used CBBH to base Morrigan and put some damage on her and Pellaeon who I'd bought up. Morrigan put 60 on CBBH to leave him very fragile but it was the last thing she'd do as CBBH finished her off later next round. Round 4 saw my Cad take down Hondo early in the round and that was pretty much the end of it for Bev. I chased CBBH easily and with about 5 mins remaining on the clock Bev called the game. 13 Points

Unfortunately due to time constraints we weren't able to play the final at the venue we were using. As I was taking people home and Sharron (the other finalist) had to also leave we decided to leave it at the points standings which saw me edge him out by one point. All-in-all it was a fantastic day and full credit goes to Graham (TheHutts) for putting together a fantastic tournament with a massive 18 players on the day. Also a huge congrats to Kez who set up a kick-ass open day before the tournament that will hopefully see many more people joining this game I love! It's great to see the game expanding in little old NZ.......... chase us

This was because we were running VERY late and had to vacate the venue asap. Bev had only a few mouse droids and lobot left at this point so there was no way he could touch my pieces and chasing his squad down in the allotted time was inevitable.

Yeah, it was played wrong - I didn't actually think about it. He was actually Master Shaping Nom, so Nom had 30 base damage. In my game against him, the Czerka died after one Nom attack anyway, so it wasn't too big of a deal, but I'm sure it mattered in other games.

Alright!!!

So, as Dr. D posted before, we had tested our squads intensely for a while, and I loved the new Cad, and found the Ig-88 brothers extremely good to run with him.
I ran my Squad 'Long Road to Ruin' on Jabba's Palace
--Long Road to Ruin--
48 IG-88A
43 Cad Bane, Bounty Hunter
43 IG-88, Assassin Droid
27 Lobot
10 San Hill
9 Poggle the Lesser
20 Geonosian Drone x10

Game 1: vs Robin (caedus, malgus, vergere) on Cliffside Citadel
Robin had turned up to the tournament to just watch and enjoy everyone's company, then decided he wanted to play after we urged him to, but didnt have any pieces! so Dr. Daman and I made him a squad(he had no idea what it was until his first game) and it just so happened it was against me! Duly note that Robin and I have played first round for almost all the tournaments both he and I have been a part of, nice to know some things have to stay the same...
He won map roll, and I took the inside side, naturally. I brought in MTB, 3 mice, and one ug, every game. first round was all positioning, since he had 8 people and was done in about 3 minutes.
Second round he moved up to the door on the bottom of gambit, and I just ran bombs at him and shot him with ig-88AD, and cad. caedus down to 10, and everyone else wounded.
Round 3 I went first(caedus was out of forcepoints trying to stop my attacks the last round), I had set up a bomb right in the middle of his 5 pieces, to blow up with the MTB. I forgot that he was there, blew up a bomb no where near his pieces, and then realised. no matter, IG-88AD pulse cannoned his group of players, killing caedus, and vergere, and hitting malgus down even further. malgus took another round to take down, all three of my big hitters took him down with ease. I was worried going into this matchup, but Robins unfamiliarity with his squad lead me to an easy win. 3-0

Game 2: vs TheHutts (malgus, Hk47, bandon, exar FS) on jabba's palace
He brought in Ponda, and I brought in MTB etc again.
Round 1, was pretty much the game. I started on the openside, whilst he started inside. I outactivated him immensely. He made the mistake of moving HK-47 into the cover in front of the square box inside, but locked the door. He didnt see the shooting lane, I opened both doors once he was done, and went to town on HK. I didnt miss an attack all game(bar my drones) and dispatched HK and his bodyguard Ponda. With his disruptive dead, being crazy out activated, and all my damage output, it was over in 20 minutes. The game would have gone very differently had he kept HK, and fortunately it panned out how it did. 6-0

Game 3: vs Mike Moore Smuggler (jorus, younglings, Qui-gon JM, Ani chosen one) on cantina
I brought in the MTB etc again.....
Mike had played his squad all through to tournament incorrectly(unbeknownst to us) and his younglings were force gripping everyone everywhere. i lost my IG-88A to grips and Ani's Dark Temptation, which he failed the save on. it took forever to kill his younglings, and it ended with ani killing QUi-gon, and DT on jorus, to kill them. i only had IG-88AD, Ani, and my commanders left. vague game for a vague squad ;) THANK GOODNESS YOUNGLINGS CANT FORCE GRIP! It was an awesome squad while it lasted! wouldnt want to face it ever again :P 9-0

Game 4: vs Dr. Daman (Strike the Right Corde) on Jabba's palace
I won map roll, which I REALLY wanted to lose, since we were both playing the same map, as I needed to start inside to launch from behind the wall, protected from Cad Bane.
Round 1, was just moving up the board for both players, and Dave took out 2 bombs, giving him the activation advantage.
Round 2, was frustrating, I couldnt get to Cad, so i tried to shoot morrigan with IG-88AD, missing the first, and hit the second, for 30. positioned Cad(wrongly) behind Ig-88AD outside the small door near gambit. His Cad moved, shot my IG-88, I missed 3 saves for shields, and was left on 10.
Round 3, I should have chased Cad with IG before he died, but I didnt, so morrigan ran 12 squares, and killed him. Cad tried to chase His Cad, rolled a 1, and got shot to pieces.
Afterwards, LongStoryShort, My bombs were ineffective against his swap + actiavation control, I managed to kill Morrigan, to no avail. I couldnt get IG-88A into the fray, and Cad got round to Kill him easily once my MTB blew up. I conceded, so not to rob Dr. D of points by running my Commanders and Lobot away. First loss, thoroughly beaten! Dr. D played an awesome match, and I had ZERO answer. 9-0

Game 5: vs Kez (Shedao Shai, Quorreal, Lobot, Nei Rin, 2 YV JH, Fanatic, Yammosk) on Jabba's Palace
Just after we began this game, someone came in to tell us that the time we were allowed at venue we were at, was up. so Kez was running around frantically trying to clean and play at the same time, so naturally made some rushed moves. Cad Bane was the devastator in this situation, hitting 7 of his 13 pieces in one FA, then 5 in his next one. no movement breaker made it impossible for Kez to catch him flying around everywhere. IGs cleaned up, and bombs pitched in here and there. the most epic moment, was Cad rolling two 1's on Lobot! 12-0

And that is where we left it! Awesome day of minis, Congradulations to Dr. D, played awesomely all day! and finally had a major win under his belt :) HUGE Thanks to Graham, who ran things smoothly, albiet a little slowly, everyone enjoyed it.

Aaron OUT