Congrats to Jake K for winning it all! After 6 regional losses to me (2 for the championship) Jake gets his long overdue and well earned win against me for his first Regional win.

The day did not start well for me, because I just moved and I could not find what I needed to play the squad I intended to play. I can't find (of all things) my Lobot reinforcement box (still can't). As many of you know - I am very outspoken about how much I love Lobot. (3 squads went into the finals without Lobot - but the one with Lobot prevailed - I'm just saying). So I went with a squad I had built WITHOUT Lobot. (Gasp!) Wish I had Lobot vs Jake, that would have made the difference.

I went with Mando Deathshots. Kelborn makes it playable now. Still think squad customization through Jaster is invaluable, and the deathshots are icing. The Tactician I had made a huge difference and won me some games for sure. For my money this is the best Mando build at the moment, but still not quite truly tier 1. (As a set disigner - this is valuable info. Noted for future design)

Game 1 vs Lily and her NR Luke and Corran squad. This squad is actually quite scary. I might well have lost if ANY of the following 3 things hadn't happened:
-Lily had anywhere CLOSE to reasonable evade saves (she probably failed 90%)
-If either Lily or I realized a LoS I used several times on Luke was not actually a LoS (we figured out that we both overlooked a corner it was cutting later)
-If Lily realized that Luke's LS throw both did not have range 6 AND ignored cover (my cloaked guys would have been screwed). I didn't realize it either, and if she had attempted I would have been hosed, but it wasn't even brought up in our game.
So I guess I dodged like 3 bullets there. Felt really bad about the LoS, but we both agreed there was nothing we could do after the game.

Next up was Jacob (who got the round 1 bye, but I was the only 3 pt win in round 1 so we faced off). He was playing Lord Krayt and new Talon. This game came down to me picking off all his fodder (don't want him to transfer essence!!!) and him doing that fricking recovery 60 with Krayt. I killed everyone except for Krayt by the end, so it was a 2pt victory. So frustrating, I had the kill on Krayt with 10 hp left, even combined fire with 2 guys to only need a 6, but still rolled a 4 to miss and then he recovered 60 twice to be back to full HP. Got him back down but not enough time for the kill.

Then came Deri in Mando on Mando action. We played on my map (Cantina) and he took his squad (many cloaked) through the bar while I had to wind through all those back rooms. He was convinced I would win because of the tactician, until I pointed out that his CIO nerfed my Tactician. His protectors were a nuisance, but couldn't shoot back at my cloaked in cover. I picked off a little fodder his way in, it was mostly a positioning match for both of us. Do to picking off several small pieces, we both thought I had the very slightly upper hand (I had more activations at this point) as the real engagement started. We traded some figures, and time was called. It came down to rolls, and when the dust settled the final score was 98 to 97 Deri. Oh well.

Next was Bill German from Missouri. Bill was in the final 4 here last year, and 2nd place at Missouri the last 2 years. He brought a really creative squad with 4 SpecForce infiltrators, 2 SpecForce technicians, a SpecForce Vanguard, Dodanna, New Crix and New Ackbar. It has a surprising amount of firepower. We played on Cantina and he came in through the bar having mostly cloaked, stealth and a diplomat. I picked off fodder and door control to control the match, and once it came to the point of me out-activating and him having no override he conceeded. His infiltrators could have walked through doors but then wouldn't have a lot of punch without twin. He decided to just call it rather than be systematically killed without much change of return fire. I didn't realize the new crix does not have stealth until after the match, and that might have effected LoS at one point - but killing Crix would have been pretty great to do instead of killing door control, so I think the outcome would have been ultimately the same.

3-1, 8 pts. Gerry beats Deri in Round six to go 4-0 at 9 pts. Deri only had 1 3pt win all day so he sat at 7pts, which put me in second after Swiss. Jake barely squeaks in the final 4 only winning 1 game against the bottom seed and getting a bye with 6pts.

Rematch vs Deri in the semis.
Lost to Deri by 1 point in Swiss on my Map. In the semis he won map and changed strategies to more of an all out charge. He didn't fare as well. His map sucks (cliffside citadel) and it was like he was running face first into a meat grinder. I don't think either of us is running Mandos again this year.

Jake beats Gerry in a nail biter, so I face him.

Man - his squad beats my squad 4/5 times. We've playtested these squads vs each other, and SBM has the tricks to beat cloaked most of the time. I would have to play perfect to win. But alas I made 1 mistake, and it was not a small one. I had Jaster in the far back and he brought a swoop and outactivated me. I didn't see how far the swoop could get until it was too late, and I stupidly moved a crusader I brought to open a back door. He seized his chance and flew the swoop all the way to my starting area and SBM'd twice to pull Jaster out to where he could kill him with his 2 GASG. That was pretty much game. He didn't do anything else until the very end as I was charging and really putting the threat on him, nearly making up the point difference. He killed one of my scouts with a FP rerolled crit from Jaq as the nail in the coffin.

Congrats to Jake K - let his Caedus squad be feared.


Lots of lessons on the day:

1. LOS are hard to determine on a lot of maps - be extra careful on both sides of every shot to make sure it's legit.

2. The lines on these maps leave a lot to be desired. Not to mention the numerous mistakes on lines on the maps (cantina - even after the downloadable corrections still has multiple, and cliffside citadels multiple ones as well) - but simulation decks micro lines are so hard to see it takes twice as long to do anything on that map. I really want to take a big bold sharpie and re-line the whole thing. The yellow lined squares are the worst.

3. It is hard to get 3 point victories. I had more than anyone that day with 2 in Swiss and a third vs Deri in the semis, and the one vs Lilian could have easily not been a 3 ptr if not for the LOS mistake. Otherwise there were only 3 more 3pt victories all day long (not counting byes), 1 each by Jake, Deri and Gerry. As it turned out - all you needed was a 3 pt win and you make the finals (granted the small turnout effects that). 19 games, 6 full wins.

4. Guns are the best way to go with Caedus. Man I would have smoked a melee Caedus squad.

5.. We really have a great group here. It was great to see Lily playing here in Chicago again (and as always awesome to see those amazing sculpts! Thanks again for the prize support help!) Great to see Bill and Jacob (who I met in Missouri last year) again, and great that Bill could come out to Chicago again and Jacob lives here now! It was awesome meeting Troy for the first time, what a fun guy. SO awesome seeing such an enthusiastic NEW minis player. Great to have Shawn come down from WI again this year (Even if he did school us in TILE WARS), and hang with us Fri night. Gerry is always a blast, and it was super cool to have him come in from New York, hang out Fri night AND Sat night (Everyone else missed out on some killer Pizza and Beer!) As always - great to have my two most frequent opponents and great friends Deri and Jake there. Even better to have them both in the final 4 with me. Thanks for all the help everyone gave - Deri and Jake for judging and helping run the software, Deri's wife Lydia who hooked us up with a deal for Jimmy Johns party subs for lunch, Jake and Lily for donating awesome prize support, and everyone for coming down and having a good time.

I really feel like this was just an awesome day (weekend for that matter). It was about hanging out with friends old and new, playing the game we love. There was no question of if we would play the finals, of course we would - it would be to fun not to. That's what it all boiled down to - we all love the game, and we just want to play it. And it's really fun!