Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 4,729
Location: Chicago
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Wow what a day.
I came into the day thinking I was playing a tier 1.5 squad. Good, but not the best. I had actually playtested this squad and had been itching to play it in a tournament once it was legal. As I played throughout the day I was more and more impressed with the squads versatility.
--Presenting: (The now not so crappy old) Kyle Katarn!--
48 Luke Skywalker, Galactic Hero
31 Kyle Katarn
29 Ganner Rhysode
27 Lobot
22 R2-D2 and C-3PO, Galactic Heroes
18 Jan Ors
12 Gha Nachkt
9 General Dodonna
4 Mouse Droid x2
(200pts. 10 activations)
It has a surprising amount of power and mobility, and tons of synergy. The +16 attack greater mobile twin from Kyle is like having an accurate shooting Cad Bane (but has the same attack for non-uniques.) And he hits harder adjacent. And he has more HP and Def (but no evade.)
Anyway - everyone loved Luke GH on paper when he came out, but have been under-impressed when they try and use him. He is a well made piece - he's got great stuff he can do, but he's not a brick. I think people use him as a brick, try and throw him in the mix and he gets wasted quick. He's a finesse piece, and he was so key to this squad.
I was trying to think of who the MVP of the squad was, and it's so hard to pick. The whole thing synergizes so well. We don't even have to mention Dodonna - we all know he's one of the best pieces in the game. Lobot was HUGE in some of the matchups. His customization allowed me to bring in an MTB vs Thrawn (FU master tactician!), 2 R7s vs double lancer, Figrin D'an vs Malgus, etc. That last little bit of tech allowed me to win each game where I would not have if I tried to build any one of those into the squad without Lobot. I know a lot of people are playing this build with Lowbacca. Obviously that's more bodyguard meat, another potential 60 damage greater mobile attacker, and greater door control. But I feel like the squad customization and potential for greater activations that Gha and Lobot bring were more of a benefit. Of course Kyle did most of the damage - but he is boosted in big ways by 3 figures. Lose Jan, the R2PO or Luke and his usefulness is greatly diminished. You have to be so careful not to lose Jan - she is the lynchpin of the squad - giving double attack, distraction AND opportunist to Kyle. The amazing thing is that she can do 80 damage herself! The droids give twin to BOTH Jan and Kyle, not to mention having disruptive and bodyguard. (And I can't tell you how many people told me later that they assumed they had override). Luke allows Kyle GMA which really extends his threat range, but is also so useful on his own. Most people don't understand his lightsaber throw. Yes, it replaces turn - but there is no range, - just LoS, AND it ignores cover, AND you hit everyone adjacent too. And if you do it just right and have exactly 1 enemy within 6 - it's a twin on everyone. Which leads us to Ganner (yes Gerry - Ganner). The whole squad kinda would suck without him. Ganner getting Luke into position for his LS throws, moving Kyle and Jan around for big opportunist twins, pulling one of your characters out of danger from a big threat is the obvious main uses for him. Surprisingly his push came in huge as well - after having Luke or Kyle SBMd or FYD'd into Malgus - I could just push him away. Once in awhile he'd attack too, and with GMA he's not half bad at that even.
This team plays REALLY well on my map (Command Deck). So many fricking doors to play with, and tons of LoS when you get them opened.
Anyway - fun squad. I think it would struggle if it were out-activated, but luckily that never happened. (You can get up to 20 with Dodonna - certainly nothing to sneer at)
So - my games:
Round 1 vs Mike G (Boss Nass, 9? Gungan Artillerists, Panaka, R2, Tarpals, etc).
This is one of those match-ups where it will never be a 3 point win either way (unless of course someone plays very POORLY, and just runs out into the open to be killed quickly.) Bombad general means even my stealth guys aren't safe. Mike won map roll and we played on asteroid base. I brought an MTB and 6 mice. He made 4 out of his first 5 gungan-comming-back-to-life via Boss Nass saves, which really hurt. I was starting to whiddle down my own activations via MTB, and he had so many - even with Dodanna we were nearly ending the round at the same time. Not good for me. Had the chance to kill Panaka with Kyle, but I missed 1 out of the 4 shots, and left him with 10hp left. I won init with the MTB, and didn't go first with Kyle to most likely kill Panaka (I guess I was hoping to use Kyle's oppotunist and not waste ihim at the top of a round.) Mike took that advantage and ran him to safety. After continually attacking where I could, and gungans finally started STAYING dead, I started to pull ahead. But he kept threatening. There is so few places to safely hide on that map without being totally in the back, and with panaka he has great range. He did a great move bombad targeting Luke. Then a ran him to what I thought was a safe nook, but with a swap he was able to double cesta him and the 3 characters adjacent (again - few places to hide). Both Luke and Kyle were nearly dead - but I was able to keep them alive to eek out a 2pt win. Side note - if memory serves I think Mike asked if Jan had stealth, and I said no. Lol, she does (man is she stacked!) . . . (I meant with abilities) Didn't figure that out until round 3 or 4.
1-0, 2pts
Round 2 vs Randy (GA Thrawn, 3 Storm Commandos, Holo-Veers, 2 scouts, Moff Nyna, Imp Dignitary).
Ugh, super-stealth. My accurate is useless. Well, until I bring up disruptive, but I didn't realize that until halfway through. We played on his map (Rhen Var) and worked our way to the center. He blasted me early with fire support mission (kinda unavoidable on his map unless I wanted to take 4 turns to reach the center), but I made all my saves so no big deal. I work it so I am able to make a big LS throw with ataru from Luke, (dispite how it was misplayed in other regionals this year, you CAN LS throw into a force immunity bubble). I had disrupted 2 commandos to get their shields away, but once I killed the target that was granting ataru, twin and +4 went away, and I couldn't kill the other commando and I missed on Weir. I then had to scramble to try and finish him off with Kyle, but I miss one and can't reroll (bubble). He gets a few shots in and I am once again scrambling. He then does a fire support mission on Lobot (who of course fails the save) and he dies. I overextend to kill Weir, and then try and run my Kyle back to safety with 10 hp left. I move the droids with 10 hp left to bodyguard him. Randy pulls a really slick move to swap in a trooper with fire support mission and kills the droids and kyle regardless of save. I am able to finish off his last commando and his scouts as I am running out of scrubs to sacrifice to the MTB. I race to kill his last figure (thrawn) as I have to give dodonna to the MTB. I finish with just a few figures left, mostly killed by my own MTB. Phew!
2-0, 5pts
Next was Les running double Lancer. Yikes! He had Muunilinst and I had Command Deck. I at first I thought I only had a chance if I won map roll. I won map roll. As we played I realized that on my map it is a near auto win for me with this matchup. I out-activate, I have accurate, I have LS throw 3 (ignores cover and hits adjacent), I have disruptive and distraction x2, and I have up to triple override (which I brought). There are so many doors, the best Les could do was open a door and get a lancer through (not lancer + pawn in a phase). Easy to counter. At most he kills a few scrubs and I kill the lancer. I like that trade. Much less that I can out-activate, open many doors, get a long LoS and kill one before it does anything, then lock again. I got a nasty LS throw 3 killing his uggie and Lobot and putting damage on his lancer. I killed another lancer, and when I finished off his second lancer he called the match (slightly less than 30 min in). I at first thought I wouldn't have had a chance on his map - but after playing this match I realize I have more tricks to deal with a strafe than I thought. I think it would have been a tough close match on his map, but on my map it was just impossible for him.
3-0, 8pts
Round 4 vs Bronson (Malgus, Caedus, Vergere, Squib trader, R7).
He brought Bothan Spynet and won map roll. I took left side and realized what a bottleneck his side creates, which is to his squads advantage. It was ruled that Face Your Destiny can be be effected by draw fire - so I brought in Figrin Dan and wicket. Wicket had a nice little spot around the corner from his large room's entrance, but got lightning'd quick when I stupidly stuck a mouse next to him. I was able to get a nasty Ataru boosted LS throw or 2 on Malgus and Caedus (didn't get the ataru bonus on Caedus due to Makashi), but it helped to put damage on him. Malgus was lined up to kill Luke, but Fig came up big, and not for drawing fire on Face Your Destiny like I was expecting, but for drawing fire on Malgus' regular attacks against Luke. Kept Luke alive. Long story short he played a little loose and fast and I rolled hot while his saves sucked, and I actually killed Malgus. As I closed in for the kill on Caedus and Vergere, he did manage to force sever ganner, which sucked. But at that point it didn't matter too much as I killed her shortly after and then threw everything at Caedus to finish him off and get a 3pt win.
4-0, 11pts.
On to the finals . . .
Semi Finals vs Les again
Same story really. I won map roll and it was downhill from there for him. There is such a sick number of doors on that map. I would like to play this match-up on his map at some point. Then it's a legit game.
Finals vs Bronson again
This game played out very differently from our first. I won map roll but chose his map. I think I realized his strategy and I felt it actually benefitted me to be on his map. My map - though having tons of doors, also has a lot of pits. Not good vs Caedus. He chose the side I had last time, which I hoped he would do. My strategy was simple - get to gambit right away and hold it for the whole game. Force him out of his big room. This time I brought Fig, an R7 and a mouse. I set up poorly, (I should have set up to put Gha in the turbolift (with a leviation from Ganner) and LOCK it, but I couldn't quite get there. So he sat outside, but still in gambit. My overriders were not in a position to get LoS on that door - so my strategy couldn't work until round 3. In round two he did exactly what he planned and did Face Your Destiny on Gha and I couldn't prevent it. Crap! Now who could be in gambit? Dodonna! I outactivated so heavily, I didn't really need him. This time I was able to get him in there and lock it, and my sluggers were getting up there too to cause trouble. I was able to pick off his R7, so to open the door he would need someone big to blow it (via the squib trader), and then I'd have a whole squad to attack it. I did advance into his realm to get a nasty Ataru LS throw on Vergere and Caedus, and was able to finish off Vergere with Kyle. That left Luke kinda screwed, and this time Fig's draw fire didn't cut it. He finished off Luke and retreated a nearly dead Caedus as I followed in pursuit as the game ended. When we tallied up the score I had 7 rounds of gambit + Vergere dead (65 pts) and he had Gha and Luke dead + 1 round of gambit. Tie score, and good old Dodonna was closest to the center. Bronson did not know this was the tie-breaker and I was declared the winner. Neither of us liked it that much, but it was what it was. Just for curiosities' sake I played out what would have happened if he would have advanced Caedus to gambit, and I rolled the dice to see that I would have killed him at that point. To my relief I later realized I never counted his dead R7 in my points, so actual final score was 73-65. Really it came down to 7 rounds of gambit vs 1. My holding of the center won me the Kokomo regional title for the 4th straight year.
Thanks again to Les and Bryan for running the event. I had a blast as always. It was great to see a few new players there!
Lessons learned about keeping very close track of gambit and other kill points. It can make a HUGE difference.
Also - even though it technically wasn't a tie score like we thought it was - we need to get the word out to everyone what the tie-breaking procedures are.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/12/2010
Posts: 564
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Finally found some time to do a write up on my experience...
So I usually attend multiple regionals each season. I had targeted Atlanta, NC, Michigan, and Kokomo. The trouble all started for me this year with the Michigan tournament, I rode with a friend up to Michigan, and just along the border of Mich, his engine blew out, we had to sell his car for scrap, and take a bus back to TN. I was forced to leave my minis and maps in Kokomo because I had way too much to take back on the bus. Then when ATL rolled around, my band was booked to play at the Hard Rock in Nashville. NC my band had a lot going on after Hard Rock, so when Kokomo came around. I had to clear my schedule because I had to get my minis, and I had to attend at least one regional this season.
I waited around on my friend Richard (Shmi15) till about 10pm on Friday night, he was going to ride up and play Kokomo as well, but last minute was not able to attend due to his job working construction. So I took off at 10, and made the long trek up to Kokomo. I fell asleep on the road just outside of Kokomo, smacked a construction barrel. I arrived at the game shop an hour before they opened up. I went inside, loaded up most of my minis in my car. I had never been so happy to see my minis.
I pulled my pieces to make my squad, and did my best to keep my energy up for the start of the tournament.
Once everyone started showing up, it wasn't so bad. I told a couple guys who asked what I was running, that I was running Diplomat Vong with Spit Poison. Because I always say I'm running some kind of bull crap when I'm asked. Usually it involves a Republic build. But I like to switch it up from time to time.
Anyways, I ran Red & Black (Caedus, Malgus, Vergere, r7, Ragnos FS, Squib Trader, recruit x2) the most non traditional squad ever. No Lobot, all melee, 8 acts, no act control. The squad is really deceptive, which is what I love about it. Very sith like.
My first match was against Andrew Wurdeman, he was fairly new to the game, and running Mace Windu/Rex/Panaka. From what I could understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, but he had been learning how to play from Les. I think Les helped him put his squad together as well. Andrew was super nice, and very interested in learning all he could about the game. I gave him some pointers throughout the game. He did very well being as new to the game as he was. I won map, I was running Bothan Spynet. He took right, I took left. First round we positioned. I ran my squad close to gambit, hoping to lure him into swapping Mace in early. I led with Caedus to Makashi his attacks. I figure with my 2 recruits I have a good chance with Caedus. 2nd round, Andrew swaps in and makes his attacks on Caedus, and wow was my luck ever crap. I think he rolled like 2 crits on Caedus, and I failed every possible save imaginable, and he passed a Master Illusion save even. Destroyed Caedus. I'm sitting there thinking, wow. Owned in the first round. Horrible luck. But I've practiced for Mace so I don't sweat it. I zap hip with Malgus to put him at 120, and then I move adjacent. He starts trying to move Rex close to shoot me. I win init, and SR and do 120 to Mace, he Riposte's two of my attacks, lands a crit, and does a total of 100 dmg to me, because I can't hit a Crab save, to save my life. At least I know I've won the game at this point because Rex will never kill Malgus. And that was never more clear than in this game.
He brought Rex in and started shooting. I thiink altogether, Rex probably shot Malgus upwards of 16 times, and failed to do anything to him. I think he was able to sneak 30 through, before Vergere healed him up 20. This is before Malgus through FYD on him and killed him.
It was a fun game, and Andrew was a very nice guy. I hope he sticks with the game and keeps playing. But yeah, he had some crazy luck going his way with Mace and all those crits.
Next up, I get Lou, keep in mind, I am not looking forward to this match because Lou is also running Red & Black. I didn't ever practice for facing someone running red & black because TN created the squad, but we did so before Michigan, the squad had not really caught fire yet. Anyways, wasn't counting on someone running it. Especially not a Hall of Famer. Lou wins map, we play on Ice Citadel. I take right, and set up first, he takes left. We both head towards the center of the map, it takes us two rounds to get there, which go by really fast because I only have 8, and I think he has 10. Round 3 the fighting is on. He tries using his Vergere to snap my FP on Caedus, to which I Flow Walk, and attack Vergere, and then use my normal turn to kill him. He attacks my Caedus which I'm able to make some Makashi saves, I send my Malgus at his Caedus and send 40 through. I base his Caedus with my Vergere, so I make things interesting, he has to either deal with Vergere or deal with Malgus. He Flow Walks, does 60, activates, gains 2fp, attacks, kills Vergere, and battle manipulates. I respond by Battle Manipulating Malgus adjacent to his Caedus and attacking. After Flow Walking, and Manipulating his Caedus is low on FP which works for me, I send enough dmg through to kill his Caedus. He attacks my Caedus with his Malgus. Next init he wins, I don't flow walk, he attacks, takes my Caedus low on HP, I Master Illusion and keep myself alive. But I'm close to death here. I base him with my Malgus and attack sending 40. Re roll init again, and I win, he says something about Caedus dying here, which is completely possible since he has lightning that will drop him. I make it as hard as possible, I attack do 60dmg. I take my normal turn, and run Caedus 12. He can still get to Caedus, but only with his Lightning, and only by giving Malgus an AoO, which he does, Malgus drops another 40. so I've done 140dmg, or something close to that, I don't remember the exact number due to his Crab saves. I know he doesn't have much HP left. He kills my Caedus with a lightning burst. I run after him and return the favor and send some lightning his way that kills him. I breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn't ready for a mirror match. Not against a HoF'er. Lou was a great opponent, had a lot of fun playing him. I had a good idea that I would play Lou again in the top 4 due to the squad he was running, and so I took comfort in the fact that during the game I developed a way to attack it.
So we break for lunch, I'm 2-0, 6 points. I crawl underneath a nearby table, and sleep. I wake up as everyone is getting back and see Tim standing above me. I quickly made my way to the bathroom to make sure there was nothing written on my forehead haha.
Third round, I get another Hall of Famer, Jason Kiernan, who is running Solo Charge. I get map roll, he takes left, I get right. First round we position. Now, I have faced Solo Charge a million times over, Trevor Cook in my play group ran that squad into the ground when Wizards was still running things. So if there is one squad I know how to attack it's Solo Charge. Infact in Competitive play, I've never lost to Solo Charge. (THANKS TREVOR!)
So I know, Jason is going to send Mara in to do as much DMG as he can with her. And she has to attack first to be useful. Especially on my squad. He sends her in on Caedus. I master illusion her last two attacks, I take only 60 from her. I act two, I act Caedus, and attack her back, I then battle manipulate Vergere adjacent, and sever her force. No more Lightsaber Assault. I don't really remember what he does after this, I know that I send Malgus on my next act and throw FYD on Ganner and Han, he can only protect one of them now, and it can't be Han, so he shuts and locks a door to keep Ganner safe, Han is forced to base Malgus which means Lights out for Han, he is able to attack with Han but I don't think he does anything to Malgus, if he does it's nothing significant. We roll init again, I win, flow walk, do 60 to Mara, normal turn I use Malgus and kill Han. He attacks with Mara, hits one, misses one. I kill his Mara off. Caedus is low on HP, which he levitates Ani solo in who Unleashes the Force. I don't remember how exactly, but I know he ends up killing Caedus, he does only 10 to Malgus with Unleash The Force, and 30 to Vergere. But after this, Jason uses Ani and Ganner to FP Malgus around. It's slow and methodical work from here but Malgus kills them both. I wish I could give more details, but I've done some sleeping since then and the details are all a little hazy. I just know it came down to Ani and Ganner Force Pushing Malgus around, and him aborbing ungodly amounts of dmg with Crab/Dark, and slowly killing them. Jason was a great opponent, had a lot of fun playing against him. It was an interesting match for sure, all Wizards vs all Vset, well except for the R7, but when Vsets makes something where we can replace the r7, he is gone too.
Next up was Tim. Now heading into this match, I'm 3-0, nine points, tied for first, or I'm in first. I know I'm in the top four already, and I know Tim is in the top four, regardless of the outcome. I don't want to play Tim, because I don't want him to know anything about my squad. I don't want to beat him, then him have some time to think about how to attack it, what to do differently. I did the same thing to my friend David Weeks one year in Kentucky, we played in the 4th round, he beat me, and as we talked after the match he told me all the tricks to his squad, so when we faced round 1 in the final four, I knew just what to do, and so I took him out. I didn't want Tim gaining anything out of a match that meant nothing. So I threw it. I played ridiculously. But at the same time I tried not to show it. First of all if I could get Tim to think my squad wasn't a problem and that he could handle it, job well done. Or if I could get him to think I wasn't that skilled, awesome. Because then he isn't thinking about it. That's how I wanted it. Also I know there was a lot of fuss caused over Tim throwing a match the year before, so I wasn't sure what the protocol was so I just tried making it believable. The crazy thing was, I had a chance at winning. But I didn't Tim did, we moved on to the final 4.
Final 4, I get Lou in the first round. But I'm ready this time. He wins map, it's the same match as before. Lou employs the same tactics and leads with Vergere, I take what he gives me and kill Vergere. This time however, instead of sending my Vergere on Caedus, who has no chance at all of snapping Caedus FP's, I send Vergere in on Malgus, and snap his connection to the force. Goodbye 10fp's, goodbye connection to the Ragnos FS. It's game at this point, but we play it out. I drop Caedus and Malgus no problem this time. Vergere is so good. Sneaky good. I can't remember if he ended up getting my Caedus or not. I'm pretty sure he killed my Vergere. I think both Caedus and Malgus were alive however at the end of the game. Lou was running Red & Black for the first time at this tournament, and made top 4. Once again, Lou was awesome, enjoyed playing him. Great opponent.
Finals, me vs Tim. So we saw each other again in the finals. I was hoping to play Lancer in the finals, but I got Tim, he won map, but chose mine, because his had a lot of pits, and he didn't want Caedus throwing his stuff in Pits. So I take right side, he takes left. I played conservative, because I wanted to give him as little as possible. He captured Gambit, round 1. Beginning of Round 2, I FYD Gha, and force Gha to have to base Malgus. So I go up on Gambit early on. We go back and forth in our chess match. He ends up getting my Vergere. I take down his Luke. Tim has controlled Gambit for the game however, and that is something that I had not done a lot of. At the end of time, we add it up and it's 65, 65. A tie. I have a full hp Malgus, Caedus with 50 or 60hp and 3fp. but he has the biggest piece closest to the middle, and wins...
Or so we thought, Instant Replay would reveal that he had killed my R7 earlier on and won via 8 points which I much rather prefered over a Tie. To quote Billy Bob Thorton in Bad News Bears, "A tie is a lot like kissing your sister."
So congrats to Tim, he deserved it. He played against Red & Black as well as anyone possibly could.
I ended up getting the Head Hunter award, and 2nd place. Got a sweet ATAT Fat Head, couple cool trophies courtesy of Eric Larson. Had a lot of fun, got to see a lot of friends that I rarely get to see. And got to play a lot of Star Wars Miniatures. Thank you so much Les and all the guys who did the Kokomo regional, it was a lot of fun. Even if I was close to a zombie for the entire tournament. Next up Tennessee, after that Gencon!
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