Leading up to the regional I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to play. Chicago has traditionally been the most techy regional with many of the players working up all kinds of neat tech that if you aren't prepared just shuts you down, so I knew I wanted something that didn't really care about tech. I didn't want to have to really worry about MTB tricks or door control problems. I started tinkering with New Han, but couldn't come up with anything better than Gerry had which I had played at Frosty in the next day fun stuff, and I didn't think it was quite there.

That led me to remember I had played something similar to what I played way back when Krayt first came out. The problem I had then was that there was too much force absorb in the meta then (MAce and Corran) and I also tried to do something other than focus on just the transfer by trying to add some other hitters. Even the night before the tourney, I was agonizing over whether include a Klat assassin. At the last moment I decided that I would never really be shooting with it anyway (and the damage it would do would be pretty minor compared to what adding 4 more transfer targets would let me do). This led to the following squad

Load of Krayt
Krayt
Exar FS
Marka FS
Freedon FS
Swoop bike
7x rodians
2x ugos
Sith Recruit
mouse droid (for the one or two occasions I actually was able to use Exar's CE and use his FP)

I didn't think the squad was all that good (and Laura agreed), but I decided to play it anyway because I remember it being fun to play and because it simply does not care what tech the opponent might have as the ghosts can get pretty much anywhere. I figured if I could win a game or two, get "the trick" off (transferring to a ghost) a time or two, that it would be a good day with the great people I knew would be coming out to the regional.

Boy, was I wrong

Rd 1 against James and his mobile force push 2.0
I won map and we were on Rhen Var (which I chose because it takes the longest to get across, so I would have longer before my opp was in Krayts face). He positioned pretty well, so when I transferred in to kill Luke, I was close to a pit. He tried to push me in, but I made the save. If I fail it, the game ends right there (as there is something like 156 pts tied up in Krayt). Anyway, I keep running the ghosts around, transferring, killing stuff, and learning how to play the squad better. James does get to 100 so gets his 1 pt. 1-0 3pts

Rd 2 against Gerry and his NR Kyle/Jan/Han/Wedge/R2P0 build
We both had the rhen var so that is where we battled. Gerry made 1 mistake early, not computing that the swoop had SPEED 12 (which would allow it to move 24 on a double move). This let me swoop in and transfer to take out Han in rd 2. Then after init, I moved a ghost next to kyle, transferred in, raged and dropped him like a load of Krayt, and Gerry extended his hand as his two big guns were done and there wasn't much he could do against an uninjured Krayt. 3-0 6pts

Rd 3 against Lou and his OR beef
Won map again so once more on rhen var. This was tough as Lou had plenty of FP so if I got the ghosts too close, he could try and kill them. Lots and lots of death and destruction later plus a couple key missed attacks by Lou, a lost init by Lou, and a failed LS defense for death and I escaped with a 10HP Krayt and a win. 3-0 9 pts

Rd 4 against Lillian and her Commando Droid squad.
Once again I won map and Rhen var it was. This game I struck deep early to take out San and Poggle, while Lillian was sitting in gambit with her spotter and chasing me all over with the commando droids. I managed to kill a couple of the Commando Droids, but at the end of time she had Krayt almost dead and was well ahead on pts. 3-1 10 pts

At this time we handed out prizes (where I got a really cool squad bag made by the Pulis's) so that anyone who needed to get on the road could go and the top 4 was announced, Lillian, myself, Deri, and Bryan.

Top 4 against Deri and his New Han/Wedge/Leia for rerolls/Chewie/Ganner build
Once again on Rhen VAr. My game against Deri was a brainbuster as are most games against Deri. I outactivated him, so got in early and with a rage (leaving Krayt stuck for second), did 30 to chewie and killed a couple of scrubs to try and keep the acts evenish. I won the next init (very key), which let me finish Chewie off and get out of dodge. We played some back and forth for a round until I got the opportunity to strike and transferred in and out and took care of Han. Between Deri killing dudes and myself eating dudes, and Deri finally killing one of the two remaining ghosts, it was getting pretty tight. Finally got in and killed more dudes and started duking it out in the gambit area. He kept pushing with Ganner and trying to stay away and spread the damage. Finally, he made his mistake and left Ganner within 8, so when I won init, I ran 8 and RAged to do the last 40 to him. One more round of Gambit after that covered Leia and Wedge still on the board with Krayt very nearly dead. On to the finals

In the other semi, Lillian had shot up Bryans purple dudes so it looked to be a rematch.

Finals rematch against Lillian
One of the more epic games I have ever played. I won map again, but didn't really think I could win on my map so chose her map (Cloud City). She chose the outside which confused me, but after the first round, I realized why. I thought I had moved some guys up safely to secure gambit in round 1 (wasn't going to make the mistake of falling behind again like in our first match), and she proceeded to get one of her droids up there, through the door and kill it (and about 2 or three of my Rodians as well) ans secure gambit for herself. At this point, I thought I was in deep, deep trouble. I traded Exar and an ugo for one commando droid, did a sweet move with the Recruit where I transferred in then raged to take out the spotter (who was manning gambit). Then traded two more rodians (and a bunch of damage for the second Commando droid). Then I spent a round healing up. This left the game state as me with 2 ghosts, Krayt (with 60 still on him) and an ugo and the mouse, and Lillian with 3 commando droids, a few bombs left as well as some mice, her commanders, and her felucian (who had tried and failed to kill a force ghost). Next round, I found a spot adjacent to two of the remaining three, transferred in and Raged to kill one and do 40 to the other so if it moved away I could rage and kill it. She pounded shot after shot at me, and got me down to 20 left again with shots, and free shots, etc. I won the next init and finished off the 4th droid knowing that she would have a very good chance of getting the last damage through. First roll was an 18, made my armor save and still alive with 10 left. Next roll was a 17 which was plenty to finish off Krayt!!! Or was it? We both momentarily forgot that with the 4th one dead, there wasn't one giving the last one fire control, so the shot was actually a miss. Of course, I won the next init as well and used Freedon's FP to heal up to a safer level. Lillian started moving back toward gambit with her droid while shooting away. It took a round or two for me to finally be able to get the ghost there so I could take out the final droid, working on mice and bombs and such on the way. Once the final droid was down, the game was effectively over, although I did get very low again as the few remaining bombs and a crit by San hill made things interesting. Finally won on points after killing San and Gha (and maybe poggle). One crazy brainbuster of a game, especially after Lillian showed my the power of her squad on her map with her initial onslaught.

In wrapping up, the squad is very much a one trick pony and I would say tier two at best, but was perfect for this meta. It doesn't really care about tech. Doesn't really care if you outactivate it by a million since the swoop has a huge range, and the ghosts are almost umkillable by the squads that tend to be super high in acts. It doesn't care about doors as again the ghosts don't care. It does have quite a few weaknesses though that it avoided in chicago. People that actually have melee defense of some sort (parry, makashi, SSM, block, LS Defense, etc) give it fits as it only has so many hit and run attacks before it has to stand toe to toe (which it really can't do). Force Absorb can be a problem as if Krayt gets stuck somewhere he isn't really mobile on his own and can die a spectacular death. Ysilimiri can be tough as well as he can't go in and out like he wants.

What did Lillian do from the outside on Cloud City that she couldn't have done from the inside? I didn't quite follow that part.

I think Jason didn't anticipate the LOS from the Visitor's Center area. He adapted quickly, though.