In just 24 hours time, 20-25 combatants will be in the process of registering their squads for New Zealand's Second Nation SWM Tournament! To be held at Wellington's Pulsar Max - a store which has been a massive supporter of the game since the early days and continues to be so now - and to be bringing in players from Auckland, Napier, Hamtiltron, Taranaki, Lower Hutt, Wellington and even the rumoured appearance of some South Islanders!

The competition will be fierce as it will feature all of the current Save11 Champs: Bev (HamilCon and Hawera Regional), Dave/Dr. Daman (Save11 Vassal and LowerHuttaCon), Mike/RandomMike (Lower Hutt Regional), Tim (US Vassal Regional) and - of course - Graham/theHutts (HaweraCon and CURRENT NZ CHAMPION)! Bring it on...

Valar Dohaeris

Okay... so, over the next few days, all the info regarding the Second New Zealand Star Wars Miniatures Tournament will come available. I'll have a write-up of the event, some fun things that happened, stats, play reports... but let's kick this off with what y'all want - and that is squads!

In order of placing, from top to bottom:

First Place – 3-2/9pts – beat Tim/MiniTankHT in the Semi and kezzamachine in the Final
Dave/Dr Daman
“Strike the Right Corde”
Imperial - Jabba’s Palace
Cad Bane
Thrawn
Morrigan Corde
Lobot
Pellaeon
Ozzel
Mas
Uggie
4x Rodians
2x Mousies

2nd – 4-1/9pts – beat Aaron/Sharron in the Semi
thekezzamachine
“For Jim”
Yuuzhan Vong – Theed Palace
Celeste
Zam BH
Lobot
6x Chazrachs
3x Uggies
3x Mousies

3rd – 5-0/15pts – but lost in the Semis to Dave/Daman
Tim/MiniTankHT
”Bang Bang You’re Dead”
Mandalorian – Nightclub
Vindicated
Kelborn
Fenn Shysa
Mando Captain
2x Scouts
DW Saboteur
R7 Astromech
Uggie
Mousie

4th – 4-1/11pts – lost in the Semis to kezzamachine
Aaron/Sharron
“Spanish Inquisition”
Old Republic – Asteroid Base
Revan SL
Satele
Bastilla
Jedi Crusader
Lobot
Caamasi
OR Rookie
2x Mousies
Uggie

5th – 3-2/9pts
Graham/theHutts
“Roll the Bones”
Republic – Bothan Spynet
Mon Mothma
Panaka of Theed
R2 Astromech
Yularen
Queen Amidala
8x Naboo Pilots
Rodian Diplomat
Mas
2x Spaarti’s

6th – 3-2/8pts
Mike
“Don’t Stop, Asajj”
Separatist – Rhen Var
Celeste
Asajj, Sep Assassin
Lobot
Malakili
Watto
San Hill
Poggle
Uggie
13x Drones

7th – 3-2/8pts
Paul
“Mine Goes 2 11”
Sith – Cantina
Caedus, SL
Exar FS
Zannah
Raggie (Ragnos) FS
Vergere
R7 Astromech
2x Caamasis
3x Sith Recruits
2x Uggies

8th – 3-2/7pts
Bev
“Poggle’s Pirates”
Separatist – Jabba’s Palace
Cad Bane, BH
Hondo Ohnaka
Aurra Assassin
Lobot
R7 Astromech
San Hill
MTB
Poggle
7x Drones
2x Uggies
2x Mousies

9th – 2-3/7pts
Rich/Darth Rattlehead
“Tow-bi’s Evazam”
Republic – Peaceful City
GOWK
R2 Astromech
Lobot
Dash
Zam
Tarpals
Evazan

10th – 3-2/6pts
Oli/Darth O/OhMyGOWK
“My Totally Original Idea”
Republic – Grand Plaza
Yoda on Kybuck
General Skywalker
Dash
Lobot
Panaka
R2 Astromech
Mas
Granma Raider
Uggie

11th – 2-3/6pts
Ian
“Mandos Are Go”
Mandalorian – Peaceful City
Vindicated
Kelborn
Fenn Shysa
DW Saboteur
Mando Scientist
2x Scouts
Lobot

12th – 2-3/6pts
Hayden/Hayden_Solo
“Hayden_Solo”
Separatist – Ruined Base
Cad Bane, BH
Grievous, HOH
Aurra, Assassin
Hondo Ohnaka
Poggle
2x R7 Astromech
11x Drones

13th – 2-3/5pts
Glyn
“Cad ‘n’ Co (and Flo)”
Republic – Cloud City
FlObi-Wan, Jedi General
Cad Bane
Rex
Czerka Scientist
R2 Astromech
Mas
2x Spaartis
Rodian Diplomat

14th – 1-4/5pts
John-Paul
“Lukerade”
New Republic – Asteroid Base
Luke Skywalker, MotO
Han Solo, Rebel General
Leia, Jedi Knight
Jaina Solo
3x Uggies
Mousie

15th – 1-4/3pts
Henko
“Free Cookies”
Yuuzhan Vong – Cliffside Citadel
Warmaster Nas Choka
Nen Yim
De’gara
Yammosk
3x Praetorite Vong Warrior

16th – 1-4/3pts
Derek
[i„Walking Carpet“
Republic – Rancor Pit[/i]
Chief Tarfful
Merumeru
Yularen
Lobot, CLO
4x Elite Wookie Commando
4x Uggies

17th – 1-2/2pts
Alan/d0bb0
“Barry’s Interlopers”
New Republic – Asteroid Base
Corran, JM
Luke, GH
Ganner
Jarael
Marn Hierogryph
Dodonna
3x Uggies

An awesome tournament! Congratulations to Dave on the win, and to Kez for 2nd place and just being able to play. Celeste breaks into the finals of a major tournament! (Thanks Kez, for the tip of the hat on the name selection.)

Congrats to Dave and all the competitors! It warms my heart to see that many competitors.

Tim looks like he dominated Swiss with authority, I'd be interested to hear what changed in the semi-finals.


Great squads - I wish some of you guys could make it out to GenCon - I'd love to compete with some of the best players in the world that I haven't had the privilege of playing.

Judging!
Score: 5/5
Well, trying not to sound all "if I do say so myself" but I think the judging went really well. Initially I had wanted to be the sole judge/TO as I did last year. My reasoning was that this, being the Top of all our NZ Tournaments, needed to be seen as such. If we're gonna have a national championship, we have to take it seriously. The downside is that I miss out and watching 5 rounds is not as much fun as it could be... but then the discussions on the SHNN over the last few weeks (especially the episode featuring Tim from Miniverse) got me thinking about the 3 judge system. I decided late in the piece to play and figured I'd bring a more fun squad so I could concentrate on being able to leave games if I needed. (More on my squad later...) I asked Mike and Aaron to be the other judges and between the three of us we were able to look over things fairly smoothly. We didn't appear to have any slow-play issues (nothing was brought up) so, on the whole, I think everything ran smoothly.

Attendance
Score: 3/5
I had set the bar high in terms of who we'd get there. Last year was 19 players and, after getting 18 to the Lower Hutt Tournament, I figured 20 was easily attainable. I had even loosely targeted 25 and, by some early estimates, that was where we looked to be heading. However, a few key pullouts in the week leading up to it (and a major earthquake!) led to numbers dropping quite a bit. 17, however, was significant enough so we could play 5 rounds and have a fairly strong field...

Strength of Field
Score: 5/5
...which is what we got. If you (prior to the Tournament) picked our Top 6 players (which is what theHutts did on the SHNN last week), they were all there... in fact, they all placed in the Top 8! A coupl'a weeks before the big day, we lost Bob/kfcswaitingforyou from Hawera (clash of dates) and, after the earthquake, we lost Hawera-Dave/doug*platapus. While although not in that Top 6, they're still significant players and that was a shame to not have them there, both as a quality of competition point-of-view and because they're mates of ours! They're both from Hawera so the Hawera team was a bit down this time.

But, as I said, the field was still very strong. The Top 6 all played strong and were all rewarded by making the Top half of the draw. It's great that there were no easy games on the top tables.

I think the top 12 is really solid, and mostly comparable to what's been seen in Regionals in the states - Sharron's OR squad is unusual, Mike bought Assaj back into the mainstream, and noone's really done well with Chazrachs in a major tournament before as far as I know, but those top 12 squads are all using efficient synergies and good balances of tech/power. As your Chazrach swarm showed, it's possible to do well with slightly unconventional piece selection - the shortfalls with the lower ranked squads aren't so much the lack of proven power pieces as much as the shortage of activations/tech.

See? I told you he'd know!

And now! The tale of my journey into the Finals of the Second NZ SWM Tournament!

Well, two weeks out I wasn't playing due to being the TO and planning to be the sole judge at the event, a week out I was thinking about it by adopting the three-judge system, and the day before I decided fully that I needed to be involved as a player. I didn't want to play because I wanted the NZ Champs to be a as-serious-as-possible tournament - it's own dedicated judge/TO - but things are changing in the SWM world and my involvement as a player grew more acceptable as the event approached. Certainly, people wanted me to play which was encouraging! With some key folk dropping out in the days leading up to the tournament, I decided that it would be good to play and I'd add to the numbers, keeping Jim's idea of being able to pull out if it would have otherwise been detrimental to the tournament in the back of my head.

When it came time to select my squad, I had all of the above floating around in my brain and that led me to feel like any competitive participation was just a bridge too far. I was, after all, going to be concentrating on the running of the event and would be needed for judging issues. My rationale was then that I was there as a judge first, player second, and that if I ran something I knew fairly well or didn't care too much about, I'd be able to throw away a game if I needed too. Add to that, that for the last two years or so, I've viewed myself as a bit past-it with minis, that I had managed to grow up players around me who had then surpassed me. I spend so much time organising minis events, I don't often have the time to just enjoy the game! while others about me play all the pieces and squads. After a run of losses, I kinda figured my days as a competitive player were gone.

I drafted a list of 12 squads, all designed around enjoying myself to the fullest - if it wasn't fun, it wasn't on the list. I had a Corran-led pilot squad (had never run Corran, keen to try him), my Ackbar Klaat. swarm, my Vader Legacy/Dash/Jag/GARY squad, my triple Nightsister/HK/Dash/Jag/Ozzel squad, a Dark Trooper squad, my Han Rogue/SpecForce squad and a host of others... but I ultimately settled on my Celeste/Zam/Chazrach swarm. I'd been beaten by it by Graham/Hutts (I ran a Lancer... particularly embarrassing...) and had rejigged it to fit me a bit better by running it in a 2-0 win against Bob in our Vassal comp. I liked it, plus I really just wanted to turn things into Rakghouls! I settled on the squad in the car with Ian and Graham on the ride in. (On hearing Graham's squad, I instantly regretted the choice, but thought, 'oh well, hopefully I don't draw Graham'.)

Round 1: vs Graham/Hutts (Naboo Pilots) on Theed
So. I drew Graham. I looked at the matchups and thought that it was okay to take a loss first up. We got playing and the game went pretty much as Graham described it above. I knew that I just had to eat through Pilots by losing Chazrach's and that was about all I could do. I don't remember losing Zam but I obviously wasn't too worried because I still had Celeste. I had brought in Malakili (as was my major plan for the Tournament) and he gets the MVP for that match as his Heal 20 saved Celeste sooo much! Graham, at one point, thought he'd killed her but, lo and behold, she had been healed and was still alive. My Rakghouls were spectacular too - I'd lose one when I killed a pilot, but would get another in its place. I must have made so many Rakkies, but only ever had two on the board at a time. Celeste's last move to take out Yularen was just magical. I didn't even know I'd won it until after the countback. Graham had originally counted two rounds of gambit, but he wasn't sure so said he'd drop one and hand me the win. A massive gesture from a top player. I won it 154-152 for 2pts and a shock.

Round 2: vs Oli/Darth O/OhMyGOWK (Skybuck) on Grand Plaza
So, I figured it wouldn't matter taking a loss in my second game. Looking at Oli's tried and true Skybuck squad, I just figured he'd have the best of it. After all, he could tow, gallop and swap his way around my squad with gay abandon. The game progressed as best it could - I took the left and set up down low, trying to force engagement through the rooms that are joined by doors. He galloped and swapped a coupl'a times but I didn't lose much, Crab Armour is a wonderful thing... but everytime he swapped in a fodder piece, I turned it into a Rakghoul! Those extra Rakkies actually won me the game as I ran one (had activation supremacy, don't you know) right into his pieces and, on my initiative win, strode through and took out Dash! I had already taken R2 out (thanks to Zam) and he was losing swap fodder and had no range. As in the last game, Malakili was able to come off the bench and play a monstrous game, healing folk to keep them in the game. We had dilly-dallied a bit with time and with no chance of making it a 3pointer, I locked him out to stay well ahead. 92-24 to me and I now have 4pts! What a day!

Round 3: vs Aaron/Sharron (Revan meets OR) on Theed
In all the official Save11 games we've played, I had the record of winning my first 8 games against Aaron. That doesn't really paint the right picture of Aaron as he is an excellent player, but he has since joked with me about how the comeback is on its way, a statement he had started to show true by then taking the next 3 games against me to bring the score back to 3-8. I was, in some small way, looking forward to being beaten by him as I had half-designed his squad with him and was looking forward to seeing him win the whole thing, to which I'd be able to claim some kudos for it. This game did not disappoint, as he clown-stomped me. I had now resistance to him, once he'd turned off Celeste and Malakili, and all I could do is watch the odd-attack I managed to get through be effortlessly parried or defended away. Well played Aaron and finally, the day as I had planned it began to unfold. 200-7 to Aaron (as well as the scoreline of 4-8 in our competition games) and I remained on 4pts for the competition.

Round 4: vs Paul (Caedus/Zannah) on Theed
I'd managed to play three very good players and three very good squads, but it didn't stop there. While Paul is still new to the competitive game, he plays amongst the Dave-Mike-Aaron trio (being brothers of Dave and Mike) so is well-versed in all things minis. His squad, too, was great - Caedus is a monster, Zannah is a tank, and the addons of Vergere and the two Force Ghosts made for a tough matchup. Mostly. He forgot about Malakili handing out Overwhelming and that changed things momentously. I was able to get past all his masses of defence and put damage straight onto the big two. I made my biggest mistake of the tournament by bringing Malakili up too far and I could have lost him and my advantage... but I spotted it before Paul and moved him the hell away. I quickly knifed through the Sith pair and won it 209-76. Holy moly... I am 3-1 and have 7pts!?!

Round 5: vs Rich/Darth Rattlehead (Tarpals/Zam/Evazan/GOWK) on Theed
Rich and I are great mates. We talk minis, play music together and discuss theological issues deeply. I got him into the game (well, I got just about everyone into the game over here) and have been perhaps a few steps ahead of him in terms of the game, but he is a fast learner and in our last meeting, he knocked me over so I knew I couldn't let myself forget what I was doing! I won map (for like the 4th time!) and we set up and rocked on into the game. He had planned to run a Republic squad using a bunch of Antarian Rangers and the Antarian Captain, but at the last minute changed to this squad. Whether it was the lack of game time with this squad or that we were in Round 5, he made the crucial mistake of leaving R2 next to cover in a long line-of-sight and I Zam'd R2. After that, I had a significant advantage, having the only override piece and I proceeded to take out his pieces. The game had progressed very slowly, Rich taking his time to make the best of the bad situation he found himself in, and when I took a look at the clock, I made a call to push for a 3pt win as I figured, that might be all that separates me from being in the Top 4 or not. I started to push hard and, as a result, lost some pieces quickly which drew the score closer than I'd have liked, but time ran out and I was left up 140-113 in a 2-1 win that I nearly gambled away! Still, that gave me the 4-1 record and 9 pts...

...and, strangely, I was sitting in outright 3rd! That was an amazing result and I was beside myself. I didn't think I'd be competing in a knockout and was a bit surprised. I think others were too! but they seemed genuinely pleased for me. I was in amongst good company too - Aaron had the squad to win the whole thing, Dave was winning everything locally (especially with his Imperial squad) and Tim had recently beaten the World Champ. Holy moly. I figured that I'd play my game and take my $40 store credit and be happy as!

Semi-Final: vs Aaron/Sharron again! on Asteroid Base
Well, I had been taken apart so clinically by Aaron's (my?) squad in our last game, I expected to quickly exit the knockouts and allow Aaron to take our personal record to 5-8, then watch him battle to lift the NZ title. I didn't want to just roll over, however, and I thought I'd try see if I could outlast Bastilla. We set up for a round (or two?) and then he, as he did in the game before, he turned on Bastilla so I spent the next round positioning my pieces with faux-aggression, but not actually approaching any engagement. The next round, however, he pounced and I did my best to soak up any losses my squad took while I tried to outlast Bastilla and get my CEs back. I even sent some Uggies out with mousies as support to try and attack Bastilla just in case she turned on again later. He didn't even wait for the next round to operate Bastilla again - he turned her straight on once more - which meant I had to last three rounds of Bastilla in a row, knowing that she'd have no Force points for a coupl'a rounds afterward. Then, the break came! He was attacking with Satele and he charged in further but put her adjacent to cover. I pounced with Zam and Satele was gone, and Aaron was winded. I started charging knowing that Bastilla wasn't on, as well as trying to run in with Celeste and Zam. He withdrew all his fodder pieces (fearing Rakghouls) and soaked up my attacks, but now I had Gambit and the countdown was on. We saw that time was drifting away and, after a quick count up, on both sides, I withdrew and locked a door, whilst he was content to let me do so. I was worried I had counted wrong, but when time was called, it turned out he had counted wrong and I was 119-109 up, thus taking a 2-1 win and a trip to my first Major Final since HaweraCon 2010! Aaron was beside himself. He did a quick count and realised that, had he have known the correct score, he could have marched Revan 18 squares and swapped in Bastilla to have he attack and kill my Lobot for the win. Holy moly.

Final! vs Dave/Dr. Daman (Cad/Corde swap) on Theed
This game, being our 7th, came down to who was mentally fitter. His matchup was already better than mine on paper and he had already won one major title with it this year. I was running what I had originally thought of as a casual squad and had not expected to be anywhere near here. I knew I had to somehow get to his pieces but in all the chaos of positioning, I misplaced Celeste in Round 2 and, with Ozzel and Thrawn to back him up, Bane swapped in and made Celeste - and my hopes - disappear. I conceded shortly afterward and Dave was deservedly crowned NZ Champion.

For me, this was a monstrous tournament. I had so many people encouraging me to play and everyone was a) delighted I could and b) so happy with the tournament running so well. My thanks go out to my whole Save11 crew for the support for me and the tourney! and all the stuff that we do. Also, I named my squad "For Jim" as it was 'for Jim' who had talked about it with me during the SHNN show (episode 183) and I wanted to 'tip my hat' to my favourite man in minis - kudos to you, Jim! The squad somehow turned out to be competitive after all!

Mauri ora, mauri mate! Ka nui pai te whanau. Arohanui.