Great story, and perfectly played Jim.

I definately think this event was a success, and will return.

I'm glad people enjoyed this event. Immensely glad. I want to give some background about its development.

Back in late winter/early spring, I got a phone call from Jim Fraser. He asked about the possibility of doing a special event at GenCon with a 100 point card that we could give away as a prize. After about 30 minutes, he and I came up with the idea of doing an Emperor Palpatine card that was exactly 100 points. Jim being the kind of guy he is said he would pay for the cost of printing, and so I took the concept to Ray. After discussing it with Ray, we agreed that 2 cards was the better way to go - one of Palpatine and one of Luke - and I set about designing the stat cards. They each went through about 10 revisions with a lot of input from a lot of different people, including Ray, Deri, Bill, the Atlanta guys, and a few others who were kind enough to help playtest. I wanted Luke to be the "rock counter" but struggle with swarm squads and I think the final result pulled that off very nicely. He can hit one guy for 80 from 6 squares and is a little tough to take down (as he should be, he's half your squad at best). I think once people start integrating v-set 4 into their squads they will find he is inferior to the concepts of the new set (we intentionally put in a lot of anti-defense abilities to help speed the game up again).

Palpatine was intended to make the Darth Vaders better. As Ray realized too late at the convention, Lord Vader does not get rapport from Palpatine. This was by design, but the squad was already built so we overlooked it for the scenario challenge event. I'm not sure if anyone used that squad in their games or not.

As I began thinking about what the "Bounty Hunter Challenge" would look like, I thought of an idea that would make the event even more unique: a new map. I asked Chris West if he could design a double-sided map, one for Palpatine and the other for Luke, that would fit with existing maps he has done. It took a while to hammer out the logisitics, but Chris pulled it off fantasticly as I knew he would.

Thanks to everyone who played, and congratulations to those who succeeded in winning the pair of cards! I hope we are able to do something similar for next year!

Both maps Chris did for the event were great. I suggest everyone pick one up.

There are pics of the cards on the SHNN Live thread.

Love that palpatine card.

Was the BH Challenge designed by the SWMgamers team? Or was the design part of the challenge?

You deserve a medal. That's so much class.

I would've liked to have been a little bit more prepared, since I forgot some key cards I wanted to use. Still, I think the format is a fun addition, especially for those that aren't tourny players.

200 pts. You either bring your squad or use one of the premade ones. You "won" if you killed the BHC piece.

I'm glad they're printing (regular) cards for them in set 5.

I'd love to have the Gencon promo versions too, but I'd rather win them. (that would mean I actually played a game against somebody other than my son )

Man I wish I had events to go to get my hands on them.