200 to 38 on bothan to paul, 220 to 94 On bothan to daman,
Finals are all Moore's (Daman and Paul) for the third time this season!

Three Major titles this season, three different Moore champions!

Dare I say, one of the greatest families in SWM history. Well done my Brothers, together we shall rule the SWM Galaxy!

Kahu managing to kill Hayden's Togorian Black Sun Vigo, leaving him with Mandalore the Resurrector vs a huge bunch of grenades 10 guys, was awesome.

I'm confused about stuarts squad, it says that he had a squib trader in the squad so how were luke and leia not able to get twin from farther than 6 if he gave them communications supplies with the squib? Am I misunderstanding how relay orders works, or did he not use the squib for that because that would be one of the main reasons I would put him in a squad like that is so that L&L and the RC on Speeder can roam free.

For reference: WotC FAQ says:



That is referring to CEs with a range restriction. You can't count range to yourself.

6th place: Kezza 6pts 2-2 Old Ben, Luke HOE, Leia RC, Rieekan, Momaw, R7 on Shipping Centre
Finally, a player that I can give a completely biased playreport about: me. To be honest, I struggle with this game when it comes to big tournaments. I don't get to play anywhere near as much as I want to (which is, by the way, all the time) so tournaments represent a big chunk of playtime for me. As is such, I'm always wanting to run something totally cool. Forget competitive/schmetitive, I was have a blast and, if I can, annoy the crap out of people. This reminds of the magic days - back when I actually owned and played magic, a small 6-month window in the mid-90's - where I would always have a deck based around the same idea: annoy the crap out of people. My opponents hated playing me because I could always play the spoiler, often pulling out stuff to negate whatever they were doing. It was always a long and frustrating game... but, I never actually won a game. (Goes a long way to describing my Minis career?) However, I am haunted by the three best shots in this game that I've had: 2010 HaweraCon (losing in the final to Graham after going 7-0), 2011 LowerHuttaCon (missing out on a final by not seeing that Rhen Var actually contains a pit, not a wall...) and the 2013 Nationals (finalist, althought to be completely honest, Daman would have had to play like a me not to have won that game). Those performances make me think that, as the founder of the competitive game in NZ and all the other thingees that I've managed, shouldn't I have a Major title somewhere as well? So, that is my struggle. Persistent and unrelenting. I believe I'm destined to never win a Major here so I approach tournaments thus... yet I always wonder.

What this all leads to is my squad selection for that awesome day. When Bounty Hunter Challenge Obi was released he received mixed reviews, one comment I read particularly blasteding of the piece. I, however, quite like it and declared in response that I was gonna run it as soon as it was legal. Fastforward six months to the weeks leading up to LHC and, by Jove!, Obi is all good to run, and I recall my choice words. Well, after rambling through a few different squad ideas, I realise that I just have to run him. For a start, I need to run some new toys (Vset9 legal pieces), so I make the call to build around Obi. I mentioned this on SHNN a couple weeks prior and Jason (UrbanJedi) offers to talk squads as he's been thinking about it. Through a few BookFace messages, I settle on my grand squad: 100pt Obi, Luke Hero of Endor, Leia Rebel Commando, Rieekan, Momaw and an R7. (It must be said that, waking a couple of mornings prior to LHC at about 3am and not being able to get back to sleep, I start to second guess my squad choice, running all the above arguments through my head. I start to consider running my Mando squad from HamilCon - there's a chance I could do really well with it, I know it, and I know its top tier... but my desire to really get the most out of my tournament experience prevails. Obi remains.) I liked the idea of Luke being able to swap out for a few different variations - I pack Legacy, Commander, Commando and Hoth Pilot - although its actually the Legacy version I find most sexy... give him HOE's Twin and now he's a Double-Twin-GMA-Accurate guy who's being boosted by Obi for +4. Nice. Leia held the same wonder for me, swap her out for either Cloud City (for RC Supers) or Diplomat, the second being the one swap I used. Momaw was there for the nice backup of blowing a few 10pt'ers, but his chief role was to put 10 damage on Leia so she could make use of her damage boosting CE and pump up Obi's protective. Rieekan was there to do what he does best, and I figured one override was better than two satchel charges. Risky, but that was the game I was playing. Shipping Centre (spelt incorrectly on purpose) was chosen because it was a map few people knew, a tactic which I always like. It worked a little and, for the first time ever, I won every map roll and chose it. I rule.

First up was theHutts and I was very pleased to draw him first as I had been joking prior to the tournament about the concept of the first round loss settling you in the bottom half of the draw for an easier run to the Top 4. What made that more a direct probability was that I don't have many wins against the old master of Graham and he was running a variation on the much vaunted Separatist CDOs build that I have recently come to loathe. My game experience, to my surprise, was quite different. I swapped out for Luke Legacy, blew 10hp off Leia and started my march up the right side of the map, Graham with 32 activations and San Hill scarcely having touched his pieces before I was all out. Second round, more positioning was mostly the same, with the amazing exception that I was able to Accurate-Double-Twin-GMA two of Graham's BX Snipers with Luke, Leia's CE coming in very handy. Graham returned some fire and, needing 5s to hit Luke back, rolled 1, 3, and 1 among other rolls and, combined with Deflect and Evade, I ended the second somewhat unscathed. Deflect saved my bacon in the third as I deflected an adjacent shot with Luke and then, in my first phase, took out the two other Snipers, Momaw adding to his usefulness by blowing a few bombs at the top of the map. It was all very quick from there and, within 40 minutes, I had managed to take out 32 pieces (Graham suggesting this was some kind of record at nearly a piece a minute) - even having the luxury of refusing to fire on San Hill in the penultimate round so the MTB could get him in the final.

If the win against Graham was anything to go by, I was starting to look at my day with a slightly different lens. Fun, yes, but my squad also did a few things fairly well. Graham had some bad rolls early on, which helped me nicely, and his placement was his classic best, but I still feel that a 3-0 win in 40 minutes against a NZ SWM legend was a great start. Graham is always so good, I have to take every advantage. My next matchup was against HaweraDave. His OR squad featured Satele, Atton and the awesomeness of Kerra Holt. The backup of Bastila and two Senators was a scary backline, my CEs looking like taking a pounding. I again had the right and, after blowing 10 off Leia again, I advanced. I kept the HOE Luke and that almost won me the game although my poor placement and Dave's excellent placement was the decider. After getting Atton (on like the second or third attempt due to his stoopid Avoid Defeat rolls!), I ran Luke in to the centre from the top of the map to try and take the steel out of Kerra and Satele. Luke held his own for a long time, but the big mistake from me was NOT HAVING OBI WITHIN SIX SQUARES. His Force Alter saved my bacon later on in the day, but I picked it too late to save Luke. A few hits that could have been misses and the result would have been quite different. As it was, I saw that - Luke now gone - I was too far behind on points to win, but was close enough to maybe pickup 1pt. I ran Ob's in and tried to knockout Evazan. Got him! but then realised that he, being a reinforcement, was worth nothing... when I could have perhaps had a swipe at a very low HP Satele and maybe got the points... or a Force Push... I forget. The whole thing was a blur. I did that thing that we all feel from time to time... I threw my die in frustration. Somehow, it magically appeared back at my side as I had to finish the last round as Dave wanted to try finish Obi and get a 3pt win. I made a bunch of Soresu's and Altered a heap of other possibles and Obi remained, but still I took the 2-0 loss and had to like it. It needs be said, kudos to Dave for excellent play and I recall I frustrated him a bit in a NZcon game the year before - same venue, even the same table, I think - so it makes me feel like balance has been restored to the force.

[edit: I will come back after taking my daughters to their swimming lessons and update this MASSIVE post further]

5th place: Graham/TheHutts 7pts 2-2 (1 bye) Lobot, 2x CDOs, Overseer, 4x BX Sniper, Gha, San, Poggle, Ug, 13 Drones on Command Deck
I'll do my best to cover Graham's tournament, but I'll be brief as he'll more than likely give you his account too, and do a far better job than I. Our pre-game discussion (while waiting for Ian to set up his 4 million activations) was about how the CDO's (in our opinions) was the most broken piece in the game. Graham's squad was a variant of the popular Durge version, but he was wanted to try some things, so had foregone Durge to have four, yes four, BX Snipers with the Overseer for that doubleness. His game against me is talked about above, but I'll only say that Graham was unlucky early on with his rolls. Once I got a foothold, I was impossible to dislodge, but if the rolls had been the other way, it could have been a different story. He was then consigned, for probably the first time in his history, to a second Round bye. That lined him up against Hayden (and all those Thugs!) for Round 3, a game and a squad that he shrugged aside with a second 3pt win. His last Round game was a matchup against Aaron/Sharron which could have seen Graham in that Top 4, but Aaron's Yobuck squad was to good for it. Graham picked up the point, but it wasn't enough to overhaul HaweraDave, who went through by the slimmest of margins. I'm not sure what Graham took away from the tournament... hopefully he'll elucidate for us!

4th place: HaweraDave/doug*platapus 7pts 3-1 Satele, Atton, Bastila, Kerra, Lobot, 2x Senators and filler on Bothan
I was delighted when I saw Kerra hitting the tables for three reasons. First, you don't see OR in NZ as often as you could; second, Kerra is one of the premiere Vset9 pieces so its great to see her; and third, Dave played her so well against me while playtesting a coupl'a set 10 pieces, that I knew he'd do well with her. After "crushing" his son in Round 1 - Kahu's words - he faced me in Round 2 and, well, we know that story. He then bested Aaron in a good match in Round 3, winning it 2-0, before a final matchup against Daman in Round 4. He lost it 3-0, oh so close to picking up a point, but he had done enough to earn a Semi. Great news... except that it was against Daman - two matches in a row and, both times, Daman was too good.

And that, they say, is that. The fifth LowerHuttaCon was a blast and the 11 combatants loved every minute of it (with the slight exception of Stuart who may have found his learning of new rules tough to handle mid-tournament, but he bore it well in his inimitable style). While we have seen some straight out nasty, NPE-ish squads in the past, the tournament will stand out as being one devoid of those: every squad was something very interesting, a variation, or a top squad that was not common in NZ. Everyone was trying something and that gave the whole tournament a more open, competitive feel. This may even be the template we could look to emulate – players trying to find new ways of bringing their best without simply running the Tier Zero.

It needs be said that we not only congratulate Paul on a strong Major win, but the Moore family who have picked up one each of the three Majors this year (Mike at Hawera, Daman at Hamilton and Paul here). As Daman has said, a SWM dynasty that is growing towards the same stature as the legendary Urban’s of the US.

But, what light from yonder window breaks? It is the NZ Championships and that approaches as the remaining Major on the NZ calendar. And who is coming back? That is right, Admiral Daala will be permitted for the nationals this season for, as Daman rightly argued before Round One of the LHC, our national tournament should feature the absolute best and everything should be allowed to run. And while Daala will be looking to win another Major in NZ, so too will Daman, TheHutts, MikeSmuggler, Sharron, Darth Moore and Bev. The rest of us have some work to do.

Thanks for the massively in-depth reports, Kez! I really mean this when I say it: I think NZ is the best place on the planet to play SWM! The tournament definitely looks like it was a lot of fun.

I'd love to hang out with you guys in person some time, but it looks like the Vassal Regional this summer is the only time that will be possible.