Blast Bug takes 3RD at the Chicago Regional. Mission Accomplished!! sorta...
I easily destroyed Caedus/Cognus and OR pilots like tissue paper.
I beat Lillian’s Daala squad razorbug/ blast bugging troopers.
I earned a point against Randy’s Daala and could beat it given more time.
Lost two games to a hate squad being played by Jason whose won 3 Regionals this year.

My squad was not as well rounded or balanced as Joe’s Teir 1 Vong squad.
I’m not using activation control, vong reinforcement options, characters with aggressive negotiations, warriors with charging or even giving my warriors double.

--Pure Blast Bug NPE--
28 Zenoc Quah
20 Yuuzhan Vong Hunter on Quednak
19 Warrior Caste Subcommander
15 Yammosk War Coordinator
14 Yuuzhan Vong Seer
13 Yun-Ne'Shel Priest
11 Yuuzhan Vong Ossus Protector
70 Domain Lah Warrior x7
10 Zonoma Sekot Scout x2}
(200pts. 16 activations)

It’s no secret, I think 10pt Lah Warriors with Blast Bugs are an NPE and bad for the game. Unfortunately, I couldn't convince everyone to just take my word for it. NPEs are subjective so if not played or winning they’re not a problem in everyone’s mind... They think, maybe it's just abusive in some matches or in the hands of a certain player…

I was told the best way to convince people there’s a problem is to play it and do well in a Regional. Of course, there goes the element of surprise since everyone knew I was going to play some kind of Blast Bug squad, and I told everyone I was going to play it at Chicago. Chicago which is known for being tech-heavy, high activation, and the absolute worst regional for a pure Bast Bug Squad.

I’ve played around with the idea of a pure Blast Bug squads since the Ohio regional but finalized this one the night before the regional. It’s an extreme tank-buster squad that relies mainly on Blast Bug. Featuring 10 characters with blast bug. I wanted to main build everything to show how easy it is to build a Blast Bug squad. I added the Quednak to give me a movement breaker/ swarm deterrent. But I could have dropped it for 2 Lah warriors. I added the Seer because it lets you Blast Bug enemies with disruptive like Talon Karrde. 16 squares away with Lah warriors and 18 squares away with the Quednak. But when not going against Talon it’s not necessary, it could be dropped for more warriors too.

I used the new map on map list C: Knights Errand which I recently got and never played before. I didn’t even practice or prepare like I normally would for a regional. My first game with this particular squad and map was round 1 of the Chicago regional.

Round 1: Jake K. playing Caedus (a character he designed) and Cognus. Round 2 I Blast Bug the crap out of Cognus but Jake had a clever move with SBM and was able to frustrate my ability to target his dudes. Round 3 Jake was able to kill a few warriors but I broke past his defenses. I Blast Bug his mouse droid and he asked to see the card to confirm that blast bug does work on everything. Then with a few Blast Bugs.. Caedus was dead. I really didn’t have to think too hard to win and most all of my die rolls were VCA saves. Jake did everything he could and played well killing 3 or 4 of my warriors, but Jake couldn’t even reach 100pts. 3pt win – 0pt loss. (1-0)

Round 2: Jason K. playing an Ewok swarm. It was designed to take down squads like mine and Jason played it perfectly. Also, my rolls were terrible as I failed several crab armor 7 saves and rolled a 3 on my first avoid defeat save with my “eternal bodyguard.” I didn’t have a solid strategy for Jason’s squad and wasn’t even sure what it did until after it was all over. 0pt loss – 3pt win (1-1)

Round 3: Randy’s Daala squad, 3 Storm Commando’s and a boatload of Imperial Diplomats. This was a terrible match up for my squad. I couldn’t Blast Bug the wall of Diplomats or the Super Stealth Commandos behind them. Randy must be like a freaking super computer to have such perfect placement. No matter where I went I couldn’t get Los to just his Diplomats. Finally, after sacrificing several warriors I was able to start killing pieces to get over 100 points.
A funny/sad moment was the first Blast Bug and Randy rolled his die. I said, "why are you rolling for? You don't get a save roll against Blast Bugs Randy!"... Played out with no time limits it's a game I could win.
1pt loss – 2pt win (1-2)

Round 4: Laura playing Bastila and OR pilots. I was getting bored and disgusted playing Blast Bug. This game reminded me of my game against Jake except Laura played more cagey with more pieces to block Blast Bug. She played superbly and setup her figures in a way I was unable to target her and with extra damage from ABM she was able to kill most of my Warriors. Also, I started running warriors to base enemies and didn't care if she killed my warriors. They’re not easy to kill and they’re only worth 10pts. She couldn’t kill them fast enough to reach 100pts before I could Blast Bug her to death.
3pt win – 0pt loss (2-2)

Semi-Finals against Jason: I had this great plan. Jason was going to play the same game as before. I was going to run a Scout and firejelly the door he was hiding his Ewok hoard from 5 squares away because my Seer extends firejelly. Then I would Plasma Eel his cluster of Ewoks and gain control of the game. He would never see it coming. He had what 23 activations??…I could cut that down pretty quickly. So I took Ozzel’s one at a time CE.. Problem was that Jason had more like 30 activations and he wasn’t making stupid mistakes. Also, I didn’t realize how badly going one at a time would hinder my squad. There actually was a moment where I might have been able to pull off my Firejelly…Plasma Eel trick… if I had been going two at a time. Then again my rolls were terrible and things just went very very badly for me. I would have been much better off stealing swap.
Loss

Final: Lilly's double sledded Daala squad. Yet another bad match-up for a squad relying on Blast Bug. However, I used razorbug and with help from Lilly missing save rolls I killed a couple troopers. Then I had a great play running Quidnik 20 squares basing a sled. Lilly put tons of damage on Quidnik but it survived to use the cannon shot CE I stole from her to kill sled. But then the other sled flew in and killed Zenoc Quah. Then she won initiative and flew sled and killed Yun-Priest. But Priest made the avoid defeat saves! Then I blast bug second sled. Zenoc Quah was dead, so I had lost Evade and +4. But I didn’t need Evade because unlike my games against Jason I could roll higher than a 7! I made almost all of my VCA 7 saves and made avoid defeat save 7s multiple times with Eternal Bodyguard!
I didn't even need attacks when I had speed 8 and blast bug to run and kill troopers.