sorry, I did not mean to imply that I need permission to be his lover, consent is optional.

Laura! Show us your Vong!

I'm speaking of the guys who have been playing the same basic stuff for YEARS. Certainly you'd want to explore a new squad type a few times to get a very good feel of it.

Laura what were your typical reinforcements?

JOSEPH EDWARD!
that right is reserved for her husband, Jason

Correct. No reinforcements. Very much not the typical tourney Vong squad.

Republic tank squad with GOWK/Mace or Republic tank squad with Obi/Ani . . .

Play some new factions, gents! :)

Thanks Jim for hosting.

I decided I didn't want to play Cin and Sera again so switched to Gungans. Only change I made from my old squad was to swap momaw for the veteran uggie

Boss Nass (Tarpals)
Panaka
Queen Amidala
Dr. E
Veteran Ugnaught
5x Artillerist
2x Clone Flametroopers
R2 Astro
2x Spaarti
Rodian Diplomat
Mouse Droid
2x Rodian Brute

Rd 1 vs Trevor
He was with Cin/Sera/Quinlin, a very scary match for me as his guys all do 30 so he can kill any gungan he gets close to. He fails a ton of Cesta saves and the Flametroopers and Dr E finish off his guy. I win 3-0

Rd 2 vs Lou
He had Sid/Vader and the squad certainly caught me off guard by how fast it is. He quickly got back to my backfield to take out Tarpals. However he had taken enough damage that soon after I finished off the Emperor and without his 3 FP a turn, vader was super force starved. I had taken care of Arica earlier, so it just took time to wear down vader. I also brought back some gungans that he killed as more attackers (from Boss Nass). End result I won 3-1

Rd 3 vs Jim and his fringe squad.
His report pretty much sums it up. I won, it was a bloodbath and we both made it to the top 4 cut.

Top 4 I had to play Trevor again and was scared to death. This game Trevor played way more cagey and kept his guys unhooked. That was fine for me as without his Mobility as a threat I could advance up much more easily. I was really afraid that he would just toss Quinlin (he had taken the resurrection save with con artist) out there and start killing stuff and then after I used all the energy to take out his guy, that he would make the save and come back to full health and just repeat. We talked about it after and Trevor didn't think the math was there for that strategy (only like 40% chance of coming back even with the re-roll). Either way, I won the game and moved on to face Jim in the finals.

Finals vs Jim
Again Jim's report nails this one, except I will point out that even though we both made error upon error, the dice were clearly in my favor. I saved at least 2 gungans and Jim missed 3 different shots needing very low numbers to kill panaka. Also noting that in both games Jim "WON" map roll so got the bad side even though we were both on Bespin. I feel very lucky to have eeked out the win in the finals.

By the way, here are the previews that were supposed to be given out at the regional. We talked about them a little on Friday night, but I forgot to put them out on Saturday.

Fringe (5pts)
Killik Drone (small base)
Hitpoints 10
Defense 15
Attack +2
Damage 10

Melee Attack [Can attack only adjacent enemies]

Relay Orders [Each allied commander can count distance from this character as well as from itself for the purpose of commander effects]

Satchel Charge [Replaces attacks: Designate 1 adjacent door as open; it remains open for the rest of the skirmish and cannot be closed]

Swarm +2 [+2 Attack against a target for each allied Killik adjacent to that target]




Rebublic 38pts
Tyvokka
150 HP
17 Def
+9 Att
20 Dam

Unique, Wookiee, Melee Attack, Double Attack

Enraged Reactions [Once per turn, when hit by an attack, this character may make an immediate attack against that attacker if he can]

Force Bond [An ally whose name contains Plo Koon gains Force Renewal 1 and Master of the Force 2]

Intuition [Once per round, after initiative is determined, this character can immediately move up to his speed before any other character activates]

Momentum [If this character has moved this turn, he gets +4 Attack and +10 Damage against adjacent enemies]

Force 2, Force Renewal 1, Master of the force 2

Lightsaber Defense [Force 1: When hit by an attack, this character takes no damage with a save of 11]

Maybe we're playing this stuff because we like it?

I can run a Daala squad as well as the rest of them. I can do well with Mandos, and NR and just about anything else if I set my mind to it.

But why do I usually turn to Republic? Quite simply because I have the most fun with it. If I'm going to drive multiple hours to an event then I'm absolutely gonna want to play something that I enjoy. Jedi are where it's at for me.

There's also the matter of "seat time"...other than FrostyCon in February I haven't played SWM since GenCon last August. That's a factor that helps to keep me in familiar territory too.

Extra 40 hit points and Intuition are handy though. Serra Keto is always hard to displace from a Cin squad though.

For me, the source of my enjoyment hasn't been exploring different factions. What has been the most fun for me is changing my playstyle. I used to play every faction and squad the same: Outactivate and smash. In fact, that's how I won GenCon in August. I've been playing Talon fringe squads for like 2 years now and I can tell you in those 2 years I've enjoyed the game far more than I ever had.

I won't always be playing fringe. I am already looking at different factions in a new light. I can say that my GenCon win will be the last time you see me play outactivate and smash. I think I'm a better player now for moving on from that.