First off, a massive thanks to Tim for running such a fun tournament so smoothly and for accommodating me with the start/finish times!

I got a bye in the first round, and then played my Vong blast bug squad in the three Swiss matches. I beat urbanjedi's Death Watch 3-1 on Rebel Fortress thanks to killing Maul early. I then beat Randy's OR 3-1 on Jabbas Palace. TINT then took the final Swiss game against my Vong with his expertly played OR 3-1 on Rebel Fortress.

The final was a rematch between TINT and myself, but with my Republic Commandos versus his Sith Triumvirate, again on Rebel Fortress. And boy, was it a match!

I won map roll, so we played on Rebel Fortress instead of Rhen Var. TINT took the far superior left side, with Nihilus in the centre with the Nexus.

Round 1: TINT gets his main guys into the gambit room. I towed up Sev with R2, moved 6 into the gambit room and took a twin attack on Traya: 1 hit, but 1 LS defense. Boss then gave him another twin. He rolled an 11 and a 15, which looking back technically was two hits (10 attack & synergy +4 beats 24 in cover), but the whole game we both misread Traya's 20 defense as Nihilus' 22 defense, so it was 1 hit which got deflected. Gambit for both after a cheeky coordinated movement for Sev. 10-10.

Round 2: TINT won init and used triple ambush on Sev with Traya: 3 hits and 3 shields saves makes it 30. Sev then twin attacks Traya for a hit and a miss, but a recruit turns a failed LS defense save into a successful one. Sev runs back 6, and then Darman then doubles Traya for a hit and a miss, but she makes her LS defense. The SAMV levitates Traya to relative safety in the middle of gambit. A couple commandos heal Sev back up to 50 HP, and then Nihilus puts 30 on Scorch (30 HP) with Sith Hunger. I then tow up Fi for traps, and the rest of my commandos combined for 6 hits on Nihilus at 30 dmg each, but he makes his 3 LS defense saves so is alive on 50 HP and 0 force. Gambit for TINT makes it 20-14 in his favour.

Round 3: TINT wins init and uses 5 of the Nexus' force points (down to 3) for Drain Life 5, killing an ugnaught, putting 50 on Darman (10 HP) and more importantly healing himself back to full HP. Darman moves and puts 30 on Nihilus (110 HP). Sev uses deadeye and hits Nihilus twice more, with 1 defensed with a sith recruit sacrifice (70 HP). The SAMV levitates Traya, who then uses triple ambush on Scorch to kill him after sacrificing an SOS to reroll a miss (Scorch makes 3 of 6 shields). Boss and a cannon shot are able to bring Traya down to 70 HP. TINT sneaks an SOS next to some guys including 10 HP Darman, who doesn't take his AoO. Nihilus takes another 30 from two hits and an LS defense. The Nexus uses its final force point to move either Nihilus (40 HP) or Traya (70HP) into a safer position. Fi puts the killing double attack on Nihilus, who blows up for 40 on Fi (20 HP), 20 on Traya (50 HP) and 20 on the SAMV (80 HP) and kills Kneesaa. Sion takes Sev back down to 30 HP. R2 tows Dev, who hits both attacks against Traya, but she makes her LS defense (20 HP). Niner moves 6 and hits his attack on Traya, but she makes her LS defense. An ugnaught kills the SOS to prevent him from basing 10 HP Darman again. Gambit for both, now 110-46 to Darth O.

Round 4: TINT wins init 15-12 thanks to Imperial Triumvirate on Traya & Sion. Traya kills Fi with her 2nd attack. Darman then crits Sion, but he makes his LS defense. Darman's 2nd attack puts 40 on Sion (70 HP) with Gauntlet Knife. Two deadeye hits from Sev would have killed Sion but for Eternal Hatred, so he is back at 110 HP. Sion has to uses double to finish off Sev. The SAMV then puts 30 on Fixer (30 HP), who retaliates with 40 of his own to bring the SAMV to 40 HP. Boss hits one and misses one to leave the SAMV on 20 HP. The cannon shot from Fixer hits, but so does the LS defense. Niner then supposes to kill Traya with a double attack, as she is the biggest threat in the next round. However, convinced by Traya's speech about how Covid-19 is a thinly-veiled plot by the Republic to activate emergency controls across the entire Republic, Niner rolls a 1 on his first attack and joins her squad. R2 tows Dev over Niner (who now calls himself "Tenner") to get off a double attack. Dev rolls a 3 and an 11, which of course we think is two misses as per round 1. Gambit for both, and Darth O is now leading 120-111 (although I thought I had 110 at the time).

Round 5: TINT wins init and uses Traya's triple to kill Dev. Boss finishes off the SAMV. Fixer attempts to kill Traya, but rolls a 7 to miss and a 1 to join his comrade Tenner. Sion finishes off Darman, and Niner kills R2 as time runs out with the score 163-160 to TINT.

......Or so we thought...... "Congratulations on winning the tournament, TINT!" we were all exclaming, heaping wreaths and gold crowns upon his neck and head. However, a keen-eyed observer noted that Traya's defense is not 22 as we had thought, but rather 20, meaning that the 11 that Dev had rolled at the end of Round 4 should have hit her. Not content to wear his crowns and wreaths through 5 rounds of skillful play but also one or two oversights, Sportmanship of the Year nominee TINT insisted that we rewind to the point where Dev had dealt the final blow to Traya, but she has a solitary force point for LS defense. Alas, she rolls a 5 and is now deceased. The revised Round 4 finishes with Darth O now leading 158-101.

REVISED Round 5: TINT wins init. The SAMV kills Fixer to avenge his death in an alternate timeline. The commandos combine for 80 damage on Sion (30 HP) and the final 20 damage on the SAMV. Sion finishes off Darman in a repeat of his Round 5 efforts moments ago. The game ends with Boss, Niner and Dev against Sion and the revised score at Darth O 208, TINT 156.

Trevor is such a commendable sportsman and a brilliant competitor. Thank you for two back-to-back thrillers! Thank you again to Tim for running this tourney and to the other competitors for playing until late in order to accommodate a New Zealander. Next stop: Chicago!

Great write up, O! And yes, it was definitely Sith propaganda abut Covid-19 that caused Niner to switch squads. 🤣

I really enjoyed this Sith squad (kudos to Randy for creating it and winning a regional with it). Furthermore, in this tournament design its worst matchups (Vong and Ysalamiri) were removed, so it seemed like a great time to play it.

I had played it vs Jason’s mando shooters in Round 1 of the tournament, so I knew that it had a really hard time with that matchup. Not only that, but I’m also very familiar with the ERC squad, since I helped design some of those pieces and have played it a lot...and so I knew it would shred my Sith. So in the end, I’m really happy that I was able to put up such a good showing in this match, because I expected that it would be a clown stomp.

And yeah, I’m really sorry about mixing up Traya’s defense score...I totally didn’t see that until Spry pointed it out to me in the chat afterwards. I don’t have actual physical copies of the more recent sets (the cards I did have were in front of me) so that must be how I mixed it up. One of the nice things about playing on Vassal (as opposed to at Gencon! lol) is that you can rewind if you make a mistake. It was a semi-competitive/casual event anyway, and I really didn’t want to win because of a mistake, so it just made sense that we should rewind and play stuff properly. In the end, I’m glad it worked out the way it did, because it made for an even more exciting finish!

Congrats O! I really enjoyed both of our games. 👍