Semi Finals Match 1

TimmerB123 (Fringe) defeats Mando (New Republic) 144-94 (2-0)

I played:

http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/221464/huntin

--Huntin'--
50 Boba Fett, Assassin for Hire
35 Jabba Desilijic Tiure (-8 Rapport from Bib Fortuna)
27 Lobot
20 Bib Fortuna, Majordomo
18 Devaronian Assassin
17 Klatooinian Assassin
13 Czerka Scientist
8 Teek
5 Killik Drone
4 Prowler 1000 Seeker Droid
3 Mouse Droid

Reinforcements:
(Lobot) 8 Wicket
(Lobot) 5 Caamasi Noble
(Lobot) 4 Gran Raider
(Lobot) 3 Ugnaught Demolitionist

(Jabba D.T.) 10 TC-70 Protocol Droid
(Jabba D.T.) 6 Snivvian Fringer
(Jabba D.T.) 4 Salacious Crumb (-1 Rapport w/ Jabba)

(200pts. 18 activations)


Mando played:

http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/219712/never-upset-a-wookie--soi-semi-finals-game--1

--Never Upset a Wookie (SoI semi-finals game #1)--
34 Chewbacca with Bowcaster
33 Han Solo with Bowcaster
32 Talon Karrde, Information Broker
24 Mercenary Commander
21 Brainiac
18 Klatooinian Captain
15 Whiphid Tracker
14 Rio Durant
3 Mouse Droid
6 Ugnaught Demolitionist x2

(200pts. 11 activations)


We both had Asteroid Base as map. He "won" map roll, so I chose right side. I was so caught up in the mathematical brainteaser of how to set up my pieces to get the best reach with Bib Fortuna's movement CE, I never thought about Chewie using a 16 square Furious Assault with Accurate Shot, targeting 3/4 of my squad. But that's exactly what he did. He used Talon Karrde's movement CE on Rio to open his own door, then blew it anyway with an uggie. But then he had the reach (due to Klat Captain giving him speed 8) to open the door on MY side, and Chewie ran to the middle little wall right near gambit, where he had a perfect shot on most of my squad. It was pretty brutal, but the one thing that kept it from being totally devastating was that he missed a couple times, including the czerka and Teek. He was only attacking with a 12, and most of my squad did have cover (mostly from each other), but there were still some dud rolls. Boba did successfully use his Bait and Switch to sacrifice a scrub that was going to die anyway to not worry about the evade roll. But he still took out a good chunk of my squad, almost all of my scrubs (which = movement in a Bib squad) and got my #2 attacker (the Devoronian) down to 20hp. I responded by moving the Czerka up, and getting adjacent to Rio and smoking him with the Devoronian (thanks to Chewie missing on the Czerka). I found a spot where Teek could run to to take Chewie's evade away and not get shot, so I went there. Dumb move. I should have just waited until he was activated out. He moved Han adjacent to Chewie (but not Teek), so he could bodyguard Chewie. (Although in hindsight, I'm not entirely sure Han would have gotten Bodyguard due to the wording of his CE, but it doesn't matter). Had I waited I could have distracted both. But I didn't, so I shot Chewie with Wicket for 30 (Teek providing Death Strike), and the Klat Assassin added 40 more (Han bodyguarded both, and gave Chewie the retaliatory barrage). Luckily that meant ONLY teek. But now Chewie had Evade again. He brings his crew up, Talon safe in the little top hallway, and the Klat Captain and Whiphid right behind Chewie. I run my TC Droid to base Chewie (for Death Strike), I attack Chewie with Boba, needing 2s. I roll a 2 (still hits), then a 1 (Boba rolled FOUR important 1s in the match), then another hit. Chewie evaded 1, so he took 40. Then I use Jabba's lookout to pull the Dev away from the door (but it stayed open until the end of the turn), and then Jabba's CE for Klat and Boba, but due to Brainiac's crushing CE - I got NO bonuses. But I did still hit twice and brought Chewie down to 30hp. No gambit for either

Next round he wins init and goes first. With the door closed he has only the TC droid, so he kills him with Chewie and runs away. I was surprised he didn't make me go first then do a far worse furious assault and decimate me, so I breathed a sigh of relief. I then open the door and take some shots with Boba. He hits the Whiphid (and he fails the jolt save), and hits the Klat Captain (fails evade and jolt save), both down to 10 and activated. Then Boba rolls another 1. But still a good turn. He Mobiles with Talon to take a safe shot on Boba, rolls a 19, boba fails the evade. Boba to 90 hp. Brainiac the rolls a CRIT on Boba (didn't leave time to use Bait n Switch, so I rolled it after), succeeded and swapped in my Caamasi Noble to take the crit death. I move some scrubs and then he moves the Mercenary Commander up to do another Furious Assault, taking out Salacious Crumb and My Dev Assassin. Then I shoot the Mercenary Commander with my Klat, and then use Jabba to cannon him into him again, killing him. Boba gets the other cannon, but guess what? Rolls a 1. I finish by locking the door with Lobot. No Gambit for either. I'm up 74-68.

Next round we both roll 18 for init, then he follows with a 20 to win it. Door is locked so he makes me go first. He moves Chewie into position for a nasty double. I spin Bib, and then he blows the door and doubles with Chewie. He Targets Boba, but I make the bait and switch save and throw Lobot to the wolf(-ish creature). He misses the second shot on Boba. So I have LoS on Chewie with 30hp left, with evade but activated. I also have LoS on the Klat Captain with 10hp left. So I shoot the Klat Captain, hit. He rolls a 20 for the evade and a 20 for the jolt save. Ugh. 2nd shot hits, rolls a 17 for evade and an 11 for jolt. AGHHHH. So since Brainiac takes away all bonuses outside of turn, I need that extra 10 from Jabba to take out Chewie. So I have to shoot at Chewie. Hit, and luckily this time he fails the evade. I then kill his uggie by the door with my czerka and go run behind Boba. Dumb, because he still has the Klat Captain who made every save that round with his splash. He actually hits Boba, but then I go on my great saves streak and succeed with the evade as well as all the splash saves. Mando then takes out Wicket with Talon, and I use Jabba to cannon Boba (I roll a 1!!!!!), and the Klat, who hits the Klat Captain, and he fails the evade. I move the Klat up for his turn and take out the Whiphid. He has double on Boba with Brainiac, but I make the bait and switch save and give him the Czerka.

Game ends with me having full health Jabba, Klat Assassin, Bib, prowler and a 90hp Boba, vs his full health Talon Karrde, Brainiac and a mouse.


It was an absolute chess match of a game, with so many moving parts. Brainiac was probably his MVP, because it neutered my squad in 2 ways. Accurate Furious Assault was probably one of the best counters to my squad, and I didn't help any by the way I set up. Crazy swings in rolling luck seemed to be clustered. I rolled FOUR 1s with Boba, He rolled 3 or 4 misses with Chewie in that initial barrage. He rolled 4 huge saves in a row, then so did I later that round. He rolled 2 crits with brainiac, but I bait and switched them to scrubs. He won all the inits, even when I rolled an 18! But I made all my bait and switch saves (3?). We really had bi-polar rolls.

I think these are both outstanding squads with a lot of potential. I think either could walk all over many other squads.

Without a doubt, this match could have gone either way. As always, great playing with Trevor C.

Next up we have his Fringe squad from GenCon (he is playing AGAIN) vs my Wraith Squadron squad I've never played, lol.

If we need round 3, I'm in real trouble - it's his Yuuzhan Vong squad he's playing again from last round, and I brought Bastila. YIKES! If only I would have swapped them. Wraiths are MADE to take out Vong, it would almost be an auto-win. And Bastila would really foul up his Fringe Squad, while she can't effect Vong AT ALL!!! I'm gonna have to play really great next round in a not good matchup, because I don't want it to go to round 3 with a TERRIBLE matchup.

TimmerB123 (Old Republic) defeats Mando (Yuuzhan Vong) 70-6 (then concession with about 30 min left) 3-0

My squad:

http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/172700/stifling-the-opposition

--Stifling the Opposition--
46 Ven Zallow, Jedi Master
37 Satele Shan
36 Atton "Jaq" Rand
33 Bastila Shan, Jedi Master
25 Sylvar, Betrayed Jedi
14 Old Republic Senator
3 Mouse Droid
6 XT-6 Droid x2

(200pts. 9 activations)



Mando's squad:

http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/166912/lah-and-order--soi-semi-finals---game--3-

--Lah and Order (SoI semi-finals , game #3)--
44 Commander Sha'kel
28 Tsavong Lah, Warrior Elite
27 Minos, Yuuzhan Vong Warrior
22 Khalee Lah, Warrior Progeny
21 Yuuzhan Vong Shaper
19 Eighth Cortex Shaper
15 Yammosk War Coordinator
13 Yun-Ne'Shel Priest
9 Dooje Brolo
2 Kneesaa, Ewok Princess

Reinforcement:
(ECS-CE) 18 Praetorite Vong Priest

(200pts. 11 activations)



I won map roll and we played on Cloud City

He chose right side, which surprised me very much. I had a whole plan from the right side, so I had to improvise from the left (but I think it helped me still). He set his yammosk up adjacent to the door on the far left of the top room. I was very surprised by this as well, as I could get shots on his Yammosk round 1 through the maintenance tunnel. I strongly considered going for the kill, by using Satele's intuition to move up to the first door (only 1 square do to the room being 5 squares wide), then running 16 squares (using 2 fps for move faster w/ MotF2) to open the door on the far side of the maintenance tunnel. I'd first have to turn on Bastila (never great to do round 1 in my opinion), then open with Satele, then use a FP with Jaq to get to the maintenance tunnel and shoot twice (40damge each, but only 30 with Damage Reduction), leaving the Yammosk with 10hp. But if I wanted to kill the Yammosk, I couldn't lock the door. I'd have to pop the XT to go with the senator, and have Atton shoot AGAIN, and drop the yammosk round 1. Of course, that would leave Satele very exposed regardless, and if I missed, I'd be in big trouble. So I decided to play it safe, and just use Jaq's turn to open the far door from a distance, and take a senator shot, moving the senator in front of Jaq to block anyone getting to him. 40 damage after DR. Seeing his error, Mando had no choice but to put one of his super-evaders in front of the Yammosk to save it. Khalee was the one. I moved Bastila up to a cozy spot to flip on ABM next round, and moved my other Jedi to to door by the lower right of the carbon freezing chamber. His other sluggers moved forward toward the center room. No gambit

Next round he sprints Khalee up to base my senator, and I flip on Bastila's ABM. His plan was to use indiscriminate reactions to kill my senator if I tried to shoot him not adjacent. I just stepped my senator back to behind jaw and had him shoot (which he of course evaded), but with nobody adjacent he had nobody to hit back. I then use Jaq's GMA to get adjacent and shoot, rolling a 2 and MISSING! then hitting. Ugh. So then I took the AoO to move back behind the senator, guess what? He crits! 50 damage to Jaq. Lock the door the Jedi were at. He moves Minos up to be the next in line at the tunnel, and moves Tsavong down around to where the Jedi are behind a locked door. Shakel was too far to fire-jelly that door. Bring my Jedi up to the tunnel (Satele halfway down it), and he moves HIS diplomat Dooje Brolo to step in front of Minos. No gambit

Next round I use Atton to take some shots on minos (he makes both evade saves), and lock the door, of the Tunnel. He has to bring Shakel around to fire jelly that door, and gives the CE to Tsavong to kill the XT on the other side of the previously locked door. I then was debate sprinting up and Force leaping over Dooje to attack Minos. I counted poorly, I was 7 squares away from being able to attack Minos, so I couldn't use LS assault to attack twice (d'oah!). I went for it anyway, hitting with cunning and taking him down to 40hp (made crab save). I then go to use the senator, but totally forget that I am next to Dooje distracting me! So I give the shot to Atton, who hits for 50 with the bonuses. Luckily he fails his first evade, and Minos goes down. Mando rolls his avoid defeat save, and makes both saves. Unfortunately I had to point out that due to exterminate, he did not have Avoid Defeat due to being based by Satele. My senator is now blocking my back in the tunnel, so he brings Tsavong up the long way around to his end of the tunnel. He has to bring his NU commanders up front, attempting to hit Satele with the 8th cortex shaper, failing. Also brings up the Fun Ne'shel priest. I reluctantly use the last of Bastila's FP to keep ABM going for the next round.

He wins init and goes first, using Tsavong's Yun-Yammka Devotion to cut through Satele's parry and bring he down to 50 (he wasn't scarred yet). Satele then uses 2fp for LS Assault and leap, take out the 8th Cortex, and hit the priest but he makes his avoid defeat. I leap back and put my senator in front, taking out his Run Ne'shel priest this time. He runs his shaper in to get gambit, along with Kneesaa. I bring Jaq out of the tunnel and have a shot on both, killing Kneessaa, and rolling a 1 on the shaper. I send Ven and Sylvar to take out the Shaper at the top of next round. Seeing that I was in position to take out his shaper and Yammosk pretty easily next round, he forfeited. Bastila was outta FP and ABM was shutting off at the end of the round. So it would have been 2 squads without damage bonuses going at it, but I definitely had the advantage by not having lost any of my pieces except the XTs, and he lost crucial pieces without getting nearly enough out of them.


It was still a game that was very intense, and Mando is a great player and always fun to play. I had to use my whole bag of tricks to pull this one off. Diplomat blocks, XT at just the right time, and Force Leap were the difference.



Look forward to playing in the finals after BARELY making it through the semis!


Of note - that was time #3 for Old Republic for me, therefore I may not use them in the finals

Semi-Finals #2 thereisnotry defeats DarkDracul, 200-58 (3-0)

thereisnotry: 2- Pride Crusade
30 Arkanian Jedi General
87 Revanchist Jedi Master x3
26 Malak, Jedi General
25 Gnost-Dural, Jedi Master
20 Old Republic Trooper
11 Teethree (T3-M4)
5 Army of Light Trooper
(204pts. 9 activations)

DarkDracul: soi-squad--2
50 Boba Fett, Assassin for Hire
32 Talon Karrde, Information Broker
31 Cara Dune
28 Dash Rendar, Renegade Smuggler
28 Mira of Nar Shaddaa
16 Hylobon Enforcer
8 R7 Astromech Droid
5 Porg
2 Kneesaa, Ewok Princess
(200pts. 9 activations)

Bryan won the map roll so we played on Desert Marketplace. I set up on the left. Gnost-Dural stole Talon's movement CE, since that was the only one available to him.

Round 1: Bryan went first, and we both did our free moves. Then Boba sneaked past the wall and killed T3 and my AoL Trooper (and missed), which was definitely not the way I wanted to start the game. The rest of the round was positioning.

Round 2: Bryan moved Cara up to take some shots (1 hit stuck) on a Crusader, then she retreated out of sight. I shot Kneesaa with my OR Trooper. The rest of the round was mostly positioning, with me putting a few guys up in the little room right above the gambit zone. Bryan could reach me there if he wanted to, but he'd have to over-commit. This was a bit of a bait on my part (also my only safe means of establishing a forward position), but Bryan never took the bait. I ended the round with one Crusader in the gambit zone, within striking range of Bryan's pieces. Dash tried to hit that guy, but between mediocre dice and decent rolling evade rolls, it didn't hurt.

Round 3: Bryan won this initiative. I used the CE to position my OR Trooper in LoS of Cara (able to kill her with decent dice). Bryan then made the right move with Boba, to move up and triple-attack the Trooper...and he proceeded to roll two 2s, which left the Trooper at 20hp. My trooper then proceeded to cash in his chips and hit all 3 shots vs Cara, then proceeded to get out of dodge. Mira put some grenade damage on my Crusader (who made both armor saves). I moved some more people up, preparing for a desperate push (via Backlash) vs some of Bryan's pieces. Then Talon and his bodyguard came up to take some ineffectual shots against one of my Crusaders. My other 2 Crusaders then (via Backlash) hit 5 of their 6 Prideful attacks to kill both Talon and his bodyguard. After that, it was a very difficult situation for Bryan. Gnost-Dural put some damage on Dash at the end of the round.

Round 4: Dash took a risk and killed my 20hp OR Trooper (needing to hit twice, needing 12s), but Malak finished him off. Boba and Mira tried their best (without the CE boosts) to put damage on my Crusaders, but they missed several shots and I had FP available to help me make my rolling evade saves. I was finally able to bring down Mira with one of my Crusaders, and the other Crusader ran to base Boba.

Round 5: Bryan won initiative and put a whole 20dmg on my Crusader (missed the other 2), and tried to hide. However, I was able to chase Boba down by spending some FP with those 2 Crusaders.


This was definitely not a good matchup for me: jedi beef vs a high-powered Talon squad. And losing 2 guys before I even activated was very painful too. However, several things worked in my favor after that: First, most of his attackers (Boba, Mira, Cara) had the Bounty Hunter ability, which was useless against most of my squad, so Bryan was missing more attacks than he normally would. And his dice were horrible again. Second, if Boba had been able to kill my OR Trooper at the start of Round 3, I'm pretty sure he would've won the game (Cara would've lived, and she has Parry vs my jedi, who would be disrupted and therefore not have GMA or Rolling Cleave)...but when that OR Trooper survived it gave me a chance. Third, I was able to reach Talon with 2 Crusaders for the big kill...with Talon gone I had very little to worry about.

So there we are! On to the Finals....

I’m conferring with other community leaders on how to handle this

Oh dang! Sorry, I didn't catch that. I just knew I couldn't play Imperials because I've used them three times already.
Vong would have been a much easier match than Swap for Reylo w/ Anarchist, Parry, and FitF from Lor San Takka.

Ok everybody, I've spoken to both players and several community leaders on how best to handle this.

thereisnotry used a faction not legal in this round in a game played.

As it turns out, the squads they submitted to each other for the 3rd matchup (if needed), also had a faction not legal for this round. Only this time it was DarkDracul who had the illegal faction!

One thing is obvious - I, as the T.O., did not make the faction restrictions for this round clear enough. We added this extra round last minute, and were kinda flying by the seat of our pants. And I was so excited about how the finals would be run, and how choosing factions in the last round of Swiss and the semi-finals might directly impact that, and all the fun theory crafting about it all . . . I can see how it became overlooked that there were faction restrictions in the semi-finals. I apologize.

So the solution we have come up with - to try and maintain the faction restrictions in the given circumstances -

DarkDracul plays the New Republic squad again (which he already played in this round)

against

thereisnotry playing his match #3 squad (of a legal faction)


Side note - I intentionally did not find out what faction or squad either of them had for their third match. That way I'd have no clue if this seemingly benefitted one player or the other more. I only ascertained that thereisnotry had a legal faction, and DarkDracul did not.


This will count as their second match.

The OR vs Fringe game both were legal factions for this round, thus the results for that game will stand.

thereisnotry is up 1-0 in the best of three as of now.



If a match #3 is needed, they will both choose a new squad from one of the remaining factions to them, and play that match to determine who goes to the finals.


Legal factions for each player (if game 3 is needed)

DarkDracul: Sith, Yuuzhan Vong, Old Republic

thereisnotry: Sith, Yuuzhan Vong, New Republic, Fringe (minus the faction he plays in the upcoming match)

That does sound epic!

Thanks to Trevor P and Bryan H for not only being excellent players, but also great sports with all this hullabaloo. Again I take a heaping helping of blame for not making everything clear enough in the Semi-Finals, but they both took it in stride, and once again showed all the community what top notch individuals they are!


On to the finals indeed!

(Back to speaking in 1st person)

I do have a public proposal for Trevor P -


Since I ran this league, I did have a little more inside knowledge to how I would encourage a variety of factions to be played.

Since we have such a (nearly completely) wide open range of factions available to us (and I like twists), perhaps we can throw another wrinkle in this as a gentleman's agreement.

So - I am going to leave an (optional) additional choice for thereisnotry to pick!


Firstly, I will abide my my restriction, regardless of the choice made - I will not play Old Republic. (Frankly I'm fine with that anyway).

So with that -

Ruleset A -


Beyond that, Ruleset B has 3 options

Ruleset B -



We'd both potentially lose our strongest faction. I'll tell you the honest truth - I don't even know if I love proposing this, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Does it help me more to take away what I fear the most from tint (not even sure what that is), while also potentially losing my best faction? Who does this hurt more? I have no idea!



Factions played only once:

thereisnotry: Old Republic, Sith, Separatist, Fringe, Rebel, and Yuuzhan Vong

TimmerB123: Sith, Rebel, Imperial, and Yuuzhan Vong


btw - if it's not obvious, the reason I say it must be our first or second squad, is because our third squad might not be played. This way it guarantees one of these factions left for each player will be played.


I'd have only 4 factions to choose from and thereisnotry would have only 6 to choose from - for ONE of our FIRST TWO squads

Did we overplay our best factions? Did we save something for the end? Can we make it through with a squad required to be from the above choices?

Clearly there are still strong squads within the remaining factions. But does narrowing the scope give an advantage to one player? I also don't know!



And last option is options 1 and 2 combined!




Now we are getting crazy! The variables start stacking up quickly! Either of us could take away a faction from the narrower choice our opponents have from the selection of factions they played only once! Trevor could leave me with only 3 options for one of my squads and 2 from the other 8 left. Or would he nerf a faction I played twice to take away a favorite? Would I take away one he played twice, or narrow his smaller selection further for one faction down to half the field? Who does this benefit more? Will it even matter? I SINCERELY DON'T KNOW!!!




Trevor is an excellent player in any faction, and a great sport. I am throwing these twists out there as an option because I honestly think that Trevor might think this is fun. And I am giving the option for him to pick, with no judgement to what he picks. Ruleset 1 is what has already been announced, so if that is what is chosen that is what we will play. If not, then we will commence with additional twists per Trevor's choosing.

Trevor, sincerely - if you think one option gives you an advantage, then take it without a second thought. I dare you. (I say in good fun). I like these sort of twists, and I'm willing to roll with it even if it makes it harder for me (or will it?)


I await your decision with great antici . . .

. . .