Apart from obviously yourself playing, is there anything else to make it stronger than the National Championship? Are Tim and Oli coming?

Yeah, that is a good point - no easy games this time! It's a shame there's no Tim and Oli though.

I've decided I've had a year of domination, so I'm going to try running the things I feel like running, rather than what I think will win for a while. Of course, I do find Naboo Deathshots and Mace fun, so they might come out to play sometime too.

I checked. It's about $1500 for a round trip ticket. A little out of my price range until I win the lottery

Ever since the IG-88A stats were released in a preview months ago, I've been excited about running it in tandem with the IG-88 Assassin Droid from Dark Times. Following a comment from Weeks, I played around with them in New Republic - obviously Dodonna's tempo control is great to help the Assassin Droid get his Opportunist, and Ganner's Levitation helped him get into position for shots or to pull the droids back to safety. I tried this squad in our Lower Hutt group a couple of months ago, and struggled - I only beat Kezzamachine's Lord Krayt squad due to some over-zealous attacking on his part, and then I was soundly beaten by a Zannah/Darth Bane squad where Zannah absorbed massive amounts of damage.

So the full (150 point) squad was:
48 IG-88A
43 IG-88, Assassin Droid
29 Ganner Rhysode
9 General Dodonna
8 R7 Astromech Droid
6 Mouse Droid x2
6 Ugnaught Demolitionist x2

I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to defend my title from last year, my best chance would be to reuse my Mace/Rex/Ferus squad from last year. But I decided to let my friend, who doesn't have Republic pieces, have a turn with it, and run my IG-88 squad, which I thought I'd have more fun with. I was expecting to see three predominant squad types - Mace squads, which the IG-88s would cope with well, Mandalore the Vindicated squads, which I thought would be 50/50, and Rebel Han Cannon squads, which would clownstomp the IG-88s.

While I didn't think it was top tier, I thought the New Republic IG-88s were a nice changeup, and I was encouraged by Sithborg's incessant championing of Dark Trooper squads in the Sith Holonetwork News chat and Hinkbert's on the money comment that "There's very little popular droid hate right now, heck IG-88 pretty much nerfs Mace, Atton and Kaan, so it seems to me that droids are ripe to be used." I've never been interested in running the stand and deliver Sep droids squads with IG-86s, but liked the idea of droids with movement potential - IG-88A can do 60 damage on the move, while Ganner can lob the Assassin Droid around. Having said that, I was still deciding between four different squads on the car-trip up to Hawera, but eventually went with the IG-88 squad.

We ended up with 14 players - it's the tournament's third year, and has been getting bigger each year, and we had a couple of players in their first ever big tournament.

Game 1
I wasn't expecting to see many Bastila squads at 150, but there were two in the field of 14, and I drew one of them first game. My opponent was running a strong conventional OR squad, with Bastila, Carth, Atton Jaq, a JBM, and an OR Senator, so it was definitely a tough matchup; I was concerned about the Carth/Senator combo's potential to pile damage on one of my droids. Fortunately I had a slight activation advantage, so I was able to setup for the end of round 2 where I levitated the Assassin Droid out, and pulse cannoned Atton and the Senator, killing the Senator and dropping 40 damage on Atton. That one move was enough to swing the game heavily in my favour and Bastila had to stop meditating and start fighting after just a round of Meditation. My opponent did manage to take down the Assassin Droid, but Ganner and IG-88A were still in good shape at the end. 3 points.

Game 2 - vs Dr Daman
Dr Daman won map roll, and was running a very tech-oriented Republic Zam Wesell/Tarpals squad on Cantina. It was a tough matchup for him - I just had to make sure I spread out and kept away from low cover. Afterwards, he reckoned my droids were too tough to take down, while I thought that my having Dodonna meant that it was too hard for him to out-manoeuver me and keep Zam (who was his only major attacker) safe. Either way, once IG-88 Assassin got some clear shots on Zam, needing 2s to hit, it was game over and Dr Daman conceded. He did have awesome customs of Zam and Dr Evazan though, which he hopefully will post sometime. 6 points.

Game 3
Richie had a nice New Republic squad with Saba Sebatyne, Jacen Solo, Leia JK, Dodonna, and Dash. It ended up being one of the tougher games I played - Saba's +2 made Dash much more dangerous, and he pumped out a lot of damage from the back. But ultimately, his two melee beats didn't have enough defence against my heavy shooters. My R7 locked Dash in a room for a round, keeping him out of play. Richie did manage to take down the Assassin Droid eventually, but Ganner lobbed IG-88A over to base and kill Dash. Dodonna was the unlikely star here - he combined fire with IG-88A, who without combining fire needed a four to finish off Saba - he rolled a 3! Dodonna then went on to finish the game by polishing off Richie's Dodonna. 9 points.

Game 4 - vs KFCs Waiting For You
KFC was running a very beefy low-activation Mace squad, with Mace, Master Yoda (who gives out Lightsaber Defense), and Ferus. It was a tough matchup for him - the droids are very hard for Mace to chew through, with their immunity to crits and their shields. My main objective here was to keep Ganner safe, since Mace could one-shot him - I basically surrounded him with all my other pieces and marched them up the board in a phalanx. Assassin Droid started the action with an uber pulse cannon, killing R2 and the Ugnaught, putting 10 each on Ferus and Mace, and somehow putting 40 on Yoda despite two re-rolls. After that, I was able to spread the damage out between Ganner and the two IGs, and they were all still alive at the end of the game. Mace put three crits on an IG-88 in one turn, but he was rolling Shields like a boss and only ended up taking 70 damage. 12 points.

Game 5 - vs Mike Moore Smuggler
Mike constructed a strong Mandalorian squad, with Mandalore the Vindicated, the Training Sergeant (who gave Mandalore evade), Demagol, a Crusader, and a Scientist. Despite winning four games on the trot, I still needed to get a point out of this game to guarantee a place in the final. Mike is infamous for his love of Rancor Pit, so fortunately I won map roll and was able to run Peaceful City where I could use my mobility to better effect. Mike made a mistake early, and allowed me to Pulse Cannon the Crusader, which was crucial as the Crusader is great at picking off fodder. After that the game was basically a firefight in a shooting lane with an evading Mandalore in cover in gambit at one end, and my two IG-88s at the other, with all the other pieces getting chucked in the way as meat-shields. His Demagol did a fantastic demolition job on my Ganner, hitting him for 80 points with a twin poison, then putting another 20 on him with a posthumous counter-push - it was a shame from his perspective that Demagol wasn't nearly as effective against my droids. But his Mandalore wasn't rolling well against my fodder, and I was eventually able to get enough damage through Evade and Beskergaam, so the game ended up with two still-healthy IG-88s finishing off his Mandalore. 15 points.

Final - vs KFCs Waiting For You
KFCs Waiting For You had won all his other games with his heavy Mace squad, so made it into the final. He won map roll, and used his home map of Rhen Var. This backfired - after a couple of rounds we were both approaching the gambit room - I'd picked off his Ugnaught with a Pulse Cannon at the end of the previous round. I won initiative, and made him go first. He was basically in a no-win situation, and after a lot of thinking he ran Ferus up the corridor towards my squad. Ganner lobbed Assassin Droid out, and the Assassin landed all four shots (needing anything but 1s). Ferus failed his lightsaber defense roll and was gone. Yoda went down next round, while my R7 was keeping his R2 out of the action by locking doors. Without R2, Mace had to chew through my fodder in the 2 wide corridor to get to my attackers, so spent two rounds killing Ugnaughts, Dodonna and Mouse Droids while taking masses of shots from the IG-88s. KFC had atrocious Lightsaber Defense saves, but even so he would have needed a lot of crits and a lot of failed shield rolls to stand a chance in this matchup after losing Ferus early. I ended up with all my three attackers relatively intact.

I was fortunate that I didn't have to face the Old Republic squad that came in at 3rd - Sharron had a really nice squad with Satele, Bastila, Carth, a Klaatoinian Captain, and a Senator - it out-activated mine, and I would have had an uphill battle against it, but because Sharron lost an early game to KFC's Mace squad I never had to play him in Swiss and he just missed out on the final. I'm sure Kez will post the full squads and stats at some point, but it was a fun tournament - there was a lot of diversity in the squad builds compared to the 2010 tournament where the majority of the squads were Rebel and New Republic.

Thank you, Graham, for that write up. I'll add to it in some way, but I should start be congratulating theHutts for yet another NZ Major title. Of the 7 Majors we've had in this country, he's won 6 of them. A truly dominant performance - and this from a guy who decided not to run anything like pilots or Mace, but rather something fun. 6-0 and another title?

Anyhoo, HaweraCon in the first Major on the NZ calendar and it's also the oldest - this being the third official one (with a couple of small-scale tournaments the two years before that which could be counted as HaweraCon's). This Major has only ever had one winner - Graham - beating myself in 2010, Hawera Dave (doug*platapus) in 2011 and Bob (kfc) this year. So far, this tournament is turning into 'whoever can make the final against Graham is the unofficial winner'... I think I'm the only guy who's beaten Graham in three HaweraCon's and that was during the Round Robin two years ago.

Graham's given you a play-by-play for his win, I thought I'd run over each of the players, their squads and how they fared... as best as I can recall! (It must be remembered that we run a 3-2-1 scoring system where you can still pick up a point on a loss if you get half of your opponents score, in this case 75pts plus.)

14th: Kahu - OR (Satele, Bastilla, Jaq, Mistryl, Evazan, Uggie) on Cantina, 0pts
This was Kahu's first tournament. He is 9 years old and is Dave's (doug*platapus) son and, most importantly, plays the game with that sense of excitement that can only come from a 9-year old boy. He played well and loved every moment of it. He knew lots of the rules and it won't be long before he gets his first competition point.

13th: Baz - Sith "Sith Explosion" (Zannah, Kaan, Bandon, T3-M4, Recruit, 2 Uggies, 4 Mousies) on Cantina, 4pts
This was Baz's first tournament too! He's a new Hawera player and has been playing for only 6 weeks, but coming from Warhammer he has managed to pick up the game quickly and played well. He nearly beat Bev (one of our seasoned pros) in the first game and took his first win to go 1-4. Hawera has done well to pick up this very keen new recruit!

12th: Bevan - Separatist "Thrice the Magic II" (Grievous HoH, Sidious, Lancer, Poggle, 6 Drones, MTB, Mousie and 3 Uggies) on Smuggler's Base, 6pts
After saying he's a seasoned pro, he did have a rough tournament! He was 2-0 with two hard-fought 2pt wins (Baz and Alan), but then had two excruciatingly close losses (to both the Dave's) before having the rough matchup with my Force Ghosts. In fact, there were only 3 games in the tournament that went to time - all of them involving Bev! He could have easily been vying for a spot in the final!

11th: Kurt - OR (Bastilla, Jaq, Carth, JBM, Senator, an Uggie, an R7) on Cantina, 6pts
Kurt loves to play the game but is not as much of a student of it as some of the others. Once his squad is ready to roll, he guns it. His two wins (Baz and Kahu) were lightning 3pt affairs, but so too his losses (to Graham, Ian and me). He commented to me that he 'has plans but forgets to enact them' which curses so many of us!

10th: Rich - NR "The Zedis" (Saba, Leia JK, Jacen, Dash, Dodonna, a Mousie, 2 Uggies) on Bothan HQ, 7pts
Rich - the sole Hamilton representative - surprised himself in his first game by winning 'by using tactics' which, by his own admission, is not something he often considers using. This was probably his best tournament as he independently constructed a really good squad and went 2-3, both of those wins being 3pt ones. He beat HaweraDave in round 1 before running Mike close in round 2 for a point. He couldn't keep up the momentum and lost to Graham before another win over Alan and finishing losing to Aaron. Still, he played really well and should be well pleased with his efforts this time.

9th: Hutt Dave/Dr. Daman - Republic "Oopa Gungan Style" (new Zam, Lobot, Foul, Tarpals, Qui-Gonn FS, R2, Rodian Dip., Brute, Uggie) on Cantina, 7pts
Hutt Dave was a finalist at the NZ Tournament (our last Major) and has been a big player in the Hutt for some time now. His Zam squad turned some heads and his first-up win over Alan showed that the squad was raring to go. Graham's already given you the low-down on their round 2 game and he then hit an OR squad run by the experience Aaron, who shut out his CEs. He then edged out Bevan in round 4 before losing the last game to put Bob into the final. It was a great squad and 9th doesn't really do it justice.

8th: Alan - Sith "Ladies Love Me, Love Me, Love Me!" (Zannah, Lomi, Traya, Exar FS, an Uggie, a Caamasi) on Peaceful City, 8pts
The ladies love Alan and he brought their love to Hawera. He competed really well and this could be the 'what if's' tournament as he picked up 1pt against Dr. Daman and Bevan in his first two games - close loses! - before getting his tournament back on track with a three-pt win against Baz. Rich beat him soundly after the tea break before he played his last game against Kahu to register his second 3pt win. Alan is always a great character to have at the tournaments and he delighted us with his pronunciation of Caamasi... or Kam-ma-sai...?

The Top 7 will be covered when I get back from my BBQ...

5th: Ian - Republic "Can o' Mace" (Mace, Rex, Olin, R2, 3 Mousies, 2 Uggies) on Rhen Var, 10pts
This is quite possibly Ian's best showing at a Major and it certainly can be a good tourney going 3-2. He didn't start well though, taking a first round loss to Mike, but then big wins over Kurt and me set him right on track. After dinner he came back to face Aaron in a must win, but he couldn't overcome the Aaron and his chances of a first finals showing fell away, despite picking up a point from that game. He finished strong, however, beaten HaweraDave in very, very close run thing. Kudos, too, to Ian who sometimes has trouble finishing games... his three wins were all 3pt ones.

4th: Mike - Mandalorian (Vindicated, Sgt., Demagol, Scientist, Crusader, 3 Uggies, 1 Mousie) on Rancor Pit, 10pts
Oh... so... close! Mike is banging, in fact, thumping on the door of winning a Major with a revised 3rd placing at NZcon and now a Top 4 that could have been much higher here. He has been loving Battle Ready and using that and Vindicated to brutal effect. He demolished me in our recent Hutt100 with a version of it and it was no surprise that he brought it here. His first round was a big win over Ian's Mace squad and he followed that up with a win over Rich's NR, even though Rich ran him close. The last game before tea was a game against the other Mace - run by Bob - and, despite pushing hard, he couldn't knock Bob over. After dinner he returned to form with another win, this time over Hawera Dave and then the matchup that would put him into the finals... squaring off against the Hutt. It was a tense final round game and you can read all about it in Graham's post above. There was a moment where Bev, the organiser/chief judge, had to come over and adjudicate, but apart from that it was a straight up fist fight, Graham taking the honours and ultimately ending Mike's excellent night.

3rd: Aaron/Sharron - OR (Satele, Bastilla, Carth, Senator, Klaat. Capt., 3 Uggies, 3 Mice) on Asteroid Base, 12pts
The only other person to win an NZ Major is this guy right here, so he's always in the running. He makes great squads and runs them well. He had a great tournament (despite his absence in the final) and has to be pleased with 4-1. He started with a hard fought win against me (I wasn't there) so that set him up for the top half of the draw. Unfortunately, he collided with Bob's Mace squad, and Bob, our current #1, fought well and managed to rob Aaron of any points. Aaron had to get back on track and did so with three wins on the trot against Hutt Dave, Ian and Rich, but his head-to-head loss against Bob hurt him. They both finished on 12 with four 3pt wins... sooo close!

2nd: Bob/kfcs waiting for you - Republic "Yeah, I Know It's Mace Again" (Mace, Master Yoda, Ferus, R2, an Uggie) on Rhen Var, 12pts
Bob was our #1, he held the Shield (our trophy that follows the winner game-by-game and it's highly prized), and won the previous tournament, the Hutt100, so he was keen to keep up the pace. He had decided at NZcon that it was his time to run Mace and try win something with it (which he did with the Hutt100) so he was there to win. He had a great pre-dinner run with 3pts wins against Kahu, Aaron and Mike. After dinner, however, it came unstuck with a loss to Graham, before he got back on track with a push for the finals knocking over Hutt Dave for the 12pt, final-making appearance. Unfortunately for Bob, that final was a repeat against Graham and you can read about that game above. Still, he was stoked with a finals appearance and played great tournament minis. It's also likely that he's still our #1... I'll work that out later.

1st: Graham/theHutts - NR "Iggies Pop" (IG-88A, IG-88 Ass., Ganner, Dodonna, an R7, 2 Mousies, 2 Uggies) on Peaceful City, 15pts
Well, I don't have to say much here as Graham's already covered it above.

SO , you pronounce it incorrectly then.

Great to see you guys are growing.

Congrats to the The Hutts, looks like it's a fun squad to run. Perhaps were are going to see the return of the droids with Vset 4.

So, Graham. I miscounted. We've only had the six majors. You've only won 5 - SO THERE!

Oh, and here's how the individual games went!

Round 1
Aaron (OR: Bastilla/Satele/Carth) beat Kez (Sith: Bastilla/Zannah/Ghosts) 150-0 on n/a
Mike (Mando: Vindicated/Sgt/Demagol) beat Ian (Rep: Mace/Rex/Ferus) 174-50 on Rancor Pit
Graham (NR: Ganner/IG-88s) beat Kurt (OR: Bastilla/Carth/Atton/JBM) 150-54 on Peaceful City
Rich (NR: Saba/Jacen/Dash/Leia) beat Dave (NR: Jaina/Jacen/Ganner/LFS) 162-89 on Ravaged Base
Bob (Rep: Mace/Yoda/Ferus/R2) beat Kahu (OR: Satele/Bastilla/Carth/Atton) 158-0 on Cantina
Daman (Rep: Zam/R2/Foul/Evazan/QGFS) beat Alan (Sith: Lomi Plo/Zannah/Traya/Ghost) 183-106 on Cantina
Bevan (Sep: GGHoH/Lancer/Poggles/Sidious) beat Baz (Sith: Kann/Zannah/Bandon) 124-112 on Smuggler's Base

Round 2
Kez (Sith: Bastilla/Zannah/Ghosts) beat Kahu (OR: Satele/Bastilla/Carth/Atton) 159-23 on Cantina
Bob (Rep: Mace/Yoda/Ferus/R2) beat Aaron (OR: Bastilla/Satele/Carth) 150-40 on Rhen Var Citadel
Mike (Mando: Vindicated/Sgt/Demagol) beat Rich (NR: Saba/Jacen/Dash/Leia) 164-106 on Rancor Pit
Graham (NR: Ganner/IG-88s) beat Daman (Rep: Zam/R2/Foul/Evazan/QGFS) 150-8 on Cantina
Dave (NR: Jaina/Jacen/Ganner/LFS) beat Baz (Sith: Kann/Zannah/Bandon) 156-65 on Ravaged Base
Ian (Rep: Mace/Rex/Ferus) beat Kurt (OR: Bastilla/Carth/Atton/JBM) 165-35 on Cantina
Bevan (Sep: GGHoH/Lancer/Poggles/Sidious) beat Alan (Sith: Lomi Plo/Zannah/Traya/Ghost) 130-112 on Peaceful City

Round 3
Bob (Rep: Mace/Yoda/Ferus/R2) beat Mike (Mando: Vindicated/Sgt/Demagol) 151-84 on Rancor Pit
Ian (Rep: Mace/Rex/Ferus) beat Kez (Sith: Bastilla/Zannah/Ghosts) 155-13 on Rhen Var
Kurt (OR: Bastilla/Carth/Atton/JBM) beat Kahu (OR: Satele/Bastilla/Carth/Atton) 174-38 on Cantina
Alan (Sith: Lomi Plo/Zannah/Traya/Ghost) beat Baz (Sith: Kann/Zannah/Bandon) 153-20 on Peaceful City
Graham (NR: Ganner/IG-88s) beat Rich (NR: Saba/Jacen/Dash/Leia) 150-64 on Bothan Spynet
Dave (NR: Jaina/Jacen/Ganner/LFS) beat Bevan (Sep: GGHoH/Lancer/Poggles/Sidious) 189-111 on Smuggler's Base
Aaron (OR: Bastilla/Satele/Carth) beat Daman (Rep: Zam/R2/Foul/Evazan/QGFS) 155-78 on Cantina

Round 4
Graham (NR: Ganner/IG-88s) beat Bob (Rep: Mace/Yoda/Ferus/R2) 148-16 on Peaceful City
Mike (Mando: Vindicated/Sgt/Demagol) beat Dave (NR: Jaina/Jacen/Ganner/LFS) 164-68 on Ravaged Base
Rich (NR: Saba/Jacen/Dash/Leia) beat Alan (Sith: Lomi Plo/Zannah/Traya/Ghost) 155-53 on Bothan Spynet
Kez (Sith: Bastilla/Zannah/Ghosts) beat Kurt (OR: Bastilla/Carth/Atton/JBM) 150-33 on Cantina
Baz (Sith: Kann/Zannah/Bandon) beat Kahu (OR: Satele/Bastilla/Carth/Atton) 150-42 on Cantina
Daman (Rep: Zam/R2/Foul/Evazan/QGFS) beat Bevan (Sep: GGHoH/Lancer/Poggles/Sidious) 153-140 on Cantina
Aaron (OR: Bastilla/Satele/Carth) beat Ian (Rep: Mace/Rex/Ferus) 149-75 on Rhen Var

Round 5
Alan (Sith: Lomi Plo/Zannah/Traya/Ghost) beat Kahu (OR: Satele/Bastilla/Carth/Atton) 150-10 on Peaceful City
Graham (NR: Ganner/IG-88s) beat Mike (Mando: Vindicated/Sgt/Demagol) 149-73 on Peaceful City
Bob (Rep: Mace/Yoda/Ferus/R2) beat Daman (Rep: Zam/R2/Foul/Evazan/QGFS) 160-74 on Cantina
Ian (Rep: Mace/Rex/Ferus) beat Dave (NR: Jaina/Jacen/Ganner/LFS) 150-133 on Rhen Var
Kez (Sith: Bastilla/Zannah/Ghosts) beat Bevan (Sep: GGHoH/Lancer/Poggles/Sidious) 66-39 on Cargo Docks
Aaron (OR: Bastilla/Satele/Carth) beat Rich (NR: Saba/Jacen/Dash/Leia) 157-57 on Asteroid Base
Kurt (OR: Bastilla/Carth/Atton/JBM) beat Baz (Sith: Kann/Zannah/Bandon) 170-50 on Cantina

Final
Graham (NR: Ganner/IG-88s) beat Bob (Rep: Mace/Yoda/Ferus/R2) 150-21 on Rhen Var