In approximately 25 minutes (or so), the second ever HamilCon will take place in the city of Hamilton in New Zealand. It's the second Major on the NZ calendar (following HaweraCon in the previous October) and is the first chance for us to flex our 200pt muscle. This time, however, to mark the date (and because the TO Richie loves to mix it up), the points value is 222 which is going to bring some interesting squads to the table. Add to this that we have made a decision to not allow Vset7 pieces in official NZ games until after HamilCon (so we can at least enjoy 2 majors under the Vset6 Meta). It's gonna be a blast!

This tournament also stands out as a further test of Admiral Daala and her Zygerian friends, who have been a topic of conversation of late. Anyhoo, over the next several hours, as soon as we get news of the tournament, Graham (Hutts) and I (me) will post it here for you to mull over (what better way for the two of us to earn our HoFness?).

Let the good times roll.

Our ten players are:

Hamilton:
Nick: Fringe Talon (I assume)
Richie (Darth Rattlehead): Old Republic Klats

Hawera:
Baz: Seps with Durge and new Wheel Bike

Bev: (last year's champion)
Running Cad Seps with Lancer (Bev is arguably our best Lancer player - and if he's not, it's probably Mike, who's also running Lancer).

Dave (doug*platypus):
Old Republic Beef

Lower Hutt Group:
Aaron (Sharron): (winner of LowerHuttACon 2011)
Running Snow Troopers with Daala

Dave (Dr Daman): (winner of LowerHuttACon 2013, and NZ National Champs 2013)
last I heard, this was Dave's planned squad:
--Daala Prime--
27 Admiral Daala
20 Admiral Piett
16 Grand Admiral Rulf Yage
15 Flim
13 Stormtrooper on Repulsor Sled
24 Elite Scout Trooper x2
11 Admiral Ozzel
11 Captain Needa
8 Mas Amedda
8 R7 Astromech Droid
16 Zygerrian Slaver x2
44 Raxus Prime Trooper x11
9 Ugnaught Demolitionist x3
(222pts. 27 activations)

Mike (Mike Moore Smuggler):
Running Lancer

Paul (Darth Moore): (winner of HaweraCon 2013)
Running Caedus/Zannah

Wellington:
Stuart:
Running Luke and Leia on Speeder

So it's generally our smallest major, but the field does feature four of the five NZ players who have previously won a major, so it's definitely tough. We'll keep you posted.

No one running Republic which is weird - I would have expected some Naboo or Yobuck given the expectation of Daala.

OK - after round 1:
Sharron: 3 points
Mike: 2 points
Dave Daman: 2 points
Paul: 2 points
Bev: 2 points
Everyone else: 0 points

Sharron beat Stu
Mike beat Dave Platypus
Daman beat Rich
Bev beat Baz
Paul beat Nick

Are you and Kez not playing Graham?

Oh I misunderstood I thought you guys were there on location posting this stuff, my bad!

Pft the garden, plants grow all by themselves! They don't need our help!


(I wish I had pictures of the 3 dead house plants I have on my windowsill that all died this week.)

Round 4
Aaron bt Mike
Bev bt Nick
Dave Daman bt Paul
Stu bt Baz
Dave Platypus bt Rich

Standings after Round 4
Dave 10
Aaron 9
Mike 7
Bev 5
Dave Platypus 5
Paul 4?
Stu 4?
Rich 3?
Baz 2?
Nick ?

Semis!
It's Dave Daman vs Bev
and Aaron vs Mike!

Not especially surprisingly, it's an all Daala final. Sounds like Daman dealt with Bev's Lancer/Cad Bane BH squad fairly easily and demoralisingly, while Sharron won a tough arm wrestle with Mike. So we still have only one instance of a Daala squad losing to a non-Daala squad in a tournament game since we started using her in September - and I imagine we're probably pushing up to around 25 such games?

I'm signing off for tonight, hopefully someone will be along to update the final for you, and hopefully there'll be more squad details soon. Will it be Sharron's Snow Troopers or Daman's Raxus Primes?

Congratulations Aaron! Even though you won with the cheapest, nastiest squad :P

Dave/Daman responds: "We didn't have time for a final so we have declared that Aaron is the winner. He had to play Mike's squad twice and beat it both times and that squad was the only one with a chance to beat either of us. Though i did beat Aaron earlier, it was a map mistake he wasn't going to make again. Well done mate, you desrve this one."