Have I ever mentioned that I wished I lived in New Zealand? In case I haven't, I wish I lived in New Zealand.

I hope you guys all have a great time!

And may a squad without a Klatooinian Assasin win!
[Because you know I'm all about that Force, 'bout that Force, no Poggles....]

Wanna follow along the action?! You can at: https://www.facebook.com/SWMNZ2015

Well done, Graham.

More than one way to skin a cat and more than one way to build an imp double swap. So glad you did it with just boba!

hmmm, i'll congratulate you here, and move my rant somewhere else, great job

Awesome! Good to see you back on top again!

I really liked the idea of double swap - and to be fair, I did express my interest in Imperial double swap back in 2013:



I decided to change up the established double swap build a little - I decided early to go with a more extreme build with more activations where Boba was my only attacker. I played around with a build where I used Pellaeon to choose between Ozzel and the Imperial Governor as required, but I eventually decided I needed both. At that point, I realised Marn would be a really good fit - he would shut down my opponent's Lobot, and would mean that I could out-activate the majority of tournament builds.



Round 1: vs JP - Kyle JBM, Wedge, Han Corellian, TBSV, Chewbacca on Rancor Pit
This was actually one of the worst possible matchups for my squad, with evade, disruptive, never tell me the odds, and a huge beefy bodyguard. JP set up a little loosey - he probably should have got all his key pieces around Chewbacca, but he had Kyle in gambit with a Mouse, and everyone else further back. I waited him out, then swapped in Boba, and hit Chewie three times, including a crit. I won init and swapped out again, and next round I got to ping Kyle at the end of the round - I hit three times and he failed all three evade saves. End of the next round I pinged Kyle again, and then swapped in Evazan to finish him off, then it was relatively easy for Boba to pick off the other attackers one by one. Really tough matchup, but at the same time, I hold a lot of the cards with my extra activations and movements, and Figrin can turn off evade for a round - but I probably would have had to settle for a hard fought 2 point win if I hadn't got really lucky with the crit and the failed evade saves.

Round 2: vs Hayden - Cad BH, Assaj, Aurra, Hondo on Cantina
I always play Hayden first or second round at major tournaments..... Hayden was playing a low activation bounty hunter squad with no San Hill or Lobot. He didn't really have anything to keep up with my movement and activation advantage, although I did have an anxious moment when I underestimated Assaj's range when she charged 12 to hit Boba for 60 - she would have killed him with a crit. At that point she was the only attacker standing and had taken some damage, so Evazan would have been able to finish her off (as long as I didn't roll a 1 for initiative).

Round 3: vs Darth Moore - Boba, Mira, Imperial Governor, Thrawn on Jabba's Palace
I don't think Paul was very excited about playing in a mirror match that outactivated him. First round I waited him out, launched my Amanin 18 squares, swapped in Lobot, ran some more, opened 2 doors (finished next to one, then overrode the other open), swapped in Boba, and killed Thrawn. Paul conceded, then argued that my swap was illegal because my Thrawn was locked away in a room. My understanding was that I could use my Mouse Droid positioned outside the locked room to spread my swap CE boardwide (as long as I could count squares), but I was overruled by everyone else, so we started again. (for the record, I was correct - the Mouse is allowed to do that: http://www.bloomilk.com/Forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=9235).

In the confusion of starting again quickly, I accidentally grabbed two of Paul's Rodians, accentuating my activation advantage. Because we played three times altogether (we met again in the semis), this game is kind of blurry to me. I think I ended up tracking down his Boba with mine, and putting 90 on him. He won initiative, and shot my Boba then moved away, but I was able to kill his Boba then get my Boba off to safety. I can't remember what happened after that, but I got a 3 point win. Because of the murky circumstances of my win (although in hindsight, my first win was totally legal), Paul was awarded 1 point in his loss, which ultimately meant that he finished 3rd after Swiss, and was matched with me again in the semis.


Round 4: vs Sharron - Professor Luke's Art Class (with Gha Nachkt) on Jabbas's Palace
Again, I played Sharron twice so I'm having trouble recalling exactly what happened. Sharron was playing Lobot, Marn, and Gha Nachkt, so he could potentially access a 15 Mouse Droid dump. The thing I didn't think through properly was that he didn't actually want to steal my reinforcements with Marn, but wanted to bring in 5 Mouse Droids instead.

This is how it works - Sharron starts with 11 activations, and I start with 13:
(1) Sharron brings in 15 Mouse Droids, I bring in my max of 9 - I use Marn to steal 5 of his Mouse Droids, he keeps his Mouse Droids - it means I get 11 net reinforcements, and he gets 10.

(2) Sharron brings in 15 Mouse Droids, I bring in my max of 9 - we both steal each others reinforcements with Marn, I end up with 11 net reinforcements, and he gets 8.

(3) Sharron brings in 3 acts with Lobot and 5 Mouse Droids with Marn, I bring in my max of 9 - we both keep our reinforcements, I end up with 9 net reinforcements and he ends up with 8.

(4) Sharron brings in 3 acts with Lobot and 5 Mouse Droids with Marn, I bring in 3 activations with Marn and 2 with Lobot (with Momaw) - he ends up with 8 net reinforcements, and I end up with 5.

For some reason, I chose (4).... So if I'd thought about it properly, I could have potentially started the game with 22 activations to 19, which would have made my life much easier.

This was the only game where I lost Boba - I underestimated Jarael's massive range with levitate, Speed 8, a force point, and GMA, and just didn't keep far enough away from his big threats. Luke missed lots of attacks to miss killing Boba, then Boba rolled a 1 and missed out on killing Jarael, before Luke tracked down Boba. I just didn't achieve enough constructive things in the game, and ended up losing convincingly. This was actually a good thing, as it put me in second place after Swiss, which meant that I got to play Darth Moore's Thrawn double swap again in the semis.

I'll write about the other games later.

you'll always need luck in this game. That's no reason to feel hollow.

To win you need a good squad, a good strategy, good tactics and a healthy dose of luck at the right times.

Congrats on the win!