Austin Regionals Report.

[Austin Regionals Report.]

I wanted to post a report as well and confirm some of the things that OP posted. I'm Tim, made it to Top4 and played against OP in Round 3 and practiced with him ahead of time.

 

I echo the shout out to Mothership in Austin, was a nice environment and everyone was friendly and in good spirits even in defeat.

 

My deployment list was the following:

 

eSnowtrooper

eStormtrooper

 +Cross-Training

eStormtrooper

eISB Infiltrator

Imperial Officer

Zillo Technique

Rule by Fear

 

Command Deck:

 

Grenadier

Comm Disruption

Reinforcements

Reinforcements

Hit and Run

Intelligence Leak

Negation

Rank and File

Strategic Shift

Tough Luck

Disorient

Element of Surprise

Planning

Take Initiative

Urgency

 

Notes on the list:

 

I was really trying to play things outside of troopers in the weeks leading up to the tournament. For a bit I was on Boba, Blaise, eISB, eISB, Officer, Officer, Zillo, RbF, TA. I tried switching Boba to Inquisitor+eProbe. I tried a few different variations of Heroic Effort lists. I tried some Scum lists that brought in eEchos and Gideon with a variety of other units. I tried to make Trando's great again. Consistency was the issue. To a turning point I would do well, and then troopers would just overtake and overrun. Comfortably making it into the Top8 was my goal of the tournament, stretch-goal being T4. Trophy if magic happened.

 

So I settled. Imp. Troopers earlier this year in the Ft. Worth Regional got me to Top4 going out against OP on Rebel Troopers. Spies added a whole new dimension to make the great greater. Snows--as OP alluded to--are great with Zillo. They were my MVPs of the day on my side of the board. They are so damned hard to kill and many times are left on one or two HP only to get healed up with recovery gear. On Dianoga in Top8 they effectively won the game for me which we will get to in a bit. Cross-Training is a game changer. I generally went with roll Black. White die was reserved for certain cases: Anything rolling >=3 dice on attack or HP < 3. ISB group + CT'd Storms gave me two spy groups for Comm Disruption which would take care of reinforcements--my main concern. With the snows, I felt like I could soak the grenade so I wasn't that concerned at getting to three spy groups. The main concern that I had with the list going into the tournament is I really don't like playing under six act. Five activations feels much less flexible than six. I postulated dropping the spies out of the list and going to a six act double eSnow just for that case however I hadn't practiced it and felt like the practice would help more in the long run.

 

Round 1: (Constant Motion)

 

Opponent: Jason N.

 

List:

 

Bantha Rider

HK Assassin Droid

eTusken Raider

Nexu

Hired Gun

Gideon Argus

C-3P0

Beast Tamer

Devious

Temporary Alliance

 

Command Deck (Speculation): Crush, Grisly Contest, Jundland Terror x2, Ferocity, Field Tactician, Negation, Roar, Single Purpose, Survival Instincts, Element of Surprise, Opportunistic, Planning, Rally, Urgency

 

I'm not sure about Roar, but I think I saw all the others. Jason and I play many games together and practiced with each other pretty regularly in the weeks leading up to the event. He was on a slump and decided on Bantha at OPs suggestion. For two weeks, he played nothing else and was beating me pretty consistently though the games were close. I really didn't want to face him in the first round, specifically on Constant Motion where the corridor is the key to the game and the Bantha is pure disrupt of the corridor.

 

I had been playing the match fairly directly recently and just rushing the corridor to success, but knowing the Bantha's ability to get in there and muck everything up I played a different strategy. Turn one I spent positioning, knowing the extent of the Bantha's reach and that it would be in my grill at the end. I also knew I would need command cards so I went to the top of the map which is something I normally don't even worry about on Constant Motion. This drew the Nexu and a Hired Gun out. Also knowing that the focused HK's were the real threat to my list. I drew the Bantha into the center instead of the corridor turn one. Success.

 

Turn Two, the Bantha goes again and does Bantha things. I saw an opening to put a grenade on the HKs and went for it. Rolled 1, sigh. Still all good. The Bantha had already gone, the HKs were unfocused as Gideon and 3P0 hadn't acted yet. I could swarm with squads. Kept going in and I picked off the Nexu, a Hired gun, and an HK. I was feeling good about the game and kept pressing, mostly ignoring the Bantha as I was fairly spread out except in one place. That one place came back to bite me in the butt on turn three. Bantha, single purpose, trample 3 damage, trample 3 damage. 2 Snows and a Storm down. 20 pt swing Jason's way. At this point we are at 38-36 in my favor. I don't remember the specifics of the end game, but I'm pretty sure my officer focused on a shot to the Bantha end of turn three and then killed Jason's Gideon on turn four.

 

1-0

 

Round 2: (Reconnaissance)

 

Opponent: Hunter

 

List:

 

eStormtrooper

eStormtrooper

Snowtrooper

Heavy Stormtropper

 +Targeting Computer

Probe Droid

Imperial Officer

Imperial Officer

Zillo Technique

 

Not sure on command deck other than the usual trooper stuff.

 

Closest match of the day by far. It ended 40-39 in my favor. It came down to camera spots as my dice had turned off and I had to not rely on killing things. Snowtroopers worked really well by allowing me to ignore opposing figures for movement and get best camera placements. 20+ of my points came off of cams. It was a usual trooper fight other than that. I remember my grenade only rolled a 1 again (6 figures in blast) and his Snows quickly removed the damage. I don't really remember the round to round specifics, but I had a really hard time killing the Heavies even at close range. The last turn cam placement pushed him to 39 and me to 40. He was on initiative so he would have won the tiebreaker if he could have gotten one more unit in sight.

 

2-0

 

Round 3: (To Your Stations!)

 

I played against OP (see his post for lists [subtract one Rule by Fear obviously] and details from his perspective). 

 

I agree with most of what Brad said other than the nickname. He definitely outmaneuvered me in the match. I also made some rash decisions which were errors. I tossed my grenade at a lone Heavy trooper on one HP to ensure the kill of the group rather than holding it to throw at a better target. Blaise was already dead so I was pretty sure it couldn't be countered or forced to discard. 

 

2-1

 

Round 4: (Fallout)

 

Opponent: Don

 

List:

 

(I could be mistaken here, but this is what I think it was--I was really hungry and the rounds were starting to run together)

eSnowtrooper

eStormtrooper

eStormtrooper

Probe Droid

Probe Droid

Imperial Officer

Imperial Officer

Zillo Technique

Rule by Fear

 

My opponent openly stated that this was his first tournament and he almost played the exact same list I was on, but he wasn't as comfortable with the spy stuff yet. There were some mistakes made that confirmed this. I'm only remembering a few things from the game but at the end of round one he exploded both probes in a group of troopers by the center terminal. They did three damage total to each unit and my first activation next turn was eSnow to heal it up. But that is a six point swing in my favor with no losses. I also started on the side of the map with easier access to two droids and turned in 18 pts on round three. 24 points without killing anything myself is awesome. From there I just started to harass and he kept in and near his deployment zone instead of pushing in. Eventually enough was killed to push me over 40. I think it was 40-21 in the end.

 

3-1

 

Strength of Schedule pushed me to seed third. Huzzah, dice set complete.

 

Top8: (Dianoga)

 

Opponent: Hunter

 

List: see above (Rd. 2)

 

My same opponent from round two 40-39 victory. I knew it was going to be a close game again as my Dianoga game is rather slow and he had Computer Heavies. The great thing about eSnows is that not only do they move freely in the muck, but they can tank the Dianoga if they aren't pressured. They weren't pressured. Heal/Shoot. Average 1-2 damage going in because of [~ pierce 2]. I was really lucky that he had a turn where his heavies both were a step out of position and missed range on the Dianoga. Dianoga points went 19-6 in my favor before anything full unit was killed, but I ran both of my eStorm groups to the far terminal and oppressed the outside of the map and shot into his deployment zone. Eventually I took down enough to points out. I think the final was 40-28 or somewhere near there.

 

Top4: (One Man's Trash) -- AKA Cool Ass Dial Achievement Unlocked.

 

Opponent: JD

 

List: see OPs post

 

I feel like tired-head really got me in this game. I made a number of play mistakes and it was still really close. For one, I thought with the eSnows I could fast track crate pickup and score quick. I gave up a few shots for crates early and it came to bite me in the ass. I got an eStorm squad down fairly early with a grenade and some shots so I got a bit big headed. I probably also did some activations out of order. JD sent an eStorm squad down the hallway and I did pretty well against them with the eISBs, but could never secure the whole group. Then I activated my Storm groups out of order which led to the last guy in the CT'd group dying before he could act--the other would have probably survived to the ISB that came down. It still ended up being a really close game and JD is a good player so I went into it thinking it was a crapshoot.

 

Overall the event was a good time. I'll try to come back and post some overall thoughts on the game later like Brad did.

[Scum: List Critique]

So I've been thinking about a list and was wondering if I could get the communities input.

 

Scum and Villainy:

 Trandoshans - 7

 Trandoshans - 7

 Trandoshans - 7

 Gideon - 3

 Saboteurs - 5

 Nexu - 4

 Elite Nexu - 6

 Alliance - 1

 

Gives me seven deployment cards which seems to be a huge advantage.  Not sure what to do on the command deck yet; suggestions would be excellent.

[FFG - Can you please provide the Skirmish maps as images?]

+1 Would make events run smooth.