I called the FFG Center, and they said they aren't available yet, but they are apparently working to make them available, with enough for all IA participants to purchase one. I remember last year they had all the Bespin and Endor X-Wing mats out early, so hopefully we will see this too!

This would be referring to things like crates, terminals, objective tokens, dice, etc.
 
You still need to bring the relevant map tiles, so it's time to Bespin-up!

Imperial Assault Armies Designer https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01BWTG0A6/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awd_x_hfZdybGBV8E1V

You can't remove the white die added by Stealth Tactics with Element of Surprise.
 
Element of Surprise trigger is declare target, step 1.
 
Stealth Tactics is while defending, so it needs to happen before dice are rolled, i.e. immediately before step 2. This is after declare target.
 
(And even if it were, defender abilities are resolved after attacker abilities).

I asked this of the FFG Rules contact:
 
 
 
 
And the answer:
 
 

Unfortunately, no! Dice were, as they should be IMO, named out after Swiss. I could have literally won the Regional ... but not gotten dice.

I'm old and busted, and I can't concentrate on taking notes or pictures while my mind is in tournament mode, so my apologies if I get any details wrong. It's not a reflection of any squadrons or players at Fresno -- it was an unqualified positive experience. (Okay, slightly qualified ... the seven total hours on the road were a grind, given the personal outcome. But that was it.)

I fly with Golden Gate Aces, from the SF Bay Area. There were about 12 of us there, I think.

Pretty sure Fresno ended up with 57 players. Six rounds, top-eight cut. I elected not to use my Store Champ bye, saving it for Mountain View. I'm actually glad I didn't, but who knows? The TO was Garrett, who IMO did a good job. There were some people grumbling over multiple re-pairings, and he got some community help with necessary pairings at the end, but he was friendly and engaged throughout, moving quickly to make rulings, and I'm pretty sure he was the only official TO. I know how hard it is to TO a sizable tourney, so I was pushing back against the grumblers a little bit. Give the dude some slack, guys.

I flew Brace Yourself:

Biggs + R4-D6 + IntegA (26)
Keyan + Opportunist + ProTorp + AdvS + GuidC (40)
Wes + DTF (awww, yeah ... ) + R2-D2 + IntegA (34)

Round 1 - I was matched against Steven, a super-relaxed, super-nice Mynock Squadron associate. He was flying Chewbacca / Kanan. He hadn't, of course, seen what Brace Yourself can do, so he flew pretty much into the teeth, leading with Chewie, I suspect counting on HP, crit immunity, and Kanan-nerfing to carry him through the other side with superior positioning on me. Chewie took 8 damage in the first combat exchange (Wes whiffed, but pulled a token), and (because he had initiative) I guessed he would turn Chewie further into me rather than fleeing, and he did, so Chewie died in two rounds, even with some Kanan-nerfing in the second round. Steven recovered, though, and made it as much of a game as possible with 45% of his offense gone, and killed Biggs before Kanan dropped. Judging from his skill at that recovery, I count myself lucky to have caught him flat-footed, which is the only reason I got 100-26 (1-0, 174 MoV).

Round 2 - Dallas Parker's Crack Swarm. Goddammmmmmmit. Re-pair? Oh, awesome! Okay, different table, so now ... Dallas Parker's Crack Swarm. Really, X-Wing gods? Following Theorist's (IMO, well-considered) write-up of ID strategy, I called over the judge and offered Dallas an ID. He declined, citing, "Too early." (Really, he was citing, "This is a 65% / 35% match-up in my favor, and that's before any skill disparity, so, yeah, let's play.") I suspect, at first, he was regretting the decision. I was making good choices, the dice were definitely rewarding me, and he was down two Blacks (neither having used Crack Shot) before I lost Biggs. But he gradually out-flew me, the dice regressed toward the mean, and I fell 51-100 (1-1, 225 MoV, and wishing SoS was still a thing). Dallas is always fun to play against, and I never play above the Regionals level, so I don't get the chance often.

Round 3 - Chihuahuas! Another Crack Shot swarm (five A-wings with Adaptability, Crack Shot, and Autothusters). I cannot remember the player's name (orange "Keep Calm" shirt, definitely with a big group), and I wish I could, because he deserves credit for his good grace, in light of the one-sided game. (EDIT: Don T!) I'm not afraid of this list, given the lack of Howlrunner and Brace Yourself's own semi-immunities, and in a vacuum I'd put it at 60% / 40% in my favor. That's complicated by the fact that people that can fly A-wings well enough to take a swarm to a tournament are usually very good flyers, and the Chihuahua-wrangler was no exception. ... Unfortunately, the dice said -- oh, and unbelievably emphatically -- "Nee." I have never been involved in a more one-sided game in my favor. (Several in the other direction, but never one like this in my favor.) My reds were on fire, my greens were amazing, and his greens were garbage. There was simply nothing he could do, and no amount of great flying could help. His A-wings popped one by one. (To give you the most memorable example, I shot with Wes at Range 3, through a rock: 3 vs. 5 + AutoT + an evade token. He took a shield hit.) He was justifiably upset at the ridiculous disparity, but he never took it out on me. I did what I always hope people will do when this happens to me: play fast and make it clear you, as the benefactor, are well aware of your good fortune. I saw him at the end of the tourney, and he was in good spirits, despite his dice not having turned around much, so whatever community he's with is lucky to have him. 100-0 (not a typo; 2-1, 425 MoV).

Round 4 - Finally! The list I designed Brace Yourself to beat: triple JumpBastards, run by Gabriel, who I suspect is either Spanish or Portuguese. Heavy language barrier, but mostly on my side. He was very friendly, and impressively excellent at maneuvering three Large bases. And, wouldn't you know it, my good fortune from Round 3 flips around (not completely, because Round 3 was stoopid, but pretty bad). Gabriel only got one torpedo away, for 2 damage, and almost never fired with any modifications except for Wired on his Jump-bumper, but simply never got any non-hits, and I was around 10% evades. I also drew two crits in the game, both Direct Hits. I had killed the two Torp-boats (because, I mean, that's what my list does), and the Jump-bumper was down to 1 shield, when Keyan fell. 68-100 (2-2, 493 MoV).

At this point, I figured I had only the slimmest of chances, but my MoV was excellent (given my record) and I was still having fun, so I didn't drop.

Round 5 - William, another just unbelievably nice guy (X-Wing players have the highest incidents of being great than any gaming community I've been in, in my mumble-mumble years of gaming), flying Lothal + super-Dash. He was inexperienced (this was his first tournament), and it showed. In the first turn, he gave my entire squadron a shot on Dash with no tokens. Dash took 5 shields, and with no tokens and (consistently) poor red dice, he did no damage in return. In the second turn, I read his Lothal move and turned my attention there, doing 9 damage or so and blocking any 5-K next turn. Dash again, token-less due to inexperienced maneuvers, and rolling bad reds, landed no damage. He landed 1 hit on Biggs from the Lothal. I read the Lothal again, slipped into Range 1 with Keyan and an AdvS-BR, K-turned Wes and Biggs behind him, and landed 10 total damage. I was in position for Dash the next turn, and ended it there, having lost 1 shield for the game. I hope William sticks with the game, because he seems to love it and with experience and love comes "being good at it" (awww, yeah ... ). I don't know his final record, but if he only got two wins, I hope he knows that's excellent for a first tourney. 100-0 (3-2, 693 MoV).

So now I've done the math and I'm not mathematically eliminated, for sure, though my chances aren't great. I do have the highest MoV of the 3-2 players, and I have pretty good MoV for the entire list of players.

Round 6 - Unfortunately, I get paired against Michael Timpe, an excellent fellow GGA flyer. He designs fantastic squadrons, and I only say "unfortunately" because the squadron he has is IMO both good and ballsy (Slaver x2 with fantastic crew, JumpBastard torp-boat), but it's the kind of squadron Brace Yourself does eat for lunch. And that's pretty much what happened. I jumped quickly on what I think may have been a spacing mistake (one Slaver too far away), and mauled it, killing it and landing a little damage on the torp-boat in the second round of shooting. Over the next three or four rounds, he had landed damage on Biggs, but lost the other Slaver. Once I had position on the JumpBastard and landed a little damage, Michael conceded, even though I'm 90% sure he could have killed Biggs. It wouldn't have mattered (as it turned out) at all, but it was a gentlemanly gesture, and one of these days I'll get the chance to return it. 100-0 (4-2, 893 MoV(!)).

So, yeah, in six games, I didn't even lose Biggs in three of them. (We will ignore the ridiculous luck-fest of Round 3, and the likelihood I would have lost Biggs in Round 6, because it doesn't sound as impressive if I explain all that.)

The sweat begins, and as results come in I climb to 8th. But then ... there's only one game left, and whomever wins that game will push ahead of me. I finish 9th, 4-2, 893 MoV. (I am not certain, but I believe my MoV, even at 4-2, was the third-highest for the Swiss rounds. It was definitely in that ballpark.) Ah, well. Three GGAs made the top nine, which is pretty good. Our community is stronk!

One of them was my ride-mate, Darryl, and although he was willing to grab his dice and leave, as we'd decided we'd do before even coming to Fresno, I could tell he wanted to stay and play. This is Darryl's best big tourney finish (2nd in Swiss), to my knowledge, so I told him he could stay and play if he wanted, and as I expected, he jumped at the chance. Another GGA, Sam, did grab his dice and go, so -- since Darryl was staying -- I decided to stay in and play as well.

Top-Eight - I was matched up with James, another guy there with at least a few friends, and (as usual) another great guy to play X-Wing with. He was running Vader / Inquisitor / Omega Leader. We played cat-and-mouse for 45 minutes, because while he could arc-dodge me, if I did get my guns turned on a ship, he knew I could erase it. So he nibbled at my edges, getting Biggs' shields with a Homing Missile from Vader, then Wes's shields, while I scratched Vader's paint. It's hard to explain why, because there was not a tremendous amount of action in the game, but it was a really excellent game. I never quite managed to get a good Opportunist shot with Keyan's torp (given the aces' action economy, I needed Wes and Keyan on the same target, and James was very careful and skillful enough to not let that happen. (He was 1st after Swiss, after all!)) He eventually killed Biggs. Keyan was down a couple of shields, Wes was at 1 shield, 2 hull, and I'd gotten 1 shield off Vader, 2 shields off the Inquisitor, and I think 1 shield off Omega Leader.

Time was called. I had two shots: Wes at Range 1 versus the Inquisitor (neither of us with tokens) or Range 2 versus OL with 4 HP (Hull Upgrade) and an evade token. Keyan had a Range 2 versus OL, but ... Keyan's TL was on Vader, who had slipped out of arc. (I should say, at this point, that if I hadn't second-guessed myself and AdvS-BRed to try to catch Vader, I would have had Keyan -- with TL, a Proton Torp, and Opportunist -- pointed at the Inquisitor. But I did second-guess myself. It was a bad move, and IMO not one I would have made earlier in the day.) So James has Biggs' 26 points. The Inquisitor was worth 34, I think and had 2 HP.

So I rolled on the Inquisitor: hit, hit, blank, blank. Inquisitor's roll: blank, blank ... evade. Ouch for me!

Great, great game. Those are the games that I genuinely don't mind losing (and I seriously hate losing). It put a positive capper on the disappointment of being Bubble Boy, and took the trip from being "pretty good" to being "I'm very glad I made the spur-of-the-moment decision to go." (BTW, Darryl also lost his Top Eight game in a re-match with ... I wanna say "Joe"? 17-year old Mynock Squadron kid.)

Thanks again to Crazy Squirrel Games in Fresno, to the TO (Garrett), and to all my phenomenal opponents. Congrats to my squadron-mates, Darryl and Sam, who have pretty new dice! D. Yun, among about 20 people I am really glad I got to meet in person, I'm calling you out in particular. Continue to be most excellent and admirable in the field of ... just plain overall being right about stuff in general.

I love the Black Market Prices if you're taking high-costed command cards that become useless once a particular model has died. Using it with a Hired Gun or Alliance Smuggler is awesome.

Full tournament coverage of the Northern California Regionals, including all lists and results:
https://www.facebook.com/events/811133792325073/?active_tab=posts

I agree that he isn't an auto include. Heck, I think if any figure is an auto include, the game would need work. Such as the earlier problems with RGs and Rebel Sabs...
 
I think what makes Lando really good is including him with Luke and the Hide/Stun surge. Those two together give him a serious edge over the HKs, and the Hidden makes him significantly more survivable. Also, including him in the Rebels, which have the easier access to Focusing models, makes him better when running with a Rebel list. He isn't someone who we will be seeing allied into Scum that much, though ironically I think he'd be a perfect two faction model from a background standpoint.

Lando Calrissian
Put me down a Lando skeptic: I'm just not seeing how Lando is going to be competitive when he only rolls 2 attack die.  Sure you can re-roll your worst result and change the color of one of them but the fact is that's worth only about 1 damage: sometimes it will be great but sometimes you might just roll the same result (or potentially worse).  And sure, re-rolling your defense die and potentially changing it to an X-man will be great but that's just sometimes. I think this is worth less than just having 1 natural defense.
 
Let's compare Lando to the HK Assassin Droids that are doing well for Scum right now, since they're actually kind of similar.
On attack, Lando can swap the color while the HK's get 3 die instead of 2. Advantage: HK.
On defense, the HK force opposing re-rolls which I would argue is slightly better than re-rolling your own die, but Lando can change to a white die if appropriate. Slight advantage: Lando
Surges: No debate. Advantage: Lando.
Health per point: HK: 1.25, Lando 1.3. Slight Advantage Lando
Overall Point cost: for 8 points you get 2 HKs, for 6 points you get 1 unique Lando: Huge Advantage to the HKs
 
So I conclude that Lando, in most cases is going to be worse than HKs.  Perhaps that doesn't me he's out of Tier 1 play ability but I don't think he's an auto include either.
 
PS: For laughs, compared to Lando, Dengar is worse or equivalent in almost every way. Poor Dengar.

Yes, it's like a good version of Planning.

For completeness: here's thereisnotry's list from the NJ Regionals based on his report.
 
Deployment Cards
Elite Snowtrooper
Elite Stormtrooper
Elite Stormtrooper
Royal Guard
Imperial Officer
Imperial Officer

Command Cards
Bodyguard
Covering Fire
Deadeye
Element of Surprise
Fleet Footed
Grenadier
Inspiring Speech
Pummel
Rally
Reinforcements
Reinforcements
Take Initiative
Urgency
Of No Importance
Negation

We played the New Jersey Regional at Highlander Games & Comics today.  Big props to the Highlander store...they ran an outstanding tournament.  It ran smoothly, great gaming space, superb staff/employees, etc.  The owners love the game, and it shows in the way they run the tournament...they gave out some cool door prizes, raffle prizes, and even had a competition for painted miniatures.  And it's only a 30-minute drive from my house, so I hope to go there on a regular basis from now on.  

14 players (yay, no Bye!), 4 rounds, no playoff cut.  I brought my 3 boys (ages 9, 11, 12) with me and they had a great time.  One of my boys ended up in 8th place, so he got to take home those cool shiny dice he wanted so badly.
There was a decent variety in the squads, with 3-4 Rebels, and the rest of the squads approximately even between Imperials and Mercenaries.  There were quite a few trooper-centric squads.  The final was two Imperial Trooper squads.


I won, going 4-0 with my Super-Trooper squad.  

40 points

Deployment Cards
Elite Snowtrooper
Elite Stormtrooper
Elite Stormtrooper
Royal Guard
Imperial Officer
Imperial Officer

Command Cards
Bodyguard
Covering Fire
Deadeye
Element of Surprise
Fleet Footed
Grenadier
Inspiring Speech
Pummel
Rally
Reinforcements
Reinforcements
Take Initiative
Urgency
Of No Importance
Negation


Quick summary:

Round 1: vs a Bantha, eHK, Trandoshan, Tusken, Gideon, C3P0 squad...on Nelvaanian War Zone B (Constant Motion)
He wasn't using Beast Tamer, so the Bantha didn't end up having as much of an impact as it could've.  I was able to drop the Trandos and Tuskens fairly quickly, and the Bantha followed the next round.  It came down to his HKs and 3P0 left, vs most of my squad.  I had a single Royal Guard with 7 damage on him, who ran away to safety like a coward.  

Round 2: vs a Kayn Somos, eSnow, eHeavy (w Vader's Finest), Stormtrooper squad...on Training Ground B (Deception Game)
This was my closest match...but it was only close because I made a completely boneheaded move to send my Guards in offensively without enough firepower to back them up; I wanted to Stun those Focused eHeavies, but I lost my Guards in the process.  Lesson learned.  My opponent also played Reinforcements twice in the first 2 rounds, which allowed his eSnowtroopers to live until the end.  Oh, and Kayn kept getting healed by those eSnows, which was a pain, until he finally went down to some kamikaze troopers.  I was also able to kill off a group of regular Stormies, for a 16-8 win.  He conceded after his last figures were activated in the final round, and I was about to take down his last Snowtrooper and his last Heavy.  This was my only game that went to time all day.

Round 3: vs a eSab x2, rSab x2, eEcho, Gideon, 3P0 squad...on Training Zone A (Reprogrammed)
Wow, this one was intense!  My opponent focused 4 of his Sabs and kept them out of sight until the end of the 2nd round, when he moved a bunch of them up into the midst of my forces.  Then he went first the next round and played Squad Swarm, followed by Strength in Numbers, to activate his eSabs, then his other eSabs, and then his rSabs (1 of which was focused).  Wow, what a whirlwind of blast and damage!  However, I did manage to survive it without losing too many units (2, I think), and then I was able to swing back and pour out damage for the rest of the round, because I had little left to fear from what he had left to activate.  I had a big Grenade for 3 damage on 3 pieces, and my eStormtroopers were very reliable with their 5-damage attacks.  Command Cards played a HUGE part of this game for both of us.  It definitely could've gone either way, but the way that his dice worked (ie, not as many surges as he wanted), I was able to pull out a convincing victory in the end.  I was also careful to spread my forces out, so that he could usually only get groups of 2 or 3 for his Blast attacks.

Round 4: a mirror-match, mostly: eStorm x2, eSnow, eProbe x2, rOfficer...on Nelvaanian War Zone A (Fallout)
This is the mission that has doors that can be attacked.  I set up my eSnowtroopers to attack that door and each one ended up Focusing himself, which then allowed them to walk in to the center zone and blow things up really easily.  My opponent ended up conceding in the third round after I had taken a 21-0 lead, killing both of his eProbes, rOfficer, and his eStormtroopers, but not losing more than a trooper or two myself...and I was also carrying 18 VPs-worth of droid parts safely back to a terminal.  This was my opponent's first time playing this mission, and I think the game would be a little more even if we were to play again.
 

So it was a good day of IA Skirmish.  It was great to see so many Merc squads.  I think I'll start playing some Mercs, because I like the options they have now.
 
 
My 9-year-old's Darth Vader squad won 2 games...I wonder if Vader is a decent counter to trooper-swarms, since it's often difficult for them to get damage through on him?  Maybe he's too slow, but it's worth considering....

I played against a Bantha list that had no Beast Tamer...but it had Gideon and 3P0 to give a Focus each round to the Elite HKs...OUCH!!!

Not that it matters but she got 10th, I placed 9th with a "similar" troopers list. We were the only 3 Storm Troopers and 3 of 4 Empire players there. Good to see some Storm Trooper love though and congrats again sir! You played like a beast.

Didn't you win a regional event?  You should post your own list!

Has she forgiven you for turning down the ID yet? *8P

Great question. Really good points in response.
 
The way I see it, it's a chicken/egg thing. There's good points and bad points to collecting and distilling all the information down to try and find the "best" or "meta" lists. But I think it is valuable to the state of the game overall because it will help all players see what's working best, or the very least, what's being played the most to be prepared/have new ideas. Even with the three main archetypes that I've noticed there's been plenty of variance/spice in them. I personally play a beast tamer list but it's different than any of the ones I've seen most people play so far. I've been winning games with it. Whether that's a fluke or not I'll have to see at Regionals in May. But I made my list idea before I even had the Bantha in hand - I'm just happy to see I picked something that was relatively strong before it was shown to be in the meta.
 
But it's always good to see what other people are doing in the game, especially the ones who are successful. And nothing brings me more joy than to see an outlier list win a tourney!

Full tournament coverage of the Northern California Regionals, including all lists and results:
https://www.facebook.com/events/811133792325073/?active_tab=posts

Winning list from Northern California Regionals in Rohnert Park, CA on 4/23/16
 
Stormtrooper (Elite) x2
Stormtrooper
Royal Guard
Imperial Officer x3
Rule By Fear
 
Inspiring Speech
Element of Surprise
Reinforcements x2
Stealth Tactics
Grenadier
Urgency
Fleet Footed
Recovery
Set a Trap
Planning
New Orders
Negation
Focus
Take Initiative

Winning list from Northern California Regionals in Rohnert Park, CA on 4/23/16
 
Stormtrooper (Elite) x2
Stormtrooper
Royal Guard
Imperial Officer x3
Rule By Fear
 
Inspiring Speech
Element of Surprise
Reinforcements x2
Stealth Tactics
Grenadier
Urgency
Fleet Footed
Recovery
Set a Trap
Planning
New Orders
Negation
Focus
Take Initiative

Full tournament coverage of the Northern California Regionals, including all lists and results:
https://www.facebook.com/events/811133792325073/?active_tab=posts

I forgot about the FAQ ruling they made once they added the card "Lead By Example". But yeah, you're right, it is based off of actions.
 
Twin Shadows did a wonderful job turning some old rulings on their heads.
 
Guess you can call me Fizzflop now.

Wait ... so does this mean you can theoretically kill your own Hired Gun with Experimental Arms and thus trigger a 2nd attack in the same round? You are sacrificing a unit, but it DOES make them very interesting.