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| Not my anything, but fun stuff all over. |
So, I recently played in another Star Wars Legion tournament. This one way South at Inconceivable Games in Castle Rock. Again, my son was the driving force for this one. It was a bit of a drive and I had to pick him up, so that was farther out of my way. Plus, I was running a D&D session the next day and was trying to get things printed the night before the tournament. I failed to get it all done, but it didn't matter, because my group didn't go that way anyway. Cause that is how it works. Anyway, needless to say I was tired for this one. My goal was to get Dylan there and hoped he had fun. I had zero personal goals. Not even "win a game." But I did alright.
Well, let's get into it.
My list wasn't far off what I ran at Genghiscon. Dropped a unit of Pykes, picked up some Swoops.
Still only 8 activations, but now with an 7 point bid and a Battle Deck to go with it.
There was a costume contest, but I got lazy and left mine in the car.
Round 1:
Unfortunately, I was slow to get to posting this, and Tabletop.to is no more, so I lost a lot of data, like lists and actual names.
I faced Kellan(I think), who was running Republic. His list was Padme, Obiwan, 3 units of Clones with stuff, a Capo, and 3 units of Pykes with stuff.
Deployment: Disarray
Condition: Hostile Environment
Mission: Supplies
He deployed his Pykes on his side and the Clones, Padme, and Obiwan on my side. I deployed the Pykes, Swoops, and a Blacksun on his side, everything else on mine. The supplies were in the center(of course) along my left side, centered near my table edge, on my right edge very near my deployment zone, and between the corners of my deployment and his on my right, very near the center.
My opponent shuffled his Clones around to target various things, and roughly the same with the Pykes.
On turn two, Maul charges into some Pykes with the box in tow, Chokes and Standbys. The Blacksuns move up, doing some damage, and Mandos focus on the Pykes. He moves a lot of things towards my Pykes.
I should mention he got rid of all of his Suppression on his Pykes. I have noticed this on many players who play Pykes outside of Shadow Collective. They tend to not want Suppression. Yeah, you might lose and action, but you haven't lost a unit. Maybe I'm wrong, you will see why, soon.
Early on, I had decided I had three boxes easy. Maul had one, the Mandos on my right another, and Rook's unit had grabbed the middle. The one along my edge, I could grab, but mostly I was just pushing his clones back. My Pyke unit became expendable quickly. Their job was to look like they desperately wanted the one box I was never going to keep. This caused my opponent to commit Padme and Obiwan, plus other Clones. In the end, my Pykes, being right next to the edge, decided to Panic and go home. So, maybe I'm wrong about holding Suppression. But they had done a magnificent job. Obiwan grabbed the box, then turned for the center. Padme also headed for the center, and did some nice Supporting Fire action. But my Black Suns refused to go down, and my opponent just didn't have the time. I think he did manage to get the box along my edge, because I had 3 and couldn't be bothered to pick it up, while killing was to be done.
Win: 3-2
The whole game felt very in my favor. Towards the end, I didn't even feel the need to use my Command Cards for any real reason other than I had to play one.
Round 2:
My second round opponent's name I have completely forgotten. I'm a terrible person. I do know he was playing Empire with Iden. I had heard the name, so I was excited to get stomped by her. She is supposed to be real good.
His list had a bunch of Imperial stuff. Iden with droid, 2 man gun team, some dark/death troopers(?), a unit of speeder bikes(ooo, bikes on bikes), and shores and storms and maybe others.
Deployment: Hemmed In
Condition: Rapid Reinforcements
Mission: Supplies
I chose both units of Black Suns, cause yes, always. He chose a Shore and a Storm. I'm beginning to think my list is some strange enigma for people. I know it is my deck and all, but my opponents keep choosing the options for me. Well, except Bombing Run, but that was the last mission in both of my first two rounds.
The boxes are along my edge, behind a large building. On the left side of that same building, the center just passed some rock formations, by a spire to the right of my zone, and the last was across from my zone's right side, near his.
My opponent deploys his Iden between his zones, closer to the one on my left using her Infiltrate card. I decide not to use Maul's. He deployed mostly to the left, with a Shore and a Storm or two in the zone on my right. His two man gunner unit deployed on a building. I deployed the Pykes along my edge on the left, Mandos and Maul along the front, and Swoops on the right.
Things went pretty similar. The Pykes took their objective and also killed the speeders that tried to circle into kill them. One unit of Mandos claimed the center and retreated, while Rook's unit set on the rock formation screaming "look at me." Maul mauled the right side. My Black Suns over there grabbed the box near his deployment, and a Mando unit grabbed the one on my side. The Pykes had theirs, and the Mando from the center held his. The Black Suns on my left said "rawr, we have a box," and did a fair job of holding it. In the end, he went after the Black Suns, who died valiantly, then called it.
We did figure he would have been able to get the box on the left, so he would score that, but most of the board was mine, along with 4 boxes.
Win: 4-1
Wait, win? 2? Well, now I am on the top and about to get rolled.
Round 3:
Round 3 was against Clones, again. This was the player that beat Dylan in the first round. I'm interested to see how he plays. I'm looking for pointers for Dylan on how to take Shadow Collective.
For this one, I actually veto Supplies. Probably a bad choice, it has been doing work for me today, but I'm bored of it and want to try something new. Behind it is Bombing Run, which my jam, but an obvious veto. After that is Hostage Exchange, which I just printed models for the night before(instead of getting sleep). I didn't get to use them, though.
Deployment: Battle Lines
Condition: Hostile Environment
Mission: Bombing Run
Say what? Bombing Run. With a Clone foot army. Versus Mandos, Bikes, and Maul. So confused.
He had a couple Commanders, Padme, R2D2, and lots of Clones, with a sprinkling of named characters.
Deployment started basic enough... Oh, except he places Padme practically in my zone on the very left side. Maul dropped in to say "Hi." I place models across the board. He has 3 activation advantage with the Swoops' Reinforcement. I am spreading so nothing gets in. But he just keeps putting units in the corner. In the end, his whole block goes there. Everything. My Mandos are slightly weighted, but the Pykes and Black Suns are going to be crossing some serious space to get into this one.
He gives his bombs to various Clone units. He is also hoping to get Padme's and R2D2's Secret Missions. I end up placing mine on a Mando unit that placed far to my right, a Black Sun unit that has no opposition, and the Swoops on my left, which I hope to drop into his lines turn one with a boom.
Turn one, Maul goes first, jumps into Padme. She doesn't die, but is down 4 wounds. He moves up a little for long range shots. I run out of activations and the Swoops have to go earlier than I would like. they skip over Padme, doing another wound, slap R2D2 on the way, who pushed forward and took a Mando rocket, and drop the bomb behind them, but right near his line. I don't think I placed them very well, as he is able to kill one, move forward and pick up my bomb.
Turn two, Maul finishes of Padme and jumps across to lock R2D2 in combat and force choke his bomb carrier, who now has 2 bombs. My Mandos drop their bomb and move off towards his back lines. My Black Suns drop their bomb just outside of my explosion range, but theirs will go off on three, so they are safe. He murders my bike. R2D2 withdraws, but takes a lone shot from a Mando who can't see anything else and dies. He shoots some stuff, I shoot some stuff.
Turn two or three Maul dies, but my second bomb will go off. He has to move to pick up one of the two bombs, then another activation to get the other. His bomb caddies with bombs haven't moved forward yet. I have 2 points and a wall of flesh between him and any points. He calls it.
Win: 2-1
I felt very little pressure this game. I did him and haw about my Swoop activation on 1, and ended up still not nailing it. But other than that, it was pretty easy. My opponent did ask me if it was his turn 0. I thought it kind of was. He gave me too much board. I was able to uncontestedly run my bombs in. I probably should have put a bomb on another unit over there, but I wanted to use one aggressively. I could have dropped all three without a fight, while he had to slog through a bunch of surging red saves.
Aftermath:
I have spent a lot of time going over this event. I have only been playing two and a half months. I felt like I walked through my games. They weren't easy, but the ball was in my court far more than it was out. Some things I think I have decided:
- I don't play supplies right. I get a "these two are mine, those two are yours, lets do some stuff and then fight over the middle at the end" sort of vibe. I go with a more "see those supplies? Yeah? They are all mine" sort of approach. Neither opponent was moving on the boxes yet when I picked them up.
- There is very little aggressive play style to most Legion lists. Maybe a truck or some bikes, I have even faced Taun Tauns, but not whole lists whose only goal is to rush forward. Everything in my list, except the Pykes(which are getting pushed out) runs forward to fight.
- My opponents rely to heavily on order control. They want to play their army like a different game. I enjoy not having control. It makes me alter my plans continuously. Maybe it is my redundancy of units, but I don't seem to find it a down side like others seem to.
- I sacrifice unit to the meat grinder god like a good worshiper. My opponents spend a lot of time maintaining VP, but if I win the mission, my VP doesn't matter. Sacrifice a unit to drop the bomb and get the point? Done. I actually fear Breakthrough because of this, even though it is in my deck.
- My "look at the big scary shiny, while I go do the mission thing over her" play style works well in Legion, and especially with Shadow Collective.
All of that said, I had done the math(wrongly) and suspected there would be 5 undefeated. I was sure I was #5. What else could I be? There were good players here. But, I also had 1:30+ hours to think about it. Yeah, my final game went quick. I remathed, nope, after round one, the match ups would be even on top, and there would only be 4 undefeated. 4th place it is. Sam, a player I played at TEG(who walked me off the table), finished his round three, also undefeated and with time to spare. We both started to speculate, looking at TTTO and wondering. According to TTTO when his scored finally got cleared, he ranked below me. Then another 3-0 game finished and he ranked below Sam. Well, Gus was still playing and he won the Tacticon event, so at best I was looking at 2nd. Sam was looking at tie breaks and said SoS was dropping as player finished their games. Because their third opponent was no longer undefeated, of course. Sure enough Gus finished and dropped to third.
Out of nowhere, with too little sleep, and no motivation to do anything but play, I managed to win the event. My second tournament of Legion.
My record:
Tournament 1: Best Painted
Tournament 2: First Place
I spent the whole day, after round one, at the top, waiting to be crushed back to where I belong. I was shocked by every win. As much as by winning as by how well the games went. If we had another round, I am sure I would have lost. But I was sure of that every time pairings went up. It may have been luck of the draw. I don't know.
To add to the baffling events, afterwards there was a call to release lists. So that another player could see what I was running. I can't even....
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