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Venishing Act - GenCon 2018 4th place play report (plus the rest of GenCon) Options
FlyingArrow
Posted: Monday, August 6, 2018 9:49:26 PM
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Joined: 5/26/2009
Posts: 8,407
Thursday morning I ran a Star Wars: Destiny tournament. It actually went really well considering I had only played the starter set. There were only two rules questions. For one, another player knew the answer and for the other the Internet found the answer for me pretty quickly. It was a small (8 player) tournament that swmgamers ran as a more casual alternative to the big Fantasy Flight tournament.

Thursday afternoon was the GenCon Star Wars Miniatures championship event.

Championships

--Venishing Act--
46 Ven Zallow, Jedi Master
33 Bastila Shan, Jedi Master
30 Arfan Ramos
19 Elite Wookiee Commando
18 Wookiee Commander
33 Wookiee Scoundrel x3
8 R7 Astromech Droid
4 Prowler 1000 Seeker Droid
3 Ugnaught Demolitionist
6 XT-6 Droid x2

(200pts. 13 activations)
Map: Imperial Plaza

Round 1
Opponent: DarkDracul
Squad: Super-stealth Black Sun with Ziro

Played on my map. I started on left. An unforgettable game, but not in a good way. I got to gambit in round 1 but he didn't get there until round 2, so I had a 10 point lead. He tried to bait me into making one of my pieces vulnerable, but I didn't bite. I stayed in gambit waiting for him. Near the end of round 4, I realized I could step into a room and he wouldn't be able to get to me the next round. I had the gambit lead and if there's no attack, damage, or save for 5 rounds the game ends. I felt kind of like a jerk for doing it, but it's GenCon and it was a win. 50-40, 2-0 win.

1-0, 2 points.


Round 2
Opponent: DarthNewt
Squad: Imperial Echanis

Played on my map. I started on left. Super-stealth really hurt the Echanis. He had a good approach that had me splitting my forces to protect both Bastila across the top as well as gambit, but the Echanis were picked off one-by-one. 3-0 win.

2-0, 5 points.

Round 3
Opponent: DarthFrenchy
Squad: Yoda's Friends Throw Their Toys (or a variant)

Played on Outlaw City. I made a big mistake by not noticing Lobot and that eventually led to me losing my R7. He got to Bastila with Yobuck, then swapped in Evazan. Evazan died, but Bastila was reeling. Then Yoda ran back in again to finish the job. Not really a close game, but the score might have looked that way. We both played slow and only finished 4 rounds. We almost only got in 3. After 3, it was 56-36, but after 4 he killed Bastila and also got a couple Wookiees so it was 140-62. 2-0 loss.

2-1, 5 points.

Round 4
Opponent: Caedus
Squad: Vong Uniques

Played on Imperial Plaza. I was able to do what you need to do against that Vong squad - keep your distance and kill the Uniques one at a time. Once I got his 3 big hitters, that was pretty much the game. 3-0 win.

3-1, 8 points.

Finished 3rd out of 14 in Swiss.

Top 6, Round 1
Opponent: UrbanShmi
Squad: Ven + Pilots

Played on Imperial Plaza. I was on the right of this map for the first time all day. I had Arfan Ramos out front. I don't remember if I just posted him out there or he had run out to kill something, but he was within striking distance but some bad rolls for UrbanShmi meant he lived through a bunch of attacks, and that in the process left several of her pieces vulnerable to the Wookiee shooting gallery. Their dice weren't so bad, and Arfan was her only major kill of the skirmish. 3-0 win.

Semifinals
Opponent: urbanjedi
Squad: Vader of Lothal, 100pt Sidious, Death Trooper, Elite Scout

Played on Modular Base. I was in the speeder bay to start. Near the end, I neglected to pay Force and say I was moving faster before moving. That meant I basicall lost a turn with Ven. He killed the Death Trooper with one attack instead of going to put a bunch of damage on the Emperor or Vader (I forget which). I was probably going to lose anyway, but that was the nail in the coffin. There was of course a whole skirmish that happened - I actually got to 109 points without killing either Vader or Sidious. Vader mostly ran in with Surprise Move/Attack, killed a Wookiee, and ran out on his own turn. But mostly I just remember that Move Faster turn. 3-1 loss.

The top seed also lost in the semifinals, so that left me as 4th place for the tournament. I'm happy with that showing.
FlyingArrow
Posted: Monday, August 6, 2018 9:50:39 PM
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Joined: 5/26/2009
Posts: 8,407
Friday

Custom Star Wars Miniatures was the first event. I had previously cut and glued together a Chirrut Imwe that needed paint. So I brought that with me and painted him. I also put together a Trandoshan-to-be-named-later.

Epic Fantastic 4
There were 6 contestants in the Epic Fantastic 4 Tournament. Here's my squad:

--Extra Jolty (GenCon 2018 Epic Fantastic 4 champion)--
136 Han Solo and Chewbacca
54 Cad Bane
44 Luke Skywalker, Hero of Endor
13 Czerka Scientist

(247pts. 4 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/187422/extra-jolty--gencon-2018-epic-fantastic-4-champion-

Round 1
Opponent: Bob
Squad: Epic Grievous, IG-88 Assassin Droid, HK-47 Assassin Droid, IG-110 Lightsaber Droid

My squad worked just like it was supposed to. Mostly. Grievous was able to come in and kill Cad before he even got a shot off, but Han and Chewie's 4 shots of Accurate let me steal turns from the droids repeatedly. One round, Han killed the IG-110 and then activated both IG-88 and HK-47. That was a good round for me, and that round was big enough that it pretty much sealed the game.

1-0


Round 2
Opponent: UrbanShmi
Squad: 100pt Sid, 72pt Vader, Boba Assassin for Hire, Mako

We wound up on a pretty open map, so my shooters got a round or 2 of free shots before melee reached us. Once they did, Han/Chewie's Disruptive took away Sid's CE, so we rolled real inits. It was a battle, but the Rebels came out on top.

2-0


Round 3
Opponent: TimmerB
Squad: Epic Exar, Maul Infiltrator, Watto, Malakili

Played on Outlaw City, but Epic Fantastic 4 is played on a half-map. (Turn the map sideways and ignore then left and right quarters.) I thought this would be a loss for me, since Maul with Overwhelming Ambush could kill any of my guys except the Duo in one activation, and could nearly kill the Duo, too. But I managed to park the Duo in front of Maul while activated, so Maul didn't get his Ambush and Overwhelming was distracted. Not that it mattered much since only Luke could defend against Melee anyway. The big thing was that he didn't get Ambush, so Maul rolled in and did like 80 or 100 instead of nearly killing them. Maul then went down pretty quickly from the Duo followed by Luke. Exar was much tougher to fight through. He activated Cad Bane with Sith Sorcery every round from round 2 on. But Duo and Luke made their saves pretty consistently. It was very close and came down to the last init, but Rebels pulled it out.

Here's an action photo of the exciting match-up: Link

3-0, tournament champion

Tile Wars
There were 7 contestants in Tile Wars. Here's my squad:
--Dance of the Expendables (Tile Wars 2018)--
54 Darth Caedus, Sith Lord
30 Vergere
28 Mira of Nar Shaddaa
16 Vision in the Cave
15 Ree-Yees
15 Sith Holocron
14 Exar Kun, Dark Force Spirit
12 LIN Demolitionmech
8 Muun Tactics Broker
4 Sith Recruit
3 XT-6 Droid

(199pts. 11 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/190552/dance-of-the-expendables--tile-wars-2018-

Round 1
I played a Sith Trooper squad with Darth Talon. A swarm in Tile Wars is a sight to behold with all those troopers crammed onto the tile. I think he had over 15 activations. It wound up being a lot closer than I expected. The initial Sith Battle Manipulation worked great, taking out most of his squad. But I made a few mistakes (this being the first time I had played my squad). First, I literally forgot to put the Sith Holocron on the board and didn't notice until round 3 or so... so I didn't even get those Force points at all. Second, I set up with Caedus 1 square too far away from Vision in the Cave, so he didn't get those Force points either for the first two rounds. Third, I chose to sacrifice Mira to take out Darth Talon. Darth Talon had based Mira and put damage on her. I could have attacked and most likely killed Darth Talon, but instead chose to use Grenades, which assured the kill on Darth Talon but also killed Mira in the process. I did that because it seemed like it would seal the game since all he had left at that point were a couple troopers and the commanders, but he got in some hits that kept it kind of close. Once Embrace of Pain kicked in, though, he had a lot of trouble hitting me.

1-0.

Round 2
Opponent: TimmerB

Unique Vong are probably broken in Tile Wars. Even more broken than my squad, which I thought was pretty good going in. So respect to TimmerB for building it. Even if the squad wasn't broken, Vong of any flavor and Ysalamiri are near auto-losses for me. This was an utter slaughter. I maybe killed a piece or two.

1-1.

Round 3
Opponent: buttcabbge
Squad:

--General Tilewalker--
65 Mace Windu, Legacy of the Light Side
47 General Skywalker
34 Ki-Adi-Mundi, Jedi Master
29 Aayla Secura, Jedi Knight
16 Qui-Gon Jinn, Force Spirit
9 R2-D2, Astromech Droid

(200pts. 6 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/191124/general-tilewalker

He named his squad Anakin Tilewalker. Four Jedi: Mace Legacy, Ki-Adi, GenSky, and the good Aayla. This time I remembered the Holocron. I sacrificed Vergere, got a Force point from Vision, auto-won init, and proceeded to use Sith Battle Manipulation 3 times with Dark Aura turned on. I left Mace adjacent to Caedus, and Caedus then used Exar's FP to Sith Rage and whack Mace a couple times, too. This is the first time that I have ever spent Force 4 times in a turn (and for a total of 10 Force points!). He's able to do that 4 times because he starts with MotF2 and Vision and Force Spirit both let him spend Force one additional time per turn.

After Ree-Yees exploded, there were zero dead Jedi, but all of his squad was at 30hp or less. Then Mace laid into Caedus and the other Jedi joined him. Caedus didn't survive, unable to Makashi Mace's 60dmg crit. Mira took out Ki-Adi and Aayla. I think GenSky and Mace both lived to the end, pretty easily catching up to and killing Mira. After the game, I realized I had forgotten about Master Illusion. There were still at least 3FP (maybe 6?) on the Sith Holocron, and with Dark Aura, Mace's Illusion save would have been 20. So a decent chance I could have won if I hadn't forgotten the Master Illusion option. (Reminds me of the time I played urbanjedi in Caedus vs Caedus and we both totally forgot about Makashi for the whole skirmish). Another mistake was in the initial SBMx3 at the top of round 1. I didn't position Ree-Yees for an optimal explosion. He wound up hitting only one Jedi when he probably should have exploded on 3 of them. But that's usually how it goes - the winner is the one who makes the fewest mistakes.

1-2.


TimmerB wound up winning the tournament. Buttcabbge and DarthNewt were tied at 2-1, and Buttcabbge prevailed in the 2nd place game.


Royal Rumble
I played in almost all of the Star Wars skirmish events (as opposed to the mass battles or special scenarios with goals like Assassin or Death Race). This is the one I didn't play in, but I did run the tournament. DarkDracul came out as the winner.
FlyingArrow
Posted: Monday, August 6, 2018 9:51:11 PM
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Joined: 5/26/2009
Posts: 8,407
Saturday


Saturday morning I ran the Introduction to Star Wars Miniatures session. It was a lot of fun. In addition to getting minis to take home with them, user billiv donated a bunch of laminated maps to the group, and those maps found homes with the new players.

Battle Through the Ages

Battle Through the Ages is scenario play over 4 rounds. Two squads are given to you, you roll to see which side you're playing, and then you battle. There were 8 players, but 4 or 5 of them were basically brand new players.


Round 1: Old Republic era
Opponent: A new player

Sith versus Sith on the rare Sith Temple map. I had Ludo Kressh, Sith Blademaster, 2 Sith Alchemists, Sith Apprentice, and probably something else. He had Naga Sadow as his main guy. I got 6 rounds of gambit and killed everyone except Naga Sadow. He had killed just 2 or 3 of my guys, one of which was a Sith Mutant that the Alchemists had created. I had a big lead and was sure to win, but fell 4 points short of the full win. 2-0 win.

1-0, 2pts.

Round 2: Republic era
Opponent: TimmerB

We played in the Republic era. He had good WotC Saesee Tiin, bad WotC Mace, crappy Kit and Agen. I had Emperor Palpatine, Sith Lord (Execute Order 66 guy); Darth Vader, Sith Apprentice; and a bunch of Royal Guards. We played on Throne Room. I took the cell block side and he had the throne room side. We were both in gambit in round 1. I misplayed my approach and lost some guards at the outset, but then got things positioned better. From there it was mostly just slugging each other and it came down to Mace vs the Emperor and the final init. I won init and hit my attacks. 3-0 win.

2-0, 5pts.


Round 3: Original Trilogy era
Opponent: Darth Newt

We played good Galen versus bad Galen on Modular Base. I had good Galen. I think I had a slight lead when he rerolled an attack with bad Galen (who still had 100hp) and failed. He thought he needed a 2 to hit, but needed a 5 (forgetting about Kota's commander effect). Darth Vader, Champion of the Sith was not happy with Bad Galen, and Galen died immediately. That was the game right there.

3-0, 8pts.

Round 4: Expanded Universe/Postquel Trilogy era
Opponent: New Player

Played on Ossus Landing Platform. I had 48pt NR Luke, Kam, Tionne, and Streen, some padawans. Opposing squad: Imperial Knight with Vset Roan Fel. I took a 3-1 loss. A lot of bad luck, and a key strategic error. First piece of bad luck: Tionne got hit by Cortosis Gaunlet on her first or second attack. So 1 of my 4 big attackers was neutralized immediately. He set himself up nicely for a huge LSThrow3 from Luke, but my key strategic error was forgetting about his Evade. Tionne has Distraction, so if had first moved her next to the commander Evade would have been turned off. Instead, Luke did LSThrow3 *twice* in successive rounds with Twin Attack on both. Hitting 4 enemies on each. So 16 attacks, hitting all or nearly all of them. It killed Roan Fel - he didn't get the Evade. But of the other 12 Evade saves he probably made 9 or 10. Unfortunately, it also killed my own Streen, who was standing next to Roan Fel. I got a point at least.

3-1, 9pts.

That left me, TimmerB, and the new player at 3-1. TimmerB and I had 9pts while the new player had 8. I beat TimmerB head-to-head, so I won the event. This was the first time on Saturday that I won a tournament while losing my last match.


Team Tournament

Squad:
--Long-Range Kanan Cannon (2018 GenCon Team Tourney)--
45 Kanan Jarrus (rapport)
43 Ahsoka Tano, Champion of the Rebellion
27 Luke Skywalker, Rebel Commando
25 Sabine Wren
20 Princess Leia
12 See-Threepio (C-3PO)
11 Jedi Holocron
9 General Dodonna
5 Killik Drone
3 Mouse Droid

(200pts. 10 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/190901/long-range-kanan-cannon--2018-gencon-team-tourney-

I think this is a tier one squad. Possibly better than Venishing Wookiees that I played in the championships. There were only 3 teams and we had the bye first. randy/AceAce both beat urbanjedi/Lou in round 1.

We played randy/AceAce in round 2 and I drew randy, who was running Daala/Hux/Kylo/mostly FO Stormies but also a Storm Commando. We played on Command Deck, and Kanan was able to reach Kylo Ren and kill him pretty quickly. That took away a chunk of his damage output. From there it was just killing dudes. He missed a ton of point blank shots on Kanan, needing a 10 for the kill. But Kanan survived with I think 10 hit points remaining. 3-0 win. TimmerB also had a 3-0 win in his match.

In round 2, I drew urbanjedi in a near mirror match. He didn't have Leia or Threepio or the Holocron but had Artoo and ObiGhost and Ezra. First, I failed to say "I activate one" every phase in round 1, so urbanjedi out-activated me and was able to get Kanan in and put some damage on Luke. I positioned to not let Sabine do too much damage, but I left myself vulnerable to Kanan coming in and wrecking me. So at the top of round 2 he used a Blaster Barrage to kill Sabine and Luke in one turn. And I also did not blow open an important door, so by the end of the skirmish Artoo was locking out Ahsoka and Leia. All around, poor play by me. I think I actually have the better squad in this match-up, but urbanjedi isn't known for making mistakes. 3-0 loss.

But TimmerB won his match, so we were the only team with 3 wins, and we won the tournament. And for the second time in one day, I won a tournament while losing my last match.
FlyingArrow
Posted: Monday, August 6, 2018 9:51:53 PM
Rank: Moderator
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Joined: 5/26/2009
Posts: 8,407
Sunday

Coming back months later, I don't remember much about Sunday. That was sealed, and here is my squad:

--Jaina With No Fear (GenCon Sealed 2018)--
39 Canderous Ordo, Mercenary Commander
35 Anakin Skywalker, Hero With No Fear
32 Jaina Solo Fel, Jedi Master
19 Padawan Sniper
16 Keshiri Temple Guard x2
7 Falleen Spy

(148pts. 7 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/192124/jaina-with-no-fear--gencon-sealed-2018-

But I don't remember details of the match-ups. Two wins and two losses. The two losses were to Darth Newt and TimmerB, who wound up 1st and 2nd for the tournament. I used JediCartographer's Ice Fortress North map, which is a pretty good map. Might be Restricted-worthy if it weren't for the lack of a safe zone on the left. It was fine for sealed, though.
droidadmiral
Posted: Tuesday, August 7, 2018 3:59:52 AM
Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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Joined: 6/20/2010
Posts: 172
Round one....wow......
juice man
Posted: Tuesday, August 7, 2018 5:17:05 AM
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Joined: 1/5/2009
Posts: 2,240
Location: Akron Ohio, just south of dantooine.
droidadmiral wrote:
Round one....wow......
I played that squad of Brian's at NW Ohio. (SHUDDER) Didn't realize how evil it is until I got home and built it ( I had all melee.) but yeah, GenCon wins can be harsh.

Edit: Didn't know about the 5 round rule.
FlyingArrow
Posted: Tuesday, August 7, 2018 7:04:06 AM
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Joined: 5/26/2009
Posts: 8,407
juice man wrote:
droidadmiral wrote:
Round one....wow......
I played that squad of Brian's at NW Ohio. (SHUDDER) Didn't realize how evil it is until I got home and built it ( I had all melee.) but yeah, GenCon wins can be harsh.

Edit: Didn't know about the 5 round rule.


I only knew about it because Jason tried to do that against Jim's son (I think his name is Kris) at PA regionals in 2014. Jason had a lead and pulled away to try to let the 5 rounds expire, but Kris wound up like 1 point ahead or something like that. In that case, Jason was running away from gambit. In this case, I was holing up in gambit (the small building in the center of Imperial Plaza). I held the door open, ready for a fight for 3 and a half rounds, but stepped in and let the door close when I realized the sure 2 point win was there. The 5 round rule isn't even a floor rule - it's in the latest WotC rulebook from the Clone Wars set.
FlyingArrow
Posted: Tuesday, August 7, 2018 7:35:17 AM
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Joined: 5/26/2009
Posts: 8,407
Friday's up.
FlyingArrow
Posted: Tuesday, August 7, 2018 2:48:34 PM
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Groups: Member , Moderator

Joined: 5/26/2009
Posts: 8,407
Saturday's report is up.
FlyingArrow
Posted: Wednesday, December 26, 2018 11:03:06 AM
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Joined: 5/26/2009
Posts: 8,407
And many months later... Sunday's exceedingly short report is up.
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