Our semi-finals matches for this tournament will start beginning today (5/15/26/) and end next Friday (5/22/26) by midnight. If any additional time is needed, let me know.

Our matchups will be the following:

Spryguy1981 vs Mando

Thereisnotry vs Lightsaber

In honor of the upcoming Mandalorian and Grogu movie: "This is the way!"

thereisnotry defeats Lightsaber 396-290 (3-1) on Warriors' Enclave

Lightsaber won the map so I set up on the left side because the right side had far fewer spots to hide the Vong's squishies from Durge. Maul learned Makashi Style from Dooku. Tsalok gained Amphistaff and Master Shaper (from Nagme), while Nas Choka gained Master Shaper, Avoid Defeat, and a FP from his other allies. The Yammosk stole San Hill's movement CE (!!!!).

Round 1: Basic advancement, as per usual. I didn't go far with Durge...rather than trying to strafe in Round 1, I figured it might be more helpful to set him up for a more worthwhile strafe the following round. Asajj was in gambit, with the rest of my squad not too far behind her. Once I was all out, the crazy started. Dooje opened the big door on the right side of the map. The Vong-SanHill pushed Nas Choka forward, and Nas then ran up and attacked Cad 4x...Hostage Shield put some of the damage onto a Drone and then onto Grievous, with Cad left at 20hp. Because the Drone died, Tsalok got to make a free move (thank you, Consul), but he was just a bit too far away to make good attacks, so he just ran further up so that he'd be in dangerous position for the next round. Gambit for both. 22-19 for Lightsaber.

Round 2: I won init, thanks to Maul's Lying in Wait ability. I couldn't do much good with Cad, but he was about to die if he didn't activate, so I used him to Furious Assault and base Nagme (now alive with 10hp). Tsalok tried to Ambush Asajj, but missed twice (rolling 3 and 1...a taste of things to come). Vongerella moved up to hit Cad, but missed. San pushed Durge forward. Then Durge did a big beautiful strafe of 24 squares; it ended with Nagme dead (Retaliatory Attacks: Vongerella killed Cad, Tsalok missed again vs Asajj, Nas Choka did no dmg to Grievous), Vongerella unharmed (miss and blocked), Khalee Lah down to 50hp, Onimi down to 70hp, Nen Yim to 50hp, Yun-Ne'Shel Priest dead (RA's: Tsalok finally hit Asajj down to 30hp, Grievous took 30 so Presumed Dead), Harrar dead with much thanks to a crit. Durge was now way deep in the Vong starting zone, and at full hp. Khalee ran up and used YY Devotion and another hit to kill my BX droid. That allowed Nas Choka to move for free, which enabled him to kill San on his turn; that allowed Tsalok to retreat a little bit. Dooku moved up and smacked Tsalok for a total of 20dmg, and then Asajj did her thing for another 50dmg (Tsalok at 50hp). The Yammosk pushed Onimi forward so she could use Puppet Master on Tsalok, and he finally hit the final blow on Asajj. That allowed Shimmra to move closer to the door near Durge. Maul laid 30dmg onto Tsalok (down to 20hp). Grievous ignored Nas Choka in his starting zone and advanced out of the starting zone toward gambit. Nen Yim smacked Durge (down to 80hp) and moved away. Dooje based Maul. My Gatekeeper Droid then LOCKED the door in Nas Choka's face! Thud Bug on Dooku (130hp). Tsavong ran a long way to base Maul near the gambit zone. More maneuvering. Gambit for both. 168-91 for Lightsaber.

Round 3: Lightsaber wins init and Tsalok bravely misses twice against Dooku. Maul then shreds Tsalok (RA's: Shimmra missed vs Durge, and Tsavong missed vs Maul) and puts 20dmg onto Tsavong Lah. Durge strafed vs Shimmra (down to 130hp), Nen Yim (down to 10hp), and killed the 8th Cortex Shaper (no more Retaliatory Attacks!!). Tsavong moves around to try to kill my Gatekeeper Droid, but it used Retractable Form to stay alive; he then killed my Drone instead; that allows Shimmra to move...he Shimmra gives up on Durge and runs toward the middle. Grievous hit Tsavong for 20dmg (down to 50hp). Dooku bravely charged forward into a swarm of Vong and put 40dmg onto Onimi (30hp left). Vongerella did 40dmg to Dooku via Plaeryin Bol. Nen Yim advanced toward Dooku. A lot of other people were ineffective trying to attack Dooku. Khalee ran forward with YY Devotion to put 20dmg onto Maul (Maul at 120hp, Khalee at 30). Shimmra moved into gambit and closer to Dooku. Gambit for both. 190-156 for Lightsaber.

Round 4: I won init. Maul gave up some AoO's (all missed or blocked) to attack the 50hp Tsavong Lah, hoping he'd fail 1 of his 4 VCA 6 saves (that would've allowed Dooku to make a free attack)...no luck: Tsavong lived with 10hp. Dooku made one Thud Bug save but then failed the next one from Nen Yim (down to 80hp). Grievous then used Spinning Blade to kill Tsavong and miss twice vs Khalee Lah. Durge used Strafe and Blaster to put 40dmg onto the Yammosk (alive with 30hp, thanks to DR10). Another Plaeryin Bol attack worked vs Dooku (down to 80hp), then Shimmra dropped 40dmg past Dooku's swordsmanship (down to 40hp). Khalee tried to run past Grievous to kill my Gatekeeper Droid, but he died on AoOs. Nas Choka gave up and decided to take the long way around; with some help from the Yammosk he made it to the door on the SW end of the big gambit area. Gambit for me. 225-190 for me.

Round 5: I won init, so Dooku dropped both Onimi and Nem Yim. Vongerella tried to put the killing blow on Dooku with yet another Bol attack, but Dooku was wise to it this time. However, as he was pre-occupied with that, Shimmra finished him off in style. Maul ran up to kill a Scout, which triggered his CE, moving Grievous forward. Then Grievous used Spinning Blade to attack that pile of guys that Dooku had befriended: Shimmra down to 90, dead Scout, dead Vongerella, Consul at 30hp. Nas Choka ran a long way to base Grievous. The Consul attacked Greivous, but he blocked it. Dooje tried to distract Maul again. Durge killed the Yammosk (finally!) with a Blaster and a Strafe, moving closer to the juicy-looking cluster of purple people near the middle of the board. No gambit. 308-290 for me.

Round 6: Lightsaber won init. Nas Choka attemped a miserable series of attacks, where only 2 attacks landed and 1 of them was blocked (Grievous at 80). Durge strafed forward and used Blaster to kill the Consul. Maul lashed out against Shimrra, dropping him to 50hp. Grievous used Spinning Blade to attack everything that was left and hit all his attacks (even with Doctrine of Fear active): Nas Choka at 110hp, and Shimrra at 40. Gambit for me. 345-290 for me.

Round 7: Lightsaber won init and Nas Choka ran into Durge (down to 20hp). Maul erased Shimrra (no more Doctrine of Fear!), then Durge strafed and attacked Nas Choka (down to 40hp), but that wasn't enough for Grievous to finish the job...Nas Choka survived with 30hp. No gambit. 396-290 for me.


This matchup did not look good for me. Tsalok was a major concern; I knew he could punch through all of my parry/makashi saves with his Overwhelming Power, but that makes no difference if he can't roll above a 5 for the first half of the match...and in the end, I think that might've proved to be the difference-maker. Additionally, I was able to get Durge (still healthy) all the way into the depths of the Vong starting zone, which enabled me to deal with most of the piddly support pieces (especially the Scarification) that fuel the Vong beatsticks. It was also a big deal when my Gatekeeper Droid locked Nas Choka out of the action for 2 entire rounds because it meant that I had 1 less big bad scary beatstick to deal with for a while. Again, it seems like people were afraid of Darth Maul...he ended the game with 120hp. If we played this matchup a few more times I think the Vong would win at least half of them; I got lucky this time. Thanks for the game, Lightsaber!

Mando (3pts) defeats Spryguy1981 (1pt): (383-225)

We played on Matt's map and I set up on the right side. I gave Exar Kun Distraction via Tulak.

I was able to get into gambit early on and I pushed Vader into the fray early to get some damage on Aurra Sing. Aurra did 100 dmg back to him the following round afterwards and Vader Sith Reflexed a Lightsaber Sweep to deal 30 more to her. I ran Tulak into the mix also to do some sith hatred and hit stuff. Naga Sadow had his SBM on for a good part of this game and that extra attack really helped a lot to chew through the bounty hunters Matt was running at my guys. I lost Vader, Tulak, and Exar Kun (who survived a lot longer than he should have because of some bad dice rolls by Matt). Exar was able to take out Assaj and Mira and base Moralo Eval shutting off his CE. Matt's init rolls were really good this game with him winning most of the key inits and being able to attack my guys with his main attackers before they got defeated. I was only able to make 1 failed save on Force Dominate all game long even with the MotF 2 and Sith Pawns sacrificing themselves for the rerolls. That played a big factor in the game being much closer as that extra damage would have been devestating when Exar, Tulak, Vader were adjacent to his bounty hunters. I was able to stay in gambit the entire game and was very aggresive in keeping Matt out of it, running my guys into Matt's side of the map Matt ended up getting just 1 round of gambit since I had set up an effective kill zone with Ajunta Pall and sith mutants ready to charge in. I lost all the Sith Mutants in this game (Cad Bane took pretty much all of the out at various points in the game with his Furious Assault + Sniper and Mira's Force Sense shutting off their SS), but the Mutants did their job and got some unavoidable damage in to make a difference. Ajunta Pall was still full hp at the end and he had a lot of fp to use on Master Illusions and with Exar Kun, DFS giving him Sith Rage later in the game, that proved to be what won the game for me. Naga Sadow was able to survive long enough to take out Cad Bane thanks to his Master Illusion force power also. Great game and well played by Matt!

thereisnotry and myself will be having our GE Spring 2026 finals game on Friday @2pm central if anyone would like to watch.

Absolute insanity!

thereisnotry defeats Mando 402-371 (3-1) in a back-and-forth battle for the ages

You can watch it here, because Bryan live-streamed it: SWM Escalation Final 2026. However, if you're afraid of technology and videos or don't want to take 100 minutes to watch the game, then you can read this report instead:

We both had the same map (Jungle Tomb); Mando won the map roll so I got to choose, so I let him choose, so he set up on the left side. Distraction went to bit Exar. Dooku taught Makashi to Maul.

Round 1: Basic advancement, as per usual. Significantly, Durge and Cad and the BX Droid moved along the top so that they would have options to go through the middle or down the left side with their multi-attacks in the following round. Grievous was pushed by San to be in gambit. However, because of Intuition and then Master-Apprentice movement shenanigans, Mando was able to push Vader forward to Force Choke Grievous and pull him in for damage. Gambit for me. 19-0 for me.

Round 2: Mando won init. Significantly, my BX droid used intuition to move adjacent to the door on the north end of the gambit room. Ajunta paralyzed Grievous and sent him home via Presume Dead. At this point the door opened. Durge did a big strafe that hit Tulak, Exar, Ajunta, all 5 Mutants, a Recruit, and the Sith Wrangler. As the dust settled, most of the Mutants were at 20hp (except for 1, whom Durge missed with an attack), the Recruit was dead, and (most importantly!) the Sith Wrangler was dead (he was giving OWP to the Mutants). After this, Cad Bane also charged forward with a big Furious Assault, which killed 3 Mutants and did some damage to other pieces. After the dust settled for the second time this round, there was a Mutant with 20hp and one with 10hp, and also Tulak with 100hp, Exar at 120hp, and Ajunta at 100hp. Tulak used Rage to deal 60dmg to Cad, then Vader used Choke to finish him off. Would the big Strafe/FuriousAssault gamble pay off? We spent the rest of the game discovering the answer to that question. Exar ran to base Durge, then Sidious Dominated him to kill Durge with 6 attacks. Maul pushed Maul forward to attack Vader, dropping him to 50hp (and taking 20dmg back from Choke via Vader's Sith Reflexes). A Mutant missed Maul. Asajj charged forward to hit Vader for 30dmg (down to 20hp) after rolling a 1 and a hit; Vader used SR again, this time to Sweep (Asajj down to 80hp, missed vs Maul). Naga used SBM. Gambit for both. 139-85 for Mando.

Round 3: I won init and so Dooku did a sweet Chain Lightning which did 30dmg to Ajunta and killed the XT-6, Sith Ordnance guy, Sith Mutant, and Darth Vader. Exar ran to base Maul and Asajj, then Sidious dominated him: Maul went back home, then Asajj took 30dmg. Sidious also used Burst Lightning on Dooku. Asajj hit Exar (down to 90hp). Then the final Mutant charged Asajj (missed) and Tulak used Rage to attack her 3x (Jar'kai and SBM), but Asajj got lucky and Parried all of the damage. San pushed Maul forward, then Maul killed the final Mutant and then his CE gave a free attack to Dooku: missed both attacks needing 6s. Ajunta attacked Dooku, needing 6s but did no dmg thanks to bad dice and good Makashi saves. Gambit for both. 187-173 for Mando.

Round 4: I won init again! Dooku attacked Ajunta Pall, but no thanks to Sith Illusions and bad dice, he did a mere 20dmg (down to 80hp). Exar took 60dmg on aoo's from Asajj (down to 30hp) then assaulted Dooku [note: I forgot to use Dooku's Jedi Reflexes here, which would've allowed me 2 free attacks when Exar moved adjacent]: hit (take 30dmg, down to 100hp), then Dooku Riposted with a fprr to kill Exar, which killed him and brought in the Exar Ghost (attached to Ajunta). This also nerfed my FP for the rest of the battle. Ajunta attacked Dooku with Rage: just 30dmg after some A+ Makashi saves (but these were only necessary because Dooku had forgotten how to attack earlier in the round). Maul attacked Tulak (down to 80hp), then Tulak used SR to Teleport away and attack Asajj (down to 20hp). Asajj attacked Tulak but to no effect. Exar Ghost used Dark Aura. Sidious used Dominate on Ajunta Pall, who used Sith Rage and a few hits to kill Dooku. The final attack hit Maul for 30dmg (down to 110hp). San pushed Grievous forward to attack the 80hp Ajunta Pall (who was also the one tied to Exar Ghost and his evil Dark Aura): Grievous needed 8s to hit, and did 60dmg on four attacks (down to 20hp). Tulak killed Asajj then missed Maul. Gambit for me.

Round 5: I won init yet again! I REALLY needed Ajunta to go down, because Exar's Dark Aura was gonna kill my entire squad, so I figured that Grievous could get some damage through on four attacks needing 8s, right? Nope! My first 2 attacks were 1s, then my only hit was Illusioned away, and the last attack missed. I thought I had lost the game here. Freakin' dice. Ajunta used Rage to deal 90dmg to Grievous on 3 hits. Tulak used Rage to attack Maul, but he missed (and so no Jar'kai). Maul attacked Tulak for 60dmg (down to 20hp). BX Droid missed Ajunta Pall. Naga Sadow hit my BX Droid for 40dmg. San pulled Grievous back to safety, because Ajunta would kill him if I lost init. Gambit for me.

Round 6: I won init one more time. Maul killed Tulak. Ajunta killed the 3 fodder pieces that were beside him (Drone x2 and BX Droid). Sidious then Dominated Ajunta, who used Rage to hit Maul for 90dmg (down to 20hp). San pushed my 30hp Grievous up so that he could TRY AGAIN on the 20hp Ajunta Pall...this time he did it! When Ajunta expired, so did the Exar Ghost. (402-342 for me, at this point.) Naga used Sith Alchemy 3 to turn Maul into a Sith Mutant! The Mutant then attacked Grievous with Mighty Swing but missed. No gambit. 402-371 for me.


Whew! This thing was close. My characters forgot how to attack on numerous occasions. I did win all the inits, but in one crucial situation that was completely meaningless. I managed to win in the end by 31pts, with a 30hp Grievous left on the board, vs 2 attackers. This was one of the most back-and-forth battles that either of us had played in a long time. Sidious' Dominate was absolutely deadly (using either Exar for 6x30dmg or Ajunta Pall for 4 chances at a Paralysis). I think that, in the end, it turned out that my big gamble of charging in with both Durge and Cad Bane at the start of Round 2 was worthwhile; because I was able to make so many attacks and kill so many pieces that balanced the number of attackers so that I could (barely) handle what was left. Thanks, Mando, for an exciting game!

As always, the Galactic Escalation was a pile of fun. It's good to see the Dooku-Maul combo finally work the way I had originally hoped when I tried it last year. Durge ended up being fun, as was Cad.