Is being held at 2pm this Saturday (10 March) in Lower Hutt. It's our first major tournament in New Zealand with Vengeance pieces, and the 2012 floor rules, so it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

We have 12 confirmed players so far, although unfortunately kfcswaitingforyou, one of our most talented and experienced players, is unable to attend.

If you're in New Zealand, and want to come, PM me or Kezzamachine for details.

And this is how it went down for me:

I was playing the trendy low activation squad (I had 8) with the new Mace, GOWK, Ferus Olin, Captain Rex, R2, Rodian Diplomat, and two Ugnaughts. I liked Ferus Olin in there for games like the mirror matches, or against Vong, to help keep Mace alive for longer. In my first round game, Foul Moudama would have been more useful, but Ferus was very, very helpful in my last two crucial games.

Obviously, people have been seeing the results from tournaments in the States, where Mace/GOWK have been winning, and the top 5 squads were all either Mace/GOWK or melee Vong squads to counter Mace/GOWK. There weren't many shooter squads at all - I think someone could have done well with, say, a battery of TBSVs, since noone was running Yobuck or Lancer either.

Round 1 - vs Dave (Bastila, Atton, Carth, JBM, Lobot, OR Senators * 2) on Jabba's Palace
I got outplayed by Dave here. He bought in an R4 with Lobot, and between that and Bastila, Mace's defence went down to a much more hittable level. I underestimated his attackers' range with the Senators giving extra shots, so Carth got to R2 and Rex early. Without R2, and with him having three diplomats, he was able to shepherd me - I had to use GOWK's force push just to get Mace through to Dave's side of the map - and Atton and Carth got lots of shots in at Mace, Ferus, and GOWK. Mace killed the JBM easily then went after Carth, but he failed to get the crit he needed to kill him in one round, and Carth knocked him over easily, since he effectively had a defence of 18. GOWK barely survived to the end of the game; he managed to take down Atton just before the end, but still had two OR Senators giving Carth lots of shots. Dave did very well at predicting the meta and coming up with a counter squad - I was surprised he only came in at 7th. 0 points.

Round 2 - vs Danny (Marka Ragnos, Darth Revan SL, Darth Bandon, Exar Kun DFS) on Ruined Base
It was a tough matchup for Danny here - an all melee squad against a riposting Mace, body-guarded by Ferus, is always going to be a tough match to win. The main thing I remember about this game was how badly Rex was rolling - I think he went 3,1,3,6 in one set of four attacks. 3 points.

Round 3 - vs Robin (General Skywalker, Dash, JWM*2, Jarael) on Ruined Base
One trophy we compete for is the Save11 Shield(s) - you win it if you beat the previous holder in an official game. I was the holder going into the tournament, so Dave won it from me in the first round, then Robin took it off Dave in the second round, then I had the chance to take it right back off Robin again in the third round. Robin played this well, towing Dash in to put some hurt on Mace early, then towing him out again, and tying Mace up with Jarael, but a Ferus-bodyguarded Mace and GOWK took too long to take down, and Rex was putting out some good damage behind them as well. I won without losing anything except the Rodian, but Mace, GOWK, and Ferus were all on their last legs. 6 points.

Round 4 - vs Alan (Luke Skywalker FS, Ganner, Vergere, Corran Horn JM, Jacen Solo, General Dodonna, Wedge) on Rhen Var
It's not fun playing against a parrying, evading Jacen with Crab Armor, mettle, and a healer. I sent Mace after Ganner early, and I didn't crit in 5 rolls, but still managed to take him down at the start of the next round, before he could levitate Corran in for 3 attacks or levitate Vergere in for a Sever Force. Ferus ended up chasing down Wedge this game, as I needed Rex to be able to shot at Jacen without him evading if I ever wanted Jacen to die. Mace took down Corran, Jacen took down Mace, then the game ended with a 20 HP Rex critting on Jacen and a force-severed GOWK finishing Vergere. 9 points.

Round 5 - vs Bev (GOWK, Mace, Foul Moudama, Rex) on Jabba's Palace
I was expecting a mirror matchup somewhere along the way, which is why I packed Ferus Olin. This was perhaps the craziest game I've ever played. I drew first blood by towing GOWK up for a Force Push 3, taking out R2 and an Ugnaught, and putting 30 on his GOWK, Mace, and Foul. It also had the additional effect of separating Foul from Rex and Mace so he couldn't retaliate immediately. Next round, he ran in Foul, copied me and Force Pushed my Obi, taking out my R2 and putting 30 on Ferus as well. I sent Mace to kill Moudama, but neglected to bring in Ferus in the same phase, and he spent two force points to run his Mace nine squares and start beating on my Mace. They both got a couple of crits on each other and both ended up dead that phase. His Rex then rolled consecutive crits on my GOWK - he had to spend two force points to avoid the first crit, then took the second, so he was already down to 50 HP. After some hot shooting from both Rexs, the game ended with my just-holding on GOWK absorbing enough shots to let my Rex finish his Rex. It was a tense game - lots of crits, lots of bad Soresu saves, tied initiatives.... 12 points, which was enough to make the final.

Final - vs Aaron (Warmaster, 2*Jedi Hunter, Fanatic, Nen Yim, Yammosk, Workers * 4) on Jabba's Palace
Because I lost my first game, I ended up working my way through the lower part of the table to start with, and missed out on playing the two Vong squads that were topping Swiss for most of the tournament. The Vong squads had been dealing to Mace and GOWK all day, so everyone assumed, quite reasonably, that Aaron would win, and went off to play epic duos.

It felt like a scene from a movie where the characters are struggling against insurmountable odds, then suddenly something snaps and the tide turns. This game was so fast it's hard to remember, but everything just fell into place - R2 towed Mace to take out one Jedi Hunter, then Mace got back into gambit without taking a scratch. Ferus and GOWK joined him in gambit, while Rex hid in a room just behind. Ferus was awesome, smashing a fanatic for 80 damage with a Dark Temptation after he'd already bodyguarded 80 damage for Mace. Mace put a lot of damage on the Warmaster (although I think he only got one crit in 6 rolls on the Warmaster), Rex stayed safe out the back landing lots of shots, GOWK survived nicely and took out the Workers, and the game somehow ended with a full health Rex and GOWK still with 90 HP left.

Yeah, it's kind of bizarre that there were no Imperials - people play Imperials in our area quite often in casual games, but they hardly ever get played in big tournaments. The thing is with the Mace/GOWK squads running around, Mace is 30 in cover, so Storm Commandos have to crit to even hit him. With Lord Vader type black and blue squads, Mace has Force Absorb and Riposte, so even if Lord Vader takes down the rest of the squad surgically, Mace can still take him down - I guess you could pull out a 2 point lockout win though. Something like a Lord Vader/Cad Bane swap squad would be viable - it doesn't have enough activations to beat lots of other things, but it would have done very well against the other squads that were run on Saturday.

There are other squads that could do quite well though - "Paper" squads like Echanis or TBSVs with Pallaeon are definitely an option, since the "Scissor" squads like Lancer and Yobuck aren't as viable with all the "Rock" squads running around.

Dave, really liked your OR squad, my Bastila Day is very much like it.

BTW...did you have a Klat Capt in the build?

It was a great day and a great tournament. I’m not just saying that because I came third – but I came third. Seriously, however, there is nothing like the feeling of having 14 guys all walk into a room to sit down and have 5 games of SWM. The anticipation that you’re doing something pretty weird/awesome in such an extreme way is, well, uber. Kudos to Graham who not only organised a great tournament but also won. He is our top player at the moment and everything he touches is gold. I managed to continue my run of not playing against him in a major tournament – what is with that?! – as I believe my own peculiar brand of Vong would have beaten him. He may or may not agree. Anyhoo – here’s my take on the day.

I ran De’Gara, Shedao Shai, 2 Jedi Hunters, a Fanatic, Nen Yim, a Yammosk, Lobot and Salacious Crumb. My squad was entitled “Sacrilege Punch” in that I did what I swore I would never do and put an abomination (Lobot) in with the Vong. (Annoyed some people too, myself included!) Pretty much, I wanted to have access to Momaw Nadon but not have him in my squad. That worked in my favour… plus I was able to use my reinforcements quite well. I went Vong for the last LowerHuttaCon – my Shimrra Bomb squad which was the best squad at the last tournament but I failed to make the final because I placed Nom Anor next to a wall that wasn’t actually a wall (Rhen Var, anyone?) and, well, that’s history. I chose that faction by dice roll some two months before thinking a) if I can’t predict what I’ll run, no one else will be able too, and b) if I can’t make a decent squad with that faction, I’ll move on. I very nearly at the last minute chose my Zannah/Huntress/ExarFS/Tyber Zann/Defiler/Lobot squad which I think would have been fun-as… but I’m happy with the Vong. I added the Fanatic (over a Priest) in playtesting thanks to Aaron’s advice and he commented that my squad was scary looking. I got that comment from some of my opponents too. Scare is good.

It’s also worth noting that I took Cargo Docks into the tournament because a) it suited a melee style squad like mine – as long as I watched out for the shooting lanes up top – and b) no one would have a clue how to handle it because no one had seen it before. I was right – of the four games I had on it, I didn’t lose and the most common comment was ‘what the hell is that?’

Well, shall we…?

Round 1 – vs Dee/Dr. Daman (Windu/GOWK/Atin/Foul Moudama/R2-D2) on Cargo Docks
Won map roll and took Cargo Docks in a second. Last year at LowerHuttaCon, Dee and I played each other so this was a repeat of that affair. Also, I was carrying a loss against Dee in our recent Lower Hutt league, so this was a chance to upend that. My Vong squad was the perfect tonic for GOWK/Mace and I felt happy with the matchup straightaway. I bought in a third Jedi Hunter (which hurt him immeasurably) as well as bringing in a Twi’lek Bodyguard (for the crits by Mace which never came) and Figran D’an (for any shots that may come my way). I quickly made it to the middle despite his two movement breakers and held it. He rushed in his Mace, but with no absorb, rerolls, riposte, and no crits, my Vong squad made short work of him. I chased Atin and upended GOWK and it was over 215-25. 3pts and a great start to the campaign since I figured I’d hit some of the other 3 GOWK squads at some point.

Round 2 – vs. Alan (Luke Skywalker FS/Ganner/Vergere/Corran Horn JM/Jacen Solo/General Dodonna/Wedge) on Cargo Docks
Awful, awful, awful, awful… Do you know how much fun it is being Vong against a Jacen that can reroll his parries twice a turn with mettle and a heap of force points? Not very fun at all. I started by bringing in a 3rd Jedi Hunter again and then a Human Bodyguard and 3 uggies. I made the mistake of killing Vergere early (I didn’t want her to Force Sever me…*grin*) and all of a sudden Jacen became untouchable. If Alan had of played the game a little differently, it might have been much different, but he a) sent Corran off to kill my Lobot and Yammosk and b) I managed to trap Ganner in a thin 1 square corridor so that he couldn’t reach Jacen to lift him. That meant I had isolated his pieces and could attack them at my leisure. However, because they were so spaced out, I couldn’t kill them all so had to settle for a 2pt win, which I secured after running Jacen out of Force points and he finally failed a parry roll. *Phew!* 5pts and a happy me.

Round 3 – vs. Mike (Celeste/Savage/Sidious/Malakil/Poggle/16 bombs/MTB/Ugnaughts) on (you guessed it!) Cargo Docks
This was the matchup I had been dreading/looking forward to/planning for. Lobot was in my squad to bring in Momaw and Momaw was in my head so I could combat Poggle Bombs! Mike is one of our recent standouts, picking up good wins against lots of us – including knocking me over in our recent LH league (he’s currently #1 in the world!). He managed to pick up 30 Geonosian Drones in a deal last year so now we figure he’ll run Separatists and anywhere up to 30 bombs. He didn’t disappoint – 16 nasties. However, as soon as I saw the Tactics Broker I smiled and smiled… after winning map roll and bringing in a 3rd Jedi Hunter yet again, plus good ol’ Momaw and a Caamasi (which helped me block off a big corridor so he couldn’t fire too many bombs at me), I proceeded to roll a 1 for init and bring in a 4th Jedi Hunter. My init would have been one anyway, and as soon as Mike saw my De’Gara magic, he blew up his MTB with a drone and dropped down to 15 bombs. The game could have gone quite differently if I had lost the key init after positioning my Nadon, but I won it, marched 6 squares and blew up 7 of his pieces, making his bombs almost ineffectual and only his Celeste/Sandwich Press combo to worry about (which doesn’t really phase the Vong). He had too many pieces to kill outright and 143-39 was where it finished – 2pts to me, 3 wins on the trot and two previous losses avenged.

Round 4 – vs. Aaron/Sharron (Warmaster/2xJedi Hunter/Fanatic/Nen Yim/Yammosk/Workersx4) on Asteroid Base
I have to tip my hat to Sharron as he helped me strengthen my squad for this tourney as we met earlier in the week with almost exactly these two squads. His was unchanged from that encounter whereas we had decided that the Fanatic was a better use of the points than a priest. He won that encounter just like he won this. I lost map roll and he chose Asteroid Base (which I suggested he run at the tournament) and I set up on the wrong side. Dang it. I took the upper right and got stuck in the doorway (like the cat from Norway) and he bombarded me. I nearly took a point off him by almost killing Nen Yim, but it was over pretty quickly… the 200HP Warmaster far too strong to be taken down by his own Vong, despite bringing in a Praetorite Vong Warrior, a Human Bodyguard and three uggies. Sharron was also due… we’ve played 8 times (officially) prior to this and he had never beaten me. He was overjoyed, I was overwraught.

Round 5 – vs. Robin/Cerous Mutor (General Skywalker/JWMx2/Jarael/Dash/R2/Mas) on Cargo Docks once more…
Robin – one of our former #1 players – usually brings to a game a tough squad and a tenacity that is rarely equalled. He did so again here bringing a squad which, although not conventional, surprized some opponents. It certainly was good to see a Republic build without GOWK and Mace! Anyhoo, I won map roll and, of course, chose the unfathomable Cargo Docks. Again, my opponent had no idea how to respond to it and it was part of yet another victory. I forgot that Dash gets momentum and wondered what Robin was thinking until I watched my Shedao Shai disappear off the board… but my Jedi Hunter’s knocked over the rest and it was over pretty quick. I was looking to get a 3pt win to have a chance to get through so I went hard winning 214-45.

But, y’know, it wasn’t quite enough. I wasn’t quite so sure how my fortunes would pan out, but as it turned out, I needed Bevan to beat Graham 2-0 to have any hope of getting into the final. As it was, with two “rock” squads, there was no chance of that happening and Bevan (for the second or third time) was knocked out of finals contention in the last round by Graham. (Perhaps I should have dropped my first game to get the better end of the draw – Graham?) No matter – my Vong was only beaten by Vong and handled everything else pretty easily. I am confident that I’d have knocked over Graham’s squad (although, he is a master, so maybe not?) but if I’d have faced Aaron in the final, their may not have been anything I could do. Still, I erased some demons, got some wins back against my name and now have risen back into the top five in our Hutt Rankings (non-SWMGPA – we’re still managing the transition to the full rankings).

Mauri ora, mauri mate!

I did notice that Andrew's squad (whenever I saw it) was stuck at one far end of the corridor. Did anyone think to go sit in Gambit and wait? Plus, I had a Fanatic and the option to bring in another one... I would have run 12 squares and hit his B3's twice for an attack of 14 and a damage of 40 on a twin. And I could have bought in a Jawa Scavenger or something... that would have been a fun game!

Tru dat. This year was a totally different kettle of fish. This Andrew was closer to that top bunch and Henko won two games to rack up 7 points! Great squad, Graham. (Considering that Dan lost all 5 and Bevan made his squad!)