Ruleset....

...A. is fine for me.

(typing out inner monologue)

so, Trevor chose the least restrictive option. Hmmm, so he must have a rock solid squad he loves that he wouldn't want to not be able to play. Or he doesn't feel as strong in the factions he only played once? Nah, he's showed mastery over all factions, though of course we all still have factions we personally feel stronger in. . .

Everyone knows his sick Mando squads. Often centered around Mandalore the Vindicated, a stout disruptive piece that also can shell out damage and has a movement breaker. I'd be absolutely shocked if 1 of the 3 squads is not Mandolorian. I'm gonna have to be prepared to deal with Disruptive in at least one of his squads, if not more. He's also a Talon Karrde fan. There are a number of sick Fringe squad possibilities right now. Talon Karrde and Jabba Desilijic Tiure, both easily have top tier options. I'd also be shocked if we don't see Mira of Nar Shaddaa, in at least one of his squads. Beyond that there was that disgustingly sick Thrawn/Boba AFH/Calo Nord BH squad he accidentally played last round (not to mention the one he played in Swiss). He's also won the Gen Con championship with Republic and Rebels. Do they still have the same power in this newer meta? He took out the current world champ with Old Republic in the semis, won twice in Swiss with New Republic and Republic (in addition to Mandos of course). His only losses in Swiss were with Rebel and Sith, who (perhaps not coincidentally) happen to be sitting at the bottom as far as record by each faction. Of course I could also see that as a challenge for him. He won a game each in Swiss with Vong and Seps, and while those wouldn't be high guesses that he'll play, you never know.

Then we gotta factor in if he wants to play something unexpected to surprise me. Will he play something out of character (other than low act, stout, often has disruptive)? Or will he play to counter what he thinks I might play? I guess people expect me to play Thrawn Swap, or Lancer back in the day. Thrawn Swap is always on my radar, so maybe I should avoid it. Or will he think I'll avoid it, so I should play it. Or just play it and say, go ahead and try and stop it! I've had some success with New Republic in the last year, but a lot of those squads take a lot of practice. It's funny - Seps are clearly good, but what seems to have the most success are the non-traditional Sep squads (such as Bryan's Championship squad last year). Technically Separatist, but plays much more like Fringe. I also played a "Separatist" Pirate squad. Also plays more like Fringe. Vong always have a few nasty tricks up their sleeve, I don't consider them a top faction of mine but I'd never rule them out either. Sith seem to have been struggling, and though I've had some success in the past with them, I'm not a typical Sith player. Though Uvaks are sick and I really like what you can do with them. Rebels aren't hopeless in my mind, there's some great combos still there. Mandos have a bunch of great stuff, but do you wanna bring that vs the master? Fringe is definitely always an option, I've had some success lately with them. Republic has such depth that there's something for everyone.


It's gonna be fun to see what squads get rolled out, in what order. Then of course see how they play out.

Yeah, that's the pits.

Tim won the map roll so we played on the Desert Marketplace, but this matchup was still strongly in my favor.

Round 1: Tim advanced his people safely, so that I wouldn't have 2 targets adjacent to each other for a nasty Flamerthrower. I towed Yoda up so that he could use Master Speed to charge in and hit 2 witches, taking 30dmg on an aoo. Swap for Momaw, who did a double-WarThroat.

Round 2: I won the initiative, which kinda puts the game out of reach for Tim: I WarThroated again, which brought all of the Witches to 20hp, which is perfect for Yoda to finish off. However, Tim's dice decided to make it worse by missing his attacks (even after a fprr), so Momaw survived. Yoda swapped in and cleaned up all of the witches, taking 50dmg in the process, and running far away to force Tim to really extend himself if he wanted to go after Yoda. Tim ended up taking out R2 and putting 10 damage on my Clone Flamer. I advanced a bunch of my guys into the gambit room so that they could set up for next round.

Round 3: I won init, so Yoda ran in to kill Talia (40hp). He took some more damage back, but survived long enough for Dr E to swap in and double-stab the Hunter to death. Dr E took some lightning damage from the Mother, and then also a Blast from the spirit and then some lightning damage from the Mother...but he avoided defeat.

Round 4: Tim won init and defeated Dr E, who didn't avoid it this time. More flames and swaps and flames and gallops...at this point it was just an avalanche of damage that took a round or two to finish off the last of the squad. Blizz survived with 10hp at the end of the match.


Everything was really decided at the start of Round 2, though. Tim played about as well as he could have, but the matchup was just nigh insurmountable, and then his dice put it beyond reach.

This matchup was much more interesting. Vindicated's disruptive basically kept Vander's combat boosts from being a factor. However, Raddus' Battering Charge CE still worked, and the Red Aces still had Bravado on their cards, so Tim wasn't totally without options against my Mando beef.

I won the map roll so we played on Cloud City, and Tim set up on the left side.

Round 1: I set up just outside of the gambit room, with most people fairly safe...or so I thought. As I look back, I'm honestly not sure what I was thinking! At the end of the round, Luke levitated a Battering Assault Red Ace forward so that it could run around Vindicated and then hit FOUR of my pieces with BA. It would've been really easy to prevent this, but I just wasn't thinking. Anyway, Tim's dice saved me: he missed each of his initial attack rolls (but not against Vindicated), but the Twins still got through. This meant that my Demolitionist and Tactician were gone. Mira was at 40hp. Vindicated was pushed beyond Resolnare range by the BA effect...but as we discovered later, it was fine.

Round 2: Tim won init and chose to go first. His Ace was disrupted (so no BA to work with), but could still attack Mira...and he missed an attack, so Mira survived with 10hp. She killed off that Ace and then moved away to where she hoped she would be safe. Vindicated then triple-blasted, killing one more Red Ace and bringing the last one to 20hp. His CE moved Jango up to a door, from which he could do a nice Furious Assault later. Vindicated took a bunch more damage (down to 40hp) from the last Ace. Jango then flew out to FA on a lot of Tim's squad: the last Red Ace died, the Tantive IV Trooper died (the shot vs Jango was irrelevant because of his high Def), and a bunch of damage was spread around some other pieces. Kelborn then moved up to double-Cunning attack the Gold Ace, who failed both Evade saves and died. Tim had a sweet move at the end of the round, to levitate Han forward around the bottom of the map, so that Han could then do a FA of his own, which killed Mira and missed Vindicated.

Round 3: Tim won the init, but I resolnare'd so that both Kelborn and Vindicated were adjacent to Han, so it would be painful for Han to run away for another FA. He simply attacked Vindicated with bad dice (a major theme on the day, for Tim). Vindicated finished off Han, and then Jando did a big FA to hit everything that remained in Tim's squad...including a crit on the Klat Captain, who failed his evade and died. Tim did a good job at the end of the round to position Luke where he could kill Vindicated (GMA double Cunning) if he won init.

Round 4: Tim did win init, so Vindicated went down. Jango responded with yet another FA, which finally finished off Luke and Juno. Kelborn then moved up for the finishing blow on Raddus and on Vander.


This one was much more touch 'n go for a while. I was in real trouble after that nasty BA at the end of the first round. However, by the end of the 2nd round all of the Red and Gold Aces were gone, which drastically lowered Tim's damage output and tactical options. And Jango was a total beast...that always helps.



So there it is! The Spheres of Influence league has now concluded. This has been a PILE of fun! Big thanks to Tim for organizing it, and much appreciation to everyone who played. It was cool that Bryan and Jason were able to share this on the SHNN, so I look forward to watching that later, to see what they saw. Thanks everyone!

Congrats to thereisnotry for a victorious finish to an overall outstanding performance all throughout the league.

Rock solid squads, played superbly!


And thank you to all who participated! I'd like to do something similar in the future.