Very busy day today! 2 tournaments today, 1 sealed deck, 1 constructed deck, also played 2 games for fun, I'm all SW:CCG-ed out!
1st tournament: Sealed Deck (Cedar Grove, NJ, 1/16/98) : 16 players
By popular demand the TD let people select which side they'd play, there was a clamoring for DS after a few of the top players chose it, I chose light side!
Opened my packs! No mains :-(. Weak on characters, got BoShek, but after him and Arleil my next best character was Zutton! Got 2 Y-wings, however my only pilots where the ones named above. 1 Arcona too which is always nice. My locations were decent, I chose the following: Kashyyk, Corulag, Tatooine, Kessel and Mos Eisley. What I lacked in deployable cards I made up for and then some in interrupts! Which included the following: 1 Sense, 1 Counter Assault, 1 Nabrun, 2 It Could Be Worse, 2 Old Bens, 2 Out of Nowhere, A Few Maneuvers, Full Throttle. I was pleased!
1st game: vs. Mike Smith
Don't remember too much. I got out quickly w/ some Y-wings in space. He eventually deployed a Dreadnaught to battle a lone Y-wing, I played A Few Maneuvers and Out of Nowhere, he lost the Dreadnaught, I lost nothing! On the ground his drains were stalled by some It Could Be Worses and later than annoying Arcona. He never managed to venture back into space, I got out Traffic Control, dropped my hand and won by 27. (they were 40 card decks). 2 +27
2nd game: vs. Chris Gogolen
It's become a running joke between us that we always play, today was no different. He really didn't get much in the way of cards, I Nabruned my Trooper Recruit to his D*:Military Corridor to do some draining. Meanwhile on Tatooine the Arcona did his work stopping 1 drainand Arleil and some random aliens held another site. Eventually the Cadet was swarmed but I houjixed the damage and his characters were stranded after he lost his Elis. In space I It's a Hitted his Tallon Roll while BoShek on a Y-wing and the squadron ships fought off the resistance. He got in some draining but not enough. Win by 14. 4 + 41
3rd game: vs. Jon McCann
We both start w/ Kashyyyk so we pick over, him Corulag, me Tatooine. He plays a few Scanning Crews and realizes he's in some trouble when I have 2 squadron ships, a Y-Wing, BoShek, and Arleil in my hand early. I take to space w/ the 3 Starships. On the ground I get Arleil and some guys to drain. He comes to battle in space w/ Dreadnaught and a BS-Tie, he tries to Tallon Roll but Arleil senses it! He decides to battle and it turns bad for him. Next turn he Ghhks the damage. I spread out in space, and we do some battling on the ground w/ Old Ben really helping out. My drains in space we're too much, Win by 22. 6 + 63
4th game: vs. Jared Greenberg
Jared got out deck sleeves after he saw what he pulled so I knew I had problems. He pulled 3 star destroyers, including the Devastator :(. We had a stalemate in space, w/ each of us not really wanting to battle (him because he new I had Out of Nowhere, me because he out-powered me). There was a large skirmish @ Mos Eisley while an Arcona blocked a drain @ Lar's Farm. He evantually got out the Devastator and I had to Houjix the damage in space. A Nabrun of a Cadet to his War Room got me some nice draining. It was very close down the stretch w/ my holding 1 card and both of knowing it was a Surprise Assault. He didn't drain w/ his lone Jawa or his Dreadnaught and 3 Ties, but slowly whittled me down w/ his drain w/ the Devastator. Thanx to some good tracking of my destinies (darn Imperial Code Cylinder) he managed to drain me out w/out suffering the wrath of Surprise Assault. He won w/ 1 force left! To make it that much worse, the shirt was a Vader! Oh well, there's always next time, or in this case, there's always another touranment in an hour or so! I got 2nd place, a bunch of packs w/ nothing of interest.
2nd tournament: Constructed deck (Cedar Grove, NJ) 1/16/98: 24 players!
Lots of the people from the 1st tourney ade the trip to the 2nd one, and a bunch more showed up! One of our biggest local tourneys.
My decks: LS - HB/Tatooine Celebration. 1st turn flip @ Tatooine w/ X-wings to control the system, and Mains and Monks on the ground.
DS - Raltiir Ops. Lots of ability 2 pilots, plenty of walkers, flip the objective and go do what ya can! (deck list below)
1st game: LS vs. Mike Smith (Ground pound?)
Once again, I open up w/ Mike Smith, which is good w/ me cause he's a nice kid and is intimidated by playing me! He starts Wampa Cave, I get some X-Wings to Tatooine and set up Celebration w/ EPP Leia and a Monk @ the AC. He jumps me w/ Jabba, Ephant, and Fett. I shoot and hit Jabba, so he loses Jabba and Ephant, I lose the Monk. Next turn Leia (thanx to some X-Wing air support crushes Fett. I spread out w/ Mains and Monks w/ Houjix in hand while he tries to replenish his hand while suffering from the force choke. Evantually EPP Vader and Tarkin jump Melas and the houjix comes in handy. However Ben and Chewie hold off they dynamic duo while I retrieve all my lost force and get out Traffic Control. I quickly drain him out. Win by 37. Mike is not pleased w/ me! (2 +27)
2nd game - DS vs. Chris Gogolen (HB/Tat. Harvest)
As stated previously Chris and I always play, it's becoming ridiculous almost. We had the top 2 differentials for our side, oh well. I get out a site and draw some cards. He goes for a system and doesn't find one (I verify he's playing the deck I knew he was playing). He draws up. I get out my 2nd site and save some force to flip my objective next turn. He deploys Tatooine, an X-wings there, Savrip and moves to Raltiir, ugh, no 3rd turn flip for me. Now the Avenger who was preparing to probe his Hidden Base was needed elsewhere. Evax in the Avenger beat up his X-wing but unfortunately couldn't find the hyperoute calculations to reach Tatooine! Next turn I flip, w/ a Lobel at the middle of 3 sites to keep out unwanteds. He gets Ben Kenobi w/ Sabre and Kal Fal @ the Cantina. I get a Death Squadron SD to Tatooine the next turn to probe and it's forfeit covers the ensuing battle damage. I fortify my 3 sites w/ a Walker and some more guys and get out There Is No Try just in time to make him lose force for altering BFHI. He comes down to Tatooine w/ Luke and Lando and kills some guys. DV, DLotS comes down to quell the resistance. I get out Oprresive Enforcement and start using 2 force to get my Masterful Move to cancel Savrip. After 3 turns of this Chris finally runs out of senses (or maybe gets sick of losing 3 force to keep it around). Meanwhile EPP Luke, Han and Leia come down to Raltiir. They are stalled by 2 Walkers and I slowly but surely begin to win the drain race. He eventually spreads out in space in an effort to flip my objective and Bossk in the Bus ambushes a lone X-wing w/ a 7 battle desiny to end the game. Win by 12 or so. 4 (+49)
3rd game: LS vs. Luis's ISB Ops
He plays a lot of weird locations (Hoth:DB, War Room, etc). I set up my X-wings @ Tatooine and get Ben and a Monk @ a Tatooine site. 5d6 goes to Tatooine to cut my drain to only 2 (ugh). Meanwhile a bunch of ISB Ops go to Hoth to drain and are met w/ a lot of EPPs. I keep missing w/ my weapon draws and losing Mains to attrition, but I manage to get a foot hold w/ EPP Luke, Han and R-3p0. Meanwhile an ORS and a probe droid go to drain at separate CC sites. EPP Leia goes to take care of them but he plays Stunning Leader to cancel the battle (this would happen many more times later). Leia died, but Ben Kenobi and Melas Nabruned in to take care of the CC problems leaving 2 Monks on Tatooine. He Elis Helrots his Hoth contingent to ambush a Monk and I houjix. Chewbacca backs up the other Monk and I go looking for my Nabrun to get Ben back where he belongs. I find it just in time to save Chewie from the ISBs that are after him. Our game is taking a long time (all my drains are pretty much -1, all of his drains are blocked by my guys who outpower him). He continues to use the probe droids to look at my hand, at one point prompting me to just show him my whole hand to speed up the process. The game ends w/ EPP Luke chasing a probe droid around on CC, Ben Kenobi and Cheiw chasing a mess of ISB Ops on Tatooine, and me draining for small amounts on Hoth. I had stopped his drains entirely, and was retrieving force for Celebration and draining myself but the game timed out. He had 16 force left, I had 10 (lose my Traffic Control sometime when it didn't seem too important). Timed Loss by 16. (4 + 33)
4th game: DS vs. Jason Lembos Dantooine Ops
We laugh at the matchup of our decks, both give -1 drain all over, neither of us are likely to challenge the other on their planet. He starts Goo Nee Tay, I start BFHI. I flip my objective quickly (2nd turn) and my Lobel assumes his spot at the Forest. He flips his to stop all my drains and gets an Itorian to the Jungle to get some drain. DV, DLotS (10 deploy, ouch) ambushes Lando and Comm. Wedge @ his Farm and I manage to play chicken w/ Obi-Wan for a while. Tarkin comes down to help out Vader but dies in a Smoke Screen. He gets out Coruscant and a X-wing Squad. He abandons his Dantooine to drain @ Coruscant and I get a Death Squad-SD @ Dantooine and Vader moves to flip his objective back. Next turn I convert Coruscant to kill his drain there. I get a Dune Walker to go trample the pesky Ithorian and provide some back up for Vader. He drops EPP Han, Luke and Leia, I hit Han and kill Leia w/ attrition but his 3 destinies kill Vader and the Walker. He's content w/ the small drain he's achieved in space thanx to his flipped objective, and Obi w/ Sabre until I get out the Ice Plains w/ Blizzard 2, Wampa Cave w/ Evax and a Lobel and Decree. His drains are reduced to a 1 drain @ Obi's site w/ a newly deployed Ithorian. Leia Organa sneaks her way into the Wampa Cave w/ some friends to break up the Decree, however Darth Vader @ the Def. Perimeter put an end to that. Bubo made the Ithorian lunch and his drains where canceled, while I had a nice drain of 1 @ the Def. Perimeter. Leia and company made their way over there, but not even the Savrip could keep up w/ BDs that were +5. Eventually Vader whittled away his guys and Jason conceded defeat in one of the most annoying games ever. We both controlled a ton of sites and neither of us could drain for much of the game, it was kind of silly. Win by 7. (6 + 40)
Luis managed to win as he was the only undefeated w/ 7 victory points. I ended up in 6th thanx to my not so hot differential and a slew of players @ 3-1. Once again, nothing of interest in my prize packs. Got in 2 games for fun w/ a guy who wanted a few more games to try and get into the flow of Special Edition. A fun day, but once again, 2 SW tournaments are 1 too many in a day, but it won't stop me from going to them! - Mike.
My Raltiir Ops deck: Objective: Raltiir Ops Locations: Raltiir Swamp Forest Jungle Spaceport Prefects Office Coruscant Hoth: Wampa Cave Hoth: Ice Plains Hoth: Def. Perimeter Tat: Jundland Wastes Tat: Lar's Farm Characters: Darth Vader Darth Vader, DLotS Grand Moff Tarkin Chief Bast Commander Desanne DS-61-2 DS-61-3 DS-61-4 Warrant Officer M'Kae Lobel x2 Lt. Cabbel General Veers Trooper Davin Felth Admiral Ozzel Stormtrooper Cadet Officer Evax Captain Lennox Lt. Tanbris Lt. Comm. Ardan Weapons: Vader's Saber Creatures: Bubo Dragonsnake Vehicles: Blizzard 1 Blizzard 2 Blizzard Walker Dune Walker Blizzard Scout 1 Starhips: Executor Avenger Death Squadron Star Destroyer Bossk In Bus Vader's Shuttle Interrupts: Twi'lek Advisor (starting) Masterful Move Ghhhk Trample x2 Effects: Presence of the Force Bad Feeling Have I (starting) There'll Be Hell To Pay Imperial Decree Oppressive Enforcement There Is No Try Expand the Empire Come Here You Big Coward Resistance
Strategy:
Get out 3 Raltiir sites quickly and flip the Objective as soon as you can
(sometimes by the 2nd turn, usually on the 3rd, 4th is a little slow).
Get a Lobel @ your middle site (only deploy 3, Forest in the middle for
Expand if needed). Fortify until you've got adequate support for all 3
of your sites and then figure out what you need to do to win. The
ability to use 2 force to get any 1 card is huge, use it wisely.
Especially in the end game, leave 1 more destiny than you need, and then
take the lowest destiny out during your control phase. Imperial Decree
combined w/ -1 drains everywhere will generally shut down most decks (you
can Decree w/ 2 systems and 1 site, or 2 Hoth sites). Don't let them
flip your objective back, w/out it your odds of winning decrease
drastically.
faramir