Place: Portsmouth, England
Date: 15th November
Last tournament taking place before Special Edition would be released. What sort of decks would people bring along in a last flurry of playing before everything gets turned on its head? Well, we just about squeezed 8 players here actually. There was a tournament taking place in Birmingham on the same day, which partially explains the low turnout. Last time I was here I came fifth. With the four players who came above me missing (two were otherwise "occupied", and the other two seemingly went to Birmingham instead), I had a chance to take a possible victory! Still, I knew the other 7 players and reckoned I would still have to play well to succeed.
I took along the same two decks (with a couple of tweaks each) I had used in the previous Portsmouth tournament, namely light side Our Most Desperate Shuffle and dark side Mains, Pains and Drains. Amazingly enough given the current climate, my light side deck outperformed my dark side but more of that later. On with the games! I admit, my memory is crap, so not all of the information listed may be correct. But that's life huh?
Game 1: LS versus Graham McNally (Tat: JP with Expand the Empire)
So I start with the Throne Room... but have nothing to put down at Jabba's Palace to stop him getting out all of his sites! I do have Obi, his saber and Obi's Hut to deploy down and move across next turn. Luke and Anakin's saber also turn up there, along with Yoda's Hut and Bad Feeling Have I to slow down the rest of my mains. He deploys Zuckuss to Jabba's Palace, then reacts to Obi's Hut when I battle him. Oh, for a Sense! I forgot about the text on him. Meanwhile as I struggle to get some more force out (Tatooine system only being of note) he puts down EV-9D9 at the Droid Workshop with a power droid, and Mosep and Gailid at the Audience Chamber. He has also converted my Jundland Wastes and put Bane Malar there. Hmm hunters to the left of me, aliens to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with few. First things first, get rid of Bad Feeling Have I. With drains mounting, I run Our Most Desperate Hour for all of 6 force retrieved! Well six is better than nothing you know. With no Nabrun in the deck, Obi and crew make their way on foot to the Audience Chamber (reserve drains hurt!), and pick up a 4 drain and a couple of Monks on the way (deploy -2 at Entrance Cavern). When they reach there, Graham decided merely to defend his position with Jabba and a couple of other cards rather than flee, thinking a drain for five outside was good enough. I go Tunnel Visioning with Momaw Nadon in hand. Do I pick Undercover to stop the drain at Obi's Hut, or pick Gift of the Mentor for some destiny splatting? I opt for the latter. The dynamic duo slice up Gailid and Mosep, then proceed to attrition everyone bar an Abyssin. It flees next turn, unsurprisingly. Down come Momaw Nadon and Chewbacca for some beatdown. Those two then proceed to chase after Zuckuss with the dynamic duo in hot pursuit. I run OMDH again for another 6 force. In the end I just squeeze out enough damage with Bacta Tank keeping characters coming back for more. Win by 6.
Points 2 (+6)
Game 2: DS versus Paul Whitehouse (Yoda's Hut with no starting effect?)
Unsure of what he was playing (he lent his Asteroids deck to someone else), I start with Imperial Decree. I struggle for force early on, partially due to not getting sites out, partially due to an early Revolution on my Ice Plains. With Imperial Decree down, it spends most of the game doing an impression of a spin dryer. I am practically forced to put down my Cantina, the result being it is taken over for the rest of the game by the other side. Then again this is the only real place he got to drain the entire game. This one timed out because of low draining potential, and Figrin D'an gambling (and sometimes losing!). I had Jundland Wastes controlled with an AT-AT and Vader did his best under pressure at the Defensive Perimeter. Luke with saber held the revolved Ice Plains, but because no one was at the Wampa Cave, it was only a drain for one. Then I put down Zuckuss at the Cave and moved Vader to confront Luke. Luke decided to move via Nabrun Leids to the Wampa Cave, where he was joined by Chewbacca, Leia and KFC. Having been foiled by Zuckuss' gametext in the last game, I wasn't about to forget it myself! Zuckuss waves bye bye as the battle starts. Veers and Cabbel roam around in Blizzard 1 but are lost when said Rebel group out attrition them. Yoda at his Hut meant I often didn't remove any of his characters. Vader then spends the rest of the game teleporting around here, there and everywhere on Hoth to block, battle and generally make a nuisance of himself. I had just got him over to the Cantina to hack at Bo Shek and Figrin D'an when time was called. I had 8 force left and he had 6 force left. Another tight one...
Points 3 (+14)
Game 3: DS versus Scott Latham (Hoth with Yarna Del Gargan)
I go with Imperial Decree because I was almost certain clouds would come into play. Actually they hardly caused a problem. But what normally comes with Hoth Clouds at the moment? Elom odds! I cringe and scramble for my Resistance. Fortunately it doesn't take too long to come up. However so do the shields on Hoth. But not before I've got Veers and Blizzard 1 down with Mosep as passenger. He has two Eloms at the Main Generators, with Bargaining Table coming out to slow any of my drains down. Vader, his saber and Tarkin deploy to the Ice Plains and make their way in behind Blizzard 1. So does an insert to my Reserve deck. I'm not too worried then, there's only one battleground on table (Hoth system) and nothing there. Until Red Leader in Red 1 appears cancelling Resistance's text. Insert up, lose 5. Eloms retreat to the War Room with backup whilst I decide to hold a bit and drain for 4 from Reserve under the shields for a few turns. Two Tatooine sites eventually come up. So does the Executor. Sadly, so does another insert, bye bye another 9 force. There is just enough Force pile left to put the Big Ship O'Fun down and start a battle, clearing Hoth away. Scott is struggling to get clouds out, and with three Hoth locations under my belt, won't be cancelling Imperial Decree in a hurry. Bounty hunters fill the Tatooine slots to preclude any big losses from another insert, but it doesn't stop him trying. Eloms aren't much use against aliens though, especially ones with ability 4! In the end, the draining was just too much for him to handle. Win by 13.
Points 5 (+27)
Game 4: LS versus Scott Latham (Bespin: Cloud City with Resistance)
I almost wanted to curl up here. Talk about misjudgement. I am rewarded though with many of my locations coming out pretty quickly. Sadly Resistance is down to cut most of my drains through the game to just two. I essentially control and spread on Tatooine whilst he gets set up on Cloud City ready to put down Dark Deal. He gets Obsidian 7 and 8 with two cloud cars to Bespin: Cloud City within three turns, but is a little slower getting the sites out. I decide not to go challenging them with Captain Han and the Falcon, instead they are put on high level retrieval alert. Meanwhile I get Obi and Luke down with their sabers to drain at Jundland Wastes and Obi's Hut. Yoda and his hut come out for force generation and prevention; Yoda moves to his cave to cancel his force icons. He eventually gets set up with controlling three sites and plops Dark Deal down. And then the true horror emerges. Mosep is in the middle at a 1/0 site. Together with the Cloud City and Dark Deal texts, he is power 9. Reserve drains hurt! Bacta Tank at the ready, Leia, KFC and Chewbacca block one drain of three at a Cloud City site. With three battlegrounds occupied, Resistance kicks in and I resort to deploying Monks and spreading out as much as I could. Mos Eisley coming out also helped. Scott piles in with characters to where my small force are resulting in a lost Chewbacca and KFC going to Bacta Tank. He deploys another site and characters, taking his potential drains to 4 from anywhere and 5 from Reserve after Leia goes undercover to block a 3 from Reserve. I hussle to get as many characters down as I can. Han does his thing and I retrieve 13 force. And that's how the rest of the game panned out. He was draining for a bit more each turn, but every so often I would get back a pile with OMDH. And you can't go leaving that unchecked now, because you can't win otherwise. Win by 11.
Points 7 (+38)
Game 5: LS versus Paul Whitehouse (Tat: Jabba's Palace with Bad Feeling Have I)
Paul was the only player within 2 points of me, so if I won this, I'd win the tournament. This has to be the most one-sided match I have ever come across. I get Obi's Hut and a Monk in my opening hand and proceed to plop it down at Jabba's Palace. Paul is about to search for a site when I point out he can't. He picks up, but not before SCrewing Luke from my hand. Damn, I had five force now to put him down next turn. I also had Obi in my hand. How I overlooked putting him down and moving him across I don't know. Anyhow I put down the Tatooine system and pick up, getting my other Luke into hand plus some useful other stuff. Paul has one other JP site out by now, and has enough to deploy Zuckuss to Jabba's Palace. Of course he still can't deploy the rest of the sites. So he attacks. Monk is lost but I draw a 3 to remove Zuckuss. I think he may struggle for force, so I lose my Cantina also. Back to square one! Luke and Anakin's saber come down to Jabba's Palace to reinforce the text exclusion. Paul doesn't have anything to respond so picks up. Obi joins Luke with his saber in tow. Paul picks up. Yoda and his hut come out. Paul picks up. Leia and a Monk come down to join Obi and Luke. Paul picks up. And then I just keep draining 4 per turn for the rest of the game. I eventually Alter the Bad Feeling Have I, so I can do the Captain Han OMDH thing in one turn, for all of 5 force back (it was all that was in my lost pile!). He never got going, all due to the power of the Monk. Win by 44.
Points 9 (+82)
Game 6: DS versus Simon Moore (Yavin 4 with Haven)
With the tournament all wrapped up (hah hah), some pressure was off. But I wanted to end it without defeat at least. I go for Imperial Decree again, thinking force drain bonuses or possibly clouds. Nope, it's space odds! Hoth is merely used for force generation, whilst I again scramble for Resistance and Tatooine locations. What helped was the fact that whilst he was getting out his ships and high destiny pilots okay, the odds cards were strangely missing in action. He is as bemused as I am why they are all still stuck in his deck. By the time he gets one into my Reserve deck, I am occupying three battlegrounds. I have Jundland Wastes with two bounty hunters and PotF, and Tusken Canyon with Vader, his saber and Tarkin for two drains of 3. I have also got out the reliable combo of Executor and Dr Evazan flying around his systems. Due to the fortunate parsec numbers of the systems he had deployed, the Big Ship O'Fun was able to go anywhere to battle or block drains. Which it did pretty well, causing him damage and reducing my force loss. Defensive Perimeter with Veers and Blizzard 2 come out late for extra drainage. All that was missing was Mosep to the equation. With odds nullified, he couldn't compete with my drains. Win by 14.
Points 11 (+96)
So, my first (and possibly only) tournament win comes around. I get nothing special in the 8 odd prize packs and a Falcon T-shirt which will be kept in a safe place! Thanks to the other seven guys who took part. See you people soon with new, all-singing, all-dancing SE decks!
Mayhem