Board Room Game Cafe (Halifax, NS) - 8 players

1st (me, 5-0) -

• eStormtroopers x2
• eSnowtroopers
• eE-Web Engineer
• Imperial Officers x2

Command Deck

• New Orders
• Grenadier
• Reinforcements x2
• Lock On
• Tough Luck
• Rank and File
• Change of Plans
• Disorient
• Wild Attack
• Take Initiative
• Planning
• Element of Surprise
• To The Limit^
• Rally^

^funny story about the last two, somehow hadn't realized until was told otherwise midgame one of the games yesterday that To The Limit can only be used after special actions. Reading it now it's obvious but knowing that I'd probably not bother taking either (Rally is in there to be used mostly to remove the stun later on, though useful against some lists as well). Though it is somewhat still useful on Snowtroopers (run up to a frontline snowtrooper who needs healing, heal, to the limit, shoot, get stunned, have the other guy heal you and then shoot as well).

Overall, most games I found I had control over both terminals which I think was a huge advantage and won me my games. Some games I'd end the game with a hand full of more than half a dozen cards though so either I'm picking cards with too specific of uses (waiting to use Wild Attack with Lock On, etc) or I'm just too stingy with them. Generally had the troopers split up into 2 or 3 groups mixing up the squads as much as possible to save from losing entire squads and giving up points.

I know Trooper swarms are a popular arch-type but I really like the E-web in this list compared to say Royal Guards which are another popular choice. People seem fairly scared of the E-web, it was usually targeted first but would leave enemies vulnerable while they hunted it down and it either regenned through Recover or Snowtroopers or would just shred anything that approached it while behind two troopers or at a corner. Unlike Royal Guards it also has the Trooper trait which makes cards like Rank and File and Change of Plans even stronger.

2nd @Toqtamish (3-2) -

• Luke
• Leia
• Gideon w/ On a Diplomatic Mission
• C-3PO
• eRebel Troopers
• eRebel Sabs

Played him not only in the final but also the final round of swiss (we did 3 rounds of swiss and a top 4 cut, more on that at the very bottom). Reprogrammed on Training Ground the first time and Battlefield Engineering the second time so pretty similar missions really. Luke and Leia are obviously the big threat here, I was worried about the Sabs but the way they were used to contest objectives in both games left them vulnerable and generally they were first to die, which generally left me in better position both objective wise and with figures.

The first game (Third round) I lost the E-web early due to somehow missing that I had a shot I could have recovered with and getting Son of Skywalkered. I may have lost on time if I hadn't had terminal control and hadn't been able to New Orders my Snowtroopers to then Change of Plans to an entire squad of Stormtroopers that were within range of injured Luke and take him out on the final activation (changing what would have been a 30-29 loss to a 39-30 win). PS: 3 out of the 5 of his first defensive rolls that game were X, eff X-men.

The final game against this list I was able to get the 10 pts while denying him his own by taking out the Sabs early. He did a better job splitting the terminals this game but I was still able to keep my trooper balls fairly healthy with stuff like rank and file to heal and shoot while still moving forward a bit to contest map points. There were quite a few times he was one short of killing a guy and I'd get him healed back up, or use Tough Luck to keep a guy alive. Even after units died, Reinforcements is such a strong card when used with elite Troopers and I was able to get two early, I think the only squad I lost completely here was my E-web, though I lost 5-6 troopers throughout the match).

He even gave me a ride home after I beat him, which I really appreciated as we had run later than I expected, but seriously always like playing against Toq and even just talking about the state of the game with him.

Top 4 (lost to 1st, 2-2) -

• Boba Fett
• Bossk
• Nexu x3
• Punishing Strike
• Beast Tamer
• Temp Alliance
• Gideon

Only played him in the semis, and he had placed top 4 in the Ontario regionals while visiting the week before (with a different list). I think overall the list just lacked figure counts which really hurt him in the map we got for that round, Drinks and Deals in the Cantina, if he had had a even just an Alliance Smuggler added in instead of Punishing Strike he may have been able to take it. I get the idea with Punishing Strike here, you turn the first Bleed into a Stun on a unit and then get another Bleed on him but in most cases this will kill a unit (in my list at least) anyway. The only other time I think it's useful is switching out Weaken for Stun or Bleed which I don't think ever came into play against me either (only Boba has it in this list I believe anyway). But in the end I pushed into the Cantina, took out a Nexu, Bossk, then the other two Nexus, Gideon and then finishing off Boba after he tried to contest me just accruing points in the Cantina. I did lose my E-web and Snowtroopers in this match, and an officer maybe, but Reinforcements kept the other two Stormtrooper squads fairly healthy and I was able to use some of those Last Stand focuses along with the rerolls to whittle down Boba.

Enjoyed the game, we have a bit of a friendly rivalry going across a few games, he claims he's never beaten me (which isn't true), but they're always exciting matches.

Top 4 (lost to 2nd, 2-2) -

• Bantha Rider x2
• eHK Assassin Droid
• Nexu
• Beast Tamer
• Temp Alliance
• Gideon
• Alliance Smuggler

Didn't play him today so no details here, good player though and Bantha's can be scary so may have dodged a bullet here. If I was playing the list I may have done rHKs and eNexu instead but that's personal preference.

Other Games earlier in the day:

First Round:

• General Weiss Targeting Computer
• eStormtroopers
• Heavy Stormtroopers Targeting Computer
• eImperial Officer
• Imperial Officer

Alright so first round, we were playing Fallout on Nelvaanian. He didn't line up any troopers at the central doors, just seemed to be planning to go towards the objects so I figured I'd take the terminals and let him have the tokens if he wanted them basically. This was a low scoring game til the very end, I lost my E-web first round and he lost his eStormtroopers in the first two or three so I was up one point. I harried him with some troopers, whittling down Weiss to half health (almost had a devastating loss early from this unit to back to back Blast 3s from Weiss but was able to Tough Luck some surges away and avoid it) and then almost killed off his Heavys until a well timed Endless Reserves got them back in a healthy position. Had lost some troopers along the way but they all had two units left after Reinforcements of my own so I felt pretty confident, then last round Weiss was coming back into the central room area after going the long way around with the help of his officers. At this point I accidentally ran an injured trooper away from Weiss but in range of one of his Heavies, with the other remaining member of the squad in range of Weiss, such a stupid mistake. This allowed him to finish off that squad and get up 17-9 on me. I went to town on Weiss with some Snowtroopers and barely did much of a scratch, it was long range and they weren't focused nor do they get rerolls. I think this left Weiss with 2 or 3 health left though. I had one trooper left in range and one that was about 12 spaces away from getting a spot, so I moved that one 8 spaces closer and then moved my other trooper away from Weiss to a nearby officer, New Ordered the trooper to get them both active again and got 2 shots instead of one, on my final shot I squad training rerolled enough damage to finally kill him with the exact amount required to finish him off for the win.

First time playing this opponent, he drove 4 hours to get to the tournament so respect for that, and he definitely gave me my closest match of the day with Weiss who most consider to be underpowered so props for that. Also apologies for a debate we had about LoS, thought he was to use a different corner of a unit than he was during one attack and took me longer to realize my own confusion and that it was legal than it should have.

Second Round:

• Vader
• Stormtroopers x2
• Royal Guard
• Imperial Officer

This guy was a newer player and I had actually practiced with him earlier this week pitting similar squads against each other. We were on Nelvaanian again for Constant Motion this time and to be honest I thought he had the upper hand on me for a little bit, he had better control over the objectives and I had control over the terminals though so as he got early points I was able to turn command card advantage into game advantage. The eStormtroopers vs rStormtroopers is a joke really, and they got shredded, along with the Royal Guards but in the process I lost quite a few troopers to Vader. Some others were able to circle around a bit and take out his Officer and some injured guys in back and once he was down to mostly just Vader left though I was able to focus him down. Tough Luck and Wild Attack Element of Surprise (have a white die, no wait, no white die for you) really did some damage on Vader.

Always glad to help get new players into the game and he's beaten me in X-wing before so I didn't feel too badly taking him out here, I was concerned for a bit when he got to the early lead but stuck to my guns.

Shoutout to the Board Room for getting a kit, they were the only place in Atlantic Canada to get a Store kit or Spring kit as well (that I know of at least) and they included many of the leftover prizes in the Regionals for those who had missed either of those (I had missed Spring so was pumped to get the errata'd RGs). They also offer a pretty sweet meal deal combo that includes registration so all around it was a great time and I enjoyed my games, FFG should probably let them host Nationals! (I kid, we got similar numbers to Toronto, and 2 of those players were from here, but I know it's not going to be east of Montreal just due to population density and potential pull). I will say I'm glad I picked up a Lando pack from the store before it started because Tough Luck saved my ass a few times :)

Also shoutout to Jason for TOing despite wanting to play I'm sure, he volunteers to TO most tournaments at the Board Room and they all run more smoothly because of it.

So as mentioned we only had 8 people which means 3 rounds of swiss, it was also a Regional though so under premiere events there needs to be a cut. We ended up cutting to 4 which makes sense cause otherwise a top 2 cut would end up being the final round of swiss rematching against each other in the final anyway. That's not necessarily a bad thing but means the last swiss round didn't matter. I think with 8 people specifically that double elimination would work really well. Basically that would mean whoever won round 3 would have a chance at redemption if they lost the "final" (round 4) and would push to a 5th game.