Hi guys, so I had made a post about what I planned to take to a regionals last weekend, so thought I'd follow up on that! This wasn't a big regionals by any means, we had 13 attend, but it was enjoyable and competitive for the most part nonetheless. One thing we all thought was strange was there were zero full Rebel lists.

Myself, I ended up rolling with the all trooper, no officer variant from the post I linked above:

• 2x e Jet Troopers Targeting Computer (2x 7 1)
• e Stormtroopers (9)
• Snowtroopers (7)
• Terro (7)
• Zillo Technique (1)

Overall I was fairly happy with it, think if I was to replay it I would switch up the Snowtroopers. I will say they were nice for just extra units, opening doors, controlling terminals/objectives, but they didn't do much offensively and died very quickly. Also they worked well with Change of Plans but otherwise I think I'd swap them for either 3x Officers or a Heavy Trooper squad and then Feeding Frenzy on Terro.

Command deck was:

• 3 Covering Fire
• 3 Grenadier
• 2 Overrun
• 2 Reinforcements
• 2 Reinforcements
• 1 Change of Plans
• 1 Ferocity
• 1 Tough Luck
• 0 Disorient
• 0 Urgency
• 0 To the Limit
• 0 Rally
• 0 Fleet Footed
• 0 Element of Surprise
• 0 Celebration

Fairly happy overall with the deck, would likely take out Covering Fire if I didn't have the Snowtroopers though and slot in Call the Vanguard and Fuel Upgrade. Mostly didn't have Call the Vanguard in there cause I didn't have the ally pack for it, it's a no brainer with the jet troopers and Terro though. If I was to add officers back in I'd likely have to rework the deck completely to fit in New Orders, Planning, etc.

On to the matches!

First match: Nelvaanian Warzone - Broken Droids

Opponent: Rancor, Jabba, Pirates, Vinto, Bossk

Well, my main commentary on this one is that it was slow, probably because it was the first match of the day and also because we had a few rule disputes. My opponent was one I'd played before in the last regionals and he had made the 4 hour drive to be here again. Our last match had ended on a single roll, this one hinged more on a single rule. Which was frustrating, because I knew I was right and I knew it was going to completely ruin his turn and thus the game.

The rule in question was whether or not you can use Brutality with the Rancor twice if you play Single Purpose. I'll be honest, my initial reaction to Single Purpose the first time I saw it was that it'd be awesome for just that kind of thing, but then I realized it doesn't say anything about overruling the rule you can only perform one attack action per turn. Unfortunately my opponent hadn't come to that same conclusion and we had to involve the TO, and even afterward there was much lamenting about how it would effect the game.

I'll say this, and I'll probably sound like a dick if this player reads this but if you have a rule go against you, especially after the TO has weighed in as well, unless you can prove in 30 seconds that everyone else is wrong then please move on. No, I'm sorry but we can't go back in time and say you had used Trained since now know how your card works, we especially can't since I already attacked your Rancor with a squad of Stormtroopers, no I'm not letting you roll an extra black die and subtract that damage. I don't really care to hear how your turn would've gone otherwise, we're still on the clock, tell me after the game, stop wasting precious in game time especially when there's only 10 minutes left and we're mid-round 2.

Anyway rant over, he didn't do as much damage as planned, I killed the now out of position Rancor and I think 14 other points worth of units, forget which exactly but no one got any points from the droids. Moral of the story, it's important to know how your cards work and it doesn't hurt to know how your opponents cards work.

1-0

Second Match: ISB Headquarters - Holocams

Opponent: Nexus, Trandoshans, IG-88

This match up was against a new player and while he did pretty well with what he had I think my list ended up being a little more optimized than his could handle. That said I felt the strain hard and my command deck was depleted by the end of the match. Ended up starting "upstairs" and basically just charged in and opened my door immediately.

One thing I found with my list was I'm used to having more small point activations to stall at the start or do minor things like open doors. With this list I was basically using up a fifth of my firepower every turn since everything was more or less evenly costed. So I wasn't really able to do much until he finally opened his door on the second last activation and then I charged in with Terro.

This might've been a little bold as I neglected to appreciate how much damage IG-88 can toss out if he has an open line of sight and doesn't have to move to shoot. Which I should've been aware of since I love E-webs and he's basically a more expensive E-web at that point. Anyway Terro went down quickly and then next turn he started with initiative and proceeded to do some damage to my troopers with his strain guns.

I was able to take out IG-88 that round and then started picking off the rest of his troops, a well timed Overrun with my Jet Trooper was able to wreck havoc on his Trandoshans. As I whittled down his lists he started getting an advantage with the holocams which I neglected to shoot down but eventually I killed enough guys to hit 40.

I think this is my favorite mission of the current group, even though my type of list with lots of figures is at a disadvantage. Maybe actually that's why I do like it.

2-0

Third match: Coruscant Landfill - Diagona

Opponent: Inquistor, Terro, Jet troopers, Stormtroopers, Officer

This was the only non-Scum list I played against all day and it was my first time playing this map. And I want to go right ahead here and say I messed it up. I was in the outside deployment zone and instantly forgot about the little piece of impassable terrain that sticks out by one of the entrances after I had set up my guys. I know I crossed through it with non-mobile guys at least 3 times, and one of them was a big move with Terro where I flamethrowered 5 units first turn in the close corridor with the terminal...

We didn't notice it until after the game was over and I had won fairly handedly but I still feel bad about it. Who knows how it would've impacted the game otherwise, we figured out that Terro still would've been able to do what he did just wouldn't've been able to back out into cover afterwards. There might've been a Snowtrooper as well that wouldn't've been able to heal a group at the other exit as well because of the extra spaces required to move but again it's too hard to say.

Thankfully my opponent took it in stride, I apologize again to him for the mistake, I hope it doesn't ruin his experience at the tournament when he looks back on it.

Aside from that I was actually a bit worried here cause he racked up 15 points of damage on the Diagona very quickly with Terro and his Jet troopers. I focused on the mean time in clearing out the aforementioned burned Troopers and then their chaperone the Inquisitor. Luckily he left the Diagona up with 1 point of health though and I was able to recoup some of the points lost there by getting the killing blow for the bonus.

I did forget to play Ferocity here at the end of the first round to kill his Officer with his own Terro. But in the end after I had cleaned up the corridor I was able to flank around and drop the rest of his guys fairly quickly.

3-0

Fourth match: Coruscant Landfill - Trash

Opponent: Jabba, Shyla, Vinto, Pirates, C-3PO, Gideon

Alright so we're got 13 people so this is the final round of the swiss and then we're cutting to the top 4, so unsurprisingly I'm playing the other 3-0 player who is actually a guy I had practiced with earlier in the week. We were both running similar lists to what we had while practicing. And I've got to say those Pirates with all that focus being handed out can really pack a punch, triple green dice with a reroll hurts!

But alas, the game was somewhat mired by some rule disputes, namely where you have to be to open a door (the answer is in one of the 4 spots, two on each side of it, that border the line the door is on, not diagonal, not one away, etc). And whether or not you can Focus or Hide if you did not do damage (you can't). So again, try and know the rules the best you can. I know it's really easy to misread something or hear something from another play but if you can't actually find it in the Rules Reference Guide it might not be accurate.

Possibly due to some misplays because of these rules but also I think mostly because of my advantage in mobility due to the jet troopers and Terro's bonus movement I was able to control the garbage room and then get a few kills and capture a few crates which was enough to win it when it went to time (as it always seems to when there's rule issues). I almost threw the game at the end trying to finish off some guys I didn't need to and then losing Terro but with Urgency and Fleet-footed in my hand I was able to score some last second VPs out of a crate at the end.

It was a good match, and I narrowly came out with the win but I definitely think I had it in the bag if we had gone an extra round.

4-0

Semi-final: ISB Headquarters: Defense Sentries

Opponent: Rancor, Jabba, HKs, Nexu, Gideon, Alliance Smuggler

On to the elimination round, this opponent was a guy I've played a lot in both IA and X-wing. He had said at the start he had just brought a fun list and didn't expect to do well so I joked with him that good lists are generally fun lists and obviously his had done pretty well.

I hadn't played this mission yet but the way the map was it looked like if I could get two guys to control the sentries in the dead end then the rest of my troops could try and defend that area and contest the other sentry. Ended up splitting up my units pretty evenly aside from that and we raced off to the different points.

He had a better opening round then me, using his Nexu to pounce on a trooper at the solo sentry and a Smuggler to open the door and make way for his Rancor while still being able to get back to the terminal. His Rancor did some damage, he played Ferocity and then started with initiative so then continued to go through my mow through my troops. Luckily I had them spread out enough that I didn't get Cleaved or Brutalitied to the full extent that I could've and now that he was in the middle of a bunch of troopers I was able to take him out that turn. Now that I think of it I had played Covering Fire and was able to stun his Rancor before he moved but then it turned out he had Rally anyway so no big effect there.

After his Rancor was down he proceeded to use Wild Fury with his Nexu to mess up some more troopers but with Rally out of the way and the Rancor dead I was able to start mopping up the rest of his units. His units were all pretty much glass cannons, the HKs back a punch but drop pretty quickly and I was getting lots of points from my two Snowtroopers who were holding down the sentries in the far end. So the tide turned fairly quickly after that.

I will say that those Sentries can be deceptively powerful, I lost a Jet trooper near the end to a ~9 tile shot from one, those things are pretty accurate I guess.

5-0

Final: Nelvaanian Warzone - Constant Motion

Opponent: Jabba, Shyla, Vinto, Pirates, C-3PO, Gideon (same player as 4th round)

Rematch time! This was now my 3rd time playing against this player this week and I had won the first two and hadn't lost that day so I probably went into this one a little overconfident. Initially I was going to send one of each trooper type and Terro down with the droids but got greedy after I realized I could hit Shyla and two Pirates with a flamethrower at the end of the first round.

I was now over committed to the middle and hoped he might try to reinforce it but he didn't really need to worry about it anyway as Vinto and a pirate was all he needed to start mopping up my troopers on the droid side. As a quick note, I really like Vinto, but I'm not sure I saw anyone activate his Boltslinger ability all day and I faced him quite a few times. Not sure if I'm underestimating how hard it is to trigger with the 3 space limitation but I think it was missed a few times in hindsight. Either way, a great character capable of going 1v3 against a whole squad of troopers, especially if he starts with a focus.

So now I was in a pickle as even though I was in control of the middle and had his units on the ropes all he needed was to keep getting points from the droids before I could get the rest of my units around to him. I let myself get distracted killing Jabba as well who was down at the far terminal with a pirate.

By the time I started to bring my units around it was 36-29 in my favour entering the final round, but then he played Ferocity, a card which I was surprised he even had in his deck as he had no creatures himself. I'm not sure if he added it solely based on how many Rancors and Dewbacks he expected to be up against but I guess it paid off since he was able to finish off a Jet trooper squad with my Terro. And then having initiative he finished off Terro with his last Pirate.

Those are actually the only points he got for squads, Terro for 7 and the 8 from the Jet troopers with Targetting Computer but I foolishly let him get 20 from objectives and another 5 from Jabba's passive before he died.

Sigh, again I think I was a little too aggressive, I forgot to pass the first two rounds even though I had less activations, possibly lost a few troopers early because of it, causing me to not get an extra command card the first round and missing one later on as well. Not saying that lost it for me by itself but as we saw if I had drawn my own Ferocity in could've made a world of difference.

5-1

The bright side is that I'm now three for three making it to the finals in Imperial Assault regionals and although I've only won one of them I definitely feel like I'm the biggest contender right now in my area, despite only generally playing skirmish in a week or two leading up to each tournament. Which is something I want to improve upon, I really like the skirmish game and there's so many good units and lists out there now that I'm going to try my best to get in at least a match a month now if not more, even in the "offseason", because I think the game deserves it.

Anywho, hopefully you enjoyed the write up, I know I didn't go into great detail into my tactics and happenings of each match but to be honest I've never had a great memory for all that. Good luck in any of your upcoming tournaments and or matches!