The Jar Jar Cup, Part 3

Good morning gamers,

Round three of our four-round escalation event (the penultimate round) was this past weekend and boy was there excitement! We had our first top-cut/bottom-cut of the event with three players sitting on 2-0, three players sitting on 0-2, and two players snug in the middle with 1-1 records. 

This time around, we were playing with 800-point lists, Standard list building constraints, and standard scenarios with the Turn 0 veto system. For the players less familiar with this, I sent a 3500-word write-up about how to think about the veto system and picking a scenario that works well for your army - that'll make its way to the blog at some point in the future (it needs some iterating). Let's look at the lists and then see how we did!

List #1: 14-activation Rebel Alliance

This is my list - and I'll be honest, this list was not my first choice. What I wanted to do was either run my 650 list from last time with the Bad Batch OR drop the Landspeeders from my last list to boost my activation count a little with the Bad Batch. As you'll see in a moment, however, the Bad Batch were swooped up before I submitted my list, so I instead decided to level up my winning 500-point list and add Luke and four more activations: 

• Luke Skywalker (Commander) with Burst of Speed, Underworld Connections, Offensive Push, and Recon Intel
• 2x Rebel Veterans
• 1x Rebel Veterans with Smoke Grenades
• 1x Rebel Troopers with SX-21 Trooper and Prepared Supplies
• 3x Mark II Medium Blaster Troopers
• 1x Rebel Sleeper Cell with R4 Astromech
• 2x Ewok Slingers with Forest Dwellers
• 3x Rebel AT-RTs with Laser Cannons

My first list had 1 Vet/Mark II pair and 3 Rebel Troopers, which I've upgraded to 3 Vet/Mark II pairs and 1 Rebel Trooper (the SX-21 squad). I still have 2 Slingers but have added a third AT-RT and upgraded the Rebel Officer to Luke (who gives me a TON of shenanigan power). Like I did in the last game, my plan is to lead off with My Ally is the Force, issue the orders to Luke and the Smoke Grenade Rebel Vet squad (and coordinate with one of the Mark IIs), lead off with the Smoke Grenade guy so he can give/boost the cover of my Vets and trigger Low Profile. Hopefully this keeps us in the game early (with 1-2 dodge tokens supplementing the cover saves) and helps me out-activate my opponent.

The next two turns are probably Son of Skywalker/I Am a Jedi to surge Luke into action (either by shooting things or slashing with a lightsaber, depending on the setup) and then neutralizing a dangerous piece or two on the other side for a turn so my high-activation list doesn't lose as many guys. After that, we have two generic command cards in Push and Assault if Luke dies and You Serve Your Master Well if he's still around.

I did learn from the skirmish game that a high-activation list like mine really wants to force the enemy to secure objectives, so I've taken Close the Pocket, Bunker Assault, and Shifting Priorities. With 14-acts (and Luke/Ewoks to get extra tokens on the enemy bunkers in Bunker Assault), I'm hopeful I can get a leg-up on my opponent early-on and then maintain that lead as the game progresses.

Secondaries are a little murkier, but I've gone for Sweep and Clear (as I should have units that can both shoot from friendly territory AND get into enemy territory to get kills), Bring Them to Heel (lots of activations means a lot of suppression is coming out), and Destroy Enemy Base (mostly because I can tuck my base behind all of my Prepared Positions units and keep my opponent from securing it - and possibly race off with Luke to secure a base on his Son of Skywalker/Burst of Speed turn).

My advantages are the ones I always take - Advanced Intel (because #busted), Fortified Positions (to trigger Low Profile early), and Cunning Deployment (to keep my Vets/Mark IIs alive on the first turn). We'll see how these go (but honestly, I don't really care what I get.

List #2: 9-activation Echo Base Defenders

This is Centaur's list - and it's very similar to the first list he ran (and all of the Polish lists he runs for Bolt Action). It's 'tauns, supported by Leia/FD Cannons, and a bunch of Rebel Vets for staying power. Not enough Mark IIs for my liking, but this is very, very Centaur:

• Leia Organa with Improvised Orders, Vigilance, Up Close and Personal, and Prepared Supplies
• 2x Rebel Veterans with CM-0/93 Trooper, Rebel Veteran, and Prepared Supplies
• 2x Rebel Veterans with CM-0/93 Trooper, Rebel Veteran, Up Close and Personal, and Prepared Supplies
• 1x Mark II Medium Blaster Trooper with Linked Targeting Array
• 2x Tauntaun Riders with Tenacity and Emergency Transponders
• 1x 1.4 FD Laser Cannon Team with Linked Targeting Array and Barrage Generator

This list doesn't have any super-sized Vet squads, but it does have 4 Vets/2 Emplacement Troopers that will start on the board and Leia/2 Tauntauns able to stay safe until the end of the first round. I don't know which command card Centaur intends to use on the first round, but if he uses Leia's 2-pip or 3-pip, he could start with 4 orders on his Prepared Positions units (and Leia with the 3-pip), and only have 4-5 order tokens in his pool, most/all of which will be Support or Corps. This gives good order control (with Improvised Orders in the back pocket if you really want your Corps drawn first).

List #3: 10-activation Republic

My son, Gorgoroth, wanted to run Anakin and the 501st at this points level, but one of his friends (the ringer player) decided to lock in with an Anakin list before my son knew lists were being accepted. As a result, he pivoted to a different list idea, which relies on Rex giving Scout 1 to the Bad Batch . . . while probably not as terrifying as the 501st, it's certainly a threat:

• Clone Captain Rex
• Clone Commander
• The Bad Batch
• 1x Clone Trooper Infantry
• 2x Clone Trooper Infantry with DP-23 Clone Trooper
• 2x ARC Troopers
• 1x AT-RT with Flamethrower
• 1x AT-RT with Laser Cannon

I told him that I thought the 25pts of Hardpoints on the AT-RTs were unnecessary (certainly necessary for Rebel AT-RTs, less so for the Republic ones) and he could have gone with Aggressive Tactics and Recon Intel on Rex instead, but he liked having the flamer and the option for a more reliable dice pool with the Laser Cannon, so whatever. This list is close to my number of activations, so we'll see how that goes.

Also, while I don't mind being free of Anakin (as I believe we're doing upper-bracket/lower-bracket for this round and our ringer player is in the lower bracket), I was planning to take the Bad Batch, so . . . yeah, my son gets to take them out for their first go. That's fine . . . not bitter or anything . . .

List #4: 14-activation Empire

I think my message about lots of activations was heard by someone . . . this isn't how I'd do it, but yes, it's another 14-activation list! I don't think I have to face it, but it's basically Krennic and as many Shoretrooper/Mortar pairs as you can get:

• Director Orson Krennic with Lead by Example, Strict Orders, and Portable Scanner
• 2x Shoretroopers with Shoretrooper, Overwatch, and Recon Intel
• 4x Shoretroopers
• 5x DF-90 Mortar Trooper
• 2x 74-Z Speeder Bikes

I . . . think there's a lot of reliance on the Shoretroopers to do the killing in this list. I've used Speeder Bikes a bit and they can deal a surprising punch if they can move to a spot on the board where the enemy units have already activated, but if they ever get caught, their damage output gets sad really quick. Mortars have all-white pools but unlike Stormtroopers (who cost about as much), they can only get 1 surge conversion. If you get to range 2 of these guys, they're not dangerous at all. Still, Fire Support/Sentinel means a free standby if they can get an order from coordinate and they can perform the response at range 3. I will note that for the same cost as the 5 Mortars you could get 3 E-Webs . . . I feel like they're a lot punchier and you can still coordinate with them. 

List #5: 9-activation Shadow Collective-ish

The guy who used the Shadow Collective last time is back again, but he dropped the buses in order to get some Swoop Bikes and asked our tournament director if he could bring IG-88 and IG-11 instead of Cad Bane and Bossk. With a dispensation provided (we're all just having fun here - no invite to worlds on the line or anything), here's his list:

• Black Sun Vigo with Electrobinoculars
• IG-88 with Hunter, Emergency Transponder, and Targeting Scopes
• IG-11 with Bounty Protocol, Hunter, and Targeting Scopes
• 3x Black Sun Enforcers with Mag-Det Enforcers, Black Sun Vigos, and Targeting Scopes
• 1x Mandalorian Super Commandos with Super Commando Jetpack Rockets
• 2x Swoop Bike Riders with Comms Jammers

I think the Mandos are better than the swoops - though Mandos are always better with a heavy added to them (especially if you haven't brought an A-A5 or two with a Backworld Medic to regrow them). You could swap the Swoops for Mandos by dropping the Electrobinoculars, but you probably want to pay 24-28pts for the heavy option on those, which you could do by modifying what's on the Black Sun Enforcers. An example 9-activation list would look like this, but personally I think dropping one of the IGs for a fourth squad of Mandos might be a better play (and honestly you could drop the second IG to get a fourth Black Sun squad and some extra bodies on each of them. But hey, not my list and it's a very different list at that point.

List #6: 11-activation Bright Tree Village 

Our tournament director is trying out Ewoks instead of Battle Droids (though I hear his end assessment is the Ewoks are just Battle Droids who can't shoot . . . a bit unfair, but I also see it). Without access to Leia, thanks to the Rule of One, he's gone with Wicket and Logray as his Commander options, which required him to take two squads of Rebel Troopers (one of which was supersized, had Frag Grenades, and Targeting Scopes . . . the other had Smoke Grenades, which is great for Ewoks . . . golly, these guys love their upgrades). The rest of the list was super-sized Ewok squads but very, VERY few had Forest Dwellers (including Wicket - I don't think the value of that upgrade was perceived, but also B1s can't get Scout, so maybe it's just being new to the faction):

• Wicket with Tenacity, Situational Awareness, and Duck and Cover
• Logray with Herbal Medicine, Duck and Cover, and Secret Ingredients
• 1x Ewok Skirmishers with Axe Ewok, Ewok Skirmisher Squad, and Duck and Cover
• 1x Ewok Skirmishers with Axe Ewok, Ewoki Skirmisher Squad, and Call to Arms
• 2x Ewok Skirmishers with Ewok Skirmisher Squad and Duck and Cover
• 1x Rebel Troopers with Rebel Trooper Squad, Targeting Scopes, and Fragmentation Grenades
• 1x Rebel Troopers with Smoke Grenades
• 1x Ewok Slingers with Ewok Slinger Squad and Duck and Cover
• 2x Ewok Slingers with Ewok Slinger Squad, Ewok Trapper, Forest Dwellers, and Duck and Cover

I assume the emphasis on Duck and Cover is to suppress the unit so Low Profile kicks in - but our dear tournament director had only read what's on Tabletop Admiral for the list. As a result, I did have to do a "you know" thing, mentioning that the actual battle force document states that you don't remove a suppression off your Ewoks at the end of the round. This resulted in an "oh" moment, but whatever. Personally, I would have focused less on Duck and Cover and more on Forest Dwellers - something like this would have had a very similar feel but a lot more first-turn movement and dodge tokens (and only required dropping Situational Awareness/Duck and Cover on Wicket, the Targeting Scopes on the Rebel Troopers, and swapping a bunch of Duck and Covers for Forest Dwellers/Call to Arms on the Ewok units). Also, I feel like Han brings more to the fight than the super-sized Rebel Trooper unit, but maybe that's just me.

List #7: 7-activation Republic 

During the first round, this Republic player brought the Bad Batch (who apparently under-performed). During the second round, this player brought Yoda (who died but also drew enough aggro that the rest of his list survived in a King of the Hill match). This time, the named units are out the window and he's gone for 7 activations (FAR too few) that are just a Clone Commander and six super-sized Clone Trooper Infantry squads:

• Clone Commander with Vigilance and Duck and Cover
• 2x Clone Trooper Infantry with Clone Trooepr Infantry Squad, Recon Intel, and Fragmentation Grenades
• 2x Clone Trooper Infantry with Clone Trooepr Infantry Squad, Targeting Scopes, and Fragmentation Grenades
• 2x Clone Trooper Infantry with Clone Trooepr Infantry Squad and Fragmentation Grenades

Now I've grown accustomed to the "load your guys up with upgrades" approach that this player (and his brother, who's coming next) like to do in their list building - but I'm a bit surprised to not see Tenacity, since that was a staple of his previous lists (and even helped him kill Darth Vader in the first round). The idea of the list, I think, is pretty clear: get to range 1, use the frag grenades while we have a ton of units, kill a lot of stuff. It it works out, good for him. Also, he could have had an 8-act list easily by dropping some upgrades, dropping one super-sized squad, and getting 2 ARC Troopers. That list could have become a 9-act list with some additional modifications. I know leaning hard into super-sized squads is fun, but I really think that standard games require you to have at least 8 activations at 800pts (and golly, I would never go below 10 at 1000 points).

List #8: 7-activation Republic

This was actually the second list submitted (after Centaur's list) - and it caused Anakin to not be available for Gorgoroth (which caused the Bad Batch to not be available for me). Low activation count can only mean one thing . . . super-sized Clone squads:

• Anakin Skywalker with Saber Throw, Force Reflexes, Tenacity, and Offensive/Defensive Stance
• 3x Clone Trooper Infantry with Clone Trooper Infantry Squad, Offensive Push, and Fragmentation Grenades
• 2x ARC Troopers
• 1x ARC Troopers with DC-15X ARC Trooper, Offensive Push, and Fragmentation Grenades

My opinions on super-sized Clone squads not withstanding, I think the plan was to have units that didn't get blown off the board . . . I may have been responsible for the death of a LOT of B2s for this player last game, so I can understand the desire for 9-man Clone squads. At the same time, for the same cost as each "extra squad" upgrade, you could buy a Heavy Weapon upgrade and still have money left over for another activation or two (possibly also with Squad Leaders for your ARCs instead of a single Heavy Weapon). I'm not big on all those upgrades, but hey, aim tokens and surge for crit have value . . . I guess? I don't have to fight this list, so hopefully it gets a win.

Currently we have the following standings:

• 14-act Rebel Alliance: 2-0
• 10-act Republic: 2-0
• 9-act Shadow Collective-ish: 2-0
• 7-act Republic: 1-1
• 14-act Empire: 1-1
• 9-act Echo Base Defenders: 0-2
• 11-act Bright Tree Village: 0-2
• 7-act Republic: 0-2

I was told by the tournament organizer that we were going to take the top-half and the bottom-half and do a fair split. We drew for top-tables first and the Shadow Collective player drew my Scarif table. My son drew next and pulled the Naboo table. I looked at the Republic-spam player and asked him if he wanted to take destiny into his hands or if he wanted me to do it. He told me to do it and I knew I had a 50/50 chance of drawing my son's list (which I really didn't want to face) and I drew . . . the Scarif table! Yep, my son and I ended up on opposite sides of the bracket and if we could both win our games, we would meet in the final - here's how the games went!

Table 1: Echo Base Defenders vs. Bright Tree Village

It took a while to get the tables set up, the armies sorted out, and the boards assigned, so this game ended after Turn 3, I believe. The Primary Objective was Recover the Research (good if you have FD Cannons since they can contest an objective at the start, but also good if you have lots of activations). I believe the secondary was Surface Scan, where you just had to have two units alive and outside of your deployment zones to score a VP. The way I understand it, the Tauntauns went flying into one corner of the board towards one of the enemy POIs and the Vets/FD Cannon held the three near the Echo Base side. The Ewoks contested one of the Echo Base ones as well as all three of their own. I think each side scored 2 VPs (all three close ones) on Turn 2, and then got 3 VPs from the primary objective on the second turn (adding a far one), but only 1 VP was scored by the scanners. As a result, at the end of Turn 3 when Centaur had to leave, Bright Tree Village was up 7-6. There were still a lot of bodies on both sides larking about on the board - it's unclear how the scores would have changed as the game progressed.

Table 2: Empire vs. Anakin-Republic

This was the last game to finish, but the objectives were Bunker Assault (sit back and shoot - both lists wanted to do this with most of their units) and Destroy Enemy Base (which the Speeder Bikes and maybe Anakin could have pulled off - but it's not likely to be scored if most of the activations sit back and shoot). As a result, most of the VPs for this scenario were scored by sitting on the starting objectives. From what I understand (I was cleaning up boards when this game finished), the Empire managed to deny 1 VP to the Republic on the last round, giving the Empire an 8-7 victory. I imagine that if the secondary was different, the game would have been a lot more interesting and the scores would have been higher, but hey, I like Destroy Enemy Base and I think its pairing with Bunker Assault is interesting (more on that later).

Table 3: Bad-Batch-Republic vs. Spam-Republic

Yes, it's another Republic Civil War! This game was special for my son because all three rounds that he's had this tournament have been against three brothers - all of whom like their super-sized Corps squads (or tanks - he had to face tanks and Dooku in Round 2). We knew from a lot of testing that the Bad Batch, used well, can blow chunks through anything - and with six super-sized Clone Squads, they were gonna have to put in the work. The objectives were Close the Pocket (great for the Bad Batch, ARCs, and the Flamer AT-RT - less good for Clone Trooper Infantry if they can't blow some of the activations off the board) and I think Sweep and Clear? 

At any rate, the way the game worked out, one activation from my son's list made it to the middle on Turn 2 and sat there while the rest of the army split up and fought on the side objectives (Bad Batch on one side, Flamer on the other). Apparently both did well against the super-sized Corps squads because the Corps never made it to the center. As a result, the game ended with the Bad Batch winning 15-4 and solidly securing my son a spot on the top table for the final round.

Table 4: Rebel Alliance vs. Shadow Collective-ish

Me and my opponent settled on the same scenario objectives as Table 2 - Bunker Assault and Destroy Enemy Base. I placed my base right behind one of the bunkers (knowing that my Prepared Positions troops would be able to contest both, making them harder to secure unless there was a dedicated assault) while my opponent placed the bunker between his objectives (like both players on Table 2 did). I wouldn't advise doing this - it requires you to spread out your forces or leave your base exposed. Even if you have lots of activations, because you want activations heading towards your opponent's bunkers/base, you really don't want to have to defend three sections of the board on your side in addition to assaulting.

I managed to veto into Advanced Intel as red player (super good when you out-activate your opponent) and set up two pairs of Mark IIs/Rebel Vets near my base/one bunker and the other pair near the other bunker. The Mark IIs really took the day for me - two Standby tokens triggered attacks against a Vigo resulted in a dead Vigo on Turn 1 and later in the game a full-pivot-then-fire from the same Mark IIs killed off a Swoop Bike unit that was trying to destroy my base (without help, it was gonna be hard, but golly those guys are fast). They also put fire on other units to suppress them, but they more than made their points back. The other Mark II died, but not before blowing holes in a Black Sun unit, working with some AT-RTs to bring it down. Golly, Mark IIs might be my favorite unit in the Rebel faction . . .

. . . unless it's Sleeper Cell. I only had one squad (went the 2-Slinger-1-Cell approach - and I don't think it's worse than flipping those numbers), but it walked onto the board after all of the Shadow Collective units were on, then waited for a fully healthy Black Sun unit to move up to contest a bunker. I then moved once (to within range 1 of one of my bunkers to get a dodge token), opened up with 12 surging-black dice and and aim token, and picked up the ENTIRE Black Sun unit off the board in one go . . . yikes. The following turn they did less murder to IG-11, but enough to bring him to self-destruct levels if he played his 3-pip. Those guys are killer, especially in scenarios where the POIs are not spread out and it's easy to hop from range 1 of one POI to range 1 of another POI.

But I'd be remiss if I didn't give credit to Luke - I gave him my bomb and on the first turn I walked onto the board and moved forward a little. I played My Ally is the Force on the second turn to give Luke/a Rebel Vet orders/dodge tokens (and an order/dodge token to a Mark II) so I had some order control and protection on Luke. IG-88 led off that round and dealt 4 wounds to Luke with Steady/Arsenal 2 (OUCH) and ended about 17" away from Luke, so I tapped Offensive Push, I burned Burst of Speed, and RAN at IG-88 and slammed him with my Lightsaber. I dealt 4 wounds and felt a bit of revenge was given. IG-88 also set up near the center of my opponent's deployment zone, so I was conveniently not far from the enemy base . . . with my bomb. 

To make matters worse, IG-11 decided that he needed to help stunt the assault of Ewoks, Rebel Troopers, Rebel Veterans, Mark IIs, and Sleeper Cell on Luke's side of the board instead of the AT-RTs that were supporting a nearly-dead Rebel Veteran/Mark II, so he got really close to Luke . . . like, within Range 1 of Luke . . . so on Turn 3, I popped I am a Jedi and none of the three named characters could attack. IG-88 disengaged to contest an overwhelmed objective, but IG-88 was then exposed and was shot off the board by Ewok Slingers (who are also good at clearing things). Luke double-legged it at speed-1 into IG-11 to make sure he wasn't killed by the last Black Suns (who had 3-4 guys left, I think?), but IG-11 disengaged to get closer to the bunker that was being lost (where he was welcomed by Sleeper Cell). Turn 4 saw me popping Son of Skywalker, but there wasn't much to shoot at (a squad of Mandos) and I had blown up the base, so I knew I was sitting on a bunch of VPs and a win. IG-11 activated with his 3-pip, did a bunch of damage, and then blew up, resulting in a tabling and also a final score of 15-4 in my favor.

I'd like to say that the game could have gone differently - but I had longer range, more units, and a really sneaky command card hand - I'm not sure it could have gone much better for me or worse for my opponent, but it was definitely going to be an uphill struggle. I did learn that the reason my opponent took the Swoops was because he thought he'd heard that Armor 5 wasn't allowed . . . so I probably would have had to fight tanks if he'd known they were allowed, but my 3 AT-RTs spent their time plucking wounds off Black Sun/Mandos - I'm not sure double-buses would have lasted much longer. Additionally, he'd probably be at 8 activations, which would have been tough to win Bunker Assault with at 800pts (especially since I have 14). 

Conclusion

So with round 3 behind us, we have our final pairings decided: conveniently we have two 3-0 players (myself and my son - WE'RE BRINGING HOME THE JAR JAR JAR!), two 2-1 players (the Empire player and his brother, the Shadow Collective player), two 1-2 players (two brothers, Bright Tree Village and spam Republic), and two 0-3 players (Centaur and the Anakin-Republic player). Also conveniently, none of us have faced each other this tournament, so that'll be great. We'll be playing at 1000 points, King of the Hill . . . and my son has already locked in his list. :) Until next time, happy hobbying!