The Jar Jar Cup, Part 4

Good morning gamers,

This is it - whoever wins this round of the tournament gets all the bananas and the "Jar Jar Jar" (it's a cup, but come on - you know we're not calling it the Jar Jar Cup, since that's the event name). It's been a four-month journey of meeting up once a month to play games together and while I've enjoyed it, I'll also be happy to change up the lists I'm playing to experiment with other factions before the new starter sets arrive. I've been playing with Rebels this whole time, so while there was a Kenobi/Commando list that I liked, I opted to stick with the Rebels for one last go before I start pivoting to experimenting with Empire lists. Let's dig in and see what the lists are for this last round of the tournament!

List #1: 12-activation Rebel Alliance

This is my list - I have been telling the guys that Commander Luke is not trash and now it's time to back that up by taking him a third time. This list is basically my 650-king-of-the-hill-list from Round 2, but with the Bad Batch, Din, and Sleeper Cell added. I've still got five Armor 2 vehicles that are great at pounding the snot out of things from a distance, Sleeper Cell and the Bad Batch for pummelling up close, Luke and Din for interesting Alpha Strike options, and three token Rebel Trooper squads. I'm also happy that we waited until after the points update, so I could get some Smoke Grenades on my Rebel Troopers thanks to a small points reduction on Din's Flame Projector:

• Luke Skywalker with Burst of Speed, Underworld Connections, Offensive Push, and Recon Intel
• The Bad Batch with Hunter, Echo, Tech, and Wrecker
• Din Djarin with Din's Flame Projector, Beskar Spear, and Grogu
• 1x Rebel Troopers with Smoke Grenades
• 2x Rebel Troopers
• 1x Rebel Sleeper Cell
• 3x AT-RTs with AT-RT Laser Cannons
• 2x X-34 Landspeeders with RPS-6 Rocket Gunners, Unstable Astromechs, and Mark II Medium Blasters

Truly competitive players will have questions about some of the elements of this list, but I'll make an important note: this is a King of the Hill game - decisions were made about what to include not based on whether I can control POIs, but whether I can keep units alive with NO POIs on the board. I'd never take a Rebel Sleeper Cell without the 5pt Astromech, but since there will be no POIs to end near, he's giving me an extra wound, but that's it. Similarly, I've opted for all Rebel Troopers instead of any of the other Rebel Corps options because they can be run cheaply and tucked away in a corner to deny points until I have an advantage on one side and they can plink a hit or two at range 3. The Landspeeders are AMAZING and super useful at getting suppression on things, if not killing them. Finally, I've left Omega at home in favor of Grogu because I don't need additional range to contest POIs, because Din can use the health, and because a LOT of things can benefit from "The Hand Thing."

I also know my opponent for this match - and I'm gonna need all the tricks I can muster to beat him. We're playing on the top table (both of us sitting nicely on 3-0 this tournament), so I've tried to pack in as many options as I can to beat his hyper-efficient list (though discovering the night before that my two favorite Luke command cards - I Am a Jedi and You Serve Your Master Well - both got nixed from my list because I don't have Operative Luke REALLY hurt). Now on to see what Centaur is bringing.

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.

The Jar Jar Cup, Part 2

Good morning gamers,

Round two of our four-round escalation event was this past weekend and it was a blast! We were going to pair off winners and losers from last time, but the organizer decided to do a full random allocation again, so I wasn't all but guaranteed to face my son (which is good, because after facing him four times in practice, I still hadn't won a game). 

This time around, we were playing with 650-point lists, Standard list building constraints (though we used the "Team" option in Tabletop Admiral, since that's a 600pt limit), but instead of playing with POIs and the standard scenarios, the tournament organizer decided to have us play what he and his brothers usually play: "total annihilation" (or as I will be calling it, "King of the Hill", since it's actually pretty hard to totally annihilate someone's army in five rounds). Let's look at the lists and then see how we did!

List #1: 9-activation Rebel Alliance

This is my list - and I'll be honest, while I dabbled with an Empire list and a Republic list that I thought could be fun, I knew there was a good chance I'd be facing my son Gorgoroth's list and that meant that Impact was gonna be necessary. Also, people in my group have been talking trash about Commander Luke, so golly I needed to take him this round! 

• Luke Skywalker (Commander) with Burst of Speed, Offensive Push, and Recon Intel
• 3x Rebel Troopers
• 3x AT-RT with Laser Cannon
• 2x X-34 Landspeeder with RPS-6 Rocket Gunner, Unstable R5 Astromech, and Mark II Medium Blaster

While I played a lot with an alpha-strike version of the list that had M-45 Ion Blasters on the X34 Landspeeders along with Rebel Vets with CM-0/93s and a squad of Rebel Troopers with MPL-57 to lean hard into anti-armor, I really wanted to get Luke into the list and I got a clear signal from Centaur that he wasn't using Luke. 

The Landspeeders are really great on the first turn, since I can shoot twice with 1 red/5 black/3 black at range 2 with BOTH Landspeeders . . . hopefully this gives me a quick lead with only minimal damage suffered from the Astromech upgrade. All this piles in with the damage from three AT-RTs. Turn 2 opens up Luke as an attack option, along with any of the remaining armored units.

All told, I have 3 activations that can shoot at range 4, 2 activations (technically three with Luke/Long Shot) that can move up to range 3 and crack through armor, and all of these units are equally happy if armor isn't in the mix and we just have to clear "guys upon guys."  I also have three Corps units . . . yeah, I didn't have the points for SX-21s or MPL-57s to make them dangerous against armor (or unarmored) matchups. I'm really happy with the list and glad that I got to use Luke since Centaur didn't need him. Speaking of Centaur . . .

The Jar Jar Cup, Part 1

Good morning gamers,

The Wretched Hive team is helping to run an escalation tournament for some local guys in our area. We're all pretty new to Legion, so if our stuff isn't as competitive as it could be, that's just us being green. Our tournament director is allowing proxies, which is good for a group of guys who are just getting into it (but as far as we can, we're trying to use/acquire the real things). We have eight participants and we'll be running the event over four weekends, each day with an increasing number of points (500/Skirmish, 650/Standard, 800/Standard, 1000/Standard).

I'm not organizing this event (hooray), though I have become the point of contact for terrain (and have provided feedback on lists that have been submitted to help our newer guys think through how list building for the actual scenarios they'll have work). Our first event was this past weekend, so without further ado, let's dig into the lists that were present for the first round!

List #1: 10-activation Rebel Alliance

This is my list - and it's very much the way I see Rebels working in Skirmish (and sort of how I see them working in Standard games as well). Rebel units melt away when they run into large dice pools (which basically any faction can do, but Republic lists especially can bring on the pain pretty easily), so I've compensated for having an easily-killed army with an army with a LOT of activations. The traditional (but soft) activation limit for any non-battle-force list in Skirmish is 11 (1 Commander/Operative/Heavy, 4 Corps, 2 Special Forces/Support) and this list reaches 10 activations with only one detachment to push back gently on a soft spot of the list building rules.

This tournament has a "rule of one" in play, so I had to check with Centaur (who's running the next list) to see if he needed Leia to make his list work. He did, so I opted for a 10-act Rebel Officer list instead of a 9-act Leia list (which I contend is actually better than what I'm running). The list has 2 AT-RTs for long-range fire support and hopefully some resiliency (more than my Corps are going to provide), 2 Ewok Slinger squads (thanks to Underworld Connections on the Rebel Officer) for decent range damage and lots of bodies, 3 squads of Rebel Troopers (one with an SX-21, the other two with a fifth trooper, and all three with Prepared Supplies to trigger Nimble before we've moved), and a Rebel Veteran/Mark II Medium Blaster tag-team to fill out my Corps requirement and get an extra activation. All told, I should be able to outnumber all of the other lists and hopefully can steal some quick VPs on rounds 2-3 to have an edge as we get into rounds 4-5.

• Rebel Officer with Underworld Connections
• 2 Rebel Troopers with Rebel Trooper and Prepared Supplies
• 1 Rebel Trooper with SX-21 Trooper and Prepared Supplies
• 1 Rebel Veteran
• 1 Mark II Medium Blaster Trooper
• 2 Ewok Slingers with Forest Dwellers
• 2 Rebel AT-RTs with Laser Cannons

Overall, I'm pretty confident that I can do well in all three scenarios, since I can spread out without worrying about needing synergies (beyond the Coordinate rule between the Vets and the Mark II). I've got a bit of long-range threat with the AT-RTs, good mid-range threat with four of my Corps squads, and good close-range threat with my Slingers and the SX-21 - all in all, I'm cautiously optimistic that I can survive with more units on the objectives than my opponent can.