germany-bochum-04-07-01
Title: germany-bochum-04-07-01
Author: Alexander "Black Leader" Schwarz
Date: Apr 9, 2001
be warned !!!!
Pretourny junk : After finally deciding to attend the SW
National Championship, which i was not sure about, because
i haven´t had a sanctioned SW tournament since the ´99
Ralltiir Regional, i now have three weeks to find two decks,
good enough to get me some wins.
After talking to some Decktech members, who tell me not to
worry about my rating, and play stuff i know, i turn to my
friend Brian Hunter in advice for decks.
Some days later, i have narrowed down my list to two decks
each side : WYS or Hidden Mains for light, MKOS or Dark Deal
for Dark. I come to the conclusion, not to play WYS, since
i expect everyone to use it, and go with the HB Mains.
For Dark i end up with Dark Deal, seeing that my MKOS, while
very balanced, doesn´t as good as i hoped.
So, after some playtesting, the day before the Nationals
arrives.
Friday, 04/06/01 (evening) : I hurry arround and scramble
to get all my stuff together; get a hunch to include
Battle Plan instead of Kal Fal, but ultimatively decide
against it, because i am worried, that i won´t be able to
hold it with four ships (editors note : had i decided for
the Battle Plan, it would have helped in two games).
But i decide on dumping Brangus for Xizor, which would
wound up to have no effect at all on my deck (didn´t deploy
Xizor all day).
Saturday, 04/07/01 : I wake at four, get up at four thirty,
and manage to goof arround till five. Then i get to the bus,
which arrives shortly after.
When i hit the next stop, where i am supposed to change bus
to get to the train-station, i realize, i am short on time,
because i will never make it in fifty minutes with a
conventional bus plus riding the tub to get my train at
6:21. So i get a cab - turns out to be a good decision;
now i can atleast have some coffee to get awake.
The trip itself - it takes approximately four hours to
get to Bochum from Berlin (where i live) - is quite boring,
so i will spare you the details.
However, i am able to find the place, where the Natioals
are going to be held, rather smoothly.
I reintroduce myself to the TD, who for some odd reason
seems to renember me from the ´99 Ralltiir Regional.
I look arround, and see some new and some old faces; mainly
Bastian Winkelhaus (2134) - one of the two top-guns, and
as it turns out, Martin Falke (2099), eager to contest him
for the title, is there as well - before the tourney starts.
We have a good turnout - there are 53 people participating,
including me ( i am the sole player from Berlin)
-----End Pretourny Garbage---------------------------------
Game 1 : Hidden Mains vs. Endor Ops
I start Menace Fades, next to Insurrection,Staging Areas.
The first few turns we just activate, i get out my docking
bays, as well as Dagobah, the Hut and Corulag (as i would do
every light game), then he deploys Rumors on Endor, drops
the Visage with Baron and a scrub piloting.
I get some guys at my docking bays to drain, and wait for
Captain Han Solo, to go with one of my two Falcons in hand.
I curse myself for not teching against the Bunker, cosz
E-Man prevents me from deploying there and beating the @#$%
out of him.
Eventually, i get a full Superfalcon up and running, with
Bacta Tank and OTE out. I cannot find my Punch It (as in
every other light game i am about to play today), but since
Kashyykk is the only system he has presence on, except
Endor, i am not worried about the Rumors-drain, i can
always retreat to Corulag to put Menace Fades into effect,
should his stuff prove to be more than i can handle.
He battles me at the aforementioned system, with the
Accuser, some scrubs on board and the AO, but despite his
immunity, i draw high enough to make him forfeit everything.
But next turn he laterals my Falcon, brings another SD with
crew (but still without Thrawn), Bossk in Bus and Dengar
against my power-zero Falcon.
I manage to kill Dengar and Bossk with my destinies, but in
return have to forfeit Leia, who wanders in the Tank.
Not wanting to get another beating and staying at his mery,
i elect to retreat to the rendevous point, to cancel the
lateral damage - but alas, he plays Gravity Shadow, and now
my ship is stuck.
He again battles me, after adding the Chimera to his mix,
but draws relatively low, so i can just lose Chewie.
His ships plus crew, however remain unscathed.
Eventually, i manage to get to the Lateral Damage, and try
to cancel it - 1. Then next two turns prove to be equally
satisfying in that matter, as i draw a 2 and another 1.
But now, the drains are hurting more and more, and i have
to think of retrieval now, despite his SSPFT out.
I edge Ben for five (to draw my tracked six), but mistrack,
draw a 2 (kal fal) and murder Mr.Ben (actually quite
humorous, as i would proceed to edge and kill Ben on another three times).
We drain some more, but now, i have lost all my retrieval.
I finally get Melas to the Endor Docking bay, only to have
his drain blocked by Arica, who on the following turn
breaks cover to battle her adversary. After the dust has
settled, both the dancer and the alien are dead meat.
In the end, with nothing else to show for (Home One and
Spiral went to my lost pile soon)- i succumb to his drains.
Full Loss (15).
Game 2: Dark Deal vs. EBO
Though he complains about having to lose to me in a drain
race, i am equally worried, because EBO is one of the
strongest Light Decks, and sets up much faster - still,
i start Resistance as my third effect.
He sets up usually, while i try to make something out of
my crappy hand - i cannot find Search and Destroy, and he
finally commits some Baragwins to his Hoth Locations, which
lets me smile inwardly - Baragwin EBO is a deck i can beat.
(I very much feared EBOX, because its cannons would keep
me of my sector and prevent the deal).
Well, he finally deploys two X-wings to his systems, so i
now know what i am up against.
Our drains are equal for some time, because Resistance is
cutting in his potential to inflict harm on me.
But then he gets TK to block Mara´s saber-enhanced drain
at the Carbonite Chamber, while Boushh comes undercover to
the Executor Dockingbay to pay Thrawn a visit.
Seeing that i have no answer for the latter (Barrier), he
breaks Leia´s cover and kills Thrawn.
Cannot find Vader, nor can i find the Sniper to kill TK
and reestablish my drain - his drains are now 4-1 in his
favor. To make matters worse, Jedi Luke, armed with his
fathers Lightsaber, comes down on Ardan and Janus at the
West Gallery,but is not allowed to pass due to a Barrier,
which gives my men a chance to run away.
I finally manage to find my Sniper, and Mara kills Han with
my tracked six plus a four (about the only time, my tracking skills worked as the should) - he now has three
x-wings at three different systems. I think of beating him
down, but i only have Zuckuss and Executor in Hand, and
HIS hand is always average eight cards, so without a ghhhk,
i have nothing to answer a swarm of x-wings and the game
could be over, if he deploys a cannon, power-pivots my
Capital and shoots Zuckass. So i play defensively, even
forego the deployment of my sector, because i only have
one Tie in hand to go with the Zuckuss in ship - clearly
not enough.
The meager damage i do is covered by the Baragwin retrieval, so i look pretty stupid. Even moreso, when
he edges Jedi Luke for six, giving me the loss by 34.
Game 3 : Dark Deal vs. HB Strikeplan Mains
This game nearly everything works out for me, as it should.
I get a godlike setup - the Executor with three Admirals
at the system, so i can drop the Occupation on turn five,
i have Janus, the Emperor, Ardan and Bane Malar at my
sites, plus Vader in hand. The two Obsidian Ties get to
the sector, so i am ready to deploy the deal.
He tries to contest me at the system - but without the
Superfalcon, his ships are no match for three battle -
destinies and average twenty power. So i slowly wipe him
of the system, and drain him out. Win by 22.
The curse is broken - finally, i have won with a dark deck!
Game four : Hidden Mains vs. Oldskool Ties (PotF-Start)
I know that this will be hard; normally, the advise is to
stay away from them, so the cannot retrieve even more.
But i have no I hope she is allright, no BattlePlan or
Aim High, i know that my db-drains won´t cut it here; on
top of that, i am unsure, whether i am able to initiate
and maintain a retrieval loop with my edge-cards, something
that would have saved me from the start.
The first time i try to retrieve, i kill Ben again.
I get the Falcon up, battle his lone Bossk in Bus and kill
him for five overflow - get out Bacta Tank and Chewie on
the Falcon for extra forfeit.
After that, we have some skirmishes, the Falcon stands its
ground, i manage to kil some ties. Eventually i wipe him
of Kashyykk and have an uncontested drain for some turns,
but then he comes at me with four Interceptors, a
dreadnought, Dengar in Boat, plays All Power, which i
couldn´t grab the first time arround, because i had no
grabber then - his power is about 34 to my nine, and i draw
low, so i have to lose Leia and Chewie while he is immune.
He soon battles me another time, after i had run to Corulag, and the ensuing damage is so bad, that i have to
lose Han, the Falcon, plus 11 more.
From that on, i never seem to fully recover; i get off
a suprise assault for eight, but he deploys some more ties,
and retrieves with short-range fighters for twelve.
(Btw, he played eighteen Tie Interceptors !)
I drain some more, but he nails me in the end and i lose
by 35, which is the largest i have lost a game to, ever.
I am now 1-3, and i hope for another win to go 2-4; i know
it is higly unlikely, i will make 3-3;which turns out to
be right.
Game 5: Hidden Mains vs. Random-space ground with Troopers.
This game is rather easy. I pretty soon set up at the
Tattoine and Cloud City DB, he deploys Mara (which i barrier), followed by some troopers, i deploy Chewie and
Leia to Ben, play Order to Engage. He battles, Mara
succumbs to Fallen Portal, and i clean everything but one
trooper, who scurries away.
I chase his other troopers plus a ATST again, get some
more damage in, then he finally deploys to space -
for some reason, i don´t want to finsish him so quickly,
so i wait before i deploy the Falcon, since i don´t have
Leia or some other scrub to go with.
Again i try to on the Edge Obi, AGAIN, i kill Obi, who -
this turn gets tanked. I get him out, try again, only to
kill him twice in one game - to add insult to injury, i
mistrack for two off the edges.
Bastian and some others, standing arround, make comments
about my inability to track (and i feel rather foolish).
In the end i drain him out, after a brief skirmish with
Jedi Luke and some guys at the backdoor, which nets me
another drain for three for several turns, and i drain him
out. Full Win by 17.
Game six : Dark Deal vs. RST - bunker blowup:
I know whats coming my way, but i get a crappy opening hand, and i know, i can only win, if i play my own game.
We take some times to setup, and after he moves into the
bunker and plants a charge, which he misses the first
draw on, i seriously consider, taking Vader and Sarkli to
interfere with his plans, but i seem to detect a smile on
my opponents face, telling me he can read my mind - great !
I play my own game, set up with some characters, most
notably the Emperor (Palpy got to see lots of action for
his old wrinkled days), get the System out, with the
Chimera and lots of scrubs aboard and the occupation going.
(I did not deploy the executor, because it got grimtaashed
used an then lost to a drain).
I further deploy the sector with a lone Tie, Barrier and
Mastermove, Zuckuss in Ship, in Hand. I draw up Bossk in
Hounds Tooth, after i deploy the Deal on the Sector.
He comes down with the Superfalcon. I barrier. He
follows up with Dash in Outrider and decides not to battle.
I deploy Boskk in Bus, Guri as passenger and Zuckuss,
battle, he has to lose the Outrider, Dash, and the Falcon,
plus Han, but i lose Guri.
He deploys Red Leader in Red 1 (no barrier this time),
initiates, shoots Zuckuss and draws high, while i draw low,
and lose Bossk. The X-Wing stays, to give me a nice drain
of two for the rest of the game.
I get some more scrubs on Bespin, maintain the drains plus
an occupation for three, he tries to challenge me again
at the system, but i beat him off - still, his drains are
too much. Loss by 19.
Woah, going 2-4, as predicted.
Still, i didn´t make any gamebreaking mistakes, which is
good. I didn´t even forget to force-drain, but once.
(Did i tell you, i didn´t play in a sanctioned tournament
for about one and a half years ?)
As expected, Bastian and Martin get to play each other in
the Final Confrontation - with Martin winning with his
Light by 19, but losing with his dark by 26.
So, in the end, Bastian gets to be the champ.
Hope you liked the report.
Props :
- To Martin Falke, for going undefeated in swiss-games, and
being a nice guy.
- To Dominic Probst; Dominic always builds the most funky
light decks you can possibly imagine - ´99 Regional he
played Ewoks, this time (believe it or not) he went for
a deck with TIMER MINES AND MINING DROIDS.
- To Dominic Probst for my quote of the day (while playing
Thomas Koch´s Bunker-blowing RST with his Endor Ops):
" Get your hands of my bunker, thats Imperial Property!"
- To Harald Lange, Patrick Rueger, Jonas Skali, Torsten
Maas, Lars Grasendyk, and every other of the nice players
i met there.
- Finally, to Brian Hunter, for helping me with my decks,
and for being the best american friend a non-us SW-Player
can hope for.
Black Leader, Over & Out !!!