hatfield-uk-07-15-2001

Title: hatfield-uk-07-15-2001
Author: Chris "Lt. Cabbage" Moore
Date: Jul 16, 2001

Prologue:

I’d been hovering about the BBS last week when I was reminded by one of the Brits on there that the monthly tournament at Hatfield was happening. I’d been planning to get some games in at the weekend with Nick Rice but now I could spend the whole weekend playing Star Wars! As I am quite sad, this seemed like a good idea. So I rolled into London on Saturday to get some testing done with Nick.

I had a couple of deck ideas for both sides. For the Light Side I had Watch Your Step podracing and Rebel Strike Team decks. For the Dark Side I planned to use Endor Ops TIEs. Before we started playing, I told Nick that I had also designed an Emperor’s Prize deck. He laughed. So we played a few games and the Light Side always won - both my decks beat his CPI deck (I had warned him that CPI sucked) and his Rebel Strike Team deck battered my Endor Ops deck. So then we start worrying about the Dark Side and I said I think Court is OK, as long as you don’t use non-uniques. Nick went off to build an Endor Ops deck worse than mine, and I said I was going to build my Emperor’s Prize deck. He laughed again. Then we played some more. I was playing with my Emperor’s Prize deck and he tried to beat up the Emperor at the Carbonite Chamber with Orimaarko and Major Panno. He failed, I came down with Vader, played I Have You Now, All Too Easy’d Orimaarko and was going to beat up Panno when he killed him off with On the Edge. When I started activating I then realised he couldn’t do that seeing as Panno is ability 2. So I should have won. But then our curries arrived and we quit the game. We redid the game and Nick won, and then I battered his Endor Ops deck. So Dark Side still sucked. I decided I was going to use the Emperor’s Prize deck (btw , you don’t try too hard to actually complete the damn effect, I’m not that stupid), on the grounds that it at least had lots of bosh. Nick went off to build a Court deck, but we didn’t have time to play any more and we went to get some sleep.

I didn’t get to sleep for ages (I hate sleeping bags) so I was knackered in the morning. We got to the pub where the tourney was reasonably early, and I had a can of Red Bull. I was now awake but jittery. I managed to buy a Naked Threepio, which meant that I could use my first choice LS deck, WYS podracing (I’d been proxying for Threepio the previous night). There was the usual good turnout (16 to 20 people, I forget) including Peter di Biasio, the UK number 1. We also had a couple of kids on holiday over from America, which was pretty cool.

Onto the games then:

Game 1: DS vs. Grant (sorry, didn’t catch your surname)

I started my usual stuff - TDIGWATT, the Outer Walkway, Secret Plans, Oppressive & TINT, Arrest Order and I’m Sorry. He started the Yavin 4 Throne Room and Careful Planning’d for the farm and swamp. He went first and deployed a Nudj to the swamp and moved it to the farm. He drew up his cards. I deployed Crush the Rebellion, DSII docking bay from reserve, Bespin, the Carbonite Chamber and the West Gallery and drew up. He then deployed Scout Luke and Chewie with gun to the Carbonite Chamber and I played an Imperial Command to get out Ozzel. On my turn I deployed Zuckuss in Mist Hunter and Ozzel to Bespin. I drew some and got Vader with Saber. Now, at this point I also had the Emperor’s Prize and a Twilek (which could get All Too Easy) in hand. Unfortunately I had no Emperor, so no Emperor’s Prize to be done yet. On his turn he drained me for a couple and All Too Easy went off the top. That puts paid to that then. He drew a few and left 8 force activated. On my turn I came to the Chamber with Vader with Saber and Evazan & Baba, initiated against Luke and Chewie, played I Have You Now, You Are Beaten on Luke and hit Chewie. He played It Could Be Worse for 8 but still had to lose another 8 force. Off the top of his deck went Anakin’s Podracer and he cursed. Weird, I thought. Next turn he deployed Jar Jar, premier Han and Padme to the site next to Luke. On my turn I put down Captain Bewill to the Carbonite Chamber. He drained for one but couldn’t move Luke. His other guys stayed put. Sucks to be Luke. On my turn, I battled with what I had in the Carbonite Chamber, played I Have You Now, hit Luke with Vader and he lost some ridiculous amount of force including loads of podracing stuff. That was pretty much that.

FW (+22) Total: 2(+22)

Game 2: LS vs. Jamie Giberti (1576 rating)

Jamie’s improved a lot recently. He’s on Decktech quite a lot so he’s well up with the game and I wasn’t expecting this to be an easy game. The last tourney hasn’t gone on the rankings yet, so his rating should be much higher. Anyway, I started my usual - WYS, the podracing stuff and Goo Nee Tay (Squadron Assignments is for those who don’t know the power of the Medium Bulk Freighter :o). He started the Desert Landing Site and played Combat Readiness to get Jabba’s Palace. Hmmm, I thought. I took out It’s a Hit! (my Elis defence) for We’re Doomed. Could be fun. He also put out Sebulba’s Racer (not a problem). He activated, I played Were You Looking For Me? to get Naked Threepio and R-3PO, I got out I did it! and we started the podrace. He flashed me and drew Mara’s Saber. He got out the Audience Chamber and drew. On my turn I put down Naked Threepio at the Podrace Arena, fished out Kessel and used Threepio to recycle it. On his turn Anakin started catching Sebulba and he put down IG-88 to Threepio’s site. I used Threepio pretty much all the time, so I’ll stop mentioning it now :o) I moved Threepio away from Iggy, just in case he wanted to Sniper him, and left some force. Quite a lot happened in this game, so details from now are a bit sketchy. I think he used the Audience Chamber to get Mara and I flipped putting some guys on Gold Squad 1 in space and a Han and a random smuggler in the Cantina, moving one from the docking bay so I could get out Tatooine Celebration. He Elised over to the Cantina, put down Fett, I think, and Evazan and Baba. He shot Han and I lost quite a bit. He then set up Search and Destroy using Maul. I flipped again and he kept Elising over and attacking my guys. My same Luke with Saber went down three times due to Jedi Resilience and killed some guys, including Evazan & Baba. Eventually, he moved everyone over to one location so Search and Destroy was cancelled. He got another beatdown in and Mirax ended up in Iggy’s hands. But I won the podrace and so I could make my comeback. I spread out in space to flip, as I thought he had few or no ships. A Medium Bulk Freighter with Talon Karrde stayed at Tatooine while Lando and Melas went on Gold Squad 1 to Kessel. Search and Destroy came back late game and I thought I was in trouble. I had a couple of guys to go to ground, but he had a card in hand and if it was an Elis it would be game over. But then I realised Iggy was carrying Mirax, so he couldn’t Elis. So he wouldn’t be able to split my guys up and I’d get two destiny. Into the Cantina went my random dudes. Turns out he didn’t have an Elis so he couldn’t catch me, and my drains and retrieval were enough to pull the game back. Just.

FW (+3) Total: 4(+25)

Game 3: DS vs. Neil Goodacre (1677 rating)

Neil’s a solid player, and he was playing WYS podracing (starting Squassin). I started Crush instead of Oppressive & TINT. I didn’t have Sebulba’s racer. The game started as usual with me putting out my Cloud City sites and Bespin and drawing some. The race started as well. He drew some cards. I put the Emperor into the Cantina. He flipped putting Han and (I think) Jedi Luke at the Cloud City docking bay I had deployed and Dash in the Outrider to Bespin. I attacked with DLOTS and saber, choked Han played IHYN and killed Luke, flipping him back. Unfortunately he drew a 5 so Vader died as well. He then came to the Cantina and with Lando with gun and a couple fo guys. He attacked the Emperor, I played Force Field to stop him shooting Palpy (just in case) and the Emperor covered the damage. I came down to Bespin with Zuckuss in Mist Hunter and Bossk in Hound’s Tooth to attack Dash. Unfortunately I only drew a 1 and a 2 for destiny, so Dash lived and he just lost a couple of force. He put someone else on the Outrider and ran to Tatooine. I put out the Chimaera with Chiraneau to Bespin and the Emperor and Bewill went to Cloud City to set up Occupation. Bewill moved to the Emperor in the Carbonite Chamber. He won the race but eventually I cornered his ship by sending the Chimaera with Thrawn and Chiraneau on board to after it. My last Vader cleared the Cantina at some point and I forget exactly what happened then but I pulled out another close win.

FW (+8) Total: 6(+33)

I went to the bar to order some cheese sandwiches for lunch. The barman seemed a bit dumb, so I had a feeling something would go wrong. Anyway...

Game 4: LS vs. Tom Conerly (1619 rating)

This was one of the American guys. He started SYCFA and Twileked for Bad Feeling. I started the usual. He put out Sebulba’s racer. Not much happened for the first couple of turns save me getting out Threepio with Were You Looking For Me? and him playing a couple of Scanning Crews, getting Han and Chewie. He drew a 6 for race destiny but I played A Step Backwards to get rid of it. He played a Frustration on Lando, so now I thought I’d better flip. I put Lando and some random guy to the Cantina and Melas on the Death Star docking bay. I had no Houjix yet, but he was only activating 7 force now, so I was fairly safe. Mara came to the Cantina with her saber. I deployed Insight to stop Scanning Crew and put down another smuggler, attacked, missed Mara and used Too Close for Comfort to stop him slashing Lando (he had no force saved). He Mara and a couple and I lost a smuggler. I drew my Houjix. He saved some force and I drew some more. I think I then won the race before he came down with premier Vader and Vader’s Saber to attack Melas. He battered him but I played Houjix. Vader move to the Tatooine docking bay. I waited a turn before deploying Luke with Saber, Han and a Freighter Captain to attack Vader. I put out Draw Their Fire. I attacked, hit Vader with Luke (he couldn’t play the Force Field he wanted to due to DTF) and he lost 20 over the top or something. I forgot to retrieve with I Did It! Before he drew up.

FW (+32) Total: 8(+65)

Well, by this point I’d already beaten my last pathetic tourney performance (the only time I’d gone 3/3). My sandwiches hadn’t arrived, so I went to find out where they were. A barmaid told me that, yes indeed, the barman who took my order was a fool.

Game 5: DS vs. Nick Rice (1882 rating)

Well, whaddya know. Nick and I, with our Dark Side piles, were the only undefeated players at this point. He started Rebel Strike Team with Strike Planning, The Shield is Down and Insight. I started the usual. I put out my sites and Bespin and drew up. He put down Madine, Kensaric, Wuta and Panno to the Rebel Landing Site. Well that lot plus Rebel Leadership and Insertion Planning meant I wasn’t going there in a hurry. I put the Flagship Executor and Ozzel to Bespin and played a Weapon Levitation to get Vader’s Saber. I also put out Crush at some point. Can’t remember when so I’ll say it was now :o) He started getting out Endor sites and getting the stuff to blow the bunker and drained me for the odd one force. I put Mara and Lord Vader, on Cloud City and put out Occupation. Chiraneau went on the Executor. Mara moved to Vader’s site (I know he was playing heavy ground and neither Luke nor Obi were out yet). He lost Insight to get Honor and then put out the Home One with General Solo and Blount on. He battled me and I just lost Ozzel. I think he was down in power and lost a couple of force. I drained for three at the Carbonite Chamber, deployed the Emperor to the Back Door (I had Force Field to protect him), deployed Bewill to the Outer Walkway and Mara moved to join him. The Executor ran away to Endor (where’s Lateral Damage when you need it?). Nick drained and I lost All Too Easy, so the Emperor’s Prize went from hand (not today, then :o). He put out Order to Engage, deployed Jedi Luke and EPP Leia on the Home One and moved the Home One to Endor and Madine and the scout posse to the Back Door. I drained for four on Cloud City, put out another Occupation and put Maul on the Executor and attacked the Home One. I played I Have You Now and drew something like 12 for destiny. He lost Leia and Blount and I lost Maul. I lost to Order to Engage and shuttled the Emperor up to the Executor and shipped back to Bespin. He put out the Bunker, Coran Horn and some charges and moved some scouts inside. He gave Luke his saber and shuttled him down to Endor and followed the Executor with the Home One, having shuttled up some scrub scouts. I still didn’t have Lateral Damage, nor indeed another ship. Now, at this point the game was close. I was out-damaging Nick, and I had Order to Engage under control. He, of course was threatening to blow the bunker, but I could stall that. I had Maul and his saber in hand and a Dark Strike/Sniper, so Coran Horn could be dealt with. I activated, leaving two cards in reserve. I searched for I Have You Now to check destiny and...two 1s. Pooh. So I activated them, drained for four and did two Occupation damage and deployed Maul to the bunker. I lost three to Order to Engage. On Nicks turn he attacked Maul - I hit Coran Horn with Maul (with a 6 and a 4) and Dark Striked him. That ended the battle. But this is where I lost the game, for I was so busy worrying about Jedi Luke’s imminent arrival I forgot that the Charges should now go to Nick’s used pile, as he had no presence in the Bunker. Ooops. So Nick moves Luke into the Bunker. Luke had to go and Maul had to stay, so I activated up to the 6 and 4, drained and did Occupation damage. Then I duelled Luke with Maul. Risky, as RST tends to have good destiny, but hey. I drew my 6 and 4 and, randomly off the top he drew a 5 and a 6! Arrghhh! So Maul died. Next turn Nick blew up the bunker, paid 8 to retrieve and I lost 8. That put me too far behind and soon I was dead.

FL (-6) Total: 8(+59)

I was still in with a shout. I was playing Nick again and I had to win by 11 to win the tourney. I was absolutely starving but then, a mere two hours late, my lunch arrived.

Game 6: LS vs. Nick Rice

He started Court with Secret Plans, You Cannot Hide Forever and Mobilization Points. I started the usual. He put out Sebulba’s racer. First turn the race got going and Nick deployed the Coruscant Docking Bay and three Vigos for free there. He also deployed Kashyyk and Rendilli and then lost to Court. I played Were You Looking For Me? to get the droids. I put Naked Threepio down to start doing his thing and lost to Court. On Nick’s turn Anakin started to catch Sebulba and Nick got Scum and Villiany out and deployed Jabba, Gailid and some scrub to the Audience Chamber and Xizor on his ship at Tatooine. Down went EPP Luke to the Audience Chamber. He slashed Gailid and Nick played Sacrifice to give him his forfeit back. He then drew his other docking bay for destiny so Luke lived. He lost Gailid. Next turn he deployed Dengar in Ship to Tatooine and Boelo and Jodo to the Audience Chamber and killed Luke after retrieving with Scum, but I slashed Jabba to stop his activation bonus. I think he Sacrificed again as Jodo and Boelo were left standing. I played Jedi Resilience to get Luke into hand. I put out Draw Their Fire (a mistake, I think) Luke and Han went down and killed off Nick’s Vigos who were then at the Tatooine docking bay. Han died and Luke went to the Cantina. Bossk in Bus went to Tatooine and Mara came down to the Cantina but her saber was somewhere in Nick’s force pile (he checked by searching for Shocking Revelation with Secret Plans). She was joined by another Vigo and they battled Luke. Luke hit Mara and Mess/Blaster Prof’d her to lost. So the little Vigo ate some pain. Xizor landed in his ship at the Tatooine docking bay. I think I flipped next turn, putting a smuggler with Luke and a couple of random scrubs at the Tatooine docking bay. I killed off Xizor. The surviving guy moved into the Cantina. Anakin won the race in Nick’s turn, but before that he came down with Fett with gun, Jodo (yes, he was also in the Audience Chamber – we missed that) and Evazan & Baba. He got Luke with Hidden Weapons and Fett took him, killed a smuggler and beat up my lone Palace Raider. I lost 7 or so force but retrieved from the podrace, paying six to do so. Threepio put down Artoo in Red 5. Next turn I came down with Han with gun and Talon Karrde, shot Fett with the tracked 7 and used Mess/Blaster Prof. from lost to kill him and release Luke. I lost Luke. Then he put Zuckuss in Mist Hunter to Kashyyk, Gailid to the Audience Chamber and moved Jodo over to the Dungeon to give a fairly hefty total drain potential. I put Dash and Lando with the Outrider to the Tatooine docking bay and flipped. He drained for seven. I spent an entire turn retrieving force with On the Edge from lost and I Did It! I put a Medium Bulk Freighter to Tatooine and put down Celebration then flew the Outrider up. He drained for 5 and battled me at Tatooine but I just lost the freighter while he lost the scrubs he had put on board the Hound’s Tooth. I put out Jedi Luke to the Tatooine docking bay and Menace Fades. I initiated against Bossk and Dengar but couldn’t afford to retrieve from Draw Their Fire. I lost Lando while he lost both ships. The game had now turned really, as I had Menace Fades out, control of the Cantina and Celebration going. But then Nick decided to make things easy and attacked Han and Talon in the Cantina. He thought Talon was ability 2 and I would get no destiny. Instead he’s ability 3 so I hit Xizor and drew two destiny. Nick lost 7 over the top. The game ended soon, but I hadn’t won by enough.

FW (+8) Total: 10 (+67)

So I came second behind Nick. I actually quite like the Dark Side deck I used. I might use it again sometime.