european-championships-paris-last-week
Title: european-championships-paris-last-week
Author: Bastian "Death Star" Winkelhaus
Date: Sep 1, 2001
D-Con anyway so im playing for about 420 U$. A few weeks ago there was an open in belgium which i also won, but because i was allready qualified all i won was the chunk of plastic. Speaking of plastic, the trophy for the continental champ looks really nice. I cant really describe it but its nicer than anything i ever won for playing Star Wars and i have a few trophys cause there was no place left for it on my tv screen before that event. And its nearly half as nice as the things that all the Young Jedi players got at worlds 99. When i saw it first, i told Dominic Vermandere, a belgium decipher representive to put my name on it cause i really want to take it home. He laughed. That was saturday afternoon. Day 1 was in full swing when i arrived. I had no intention to spend a second night in a hotel room so we started saturday very early, like 6am and arrived at like 4pm cause we got in a large traffic jam and theres like 5 different rue voltaire in paris and we only found the right one on the 3rd try. So i just hang around and talk to a heap of players in between rounds. There were 74 players for day 1 so they played 8 games and the top 12 would qualify for day 2. My buddy Martin Schuhmacher qualified but my other one, Markus Wuest got DQed after game 6 cause his dark had 61 cards. He had put an AI maul in it but forgot to take the regular one out. He was 4-2 with very good diff at that point playing 2 of my decks, Watto and cheese profit. 5-3 and good diff would have put him in so its really a shame he was so DUMB! The english get in day 2 with good numbers, 4 of them i think. Allways fun to meet the brits cause they are all very nice chaps and some good quality players. The day comes to an end and i finally decide on my decks for the following day, Watto and WYS beats.
Day 2 has 26 players with the top players being Julien Riviere from france, Peter di Biasio from the UK and Martin Falke and me from germany. Defending champion Martin Akesson was not there, shame on him.
Game 1, my light vs. Marten Rossou, belgium (1697) HD jizz
Marten placed 2nd last year but didnt play all too great during this year cause of lack of practice.
Vader comes down second turn to cantina but luke comes down shortly thereafter at mos espa db so we both lose to visage. He keeps his force together, cause hes wary of the beatdown. He wins the race, i have space dominance and battle plan. Then he comes with maul in his own ship to space and i have melas and luke on the ground allready. And i dont play Phylo! Still, i retrieve like 4 or 5 times with my 2 on the edges and win a close one by 12.
2(+12)
Game 2, my dark vs. Laszlo Pasztai, hungary (1827) WYS
Laszlo has beaten Peter di Biasio in game 1! Julien has also lost a close one, Martin Falke won.
He starts 3 effects, including Battle Plan and has a racer, so i start blast door controls. In my starting hand i only have watto and 4Lom for characters! So i cant flip! For the first time ever. Damn. He makes a crucial mistake though, cause at one point he has a tracked 6 and activates up to it. Drains with mirax and melas and i play thinking with stomach to make melas missing. He uses jedi luke and the 6 to take out mara with saber at mos espa but leaves mirax all by herself. I attack with EPP vader and he loses 9 on top of her. I also win the race and only got drained at kessel 2 or 3 times cause the game wasnt all too long, FW by 30.
4(+42)
Game 3, my dark vd. Angelo Consoli, germany (1795) Profit cheese
Martin Falke won again, putting him on 4+49 but Angelo is between us so we dont have to play each other yet. Martin is also dark in this game, so we cant play in game 4 either.
Now this gets ugly. Angelo is playing a very cheesy light deck that he got from me, i played it at the last local. So i know it inside out and i know i cant normally win against it. It uses AFA, numbers, racing, advantage, epp strikes etc. It has an insane destiny average so my chances of winning the race are very slim. So i used a little mind trick on him. We both play racing and we put both our arenas and epic events on eachother and i say, thats too chaotic, lets do it step by step. I´m dark, so my starting interrupt resolves first. I deploy the arena and a racer, you also want to deploy a racer? Yes, i want to. Ok, now i deploy the boonta ever podrace and an effect, blast door controls. Now your interrupt resolves, you need to deploy the arena and a racer. OOHHH! You dont have a racer! So it cant resolve. So you dont get anything. No effect.
He was a bit pissed, but theres nothing he could do. Normally he would start seeking an audience, pop out 3Po and Artoo and then play numbers with either 8D8 or jedi luke. So i start the early pressure and he loses seeking an audience from top. Nice. Then on his first turn, he deploys Battle Plan from hand. Ouch! That hurt. I cant really damage him cause he can allways pay 2 force for my objective. He wins the race and somehow he has both jedi luke and epp obi at the arena. As far away from the AC as he could possibly be. So i just dont drain, cause i have AFA in there. I just move a bit and and he cant drain. I cancel AFA once with projective telepathy and another one with P-59 and Ghhk. Numbers pop only once and cause of palpy zapping artoo i only lose like 3 force. He finally gets into the AC and battles but time runs out and i still have a few guys protecting Han. We count it and its my 21 to his 17 so i get the time win.
5(+63)
Even with only 26 players, theres little chance to get into the final on 9 points, so i cant afford to lose a game. But given the fact that i should have lost this one, i cant complain bout the time win.
Game 4, my light vs. Bruce Savin, UK (1790) AOBS surgeon
I start Dont do that again as my 3rd effect. First turn he accelerates for Forced servitude. With all the droids in there, including the new P-59/60 thats a neat thing. I hit him hardly in one space battle and while he lost stuff from reserve there were some droids in there reducing the loss. But because i won space and have battle plan going while having luke at the ground i win this by 19. He played 3 force lightnings, btw! But he managed to miss a RFC on 2 tries.
7(+82)
Theres only 1 other undefeated player left now, Martin Falke with 8 points, so i will play him now. There are 4 players with 6 points, so on table 2 its Peter di Biasio against Andreas Petz from austria and on table 3 its Julien Riviere against . I know i can beat Martin with my dark but his dark is very strong.
Game 5, my dark vs. Martin Falke, germany (2101), WYS
So i play dark, thats good. But chances are i have to play him in game 6 again. Juliens diff is only 30, so no chance he will interfere. If i win and Andreas beats Peter though, and we both win with a combined total of 37 at least, then i wont have to play Martin in game 6. Thats about the only chance we both make the final. Oh well.
I flip with P-59 on Mos Espa. He comes down and beats him up for 9 battle damage but its ok cause i will win the race and i started the box. Also, the droid hits his patrol craft and draws a 5 for battle destiny so Martin has to lose Han too. I have to delay the race for a turn cause he has aim high on his combo effect, but then i get my lost pile back and the game goes downhill for him. He cant afford to lose to my objective anymore so i get my whole fleet up to tatooine system. I occupy it for a while cause he lost dash and the xwings before. We both sent people missing and i put him away for 33.
9(+115)
Cause i won by 33, Andreas would only need to win by 4, but he loses his game and i have to play Martin again. Peter plays fellow brit Alex Tennet on table 2 and Julien stays on table 3 with his win by 2 to play against Andreas Petz. Peters diff is about 50 now but Juliens is only 32.
Game 6, my light vs. Martin Falke, germany (2101), My lord is that legal?
Its hard to do the beatdown, if your limited to one destiny and he substracts 3 from it. We practiced a bit before against another WYS and it didnt look good for me. Also, i get a really crappy starting hand. First turn theres not much to do. And on my second turn i still couldnt flip and only deployed beggar and dash in outrider to tat system. No force saved. He had flipped allready with lott dod and Orn Free Taa. So he deploys Zuckuss and has both political effects to manipulate battle destinies. So he needs to draw a 3 to get rid of both dash and the ship or just a 1 to get rid of dash. He initiates and draws his battle destiny : DS 2 ´Throne room. He´s pissed big time. He adds 3 with tikkes and then loses Zuckuss. So i get to flip by deploying lando to tat db. I´m holding a dodge and draw up and get a barrier. He has Edcel in hand allready but wants to use him on an effect first. He deploys EPP Vader against Lando. I barrier. He cancels with the interrupt. I barrier again from lost pile. So its my turn and the dreaded Edcel is not on table yet. And theres a senator on the +3 effect. I play tunnel vision and get luke. I deploy luke with lando. I deploy Han with them. I initiate. Swing at Vader, hit. He swings at Luke (why?) and draws 0,5 I play dont get @#$%y from lost pile. So i get 5 battle destinies. They are all crappy, i draw 3,3,1,2,3 and he substracts 3 from one. He draws a 1. So he loses 15 force and the game. Not immediately but shortly thereafter i get an easy win by 30 when i was expecting a hard fought loss. No complaining from me though.
11(145)
Julien wins his game but hes still behind Peter on diff. Peters game is long and its going to time limit. If he gets a time win, Julien is in but he gets a full win and joins me in the final. We let fate decide whos chosing decks and its me so i choose to start with Watto.
Final, Game 1, my dark vs. Peter di Biasio, UK (2080), HB xwings
I only have 1 character in my starting hand, Vader. I start the box, cause hes not racing and he starts strike planing, your insight and do or do not&wise advice. I deploy watto from deck and vader to mos espa and make him lose 2. He searches for honor. His turn he comes down with EPP Luke to Wattos yard but i have projective telepathy. I cant damage him with my objective so i flip back by moving vader to join them. His turn he battles me and hits Watto. I swing and miss. I get a battle destiny of 5 while he cant draw. So its my power of 14 to his 5. Luke and 2. He plays Houjix and jedis resilience. I dont know what he was thinking there, but playing Houjix for 2 is normally not worth it. Anyway, on my 3rd turn i deploy palpy to the pod arena and move vader back to mos espa. He draws a bit and saves 9 force. At that point he has one x-wing at endor, 3 systems out and rebel fleet on table. He cancels my vader drain with a red squadron xwing. I finish the race on turn 4. He pays 9 for it could be worse. I have my its worse in hand and pay 2. He loses 11. I didnt pay more cause that way i was able to draw up to 12 cards and save 1 for my barrier. In the force he loses theres one system, Yavin 4. But still he flips on his next turn. Also he deploys EPP Luke to my vader. He had stacked a 6 on the race and now he activated so that 2 cards were above that 6. So he hoped to hit vader and cause some battle damage with the 6. But i barrier Luke. Then i deploy Watto and make him lose 2 force, Mighty Jabba and Xizor with Vader. I hit Luke, he hits Xizor and i draw 2 battle destinies while he gets none. He has 18 battle damage and no more houjix cause he burned that in the beginning. He gets 2 more drains in, 1 for 3 at kessel and 1 for 1, then the game is over and i won by 38!!!
Theres no way i can lose the last one by that much so i am the champion allready. But rules say we have to do it.
Final, Game 2, my light vs. Peter di Biasio, UK (2080), HD fubar
I prefer not to cancel visage and deploy Luke to Mos Espa db instead after Vader came down in the cantina. Same stuff as allways, i have Battle Plan and the free drains in space, while he has to pay to drain for 2 in the cantina. He satisfies Battle Plan for 2 turns when he deployed Endor with Bossk. He got a bit unlucky when he moved maul after luke and then drew up a bunch only to see that the one force he used for maul was his zuckuss in mist hunter. Oh well, as if it really mattered. I win the game by 16 but i couldnt care less.
So i´m the european champion and Michael Rogers from the UK, who came in 4th, got the bye into day 2 of worlds. Julien finished 3rd and never played me allthough he built decks just to beat me.
See ya all at worlds!!