Mekanika Garrison Paintable Tray Review

The following is NOT a paid advertisement

As anyone who has played in a tabletop gaming tournament can attest to, it's a bit of a pain moving your stuff from one table to another.  Besides the hassle of packing everything up, moving it over (without dropping a die, mini, or card), valuable game time is wasted setting up at the new table.  Even if you're careful, at least once per tournament I'll someone go back to their last table and ask if they found a die/mini/whatever because they are missing something after their move.  Different folks have tried different solutions, from piling up everything in a big bag or stacking it on the lid of a tackle box to MDF trays or something similar.  My original solution was piling up everything on a cafeteria tray I acquired from somewhere.  It worked but was hardly ideal.  Thankfully, Mekanika has a solution, the Garrison Paintable Tray.

The Tray

The Good

The tray, unlike some others, was designed for Legion from the ground up.  The insert it comes with fits Legion bases quite nicely, and the slots fit all the necessary accessories as well, with room to spare.  The tray isn't limited to Legion however, as Mekanika's website shows that versions for other games, including X-Wing, will be available "soon."  The mix of compartments in the main tray allows you to sort out a variety of items.  I personally prefer to separate my dice into their respective types, but the compartments would also serve well to separate various tokens.  The largest compartment serves to hold cards, deployment markers, or even aftermarket items like objective hologram tokens or reminder aids.  I've even seen it used as a dice tray, though there are a few problems with that particular use, to be discussed later.  While a minor thing, the styling on the tray fits the look and feel of Star Wars, and allows for some cool paint jobs.  Nobody wants to carry around their wonderfully painted army around in an ugly tray after all. 

The empty tray, fully painted.  

In the semi-current Legion meta, with activation spam a real thing, it should be noted that the Garrison tray has plenty of room for almost anything you can put on it.  From 13 activation trooper spam to dual heavy lists, the tray makes carrying the units around a lot easier.  I found that it also helps the setup time for games considerably, as even after moving to a different table, my dice, movement templates, and range rulers are all in the same spot (relatively speaking) after every game. 

Fully loaded up with my 13 activation "Meta Spam" list. 

The loaded tray, with everything in its proper place.

The Bad

Arguably the worst feature about this tray is the price.  It's not cheap, at $59.99 plus shipping.  Production times can also be a bit of a drag, as it took a while longer than I expected to receive mine.  Thankfully my questions were quickly answered and the tray shipped as soon as it was finished.  Most of the other issues I've had are pretty minor.  I found that primer doesn't always want to cling to the plastic used, and I had some issues with my plastic primer peeling.  Maybe I just didn't give it long enough, or perhaps it just takes longer for the primer to bond to the plastic used in the tray than I'm used to.  The size of the tray also makes carrying it with all your other Legion stuff a bit of an issue.  It doesn't fit well into my BattleFoam case no matter how I angle it, and since the troop insert is loose, I'm always worried it'll fall out if I carry it separately. I am considering trying to make it work with a MOLLE laptop case, however.  If that works, I'll include an update down the line. 

The final thing I'll complain about is also minor, but it's one of those design issues that could easily have been solved with a bit more work, and that is that the troop insert doesn't fit flush with dice.  Granted, this is likely a problem of my own making, as the textured compartment inserts were originally loose before I glued them down.  With them taken out, the insert may, in fact, sit flush, but it's a bit odd that the use of dice and the inserts wasn't taken into account.  By necessity, the tray would be a bit thicker, but that would be a small price to pay for a bit more secure of a system.

The Ugly (or at least questionable)

Finally, the random issues that aren't bad, but could have an impact on your opinions of the tray.  The first one is a matter of use; because the lid/troop insert does not firmly attach to the body, I don't see much of a point in bringing it to casual game nights.  If I'm going to take the time to pull everything out and set up, there's no need to add another item to the table if it doesn't really serve.  Thus, if I'm not changing tables, I really don't see a need for the tray.  There are likely ways to fix the problem ranging from magnetizing to using rubber bands, but I've not experimented with them yet.  We'll see if that changes my opinion on the general use of the tray or not.  As it stands now, unless I'm changing tables, or won't have space on the table to organize my dice/rulers/templates, I don't really use this.  This really does limit the tray's use to tournaments and larger, 2v2 or Grand Army games.  The second issue that should be considered is that while the textured inserts into the various compartments are removable, they can also fall out if not secured.  For me, personally, I think this limits you to either permanently leaving them out, or gluing them in place.  Not a huge problem by any stretch of the imagination, but something to think about.  Finally, as discussed before, is the problems of using the tray as a dice tray.  Without the large compartment's textured insert, this would likely not be a problem.  With it, however, dice are frequently cocked and require being rerolled.  Again, this is likely a problem of my own making, and could probably be easily solved by an appropriately sized piece of felt in place instead of the textured insert, but that's probably not something you'll think of until after you've tried it the other way.  If you intend to use the large compartment as a dice tray, make sure you try it out a few times before gluing the insert in place.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I'm pleased with the Garrison paintable Tray.  It works well as the tournament tray it is intended to be, and honestly, most of my complaints about it are over it not being perfect in other uses or me not thinking about how I could have done other things with it in the first place.  If you're looking for a quality tray to use at tournaments, you could certainly do worse than Mekanika's offering.

First thoughts on the Republic

Turns out Clones are pretty good.

To those of you that don't know, I'm a huge fan of the Clone Wars.  I don't just mean The Clone Wars show or the more recent offerings.  I mean I'm a fan of pretty much everything we've seen of the Clones Wars from Episode II all the way to the upcoming revival season of The Clone Wars, with a special shout out to Dark Horse Comic's Clone Wars stories in their Republic line.  Even my most common user name comes from a character in those comics.  So, needless to say, I was ecstatic when I first heard the Clone Wars would be coming to Legion.  And now that the Republic is (sorta) out, I can say that they live up to the hype.

The Clones

I should note what the Clones are not at this point.  They are not broken, in a way that a certainly Mandolorian chosen one can feel like at times.  They are also not cheap, with their cheapest unit being over 50 points at this point.  They are also not quite as user-friendly as the Empire is, as the lack of natural surge to hit or block naturally means you have to plan ahead to maximize their use.  Unsurprisingly, Clones are not numerous either, as the possible options for armies are limited to 3 units right now, and even by the time everything comes out, there will be a total of 6 units with a few varieties of heavy weapon and personnel upgrades.

What the Clones, and by the extension, the Republic faction as a whole, are a solid and adaptable addition to the game.  As often pointed out, the basic Phase I Clone Trooper squad offers the advantages of both the basic Rebel trooper squad and of Stormtroopers.  It's weird actually having a legitimate choice between heavy weapons right now between the Z-6 and the DC-15, and I'm enjoying running both for the moment, though I do tend to run more DC-15s at a 2/1 or 3/2 split.  The split allows for a nice mix of capabilities, from range 4 fire to sheer numbers of dice.  The ability fo the clones to share green tokens allows different units to support one another, and that's not even going into Fire Support.  Fire Support obviously has its ups and downs.  On the downside, you're giving up an activation, and for a faction built around expensive units, that's not a good thing.  Played at the wrong time, it'll leave you open to a lot of risk-free moves my your opponent later in the round.  On the plus side, Fire Support really helps maximize the advantages of both heavy weapons.  Chucking a fist full of dice at units like Sabine or Tauntauns really helps overcome solid defenses and can simply delete units off the board.  During my first 800 pt game, I used fire support to nuke Leia off the board on Round 1, even with a dodge token.  Granted, that was a case not likely to repeat itself in the future, but the potential is there.

Fire Support also allows you to keep units that have taken massive casualties in the fight.  The unit touching the objective was down to two minis (commander and DC-15 gunner) but kept fighting through Fire Support for several rounds.

On the downside, Clones really need to stay together to be effective and share their tokens.  They also need support in the form of surge tokens from their commander.  Without natural surges, the dice are more fickle than they are on a lot of Imperial or Rebel units, and you will often find yourself at the mercies of the dice gods in both attacking and blocking.  The Republic has a ton of opportunities to pass out surge tokens, but you have to play them at the right time, and more importantly, remember to play them.  Forgetting to play Strict orders on a key round can result in weak attacks and more casualties. 

How things can look when you remember to play the cards right.

General Kenobi

Which brings us to Mr. "Hello There" himself.  I'll admit to not being a huge fan of most of the commanders in Legion before now.  Units like Vader and Luke were almost all offensively minded units that offered little support, while units like Krennic forced you into using certain units and play styles.  Veers and Leia, and their mini-mes in the form of the generic commanders seemed to offer the best mix of support and offensive ability, but even that was lacking.  Obi changes all that.  Although his actual attack is relatively weak, just a double rainbow with Pierce/Critical/Impact 2, he has a nice mix of Force powers, a command slot, and a training slot.  This allows you to customize him to meet your needs and expectations.  If you want him to be a character hunter (for say, a Cyborg or two) Hunter is a great option.  Tenacity is of course, also a great option, because who doesn't want an extra red die?  I've tried both and found that Tenacity is probably the better choice in general because it helps Young Ben make up for his lack of offensive power.  That said, if you can get a wound on Sabine or Vader before charging into melee with General Kenobi, the free aim token is almost always useful. 

Kenobi, I've found, should not be used by himself.  Where Vader needs other units to absorb fire, Kenobi wants to absorb fire for other units.  His command cards also want him to be surrounded, either by enemy or friendly units.  Naturally, choosing when to launch your Meme-powered Kenobi missile into the enemy lines is a major command decision.  Do it too early, and you'll find your commander surrounded and alone while doing so too late will probably leave either him or your supporting troops too weak to fight him off.  As with Sabine and Luke, Obi wants something along the lines of a last/first activation order when you do decide to unleash him.  He's great at blocking a ton of incoming fire, and Guardian 3 allows you to keep a lot of Clones on the board that would otherwise die. 

If Obi does have a fault, its that he doesn't have any natural means of removing extra suppression, either from himself or from others.  Upgrades like Hope are nice, but take a Force slot that you'll probably want to spend on Force Guidance, Reflexes, or Push.  As the Phase I clones only have courage one, this leaves your army very susceptible to suppression, though the ability to mitigate the lack of actions by sharing green tokens is handy.  Though not as big of a handicap, in my opinion, the lack of a gear slot on Obi-Wan means that you won't be able to shrug off as many hits as Luke or Sabine.  No Emergency Stims for Kenobi.  The game today came down to him fighting a snow lizard over a key position on his last health, and his the single die he rolled came up blank. 

Poor Kenobi, maybe you should go home and rethink your life. (or rather, death)

The BARC Speeder

Last, and possibly least, is the BARC speeder.  I'll admit that I'm not a fan of this unit's archetype.  Essentially a single mini version of the Imperial speeder bikes with slightly better defense, the BARC fulfills the role of a fast attack cavalry unit.  It can hit hard, but its limited health does leave it very vulnerable to a bad roll of the dice.  Cover 1 naturally is also nice, but there are a ton of units in the game now with Sharpshooter and Pierce, so I don't expect the BARCs to be a major factor in my lists moving forward.  It's entirely possible that others will make better use of them than I will, but it's a matter of them not fitting my preferred play style.  My only real experience with them is taking out a strike team, but losing my BARC to a unit of Tauntauns in two activations.  The snow kangaroos are fast enough to keep up with the BARC, and even to run it down when you have the sidecar attached, and Sharpshooter 1 means it's all up to your red dice to keep you alive.  (and I'm pretty sure my dice hate me)

 "Fly faster, these guys smell really bad...."

That said, for the moment, Republic players pretty much have to play the BARC.  It does have its advantages, with the sidecar weapons slots offering more dice, and its natural surge-to-hit, the only Republic unit with that ability in the game thus far, means it can always make maximum use of the dice it's dishing out.  As with Speeder bikes and the AT-RT, it's probably best to run BARCs in at least pairs, so they can double-tap units they run across.  Because of their potential speed, they can be used to run down lone sniper strike teams and even to make an attempt of eliminating units holding an objective in your opponent's rear area.  If you like fast cavalry style units, you'll probably find a place BARCs in your army.

Looking towards the future

At the time of writing this, the Republic has three units announced (not counting Artoo and Threepeo), Rex, Phase II Clones, and the Saber-Class Fighter Tank.  I'm excited about all three and may start proxying in Rex using a 3D printed Phase I ARC trooper I already have.  (told you I'm a huge Clone Wars fan)  Rex will likely find a place alongside Kenobi in my lists, as he helps to correct the Jedi General's lack of Inspire and he looks like a solid unit in his own right.  I'm interested in Phase II Clones as well, but will as good as they are, I'm not sure how much better they'll really be over Phase Is.  The Fighter Tank will be an insta-buy for me, but that's for pure nostalgia reasons, and I'm still on the fence about how effective it will be.  This only leaves the Phase I personnel/heavy weapons upgrade pack, and we don't have enough information for me to really judge how it will affect things, other than offer some new, and potentially awesome heavy weapons.  Regardless of how things shake out, I'd say that the Republic is off to a good start, and I'm looking forward to getting in more games with them in the coming months. 

But Suppression! List breakdown: Rebels

Welcome to “Ace’s rebel list extravaganza”! In this article im going to be breaking down my go to list, why I've taken to this, some variants that will work well, as well as what sucsess ive had with it. Now, I wish I could tell you this is some sort of meta shaking list that was so broken and efficient, that it’s a insta-win, however you will find it is a pretty run of the mill high activation list, but you know about fixing things that ain't broke. So without further ado, let’s jump in!

Rebel Officer: 50 points

Sabine Wren: 125 points

The Darksaber 25 points, Emergency stims 8 points, Endurance 6 points

Rebel Troopers: 40 points

Z-6 Trooper: 22 points

Rebel Troopers: 40 points

Z-6 Trooper: 22 points

Rebel Troopers: 40 points

Z-6 Trooper: 22 points

Rebel Troopers: 40 points

Z-6 Trooper: 22 points

Rebel Troopers: 40 points

Rebel Troopers: 40 points

Rebel Commandos- Strike team: 16 points

DH-44 Sniper 28 points

Rebel Commandos- Strike team: 16 points

DH-44 Sniper 28 points

AT-RT: 55 points

AT-RT Flamethrower: 25 points

AT-RT: 55 points

AT-RT Flamethrower: 25 points

Commands: Explosions!, Ambush, Symbol of the rebellion, Turning the tide, Covering fire, Legacy of Mandalore 

Now that we have the list out of the way, let's break down each section individually. 

Commander: Now, I know that it may seem like high heresy to not run Luke or Leah, or even Han, but there is a method to the madness. Obviously Luke is a very powerful commander, and one that I have plenty of table time with, but I've noticed that I can partially fill the Farm boy shaped void in my list with Sabine. As for Leah, the big thing she brings to the table is her sniper chewing orbital bombardment. While this is absolutely an efficient method to remove a sniper or two (or, if you get lucky an entire team. Though, that's a mistake your opponent only makes once) I've found that there are other ways to take out snipers. This means that by sacrificing Orbital bombardment, I can free up an extra 40 points on my list, an entire extra infantry squad. Add in Take cover 1 along with inspire 1, and the generic officer can still hold his own as a viable support leader. Now, not adding Improvised orders is something I still flip flop on. When you need it and it's not there, you definitely feel it. However, in the end, I decided the last 10 points are better served on a bid

Operative: Sabine, as I said above, is used to fill in for Luke as the heavy hitter in my army. I like to think of her as “Great Value Luke”: Similar and cheaper, but dont think for a second that it’s as good as the real thing.  Sabine works great as a skirmisher, maneuvering around the enemy and taking shots before dipping back into cover. Nimble, along with red defense die with surge to defense, can make her a tough nut to crack, and normally when she does crack, my opponent has expended a lot of resources over a few rounds to do so, taking fire off of my scoring units. Naturally emergency stims and Endurance are there to pile on the survivability. I debated heavily over adding the personal combat shield, and in the end, I decided, like Improvised orders, that the 10 points are better served in the bid.

Corps: Not a lot to talk about here, My rebel troopers are the corps of my army (see what I did there? I'll, ah,  show myself out now) and are there exclusively there to lay suppression, capture points, be more bodies to shoot at, and hopefully get some kills along the way. With white defense die, even with nimble, I just assume any hits that get through the cover will kill. The only reason the last two squads don't have Z-6s is points, pure and simple.

Special Forces: Surprising absolutely no one, my SF selection is...two snipers! However, while the most vanilla of vanilla picks, I do run mine a tad different. First, I fully expect both squads to be dead by turn five. Secondly their entire purpose in life is to kill enemy snipers. Once their Enemy at the Gates goal is complete, I start hitting the highest priority target, be that commanders or operatives, until they are worm food. I've found that by focusing my snipers on enemy snipers and not worrying about anything else, I can play them a hair more aggressive, and I'm willing to sacrifice one if it means removing an enemy sniper from the table.

Support: ahhh, good ole fire chickens! There's nothing quite like serving a stormtrooper squad for barbecue. My AT-RTs serve two purposes. First, to help sabine get up close and personal, while providing something more appetizing to shoot at than the tiny mando, and secondly, if they don't take the bait and decide to chew Sabine, I have two high health vehicles ready to eat em (Is anyone else craving ribs, or is it just me?)

As you can see, the name of the game here is target saturation. I give my opponent plenty to debate on their activations, and no matter what they pick, there's something else running at their front door. I like to keep my commander back a bit, normally near (but not on) my “Homefield”  objectives to help with rallying and handing out dodges. Obviously My best case scenario for scenario cards will be something like capture the supplies, or Key positions, With The Long March being avoided like the plague to try to minimize the gap that my assaulters need to close.

If you just don't have a warm and fuzzy about the rebel officer (or don't currently own it) an alternative that I call “Girls night out” is almost exactly the same, except one naked squad is pulled to squeeze in Leah. This still gives you a similar advantage of high activations, albeit one less obviously, while still having access to Leah’s stellar command cards. I wouldn't recommend pulling one of the AT-RTs or the snipers, as only having one of either causes the entire strategy to fall apart quite quickly, as the individual unit can be focus fired off the board with alarming speed.

I have played several Legion night games with this list, and completed one local tournament with this list, where I went 2 out of 3. (Battle report of that to follow soon) and it is, by far, my favorite list to run, and will be using it at the rally point qualifier later in the year.

Alpha's Rally Point Qualifier Win--May 11, Lenexa, KS, Pt. 4

Part 4: The Final AAR

Round 3

After barely squeaking through round 2, I was more than happy with how the day was going for me.  No matter the outcome, I had an overall winning record, and had, had fun.  While I still very much wanted to win, I was just content to play at this point.  (a lack of lunch and a bad knee from standing around probably contributed to that as well)  My opponent this round was Josh, and his rebel list.

799 points

Luke Skywalker 160
Force Push, Jedi Mind Trick, Emergency Stims, 
Han Solo 120
Esteemed Leader, Emergency Stims, 
Chewbacca 110
Overwatch, Tenacity, Emergency Stims, 
Rebel Commandos (Strike Team) 16
DH-447 Sniper, 
Rebel Commandos (Strike Team) 16
DH-447 Sniper, 
Rebel Commandos (Strike Team) 16
DH-447 Sniper, 
Rebel Troopers 40
Z-6 Trooper, Rebel Trooper, 
Rebel Troopers 40
Z-6 Trooper, Rebel Trooper, 
Rebel Troopers 40
Z-6 Trooper, Rebel Officer Upgrade, 

Commands:
Son of Skywalker, Sorry About the Mess, My Ally Is the Force, Reckless Diversion, Notorious Scoundrels, Change of Plans, Standing Orders,

We were playing on the relatively open forest map, so his snipers had a distinct advantage.  Thankfully, we played Intercept the transmissions with Advanced Positions, so my units were able to rapidly close some of the gap, and somewhat nullify this advantage.  My deployment zone had a nice crater terrain piece, and we had decided to treat it like a trench, (difficult terrain to move through, provides heavy cover for units inside, but light cover for units shooting across it).  I started the game by pushing one of my E-Webs into the crater, and one of my stormtrooper squads towards the center objective.

I actually got both of my E-Webs activated pretty early on, and got them in range and on "stand by."  this caused Josh a few problems since he didn't want to walk guys into the open sights of a Space Maxim, so he was a bit delayed in actually going for the objective.  When he did, however, he did so with Luke running and gunning.  Boba decided he needed to really notch things up after last game, and proceeded to be my MVP, killing at least two sniper teams by himself, and contributing to several other teams as well.  I had (again) forgotten to paly his bounty, but Josh insisted it wasn't a problem, and I put it on Han.  (seemed suitably thematic)  the second turn led with Luke and "Son of Skywalker" being played, pretty shortly shocktrooper body parts were flying everywhere, and I was left with just the Officer upgrade left in the unit.  Following the advice of Brave Sir Robin, she bravely ran away, and let everyone else within range open up on Luke.  He blocked more than his fair share of hits, but eventually went down to the massed firepower.  Han tried to cover the slack, but he started taking hits as well, and Chewie got a face full of E-Web for his trouble.  I saw an opportunity after killing Josh's second sniper team, and pushed Boba up, and took out a squad of troopers with the flame thrower, and also scored a few hits on Han at the same time.  Chewie finally lost his staring contest with the Space Maxim, but triggered emergency stims before going down.  He charged into Boba, and landed a few hits on him before succumbing to his wounds.  (and I imagine his pelt is now being worn by Boba)  The game finally ended (due to time) when we completed round four, and Josh was left with a single squad of troopers, a sniper team, and Han at no health (having used emergency stims)  All in all, I have to say Josh was great to play against, and unusual for a tournament game, felt fun and low pressure.  We helped and reminded each other about certain things (Bounty, as mentioned before, but also with Han's defensive die rerolls and Force push on Luke) 

Post Game: 

Well, the end of the game ended up being the end of the tournament.  My top two opponent Cody, decided to concede as soon as they announced the pairing.  I'm assuming he was just as tired as I was by this point, though his first round was a Bye, so maybe not.  I'm not sure on this, but Cody may have already had a High Command Invite, so didn't feel the need to compete for one.  Either way, it would have been an interesting game, as his list was quite unique.

796 Points

General Veers 80
Improvised Orders, 
Snowtroopers 48
Flametrooper, Imperial Officer Upgrade, Fragmentation Grenades, 
Stormtroopers 44
R4 Astromech Droid, 
Stormtroopers 44
R4 Astromech Droid, 
Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 16
DLT-19x Sniper, Hunter, 
Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 16
DLT-19x Sniper, Hunter, 
Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 16
DLT-19x Sniper, Hunter, 
TX-225 GAVw Occupier Combat Assault Tank 155
First Sergeant Arbmab, DLT-19 Rifle Pintle, 
TX-225 GAVw Occupier Combat Assault Tank 155
Imperial Hammers Elite Armor Pilot, RT-97C Rifle Pintle, 

Commands:
Ambush, Maximum Firepower, Evasive Maneuvers, Pinned Down, Assault, Imperial Discipline

It certainly would have been an interesting match up.  Between Boba and the DLTs, I had enough Impact to take down the Tanks, but the question would have been whether or not Cody would have been deleting Stormtrooper squads while I was wailing on the tank.  Also probably depends on the map we played on.  If it had been the desert town or another terrain rich table, the odds would have been in my favor.  Still, his performance does show a possible shift in the meta, with vehicles being more than capable of wrecking shop if needed, and perhaps the red defense die on the tanks would have been as active as mine were during round one.  Alas, we'll never know.

In the end, I was declared the victor, got the trophy, and the Invitational invite.  Not entirely sure what to do with it now, but oh well.  At least the trophy has found a nice spot in my Imperial Shrine.  

Final Thoughts
I think the tournament went well.  The event staff were quick to answer questions or resolve disputes, and while everyone was competitive, I didn't see anyone have any jerk-y moments towards their fellow players.  The sniper meta is still alive and well, unfortunately, and I stand by that being the case as much to do with the relative sparseness of terrain as to the actual benefits of sniper strike teams.  (price, pierce, etc)  I do wish tables were set up so that they wouldn't be so open as to allow almost total coverage by a pair of sniper teams, let alone a single one.  I had a great time, and hope everyone else did too.  If I made any mistakes in here in my retelling, or have forgotten anything important, I apologize for the error.  

For anyone wanting more info, check out the TTT link here.  

https://tabletop.to/star-wars-legion-rallypoint-qualifier2/ladder

Alpha's Rally Point Qualifier Win--May 11, Lenexa, KS, Pt. 3

Part 3: The AAR Strikes Back

Round 2: 

The second round was my toughest of the day, and the one that came the closest to going either way.  I played against Rick's list:

800 Points

Han Solo 120
-Environmental Gear,
Chewbacca 110
Rebel Troopers 40
-Z-6 Trooper,
Rebel Commandos (Strike Team) 16
-DH-447 Sniper,
AT-RT 55
-AT-RT Rotary Blaster,
Leia Organa 90
-Improvised Orders, Esteemed Leader,
Rebel Troopers 40
-Z-6 Trooper,
Rebel Troopers 40
Rebel Troopers 40
Rebel Commandos (Strike Team) 16
-DH-447 Sniper,
AT-RT 55
-AT-RT Rotary Blaster,

Commands:
Coordinated Bombardment, Sorry About the Mess, Reckless Diversion, Brains and Brawn, Change of Plans, Notorious Scoundrels, Standing Orders

He won our chance cube roll to be blue player, and we ended up playing Breakthrough with battlelines and Minefield.  Man, oh man, did those mines suck.  I think Rick took one crit to one of his AT-RTs, but both mines I set off rolled surges, and hit both Boba and one of my E-Webs twice.  Each took three wounds, which meant I was playing Boba very, very conservatively the entire game.  Leia's orbital bombardment also didn't help, doing two wounds to a stormtrooper unit, one to an E-Web, and one to my snipers, who were then promptly taken out by one of his sniper teams.  Adding insult to injury, I had forgotten to declare Boba's bounty, before we started the game (we were still on one of the first activations when I remembered it) and Rick denied my request to place it then.  While frustrating, I perfectly understand his reasoning, and I have no one to blame but myself.  The joys of playing a unit you're not used to using. 

The opening rounds weren't all bad for me, however, as I was able to focus fire DLT-19s and Boba's rockets against the AT-RTs, and take both of them down by the middle of round two.  Range four fire became the name of the game as Rick started pushing up at me in the center, and I tried skirting around the sides.  He got a little too pushy with Leia, and got her within range 2 of Boba, while wounded, who proceeded to use his free aim from Hunter to get several crits through her and Chewie's Guardian.  Han was also wounded, but he kept dropping stormtroopers.  One of my E-Webs soaked up a lot of fire, but ultimately folded, while the other one never made a shot the entire game.  I would have liked to use Boba more, but having wounded myself with the minefield and forgetting about emergency stims, I didn't want to risk him.  The game ended with him having one health point left, and Han and him having a show down.  Theoretically, Boba could have taken Han out the next turn if I remembered Emergency stims, but who knows.   Ultimately, it all came down to the last activation for both of us.  Rick's attempt to score fell short by millimeters.  I pushed a two-man Stormtrooper squad into his deployment zone, and he had to move one of his snipers into a position to get the hit.  He rolled a single crit, which, while killing the DLT gunner, didn't wipe out the unit, and allowed me to get the game-winning VP as our game ended due to time.  Talk about a close one.  

End of the game pictures:

And the game winner, the SGT York of stormtroopers, waving at the Rebels snipers that almost tied the game. 

Alpha's Rally Point Qualifier Win--May 11, Lenexa, KS, Pt. 2

Part 2: Return of the AAR

Round 1

The first game was against Kris, and his Imperial list.

798 Points

General Veers 80
Commanding Presence,
Boba Fett 140
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper, Fragmentation Grenades,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper, Fragmentation Grenades,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper, Fragmentation Grenades,
Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 16
DLT-19x Sniper,
Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 16
Sonic Charge Saboteur,
74-Z Speeder Bikes 90
74-Z Speeder Bikes 90
Imperial Officer 50

Commands:
Maximum Firepower, Push, ZX Flame Projector, Coordinated Fire, Imperial Discipline, Z-6 Jetpack Rocket

The objective was "recover the supplies", and I believe our deployment was "Major Offensive".  I split my main force up into two parts, with the majority of it in what we started calling "murder canyon," and Boba and a few squads on the other side of the map.

Game on deployment

I got a lucky hit on Kris's Boba early on, and that really kept him from being a major player in the game, while my Boba proceeded to take out both the saboteur strike team and the generic officer, earning my first victory point.  Meanwhile, "murder canyon" was earning its name in a slugging match between three squads of my Stormtroopers and an E-Web vs 2 squads of his, two squads of bikes, Veer's Maximum Firepower, and his Boba (before I was able to take him down).  Honestly, this is where the game really was decided, as my defense die were on point, and no matter how good his rolls were, I don't think Kris was ever able to take more than four Stormtroopers off the table at any one time.  This soaked up a ton of activations and prevented him from grabbing more than a single box of supplies.  I pecked away at the squad with that box, and eventually wiped them out, and picked up a box of my own before we called it due to time.  Win was 2 VPs to 0, with the points loss also likely being in my favor.

Hobbyist Awards:

After the first game, we got our rewards for the best-painted army, best-painted support unit, and best-painted operative.  I had submitted Boba for the Operative, and one of my E-Webs (with Kitbashed stormtroopers manning it) for best support.  Ultimately, Best Painted Operative went to a fellow Manhattanite, and I won best-painted Support.  The best-painted army award was a bit funnier, as another Manhattanite took first.... with an army I had painted for him.  Whoops.  I ended up taking second in the Army category, so it sounds like my painting skills, or lack thereof, were appreciated.  

Alpha's Rally Point Qualifier Win--May 11, Lenexa, KS, Pt. 1

(This post was originally created for the Legion Forums.)

Yesterday (May 11th) I had the great opportunity to play in my first Rally Point Qualifier tournament, and my second Legion tournament, at Collector's Cache in Lenexa, KS.  It was a bit of a drive from Manhattan, KS, (about two hours) but was the first one of the year within a reasonable range.  Ultimately, I ended up going 3/0, and taking first place in the tournament.

Part I, Pre-Game

I will admit to being a bit of a contrarian, and often try to go my own way in list building.  I can't really stand the current sniper meta, and while I wish they were better, I love E-Webs.  But, at the same time, I also know that sometimes, the meta is there for a reason.  As such, my list was a compromise between the existing meta and my playstyle:

800 Pts

Imperial Officer 50
Improvised Orders,
Boba Fett 140
Hunter, Recon Intel, Emergency Stims,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Imperial Officer Upgrade,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper,
Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 16
DLT-19x Sniper, Hunter,
E-Web Heavy Blaster Team 55
Barrage Generator,
E-Web Heavy Blaster Team 55
Barrage Generator,

Commands:
Ambush, Covert Observation, Push, ZX Flame Projector, Coordinated Fire, Z-6 Jetpack Rocket, Standing Orders

Up until I was at the store, I was also debating running a different list with Deathtroopers instead of Boba and the Snipers, but after seeing the initial tables, realized snipers were going to be brutal.  Upon arrival, the store had several tables out, but all of them were on felt rather than mats, and were very, very sparse on terrain.  They realized the problem with this, and were working on improving things before we had arrived.  Since I brought a great deal of my terrain, I helped another player from Manhattan set up a couple of tables, and in the end, things were much improved. (though a few tables were still very, very light on cover/terrain in my opinion.  

People who follow my terrain threads on the FFG forums will likely recognize that the desert town mat above was completely made up of my terrain, and I contributed some terrain to the second to the last mat above on my brand new Fifth Trooper Podcast "Mud planet" mat.  I'd say the forest and lava maps were by far the biggest offenders on the absence of terrain.  I never ended up playing on the lava mat, but several people who came over from Manhattan who did said it was pretty ridiculous when you faced certain units.  (the Occupier being the biggest offender) because they had range for days, and there was nowhere near enough terrain to try and outflank.  I did play on the forest map, and while as bad, properly situated snipers could pretty much hit anywhere on the map, unless a tree just happened to be at the right angle. The desert junkyard was almost as bad about this, but fortunately, the AT-AT wreck and the shield generator provided a little bit of cover/LOS blocker for a fair number of units.

Tournament wise, we had a pretty fair turnout with 13 players.  Not X-Wing size, of course, but bigger than other Legion or Armada tournaments I've been to.  The tournament was divided into three rounds of swiss, with the top two being matched for a final game. (this didn't happen, but I will explain later)

To be continued in part two