Our local store, Paradox CNC, recently had their very first ever Imperial Assault tournament, and it was a Store Championship no less.

Four players, including myself, showed up to the tournament, which is about what we were expecting. Imperial Assault unfortunately doesn’t have the same popularity around here that X-Wing has.

With four players, the tournament ended up just being a round-robin style tournament.

My squad:

Luke

Leia

Diala

GIdeon

C-3PO

R2-D2

Elite Saboteurs

My Command Deck:

Hide in Plain Sight

Son of Skywalker

Sarlacc Sweep

Terminal Network

Heart of Freedom

Deflection

Deflection

I Can Feel It

There is Another

Urgency

Take Initiative

Rally

Planning

Fleet Footed

Stealth Tactics

After having painted Diala, I really wanted to give her a shot in skirmish, and thought she would be fun with another Force User, and his semi-Force User sister.

Round 1

The first mission selected was Incoming Transmission, on the Kuat map. My least favorite map. I will be happy to see it out of the tournament rotation next month.

My opponent, Jake, was playing:

Gideon

C-3PO

Echo Base Troopers x3

Elite Saboteurs X2

The first few rounds had our forces split up, something I was uneasy with, given the sheer number of enemy figures.

As Diala, Leia, and a saboteur fought for control of the small room, my other saboteur, supported by Luke and Threepio, managed to claim some of the data and fall back.

Eventually Threepio and one of my saboteurs died, and Luke and Gideon ran off to support the others, leaving R2 to fend for himself, which he did just fine at, rolling X-Men and Blanks all the time, while healing himself and drawing me cards. He only died in the very last round of the game.

I managed to claim the data in the little room, netting me 12 more points. I drove off the his saboteur, but was unable to finish him off, letting him run away with just one hitpoint left.

I tried to track him down, but I couldn’t get past the Troopers he lined up. I killed off Gideon, just cause, and the timer ran out on the game.

I ended up with a win, with 38 points to his 33.

Round 2

For the second round, we moved over to the Training Grounds map, and the scenario was Deception Game, where one of your groups is secretly worth more points, and two others will let you draw a card when defeated.

My opponent, Kurt, was running:

Gideon + Diplomatic Mission

Wookiee warriors

Echo Base Troopers

Elite Echo Base Troopers

Elite Saboteurs x2

I had my red token on Luke, and he had his on one of his groups of saboteurs.

Not being sure that I wanted to throw down with the wookiees and troopers, I tried to push my forces towards R2’s terminal. I sent Diala all the way out so that when I activated first the next round, she’d be able to hit one of the Elite troopers, and hopefully cleave onto the other.

That ended up not happening, as Leia was in a position where I couldn’t afford not to move her first.

Leia and crew ended up fighting their way to the terminal, only to be chased down by his forces and extinguished.

Diala put up a fight over by the other terminal, but to no avail.

At this point I figured out which group his red token was on, and sent Luke and my one remaining saboteur to go finish them off. I killed one in one shot with Luke, but time ran out before I could do anything more.

I had killed a wookiee, and a number of other figures, but was unable to finish off an entire group, leaving me with 0 points to his 23.

Round 3

Our mission for round three was Reprogrammed, the other scenario on the Training Grounds map.

My opponent, Austin, was running:

Luke

Diala

Gideon

Jyn

Elite Alliance Smuggler

Elite Wookiee Warriors

I sent my saboteurs up to capture the two remotes closest to me, while trying to figure out a way to nab the one in the middle, as it seemed as though Diala would have that in the bag next round, since he would be going first.

After exchanging fire with Jyn, and shooting at Diala, my Luke managed to sweep in and grab the remote.

It didn’t take long until I had wiped out Jyn and Diala.

Meanwhile, a saboteur, and my Diala were waiting by the door with Threepio for the wookiees to break through.

Once they did, a combination of Sarlacc Sweep, some great cleave surges, and a Telekinetic Throw that landed 4 damage, Diala almost singlehandedly fended off the wookiees.

Earlier, I had focused R2 with Gideon, as I didn’t have much else to do with Gideon that round. I figured why not?

R2 managed to land 2 damage, and a Stun/Weaken on Luke in his attack. Brutal. Luke went down shortly after, letting Leia pick up the remote he dropped.

My Luke had run back to help mop up the remaining wookiee, the Smuggler, and Gideon.

After the end of that round, my points from the remotes put me over 40 points. My opponent had around 12 I think.

Aftermath

Kurt, my Round Two opponent, ended up going undefeated, which left me to take 2nd Place, Jake in 3rd, and Austin in 4th.

We all made top 4! So we all got copies of the all the prizes anyway. Kurt just got to take home the cool plaque and get the Regionals bye.

Giveaway

To celebrate this awesome tournament, I’m giving away two Bantha Rider alternate art cards!

If you’ve read this far, I appreciate it! You’re eligible to win!

Here’s how it’s going to go; this is a photo contest.

You need to take a picture that has a Bantha Rider figure in it, and send it to us on Twitter or on Facebook.

If you tweet it to us, be sure that you are following us, and use the hashtag #JodoCastBantha.

If you post it to us on Facebook, be sure you like our page.

Once you do that you’re all set! I’ll be picking my favorite picture to win a card, so be creative! The other card will go to a random entrant.

I’ll pick a winner on Monday, April 11th!

(If you live somewhere where shipping to you might be cost prohibitive, I reserve the right to select a new winner. Sorry but that’s how it is…)