The Road to Worlds – 2020 – Part II – Going NOVA

With my invite to the High Command Invitational locked into place it’s now time to look ahead to my preparation for it and the other events on the Road to Worlds. The next two stops on my journey will take me back to Huzzah Hobbies a week before the NOVA open and then the NOVA Open itself. Our community in the DMV(DC, Maryland, Virginia) area is pretty stellar, and our local shop Huzzah Hobbies is hosting a “get ready for NOVA” tournament.

My plan going into both of these events is to test out some new ideas and improve/refine old ones. I have already decided I am going to mess around with Rebels at NOVA(I need the practice) – so I want to get some more refinement out of my Darth Vader list from part I at the Huzzah tournament. For you readers – I’m writing this before, during and after these two events. Apologies if the Past, present, future tenses get messed up a bit in advance – keeping it straight can be difficult sometimes for me when I am going back and editing.

Without further ado – let’s revisit our list that won us the Huzzah Hobbies RPQ:

Darth Vader and the Crit Lizardz

798/800

Darth Vader 200

Force Push, Force Reflexes, Saber Throw

Bossk 115

Stormtroopers 44

DLT-19 Stormtrooper, 

Stormtroopers 44

DLT-19 Stormtrooper, 

Stormtroopers 44

DLT-19 Stormtrooper, 

Stormtroopers 44

DLT-19 Stormtrooper, 

Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 16

DLT-19x Sniper, 

Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 16

DLT-19x Sniper, 

Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 16

DLT-19x Sniper, 

Stormtroopers 44

We reviewed this list in the last article – Since then a few things have come to my mind about it:

First – I tried really hard to get 10 activations into this list. I cut some upgrades overall that could make a huge difference (Hunter on Bossk being the primary one). I want to play around with sacrificing an activation in order to bolster the lists weaknesses and reinforce the lists strengths. 

Second – I got to play limited visibility 3 times which definitely favored me over the course of the day. I want to make it a little more resilient to dice/card odds, if at all possible.

Third – I really felt that other than limited visibility, the bid did not matter a ton at the RPQ. I was responding to battlefield conditions more than being proactive and it worked out. Whether or not it’s right, I want to push it to a straight 800 since I will likely be down an activation most games anyways, hopefully making me red player.

Fourth – I want to test out how many people will be packing limited visibility in their Battle Decks. If people are bringing it for me, there is no reason to bid for it anyways.

Darth Vader and the Crit Lizards – Volume II

799/800

Darth Vader 200

Force Push, Saber Throw, Force Reflexes

Imperial Officer 50

Improvised Orders

Bossk 115

Hunter, Tenacity

Stormtroopers 44

DLT-19 Stormtrooper, FX-9 Medical Droid

Stormtroopers 44

DLT-19 Stormtrooper

Stormtroopers 44

DLT-19 Stormtrooper

Stormtroopers 44

DLT-19 Stormtrooper

Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 16

DLT-19x Sniper

Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 16

DLT-19x Sniper

So……. This list is really the next place I want to take Vader/Bossk – but I got my Taun Tauns in the mail and I ended up playing them at Huzzah instead. #Curveball#TaunTaunMeta

Focus Change ——

So here’s the list I decided to take to Huzzah:

Luke Warm

799/800

Luke Skywalker 160

Force Push, Jedi Mind Trick, Emergency Stims, 

Rebel Troopers 40

Z-6 Trooper, 2-1B Medical Droid, 

Rebel Troopers 40

Z-6 Trooper, 

Rebel Troopers 40

Z-6 Trooper, 

Rebel Troopers 40

Z-6 Trooper, 

Rebel Troopers 40

Z-6 Trooper, 

Tauntaun Riders 90

HQ Uplink, 

Tauntaun Riders 90

HQ Uplink, 

Rebel Commandos (Strike Team) 16

DH-447 Sniper, 

Rebel Commandos (Strike Team) 16

DH-447 Sniper, 

As a major departure from standard Rebel list building – it only includes one hero, Luke Skywalker, and puts the pair of Taun Tauns in the slot that you would normally have Leia or Sabine occupy. 

A few notes on this list:

First – Even though we have 3 really expensive units, we’ve used Snipers to bring our activation count to 10 and we’ve been able to squeeze a medic in. This will allow us to leverage last first attacks with the Taun Tauns (Hopefully).

Second – Because we only have 1 hero, Luke will need to be played a little bit more conservatively, we can’t have our trooper units panic off the board.

Third – We’re cutting Hostile Environment, Disarray, and Key Positions from this list. We are not great against suppression lists with the lack of officer and leia. Disarray is rough on most solo commander lists – though I could maybe see it working for this, I’d need to try it out. This list is likely good at most objectives but Key Positions is the one that is least favorful against the Bounty Keyword, so we’ll cut that. 

I really had no idea how to play this list, outside of the basic understanding of Luke, Rebels, and TaunTauns. My battle plan overall was to leverage Luke as a Commander who could get into the fight, if necessary, and use the Taun Tauns as my hammer. 

Game 1 vs Generic Officer, Triple Bikes, Triple 5 man saboteurs, Triple Stormtrooper DLTS

Deployment: Major Offensive

Condition: Limited Visibility

Objective: Intercept the Transmissions

This game was defined by the Taun Tauns. Outside of Luke Panicking one stormtrooper unit off the board with Jedi Mind trick and a z6 shot, the Taun Tauns basically tabled my opponent by themselves. I was able to deal with the sabs before they laid down mines due to the Taun Tauns speed. I was able to score 2-1 at the end of turn 2 and at the end of turn 4 it was likely going to be 2-0, but my opponent conceded. One huge takeaway from this game was that Tauns synergize exceptionally well with suppression ability (like Jedi mind trick) when enemy commanders are not close enough. I highly utilized the Tauns to trample and then ram something every turn. The one generic officer had no hope of dealing with the suppression that was being doled out. 

1-0

Game 2 vs Luke, Leia, Double Taun Tauns, 1 Vet, 1 Vet gun, Z6s

Deployment: Advanced Positions

Condition: Limited Visibility

Objective: Recover the Supplies

This was the first Taun mirror I have ever played. The battle ended up having 2 separate focal points. The first was that my opponents Tauns charged my Tauns on the first activations of Turn 2. This led to my Tauns disengaging and then my army trying to deal with his Tauns out in the open. Overall, this was pretty effective and I was able to murder his Tauns quickly. He was able to deal significant damage to mine, but it was non critical damage. In the meantime, we had a Luke vs Luke struggle over the middle Recover box. Because he was focusing on the Taun battle I was able to get away with the box after his Luke Son of Skywalkered my Luke for three total damage. The end of the game saw my luke running and hiding and his Luke unable to catch up.

2-0

Game 3 vs Kyle Dornbos playing Palp, IRG, triple sniper, Corps

Deployment: Battle Lines

Condition: Clear Conditions

Objective: Recover the Supplies

One again I found myself facing off against Kyle in the finals of a Huzzah Tournament. This game would play out significantly differently than our last game. I deployed aggressively to get Luke on the middle box to attempt to steal the game. Kyle responded by using Palpatine’s command card – Give In To Your Anger – to make me put luke in a bad position if I was going to do that. I expected this, as my play made him play his second best command card in the matchup on turn 1, instead of on a turn where it could be more decisive later in the game. I played a bit more aggressively than I think I would in future games with this list. Luke and the rest of the army was able to take out Kyle’s IRG and Snowtroopers early on in the game, leaving Palpatine to carry Kyle’s army on his back. And carry he did – After a countercharge by my Taun Tauns that won priority on his – And Now You Will Die – turn he deleted several units and rooted Luke in place with the box. This effectively ended the game. It’s worth noting that Kyle’s triple sniper teams were also able to put some work in on my units throughout the whole game, making me spend med bot charges on taun tauns rather than Luke. 

2-1

Overall the list performed better than I expected it to. I decided to make some changes to it for NOVA, in anticipation of the Palpatine matchup. 

This was the altered list I registered at NOVA a week later:

800/800

Han Solo (120 + 5 = 125)

–Strict Orders (5)

Luke Skywalker (160 + 27 = 187)

–Force Push (10), Jedi Mind Trick (5), Emergency Stims (12)

Rebel Troopers (40 + 22 = 62)

–Z-6 Trooper (22)

Rebel Troopers (40 + 22 = 62)

–Z-6 Trooper (22)

Rebel Troopers (40 + 22 = 62)

–Z-6 Trooper (22)

Rebel Troopers (40 + 22 = 62)

–Z-6 Trooper (22)

Rebel Troopers (40 + 0 = 40)

Tauntaun Riders (90 + 10 = 100)

–HQ Uplink (10)

Tauntaun Riders (90 + 10 = 100)

–HQ Uplink (10)

Alright, so you’ll notice a few things here:

1. No Snipers – I cut the Snipers and a few other things for Han. Overall the snipers were not super impactful on my previous three games. It was a tough call – keep reading to see if I regret it.
2. Han Solo – I’ve cut an activation, snipers, z6 upgrade and med bot for Han. Han’s command cards are going to make a lot of the bad Luke match ups (Specifically vs Boba or Palpatine) a lot better. This was a little bit of a meta call and will either pay dividends or burn spectacularly.
3. 9 Activations – This is the piece that is the most questionable for me. I truly believe that activation count and activation count preservation are some of the main ways to win games of Legion. The lack of activation count in this list is definitely its biggest weakness.
4. Heavy Hitters – We’ve got 4 high damage pieces in Luke, Han, and the Taun Tauns. Making sure we connect effectively with at least half of them every game to even out the activation count is paramount.
5. I cut the same condition cards in this list as the last one: Key Positions, Disarray, and Hostile Environment. 

Game 1 vs Darth Vader and Boba Fett

Deployment: Battle Lines

Condition: Minefield

Objective: Breakthrough

This game ended up being pretty easy – I was able to smash through his lines with Taun Tauns while Luke and Han kept Vader and Boba at bay. I flanked his army on both sides with some troopers and was able to score 3-0 at the end of the game. There wasnt much to say here, other than Han on top of a building where he could be in range and see everything was all-star quality. 

1-0

Game 2 vs 11 Activation triple Death Trooper, Boba Fett, Generic Officer

Deployment: Long March

Condition: Limited Visibility

Objective: Sabotage the Moisture Vaporators

This game went horribly for me. There was a large line of sight blocking piece of terrain in the middle that forced an early choice on which way my Taun Tauns needed to go. Suffice to say they went the wrong direction around the pillar and ended up stranded from my army, basically doing nothing. I made an early choice here to play the objectives rather than playing for points destroyed as I did not feel confident I would win the points destroyed game being ripped apart at range by Range 4 Death Troopers and a last firsting boba Fett. Overall my low activation count and poor play really hurt me this game – the terrain did not help either.

1-1

Game 3 vs Krennic, Death Troopers, Double Bikes, 10 Activations

Deployment: Major Offensive

Condition: Minefield

Objective: Recover the Supplies

Ordinarily Recover would have been an excellent choice in this matchup for my list, but I had a 3 level tiered terrain piece on my side of the middle objective and my opponent had a clear shot to it. This resulted in Luke not being able to actually jump over the terrain piece in even 2 turns, but would have taken 3 jumps just to get to the box, so I had to go around. This table was setup extremely poorly and I basically just didn’t have access to the middle box ever, even though it was on the ground. I’m sure I could have done some things differently here, but getting through a turn 0 forced recover on that table was a big yikes. I wish I took a picture of it, but alas, I did not.

1-2

Overall it was a pretty poor showing for Flyboys & Taun-Tauns. I’m not entirely sure which list I like more and I played some fairly off meta lists (Game 2 was against triple Death Troopers with no heavys but suppression guns, Game 1 was Vader Boba, and Game 3 was Krennic Bikes). The terrain situation at NOVA ended up just being terrible for good gameplay, despite the boards being flooded with terrain on day 2. I don’t think the 9 activation version of this list was very viable pre- sniper nerf, but I think it may have more play if lists come down an average activation from 10 to 9. It’s tough to say presently as we haven’t seen how the future meta shakes out.

Our next article will be an absolute dive back into Empire and Darth Vader – with his points reductions and new command cards he should be a power house and I can’t wait to get him back on the table. I’ll be looking to play him in the next even I’m participating in which should be Invader League Season 4 brought to us by LJ Pena and the Legion discord. 

Until next time on the Road to Worlds,

May the Dark Side be with you – Always 

Michael “Dashz” Barry