Written by: Adam Slaber
Yesterday was Heat 1 for the GenCon World Qualifier tournament, and we saw some very interesting things there that we wanted to share some news about. Keep in mind that lists will be locked until tonight for fairness reasons, and as such we waited until after Heat 2 started to post this article to not affect any opinions. That being said, while we don't have exact lists, Garrison members did write down notes of what we saw. The units in each top list will be accurate, but some upgrades might be different here and there.
For a faction breakdown:
Rebel - 8, 1 Echo Base Defenders
Separatist - 5, 1 Separatist Invasion Force
Empire - 5, 1 Blizzard Force
Shadow Collective - 4
Republic - 3, 1 501st
There's all the rebel players that we've been missing from the past couple tournaments, turns out they've just been hiding out in the Midwest this whole time! Making up 32% of the players in this 25 man heat, they came out strong, also making up 4 of the 7 lists that were 2-0 heading into the final round. Also interestingly, there were 4 A-A5 speeder trucks across all the lists present in heat 1, and there will be 4 A-A5 speeder trucks moving onto Sunday.
Tables
The tables are, in a word, dense, at least by what seem to be standard tournament standards. At the same time, they're not terribly vehicle-unfriendly, as the maps where there were tons of Line of Sight blockers had enough clear lanes that everything could drive through, and the rest were low enough that most vehicles could manage to drive over them. All of them, however, were very beautiful and thematic maps and everyone who helped provide tables for this event should be very proud of their work.
And these were just some of my favorites, be sure to check in tomorrow for more pictures for more of these amazingly made maps!
Top Lists
At the end of three rounds, we saw 4 undefeated lists, which will be the ones advancing on to Sunday's top 8 cut. As I mentioned before, 3 of these 4 lists have at least one A-A5 in them, and made up 100% of the A-A5s present in this heat, but also saw Jedi Mind Trick come out strong on the Light Side force users.
Without further ado, the top 4 lists, in no particular order:
DLT OpLuke
The one well defined meta list that we've seen come out from Rebels, with a slight twist on it. We see a few extra, somewhat unique upgrades, being Electrobinoculars on the officers, 2 Recon Intels on 2 of the Rebel Troopers, and 2 Smoke Grenades on the other 2 Rebel Troopers.
Luke Bus Wookies
This is the one list I'm not completely sure of the upgrades on for the A-A5 and the Officer, but I believe majority of it is here. The bus serves a very unique purpose in this list, being to get Luke into the enemy lines, then carry R2 back out after he scores on Secret Mission.
Wookie Warriors without a heavy weapon is not something we've seen frequently, but paired with Operative Luke and two Scattergun Fleet Troopers, they make for some great threat saturation while R2 beep boops his way to victory.
Maul BSE Bus
The first list Shadow Collective list we've seen do well that doesn't make use of a Disruptor Pyke gunline, and it comes in with a big splash. The A-A5 makes a great pairing for Black Sun Enforcers, being able to hand out aims with Unorthodox Tactician to their 12 dice pools that they make better use of with their Precise 1. The Black Sun in this list will be averaging 9.7 required saves at range 1, and will be forcing at least 9 saves 80% of the time. That's a lotta damage.
The other interesting upgrade here would be the Backworld Medic on the A-A5, specifically there to help keep Maul alive and kicking hard. Of the two games I saw with this list, I don't believe Maul fell in either one, despite him having 5 wounds in the third round game. This combo of Black Sun, Maul, and a Bus should definitely be something to look out for in the future.
Maul Double BSE Bus
You know what's even better than one A-A5 to support Black Sun and Maul? TWO A-A5s! This list takes everything that the previous list did, and condenses it slightly to crank it all up to 11. With double the number of Unorthodox Tacticians present here, and double the precise on Black Sun thanks to Targeting Scopes, the Black Sun here are averaging 10.9 required saves per attack, and are forcing at least 10 saves 80% of the time. The best way I know to highlight this was watching a single attack from a Black Sun unit one shot Operative Luke to close out their third round game.
These lists are not what I think we expected to see after the somewhat domination of Empire and CIS presence at recent tournaments like LSO. There are a few new list archetypes here, and I would not be surprised to start seeing Dwarf Spider Droids coming back with their Ion gun due to an influx of A-A5s.
Thanks for reading, and make sure to tune back in for more GenCon updates!
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