By Adam Slaber
The Event
We here in the Indianapolis Garrison have been running events throughout the past two plus years in Indianapolis, each one growing bigger than the last. Most organizations would be happy with the 32+ player attendances that our quarterly Smackdown Legion Tournaments have gotten, but we wanted really give another opportunity for a major event in Indy.
June 16-17th saw the debut of The Indy Open: our first ever two-day tournament with 5 rounds of play for 49 players and 7 states represented. The event was run by the ever awesome Matt Evans (FlawedZombie) credit is due to him for such a huge turnout for the first ever event he's run of this scale, especially without being at a convention either. The Indianapolis scene and Indianapolis Garrison wouldn't be a quarter of the force that it is without everything that Matt's contributed and grown.
Also a huge thank you to everyone that came and contributed to make an event of this scale happen. We cannot thank you all enough.
The Terrain
One of my favorite parts of our local scene is the creativity and ingenuity everyone has for making terrain. 3D printing, DIY designs with household items like empty Gatorade powder containers, using area rug samples as mats, plopping down a Star Wars toy for appropriately sized terrain, and more; this event goes to show anything and everything you can use to make an amazing Star Wars battlefield.
The terrain overall was pretty average in terms of table coverage, leaning more towards dense than sparse. There were plenty of line of sight blocking terrain pieces on each table, but each map was designed and laid out well to not completely remove long ranged lists from the running.
The Wild (Mid)West
Rebel - 15 (1 Echo Base Defenders)
Empire - 12 (1 Blizzard Force)
Republic - 10
Separatists - 10
Shadow Collective - 2
Between the 49 lists we saw, there was ample representation across every faction. This event was run with the new points and errata changes. We can see the effect that had on to move us away from the previous meta. Not only did we see a massive resurgence of rebels, the "meta boogeymen" (Double Darks and Blizzard Force) have fallen off significantly, with only 2 and 1 lists respectively. What might be most surprising, however, was the representation of white saves in the top performing lists. Of the 9 players who went 4-1 or better, 7 of them had white save armies. Whether it's the disappearance of their natural predators or people trying new points, it seems they've finally found their footing again.
4 -1s
Adam Knauff – "Rebel Sympathizers"
Agent Kallus comes out of the points changes with a bang, making an appearance in the best-in-faction and only 4-1 Empire list. He brings a lot to the table and compliments the threat saturation in the list well, being able to play as a linebacker for the close ranged full scouts while amping up their firepower with Ruthless Tactics after a Tac Strike turn with Iden.
Triple bikes make an appearance in this list as well, helping to capitalize on the threat saturation. The new empire meta still seems a bit convoluted but Adam might have a good head start with the Iden Kallus pairing we see here.
Trent Hale – "It's MaulBane Time"
Our first CIS list to look at, and probably the one that covers all the bases the best. The two characters in this list bring some insane objective play shenanigans, between an infiltrating force user and Cad being the only one that can start in base contact with an objective token (with I Make the Rules Now) and everything else Maul and Bane bring to the table.
This also has a solid gunline behind them with a bunch of critical, impact and a linebacker in the MagnaGuard unit means this list has an answer for anything across the table.
David Blanchard – "Ani/Obi"
Despite David being very to-the-point with his list name, it plays as anything but. Bringing the battle bros sinks you down 376 points. That's just under half of this list's points wowza.
However there is still a beefy corps behind them, keeping the bag orders fairly clean with only 2 types of units. David can hedge for armor between the two RPS phase 1s and two Pykes. There is also so much more here in this list; two uses of Force Push every round and two great melee units makes for an extremely effective objective-minded list. David's playstyle shows here that it can perform very well.
Adam Slaber – "Lando's Lovely Landspeeder"
The points cuts for rebels comes out swinging in this rebel list, gaining a whopping 19 points across the board in this list. The hero compliment of Lando and Boba creates great support for their gunline. Whether it's pressing the attack with "Rule With Respect" and "All In" or dissuading a dive with "Ace Up His Sleeve" and Independent: Standby.
The SX-21 Rebel Trooper Captain units add in some punch and objective play. Then top all of this off with a landspeeder to get Boba in or to harass some strike teams, this list has a ton of options and answers.
Jacob Bryson – "Maul is sad about choke :("
Jacob hits the "Force Choke is dead" crowd head on the head with his list name. Despite not being able to have crazy objective shenanigans anymore with the Force Choke nerf, Shadow Collective Maul has a very hearty Pyke gunline behind him and a ton of options with his cunning. A tried and true list over the past year, Jacob did a good job of showing that Maul Pykes is alive and kicking even after multiple nerfs.
Matthew Gergely – "Greg's Merry Band of Mercs"
Despite being one of the wackier lists we see here, there's a ton of good options to get this army in the positions they want to be. Greivous' 2 pip, "Supreme Commander", gets the black sun and Greivous himself cover by guardianing a bunch of hits onto the B1s in the list, so they're swinging at full power once they get in. And once they get in, there's five wrecking balls here to make mince meat of whatever opposes them. Gergely did a great job of sending waves of massive dice pools at his opponents to overwhelm them with quick odds.
Weston Thobaben – "Bane STAPs"
Weston is the third CIS we see in the 4-1's, and while it's not as wacky as the Greivous list, it's still no slouch on objectives. Bane provides a ton of objective play as we saw previously with Trent's list, and adding in the STAPs enables Breakthrough and Bombing run as very potent objectives in this list. Backed up by the ever well performing E-5s Battle Droid gunline and Super Tactical Droid, this creates another well rounded list with a bunch of options.
Runner Up
Tyler Carnes – "Boosk"
Range 4: The list. Everything that wants to be shooting in Tyler's list can contribute at range 4 or 5, helping to win attrition battles with an army that already takes attrition very well before closing the gap and closing out the game's objectives. Having a hefty nine point bid let's this list make sure it's able to play the range game it wants to by ensuring that every deployment is at range 4 or longer, and is able to close out potentially close games with a bounty from Bossk.
Winner
Brian Baer – "ZOMBIELORIANS!"
Another extremely wacky list from "Mr. FD", Brian is making full use of the points cuts rebels got to their Mandalorian Resistance. This list gained 33 points from the points changes, which Brian makes full use of to kit his supporting elements out with every defensive tech he can get for his Mandalorians.
Brian is able to have some explosive turns between "Rule With Respect" giving his rockets extra dice and Boba's own "Z-6 Jetpack Rocket" and his flame thrower upgrade card. This list is able to sit back and play cagey before making some explosive plays in the last rounds to close the game out.
What's Next?
For the first event Indianapolis Garrison has run of this scale, it was wildly successful. Once again, a ton of credit and massive thank you to Matt Evans, Brent Dikeman, and our good friends Andrew & Marvin out of the cincinatti area for making this event possible in the first place. Keep your eyes out for this event again next year, and thank you for reading.
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