Star Wars Shatterpoint has been out for approaching two months and events have started to spring up around the world for it. Boards and Swords Hobbies in Derby, UK were running one and with that being my local FLGS it seemed that I should really give it ago and put my money where my mouth (words) are as it was and see if the ideas I’ve been presenting to you in the last few articles hold up in practice.
With the game being new I wasn’t sure what to expect. It seemed neither did anyone else as this event titled Always Two There Are was a doubles event; in effect two people on one side of the table and two on the other. I’ve attended these types of events in the past with other systems but Shatterpoint might be the best game for it I’ve come across. With each player taking control of a single Squad as part of a larger Strike Team you really know who’s in control of what and if you’re ever not fully agreed on a course of action as a pair then you just default to whoever’s squad it is.
The other great part of this in this event is that not only do you get to play with 8 people on the other side of the table you actually have a bigger pool around each table to help with minor rules and things. There were some people at the event with only a handful of games under their belt. One person at the event only played his first game on the Friday evening before the event and my partner Will had only had maybe 4-5 games, all with me, before the event kicked off.
Prior to the release of the game I’d been very keen to play on the Lightside of the Force and luckily Will was happy to accommodate this request for the event (where the rule was both Primaries had to be the same Light/Darkside) meaning we rolled with the force below:
Team Name – Seventh Sky Corps
Squad 1 – General Obi-Wan Kenobi (+8), CC-7567 Captain Rex (4), 212th Clone Troopers (4)
Squad 2 – Jedi Master Luminara Unduli (+8), Padawan Ahsoka Tano (4), Republic Clone Commandos (4)
It’s more or less what I’ve been playing in solo games so Will had seen most of it before and I knew my way around it. At the end of the day it’s Clones and they’re one of the more user friendly forces in my opinion. As for the rest of the field, Longshanks is a brilliant piece of event software (website) and can show us what everyone else took at the touch of a button – just bear in mind that as there are 2 players on each team you’ll need to half the “Players” number. For example there was 1 team with Ahsoka who played every game, showing as 2 players due to the team nature. As you can see the Darkside has slightly more of a hold over the event but Obi-Wan (5) and Luminara (4) were top of the pile when it came to the number of players controlling them on the Lightside.
On the other side of the Force you have 6 teams with Douku, 5 with Grievous/Ventress and 3 with Maul. The only released primary not to make an appearance was the Grand Inquisitor, but I’m mainly putting that down to it being harder to make a full strike team which fits the theme of him and the event stipulations around the same side of the force aspect.
Anyway, for those who can do quick maths on the above you’ll have worked out that there were 16 full teams of players on the day for 32 players, a decent turnout for a game still in it’s infancy stage. So into the first round we go.
Game 1
In the first round we were drawn against “Tactical Stupidity” (their team name, honest) in the form of Greg and Niall. They were introduced to us as one being Tactical and the other bringing the stupidity which was a little harsh as this was a really close game. They also had Obi-Wan and Luminara with the only difference being that they had Bariss instead of Rex in their roster.
It was a little back and forth on the table with us taking struggle 1 before getting hit back in around 2-3 activations and losing out in struggle 2. We were running a little low on time and rather than using Mission Critical the event just went for a “whoever was winning at that point in time” as long as you’d had equal activations. We were up in the 3rd struggle when the 2 minute warning was shouted out, we quickly played out another activation each with Greg and Niall managing to move the struggle tracker over to their side before we pulled it back over in the last activation to win the round.
The biggest highlight of this game was watching both Padawan Ahsoka’s move around the central walkway trying to get into a position where they could attack where they wanted off the Clones but trying to make sure they didn’t take each other out.
Game 2
We were quickly into the second round and were up against another Galactic Republic team in “Errr No” with Ben and Chris who had the Anakin and Luminara squads “out of the box”. Ben was one of the players who’d only had a handful of games in the system but knew his way around miniature wargaming in general; we used to play 40k back in the days of 3rd/4th edition many a moon ago but don’t really see much of each other anymore so was nice to have a catch up.
The terrain for this game had a long thin walkway down the centre with access points. Ben and Chris had played on the same table in the previous round and just explained how they’d played the terrain with you not being able to Push (Shove) people off the parts of the walkway with sides so we just went with that.
In hindsight it may not have been the best thing to do as they drew Luminara first, reserved and drew Anakin. This meant that one of their characters capable of taking out a Clone Squad in one shot wasn’t going to get the chance to shy of the Shatterpoint Card. It also meant they were stuck having a single character activation first where as we were able to draw both Clone units back to back, got onto the objectives with Steadfast up and won the first struggle in 5 activations, followed by the second in another 3, ending the game pretty quickly on the first “round” of activations with all characters.
The most impressive highlight here was certainly Luminara who tricked us into thinking she could be trusted to get the job done offensively when she calmly walked up and took out a Squad of Clones she only intended to shove off an objective. This made it easy for us to pick up the second struggle quickly. I say tricked us here before I think she rolled more success in this single attack roll than the rest of the event put together!
Winning the round pretty quickly meant we got a nice sit down and chat with our opponents and had a bit of a break from the gaming table which was nice considering we’d gone straight from R1 into R2. Models were also put out ready for the painting contest where players would pick one Dark and one Light team for awards. I quickly snuck up and laid out my 4 models, hoping that no one else would bother and I’d pick up a sneaky award by default.
Then more people laid out models …
Game 3
After lunch we were drawn into one of the two Mandalorian teams, both of which had made their way to 2-0 at this stage. “Darth Punk” comprised of Cyrus and Adam with a full compliment of Mandalorians led by Lord Maul and Ventress. Once again numbers early on led to us controlling the middle and picking up the first struggle as Cyrus and Adam realised it wasn’t going to go their way and moved to be in a better place for struggle two.
That went their way fairly quickly making it 1-1. Then through a few good draws of activations and key squad synergies we managed to score 8 points on the struggle tracker and a momentum for a wound to win the round 2-1 in a very quick struggle 3. S quick our opponents only got a single activation in that struggle, which was lucky because they were both clearly very good at the game and wrapping it up fairly quickly meant we could relax a little before the final round.
This is where the picture I should have taken for R3 would have gone if I’d taken one, you’ll have just have to use your imagination a little, was the same table as R1 if you need a little refresher.
At the end of the second struggle we weren’t in a great position but I mentioned good draws and key synergies. This is about as well as a turn can go, so it’s a good opportunity to share the details.
We selected the bottom map on the Struggle “Commandeer A New Ride” with us having control of 0 points at the start of the round. Rex activated and used his Tactic to give Luminara a Dash and gain control of the point in the bottom right corner near our deployment zone. He then Defensive Manoeuvred to the bottom of an ingress point and advanced to the centre objective giving us a number advantage on that point. His second action was to shoot one of the Mandalorian Super Commandos who was contesting the middle point opposite dealing the last 2 damage and causing a wound. This in turn led to Luminara’s Flow of the Force trigger and allowed us to Dash Obi-wan Kenobi over to that point claiming all the objectives in a single turn. Without a doubt the activation of the weekend for us in my eyes.
Game 4
The Final game was against the team who had travelled the furthest for the even in the “Hector Appreciation Society” who was formed by Dan and Dominic. They were in control of the other Mandalorian Team, this time led by Obi-wan and Ahsoka, Jedi No More. We once again took the centre objectives but lost the Commando’s early to Obi-wan meaning they were contesting for what seemed like an age. But being able to move characters around via expertise rolls or Ahsoka’s/Rex’s tactics meant we were able to keep trading 3 points each on the Struggle. As this steadily filled up the tracker with momentum, it became clear we would win by default so they moved to position for the future.
They finally relented and we were able to pick up the struggle before the once again we fought a pretty weak and very quick second struggle to make it 1-1. Once again the minor placements were we able to achieve in the second struggle meant that we drew a favourable map and were able to select the better map for ourselves. In a very similar manor to the previous game we were able to make a very quick struggle three, winning in only 2 activations.
We once again drew Rex which allowed us to move models around to grab all 3 objectives. For our 2nd activation we only needed to activate the 212th and outnumber on the central objective. Luckily between our Shatterpoint Card and Obi-Wan in the deck alongside the 212th and the Clone Commandos we had a really good chance of scribing them. 50% of the cards activate them outright (Shatterpoint or 212th), if we draw the Commandos we reserve, then if we draw Obi-Wan we Patience and put him in reserve, put the Commandos to the bottom, and get one of the cards we want. If we draw Obi then he’s reserved and we have a 2 in 3 chance of getting what we wanted. Really nice example of the deck manipulation potential of Obi-Wan
This was such a tight game and I believe the 1st struggle went longer than the entire game in round 2 with us taking it at the start of our 9th activation.
Round Up
After a quick tally up we’d managed to be the only team to go 4-0 and thus taking out the event. Something we were both extremely pleased with. Going into a new system you never know what to expect but the best bit of this was getting just to play a bunch of games and meet a bunch of new people. We were very lucky to only play 1 person I’d met before out of the 8 we faced off against and hopefully they’ll be making the trip back to the store for next months event. The results can be viewed fully here, the teams we played finished 14th, 8th, 3rd and 2nd respectively so do feel that we at least earned the crown in what felt like a fairly evenly matched field.
All the Award Winners, Liam (best painted Dark Side), “No Idea Yet” (Most Sporting Team), Myself and Will – Seventh Sky Corps (1st place), “Dath Punk” (2nd place) and “Hector Appreciation Society” (3rd place)
You’ll also notice in the photo that I’m holding two trophies as I was lucky enough to pick up the award for the best painted Lightside Squad as well which I’m over the moon with. This was my first “Hobby” award in nearly 2 decades of attending gaming events.
Overall I had a great day out and am really looking forward to attending more events in the comings months and onwards as I continue to learn and understand this game even more. Can’t wait to get my teeth into more games!
