Kublacon 2019 - Legion By the Bay

This year there was no Flames of War tournament at Kubacon for the first time in over a decade.  I think this sums up the attitude towards FoW in the NorCal area these days, as no one wanted to run an event, and only a few players seemed interested in playing in one.  I think the over all impression of Kublacon hasn't helped either, as it has become nearly impossible to get a room at the hotel, there isn't any on-site parking for con' attendees, and the price of admission and food offerings has grown as well.
But wait! Some great guys decided to host a Star Wars: Legion tournament to try and entice FFG into officially sponsoring an event in the future, and they needed a few more players to max their attendance.  Not only did they offer discounted admission, but also gave me a box of troops to help me begin my collection!  I had only played a few games and was able to convince my friend Reno to get me up to speed and ride along with me as well, while Dave offered to loan me an army.  I asked my good friend Eric, who just qualified for Worlds at Adoption, to help me throw together a simple list and he came up with this:

In the first round I played a really nice guy named Bret who helped me out quite a bit since I'm still a total noob at this game.  He had an Imperial list with Krennic, Veers, and a whole bunch of mixed troopers.  We played Breakthrough, Major Offensive, Rapid Reinforcements.

My opponent kept his troops all clustered together and mass fire from them put wound son my AT-ST and Vader early.  Several of my Stormtrooper units were able to get around the walled courtyard and take out his Sniper Scouts, and Vader would close and take out a unit of Stormtroopers.

Stormtroopers move to put fire onto some Deathtroopers.

This was a loss for me, as expected, as my opponent was able to get more units across the board, and he was able to take out Vader and the walker.

Round two had me up against Nick and another Imperial list, this time with Veers, two Occupier Assault Tanks, and a bunch of Stormtroopers.  We played Key Positions, Long March, Rapid Reinforcements.

My AT-ST moved to engage one of the tanks, but both of them got into range and overwhelmed it.

Both Occupier tanks close on my Stormtroopers.

I was able to win the trooper war, with Vader and his legion of Stormtroopers wiping all but two enemy Stormtrooper squads and the two tanks from the board, but the amount of firepower that the tanks put forth proved too much for my own troopers, and my opponent claimed two objectives to my one.

The third round was Brett and a Rebel force with a generic commander, two landspeeders, and a bunch of troopers.  We played Key Positions, Battle Lines, and Clear Conditions.

I sent a squad of Stormtroopers through the turbolaser control room to harass some snipers and in the process kept two squads of Rebel troops occupied as well.

Lord Vader held down one of the objectives and was able to take out one of the land speeders as well, while threatening some more Rebel scum.

I sent my AT-ST to support several Stormtrooper squads and it was able to shoot down the second land speeder, while the troopers fought back a squad of Wookies and claimed two objectives.

My first win!  I claimed all three objectives and felt like I had control of the board pretty early on.  The Stormtroopers on the fortress kept a significant portion of the Rebels occupied while I made a push on the other side of the board where the objectives were.

Thanks to the guys who put this great event on, the tables were all fantastic and so were my opponents.  I took some pics of a few of the great tables there.  3D printing is a total game changer as far as terrain goes, by the way!