The first month-long tournament for IACP Season 9 has just concluded and found a winner. 10 players played through 3 rounds of swiss pairings each week, before finishing with a top 4 playoff to find a winner, playing the same lists the whole way through. Congratulations to Jon, aka Pon3d for emerging victorious and claiming the first set of custom dice of the season’s online tournaments.
You can view all the lists used in the tournament on the RollBetter tournament page here. If you want to play in the tournament for April, you can sign up here, but you’ve only got a couple of days left! If you miss April, don’t worry, you can still sign up for the tournament in May.
You can also check out some of the gameplay from the tournament on Youtube, with top 4 and final matches set to be posted next week.
1st place – Jon (Pon3d)
The Mandalorian (IACP) [8]
Bossk (IACP) [7]
Onar Koma [6]
Jabba the Hutt [6]
Fennec Shand (IACP) [5]
Bib Fortuna (IACP) [3]
Kuiil (IACP) [3]
Black Market [1]
Extra Armor [1]
Iron Will (IACP) [3]
Assassinate (IACP) [3]
Heightened Reflexes [2]
Get Behind Me! (IACP) [2]
Worth Every Credit [2]
Negation [1]
Extra Protection [1]
Retaliation (IACP) [1]
Opportunistic [0]
Planning [0]
Take Initiative [0]
Parry (IACP) [0]
To the Limit [0]
Urgency [0]
Element of Surprise [0]
I’m going to have to give Jon some major props here, because Bossk and Kuiil are not the easiest figures to win a tournament with, especially on this current map rotation. But these figures do work great together, and I’m excited to see how Jon was able to win his Top 4 and Finals matches against some really strong opponents.
2nd Place – Destruct1
Han Solo
Rogue Smuggler
Ko-Tun Feralo
Cassian Andor
Jyn Odan
Gideon Argus
R2-D2
C-3P0
Bodhi Rook
Alliance Smuggler (Regular)
Smuggled Supplies
In the Shadows
Negation
On the Lam
Sniper Configuration
I Make My Own Luck
Heart of Freedom
Run for Cover
Tools for the Job
Rally
Take Initiative
Transmit the Plans
Planning
Element of Surprise
Urgency
Players had to lock in their lists way back on March 11th, and Destruct1 opted for an old reliable IACP standby, Han power token smugglers with Ko-Tun and Cassian. However his list is upgraded for Season 9 by cutting Hera for Bodhi Rook and an Alliance Smuggler to get him to 9 activations, which probably helped a lot with setting up end of round attacks with Han Solo against other 8 activation lists.
Destruct has been one of our most active players in the asynchronous play league over on our IACP Discord, cooking up and practicing with lots of different lists since this tournament started, so I’m excited to see what he decides to run in our April tournament.
Top 4 – Josh (DarthNazrael)
7 Elite Weequay Pirate
7 Elite Weequay Pirate
6 Onar Koma
6 Jabba the Hutt
5 Fennec Shand
4 Greedo
3 Bib Fortuna
2 Regular Jawa Scavenger
3 Assassinate
3 On the Lam
2 Heightened Reflexes
2 Tools for the Job
2 Worth Every Credit
1 Negation
1 Primary Target
1 Tough Luck
0 Celebration
0 Element of Surprise
0 Opportunistic
0 Planning
0 Take Initiative
0 Urgency
0 Wild Attack
Josh was the only undefeated player left after 3 rounds of Swiss, but was taken down in the top 4 round by Pon3d. But his success with this list marks a possible return to form for the Weequay Pirates, formerly one of the strongest units in the game before the IACP, but one that has struggled after the nerfs of Assassination and On the Lam as well as consecutive map rotations that have been more friendly to close-range units than snipers as FFG was in the past. Fennec Shand is the Season 9 addition that rounds out Josh’s list.
Top 4 – Derek
IG-11 (9)
4-Lom (7)
Targeting Computer (1)
Hondo (6)
Aphra (4)
eJawa (3)
Gideon (3)
R2-D2 (3)
C-3PO (2)
Temporary Alliance (1)
Beast Tamer (1)
On the Lam (3)
Guild Programming (2)
Wild Fury (2)
Tools for the Job (2)
Worth Every Credit (2)
Hit and Run (1)
Negation (1)
Rapid Recalibration (1)
Field Tactician (1)
Take Initiative (0)
Planning (0)
Element of Surprise (0)
Urgency (0)
Fleet Footed (0)
Opportunistic (0)
Beast Tamer and 4-LOM are an IACP combo as old as Season 3, and considered a fringe strategy for just as long, but Derek was able to bring this to a Top 4 finish alongside IG-11. By choosing to gain the creature trait each round, 4-LOM is able to move up to 10 spaces and attack, allowing Derek to strike deep into enemy territory at the end of the round against overly defensive players. Something cool about this list is there’s nothing newer than IACP Season 5, making it another cool throwback list.
2-1 Record (5th) – Gabe (Destructor)
9 AT-DP
8 Heavy Stormtrooper (IACP)
5(-1) Flametrooper (IACP)
5 General Sorin (IACP)
4 Imperial Officer (IACP)
4 Imperial Officer (IACP)
2 Imperial Officer
1 Zillo Technique
1 Rule by Fear
1The Generals Ranks (IACP)
1 Unshakable
0 Advanced Com Systems (IACP)
(3) Overwhelming Impact (IACP)
(2) Lock On
(2) Reduce to Rubble (IACP)
(2) Call the Vanguard
(2) Size Advantage
(1) Collateral Damage
(1) Explosive Weaponry
(1) Strength in Numbers
(1) Negation
(0) Celebration
(0) Element of Surprise
(0) Planning
(0) Take Initiative
(0) Urgency
(0) Of No Importance (IACP)
Gabe unfortunately didn’t have the tiebreakers to make top 4, but he did have a 2-1 record at the end of the swiss rounds, and I wanted to highlight his list as the most successful Imperial player in the tournament. This list puts Imperial Heavy Weapons on full display, with the AT-DP as its centerpiece and Heavy Stormtroopers and Flametrooper as backup attackers. General Sorin and the newly buffed elite Officers make up for Gabe’s sparse number of attacking figures by multiplying his possible attacks if he can position his attackers well where they can continue to attack after they’ve already activated.
Strongest Lists from the Async League
I wanted to also highlight a few lists from our League play in March that have been having some success. I think this is useful to look at because unlike the tournament, the League allows players more flexibility in changing their lists to adapt to the evolving metagame, so these lists might be more contemporary than the lists we saw submitted at the start of the March tournament.
Scout Troopers
Imperial Scout Troopers are having their own resurgence thanks to the introduction of ISB Training Grounds alongside Wasskah Hunting Grounds in the map rotation. Destruct1, who got 1st place in our first month of League play, has gotten a few wins with them in League and practice games with this being the most recent list (previous versions running Agent Kallus instead of Thrawn). The Scout Troopers Camouflage ability allows them to stand in and attack from spaces that would normally be a death sentence against enemy snipers on these large maps, and on these maps they have less to worry about from figures closing the gap to attack them from up close. With Vader’s Finest, they can spend their early turns focusing up much in the same way that Rebel and Mercenary lists can, and because they’re spies along with Iden Versio, they can take full advantage of the Spy command card suite to put a lot of pressure on their opponents to make a move before they’re fully ready.
Be careful of Iden Versio suddenly attacking you when you don’t expect it, either by Call the Vanguard, or by Dio playing Field Tactician to give her an extra Move during her activation.
Scum 8 Attackers
This is a list that 2BitNZ, aka Adam has been having success with in the League and practice games. This list takes advantage of how many cheap, efficient 3-dice attackers have been provided to the Scum faction by cramming them all into a single list by reducing the support package to a slim 5 points, Bib Fortuna, First Strike and Black Market, to be able to Focus 2 figures each turn and still be able to draw extra cards. Every other point in the list contributes to fielding an attacker with an equivalent of a 3-dice attack. The Hired Guns can become focused for their first attacks by damaging them with Onar’s Rush or the strain from Black Market.
My advice against this list, is to take out the Hired Guns before they can attack, and try to minimize how much damage they can do with Parting Shot.
Triple Action Jedi
I wanted to share this Force User list that I’ve been having success with in the League, and I’m currently 3-0 with it in League games. I actually came up with this list to show that melee lists can be built to do well on the ISB Training Grounds map, but it ended up being a great list on all 3 maps. I’ve included some of the important command cards in the image to explain how it works. There’s several command card combos that effectively allow my Force Users to perform 3 actions at key points in the game. Pummel allows me to convert those extra actions into extra attacks. I’ve chosen to play the original version of Meditation so that I can guarantee I have the extra action at the end of round 2 by using Channel the Force for it on Round 1. I use this with Ahsoka, so that on the end of round 2 with Force Leap and Vigor, either move 12 spaces and attack, or move 8 spaces and attack twice with Pummel. Davith and Mara can use Vanish plus To the Limit to move into range while being invulnerable to damage and bypass the Stun penalty on TTL, and then benefit from 4 free movement points on their next activation. With R2, Yoda, Planning, and Black Market Prices in my list to draw cards, Smuggling Compartment to scry, and Aphra to replay my card draw in round 2, I can see nearly every card in my command deck by the end of round 2. Aphra also allows me to reuse my Pummels in rounds 3 and 4. And finally, Strategic Shift and Doubt generate value while I’m patiently waiting out round 1 before making my big plays in round 2.
This was a really fun list to build and it’s been really fun to play it too, and I think it might be the strongest and most consistent Force User list I’ve managed to ever build. Davith and Ahsoka are also some of my favorite figures in the game to use so that makes it fun for me too.
I hope this gives folks some ideas and inspiration for building their lists during the competitive play period of IACP Season 9. Maybe you like one of the lists you’ve seen here, or maybe this is giving you a good idea of what’s out there that you need to be ready to beat! We’ve still got 3 more months to go before we start public playtesting for Season 10, lots of time to get some competitive and casual skirmish games in with your favorite cards from IACP and regular Imperial Assault Skirmish!
And if you want more lists and tournament coverage for IACP Season 9, be sure to check out my latest video with Brendan Born’s tournament report from Adepticon 2024 and the IACP tournament that happened there.