"Let 'em Fly" campaign-support our troops

By hothie, in X-Wing

Wow, thanks so much guys. If you don't get a full package to send, that's fine. Check the Google doc in the first post to see what is needed for #4. I would say of the ships you listed as still needing, an Awing, Interceptor, and HWK would take priority for me, because I can fill out the rest of #4 with what you have collected so far and what I have received.

My Pirate's Treasure-Drawn and Quartered tournament raised $145 for the campaign, which will cover shipping the packages among other expenses. I will do a write-up of the tournament after I finish this post.

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/111777-the-pirates-treasure-drawn-and-quartered-tournament/

We also received more donations from the Minneapolis gang. The spreadsheet in the first post has been updated. I also won a Tantive IV that was donated by Mayhem (the store) for prize support, so I am sending that with package number 4.

Overall it was a great tournament, lots of fun, and raised some good funds. :)

Edited by hothie

Before I post what was collected at the Phoenix Squadron event, I want to say that what we did can definitely be replicated in other X-Wing communities. Our tournament was very simple - three rounds, standard 100 point dogfight as the basis of the event, then we added a few key tweaks to the recipe:

  • The event was free to enter, BUT if you made a donation of an X-Wing item worth $15 retail or more, OR just donated $15, you got five extra points to spend on your squad and four of you choice of three unique ability tokens. (Everyone made at least the suggested donation amount).
  • You could also purchase those unique ability tokens at a rate of $5 for two, and if your donated item had retail value above $15 (like a core set, Imperial Aces, etc.) I gave them the equivalent tokens for that.
  • The tokens had the following abilities (I just used cheap poker chips): WHITE allowed you to perform a free boost, barrel roll, focus, evade, or TL action at any time during the game (standard rules apply to "performing" actions); RED allowed you to pick up an asteroid from your game and place it anywhere in the store at any time (this included other games, which turned out to be immensely popular); BLUE allowed you to change your maneuver after revealing your maneuver dial to anything you had a template for (including zero maneuver, 3-speed turn k-turns, etc.) and the maneuver was always considered white. I had a guy buy $65 worth of tokens above the basic four.

We only had twelve people show up to play, but many others came just to donate or arranged a donation in advance. It was all coordinated through our squadron's Facebook group. I am also collecting a couple more donations Monday night, then shipping the package later this week (as soon as I find a big enough box). Here's the list of what was donated by the end of the tournament Saturday:

(2) X-Wing Core Set

(2) Dice Set

(1) Imperial Aces

(2) Lambda-Class Shuttle

(1) Millennium Falcon

(1) Slave 1

(2) TIE Fighter

(4) E-Wing Fighter

(3) TIE Bomber

(2) Z-95 Headhunter

(1) TIE Advanced

(1) TIE Interceptor

(1) Y-Wing

(1) B-Wing

(2) TIE Phantom

(2) TIE Defender

(1) Rebel Dice Bag

(1) Imperial Dice Bag

Total retail value of items donated: $547. An additional $45 was also donated which will help with shipping.

Edited by ManOnAWire

Outstanding, Gentlemen. I have found you will need a big box, and the full $45 for shipping. And don't forget my C3PO card!!! :)

I'll get everything added to my google doc soon.

Where's this shipment going?

It's probably coming to my place. I'm still awaiting an address for package number 4, in case you know anyone who might like to play...

I'll look into it :) .

This just needs to be seen:

Very very cool :)

Received the amazing package from the Arizona guys today. Thanks so much! I'll keep working on finding a home for all of the ships.

I'll get more feelers out. I had one fall through, still working it.

Let me start off by saying that I don’t care about your politics. I think we can all come together behind the fact that our troops need our support.

I think you contradict yourself somewhat there. Clearly you know full well there are people who don't share your support for your troops, or you wouldn't have prefaced it the way you did.

Let me start off by saying that I don’t care about your politics. I think we can all come together behind the fact that our troops need our support.

I think you contradict yourself somewhat there. Clearly you know full well there are people who don't share your support for your troops, or you wouldn't have prefaced it the way you did.

Mainly I didn't want the thread to turn into a big political theater. Even if a person is anti-war, I would like to think they could still see that our troops need our support. If not, that's fine. No one is forcing anyone to do anything here. I'm just trying to help our troops have a little fun while they are overseas. And this has absolutely nothing to do with a political stance either way. I guess I was trying to stop the thread from devolving into a political battle, and thus get reported and deleted.

Mainly I didn't want the thread to turn into a big political theater. Even if a person is anti-war, I would like to think they could still see that our troops need our support. If not, that's fine. No one is forcing anyone to do anything here. I'm just trying to help our troops have a little fun while they are overseas. And this has absolutely nothing to do with a political stance either way. I guess I was trying to stop the thread from devolving into a political battle, and thus get reported and deleted.

Yeah, I get it, I was just bored and felt like flaming. Sorry!

Just checked my paypal, as I haven't in a few weeks, and I've got some great donations from Philip Meade, Brian Fox, and Joseph Groves. Thanks guys! I may think about placing an order with miniature Market sometime soon and fill out some packages.

Have we gotten any feedback from the troops yet? I'd be interested to hear how those minis are going over overseas.

Have we gotten any feedback from the troops yet? I'd be interested to hear how those minis are going over overseas.

Yep, check the battle reports for the package that was sent to the submariner. Haven't heard anything from Afghanistan yet. And as of about 2 weeks ago the Vinson package hadn't arrived yet, but should soon.

Just wanted to say thank you to all of our veterans out there.

I am always looking for addresses of service members deployed overseas that I can send packages to. Organizations like soldiers angels and the uso won't give out addresses of our troops, so I have to get them from the troops and families themselves. If you know of someone deployed that would like to play this game, let me know. :)

Just a quick update. To anyone who has sent me money via paypal, I have just cleared out my paypal account buying Scum and Villainy ships for package #4, which still has yet to find a home. I bought 2 Most Wanted packs, 2 Aggressors, 1 M3A, and 1 Starviper.

So if anyone has someone they know overseas who would like to receive a package of ships, just let me know their address, and I'll get it shipped out as soon as I get the Scum ships in.

Greetings Hothie.

Wondering if you will be doing another event this september out your way (I'm on the east coast)? I've been able to help kick off a good growing group of X wing pilots at my LGS and myself and the owner would be very interested in doing a charity tournament to help get you some more goodies to send the troops. We have a growing number of LGS's in the area that are getting a good following and I'm sure I could talk them into participating as well. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks much,

I'm not likely to do any more events until I can move what I currently have on hand. The community has been generous in giving, but I'm having a hard time getting addresses to send the ships to. So honestly addresses of service members overseas is what I need currently, so that I can ship out some of what I have.

Not that what you're doing isn't appreciated. It totally is, and I'm glad you're able to organize events like this.

As an alternative, look into x-wing.org. That is Chad's baby, and he has done the work to make it into a 501c3, so donations made there are tax deductible. That might be something else to look into.

Thanks Hothie. I'll check out the x-wing.org and keep looking for a service member or unit that is deserving of the donations. And if I come up with more than I can handle I'll let you know. All the best.

Hello Hothie. I think I found a recipient for the event, a buddy of mine in the air force is a gamer and interested in the game and willing to speak to the MWR manager on his base. Hoping to get a few starters and ships sent to them that can used on base and some kits put together that can sent on deployment with each squadron. My question is how should I word the flier for the event? I'm having a brain fart on what to say in it. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance :)

P.S. I've also chatted with Chad about setting up an event to support the X-wing.org charity as well.Thanks for that lead.

Hey guys. Forum member Eruletho just stopped in on his way to his submarine duty. He picked up all that I had left, which was 2 giant boxes of ships, sleeves, dice, etc for the guys on the sub to pass their time underway.

So, with that, my involvement in this program has come to an end. Thank you to all who contributed over the years. All of the ships and other stuff that I received are headed there now, and the money I received was used to buy Scum ships from Miniature Market, which were included as well.

Now, that doesn't mean that you can't still send ships to the troops. I encourage any of you who are willing to help spread some joy to our service members stationed overseas to do so. Anyone can do the legwork to find an address of a friend or loved one or a complete stranger and send them this and other great games. It's what I did for InstantAequitas 3 years ago. So even though my involvement with this program has come to an end, the idea can still be put into practice by anyone who is willing to do the work and open their heart.

Good luck, thank you, and fly casual.

Edited by hothie