Shields are for P*** ah Pansies! Kessel Run Peoria Illiniois

By Slamdunk74, in X-Wing

Posted at

Some interesting things happened in Peoria Illinois Saturday starting around noon….ish. Just for Fun was the location for 10 Valiant individuals that met to do battle and take home the goodie bag provided from FFG. Our TO, Josh, did an amazing job of keeping things balanced and entertaining. The competitors were all good natured and well received. 9 were outstanding and 1 was a bit over bearing at times but there is usually one when you place so many grognards and Star Wars fans in a confined place.

As for myself I had anticipated this day for a couple of weeks and was excited. Now how many 56 year olds get excited about playing a game, pushing very nice miniatures over a star covered surface and say "pew pew pew" as they roll attack dice. Well one for sure at Just for Fun.

The other very cool thing that happened was that there were several dads that had there kids there with them. And after the events of Friday morning this only seemed right. I know of four dads that had there kids there, myself included. While my kid was 26, and he didn't need to borrow money at all, the others were from the 10 and younger variety. It was fun watching the family interactions as well as the competitive sides working together.

There is so much side things that made this all more fun.

There were 8 Rebels groups and 2 Imperials. Both Imperials had five ships. One Advanced Tie and four Ties. They were in various arrangements.

The Rebels had groups of 3 X-Wing, 2 X-Wing 1 Y-Wing, 3 X-Wing 1 Y-Wing, and the 4 X-Wing configurations.

The quote of the day was… "Shields are for *******!" Of course from the two Imperials that wandered about the tables.

As for myself. Not a great day for combat dice. However I am the Master of the Astroid belt. My attack dice rolled so poorly that I freely flew into and out of astroids because I no longer feared any damage from them. Josh had to laugh as another triumphant yell would come from my table as I flew in and out with no damage to harrass whoever I was playing.

I took Luke with R2D2, Garven with an R2, A Rookie with an R5, and a Gold Y with an R5

I ended up 1-2. My victory was a forfeit by a fellow that needed to leave. Ruining my chance at a perfect 0-3 for the day.

The biggest ooops of the tournament was committed by my son. Sitting at 2-0 and playing another 2-0 he looked to have the situation well in hand until he miscalculated and flew one of his Ties off the map. When he flipped his manuever dial over we both looked at each other and mouth.. "You just lost the Slave 1" He knodded in agreement. I believe his next comment was.. "I am so stupid" "I didn't want to block Vader so I moved 5 instead of 4" He did finish taking home an interceptor. Not a total loss.

The fun was the best part as well as meeting new friends now. I may not remember everyone's name but I will remember their faces. And the faces of the kids having a long day with their Dads.

What a great game, event, and day. I look forward to reading the other contests reported here over the next few days. I look forward to the expansions coming out soon and playing again another Saturday in the future as I "pew pew pew" an new rival or a new old friend from the past event.

Mark Tippett

AKA Slamdunk

Posted at

good synopsis of the day, Mark, and I couldn't agree more with your sentiments. I'm William, the other imperial scum participating in the festivities (who also agrees with the above mantra). much like you, I'm also pretty bad with names, but good with faces and look forward to playing again sometime soon. Saturday was my first attempt at a competitive squad build and I learned alot over the course of my 3 matches and the other observations/discussions throughout the day. in fact, i already made a subtle, but very effective, tweak to my build which caters to my play style that would have paid off very big in my 3rd match where, after losing howlrunner, it basically just turned into a very slow burn to an inevitable defeat. i put up a valiant fight to the last man, but it would have taken a miracle of the dice several times over to allow me to make any type of legit comeback. I also just made several very bad miscalculations with vader that round, just due to inexperience basically, where i shot myself in the foot. when playing against a great opponent like i was, that's all it takes to end up on the losing end.

it was great to meet several other local players and I'll be showing up on Wednesday to hopefully start participating in the league. hope to see some/all of you there as it'll be great to compete against the people I didn't get the chance to be paired up with on Saturday (or rematch, for the ones i did get to play). congrats to all the winners, your rewards were well deserved. also, biggest thanks to JFF for hosting!

Posted at

Slamdunk74 said:

Some interesting things happened in Peoria Illinois Saturday starting around noon….ish. Just for Fun was the location for 10 Valiant individuals that met to do battle and take home the goodie bag provided from FFG. Our TO, Josh, did an amazing job of keeping things balanced and entertaining. The competitors were all good natured and well received. 9 were outstanding and 1 was a bit over bearing at times but there is usually one when you place so many grognards and Star Wars fans in a confined place.

As for myself I had anticipated this day for a couple of weeks and was excited. Now how many 56 year olds get excited about playing a game, pushing very nice miniatures over a star covered surface and say "pew pew pew" as they roll attack dice. Well one for sure at Just for Fun.

The other very cool thing that happened was that there were several dads that had there kids there with them. And after the events of Friday morning this only seemed right. I know of four dads that had there kids there, myself included. While my kid was 26, and he didn't need to borrow money at all, the others were from the 10 and younger variety. It was fun watching the family interactions as well as the competitive sides working together.

There is so much side things that made this all more fun.

There were 8 Rebels groups and 2 Imperials. Both Imperials had five ships. One Advanced Tie and four Ties. They were in various arrangements.

The Rebels had groups of 3 X-Wing, 2 X-Wing 1 Y-Wing, 3 X-Wing 1 Y-Wing, and the 4 X-Wing configurations.

The quote of the day was… "Shields are for *******!" Of course from the two Imperials that wandered about the tables.

As for myself. Not a great day for combat dice. However I am the Master of the Astroid belt. My attack dice rolled so poorly that I freely flew into and out of astroids because I no longer feared any damage from them. Josh had to laugh as another triumphant yell would come from my table as I flew in and out with no damage to harrass whoever I was playing.

I took Luke with R2D2, Garven with an R2, A Rookie with an R5, and a Gold Y with an R5

I ended up 1-2. My victory was a forfeit by a fellow that needed to leave. Ruining my chance at a perfect 0-3 for the day.

The biggest ooops of the tournament was committed by my son. Sitting at 2-0 and playing another 2-0 he looked to have the situation well in hand until he miscalculated and flew one of his Ties off the map. When he flipped his manuever dial over we both looked at each other and mouth.. "You just lost the Slave 1" He knodded in agreement. I believe his next comment was.. "I am so stupid" "I didn't want to block Vader so I moved 5 instead of 4" He did finish taking home an interceptor. Not a total loss.

The fun was the best part as well as meeting new friends now. I may not remember everyone's name but I will remember their faces. And the faces of the kids having a long day with their Dads.

What a great game, event, and day. I look forward to reading the other contests reported here over the next few days. I look forward to the expansions coming out soon and playing again another Saturday in the future as I "pew pew pew" an new rival or a new old friend from the past event.

Mark Tippett

AKA Slamdunk

gr8 report Mark. thanks for sharing. we had a few under 10 kids show up with their dad to watch at my local kessel run event last wknd. their wide-eyed curiosity was inspiring an made me want to stop and show him how to play.