Hey everyone, now that the Kessel Run is over I was hoping to get some feedback on the short league I was thinking of running at the local shop.

• 6 week schedule with “official” game nights every other week. This should help keep real life from getting in the way too much of league progress.
• Attempt to keep things balanced between Rebel/Imperial teams. If one side has more than the others then I’d try to get “volunteers” to balance things.
• Weeks 1, 3, & 5 are basic 100 point dog fights.
• Weeks 2, 4, & 6 are missions from the core set (1 of each)
• Each game night consists of 2 matches against your opponent (75 minute max each match) with 1 point being awarded for each victory. Squads are allowed to change each week based on what each player thinks they will need but are limited to 100 points.
• The side with the most overall victory points at the end of the week will receive a bonus point allowed to squad builds for the finals.
• Finals: Death Star Trench Run. The FLGS has 6x4 tables so I was thinking of setting a target (the exhaust port) at one of the short sides and designating a “trench” of 8” wide coming back off of that. There would be a designated entry zone from the midpoint to the far edge where fighters could drop in if desired but if not then they are assumed to fly over as if it was normal surface. The trench itself is limited to 1 rebel fighter & 2 imperials. Of course the rebel objective is to successfully launch a proton torpedo and hit the exhaust port. These torpedoes don’t count against squad value but cannot be fired ship to ship. Normal torpedoes may be purchased as part of your squad and used ship to ship per standard rules. Imperial victory is to kill all the rebels before this happens. The other non standard rule for the Imps is an assumed massive supply of academy pilots. To represent this if they ever get below 2 ships then a new ship will spawn on the imperial player’s side.
• I’d collect a nominal fee ($5-10) at the start from everyone and all money is given back in the form of gift cards to the FLGS to the winners of each trench run. Depending on the number of players I might limit the number of people that play in the finals and take the top 2 or 3 from each side based on victory how many victory points they accumulated throughout the season (tie breaker would strength of schedule, then average squad size used)

Issues:

I’m not really sure how to handle matches that have no clear winner. Maybe up the victory points to 2 total and if victory conditions aren’t met then each side gets 1? Also, this game isn't designed for play with minimal turns so I'm thinking that once in the trench slight adjustements to orientation (no more than 30 degrees) are allowed to keep from drifting into the walls.

It looks like you have a pretty good skeleton to build upon. The idea of the league should be more focused on fun then worrying about winning a prize. I am a bit unsure about the fee though, even if you are giving out credit/gift certificates to the LGS in the same amount. I am all for leagues being free to play as winning should be about the achievment and not a prize.

Your call in the end on it all. Its a great excuse to get a bunch of people to get together and have some fun.

Also I would like to see people do more custom missions/scenario's beyond the Death Star run. There is the fleeing from Hoth, the engagement above Endor, and lots of other battles to do. Like the first time the X-Wings saw battle where you limit it to Rookie Pilots and no uniques on the Empire side.

I've been considering a theme for a short league and came up with the idea of following small squads of rebels making their way to Yavin 4. As the Death Star begins its trek from the Alderaan System to the Yavin System, the rebel forces have called in all of their pilots and ships to defend their home base. Meanwhile, the Empire is hot on their tail attempting to prevent the rebels from amassing their forces to defend themselves against the battle station.

Every week would have a bonus for one side or the other in the Battle of Yavin scenario at the end. When the Rebels win, it represents a new asset that can be introduced to the final battle. It could be a unique pilot such as Biggs Darklighter returning, or the ability to add prototype A-Wings to the fight. When the Empire wins it represents information on the rebellion being gathered, and will add to the defenses of the Death Star, perhaps by increasing the number of active Turbo Lasers, or by ensuring that the leader of Obsidian Squad, "Howlrunner", is present at the final battle.

Each week would need to be a mission scenario, and there are only three in the book. Perhaps it could be a four week league, which should be good at holding people's interest anyways.

I wouldn't really worry about collecting money for a prize. If the game store collects an entrance fee, then you shoul encourage them to get the X-Wing Game Night Kit from FFG and give out prizes from that every week for fun achievements such as "Most Spectacular Death" when your Biggs Darklighter gets shot by 8 TIE Fighters in one turn, or "Most Impressive Starship Maneuver" when your Y-Wing manages to squeeze between two asteroids, or "Most Amazing Performance" when Backstabber scores the destroying shot on every enemy ship in a single battle.

The goal of the league should be to encourage people to get into the game. Then when you run monthly tournaments with an entry fee and prize support there will be a pool of players interested in showing up.

I do love the idea of coming up with new scenarios, but I think if you're trying to grow the game in your area, nothing is more iconic than Luke firing those proton torpedoes down the exhaust port of the Death Star, with Han Solo backing him up in the Falcon and Darth Vader spinning uncontrollably away from the explosion.

I have also been thinking of a scenario in the future where the Millenium Falcon needs to successfully escape from Hoth. Players on the Rebel side would have a Han Solo Falcon with Chewbacca on-board and would need to out-run a squad of TIE Fighters through an asteroid field, surviving long enough to hide. Mechanically there would be a six-foot long table with the Imperials Deploying at one end within Range 1, and the Falcon deploying 3 Range Away from the TIE Deployment Zone. Then there would be an Asteroid Field the rest of the way. The Falcon needs to exit the board at the far end. If it goes off either long table edge then it exits the asteroid field and is destroyed by Star Destroyers. If the imperials are reduced to less than 50% of their TIE Fighters, reinforcements enter from the long board edges.

The idea for the cash buy in was more to support the store than for the idea of a prize at the end. The guys there are really accomidating plus we'd be taking up their gaming tables so I'd like to see something going back to them. The Bloodbowl league I've been involved in there has done the same thing for years and it's never been a problem with any of the players.

I have no problems trying out or making other scenarios in the future, but my idea for the first running of things though was more to just try to grow interest in the game vs trying to create an advanced gaming experience. We had several people at the KRT that hadn't played more than a handful of games before.