Holiday Starkillers Strike Back X-Wing Casually Serious Tournament 2017

On December 9, X-Wing players once again assembled at the Anacostia Arts Center in Washington, DC for the sequel to 2015's awesome event. It took place within a larger art exhibition (some images of which I've included at the end of this post).

This time I decided to try my hand at a Rebel list: Wedge Antilles and Biggs Darklighter in X-Wings, and Horton Salm in a Y-Wing. I'd played this a few weeks before to pretty good effect, but a rules change just days before the tournament (that I only found out about the night before) meant that my list wasn't as effective as I was hoping it would be.

As with the 2015, there were trophies and other prizes to be had! 

My first match started off when I saw my opponent had some awesome debris markers. 

Through the course of the event, I had some successes but I narrowly lost most of my games. But I ended up finishing 20th, which was solid. At least I wasn't dead last...though the last place person did get a pretty awesome little trophy called the Jawa Junker Award. 

As promised, here are some examples of the Star Wars-inspired artwork on display:

READ MY 2015 HOLIDAY STARKILLERS REPORT HERE.

Campaign Against Cancer: X-Wing Miniatures Event 2017

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!

On April 29, I joined others at the Island Games in Centreville, VA for the 3rd Annual Campaign Against Cancer X-Wing Miniatures event. Players raise money for the American Cancer Society in an effort to help find a cure. I found out about the event in January of last year and signed up almost immediately! My grandfather died of melanoma (which spread to his brain) on September 15, 2010 so I played in his memory. That was the case again this year. 

My grandpa, Bob Abel, served in the US Navy from 1944 to 1976, and was a naval aviator from 1948 on. He told me once that his squadron's nickname was the Green Angels, because they weren't nearly as good as the Navy's elite flight demonstration team, the Blue Angels. He also loved building models and helped me paint some Revell Civil War Union soldiers when I was maybe 5 or 6. So I wanted to do something special for this year's event.

I decided to name my squadron the Green Angels and base them off of Grandpa's old F4U Corsair squadron. I'd actually painted these ships up for last year's event but couldn't bring them out after misplacing some of the pilot tiles. They were a big hit! A lot of people thought they were pretty cool, especially so after I told them about the backstory. I ran them was Wedge Antilles. Wes Janson, and Biggs Darkligher. Perhaps this was a little more elite than the Green Angels should've been, but I wanted to give them a fighting chance in a game whose meta has not been favoring the T-65 X-Wing lately.

As I'm finding out is usual with me at tournaments, I didn't get a whole of photos and have forgotten what round these exactly were taken in. So just sit back and enjoy these photos of simulated space combat in a galaxy far, far away!

Now, I do remember the specifics with this! My opponent had laid mines in an effort to trap Janson, but only dumb luck skilled flying was he able to avoid detonating any of them!

Another example of the dumb luck skilled flying witnessed throughout the tournament.

 

What a great day of gaming! I never actually won any of my games, but several were close and came down to the last few seconds and less than 5 or 6 points. I didn't take this list to win anyway, so it was nice to see that it could hold its own.

Besides, I ended getting the raffle prize that I really wanted: a custom painted green A-Wing so I've got nothing to complain about. All in all, it was another successful event and I can't wait until next year!

MAY 10, 2017 UPDATE

It was our biggest year yet! X-Wing players raised a grand total of $22,597! Centreville, VA contributed $560 of that through tickets, challenge coin sales, and t-shirt sales. 

READ MY 2016 CAMPAIGN AGAINST CANCER REPORT HERE.