This Week in Des Moines:
Open Play – Mayhem Comics– Monday 5/21 at 4pm (weekly)
DSMX 2018 Aces League Kickoff – Mayhem Comics – Monday 5/21 at 4pm
Upcoming Events:
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday TBD at 5:30pm
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (Clive location) – Sunday 6/3 at 12pm
Mercenaries X-wing Tournament – Geek City Games and Comics – Sunday 6/3 at 12pm
Good afternoon X-wing players!
We are less than a week away from one of the best miniatures conventions in the Greater Des Moines Area – that’s right, MuseOn Con 2018 is happening this Friday! And your DSM X-wing crew has not one, not two but four separate and exciting events planned for this weekend of miniature madness.
You can find links to the individual events on our events page or on Facebook, so let us know if you’re planning to go via the link below!
https://desmoinesareaxwing.wordpress.com/league-events/
Tickets can be bought online or at the door. Our first X-wing event “Unsung Heroes Hangar Bay” starts at 5pm on Friday. We’ll be sorting into pods of four on a first come first serve basis so get there to get your weekend started right.
Check-in opens at 11am that day so feel free to stop in any time to get signed in for the convention and pick up your prize booklet. As a reminder, rather than individual prize support for each game, you earn generic points that can be traded in for prizes so do your best to get your game on!
And even if you can’t make it this weekend, starting Monday 5/21, we’ll be kicking off our “DSM Aces League 2018”. You can find the rules for the event on our Facebook kickoff event, as well as the website (link here).
The generics for the first two weeks can be found below:
It’s a $10 sign-up at the door – we’ll have tracker sheets available for you in the game room. Remember to mark down your kills each game, get your opponent’s name and initials on your sheet, and turn it back into the TO before 5pm on Sunday so we can get you counted. If we don’t have your sheet by then, we won’t be able to get it tracked.
Confirmed kills can be submitted via emailed to desmoinesareaxwing@gmail.com – a clear picture of your sheet with your opponent’s initials will work 🙂
And of course if you’re just looking for some pickup games, we’ll be there Monday at Mayhem Comics starting around 4pm.
As always, good luck and fly casual!
This Week in Des Moines:
Open Play – Mayhem Comics– Monday 5/14 at 4pm (weekly)
2018 MuseOn Con – Holiday Inn (Merle Hay Location, DSM) – Friday 5/18-5/20
Friday – Unsung Heroes Hangar Bay
Saturday – MuseOn Con Cup 2018, White Whale Tournament
Sunday – Fel’s Free-for-All
Upcoming Events:
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday TBD at 5:30pm
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (Clive location) – Sunday TBD at 12pm
DSMX 2018 Aces League Kickoff – Mayhem Comics – Monday 5/21 at 4pm
This Week in Des Moines:
Open Play – Mayhem Comics– Monday 4/30 at 4pm (weekly)
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (Clive location) – Sunday 5/6 at 12pm
2018 X-wing World Championship – Fantasy Flight Game Center – Wednesday 5/2-Sunday 5/6
Upcoming Events:
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday TBD at 5:30pm
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (Clive location) – Sunday TBD at 12pm
2018 MuseOn Con – Holiday Inn (Merle Hay Location, DSM) – Friday 5/18-5/20
Friday – Unsung Heroes Hangar Bay
Saturday – MuseOn Con Cup 2018, White Whale Tournament
Sunday – Fel’s Free-for-All
DSMX 2018 Aces League Kickoff – Mayhem Comics – Monday 5/21 at 4pm
Good morning X-wing players!
It’s been a few weeks since our last announcement and boy do we have updates! First up, MuseOn Con 2018 is just a few weeks away. If you haven’t already, check out our various events here and be sure to grab your ticket here. It’s an awesome weekend full of great games, good company, and fantastic nerd adventures. Be sure to check it out for a weekend of some of the best X-wing gaming DSM has to offer 🙂
Also, we’re happy to announce our first DSMX Aces League! We’ll be starting on 5/21 once MuseOn Con is over and will run for 6 weeks. How it works is each game you pick your faction, you pick your ace (40 points or less), and then build the rest of your 100 point list from that week’s pre-determined generics.
Once your list is built, you then face off against other players in the league in standard 75-minute, 100 point games with a single caveat – you only earn points for kills. Generic pilots earn you 1 point, while Aces earn you 2.
We’ll post more details, including the schedule of generics for each week once we get closer to the event, but you can sign up for the kickoff event on Facebook, using the link below:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1907667482585697/
Entry to the league is $10 and we’ll announce prize support closer to the event itself.
And of course, we’ll continue with open play on Monday nights so be sure to check Facebook and this website often for updates.
As always, good luck and fly casual!
This Week in Des Moines:
Open Play – Mayhem Comics– Monday 4/23 at 4pm (weekly)
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday 4/26 at 5:30pm
Upcoming Events:
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday TBD at 5:30pm
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (Clive location) – Sunday TBD at 12pm
2018 X-wing World Championship – Fantasy Flight Game Center – Wednesday 5/2-Sunday 5/6
2018 MuseOn Con – Holiday Inn (Merle Hay Location, DSM) – Friday 5/18-5/20
Friday – Unsung Heroes Hangar Bay
Saturday – MuseOn Con Cup 2018, White Whale Tournament
Sunday – Fel’s Free-for-All
DSMX 2018 Aces League Kickoff – Mayhem Comics – Monday 5/21 at 4pm
This Week in Des Moines:
Open Play – Mayhem Comics– Monday 4/9 at 4pm (weekly)
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday 4/12 at 5:30pm
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (Clive location) – Sunday 4/15 at 12pm
Upcoming Events:
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday TBD at 5:30pm
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (Clive location) – Sunday TBD at 12pm
2018 X-wing World Championship – Fantasy Flight Game Center – Wednesday 5/2-Sunday 5/6
2018 MuseOn Con – Holiday Inn (Merle Hay Location, DSM) – Friday 5/18-5/20
Friday – Unsung Heroes Hangar Bay
Saturday – MuseOn Con Cup 2018, White Whale Tournament
Sunday – Fel’s Free-for-All
This Week in Des Moines:
Open Play – Mayhem Comics– Monday 3/12 at 4pm (weekly)
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday 3/15 at 5:30pm
Upcoming Events:
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday TBD at 5:30pm
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (SE 14 Location) – Sunday TBD at 12pm
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (Clive location) – Sunday 12p at 12pm
Adepticon 2018 – Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Event Center – Thursday 3/22 thru Sunday 3/25
Campaign Against Cancer – TBD – Saturday 4/7 at 10am
2018 X-wing World Championship – Fantasy Flight Game Center – Wednesday 5/2-Sunday 5/6
2018 MuseOn Con – Holiday Inn (Merle Hay Location, DSM) – Friday 5/18-5/20
Friday – Unsung Heroes Hangar Bay
Saturday – MuseOn Con Cup 2018, White Whale Tournament
Sunday – Fel’s Free-for-All
We’ve got a battle report from James Van Echaute reviewing his run at the 2018 Omaha Regional hosted by Sparta Games. Enjoy!
James’ List
Omaha was my first regional tourney and I had an absolute blast. Flew Super Kylo; Expertise QD; and an Academy pilot since Kylo and QD are my most familiar ships at this point in time.
Round 1: Walker – Expertise Rey; Strezra; Rex
This round is the fuzziest since I didn’t take notes but I set QD and AP in the bottom right corner and left Kylo out on the left flank. Walker moved his ships into the middle and I pushed some damage through on Ezra with him trying to wipe out the AP immediately, but in classic Pseudo-Soontir style refused to die. Next round of shooting I brough Kylo in on the flank and came within a micron of putting him on a rock. Then rolled all hits against Rex who was unfocused and rolled 3 eyeballs and got one-shot. From there I just chipped away at his ships while the AP lived for another few consecutive rounds of shooting before finally shuffling off this mortal coil.
Win 100-12
Round 2: Jared – RAC w/rebel captive and Cruise QD
RACDraw is a list very close to my heart so I know how much hurt it can bring. Rebel Captive was also a nasty addition as it instantly shuts down a big portion of QD’s damage potential. Jared ended up setting up across from Kylo on the left side of the board, so I did a couple rounds of 1 hards to try and assess how hard he was going to try and commit to coming in full speed. I got a little too cute and ended up getting Kylo boxed in and 4k’d to make space. At this point I made what could have been a game deciding mistake in shooting at RAC to double stress Kylo, but the idea of losing a round of “free” damage on the Deci seemed worse at the time. Meanwhile the AP and QD have moved into the middle of the board to joust his QD and I came super close to a block to put us both right at R1, but he barrel rolled out of arc to avoid any return shots. Next Round Kylo five straights to try and clear RAC but can’t get far enough away and starts to take some damage. Jared commits his QD to the slaughter and down he goes. But, over the next few turns of focusing down Kylo, it allowed my AP and QD to get behind and mitigate being out PS’d. RAC also got put in a tight spot and had to fly away from combat and doesn’t shoot for a couple turns. His QD eventually goes down and time is called after getting half on the Deci to win barely on points. Awesome match, but annoyed that I’m getting paired against my brothers.
Win 69-59
Round 3: Neil – QD and Crackshot HLC Rhos
I don’t have a ton of experience flying against this list but I knew my gameplan had to be to nuke the boats and try to save Kylo for late game. On the opening turn he used LRS to lock Kylo, which to me seemed like a good thing for me, as Kylo can very easily stay out of range or hit the gas to get behind them. I set up my opening engagement perfectly by slowly bringing Kylo up just out of range and then zooming past next turn to take no shots. The AP secured a block and QD was in perfect position to the start bringing the pain, but his green dice were on fire and practically no damage went through. Next round I set up perfect blocks again to allow for more carnage, but again, even with my mods netting full damage rolls, his evades came in big and practically nothing got through. At this point, he’d starting picking away at the AP and QD and they eventually died. He slammed away with his boats to prevent any other good shooting opportunities and Kylo just can’t live forever as the sole target. First tabeling at a tournament but Neil was a great sport.
Loss 0-100
Round 4: David (?) – Ghost Fenn
Just pile it on, Universe. I had also never faced this list so I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. I learned pretty quick it was nothing good. The combination of HotCop on Fenn, the PS11 Coordinate, and the EU on the Ghost meant I got none of the shots I wanted and paid dearly for it. The AP went up in flames immediately, but I was able to take down Fenn with 1 or 2 shield left on the Ghost and a full health Kylo. I tried to keep my distance to avoid the Synced Turret and double taps and did a pretty good job of it, slowly plinking damage into the ghost. However, after a few turns I made a massive mistake and misjudged the distance on a rock and parked Kylo range 2 of the ghost. Went from full health to 2 hull remaining without doing any damage to the Ghost. At this point my frustration at my stupid mistake tilted me off axis and I forgot to trigger autothrusters and died shortly afterwards. I believe I managed to get half on the Ghost before poofing but don’t remember the exact points destroyed. Of all my matches I feel I learned the least from this matchup as the combo is just completely gross.
Loss 48ish – 100
Round 5: Justin K – Fenn; Tarn; Jess; Awing
To the salt mines I go to face a 4 ship list which is yet again another list type I’m not super great at. However, here I set up my best engagement to date. I spread my ships out with AP bottom right, QD middle and Kylo a little to his left after he set up the full formation top right. Turn one I hard right with the AP to regroup and brought Kylo and QD up into the middle of the board. He turns in, so I know he doesn’t care about the AP so next turn I turn him back into the middle and bring Kylo up into the top of the board and keep QD in towards the middle. I know for sure he’s coming for QD now, so I zoom the AP in, 3 bank with QD and bring Kylo down and in to set up a pretty nice killbox. Jess is at the front of the pack and has no shot on any ship, the AP can only get shot at by the awing behind her, and Kylo is entirely safe. QD still gets lit up and 1 rounded, but not before Killing Fenn and doing damage to Tarn. The next round, I send the AP into the middle of the pack to jam things up and 4k with Kylo, which he entirely didn’t expect and hard righted with the A wing and Jess to try and jam him up. I believe the AP completely blocked Tarn, so he stayed where he was and Kylo lit him up and kills him. The rest of the game he split his ships up and I never got a chance to really focus either down so time is called with 1 left on Jess and not shields plus maybe an extra damage on the Awing. Not a stellar win but I’ll take it.
Win 48 – 39
Round 6: Jason – QD and Harpoon Boats
This again. Gameplan hasn’t changed and I know I have to kill the boats to have a chance. Once again, he takes his LRS locks onto Kylo after setting his ships up a little fanned out in the middle and slow rolling. I zoom Kylo up the side of the board and he starts turning in to trap him. Here things got a little wonky as he mixes up his boat dials and sends one up facing his side of the board, shooting at nothing, and one straights towards me with the other. I wasn’t entirely sure where he was going, so I did the “Kylo decloak” barrel roll and hard one to juuuuuuuust barely be in range of the one who had accidentally come towards me. So it half worked in my favor, half didn’t. He gets full mods on the Harpoon and I see 4 damage coming my way and roll 1 evade. I pop title and it goes big, rerolling into all evades. Meanwhile QD and the AP take some heat, but his first boat is low. Next turn I speed in to get past the boat and join the fray with AP and QD. At this point I think he harpoons the AP which is destroyed, which procs his QD in the mayhem and there is a ton of red dice. QD rides the wave with a shield remaining and it’s basically now or never to strip his QDs remaining shields, which I do. Now I start running with QD but continue to take shots out the back as I speed Kylo out of engaging. He bring his last boat (with poon still unfired) in to try and chase down Kylo. I 4k to the board edge and then next turn speed in as fast as I can to ensure the kill before he can shoot. QD plinks another health of QD, and next turn rolls hit crit to maybe end it, but Jason natties two to survive. At this point, my QD is at 1 health, Kylo is at 2, and his QD is at 2. I end up close to the far right board edge with QD and he thinks he’s going off so he sloops around and I hard 1 to stay in the game and survive his butt shot. Next turn I clear the stress and get my focus back, but he manages to push damage through and QD is gone. There’s still 30 minutes left in the game and being out PS’ed there’s no way I can guarantee I avoid the shots so I know I gotta go big. Kylo has been moving up to the top left corner to stay out of range and I 4k again to the board edge while he moves his QD into the middle. Next turn I straight 2 to clear stress and then just stay where I am since I know QD isn’t the fastest. He 3 straights to be baaaaarely in range, which is my ideal set up. He rolls natty hit hit crit, and Kylo’s 4 dice natty 3 evades and a focus. My return shot is all paint and I spend the focus to ensure 3 hits back and his dice finally go cold and QD kabooms. Definitely the most intense match of my career thus far.
Win 100 – 51
I know I don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell to make cut because my MOV has been terrible despite going 4-2 but I’m super happy with the outcome because I had a chance to face some of my weaker matchups and learned a ton about my list and how to strategize better. Looking forward to the next one.
Thanks for the report James! You can find him on Monday nights in DSM at our home store, Mayhem Comics 🙂
Des Moines Area X-wing 