7th Ed 40K, STAW upcoming, etc...

Well, it seems that the bulk of the “7^th Edition” stuff has made it to the rumor circuit…  It looks VERY much like 6.5^th edition as not a lot has changed…  Assuming the rumors are true, but as people are claiming to have the book in hand now I suspect that they are not rumors, but leaks at this point.  New Psychic phase…  Good I guess, I was always concerned about forgetting some silly power or the like as they were all over the place with “must be cast at the beginning of ‘x’ phase” or whenever…  Now, no more worries about that.  And there is the chance of actually stopping other powers…  Good also.  Got a bit old if you fielded say, a race/army without Psychics at all, knowing you could not stop much of anything unless you brought something from 5^th Edition like a Wolf Rune Priest to mess with them…  ICs no longer allowed to join MCs…  Should NEVER have happened, stupid loophole/oversight that a quick errata in the FAQ would have fixed with about 30 seconds of typing 2 years ago…  But I guess they might not have sold as many Tau Riptides if people couldn’t attach Tau Commanders and drones to make mini Uber units to combine a bunch of rules (USR) and wound allocation silliness..  Whatever, that alone drove a few players away from the game locally, so I KNOW it cost the local store/GW a bit, and it kind of confirmed that GW really wasn’t interested in fixing the 6^th edition of the game. 

There are a few locals who are excited about and interested in seeing what the new edition brings…  I think there are a LOT more of us who are in the cautiously waiting mode.  And with this being an expensive rulebook to start only 2 bloody years after the last one?  I don’t know, I do not think I will be picking it up.  Certainly NOT initially.  I can wait for the small rulebook in the “rumored” new box set coming out in a few months.  Yes, I have all of the previous ones on a bookshelf in my basement of doom, but I have to say I am simply not all that interested in spending another $80+ to get a small rulebook that fixes a few things (we all hope) that should have been done as errata/FAQ entries by any other company.  Yes, I would get the “fluff” book and modeling book…  Woo hoo?  Been playing the game since 87-88, and having most of their previous stuff…  Nothing new there for me. 

Locally, 40K has almost died out as more and more of us are getting into the “wait and see” mode…  No one is dumping their stuff…  Well, one player DID dump his Marines, but going to Chaos Demons…  But not a lot of new sales for the store, and not many people playing on “40K night”…  Me, I am pretty set on playing Star Trek attack Wing (STAW), or X-Wing now, so that’s what I will likely bring out to play when I do come out to play…  Have to say I am actually enjoying the game a lot and there are no stupidly overpowered combos in the game that I have seen…  So the effect of “Well, the Eldar are just more powerful”…  The Borg are the closest thing, but even they are limited by the same mechanics that the rest of the factions use…  It does not feel rushed to market with obvious loopholes to be exploited.  Seeing the winning builds on a much smaller scale admittedly, there does appear to be a LOT more variation WRT the winning builds.  Reading the AARs from some of the bigger 40K Tournaments it really does come down to a handful of armies in the top tier battling out for the top spots and with few exceptions everything else fighting over the scraps. 

Locally, we had a Klingon fleet sweep the Tholian Web OP, beating out the Borg Spheres…  Not subtle, but the approach of “rush forward and throw a lot of Attack Dice at the problem” does seem to work here…  Looking at next Month’s event, the battle on the planet with CPT vs CPT does seem interesting, and looks like there is some “optimum” number of CPTs to bring…  Them going to the Planet starting at the end of Turn one for the highest skill one, then Turn two for the next and the rest on Turn three…  One ship builds would have only the one CPT fighting, and so even a 9 Skill would lose I think as nowhere else to put incoming damage…  Realistically, I think it would be at most 5 CPTs in a fleet…  The CHEAPEST ship being 12 points, so theoretically 8 ships but they are pretty bad and all Skill 1 CPTs?  When the Battle occurs on the Planet, playing 3 I can virtually guarantee having the only CPTs with Resources so rolling 6 Attack Dice vs the 3 of the other CPTs, and with mine hitting first, turn one should be 3 dead CPTs for him, one of mine wounded, etc…  So, by the third turn or so I suspect I would sweep the field and not lose anyone…  That assumed I do not off any of the ships before the battle.  Small ships would be vulnerable to being destroyed before the Planet battle, so keeping the numbers down that way seems a great idea as well…  Borg needless to say would perform “poorly” on the 1 on 1 battles as their CPTs are not very good overall…    My own builds will be most likely 3 ships with Picard on either the Enterprise-D or the Excelsior…  Trying to trade for a Sutherland, but J…  Ships will be Faction Pure, but a mixed or Allied fleet…  Romulans for the Cloaked Mines that I feel will be brutal to weaker ships trying to swarm me and Klingons for the “We’re just here to hit something” effect they bring…  And the Antimatter Mines on the Federation Ship or perhaps one of the Torpedoes?  AM mines are insanely good against Cloaked ships, Torpedoes could allow me to snipe away even ships of the line before the CPT battle on the Planet…  Or finish things in the end phase…  This of course assumes that the game is 100 points and that I can actually attend J…

Vacations this year!  Wandering up to MI with my amazing wife to hang out on some island (Mackinaw)…  After Fun Day in Tolono at Chappellheim…  Then Gen Con in August for that Saturday…  Should be interesting at least… 

Still selling 2 Motorcycles if anyone local is looking…   And a largish number of random old firearms as I try to get a nice 81-87 Honda Gold Wing bike for myself…  Something in the 1100 to 1200 cc range for engine size, nice highway pegs for longer rides, and hard saddlebags that I can put my laptop and game stuff into…  The trunk I am less interested in at the moment, no long road trips and I can put the seat back on with the attached backpack for additional cargo if needed…  REALLY just wanting a nice reliable bike somewhere between the Magna’s high speed/power and the Silverwing’s low power high efficiency that it has going…  The Wing is a good, solid bike but I cannot stretch out my legs nor can I safely take it out onto an Interstate near say, Chicago where the required speed would be in the 75-85 range to be safe riding there…