Monday, October 8, 2018

"Reclassification" and X-Wing 2.0 thoughts...


Ah, continuing on the job search…  By now I suspect that through the various interviews over the course of the year I have met EVERY IT Director on Campus.  So, I suppose my name is getting out there and I AM getting interviews…  Which is great, just need to progress beyond that of course into the “offer” stage.  Selling my skill set and what I can bring to the new job.  Have the “merit badges” of the MS Degree, various technical certifications and the like…  Oh, and 25 or so years of verifiable experience in the IT industry ranging from “Programmer” to “Hardware Guy” to “Network” and “Management”…  So, looks good on paper.  Sitting in on the briefings regarding the change from Academic Professional to Civil Service has been… Interesting.  Frankly at my level, the only real concern I have is that my last title change was delayed several years (and THAT is the reason I am seeking employment elsewhere), so I’ll be on the lower side of seniority for the title I hold.  NOT a lot of others holding this title, so not really overly concerned about it honestly, but it IS a concern as seniority is extremely important on the CS side of the world.  Getting Reclassified actually gets me an additional 4 days of Vacation that I honestly can’t use in my current job, so nothing really lost there for me.  So, interesting times ahead it seems.  We are told over and over again that there is “no intention to come in and do a mass reclassification”, but as they did exactly that in Chicago to “poor” effect, there is no real reason to trust the State of Illinois in this.  Having learned long ago never to trust this State (ref: IL Nat Guard time J) I have less confidence they will not just “make it happen”.  Will absolutely suck for newer folks as Aps enjoy a lot better benefit package WRT sick and leave time at least, but for those of us who have been here a bit it will be a wash or actually slightly better in the case of us old timers who have been here 14+ years.

Thane Kyrell and others flipping Damage cards:  I suspect this will be the death of Large Based Ships in the game, or at least have a serious damping effect upon them.  They also look good as “finishers” for Aces with the ability to just get that one Damage through, then with flipping effects applying Criticals over and over until it removes the ship…  Assuming of course it is a Direct Hit, Hull Breach or the like that can do this.  Odds are pretty good, and as there are NO good Criticals in the v2 Deck and some that cause a cascade effect that will just destroy the Ship.  So, I have my “Rebel” Squadron more or less picked.

Imperial Squadron, I am flying mostly the same stuff I flew at the end of v1…  TIE Phantoms are REALLY good now.  The TIE Interceptor is risky, but if you are comfortable knowing that at any time you might just die….  Well, they are fast and powerful.  DO have the possibility that they just die to a single attack, so you have to dodge Arcs quite well.  The Reaper and the Punisher are both Medium Base ships now and they seem like the “anchor” ships for my “Ace(ish)” builds.  I fly the Reaper with Director Krennic like I have in the past and while it is NOT as stupidly broken as it was in v1, it is actually sneaky good I think.  Spending a Dice Result to flip a card here is as good I think as it is for the above listed Ships.  Adding Target Lock to the Reaper is actually surprisingly good…  And I fly with Vader crew on Whisper for added ways to do Damage or remove Tokens without having to resort to actually Attacking and you know pushing through the Damage in the traditional manner…  Vader forces them to CHOOSE to either lose the Green Token or take a Damage.  Mind, if they have no Tokens, they have already made that choice as in this edition 0 is NOT an option.  So, maybe one Damage gets pushed or they lose the Focus that they need to avoid the Juke on Whisper to cancel out an Evade result…  Either way is great for me.  Then I can cancel out a Result (Focus or Hit/Crit) to flip a Card before Damage is applied…  Might be no big deal or they might not have Damage Cards already, but if they DO…  Direct hit or Hull Breaches will just hurt.  A lot.  Yes, random draw and situational, but it works surprisingly well at taking down things like TIE Defenders or other Ace types with low Hull.  And for Large Bases?  They just melt under this.  And Col Vermiel on the Reaper for the follow up Attack?  Just brutal.  The Punisher serves a different role as a Bomb projector and Torpedo Boat…  But actually quite good in this Edition…  But as it happens I HAVE one from First Edition that I had mostly base coated in my Imperial Blue color scheme before figuring out that there was simply NO way to make the ship work under the old rules…  It really was just THAT bad…  But that has changed.  A LOT. 

I suspect that the Phantom and Punisher are both up for point increases come January which we are told will be the first major adjustment…  Force powers are pretty good as well, so suspect some of them might go up a bit…  But overall the game is in a MUCH better place and with the first few major events in the books it does seem that there is a fair number of good builds out there with nothing really too badly OP…

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