Illinois Governor Guilty… Who Knew? :-)

Well, we as a State are now batting .500 with our last 8 Governors…  4 of them are in, have been in or are on their way to prison…  If you aren’t from Chicago, this might come as something of a surprise, but…  The Outfit and/or the Machine ran pretty much everything up there when I was growing up, and it does seem at least on the surface that the current Mayor and Governor are working hard on keeping that tradition rolling…  While the candor displayed by the open corruption at the State level with respect to the health care for us peons was somewhat refreshing, the message that seemed to be coming through was that it just did not matter.  They were going to do what they were going to do, the law doesn’t matter, the voters do not matter, etc…  Weird feeling, thought that it would stay the same, etc., but apparently this is the new reality in Illinois…

Motorcycle is going along well…  Weather seems like it has finally stabilized and looks like I’ll be able to ride in most days now…

Headed to St Louis this weekend with Maggie and the wee ones…  Should be interesting at least, and it’s the first actual vacation we’ve been on in years…

Gaming…  The Fleshtearers seem to be a VERY powerful force the way I am playing them.  The Fury DN dropping in, the Vanguard Vets all loaded out with Power Weapons (and furious charge if I am lucky) drop in directly to HtH with 4 attacks each…  My Death Company loaded into the Land Raider Crusader and the DC Dreadnaught followed along in the shadow…  Turns out that the first missile shot at the LRC immobilized it, and the DN was immobilized the next turn…  I think if I keep the same list next week, I bring it as a normal Land Raider…  The Las Cannons might be nice to have for a long range threat…   My Scouts anchored the line and camped on my objective to guarantee the draw at least…  Not sure they killed a single thing, but they DID win me the game…  Well they helped at least :-)…

Scouts… Just random thoughts….

Yeah, I used to work with them when I played Army, so they have always held a special place in my armies…  Another one of those things I like to MAKE work, especially since so many others write them off…  They are not the best and most effective “Troops” in 40K for the armies I play…  OK, Wolves are an exception, but their Scouts are not Troops, they are Elites who are tasked with sneaking about, kicking asses and taking names…  They are probably one of the more under-costed units in the game against armies that want to sit still and shoot (Tau, IG, etc…  Gun lines)…  I’ve been using mine in my Fleshtearers army, and they have been surprisingly solid for me.  I use a 10 man squad with one missile launcher, 5-6 sniper rifles and the SGT gets one along with a Power fist if I have the points, I usually do for this…  Worst case, the lads use the power fist as a hibachi while they camp out on an objective…  Best case, the power fist is a deterrent for deep strikers like Dreadnaughts and the like to at least make them think seriously about prying my objective campers off of the objective… 

Now, in the past I might have tried combat squadding them and running a flank, or even flanking to bring the lads in at a later turn…  And against some forces (All reserve types, drop lists), it isn’t a bad thing necessarily…  These days, with a “somewhat more aggressive” force like the Fleshtearers, having a small Troop or two to camp and provide some harassing fire…  Who knows, it might even pin something important :-)…  I’ve seen it happen…  Not something to count on, but a really nice bonus when it happens.

Kill point missions, I have on occasionally kept them as the full squad and simply reserved or flanked them just to play keep away with the easy kill point…  A BA drop force, or a mixed one like I run does not HAVE that many kill points to give up, so it is much to my advantage to keep them out of the way while the Death company berserkers go forth and do their work…

Just the start really, I don’t really have hard and fast “tactics”, more general guidelines that I follow and react to the situation as it presents itself…

Lot of this going around I guess…

Not really a whole lot for me to look forward to in 40K…. It is apparently a cyclical thing for me, but really it does seem like I'm playing the same game over and over. I've apparently gone through all 6 of my armies and figured out the "best" lists for me to play… Admittedly, 2 of the armies I have I have a very "limited" selection to field (Deathwing and Grey Knights), but the problem is that both of them are REALLY powerful, at least the way I field them… My Eldar are "fun", but badly outdated in a lot of ways, especially with the last 2 Codices that have been released… The Dark Eldar do most of what the Eldar and do it better with the notable exception of not having Psychers at all… Ironically, they now apparently HAVE demons though via the Grey Knight FAQ… And of course the Grey Knights and their giant "FU" to all other Psychers out there… Oh, and a LOT of things are considered Demons and Plasma weapons these days, so keep that in mind… Loads of min/max potential in both of those codices…

 

I guess what I am getting at is that I'm just getting a bit bored with the game… There is really nothing overly exciting there for me at the moment. I know that several other folks have expressed similar opinions, and in a much better way I think like the Back 40K here: http://theback40k.blogspot.com/2011/06/when-blase-hits.html... I have to admit I am sort of looking forward to Mantic's sci-fi game, especially since I had inherited Brent's ancient Squat force when Sword and Crown went away… Not sure, I've played a LOT of "alternate" games, "Planetstorm" being one of the best IMO… We played on a BIG table and so broke the system a bit, but it was a really fun game to kill an afternoon or evening… I guess my point is that while I hope Mantic, Privateer Press, or "whoever" comes up with a viable "40K killer", I doubt they will… Still, alternate minis are most welcome if they are reasonable priced, and I'll probably at least play whatever comes out if it catches my interest… Malifaux didn't for the longest time, but they might have released a group I could actually play, might have to look into it if I ever get time and a bit of spare cash :-)…

 

On the time front… Job is still kicking my ass, but is calming down a bit after a particularly hellish couple of weeks there. Lots to pick up and run with, no time to waste really… My injury over the weekend is healing, but very slowly, and the antibiotics are really doing a number on me. I don't remember minor injuries like this taking me out in the past, but so it goes…

 

And speaking of "going"… The bike is running great, so naturally, the weather has gone to Craptastic… Shame, getting 52 MPG at "highway" speeds (55 MPH or so), and I REALLY like just parking a block away from my building and being able to leave whenever I really want to…

 

'k, LONG day and I'm in a bit darker mood than normal, so perhaps time to get to sleep…

Wow, this was a long week...

Well, good and bad things…  Bad, Altgeld Hall got hit by lightning and a bunch of computers and other things got messed up.  The handicapped access door had its motor melted, locking that door pretty effectively…  But so far 10-15 machines known to have lost as little as the Ethernet card to frying the whole system.  No doubt there will be more popping up over the next few months as folks wander back and find that for whatever reason they cannot log in, etc…  And with most of the machines now off warranty, well…  This is going to be a bit painful. So, that ate up the last half of my week at work.

Bike is still running along quite nicely…  Started riding it to work Thursday after I got my parking tag…  Maybe the weather will remain clear for a bit for me to keep riding in to work.  I have to admit it is absolutely awesome just walking a block to the bike and riding home rather than hoping to catch a crowded bus to another parking lot and then driving from there…  Down side being that there is construction on the main road between the University and Tolono, and they seem to be in “less of a hurry” to resurface than they were to tear up several miles worth of it…  So, back roads it is for now at least as I get used to the bike again.  Trying to avoid the “rough pavement” that is left before resurfacing the road…

Gaming, I’m paring down last week’s list to fit them in the lockable luggage on the Silverwing…  So, the Scouts are in, The Death Company are keepers, the Attack Bikes are keepers, and…?  Not sure what else to keep really…  I figure I can fit 2 trays full of troops in one of my old camera bags and then I’ll bring along some Rhino hulls…  The BA Rhinos are just better than all the rest for whatever reason… Apparently there is a deep seated belief in England that the red ones do in fact go faster…  So, another box for those to ride in and that leaves just a bit for the books, dice, etc…  Should be no problem… :-)

Health Insurance, Illinois and Corruption? Who knew :-)

So, I went to the U of I's "briefing" on our (lack of) options… Our Governor decided for some reason to do away with the HMOs that we had for health insurance in favor of another one. Turns out that this other one costs the State and us more, and it is really only covering the Chicago, Springfield and Peoria areas… Oops. Well, there were some other "options", but they've been removed by a judge, so they're trying to rush through some 90 day extension of our current health plan before the Legislature's bill becomes law with or without the Governor's signature keeping all of the current providers in place for 2 years while an actual bidding process takes place… So, there might be an interruption of the good health plan while they sort these things out… Of course, the whole briefing this morning became irrelevant by noon, and so it's going to be a tremendous waste of time and money at a time when we can ill afford the loss of either. But so it goes…

 

Gaming, I decided to bring my Fleshtearers out to play in the league thinking that the Grey Knights would be crowded with 3-4 other lads picking them up recently, and I was a bit tired playing my Deathwing force… Powerful as it is, it is fairly boring one after a while… Not many models on the table, but it still wins a LOT of games for me. Played against one of the other 2 Blood Angels codex armies in the league… He played a more Mech force than I did with my Death Company themed force :-)… I got REALLY lucky that it did not end on turn 5 and I was able to pick up 2 critical kill points on turn 6 before time ran out. I'll probably have to change up the force a bit before next week since I plan at this point to be on the motorcycle… Nice luggage there, but somewhat limited space really. Still, should be able to throw something together…

 

Speaking of the bike, it's still running great, just looking for a "sound" solution for it at this point…. Something in an MP3 player I guess. Not sure if the old speakers still work, but that is a consideration. Looking very much forward to riding to work and parking ON campus, not a few miles out and catching a bus into the office…

 

Time to start selling off my ancient firearms… Tokerov, Nagant, Czech CZ-52, and Lugar for pistols and a whole mess of rifles… Federal and State/Local laws apply of course, but I'm sure the prices will be more than reasonable since I am pretty motivated to get rid of them… Oh, and loads of accessories and ammo… Contact me here or other places :-)…

New League…

Well, Joe is running the league, so it should be interesting… Near as I can tell, we're looking at a 200 point mini game and then an 1800 normal game… I'm switching back to my Fleshtearers for this league.. Not sure what I'll bring for the 200 point "patrol", but I'm looking at this for the 1800:

 

Librarian (Unleash Rage, Blood Lance?)    100

Terminator Assault Squad (3 TH/SS, 2 LC)    490

    Land Raider Crusader (EA/MM)

Scout Squad (10, ML, 5 SR, SGT w/SR/PF locator beacon)    200

Death Company (5, Jump packs, 2 PF/bolter)    225

DC DN (Drop Pod, Locator Beacon)    170

Baal Predator (HB sponsons)     145

Predator (AC, LC sponsons)    135

Vanguard Vet (5, PF and 4 power weapons, jump packs) 235

 

Leaves me 100 points, so 2 Attack bikes or a HB attack bike and a speeder maybe? Dunno, I'm really liking the attack bikes… A little light on "scoring" units since the DC cannot score, they're just there to kill things… Maybe put the Librarian in Terminator armor w/ Storm Shield and get one attack bike… Might be amusing…

 

On the bike front, just about done tuning her up and getting used to running at "road speeds", so 45-55 mph… Hopefully RT 45 will be done North of Tolono early this week before I mostly ride to work… Next year's parking tags go on sale the 16^th, so that's when I can park without worry about tickets, I hope…

Ah, June…

Well, GW's price increase hit about the same time as their change over to resin "finecast" (or as the lads from "Beasts of War" kept slipping up and calling it "finecost")… Bad timing more than anything, I mean I'm probably one of the few folks out there that actually understands about the whole price increase thing… I mean with the price of EVERYTHING going through the roof, especially fuel which ups all other prices for shipping, etc… So, the price increase I get. Not happy about it of course, but I'm probably not the "core customer" they are selling things to… Frankly, I already HAVE 6 full armies for 40K that I rotate through as I get bored with them in turn, so I'll not really be buying all that much anymore, certainly not on a large scale. I might get into Malifaux, or Kings of War, leaning heavily towards Malifaux as I've found a group that I think I can actually play there… We'll see. Just hoping for a game system that sticks around for a few years at least…

 

Work is… Well, a lot of work :-)…. Still waiting to find out what is going to happen with Health Alliance… Not looking good, I'll have to get my eye exams in this month before any odd changes hit… I'm used to seeing corruption in Government; I grew up in Joliet where the Outfit and/or the Machine ran everything… But even there, it was NOT this out in the open… We have a "bid" process that does not consider price? And does not follow the law requiring actual full coverage in terms of area at least, but "oops, there is no HMO in Champaign now"… A bit depressing, just watching the current Governor get away with this shit, especially with his predecessor on trial for what again? Oh yeah, corruption…

 

Bike is back working again! Looking like I'll be riding in to work a few times next week, but towards the end of next week it will be a regular thing… Still a slow leak in the rear tire, but that can be fixed I hope… So, I'll try the soapy water thing to see if I can find the source of the leak, and maybe that "slime" stuff work to plug it on a more permanent thing… We'll see.

 

Still finding weird random weapon things like high capacity magazines, random ammo and even another rifle I'd forgotten I had… So if anyone out there is looking for anything in this area, let me know…

Information Technology Specialist

So… Apparently that's what I am now :-)… I do wonder if I'll actually get my "Notification of Appointment" updated or if it will just be my next one… Wonder if I'll be transitioned from AP to "Civil Service", and how if at all this changes my situation… We're still seeing what our wonderful Governor has in store for us WRT our health care… Apparently, the State House and Senate have passed a bill rolling his changes back, but of course it all waits on him. The bill passed with "veto proof" majorities, and it does make one wonder who actually gains from the Governor's changes… So, the State will go to court to defend the Governor's changes, with everyone knowing full well they will likely lose the case and in any case it will all get rolled back by the legislature… A colossal waste of time and money with no clear winner really… I suppose the Republicans, assuming they can find someone to run against Quinn that doesn't shoot themselves in the foot since the last election was close and this should piss off a LOT of Dems down here…

 

Bike? Going quite well now… Turns out that the bike parking is NOT prorated, and it would be paying for a full year if I start now… But the 16^th of June is when next years go on sale and I can start then… So it looks like a few more weeks of riding to gain more familiarity and get used to the machine before I ride to work. It seems to be evening out and I think the gumout is clearing up the engine a bit… The gearing is a bit different than I would have assumed, and the top gear (5^th) started out at ~4000 RPM at ~40 MPH… Now it is hitting 45-50 MPH at 4000 RPM and getting better daily… Maybe it's just me getting more used to it, but I think it is clearing up nicely… So, just a bit longer I think… Still, it is a lot of fun taking it out and zipping about every night at least… Looking at MP3 players for the bike, and a lot of them come with remotes… Where in the fuck are you sitting on the bike that you'd need a remote to control the stereo on the vehicle? But then I'm just an Engineer, what would I know of these things…

 

Gaming… Looking like I'll be playing my Fleshtearers next… I'll be getting my Scout squad painted up since that was one of the things I never actually had back in 3^rd edition… Liking all the "Troops" selections that they have available, and I'll definitely be fielding my traditional Death Company, my new DC Dread I've converted and a few Assault squads… My random Rhino hulls all being fast, etc… Pretty sure the "linebacker" that is the Grey Knight trump would be an Assault Terminator squad… And I'll probably bring a Land Raider (Redeemer or Crusader) and maybe Gabriel Seth for the "Let's go forth and kill something" unit… Something "fun" at least…