So, looking around…
Seems that the STAW group is dying off locally. Darn shame, the game is overall quite good. Yes, there are some stupidly overpowered units
(ships and cards) and some combos that just break the game in silly ways… The “Collective” OP events were certainly not
helpful as they were clearly NOT play tested in anything like a realistic
fashion. But at a local level at least I
think we’ve gotten around a lot of this by tending to play in a more “faction
pure” fashion (not EVERY ship needs to be Captained by Jean Luc Picard). The most recent one we played out last
night. No one actually beat the scenario. The sheer stupidity of a 12 dice attack with
re-rolls meant that the only ship to actually survive was one with a broken and
silly combo on it (Weyoun/Varel to “discard Varel to cancel an attack, but
Weyoun can disable to prevent the discard, re-enable and repeat as necessary”). They still failed to actually kill the bloody
Borg. Last Month’s was actually a decent
one, if a bit uninspiring… Do as much
damage with your Fleet before time runs out or you all die. Not a whole lot of incentive to mess with
each other, and the games were actually kind of interesting seeing just how
much damage your Fleet COULD throw out if you build with only that in
mind. Yes J I did a LOT better on that one… But back on target, hoping to get in touch
with some of the folks who have quit the game for various reasons and see if a
few others might be interested in playing…
Scheduling is of course an issue as this is really a small (and
currently dying) fringe game J… But it really does not take up all that much
space in the grand scheme… So, I guess I
start posting on the Facebook groups to see if interest and players cannot be
drummed up…
Getting a lot more into Warmachine, and I have to say it is
a much more interesting game for me at the moment than 40K. Perhaps it is the perspective of taking
several years off and coming back, but I honestly think that the system is far
more balanced and the company producing it is FAR more responsive to issues of
unbalance or questions/FAQ’s. For the
most part the local group is very low key and quite relaxed… Always a few power gamers in just about every
competitive group of course, and this is no exception. But overall, WAY more fun, even when being
smacked off the table by say, a Skorne build that was built for maximum efficiency… Dusted off my Cygnar, but to be honest I am
FAR more interested in the Rhulic (Dwarven) forces. Traded them off when last I left the game… Ironically for 40K stuff and Confrontation
IIRC…. So now trading Confrontation
stuff and Magic cards for the rebuilding efforts. Surprisingly already a good part of the way
there now. Several “new” things since
last I had this army, but overall a fairly small force, being Dwarves and all J… Probably have to proxy some of the things like
the Ogrun Assault Corps before dropping the $70 on what looks like it could very
well be a mediocre unit at best for instance.
The Hammerhold Forge Guard (think plate armored Dwarves with two handed
hammers), and will probably be on my “eventually” purchase list unless I can arrange
a favorable trade, and the Colossal looks “neat”… Saying that though, I am quite hesitant to
drop that kind of money on a big “centerpiece” unit if it is not going to get
played a whole lot. I HAVE several of
those already for 40K with the Imperial Knight being the only one that I
suspect will ever really be one to see a LOT of play time. The Spartan and Warhound class Titan are both
VERY niche pieces that look nice, but really how often would I use them? Yeah, almost never. So, should anyone make a serious offer on the
Spartan at least I would be VERY tempted to sell/trade it off since it is
currently completely bare resin and unassembled. Brun and Lug are headed my way thanks to some
Confrontation Kelts, and I think that I have the basics for a pretty decent
force after everything gets here… Well,
a fun force at least as I suspect that I will have some trouble dealing with
some of the stuff out there. But per my
usual style, at the very least they’ll know they were in a fight as the Dwarves
tend to die hard…
Basement cleaning continues, albeit slowly… Still finding strange and sometimes
interesting things down there. Trying to
get things organized and actually throw out some of the old and useless things
these days. Someday I actually hope to
finish at least a big part of the basement as the workout room is pretty much
just framed in, and laying down some sort of carpet type flooring and insulating/putting
up a celling. Been a LONG time since I
worked in the “construction” area, and frankly I was never particularly good at
it… Built cabinets for a while and then
houses between College and finding a real job thanks to one of my house mates (Steve)
being a Foreman at a local construction company… Pay was not great, work conditions were also “not
great”, but WAY better (in both areas) than my time in the Army with the added
bonus of fewer people actively trying to kill you. But it kept me paying rent and you know,
eating when times were pretty tough.
Took me some time to get some things figured out and frankly decompress
into a VERY different reality being a civilian after… Not really something I talk about, but it was
such a stark and massive difference that I had a pretty hard time adjusting
back to life here in Champaign/Urbana…
Probably took a LOT longer than it should have because I made a number
of really poor choices, but made for some interesting stories I think J… Just really needed a kick to get myself out
of Joe’s (local bar where I worked), and back to “real life”. J And now things are so very different…. Amazing wife, kids and am moving into IT Management
with a career that has lasted for 15 years here at the University alone… Never would have thought it possible back
then… :-) All in all, things are going quite well...
