So, thinking about what to fly next… Current list is:
| Captain Nym (Scum) — Scurrg H-6 Bomber | 30 |
| Veteran Instincts | 1 |
| Autoblaster Turret | 2 |
| Cruise Missiles | 3 |
| Bomblet Generator | 3 |
| Advanced Sensors | 3 |
| "Genius" | 0 |
| Guidance Chips | 0 |
| Havoc | 0 |
| Ship Total: 42 | |
| Dengar — JumpMaster 5000 | 33 |
| Expertise | 4 |
| Plasma Torpedoes | 3 |
| Extra Munitions | 2 |
| K4 Security Droid | 3 |
| Unhinged Astromech | 1 |
| Guidance Chips | 0 |
| Punishing One | 12 |
| Ship Total: 58 | |
My Dengar Nym build is absolutely solid, but
not what I would think of as being “fun” to fly against I think. It is REALLY good but it requires a bit of
skill to actually fly. Counters? I guess…
If I fly it smart though there are not many I am concerned about
honestly. I can arc dodge fairly well
with both of my ships and the unlimited bombs are a thing that just erases
fragile Aces. Might swap the Plasma Torps and Cruise Missiles for TLT or something... Dunno, people MIGHT figure out how to deal with the ABT version of Nym at some point...
Looking at the “Hired Guns”
expansion and the additional silliness that will ensue I think there… My Kihraxz fighters get a HUGE boost and the
Harpoon Missiles just look stupidly good.
Wave 12 is kind of spoiled as well and some things look interesting. Frankly concerned about the Epic actions
coming into the game with coordinate being on the new version of the Phantom
Shuttle. 14 points seems pretty light
for the action boosting potential. The
Rebels already have a number of points fortresses that would benefit greatly by
having another Free Action at the end of Activation, so I am waiting and seeing
with this one I think. Might take some
time, but I am confident someone out there will find a silly and broken combo
to make this thing way too good for the cost.
The Reload action on the other 2 we have seen so far is another one,
especially with more complicated Ordinance like the Harpoon Missile hitting at
about the same time. Having an
effectively unlimited supply seems like it might be a bit too good. And with the Harpoon especially, formation
flying might well be a thing of the past.
Eh, wait and see…
Next event is in a few weeks so I’ll have to get in and preorder the
Hired Guns stuff, maybe it will be here by then, else Dengar/Nym hits the table
for me.
Started on Tanks by GF9…
Uses the 15mm WWII models that Battlefront uses for Flames of War, and I
have a few of them around. NOT really
all that many frankly, I had a Platoon of M-3 Lee/Grant tanks in the mostly
assembled/base coated US OD Green… Quick
repaint and turret swap for the British Grant tank gets me a LONG way to
fielding the swarm of cheap tanks… The
typical game is 100 points and the basic Grant is 14 points, so I COULD field 7
of the bastards… I have one coming along
with my order of the base game through the Gopher gets me 6 and I secured an OP
kit with I think 10 cards to field them if I need to… So, I’ll have my first force in the game
ready to go pretty darn quickly. My main
FoW force was American Airborne, so useless in this game I suppose, I’ll have
to see what else I actually have as it has been a LONG time since I played that
game. 1st and 2nd
edition were kind of broken if you actually knew how Artillery worked and used
it correctly. American Artillery was the
worst offender by far, and I felt kind of bad fielding such a broken force… Well, usually, there were a few times I was proving
a point and taking down someone annoying with what they felt was their uber
force…. My Infantry was stubborn as
Hell, armed to the teeth with every Bazooka they could “find” and backed by
Artillery on the field. I never had to
move in most cases, just range the shots in, call for fire… Then just keep calling for fire/FFE on the
same target until it broke and/or died. Tanks
looks to be a VERY much simpler game, almost to the “beer and pretzels” level,
but I think X-Wing has gotten more complicated and in depth, this makes for a
nice break.
And it got me out to the new Gopher for the first time to
see Ken demo/have their first tournament.
The place is nice, big play area.
Not a LOT of product on the shelves, but I think it is starting out
nicely. Inside the mall, so limited in
some ways, but again something to start out with and test the waters I
guess. CU seems like it works well with
2 good game shops, and I’m happy to see what looks like another nice place
starting up.
Had another fair bit written up about politics and the like… Lost it apparently, but going from
memory: Nazis? I cannot believe that there are actual Nazis
marching on the streets. I remember
watching the “Blues Brothers” when I was a kid and thinking “OK, they needed
something bizarre and outlandish as the ‘bad guys’ for the film, so Nazis made
sense for that”. Now here we are 30+ years later
and there are actual Nazis out marching.
Well, when I say “actual” perhaps I am stretching things… They CALL themselves Nazis, but I suspect
they are not actual National Socialists, just silly racists putting on
airs. In the other corner we get “Antifada”… So, another continuation/throwback to the
1920’s/30’s in Germany… The originals
were the militant wing of the Communist Party supported by the Stalinists in
Russia. They were fighting in the
streets against the original Nazis to determine what “flavor” of Socialism
would rule in Germany. They lost. Thing is, I am not convinced the current
iteration is NOT actually Communist.
They claim to be “Anarchists”, but once you actually look at what they
are saying and wanting it all looks familiar to those of us who studied history
and understand what Communism actually was.
Now it is appearing to those of us in the center that both extremist
groups are willing to use/promote violence to achieve their ends, just that one
group shares a great deal of ideology with most in the main stream media, so
they do tend to either get NO coverage or coverage slanted to make them appear
not so bad.
Scott Adams wrote an excellent piece here: http://blog.dilbert.com/post/164297628606/how-to-know-youre-in-a-mass-hysteria-bubble
If the President were to actually put down the cell phone
and get off of Twitter for a bit… Or
better yet, just get someone ELSE to actually write posts and not seem so silly,
reactionary and childish, perhaps the press/Left (not a lot of difference, I
know) could relax a bit and calm down.
Not likely, and working where I do…
Well, being what I would consider a “fiscal conservative” / Heinlein
style Libertarian I am seen as pretty far to the Right here… I see myself being somewhere in the middle, I
am not a Republican and cannot see any reason for the Government to involve
itself in many of the “big platform items” that the party seems to care about… Certainly not a Democrat, I grew up near
Chicago and here in Illinois where the running joke is the sheer corruption
that party stands for. Wish it were just
a joke, I get to see it firsthand a lot…
So, I keep to the old Army rule of “No Politics On Post” and
just do my job to the best of my ability.
The hysteria levels HAVE dropped over the last months locally, and with
the State doing its level best to destroy the economy in Illinois, there have
been far more valid local concerns to deal with. Glad on one level, sucks overall of course.
Eh, plus side a new Semester has begun and I have a LOT more to deal with so I can safely ignore that hysteria :-)...
