Gearing up for Springfield and Firesprays in 2nd Ed?

So…  Just over a month until the Springfield Hyperspace Trial and I have the standard list set:

Anakin Obi Wan Ric2 (199)

Anakin Skywalker — Delta-7 Aethersprite	62
R2 Astromech	6
Delta-7B	20
Ship Total: 88
Half Points: 44 Threshold: 3
Obi-Wan Kenobi — Delta-7 Aethersprite	47
Sense	5
R2-A6	6
Calibrated Laser Targeting	4
Ship Total: 62
Half Points: 31 Threshold: 2
Ric Olié — Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter	42
Daredevil	3
R2 Astromech	4
Ship Total: 49
Half Points: 25 Threshold: 3

With the “Republic Ace” list…  Anakin is the solid hammer of the list, surprisingly Obi-Wan is really slippery and likely to survive to the end if I do not mess up and let him get caught…  Ric is mostly a fast distraction.  “Neat”, but not really much of a threat overall…  Mind, if you DO ignore him, I will run a flank and he’ll likely have a nice fully modded 4 Dice Attack with which to punish you for ignoring him…  Pretty standard, but I think more and more people are learning how to deal with the Ace builds these days and frankly Swarms or “Beef en masse” are things I am really rather a bit concerned about…  3 FAST ships, but none REALLY hit all that hard, and not for long if they cannot dodge Arcs…

Got to watch a Dual Firespray list last weekend at one of the events, I’ll have to go back and re-watch it to see what they did…  But it got me thinking and I dug out my 2 Firesprays and:

Boba Emon 1 (198)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Lone Wolf	5
IG-88D	3
Proximity Mines	6
Slave I	2
Ship Total: 101
Half Points: 51 Threshold: 5
Emon Azzameen — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	74
Trick Shot	4
Cad Bane	4
Proximity Mines	6
Andrasta	4
Proton Bombs	5
Ship Total: 97
Half Points: 49 Threshold: 5

Different than the one I saw on Gold Squadron’s Stream, but I think the Bombs Emon can chuck about while getting the Red Boost from Cad Bane might make him fast enough to really punish anyone who wants to try to run him down.  Makes him sort of my End Game ship as Boba Fett is a REALLY solid hammer…  But he dies in the exchange.  Trick of course is to take out more than he costs one the way down…  Slave 1, 88D and Lone Wolf should make him a lot more difficult to deal with overall…  And the Proximity Mines are just dirty for a close in knife fighter like him…  If I can overrun something, smack it at Range 1, then drop the Mine on it before it can move away for the guaranteed 1 Damage and potential 2 more?  Yes Please… 

Of course, I ran a LOT of Firesprays in First Edition…  And I know exactly how easy they are to Arc Dodge and eventually kill…  The v2 Firesprays ARE a bit different, and I am really liking the movement options I have here…  At the very least I think it will be fun and something unexpected for a lot of the folks I end up facing...

Post interview workouts and gearing up for the Hyperspace Trial...

Well, after the West Texas did not come through, I got back to being more serious with my workouts again.  Not QUITE the “divorce body” effect, but I suppose the same basic effect.  The adage of “just keep moving, you’ll be fine” hitting me again.  So, I am working out 6 day/week and seeing my run times drop almost every run and each workout gets slightly easier and getting in more reps.  Not at all concerned about the weight as I suspect strongly that it will sort itself out as it were.  I suppose I’ll check at some point, but at this point feeling stronger, having my clothes fit far more loosely and the like I suspect I’m heading in the correct direction there. 

A few more applications sent off, got a few more interviews…  We’ll see.  No hurry.  Oh, and one locally opened up so I have to get my resume tweaked for that.  THAT would frankly be preferable at the moment as we would not be having to move in the short term, but of course first I HAVE to get the bloody job J…  Will see.  Another one where I think I have the requisite skills and experience of course, but my opinion is not one of those that matters J…

X-Wing wise, I am still flying my Jedi but…  S&V are calling to me I think.  Got to watch a dual Firespray this morning at the Nova Open and it was hugely impressive.  I flew that type of list a LOT in the twilight of First Edition.  The dials are a bit different, but still fairly familiar.  And I tend to play a lot more aggressively than most so Boba Fett is about perfect for my style.  Will see I suppose if there is a points adjustment that negates the Jedi I am flying.  Speaking of which, I have purchased my ticket for the Titan (Springfield IL) Hyperspace Trial and am heading out Friday the 11^th of October.  Trying to sneak in on that Friday to get a better chance of making the cut/getting Dice…  Honestly not even sure how many people will even be showing up for the event.  Attendance has kind of tanked across the board, seems to be similar to the end of First Edition with the almost endless Store Championships…  Will see I suppose, I am still having fun and have not earned my Dice yet, so that is my motivation to hit this one hard…  But trying a few different iterations of the Anakin/Obi-Wan/Ric setup to see if there is a better way to do it than the one I am currently set up on…

Back to X-Wing... Post Gen Con adjustments

So, finally back to playing some X-Wing…  Settled mostly on the standard squad of Anakin/Obi-Wan and Ric:

Anakin Obi Wan Ric2 (199)

Anakin Skywalker — Delta-7 Aethersprite	62
R2 Astromech	6
Delta-7B	20
Ship Total: 88
Half Points: 44 Threshold: 3
Obi-Wan Kenobi — Delta-7 Aethersprite	47
Sense	5
R2-A6	6
Calibrated Laser Targeting	4
Ship Total: 62
Half Points: 31 Threshold: 2
Ric Olié — Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter	42
Daredevil	3
R2 Astromech	4
Ship Total: 49
Half Points: 25 Threshold: 3

Not really anything left for a Bid, but Obi-Wan becomes essentially un-blockable and Ric?  Well, I have not flown with Daredevil yet but it does look promising.  The Gen Con champion’s list was this with Predator on Ric.  I have played that and while occasionally useful I frankly would probably have simply dropped it and kept the extra 2 points for a bigger Bid…  Or Spare Parts on Anakin perhaps…  Have to say I am missing the Juke on Ric…  That was really good, and perhaps too good?  But in any case I am having a blast flying Obi-Wan and Anakin’s ships at the least…  MAYBE a third Jedi in there?  The 186 Squadron had some good success with one of their lads flying Anakin and 2 Jedi with Sense/Spare Parts to block and jam the heck out of the board while Anakin skirted and was the hammer of opportunity when he could snipe a bit of Damage in…  While that does seem quite good, it is not really my play style frankly, I’m just not that good at the whole “Blocking” thing…  And of course when I see a lot of I4 and below Blocking is simply not a thing I can do.  With the other Republic list that is doing quite well at the moment being a Sinker Swarm there will be no blocking in any case, just hoping to do a LOT of Arc Dodging.  For me, this is where my setup with Ric separate from the Jedi shines…  The Swarm must try and chase one or the other down.  Once the choice is made, the other element hits in the flank and usually does a bit of damage.  Hoping to get them to turn and try to chase the now running flanker.  Allowing the other element to take its turn as the one hitting a flank and stinging them a bit.  Slow process and requires patience, but when it works it is solid.  Having Regeneration allows me to dive in, take a bit of Damage and then swoop away to regenerate Shields and Force…

Have the next event coming up in October it seems, perhaps I can schedule a local kit event before then…  I’m a far more casual TO/player so maybe?  Looking to get more games in, so we’ll see I suppose…  Legion game coming up next month as well so I suppose I should make an effort to get at least some of that fully painted…

Job hunt?  Well, the initial finalist run ended in another “thanks for playing”…  Still, I did get to the point where they flew me down to Texas for the interviews and presentations.  And I was REALLY in serious contention to become a VP…  That is pretty darn good.  I thought I did well but was clearly not what they were looking for.  On the major plus side, the short-term stress of moving there is gone, but it has certainly cemented my decision to make this move.  Even Maggie is on board, so mostly looking in the AZ/TX area at this point.  More applications submitted and even had a brief screening chat with one, so we will see I suppose…  Balances out yet another “thanks for playing” from another place in AZ…  With the sheer volume of applications I am sending out, it is of course unsurprising that the majority end in a “no thanks”, but maybe one or two will be successful?  Accuracy through volume as the “typical US Army” response would go…  Or in my case, the “Military Safety Factor” for demolitions work being find how much you NEED to do the job and double it.  Not concerned with “neat”, just results.

Well, not moving to TX (yet)

So, got the call yesterday and I did not get the VP job in Texas...  So, not moving yet...  But it DID start the ball rolling it seems and we may well end up in that direction sooner rather than later...

Just jotting down thoughts from the Airport... No X-Wing, just real life stuff I guess...

Wanted to jot down a bit while I was still moving and it is rattling around in my head…  It REALLY hit me last night while I was stuck at DFW…  So, I got flown out there and they have actually spent a fair bit of money on me already.  They did the Security Checks already… 

The interviews in person seemed like I absolutely killed it.  My presentation seemed like it hit every mark and was spot on exactly what they were looking for and needed.  Had lunch with the President and that seemed like it also went quite well.  The Campus tour was great and…  Not sure how to say it, there were just no red flags that I saw anywhere…  And then “my Secretary” ran me out to the Airport.  That was one of the things that I did catch…  Several of them on the Hiring Committees slipped up several times and used the incorrect tense or term implying that I was their choice.  Mind, I could be completely wrong and it could simply be a series of mistakes that all fall in the same direction…  Or of course they could simply be better poker players than I am J…

When the flight out got delayed so long that I was guaranteed to miss my connecting flight I had a bit of time on to calmly go over a lot of this…  I was REALLY hyped up at that point and needed something to keep myself focused.  And so I got the opportunity to put things in order and slowly (for me) come to the somewhat frightening realization that I might get the offer.  And the offer might well be one that is in the range that I would be foolish to not take it…  And that in and of itself is frightening when I consider the sheer magnitude of what this means to move down there. 

I mean, the city itself looks nice enough.  I DEFINITELY need to brush up on my Spanish…  And with the oddness originating from the fact that the area essentially has 100% employment in an industry that pays REALLY well…  For a while.  The cyclical nature of the Industry and the fact that the Industry has absolutely no job security means that it could all go to Hell very quickly.  So, the area is in a great place now, but that might well not be the long term situation…  Working at the College?  MUCH more stable and if I am there?  I’m getting paid well I hope…

Which does concern me?  The Real Estate market is super tight…  And that is not a good thing from my perspective…  IFF I get the job we’ll be looking at selling the house in Tolono and then buying there…  Brief look at Apartments as I’ll be “Advance Party” I am guessing…  Just so many things…  And I do not really want to get ahead of myself since I need to actually you know, get the job before anything major like this need be worried about…

West Texas?

Well, posting from West Texas...  They flew me out for an interview, and I thought it went amazingly well...  Would be a long stretch from SGT Chappell to VP Chappell, but we'll see...  Wow it is hot here :-)  And it does reinforce the quote that came to mind when I got the official word I was a finalist and they were flying me in...

"Better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven"...  :-)  Benefits of that classical education and the fact that I read a LOT when I was younger of course...  NOT saying this place is Hell of course, but someone used to greener places might thing it is "Hell adjacent"...  But year round Motorcycling and no real winter?  Yes please...

Ah, Gen Con and X-Wing...

So…  Flew in another Gen Con this year.  Far more successful I think but still crashed and burned by the end of the day.  I COULD have probably made it to the end of the day, but honestly after playing Aces for 5 LONG games I was just not really looking forward to 2 more games that would likely go to time and since I am doing the Ace thing, it is “put on an Arc Dodging exhibition or die”.  I wound up going with my first choice of:

Anakin Obi Wan Ric (192)

Anakin Skywalker — Delta-7 Aethersprite	62
R2 Astromech	6
Delta-7B	20
Ship Total: 88
Half Points: 44 Threshold: 3
Obi-Wan Kenobi — Delta-7 Aethersprite	47
Calibrated Laser Targeting	4
Ship Total: 51
Half Points: 26 Threshold: 2
Ric Olié — Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter	42
Juke	7
R2 Astromech	4
Ship Total: 53
Half Points: 27 Threshold: 3

I flew it with Anakin and Obi-Wan on one flank across from something I was hunting and Ric on the other flank, usually across from the bulk of the enemy ships.  He is essentially bait.  I got every single player I flew against to try to chase him down.  USUALLY in vain…  But if you ignore him, he hits your Flank and he does hit HARD especially with Juke.

Bat reps?  Sort of, it all got a bit blurry there for a bit…  First game was a loss against an Imperial Ace list.  This was my theorized absolute hard counters… 2 I6’s even if mine moves last is just too much for my I5’s to handle.  Still was surprisingly close.  Second game was against an awesome Canadian player flying a Rebel “beef” list.  Lacked the I6 Wedge however and so my “All Aces, All the Time” list simply flew circles around him while I killed whatever I could catch.  Third game was streamed on the Gold Squadron stream (Linked here).  Flew against a Republic “beef” list here.  Ric, Obi-Wan kitted out like mine and 2 ARCs…  Wolfe and a 104^th with the 7^th Fleet Gunner.  Another long game but I arc dodged quite well, avoided the kill boxes and killed his Ric.  Half points on Wolfe and Obi-Wan (his of course) gave me the 123 – 0 win.  Third game was against someone out of Illinois, local(ish) running the Y-wing swarm with the Ion Turrets and Gunners to double tap…  Scary, but low I meant that I was dodging like my life depended on it…  Spoiler, it did.  So, the 200-0 win there got me to the top group…  Table 9 I think, and there I met another of my nemesis lists…  Resistance Aces, or at least Poe and 3 A-Wings.  I played too aggressive as time was running out and should have realized I was actually winning at that point…  “Stay on target, remember the mission” …  After that I dropped and went to a nice dinner with my lovely wife J…  By then I was just kind of worn out from bending over those tables all day and that was probably the better decision… 

Oh, ran into an old HS buddy of mine after 30 or so years while playing, so that was great…  One of the very few I’ve bothered to keep in touch with from that life as I consider it a pretty much completely separate life from my pre/post Army life…