X-Wing this weekend: the "Y Bother" lists...

So gearing up for a big X-wing tournament this weekend...  Getting my mind off work is a good idea at this point. 

Not sure how the local TO will interpret the Slam rules for the K-Wing so a bit up in the air...  I have several lists I have been kicking around.  The Twin Laser Turret (TLT) is going to be what I use.  Not much damage all at once, but two shots each time should get me steady damage over time.

So, the S&V version is “Y Bother”:

Y Bother (100)

Kavil — Y-Wing	24
Predator	3
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
Unhinged Astromech	1
Ion Bombs	2
Engine Upgrade	4
Ship Total: 40
Syndicate Thug — Y-Wing	18
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
Seismic Charges	2
Engine Upgrade	4
Ship Total: 30
Syndicate Thug — Y-Wing	18
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
Ion Bombs	2
Engine Upgrade	4
Ship Total: 30

Basically instead of the 4 Y-Wings all with TLT and likely a Droid, I have 3 with Engine Upgrades and bombs to hopefully punish anyone wanting to get in close to take advantage of the range 2-3 limitation.  Kavil being the Ace here, rolling 4 Dice for each attack outside of his arc, should put damage on even the hardest to hit targets…  The other two are really just there to soak up hits and throw out more damage…

The Rebels have some more interesting options with the K-wing itself…  Now, the FFG article describing the ship and the SLAM action indicated that you ARE revealing a new maneuver and so can drop bombs at the midpoint of your movement…  Is somewhat unclear though as technically the rules for SLAM do not actually SAY to reveal a maneuver dial.  Waiting on FAQ I guess, but as it has been published by the company, I’d say my interpretation is a fairly good one.  So, I have 2 Rebel lists I am looking at:

KYY1 (100)

Miranda Doni — K-Wing	29
Twin Laser Turret	6
Engine Upgrade	4
Ship Total: 39
Gold Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing	18
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
R2 Astromech	1
Ion Bombs	2
Ship Total: 27
Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
R2 Astromech	1
Seismic Charges	2
Ship Total: 34

And:

KKY1 (100)

Miranda Doni — K-Wing	29
Twin Laser Turret	6
Ship Total: 35
Warden Squadron Pilot — K-Wing	23
Extra Munitions	2
Bombardier	1
Proton Bombs	5
Seismic Charges	2
Ship Total: 33
Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Twin Laser Turret	6
R2 Astromech	1
Ship Total: 32

For both of those, Horton has the ability to re-roll blanks at range 2-3, so more or less a built in Target Lock for the TLT…  Miranda has the ability to destroy one of her Shields to gain +1 Dice on an Attack or roll 1 fewer to regenerate one Shield…  For me, it will of course be the regenerate to last longer in the fight, especially as typically she’ll be firing twice, so not really much of a reduced impact on the field I think…  One has a K-Wing set up as a straight up Bomber.  Will have to look at replacing the Seismic Charges with Ion Bombs, same cost with the Ion effect…  Might be annoying enough, though with my luck I’ll wind up hitting my own ships too, so… 

So, some interesting builds I think…  Did pick up the S&V big ship as well, but not sure how best to use it at this point, so perhaps next run…  

End of August, State of the "Hobby" for me...

My personal “State of the Hobby” for now… 

40K (and 30K I guess):  Honestly, I haven’t kept up with this one much…  Not a lot of “hobby time” over the summer, so the minis are still awaiting sorting/packing.  GW has not released much of anything 40K related as they were busy killing off WFB.  I have WAY too much stuff for this game, and it is filling the shelves in the Basement of Doom™…  My Marine armies are all quite good with the new book I understand.  I do not actually HAVE them, no GW purchases at all this year.  NOT saying that I support or am boycotting by any means, wanted to make that clear.  Just burned out and find the game(s) in their current state to be uninteresting to me.  Uninteresting in that Fantasy is dead and my armies simply no longer exist.  Yes, I can play “Kings of War” when it comes out and assuming that anyone local plays it.  Meh.  So, my Wood Elves are still awaiting stripping and repainting as I painted MANY of them in the late 80’s and they are really poorly done :-)..  So, they along with their High Elves brothers are already packed up or staged to be packed away…  My 40K stuff?  In my sorting I am finding even more things than I remember having, and it is a bit discouraging knowing I will not enjoy playing the modern game.  Pretty sure I have 5 Land Raiders of various types, some 25+ Rhino hulls of various loadouts…  My DA army alone has 30+ Terminator class suits, so I could field their First Company almost complete at any given time…  Wolves?  Yeah, WAY too many of those…  I never bought their “Wolf Cavalry” as I just found the idea alone to be “bad” (avoiding the term “stupid”, but…)…  Eldar?  Well, I can tell you the age of most of them by saying that the overwhelming bulk of the Aspect Warriors I have are actually lead…  Picked up a BUNCH when GW went from lead to pewter and clearance off the existing stock of lead minis.  The resin vehicles are all pre GW having ANY vehicles for them as well, except of course for the War Walkers which went from “un-killable monsters” to “use in squadrons of 3 because they die so quickly”…  Sadly I DO have “a few” of them, all old metal minis…  But back on subject, WAY too much stuff, in the process of being shelved for the foreseeable future.

STAW:  Star Trek Attack Wing is picking back up and we are blazing through the OP events to get caught up from the 6+ month “dead time” when various players just quit the game altogether and WizKids had pretty well killed off the game with incredibly STUPID rules, releases and card combos.  Sadly, they still exist in a lot of ways so this game I have to admit is still sliding a bit for me…  The way we play locally it is a fun and balanced game, but having just played the “No Holds Barred” builds at Gen Con?  No, WizKids still has a VERY poorly written game with things like those stupid Borg mines “attacking” outside of the “combat phase” allowing no normal defenses or even things like Cloak?  REALLY badly written, and it was stupidity like that which killed the game the first time at the Gopher for us…  So, fun, and I’m still picking up the ships for “my” factions (Federation, Klingon and Romulan) because we’re still having a lot of fun here…  So, still playing and enjoying but the game itself has the feeling of stagnation from the manufacturer…  So, I’m not really confident it will exist in a year…

D&D AW: Much better than STAW in terms of balance, but just too much stuff coming out too quickly I think...  For me at least of course :-)  NOT a bad game, but I guess I am having a harder time getting too excited about it with the feeling of the standard WizKids "throw out a BUNCH of stuff, collect as much $ as possible then let the game die off" feel to it...  Being D&D maybe it will be different, but...

X-Wing:  REALLY interesting times….  Their Wave 7 has/is hitting, and there are a number of things changing in the meta because of it…  Combined with the leaked “V2” starter and the Episode VII ships in it?  New Damage Deck, New X-Wings and TIE Fighters…  Models look the similar, but the X-Wing gets a native Boost action, the Ties get Shields, etc…  New abilities and cards, etc…  Along with the announced Wave 8 stuff and the Star Wars: Rebels ships?  Guessing this is where the bulk of my near future purchases will be.  Albeit not THAT much really when compared to say, 40K…  The Starter will be ~ the same cost as a single 40K book, and the ships themselves are in the single mini price range…  From a purely “do I enjoy playing the game” perspective, I have to say this is my current “go to” game.  Deceptively simple, but that is why it really works so well I think.  Nothing so overpowering as you find in STAW, and FFG actually IS concerned about that silly “balance” thing.  Big tournament coming up in a few weeks, so trying out a few builds, might have to get Vassal set back up to run tests against folks online…  But in general, I am REALLY enjoying this game so far.  The fact that it has such a large local following I think is an excellent sign…  That and frankly, even when I am not winning, it never really feels like I lost in the “army building” stage or before with my choice of army simply being “lower” on the power totem pole…  Yes, I stubbornly played some armies at times that were perceived to be “weak” just to prove a point or get better at the game myself by doing so, but in a real competition I never would bring such a force…  Yes, I could build a silly force in X-Wing, but honestly, even those are not without merit and could at least stand against some builds.  There IS a very real series of hard(ish) counters in X-Wing like Rock-Paper-Scissors, but even that is not a guarantee of course with it being a dice game.  The Swarm builds do very well against a lot of things, but die to others, etc…  My Twin Laser Turret (TLT) builds will do well against a lot, but I think will not be so successful against the Swarms…  Just not enough damage output…  So, I am building more of a hybrid build for the most part with a few TLT ships and either a Bomber (K-Wing) or another “Big” ship (Aggressor/Firespray/YT) to provide a deterrent against someone simply rushing up to the Range 1 “weapon dead zone” the TLT has or trying to overwhelm my squadron with numbers.  Not sure how successful it will be, but it will at least be fun to play, and as the old Y-Wing was always my favorite Fighter from that universe…  Glad to get to field more of them without feeling like I am playing at a disadvantage…

Pretty sure that a viable “Star Wars” game was always one of the things GW knew would be the death of 40K…  Mind, X-Wing and 40K are very different games, and until a “ground combat” game gets released in the SW universe setting, not really thinking there is direct competition, but…  In a completely unscientific glance at the 2 remaining Game Stores locally, one carries NO GW product at all, and the other the GW space seems to be shrinking with fewer new toys coming out and guessing they are stuck with some things from previous editions as the release schedule for 40K was REALLY frantic for a while there, and those expensive hardback books getting an annual replacement is just not really in my budget at least…  Yes, first world problems, I know…  Not being shot at anymore, so every day like that is a good one, I’m living in the “bonus time”, etc…

The "Stripes" plan and STAW...

So, had to explain to someone what I meant by “I joined the Army on the ‘Stripes’ plan”…  Was a while back (1990) and I felt like I was living out Mr. Murray’s character for a bit there.  Everything hit in about a 24 hour period:

Got put on “Academic Probation” at the University of Illinois.  I “might” have been a LOT more into drinking than classes…

Divorce finalized… Big mistake, and stupid, so quick and quietly it died…

Laid off my job I got…  Drought and Landscaping work not really a good mix.

Then some drunk asshole rear ended my car in the middle of the day…  Was going to “The Crow’s Nest”, a local record shop to see a friend…  Back when we HAD such things J…  He hit my car pretty hard, the back lost about 2” due to the compression… 

But getting out of the vehicle, I looked up and saw a billboard with “Army, Be All You Can Be” and thought “eh, how much worse can it get?”  I apparently missed the universe laughing and saying “challenge accepted”.  While I was reporting to Basic (actually “One Station Unit Training” combining “Basic” and “Advanced”), Iraq invaded Kuwait.  I had just gotten my allergy tests done, among the more amusing things like cocaine and THC, camel hair came back positive…  Thought “Like I’ll ever see a camel”…  J  Yeah, was wrong about that too…  Training got shortened from a leisurely 16 week course to just under 9 weeks.  Cutting out all things “bridge” and “formality” related…  Oh, was a 12-B “Combat Engineer”…  The bridges we used we “just like” the ones we used in WWII…  I say “just like” because in many cases they WERE the bridges used then.  Problem was that the M-60 was the last tank we had that would fit onto them…  So, the 12-Es (Bridge) lads were…  Well, pretty much useless.  More on that later, but I went in weighing 238, left 9 weeks later weighing 168…  So, was GREAT for weight loss.  Had a really hard time maintaining my strength with the weight loss being so rapid, but toward the end it got better.  I wound up in the 180-190 range when we deployed, and in the 200-210 range when I was in the best shape of my life (Germany, Ft. Bragg). 

Not many pictures of me back then, but here I'm the TC of an ancient M-113 out in the desert...  Great tan for some reason :-) 

Back to game related stuff…  D&D Attack Wing Monday, I’ll probably run another Silver Dragon with either an Angel or another one of the big Dragons…  We’ll see, the scenario is odd. 

But really looking forward to the STAW event the following week…  Q Continuum Month 2, so the episode where Q became mortal and the Enterprise had to move a moon back to a normal orbit to save the planet below…  Some odd rules like Q is on your largest ship for the first 4 turns (at least) causing it to halve its primary Attack and Defense and get an Aux Power token each turn…  So, being a big Klingon/Romulan Federation player I’ll likely choose one of those…  Being a Klingon prize, would LIKE to play Klingon to win it, but not so sure they’ll be the best in this scenario..  At 120 points this is what I brought to Gen Con:

List Name

Chang's Bird-of-Prey (22)

Chang (4)

Qapla' (2)

Photon Torpedoes (3)

Ship SP: 31

K’Vort Class (24)

Martok (6)

Ship SP: 30

I.K.S. Pagh (26)

Gowron (4)

Ship SP: 30

Vor'cha Class (26)

Worf (3)

Ship SP: 29

Total Build SP: 120

Generated by STAW Builder

http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

I might have swapped CPT Worf and Martok and/or dropped Qapla’ for the real 5 point Torpedoes…  Which are potentially a 7 Dice Attack with a re-roll and BS converting to a Critical…  So, 4 ships, usually 5-7 Attack Dice each for the “I don’t care what you brought”… Problem being that it is a tightly packed formation, and does not do well against the really top tier lists that are all technically legal, but…  Well, they pretty much killed the game at our venue. 

Other options would be the Romulan build I’ve been running pretty frequently with the Scimitar, Avatar of Tomed and the Valdore…  Fleet CPT to reduce some costs, 2 Cloaked Mines in there somewhere, Mirok, Salatrel and Donatra being the CPTs I’ve had the best luck with and perhaps the Admiral Mendak?  BS action is nice and taking Mirok from a 4 to a 6 is pretty big…  Solid fleet, but not as fun really…  The Cloaked Mines are REALLY overpowered still, but it is a strong and winning combo…

Federation being the other likely choice for me…  My Dominion/Cardassian fleet is REALLY good, but there is another player locally who plays Dominion exclusively, so would prefer not to duplicate that.  Well, actually he almost always plays the BB and BC while I tend to use exclusively Cardassian ships (Galor/Keldon Class) and Fighters…  But still…  For the Feds, the USS Excelsior loaded out as a Torpedo boat, perhaps the USS Thunderchild loaded out as a “Can’t Hit Me” ship to abuse its text ability and Fighters…  Feds being a more “friendly” force I think… 

Just not sure which to bring…  I’ll likely have the new Klingon ship as well by then, so more options possible…

So, more options for the X-Wing tournament...

So…  Last tournament of this 4 month series on Sunday…  Had planned on fielding some of the new stuff, but not yet legal J…  So I’ve narrowed it down to the following:

Jake Farrell — A-Wing	24
Push the Limit	3
Chardaan Refit	-2
Autothrusters	2
Ship Total: 27
Ten Numb — B-Wing	31
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Ship Total: 35
Etahn A'baht — E-Wing	32
Wingman	2
R2-D2	4
Ship Total: 38

Or:

IG-88B — Aggressor	36
Expert Handling	2
Advanced Sensors	3
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Autothrusters	2
Ship Total: 50
Emon Azzameen — Firespray-31	36
Flechette Cannon	2
Proximity Mines	3
Tactician	2
Seismic Charges	2
Proximity Mines	3
Anti-Pursuit Lasers	2
Andrasta	0
Ship Total: 50

The Evil Midnight Bomber what bombs at midnight J…  I think the first one is a decent Rebel list that has a lot of synergy to allow them to move close to each other and just throw out critical hits…  With the second list I think it might do better overall…  Emon can catch someone at range 2 and hit them for a damage and 2 Stress…  Then the lads should be able to line up and hit the target next turn taking away the ability to do Actions or Red maneuvers… 

Weather looks like rain for Sunday, so no bike…  Did get in some good rides this week though.  DO find I am REALLY missing the windshield…  Looking like one of the things I get after payday.  The once/Month payday thing is “less fun” at times J…

Big X-Wing tournament Sunday...

Big X-Wing tournament Sunday at Titan, not sure what to play…  The new Wave 7 ships are NOT legal for this one, so my plan to either fly the new K-Wing and/or Y-Wings with the new Twin Laser Turrets will not hit the table…  Prizes they will be apparently, but it does leave me with no real idea what to fly…

IG-88B — Aggressor	36
Expert Handling	2
Advanced Sensors	3
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Autothrusters	2
Ship Total: 50
Emon Azzameen — Firespray-31	36
Flechette Cannon	2
Proximity Mines	3
Tactician	2
Seismic Charges	2
Proximity Mines	3
Anti-Pursuit Lasers	2
Andrasta	0
Ship Total: 50

Not sure if it will work for me…

Jake Farrell — A-Wing	24
Push the Limit	3
Chardaan Refit	-2
Autothrusters	2
Ship Total: 27
Ten Numb — B-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
Fire-Control System	2
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Ship Total: 38
Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Ion Cannon Turret	5
R2 Astromech	1
Engine Upgrade	4
Ship Total: 35

The first list is just the 2 ships…  The Aggressor is hard to kill and I am liking the bomber to just rush in and cause havoc…  If I get bumped, the Anti Pursiuit lasers can damage…  Tactician and Flechette Cannon both Stress, and the potential double Stress can cripple a ship to more easily deal with it…  Hopefully J 

Second list is more of a Rebel “All Stars” list…  REALLY looking forward to the K-Wings and TLT.  The B=wing just does not miss, the Y-Wing might be amusing to zip around a flank…  And the A-Wing?  It’s fast and hard to kill, more or less…  And 3 ships J…  Finding that 2 ships is just not enough, Swarms are still a very real threat…

Probably going with the first list...  Hoping the weather holds so I can ride the bike in to town Sunday...

Gen Con post mortum, X-Wing vs STAW...

Well, another Gen Con over and done…  Was a LOT better than last year for me with us actually going and staying Thursday-Sunday.  Might want to go Wednesday to Sunday next year, but this was great really…  Played in a few tournaments Friday in the Star Trek Attack Wing system…  Went quite well overall, but the last game I played on the top table in the finals really highlighted why the game very nearly died in our area, and the number of things that are really wrong with the game overall.  Played against a completely legal, but definitely broken build containing all of the things to skirt limitations that were put in place, and using some of the REALLY poorly written cards for the game.  “Pocket Dreadnaughts” with a shuttle docking to bring over more Captains, cards, etc. to bring the main ship up over the 50 point limits put in place…  Completely legal of course, but a REALLY horrible idea from WizKids to even put out such a piece not long after acknowledging the issues in the game and correcting it with their tournament format.  The main damage piece was the Pegasus deploying a Borg mine that exploded and damaged everything within range 1-3 when it gets his…  The Pegasus as deployed here was completely immune to the mines (Cardassian CPT, 2x Fed specialized shields for a -4 dice)…  It killed the only 2 things of mine to die with it being “an attack, but out of the turn sequence”, so almost all of the normal defenses are ignored due to yet another…  Let’s call it “poorly written” card and its interaction with the game itself…  The game was the least fun I had there easily.  The player was fine, not obnoxious at all, just playing a very different game than I was with me playing a “fun” faction pure fleet and him playing a cut throat all-stars fleet using as many of the loopholes as  possible.  Mind, there WAS money on the line with the prizes retailing at least for $90+ in total if you took the top spot…  So, I should have expected it at some point J…  So, ended up doing well, he was frankly surprised I actually nearly killed his uber DN with my “inferior” fleet focusing fire into it…  The mines with no defense possible were simply too much to deal with for my support ships that were built to trade fire in a conventional action and do well…

But I contrast this with the Star Wars “X-Wing” game…  Almost identical game really, just that FFG has a MUCH better grip on their game overall and have shown a willingness to actually errata and update their stuff in reaction to what happens when they release something that has an unexpected effect later on…  Waves are also VERY different with X-Wing just coming up on wave 7 and STAW hitting 18 soon?  Not even including their prize only ships, there are simply so many things out there and with WizKids…  Let’s call it “lax” approach to testing and reaction to broken things…  Well, it is a very stark contrast.  I wound up winning one of the new ships for X-Wing, and look forward to playing it or pieces from the pack Sunday in the last of the Summer tournaments for X-Wing at Titan…  Guessing that there will be a very different look and feel to some of the builds with new things finally hitting…   Different things, but nothing really broken I think…  The game is extremely well balanced with no one build being unbeatable or even really all that hard for certain other things to deal with…  And with the Gen Con announcement of what is in Wave 8, a LOT more excitement.  If you’ve seen the recent “Star Wars: Rebels” series, the ships are I think mostly from that…  The “Ghost” for Rebels, Inquisitor’s TIE, etc…  Should be interesting, but…  FFG has their stuff coming ni via ship, and Wave 7 was supposed to be out months ago but for the port issues…  Wave 8 is set for “late 2015”, so some time in 2016 perhaps?  And their “Armada” game is actually picking up steam and I may have to look at picking that up…  Maybe when I sell off some of my ancient stuff…

So, make the Magna a “parts bike” and sell it as is without title?  Or do I get a lawyer and have him hunt down the previous owner?  So, either a potentially expensive and possibly futile effort to get the title or junk it?  The Silverwing is working, but need to get a slightly larger (1000-1200cc) larger bike in a Goldwing likely…  Older 81-86 probably, so essentially I can trade my 2 current ones for this one and likely have some left over to pay down bills…  More importantly getting rid of 2 bikes for 1 in the garage…  Firearms, will probably sell down some of those as well…  We’ll see…

STAW, Gen Con and X-Wing...

Less than a week until we wander over to Indianapolis for Gen Con…  Staying at the Embassy Suites , but NOT the one downtown unfortunately…  Guessing I’ll be at the Con Friday and Saturday trying to get in some gaming Friday and wandering about with the girls on Saturday.  But in the meantime, one last event at the Gopher this evening and looking at running:

Peak Performance Federation 120

U.S.S Excelsior (26)

Jean-Luc Picard (6)

William T. Riker (3)

Montgomery Scott (5)

System Upgrade (2)

Quantum Torpedoes (6)

Ship SP: 48

U.S.S. Reliant (20)

Mr. Spock (4)

Kyle (2)

Photonic Torpedoes (2)

Ship SP: 28

Enterprise NX-01 (16)

Rudolph Ransom (2)

Type 8 Phaser Array (2)

Enhanced Hull Plating (0)

Ship SP: 20

Fighter Squadron 6 (24)

Ship SP: 24

Total Build SP: 120

Generated by STAW Builder

http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

Is a simulation of a simulation as it were…  The scenario (http://wizkidsgames.com//wp-content/uploads/newattackwing/peakperformance/71997%20Instruction%20Sheet.pdf) is one where you are running wargames to try to deal with the overwhelming Borg attack, so simulated and your ships “die” but come back online with 1 fewer shield or one less token in the case of Fighters…  One reason I put on 2 things that can regenerate Shields for me, and one ship is already conviently shield free…  Fighters will be an issue if they get killed too often, but hey, they’re 24 points.

Still trying to come up with a 120 point build for Gen Con, likely be bringing Klingons just for the “We’re here to shoot things” that they are known for…  Simple enough stuff…  Probably 4-5 decent ships, might go for 4 with interlocking bonuses to just move in a block and shoot things out of the sky before dying ourselves…

Looking at the X-Wing stuff, REALLY looking forward to the Wave 7 stuff and hoping they will have a bit at Gen Con, and will order a few of the ships locally…  Looking at the things I can do with the Rebel heavy bomber and the twin laser turrets…  Oh, and the new bomb types J…  Should shake up the meta quite a bit.  One of our locals took a really nice TIE swarm to Chicago over the weekend for Regionals and made top 8…  I suspect that this will be the last hurrah for the TIE swarm though…  Too many things look like hard counters with components from this upcoming wave…

Relics from the 80's

Digging around in the basement...  Found one of my relics from the 80's.  An old Armorcast (I think) Tempest class Eldar Grav Tank...  In the old days it was a "super heavy" tank, but these days it would make an interesting Wave Serpent probably, the scale has grown a bit since then...

X-Wing this weekend and Gen Com coming up...

Bigger X-Wing tournament coming up Sunday at Titan, so I’ll fly something at least familiar to me and that I think has a chance against the current “top lists”…  Right now, the scariest things are the 2 big turreted ships (Usually the Millennium Falcon x2) or the like loaded out to be annoyingly survivable or the Imperial equivalent with the one big ship and either a mini swarm or a few top notch fighters to escort.  Swarms of many small ships are still a danger, but becoming less so with more people looking ahead to Wave 7 and the probability of good Ordinance based squadrons being able to handle them easily…  That is one thing I REALLY like about this game, it is slowly evolving, not EVERY month a batch of ships, cards and the good chance that something in there is “poorly tested” and has some unforeseen combo that breaks the game a little bit more (or a lot).  Frankly pretty excited for Wave 7, looking like ¾ ships are going to be good for my fleets, and the Rebels get an excellent support bomber in the K-Wing.  https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/7/13/wave-vii-rebels/ says it FAR better than I.  Both the K-Wing and the Firespray with Emon in bomber configuration are looking VERY nice with new bombs and tricks to deploy them. 

So, looking at fielding the following:

Boba Fett (Scum) — Firespray-31	39
Predator	3
K4 Security Droid	3
Engine Upgrade	4
Ship Total: 49
IG-88B — Aggressor	36
Lone Wolf	2
Sensor Jammer	4
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Autothrusters	2
Ship Total: 51

Pretty simple really, the Aggressor is hard to take down and has the potential to land up to 4 hits each turn…  Yes, not great odds of course, but it will likely hit for a few each turn even against crazy high Defense with its reroll ability.  MAKING people Focus to fire on it negates the turret’s ability to just throw out a shot hoping to ping for a hit here and there.  The 2 defensive additions can almost guarantee 2 dodges for someone firing at long range or outside of their 90˚ firing arc.  And I still have a base 3-4 Defense dice to roll.  So, it will likely survive.  Fett’s Firespray is set to essentially move slowly, take pot shots with Predator allowing re-rolls (and Fett’s ability if they get close)…  Not 100% sold on this configuration honestly, it has the potential to simply be swarmed and die without doing much of anything.

Other option is a fairly standard Dash/Corran list for the Rebels:

Dash Rendar — YT-2400                36

Heavy Laser Cannon       7

Navigator            3

Engine Upgrade               4

Outrider              5

Ship Total: 55

               

Corran Horn — E-Wing 35

Veteran Instincts             1

Fire-Control System       2

R2-D2    4

Hull Upgrade     3

Ship Total: 45

               

Nothing subtle, nothing really exciting, but potential to survive and do a fair bit of damage on the way… 

Probably stick with the S&V (first build) as a “fun” one…  I found 3 of my “Debris” markers so can use them instead of the verdammten Asteroid markers…  Last few times I parked on an Asteroid and lost several REALLY important rounds of shooting, but with this at least I get a shot…  Yes, a Stress and potentially a Critical Hit, but…  Better the 1/8 chance of a Crit than the 1/2 chance of a hit and loss of action/shooting… 

So, one last big event this month at Titan, Gen Con at the end of the Month…  Looking like a Star Trek Attack Wing tournament or two for me as they are what is scheduled when I’ll be around J…  Will need to get to “Will Call” probably Thursday when we get into town and get my badge/tickets…  Else, head in early Friday…  Guessing Saturday will be the day the girls and I wander about the Con…  Hoping we all have a better year than last, but staying at the Embassy Suites on the edge of Indianapolis, so at least a few meals, etc. will be included and we have a nice suite…

Overflowing basement, vehicles breaking and it is mid July already?

So…  What to do with “too much stuff”…  As it is appearing a pretty darn good bet that several of my GW armies can be downsized with the new WFB being…  Well, not Warhammer Fantasy.  Read over the rules and it is a “no” for me at this point.  40K is also going in a somewhat silly direction, and it is another good bet I will not be playing the game any time soon again, if ever.  That one is a real shame, as I’ve played off and on since the late 80’s and I have amassed WAY too many armies over the years:  Wolves, Dark Angels, Fleshtearers (Blood Angels), Crimson Fists, Generic Marines, Grey Knights, Imperial Guard (Praetorians, so think “Zulu”), and finally Eldar…   Oh, and a Warhound class Titan and a Knight...  Just SO many models everywhere.  Nothing particularly valuable individually, and of course not really looking at just dumping the lots on e-bay to get next to nothing back for them…  Just seeing too many of the people I knew for a long time walking away from the game, and frankly haven’t played either of their games now in quite a while (measured in years for WFB).  So, I don’t know if someone were looking to pick up a bunch of stuff, get in touch I guess… 

The basement is feeling more and more like a tomb of ancient/dead games.  I have WAY too many dead games down there, but just can’t seem to get rid of them.  1^st Edition Space Marine/Adeptus Titanicus (sp?)/Epic stuff mixed in with WizKids MechWarrior and BattleTech stuff in one corner.  Shelves full of Confrontation and related minis…  Then the 40K sprawl begins J…  So, I guess it is time to start packing some of it away.  Loads of ancient firearms there as well, should probably clean those and finish the armory closet…  Maybe get the painting station moved and set up a real “Hobby Area” for my wife and I complete with work bench, etc…

Waiting on payday, then ordering a few things for the bike I think…  REALLY missing the windshield, and yet another speedometer cable as I think I have installed them incorrectly with them dying so soon…  The Escape lost its exhaust flange, so the catalytic converter and the muffler are no longer attached.  Bolts rusted out, so that will be something I look at I guess.  The repair looks simple enough (thank you YouTube), so I guess I’ll give it a shot.  Need to pick up some more industrial strength break free (WD-40 is NOT enough) to get the rusted bolt head out of the flange and re-attach to the muffler….  Assuming I CAN and it does not break, this should be easy enough, but just saying that reminds me of the Clausewitz quote about “the easy things are the most difficult (in war)” …  So, we’ll see.  Might be a winter project, but may wind up getting a titled wreck/frame for the Magna and transferring everything that way…  Or just sell it as a “parts bike” and let the next buyer worry about the title.  In any case want it gone.  The Silverwing is running fine, but is just a tad too small for me to be comfortable taking it anywhere but in town, and I would very much like to go on longer rides…  So, I’ll probably get a Goldwing in the next iteration, can remove the trunk as I really just want saddlebags and a luggage rack to strap my ruck to if I am carrying more cargo.  Saddlebags need to fit my laptop and game stuff though as the Silverwing lacks in that area…  Probably get the "big bike" eventually, something in a Harley, Indian or Victory in a heavy cruiser with the nice hard side saddlebags...  But the Bluetooth headset my wife got me is working great as a comm unit for the helmet :-), so I am set there in the short to mid term...  And for the record, "Bat out of Hell" is an excellent soundtrack to cruise the back roads here in central Illinois....

Job search is a bust so far.  Other things are changing, so I guess we’ll see what shakes out when that gets settled.  Plus side I have some substantial things on the current resume that were not there in previous rounds, so my chances I would think are a bit better…  REALLY looking forward to next week ending as I can wash my hands of the one Department that I intend to have nothing to do with ever again….  Silly me volunteering to chair their search, but I think they have cured me of that.

Memphis trip, etc... A great way to start July...

So…  Took a long weekend trip to Memphis with my wife…  Was the first trip without the kids in a LONG time.  Had a great time, had great food, etc…  A few observations:

•    Was VERY clean and well maintained where we were.  Now, this was pretty limited to Main Street and Beale Street between the big Government complex (Federal Bldg, City Hall, Courts, etc.) and Beale itself…  Part of the clean and well maintained was due to the HIGH number of private Security personal on the ground there.  Almost every business it seemed had some or “Staff” that reminded me of our “Goon Squad” we had back working at Joe’s Brewery in the old days…  Very orderly, and the high visibility of what appeared to be competent Security staff helped that impression.
•  Beale St was pretty much like my impression of the French Quarter in New Orleans…  A lot of themed bars, most of which had window service so that you could get a drink and walk outside.  We decided not to go in to places with cover charges, and the drink prices were quite high…  Or at least they seemed that way to me, I don’t really drink anymore, so it’s been a LONG time since I last ordered myself anything in a bar other than the rare Guinness…  The crowd on Beale seemed a mix of “Frat Boys” and “Tourists” for the most part with a few more obvious local predator types mixed in…  As I mentioned above a LOT of Security, and I tend to be able to avoid issues with all of those crowds…  Am told I can project that “Just leave me alone if you want to live” feeling quite well..  Memphis PD had the street blocked off each night, so the place was very pedestrian friendly…
•  Food was AWESOME overall…  We hit “South of Beale” the first night for our first “As seen on ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’” meal.  Was probably the best meal we had there.  Certainly was the best we’d had out in a VERY long time.  Their Pimento Grits (I’d have called it “Polenta” coming from a more Italian background cooking wise) were the highlight for me… 
• BBQ was REALLY good overall…  Rendezvous I thought had the best ribs I’ve had in a LONG time…  Their Brisket was also quite good.  The sauces that they had mixed well for my wife and I, so that was another winner…  Blues City Café was another place we tried…  My wife liked the ribs there better, I found them to be a bit too “fall off the bone” tender as they tended to disintegrate on me…  The lack of sauce was disturbing to me as a Yankee as well J…  She loved the fried catfish (not one of the things I like particularly, so I’ll take her word that it was among the best she’d had), and I REALLY liked their “Delta” style tamales and BBQ sausage…  Those had an excellent flavor and certainly made that meal for me…  So for me Rendezvous for the Ribs/Brisket and Blues City Café for the sides…  But certainly both were far better than anything I’d had locally in Champaign as I’ve been thinking the general BBQ quality here has been bottoming out for a long time…  Another one of those “If I can cook it better, I am unlikely to enjoy it out” things…
• The “Bass Pro Shop Pyramid” was amusing…  We visited more as tourists than shoppers…  Neat building, but the fact that the roof was leaking in several places on the 25+ floor building was a tad disturbing to me…

All in all, though we stayed in the well-marked “safe” zones for the most part it was quite nice…  Stayed at the “Sleep Inn”, quite reasonable rates, nice place and RIGHT there on Main so we could park the vehicle and walk almost everywhere… 

Took the ancient bike out for a ride last night, missing the windshield…  Got hit by my first bird…  Was riding among the cornfields and going maybe 20mph coming out of a turn, so not a big deal, but the shield would have been nice.  Also had to clean out the helmet’s screen with the bugs hitting it pretty hard…  Got to ride into work today, but looking like my last ride for a while as we reenter monsoon season here in Illinois… 

Off to play STAW at the Gopher this evening, and I have my wee fleet packed away in the bike’s saddlebags…  Should be pretty decent as I just brought the 3 biggest ships I could fit in for the Klingons and Romulans and plan to take and hold the center while avoiding the terrain effects…

Waiting on a few things at work, did not get the last few things I’d applied for, but looking out longer term…  Well, it looks like a fair number of changes are headed our way, hoping that some moves happen the way I want them to which will open the way for me to move…  Eh, no hurry, I have a good job (at least it pays fairly well), family is doing well, etc…  So, there isn’t the sense of urgency I might otherwise have, but…  I do think it is definitely time to look very seriously at changes, be they within my current organization or another at the University…  We’ll see I guess…

Klingon/Romulans for STAW, random games and motorcycle stuff to start July out

So, getting ready to play another STAW event at the Gopher next Monday… 

Klingon/Romulan Alliance

I.R.W. Avatar of Tomed (34)

Martok (6)

Cloaked Mines (3)

Ship SP: 44

Scimitar (38)

Mirok (2)

Romulan Helmsman (2)

Cloaked Mines (3)

Ship SP: 45

Negh'Var Class (28)

Donatra (4)

Ship SP: 33

Total Build SP: 120

Generated by STAW Builder

http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

The scenario is based on one of my favorite Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes with Cmdr Riker being assigned to a Klingon ship as part of an “Office Exchange Program”.  Their ship and the Enterprise both pick up some bacteria that eats away their hulls until the crew of the Enterprise figures out the “cure”.  The board for the event will a grid of 12 tokens placed leaving a narrow band in the center of the board without bacteria waiting to latch onto a ship.  Oh, and your ships all start with the stuff on them, so everyone rolls at least once to take damage (50% shot) before being able to clear the token by sacrificing an action more or less…  So, Fighters and small ships are pretty much right out for this event.  I’m going with straight joisting with big ships and big damage with the plan of run up the middle where it’s clear, and use the Cloaked Mines to punish the opponent for doing the same…  Not playing subtle, and with 2 ships that can heal along with the potential 9 Dice Attack from the Scimitar, it should leave a mark.

Hockey season is over…  Really the only sport I even follow a little.  The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, and with the hard salary cap, the dismantling of the team has begun…  A real shame, but if it prevents a NY Yankee situation where one team is completely dominant in the league being able to simply buy the best players, etc…  I guess I understand, and why it is impressive for a team to win the cup consistently.  And with the Cup being the most difficult trophy to win in any sport…  Kind of sad seeing the Hawks get broken up like this, but that’s the way it works I guess…

40K is gaining speed, but not I think in a good way.  The Space Marines and Dark Angels just released new Codices.  After a quick read through, I can’t really say that there is all that much new information in them frankly.  The Marines get a bunch of new formations, which is “neat”, but this is something that could have been an inexpensive web/e-book/whatever update, not another $60 hardback book to replace one less than 2 years old.  I think that is what is bothering me so much about it, this situation is the same as my experience with the University when I got here and took Chemistry…  Professor Zumdahl (I think, been a few years) was the instructor of record, and even usually did the weekly lectures…  He also wrote the book we used, and every 3 semesters there would be a “new” version so that you’d have to buy the new version and the used ones were completely worthless.  Nothing really new in basic Chemistry in the last 50 years certainly, just book royalties for the author who was also of course the instructor…  Getting that feeling here with 40K, nothing major changing, just updates in the Marines cases, but new and expensive book to play.  So, on one hand, it beats the LONG time between books for some armies (Orks, Wolves), but trading that for the things like the new AD Mech where you need something like 3 full books to play the army?  And knowing that the books are cycling out so quickly?  Meh, I guess I’ll paint up my Wolves Legion force and get ready for 30K games…  Eventually.  Maybe.

Started painting again, my Warmachine Dwarves (Rhullic) are getting base coated…  Still have some of their light Jacks in the package, and never really DID finish any of the army, so…  It looks OK, not professionally painted, but will look decent on the table I think.  And consistent with the same colors, etc…  Might get back to playing that game eventually…  Liking how it plays, but the Attack Wing stuff is just easier to pack up and get in some pickup games, so…  Looking like STAW at Gen Con unless somehow I can get into the X-Wing event on Thursday…  That sold out quick, so not really all that much a chance, so a nice slow trip over and Friday playing STAW/wandering the center…  Guessing the girls will want to come Saturday, so keeping the day clear…  Hopefully my kilt will be back by then J…

Motorcycle is still running, but apparently we now have a monsoon season in Illinois…  But have a nice new Bluetooth device that allows some background music to be played, and it is AWESOME to have that…  An amazing gift from my patient and understanding wife J…  Workouts are starting to come along, still looking for a new job I guess...  We'll see how things work out...