Operational Exhaustion and a bit of X-Wing theory crafting...

Operational Exhaustion

Been thinking on this quite a bit recently as we continue doing more with the same number of people…  Well for now at least.  Turnover WILL occur at some point, although we have avoided it thus far…  Mostly due to the fact that there has been zero movement at the University to this point.  Some things SHOULD be moving now, but nothing yet.  I just think that my current organization is running the risk of Operational Exhaustion…  We are doing more and more, but we have fewer people to do the work.  And the old way of having people volunteer to take on the extra work…  The younger ones especially telling on this.  They’re getting VERY quiet.  And not volunteering for anything else.  Waiting on things to break free or just break.  When even the most optimistic told me that he now agrees that our organization is at its breaking point…  And that we cannot easily absorb another loss…  Kind of disheartening since I put in a LOT of work building up the team and do not want to see it all fall apart…  But, I need to keep my own Department protected and as it seems my own career will be moving in a direction I had not expected at this point.  I was looking at moving on and wanted to be sure that I was leaving things prepared for my successor…  But we’ll see if the latest plan hatched works…  Restructuring things, and different reporting lines…  Oh, and more importantly, getting my actual title.  IFF it happens of course.  The other thing I was gearing up for has not been posted yet…  I’ll probably still apply, but I am hoping this only provides the incentive for the College to make the changes I need to stay.  I know previously it was deemed “not worth the effort”, so we’ll see if they have changed their minds…  So back to wait and see as the first week fo the Semester is hitting and I’m exhausted…

Getting in some theory crafting on X-Wing…  I think I’ll be playing Rebels again…

3B ten (100)

Ten Numb — B-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Hera Syndulla	1
B-Wing/E2	1
Ship Total: 38
Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing	22
Fire-Control System	2
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Ship Total: 31
Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing	22
Fire-Control System	2
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Ship Total: 31

This one is fairly simple…  I’ll swap in the Collision Detectors and Seismic Torpedoes to clear obstacles in place of the FCS…  Ten is just there to force through hits as his Criticals cannot be dodged…  Well, one of them at least.

Unnamed Squadron (100)

Dash Rendar — YT-2400	36
Push the Limit	3
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Kanan Jarrus	3
Engine Upgrade	4
Outrider	5
Ship Total: 58
Lothal Rebel — VCX-100	35
Fire-Control System	2
Autoblaster Turret	2
Hera Syndulla	1
Anti-Pursuit Lasers	2
Ship Total: 42

This one is a simple 2 ship build.  Super Dash and the VCX-100 present a LOT of Hull to chew through.  The Autoblaster Turrets cannot be dodged, and he base 4 Attack is pretty brutal…  o essentially, line up the Emperor and try to take it down quick?  This might well be what I fly next time if Wave 9 is not out.  The 3 B-Wings are amusing, but not overly competitive I think….  This one looks like fun.  And of course being a big fan of Rebels (the show)…  This looks like it will be fitting…

Wave 8, hoping for Wave 9 for next Month's X-Wing...

So, spending a bit of time thinking on the state of the game at the moment…  Honestly I am REALLY hoping to have Wave 9 available to play for the next event on the 11^th of September.  Right now, it’s a bit stale I think.  The Palp Aces are simply too good.  Yes, Joel’s Dash/Miranda build did well but I think it was a bit of an anomaly with it doing pretty well against the Whisper/Decimator builds or the Defenders that some of us were flying.  I’m not entirely sure that a standard Palp Aces build would not be able to simply tear apart Miranda too quickly.  Seeing the Emperor assist Whisper to regularly ignore a 4 hit attack is a bit disheartening, and while Joel’s Miranda build used the Homing Missiles to throw out a 5 Dice Attack usually with Focus and the built in reroll as HM does NOT eat up the required Target Lock on launch.  With the inability to spend Evade tokens, you SHOULD be able to push through a few damage, but that assumes average or better rolls of course.  I suspect now that most of us have seen this now, the bum rush of the PS 8 Miranda might well be what happens.  Getting in close or arc dodging as the Missiles are locked to the Front arc…  Dash is good, but lacking Regen, and seeing the regular dismissal of a single 4 Dice attack these days?  So, I’m thinking that as things stand now, there ARE a few things that are top tier, but that tier is dominated by the Imperials and the Emperor is a BIG part of this.  Without a range restriction, his power is REALLY good.  I’m edging toward it being too good honestly.  Yes, it takes 2 Crew slots and IS 8 points, but…  Just looking over it with say, Soonter Fel or the Inquisitor?  If you use it to save one point of Damage?  That’s the equivalent of ~ 10 points. Probably more as with the Emperor at this point, you are typically looking at a Token Stack meaning that you need only one Dice with ANY paint on it to completely ignore a lot of Attacks…  Usually with 3-5 Agility Dice, you can expect at LEAST 2 results.  With Focus AND an Evade token combined with the Emperor just setting a Dice to Evade, you can very easily ignore an obnoxious number of hits… 

So, on to Wave 9…  This seems to be a VERY anti Ace Wave.  There are things like the Lancer Pursuit craft that can just assign Tractor Tokens and/or Stress?  Black Market Slicer Tools (BMST) to use an Action to convert a Stress to a Damage Card assigned to the Ship?  Yes, please.  So, as a result, E-Wings go even further down the “playable” list as Corran Horn with PTL was about the only one seen…  But Fel and the Inquisitor will be less likely to use their PTL which is at this point the standard upgrade for them?  These I think will become less used.  But in general the Aces that we are seeing now will I think get used a lot less…  The ARC-170 might well see the return of the Stress Hog…  It will be a bit more expensive than the Y-Wing variant, but it will be a LOT more useful in the modern game…  And Stress is one of the things that killed off the Aces in the past…

Small based ships with 2 90-degree Firing Arcs are here now, so Arc Dodging has become a LOT more difficult…  There are also a few more things like mods that give you a Barrel Roll action…  And now there is a Torpedo that REMOVES Terrain during the Action phase and potentially damages everything in Range 1…  This might be fun against Swarms coming through the Asteroids…  But there are now ways to get Damage through outside of the Shooting phase and since they are not things that can be defended against, the current obnoxious Defense that the Palp Aces bring to the table get bypassed… 

Looking at flying my B-Wings again…  But it is going to be difficult currently.  HOPING to have the Wave 9 stuff to get the upgrades I think will push them over the edge into the top tier…  OK, out of the bottom tier at least J  I think they will surprise the heck out of some people…

More random tales from the desert...

So, more on the whole first combat deployment…  Going with another “Kelly’s Heroes” or maybe “M.A.S.H” theme… It gave me a fairly warped view on how the Army worked.  I was wrong of course, there is SO much bureaucratic BS everywhere…  Well, except in the confusion as we prepared to actually play in the desert.  In general, I found that the attitude most units had toward resupplying Engineers was just a small step ahead of “just give the stuff to the enemy” …  So, we got creative.  My Squad Leader was former Airborne with the 82nd so he had a very good idea how this sort of thing worked…  We made ourselves available to the Supply SGT so we had the first crack at anything that was, say…  Just laying around the port…  In the truck it went and we’d figure out what we ended up with later.  How we got the desert camouflage uniforms and a few extra pairs of the desert and jungle boots…  Whatever happened to be coming off the boats, the Navy guys just wanted it off their pier and they did not care WHERE it went as long as it was clearly Americans taking it off the pier…

Worked with bigger things as well…  The ACE is/was essentially an armored bulldozer.  It was determined that we needed one…  Of course, lacking such a thing, and since none of us were trained in the operation of such a vehicle…  So, we went to the port.  The Navy was offloading some, and there was a Soldier from a unit that had moved to the front leaving him behind.  So, we talked to him and he asked to come with us to the front…  Anything to get off that port.  Being detached in the wrong service meant “issues”, so… We said, no problem, we were of course short per usual and it was no problem.  The ACE we decided to snag was CLEARLY marked USMC and we were clearly Army…  And the Navy boys just wanted the damn thing off their docks, and they did not care that we were clearly stealing it....  So, we went to the front with a vehicle we stole and a driver who was probably AWOL if we were concerned with the technicalities… 

Our weapons were more of the same sort of thing…  Our unit got issued the M-16A2 just before we deployed, so we zeroed the weapons and everyone was firing them for the first time.  These were the first ones with the heavier barrel and the 3 round burst.  Mine had the 203 grenade launcher, but that was a fairly standard thing, our Platoon had 7 of the things.  But back at the port, we found a warehouse where there were weapons…  We went in and a crusty old Marine Gunnery SGT was in charge…  He found out that we were Engineers and he set us up with extra M3 Grease Guns, 1911’s and we grabbed a few M-16A1’s…  We wanted the lower receivers so we could use the fully automatic fire with the heavier barrels of the A2’s…  Oh, and tracer ammo for the M3’s…  .45 cal tracer ammo J…  Fun stuff, and that’ll come up later…  But there we were literally wandering around this giant warehouse of weapons with shopping carts…  This was NOT the norm elsewhere I was to find out of course, but here…  Well, it worked.

This sort of thing REALLY helped me later when I ended up going Airborne myself and for my second combat deployment.  The “Make do with what you have” combined with “if you find it, it’s yours” WRT resupply…  Got pretty good at improvising and adapting to rapidly changing situations…  In my last chat with the Faculty Director of my organization he said that I was “Unnaturally calm in stressful situations”, but I’m fairly sure he had no idea WHY I was that calm in a University setting…  Not like anyone is shooting at us.  I slept through incoming artillery knowing there wasn’t anything I could do in anything I could do in any case…  13-ton aluminum vehicle loaded out with 2-3 tons of ammo and explosives, so if we got hit…  Well, it would be quick and no worries about just being wounded…

Ah, old Army memories...

Before I joined the Army I had read several books and movies that really stuck out in my mind back then.  Specifically, “Catch-22”, “M.A.S.H” and “Kelly’s Heroes”.  I remember thinking that there is NO way that the Army was like that…  And yet when I actually joined…  Mostly my first combat deployment was boring…  I got a killer tan and played a LOT of cards.  I stopped counting after 10,000 games…  So, a fair bit of boredom.  I did also get a killer tan in the ripped up BDU shorts and T-Shirt that I wandered around in regularly…  Unlike most of the folks from the wee damp islands my ancestors came from (Scotland, Ireland, England for the most part) I tan REALLY quickly and well…  So much so that when my youngest was born the poor Nurse mistakenly assumed I was Mexican as she commented that “She’ll look Mexican like her Father” ….  My reply of “Do I know him?” of course probably cleared it up, but…

Yeah, there was some of it that was…  More interesting I guess.  My Bronze Star was a “Catch-22” award as far as I was concerned.  Standard procedure when a set demolition failed to ignite would have been to have the Demo Specialist (me) walk down range with a Det Pack (basically a satchel pack full of explosives) and manually set the charge to “clear” the charge by blowing it up manually…  We had Cav Scouts with us, they set the charges and since they were pretty fearful of the blasting caps, likely they did not seat them fully…  So, when the time fuse burned down it did not ignite the caps which would have set off the HE charge (C-4) …  Now, a bit more about the charge…  It was a charge set in an ammo bunker that we found to be booby trapped and contained several tons of ammunition and chemical rounds (Soviet 122mm stuff).  So, NO WAY I was walking downrange knowing that.  I yelled over to the TC of one of the Bradley’s, had him get me a range to the bunker door.  So, knowing it was 300m, I told them to button up and loaded a grenade into my 203.  NOT the preferred method for setting off sensitized explosives, but a grenade in the bunker DOES work.  So, when the CO found out they were left with the choice of punishing me for disregarding established procedure, but doing it in a way that a) worked and b) was FAR safer to all concerned or rewarding me with a medal.  For the record, unlike CPT Yossarian from the book/movie I did NOT in fact show up to the award ceremony nude…  No ceremony, just the note on my record and a neat little medal…  Never even put the ribbon on my uniform.  THAT pissed off the last 1SGT I had in Germany.  I wore my greens to my best friend’s funeral and he got offended that I had what he felt were too many awards on my uniform.  So, he checked my records…  Well, he was surprised to find I was not even wearing all the awards I was authorized and that pissed him off.  Whatever, it illustrated the difference between a young SGT from a line combat company and an older 1SGT in rear echelon companies his whole career…  

Weird memories surface as I get my resume set for yet another potential job search and I start getting serious about getting back into shape...  Guessing I was about 190 in that picture, I was 205 when I was in the best shape of my life before attending the "Ft Benning School for Belligerent Boys"...  No clue what I weighed on completion of that course, they stopped weighing us when they realized that much weight loss that quickly was "less healthy".  I did weigh 238 on reporting to Basic and weighed 168 on graduation...  NOT wanting to lose THAT much THAT quickly again, but dropping some 30 or so pounds would probably be good... 

Titan Fall League Month 1 AAR

Titan Fall League Month 1 AAR

So…  I flew the 2 Defenders and TIE Bomber…  First game went really well against a Rebel Regen list.  Was one I lent to one of the older players who wandered in without his stuff, and that made it 12 players, so worked out perfectly…  But it does show how my old Regen list has been left far behind.  Poe was hard to pin down, but with the Defenders going fast and boosting a lot, once I got behind the T-70, that was it.  The Y-Wing died first of course as low Agility vs Juke just doesn’t work well.  Miranda with the TLT was harder to track down, but even she just couldn’t move quickly enough to make a difference.

Sadly, that was the LAST time I saw my Agility Dice roll ANYTHING. 

Plus side, I was in the lead…  Minus side next opponent was Tyler.  He flew Whisper/Decimator with Vader AND the Emperor…  Brutal list.  I might have actually made it a game had I rolled even a single Evade over the course of the game, but…  So, it was quickly over.  The EU on my Defenders was good, but I think that the Countess at least kind of needs the PTL upgrade rather than the Juke in this list…  SO many times I would have focused up I think after a Boost or Target Lock to get really high quality shooting  Evade is free and kind of a given, so Juke is nice if I am rolling average…  I did not.

Third game was against Will…  His list was VERY similar to mine.  Countess and Col Vessery with x/7 and Juke backed by Jax in his TIE Interceptor with PTL and AT…  Initial engagement went REALLY well as Deathfire dropped the Proximity Mine ON Jax…  Got 2 hits.  Craptastic.  Needed 3 to kill him and then it would have been a VERY different game…  But alas…  My dice were every bit as cold in this game.  Steele was great, and did a lot of damage…  But it was not enough as Will’s Evades were solid.

Was kind of an odd event…  Top 4 were 2 Whisper/Decimator (Emperor) builds, Will’s Defenders/Jax build and Joel’s Super Dash/Miranda build…  Miranda was kitted out with Homing Missiles and Proton Torpedoes for those potential 5 Dice quality attacks that can do things like ignore Evade tokens…  There was a Z-95 swarm with the Concussion Missiles, but that one I think has likewise been surpassed by the current builds.  TIE Swarm was here, and it was solid, if not enough to deal with the Emperor guiding his Aces…  Another Rebel build with B-Wings, E-Wing and an A-Wing?  I think it needs a bit of work, but solid potential there…  One Brobot build, again solid but…  With only 2 ships it lacks the volume of fire to take down a VERY well protected Ace, and they do eventually get worn down.

No Dengar, in fact NO Jumpmasters at all.  I think the ONLY S&V was the Brobots…  A few Rebels but mostly Imperial Ace builds…  Including my own of course J…

I think I fly Rebels next time, so time to get in some time on the B-wings again…  Haven’t flown them since my earliest days in the game…  Solid ship, but SLOW…

X-Wing League theorycrafting...

The more I think about the current meta in X-Wing the more I am looking at doing something REALLY silly like this:

3B ten (100)

Ten Numb — B-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Hera Syndulla	1
B-Wing/E2	1
Ship Total: 38
Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing	22
Fire-Control System	2
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Ship Total: 31
Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing	22
Fire-Control System	2
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Ship Total: 31

This one makes it something that might well be able to take down the 2 major architypes I am seeing  these days…  Dengaroo and Imperial Aces would I think both kind of hate to see this…  Ten Numb just automatically hits on a Critical.  Hera would allow him to be REALLY agile, and frankly actions are not that big of a deal…  I LIKE them on him, but if you were able to 2K twice and be able to get in 2 unexpected hits on something and thus dodge the counter attacks…  The FCS is solid, but frankly I’m excited to see the Seismic Torpedoes and Collision Detectors…  I can see fielding those on all 3 of my B-Wings (Detectors) and just bring the Debris Fields…  So, I can simply ignore the terrain with all of my ships just to mess with things as I dodge and barrel roll into the middle.  Thinking the Seismic Torpedoes will be a REALLY good answer to some of the more annoying Ace and Swarm builds with a 50% chance for a free Damage BEFORE the shooting even starts.  No dodge, no defense and it can clear the field for the “less maneuverable” B-Wings as I get rid of the cover that is saving those annoying nimble ships…  But with the FCS/Heavy Laser combo is pretty good for hunting down Large Bases or Aces in the longer game.  This is NOT a one and done build.  The B-Wings are pretty sturdy ships, and can take a Torpedo/R1 shot from most anything and still get in at least one shot…  Usually more of course.  Jousting with say, a TIE Swarm?  No.  Just Don’t do that…  In general of course…  With the Seismic Torpedoes and some decent play?  Maybe…  I DO think that this is still a losing match for the B-Wings, but at least they’ll know they were in a fight.

:-)  Might be something REALLY unexpected to bring to the fight Sunday

Titan League next week and more X-Wing stuff coming...

So, missed Gen Con this year, so didn’t pick up the wave 9 stuff that they had on hand…  So guessing that they’ll hit the stores “soon”…  Have a few pre-ordered, but not entirely sure they’ll be here by the weekend…  So I’ll

DeathfireRyadStele (100)

"Deathfire" — TIE Bomber	17
Plasma Torpedoes	3
Proximity Mines	3
Long-Range Scanners	0
Ship Total: 23
Countess Ryad — TIE Defender	34
Juke	2
Engine Upgrade	4
TIE/x7	-2
Ship Total: 38
Maarek Stele (TIE Defender) — TIE Defender	35
Juke	2
Engine Upgrade	4
TIE/x7	-2
Ship Total: 39

Not thrilled about losing the Extra Munitions…  But Juke on the x7 Defenders is AWESOME…    So we’ll see how it goes…

Wave 10 announced at Gen Con, looking neat…  More interested in the Armada stuff though to be honest…  Will see about getting back into that game…

August X-Wing League Testing...

Looking like I have the next League build set up… 

DeathfireRyadStele (100)

"Deathfire" — TIE Bomber	17
Extra Munitions	2
Concussion Missiles	4
Cluster Mines	4
Long-Range Scanners	0
Ship Total: 27
Countess Ryad — TIE Defender	34
Juke	2
TIE/x7	-2
Ship Total: 34
Maarek Stele (TIE Defender) — TIE Defender	35
Juke	2
Engine Upgrade	4
TIE/x7	-2
Ship Total: 39

Got in a test today, and Setle’s Defender was AWESOME…  The Engine Upgrade was huge.  I think it would be awesome on the Countess’ as well…  But of course 4 points are kind of hard to find here.  First time I flew a TIE Bomber, and Deathfire is pretty good.  WILL die of course, but Turn one Target Lock, Turn two move up and Focus to launch Missiles…  Then Turn three, move in close, Focus and drop Cluster Mines hopefully in or ON something… 

Mind, I wasted one Missile at an A-Wing…  Range 3, through Debris and with Autothrusters?  Yeah, I think it missed entirely even with 3-4 hits…  MUCH better hitting the Ghost, no dodging there.  And of course that is what the Bomber is really there to do…  He replaces Omega Leader in a TIE/fo, and I am thinking that the x7’s have that function covered well enough.  I NEED burst damage like you get from Ordinance and the Mines are nice to help “discourage” closing and pursuit…

Thinking of dropping Juke on the Countess, dropping the Missiles down to Plasma Torpedoes and maybe the Cluster Mines down to a Proximity Mine…  This clears up enough points for me to get the Engine Upgrade.  I think the ability to do a Green 3-5 K Turn then Boost or Barrel Roll gives me a LOT of ability to maneuver and get where I’d need to be…  Might be where I go next…

X-Wing, more testing for the next League...

K, tried the Horn/Dash build…  And I understand the warnings about “you have to play it a LOT”…  Making stupid mistakes like getting the E-Wing caught at close range before regenerating the Shields would be one of the bigger ones…  So, longer term a maybe…  But the E-Wing is just too fragile I think.  And of course the YT-2400 is not nearly as good as the Jumpmasters I think…  Bouncing around on the Asteroids was amusing for a bit, but Dash built like that is 58 points.  And still just 2 Agility and the 10 life…  I need to work on the whole PTL/Kanan thing to always be taking the 2 Actions, moving around like a bat out of Hell…

Time to break the Defenders I think…  At the VERY least they are a lot of fun to play…  Haven’t gotten the hand of flying the /D title yet, and might be interesting…

With the Wave 9 Previews out for 3 of the 4 ships there is a decent chance that they'll be out during if not before the League hits...  REALLY looking forward to the ones I've seen so far...

X-Wing Wave 9 soon?

So, two of the official previews are now up for X-Wing Wave 9…  Were I an optimist I might guess that there would be some at Gen Con perhaps there might be some there…  But that IS a bit of a squeeze time wise.  Doesn’t matter for me of course as I’ll not be there in any case.  But the fact that they are going into the detailed previews this soon does lead me to believe that Wave 9 is closer rather than later.  Some of the upcoming upgrades are REALLY looking good.  But then I’m one of the weird players who does like to try out a lot of different things…  I think the question will be just how many of the Wave 9 ships will I be getting.

The Mandalorian ships are REALLY close to my play style.  Fast, aggressive and all about Offence.  Their Defense is actually quite good, but it is only really good if they are moving fast and in close to the enemy… 

The TIE/sf looks like it will be yet another part of a TIE swarm, and I am guessing I’ll be able to fit one in with say Defenders or the Phantom…  Neat, but probably more of  gimmick than  something overpoweringly effective…  But we’ll see.

The ARC-170?  I suspect the same…  Neat, and a lot of fun builds are shaping up…  Might be fun, but I see this as more “interesting” things than overpowered ones.  The Shadowcaster looks to be the same…  We’ll see I guess

Titan AAR and Rebel X-Wing builds...

50 point Team event @ Titan AAR

Was a pretty fun one, 8 players showed up with the majority being Imperials…  Will and I I know played S&V with Will being N’Dru’s Z-95 and a Y-Wing TLT build…  I flew the Dengar option…  A few TIE swarms, both Crack and normal…  Tyler flew a TIE Defender loaded out and a basic TIE/fo…  But in the game we had together, we were plagued by a complete lack of Agility dice on our part and his Defender melted to a series of Range 3 shots from basic TIEs…  If you can’t evade it, even the 2 Dice attacks from a TIE will eventually win out…  Game went to time with my Dengar down to 3 Hull left and them with two basic TIEs (a 12 and 13 point version) for an actual draw…  Each side had 25 points left on the table J…  Happens when I get 3 hits for 3 turns and they roll perfect Defense each time…  It is a dice game after all…  Fun time, got in some good games with good folks...  Back to a more competitive League next month... 

Going forward, I have my Juke Box Heroes with TIE Defenders, a good fun list…  Looking at a few Rebel builds as well.

Unnamed Squadron (100)

Hera Syndulla — VCX-100	40
Accuracy Corrector	3
Twin Laser Turret	6
Nien Nunb	1
Intelligence Agent	1
Ghost	0
Ship Total: 51
Sabine Wren — Attack Shuttle	21
Adaptability	0
Autoblaster Turret	2
"Chopper"	0
Phantom	0
Ship Total: 23
Jake Farrell — A-Wing	24
Lone Wolf	2
Chardaan Refit	-2
Adaptability	0
Autothrusters	2
A-Wing Test Pilot	0
Ship Total: 26

With the FAQ the TLT looks a LOT better on the Ghost…  And it comes down to Accuracy Corrector, Sensor Jammer or Reinforced Deflectors…  I tend to go a “bit” more aggressive (hence “Garau” as my call sign) so AC is my preference in general for a ship with no real Defense in any case.  Might as well go all Offence and Defend by killing them faster and hopefully first…  Wren on the Attack Shuttle is really only there as a last ditch effort, I think having the end of turn extra Turret shot will be better overall…  Though I could swap the TLT for an Autoblaster Turret and the Engine Upgrade for the extra movement…  THAT might well be a very rude surprise for a lot of folks…  Change it from a “Stand Off and Circle” sort of thing to an aggressive move to contact and obliterate them….  The A-Wing is a solid contender, not bad, but still quite fragile for my taste at least…  Still, having it run a flank and threaten say, a Shuttle with the Emperor on it?  Seeing that particular combo a LOT of course, and so…  Jake really shines with PTL, but points are tight, so…

Unnamed Squadron (100)

Dash Rendar — YT-2400	36
Push the Limit	3
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Kanan Jarrus	3
Engine Upgrade	4
Outrider	5
Ship Total: 58
Corran Horn — E-Wing	35
Veteran Instincts	1
Fire-Control System	2
R2-D2	4
Ship Total: 42

The other Rebel build I am looking at is a lot more like what I started the game with…  With those ships being the first I got for the game as gifts from my wonderful, understanding wife…  They are still among my favorites.  The E-Wing really does need a bit of help these days though, and I suspect that a Rebel Veterans sort of thing to shore up the E-Wing and X-Wing might well be a very good thing…  But in any case, I think running Corran along a flank and heading Dash into the Asteroids will be a good thing…  Dare them to come in and try to get into Range 1 among the rocks while I dodge and take HLC shots.  The E-Wing is really there for the end game and the double tap option to kill vulnerable things on the way.  The YT-2400 will likely NOT make it to the end, it simply melts too quickly in the modern game.  It is better than a lot of big ships, but at the end of the day, 2 Agility, even trying for Range and Rocks…  Well, while good not quite as scary as it was in the beginning…  But still, a LOT of options here for me and the way I DO fly…  Seeing a LOT of things I think this will be able to deal with in the local Meta…

50 point X-wing team event at Titan tomorrow...

Looking like I WILL be going to the Titan event as dropping my youngest off at her camp will actually end in the same time frame… 

Unnamed Squadron (50)

Dash Rendar — YT-2400	36
Lone Wolf	2
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
"Chopper"	0
Outrider	5
Ship Total: 50

Pretty simple…  Dash roams in and zips about the rocks…  I might swap in PTL and the Mangler cannon, but that does drop off the potential damage.

A better one might be:

Unnamed Squadron (50)

Dengar — JumpMaster 5000	33
Veteran Instincts	1
K4 Security Droid	3
Unhinged Astromech	1
Punishing One	12
Ship Total: 50

THIS one might be more interesting…    Especially with the FAQ boost he gets…

50 points IS an odd one though, the Defenders are 30-40 point ships or I’d fly one of those…  Most of the good Aces are in the same range, so not sure what I’ll see…

Jobs vs Careers and what to fly next for X-Wing

Jobs vs Careers

So, had a long chat with some folks who used to work wit/for me about this and how it applies to our current situations.  To me, a job is what you are doing now.  So, nothing changes more or less, static, etc…  You know what the expectations are, and the only real changes are evolution like OS changes, etc…  On the other hand, a career is all about change.  I see a career as a series of jobs across your “lifetime” at that company or in that industry. 

The current organization we work for is fairly rigid…  And when I say that, we have our jobs and we can add things onto them, but we still need to keep doing our original job.  No mobility at all.  And the leadership is fairly desperate to KEEP it as a rigid structure and while we HAVE a promotion policy and structure set up for it, we have yet to use it.  Some of this is due to the customer expectations over time with Departments really expecting the same person to be the IT support forever.  I think that is partially our fault since the organization grew somewhat organically and imbedded within the Departments.  In some ways this is good, but it does put us in “hold until relieved” mode more or less forever.  So, there was and to some extent still is  a great deal of fear about the University’s central IT organization absorbing us…  Not as much a fear now, and frankly with me coming originally a “corporate” background really never WAS a fear for me.  But I suspect this is a thing we need to change and “manage customer expectations” to allow our IT pros to have mobility and to actually KEEP some of our own people here for an actual career rather than just have them here for a job…  Not sure this IS something that ATLAS can change with the people here now, and so I suspect that we will change involuntarily.  Either we collapse as a few more folks leave now that hiring has opened up here at the University or we merge in some other IT organizations or get merged into the central one…

Looking at X-Wing: 

Juke Box Hero (99)

Countess Ryad — TIE Defender	34
Juke	2
Stealth Device	3
TIE/x7	-2
Ship Total: 37
Maarek Stele (TIE Defender) — TIE Defender	35
Juke	2
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II	1
TIE/x7	-2
Ship Total: 36
"Omega Leader" — TIE/fo Fighter	21
Juke	2
Comm Relay	3
Ship Total: 26

Simple enough build…  Juke is POWERFUL.  And this gets me a bunch of hits through “OK” defenses…  Hard to take down Aces, but with this much Juke here a few should get through and things like Stele’s Crit ability could be fatal.  Fun to play as well…

Looking at going back to basics too…  I started the game with Dash, and I may well bring that back.  That and I like the Ghost…  So, that might be where I fly for a bit…

Gopher in July X-Wing AAR...

Gopher tournament AAR…  Special thanks to Dave for letting us take over his store for the afternoon/evening!

Well, had 10 people show up, so pretty good turn out for a holiday weekend.  Simple enough 3 round event, loads of new folks, but most had played STAW or a bit of X-Wing…  Loads of random prizes to go around like Target Locks, Ion Tokens and alternate art cards…  First event with the Imperial Veterans out and FFG released a FAQ yesterday so there were a few changes…

Winning build was Allan’s VT-49 (Admiral/Emperor)/Whisper (Recon, VI, Adv Cloak, Adv Sensors)…  Solid one. Pretty powerful for a limited field.

Game one was against Bryce, he flew a S&V Boba Fett, Y-Wing and Z-95…  Z died quickly, then I chased down the Firespray and then the Y…  Was a learning experience for him, first event, and he did not do too bad…  The TIE Defenders are just a lot better than the older ships that are not kitted out with good equipment…

Game two was against Alllan’s squadron J…  Wound up bumping Omega Leader into his VT-49 and that was that…  5 hits and a bad Agility roll meant I was down a ship from the beginning…  The Emperor’s ability is REALLY powerful but it came down to the 2 ships of his hitting hard enough to wear through the Defenders…  I was pretty happy how my ships actually flew, forgot about the Stealth Device on the Countess’ ship of course, might have made a big difference…  And of course flying the FO too aggressively, it is an end game ship, hard to kill late in the game, not a first striker/jouster…

Third game against Ken…  He had the Falcon with Chewie, a naked Y-Wing and Poe’s T-70…  Not bad, it went on for quite a while until I crashed my Defenders into Range 1 of the YT-1300…  The Countess had been chasing it for a bit, chewing into the shields a bit and into the Hull…  The 2 Defenders hitting together killed it quickly…  Poe lost shields to Omega Leader and then the Defenders closed for the kill…  The Y was last, but it too fell…

Have to say, the Countess’ ability was HUGE.  Maneuverability being key.  Steele’s hit twice, but only once was it actually important…  Not sure I’ll stick with him.  Was OK, but not really THAT good…  Will see what else might fit…  But they are really fun ships to fly…