May Ends…

So, May is coming to an end… New job, new bike, maybe I'll get to ride it to work soon… The 40K league ended, I have a few weeks to figure out what I'm playing next… Got a bit of painting done tonight, but it was just a few parts of random pieces like a Techmarine and Tech Priest Engineers… I might be able to throw together a weird IG list to field, but I definitely want the army to fit into the cargo rack/luggage of the bike, so that is a bit of a limit… Deathwing seems an obvious one since no matter what I have a very small force, but there are certain armies I simply cannot deal with… And it does get a bit boring playing the same thing all the time, so I guess I'll see where my painting takes me… Sad, but recently I have been painting some of my Rackham "Wolfen" figures… Ancient figures from a dead game, but still among my favorite armies I played. Sadly, the first one I could actually say was "fully painted" since I left the GT "circuit" back in 3^rd edition 40K… My Fleshtearers were really only "technically" painted to the 3 color minimum to get me into the tournament, so pretty basic stuff, nothing at all to get excited about. I'm getting better with some of the fur and shadow effects on the Wolfen, and since I used them as stand-in "Wolf Cavalry" when I tested that unit to conclude that they were every bit as broken and silly as they appeared to be on paper…

 

All in all, 40K is getting back to a somewhat frustrating point for me, and I think that a few weeks off will be a good thing for me. Not frustrating WRT the partners, they were great, the opponents by and large are fun to play against… There are a few minor exceptions, and my game does tend to get a LOT "sharper" against them to the point of simply destroying their armies with no regard for how fun the game is for either side. That does make it a less fun experience for me, but this is not the major factor I think… Really, I think the game itself is getting a bit stagnant for me. There are a small number of really good builds for most armies, and there are a small number of really powerful armies, or at least builds within those armies. IG might be a small exception to this as their book offers SO MANY cheap and powerful things that you can tweak some of the really powerful stuff a bit and still have a very much overpowered army hitting the table… Vets with BS 4, cheap melta and transports that can allow your whole squad (or at least the important ones) to move and shoot from inside the AV 12 box which itself has 2 decent heavy weapons? And the best skimmers in the game, probably… But even taking into consideration the really powerful builds like: IG Mech, DE Mech (Mike's stuff is REALLY powerful, to the point of I'm happy to just get a draw with my stuff… Usually he and I fight to a very bloody and close one, but his current list is really a good one) there is a very real limit on what gets played… Degenerating to almost a rock-paper-scissors sort of feel for me, making it fairly pointless to play and difficult to get excited about the prospect of a game… Maybe I'll break down and get some Malifaux stuff, but I am leery there… I don't want yet another dead game's miniatures haunting my basement shelves since I already have more than a few armies there… Chronopia, Confrontation, WFB, Battletech/Mechwarrior, the list goes on and on…

 

On the work silliness front, the State decided to drop our HMO… Should be fun, since it came out that the bidding was done without considering costs either to the State or to the people… Hint, both go up with the "winning bid", but somehow that was not considered in the bid process… Yes, makes my head hurt, usually corruption is not quite so obvious and public… And the winning bid won without those other legal requirements like actual coverage for all of the areas. So, as of now, we go from Health Alliance for the HMO to… Well, looks like we get our choice of crappy expensive coverage or… Well, that about sums it up at this point. Raises are at least a slight possibility, and with my move over to an actual IT department far more likely in the long term… But still, the work environment is getting worse all the time it seems, and I am not sure things are going to get better for a long time… On the plus side, I have a job, got promoted and things could be so much worse… :-) Remembering jobs where I lived in say, a desert, got shot at and stung by scorpions… But still it does seem like we as a University are sliding backwards a bit from year to year…

 

Motorcycle? Well, I fixed the tire, and have gotten one short ride in before the weather went to crap… That and RT 45 is pretty well torn up North of Tolono, and the "rough" pavement is really not fun to ride the bike on… Maybe I'm simply out of practice, but I'd prefer to avoid that if I can, thanks… So, some alternate routes will be researched and tested when I get back to being able to ride the Silverwing again…

Getting earlier all the time...

:-)  Came in for the 8:30 interview this morning, followed by a second one (different person)...  Weird, being on this side of the table, I've never seriously interviewed anyone for a job...  Usually, it was just a friend of a friend thing, or we needed "grunt labor" so literally anybody willing would do just fine...  But this is far different, and of course I cannot actually say much of anything until it's over, but it has been an excellent learning experience for me and I expect to be able to use these little tips for my next job searches (if any)...  Looks like I am scheduled for early mornings all week, might be able to escape for lunch with my wife Friday if things work out...

On the bike front, I tried refilling the tire yesterday, and the stem broke off...  So, confirms my suspicion that it was in fact the stem that was the source of the slow leak...  And the dry rotting made it weak enough to simply come off...  Looks like I'll be replacing that myself if I can...  Hopefully, since removing the rear tire is looking like a MAJOR pain...  But if it works, I should be good for quite a while...  And it will be another thing I've fixed (after breaking it admittedly) myself...  Still not seeing the whole Zen thing, but being able to fix the bike is nice...  Not nearly so nice as riding the bloody thing, but still...

Gaming, looking like 2 games for the Deathwing/Wolves tonight...  Maybe we'll even win one this time :-)  I'll have to stay on target, my partner did well last time, thinking he'll be fine again...

Wow, this is early...

:-)  Not used to the 8:30 meetings...  Small group today as well, this Friday seems especially deserted here on Campus...  And next week I have at least 3 more early meetings next week...  All important stuff, but guessing I'll be stocking up on energy drinks next week...

Motorcycle is running well, need to get the back tire fixed as the leak seems to be getting a bit worse...  Whatever, I have the little 12v air compressor and the bike itself actually has a "lighter" style 12v connection...  I'll have to clean it up a bit more, but she's looking pretty good... And it really feels good to get back on the road, probably getting back to highway travel by next week...

Gaming, we'll have the tournament again Monday, and my Deathwing will have to play it a bit more cautiously e games this week, the Wolves are more suited to the aggressive "assault" element.  2/3 of the games are objective games, so my lads sitting on objectives are really hard to remove...  We'll see how it works out...

Bike working again!

Pulled the plug and cleaned them like Pat, Dave and Kevin all mentioned as a "good idea"… She fired right up and I got to take the bike out for a brief ride around the neighborhood a bit… Only killed it a few times :-)… It's really been a long time since I've ridden a bike outside of a parking lot, but it felt great… Rear tire has a bit of a leak and I'll want to put a radio/MP3 player on the bike… Speakers are there, and I'm guessing that even the 10 miles or so to campus will be a bit more interesting with music and the like… I'll have to figure out the whole Campus parking thing, but looking forward to riding directly to my office this summer…

:-) Tired...

Yeah, not a lot to post at the moment...  Or rather not a lot of energy to post at the moment.  New job has me running around a LOT...   Lifted tonight, worked a bit on the bike and some ancient rifles (1916 Lee-Enfield, my first rifle in my collection...)....  But overall, just exhausted I think...

 Did get in the first game of our tournament last evening against a Grey Knight/Wolf team with our Deathwing/Wolf Terminator force...  Went 7 turns and we drew...  I think I screwed up forgetting just HOW much firepower GK termis throw downrange...  Should have cost us the game, but we ended up doing OK...  The Paladins were impressive and I will definitely be fielding a unit of them I think...  The Deathwing held out a LOT longer than expected on the one objective, and I think it illustrates just how much trouble GK termis will end up having against the TH/SS Terminator squads out there.  One area the vanilla Marines come out WAY ahead in the codex I think.  And our Rune Priest was able to block a LOT of the GK powers over the course of the game...  Points out the glaring weakness some forces that lack a psychic defense of any kind will have to overcome...  I think it hurts my Deathwing more than most, though clearly not nearly so much as Chaos/IG/BT armies that have NO defense option really...

:-)  Yeah, kind of brain dead here...  More later...

New job…

Well, I've finally moved into the new job I was trying to get over the last few years… It was kind of rushed at the end after a LONG drawn out procedure of silliness to get there. I've been promoted to a "zone manager", and I have people working for me again. Of course, no raise, so it's another "Lateral promotion" like when I made Corporal back when I played Army. More stuff to do than I've had to do in recent years, and I've spent a LOT of this week running around between buildings… More tired now than I've been in a while too. Kind of odd, I wasn't really counting on the manager title, I really just wanted to move jobs, but this sort of fits my longer term goals… Not sure where I'm going to land, but having left the aircraft, only one way to go now :-) … Looks like I give up the "Tardis" office eventually, but that's ok I guess…

 

Still trying to figure out what will get the bike back to running correctly… Got the title, license and insurance all taken care of, just need to get it started again…, The gumout I dumped in the gas tank apparently broke free a LOT of stuff that clogged up the fuel line apparently… So, valuable lesson there somewhere… Probably the lesson should be "If it is currently working, don't fuck with it"… Really looking forward to getting back on the road with the "new" bike…

 

On the gaming front, the tournament will be run over the next two Mondays, and I still haven't figured out which army I'll be using… Dark Angels with Terminator Overload is the more straightforward and competitive one… Not really a whole lot of thought, really optimized ultra-elite force that wins a LOT of games… The Grey Knights are more of a "fun" choice… I'll throw together some lists and see what looks right…

 

And now the rest of them… :-) Part 2

Mkay, so the rest of the armies I actually play:

 

Dark Angels: Well, I play them as Deathwing, the lads are painted up in the ancient Legion colors, probably do them as Consecrators once I get better at free handing the symbol… Originally they started as a random squad I had painted up from WAY back… Actually from the RT era, so Legion colors, pre-"Green DA" and "Bone White Deathwing"… Magnetizing the mess of Terminators I inherited, so it will be a bunch of TH/SS and LC armed Terminators with the one Cyclone/squad… For 235 points, it is awesome. Fearless, scoring Terminators with 2+/3++ saves loaded out as Assault Terminators but with the nice Cyclone… The only army I cannot easily take down is a Horde of light Infantry… Small, ultra elite force just doesn't throw out enough fire or pain in HtH to take down so many bodies… Against a lot of other things, the boatload of Str 8 shots coming from lots of places makes running "MSU" or a light Mech force a real challenge against the DW… I also especially like the Deep Strike option of "Deathwing Assault"… I MAY strike in with up to half of my reserved DW squads, but I do not HAVE to do so… Gives me the option of reacting to someone who goes all reserve against me…

 

That and I have to remember to play the mission, not just try to kill the enemy… Staying on target is even more important with a small force like the Deathwing…

 

Fleshtearers: Mkay, this was my 3^rd edition "I'm just proving a point" army… I only used it in really competitive tournaments and against other "highly optimized" forces… Or if the other player annoyed me enough to just make me want to wipe him off of the field in the most brutal and efficient fashion I could. So, it was a lot of line squads in rhinos, Scouts doing their thing, devastator squad maybe… Attack bikes usually were point fillers, but were really good… Oh, and the cc Dreads… the army was led by a Chaplain w/jump pack to take advantage of the free Death Company… Got some small random number free, then you rolled with each squad, 4+ sends a guy to the DC IIRC, and on a 6 you sent 2? Note, if you sent the Vet SGT, he got a Power Weapon or Fist free as well… So you'd see a LOT of "naked" Vet SGTs out on the field to take advantage of this… I usually at least put SOMETHING on mine since 4+ is still just a 50/50 shot… But then you'd get the "Rage" rules, which could move you forward before your actual move followed by your normal move, then their rhinos got some additional "supercharged engine" that got me more move… So it was something like d6 + 6 (or 12?) + d6 for movement on a rhino… made turn 1 Assaults likely… And with the bad Assault rules, you consolidated into the next squad in line… The worst I remember doing was against some kid that annoyed me in a tournament… I wiped out the bulk of his army by the end of turn 2 by just crashing a lot in on turn one before he got to move his "Osama Bin Laden" themed Tallern army… He made it to annoy and anger his opponent. It worked, but when I do get angry, that cold anger is the worst for the people around me, I usually think much clearer about the most efficient way to kill the things annoying me… Pretty sure he chipmunked my "sportsmanship" score, but since this was just after GW removed the "Best General" from the categories, I wasn't really in the running for anything…

Anyway :-)… I broke them out when I happened across the ancient GW cases full of them that I packed away in the basement after I burned out on the "competitive tournament" stuff back in the 3^rd edition… So, another complete army that was lost in the warp/basement for a number of years there. Not painted great, "3 color minimum" was the standard, and that's what they were… but painted as Fleshtearers, with a LOT of the correct shoulder pads, etc… I broke them out using the PDF codex, and it actually worked fairly well… jump troops as "Troops" was a good thing, and the army did fairly well for me until the 5^th Ed codex came out… So, if you play hyper aggressive berserker types in character and bring say…. Loads of really good jump troops to deep strike into the enemy forces… Well, a LOT of the local players REALLY were not ready for that. Vanguard Vets that can assault out of deep strike riding in on a homing beacon or just trusting their "Decent of Angels" special rule (only 1d6" deviation) following in the first wave of DNs in drop pods… it is VERY quick and extremely decisive. Not subtle, and since I also like to use my Death Company who are still technically troops, with the disadvantage of never being able to score I tend to win mostly by simply wiping the enemy off of the field… Unfortunately, that is the usual outcome… jump army with Feel no Pain, loads of Power Weapon/Fists backed by DNs with the "Claws of Eternal Chopping" (Blood Talons… Silly and stupidly powerful against say, Marine armies) and all of their Rhino hulls being Fast…

 

Fast Rhino hulls are the other major build I see out there, the BA Predators are all just better than any other Predators out there, and the Baal class scouts… Flank attacking Fast Predators… Razorbacks that can roll 12" and fire their main weapon, and the one time the Las/Plas Razor can move 6" and fire both of its weapons making for a LOT of firepower going downrange… And the Assault squads get Razors for almost nothing giving up their jump packs so they are a REALLY cheap option to run a MSU type army… I've just always had a bit of a problem with GW's mysterious belief that the "Red Ones Go Faster" transferring from the Orks to the BA armies… It's a powerful thing, and I think it makes the BA codex just a bit overpowered since it affects ALL Rhino hulls with no real disadvantage to balance it…

 

So, basically, a fun army concept, but moving toward the upper end of the current power spiral really… Some armies it cannot handle well, others it simply crushes… Making 40k a bit like an elaborate game of rock/paper/scissors…

 

Grey Knights: Ah, the last one I think… Still have a bunch of random other figures, but not really enough to field any other armies (so, only 6)… Well, the book just came out, but I've had a few squads of GKs as the ancient Terminator squads since RT… They were REALLY expensive, but could be insanely powerful as a squad of lvl 4 psychers in Terminator armor with Force weapons and the strange one shot Storm Bolter built into their FW… They've changed a bit since then… "Lost and the Damned" (I think) had them as psychic blanks, largely immune to warp/psycher powers, then they became part of the 3^rd ed "Demonhunters" codex… I picked up more models here and there over the years, but I primarily still just use them for the Terminators, but I'm starting to see the usefulness of the Powered Armor (PA) lads… Fun to play, but not as powerful at the lower point levels as most of my other ones… I think they will really come into their own over 1500 points… Even 1500 is a bit tight, but it could be that I just want to bring too much out there…

 

So, hoping I can get the bike all set up, hoping to be riding to work next week…