Late September...

Mkay, weird one...  Looking to hire, but...  Due to the weird situation here, UIUC Student for some of the positions (hourly, decent $) or what they call "Academic Hourly", meaning degree, paid hourly, no benefits, etc...  So, NOT the best situation, but an excellent "in" to the University system... 

On the rest of the "work" front, things are progressing well I think.  Still tying up some loose ends from my transition period, but things are coming together pretty well.  Ordering myself a new laptop, looking at the Dell E6520's...  i7 processor, 8G RAM, decent vid card, etc... My old 17" workhorse is about done.  4 years of lugging back and forth to work seems to be the upper limit for that hardware..  The new 15.4" frame will I think fit into the luggage on my bike, making it a bit easier to transport I think...

Gaming wise, FINALLY getting back to the basement to get the painting finished up for my Consecrator's Deathwing force to field w/ Dave out in Bloomington next Month...  3 full squads of Terminators kitted out as Assault Troops, each with a Cyclone Missile Launcher in the squad, and loads of TH/SS lads...  We'll see how well it works...

Just some WIP pics

Just a bit of the "WIP" here...  Going to be equipped with magnets for the various gun mounts so I can field either a Land Raider Crusader or the standard patten of Land Raider...  Typically the Crusader, but...  So a Spartan Class LR being built out of some of the random parts I have here...  WAY old school stuff, and something not many will have.  My ancient Wolf one still hits the field here and there, but this one will be DA (Consecrators) and BA (Fleshtearers Death Company more often than not)...

Random meetings of doom...

Lot of meetings today...  3 before 11am.  Productive, yes...  But still,"middle management"is becoming a Lot of work :-)...  Budgets to figure out, more people to hire (Students, so any folks who are Students here at UIUC and are interested in getting a job...), stupidity to deal with...  The usual :-) Oh, and after 11 there were even more... Still, stuff actually got done...  Not as much as I'd have liked to get done, but reality being what it is...

Gaming front, I need to actually choose an army for October's tournament...  I'm looking at my Deathwing more and more.  I think that the DA (Consecrators in my case) and the Wolves have a lot more  history together, so I think they might be better from a fluff perspective and with Terminator "Troops" selection, I think that we might actually win a few games...  But we'll see...

Eldar?

Mkay, not sure if I am doing this right, but playing a "substandard" army, and not the "Internet Optimized" build (Mechdar) I'm looking like I'm in the lead for the local League...  Wraithguard as my "Troops" section with Eldrad and one of the Phoenix Lords in the squad for one REALLY expensive Anvil or Rock squad.  The walk forward with Eldrad giving Fortune for the re-rolled saves, Doom, Mind War, etc...  He and the Phoenix Lord provide HtH nastiness...  Maugen Ra is awesome shooting and downright nasty in HtH, but I am thinking that Karandras (Scorpions) giving Stealth and REALLY impressive HtH abilities to the squad with 6-7 Power Fist or Scorpion Sword attacks at WS 7 is actually the stronger one...  Weird, but this army seems like it is doing amazingly well in the "Adepticon" format...  Not that my opponents actually did anything wrong I think, it is more that in the format MSU is REALLY punished with loads of kill points out on the table that are actually fairly easy to take and gain that early and likely insurmountable lead with...

Looking ahead to the remaining people in the league, the SoB that Mike plays are going to be a tough one...  Mech, Mech and more Mech...  Haven't actually read the new codex, but Mike plays it more or less like the last edition, and that was a REALLY tough army...  Joe's Chaos Marines will be a bit rough, and Ryan's Chaos Demons will be something completely different since I am not very familiar with that book...  Not sure what else remains for me to face in this league, but I'm actually fairly confident that I'll do fairly well...

Wedding prep...

Is no fun whatever...  Oldest daughter (Kaitlyn, Maggie's oldest) is getting married next Sunday....  REALLY looking forward to getting past this.  Maggie is stressed beyond belief with the constant changes and silliness..  Me, I'm just trying to keep quiet and maintain a bit of sanity...  So, the cats and I are all keeping the same low profile :-)  Maybe it will all go the way it should and things will work out...  Here's hoping at least...

Missed out on the Magic event this weekend, and there is no way I'll be able to make next weekends...  Trying to get Maggie out to play, but I'd say it is a safe bet it won't happen for a few more weeks after this all blows over.  Me, I'm looking to trade off some ancient cards for something a bit more modern...  Seems like a bunch of really neat stuff out there these days...

40K, league night again tomorrow, trying Eldar with more or less a slight variation on what I've been bringing.  No clue who I'm playing, but I've decided I really need more actual Troops...  2-0 so far, but both missions were Kill Points and my list had so few Kill Points that I was at a pretty serious advantage on those particular missions.  In both games the secondary was objective based, and I think I only would have held one in both cases...  Mind, one would have been enough for a win had the game played out exactly like it did, but I'm guessing Dave would have held back a squad or so of the Hunters to contest/hold at the end...  Still Wraithguard with Eldrad and a Phoenix Lord are REALLY tough to kill off in anything like a timely fashion like say, 5-7 turns :-)  But this week I'll have at least 2 other "Troops" who are just there to contest/hold objectives in the mid/late game...  You know, assuming they don't just get themselves killed off early...  But reserves/flanking might be how I run them...  Depends on the mission.

October Dave and I will be headed to Bloomington to play in a teams tournament based almost exactly on the Adepticon stuff...  So, either a Fleshtearer list based on Death Company, Death Company Dreadnaught in a Lucius class Drop Pod...  The Lucius Class Pod allows the DN to assault out of Deep Strike, so turn one, it hits right on top of the enemy, melta gun if possible and then either DN CCW or the Claws of Eternal Combat...  The Blood Talons allow me to quite simply erase a squad of Marine type opponents every close combat phase...  Broken and silly, but we're playing in a tournament, so...

My other possible thing to bring would be Deathwing.  Belial, 2-3 Deathwing Squads with TH/SS and LC Terminators and a Cyclone Missile Launcher...  One option is 3 squads and either 2 Typhoon Class Speeders (MM/2 missile shots) or a min Squadron of Ravenwing with 2 melta guns (scouts, fearless bikers, etc...) or drop to 2 squads of DW and bring a Land Raider Crusader...  Just roll up the field and dare them to engage...  Or sit back and hold the objectives in cover with 2+/3++ saves on fearless troops who also have heavy weapons and all power weapon/thunder hammer type weapons in HtH...  The safer choice certainly.  BA win or lose big.  And the army is based on a gimmick play.  If it works it is deadly, if not...  Well...

 :-)

Changes...

Last Friday I wandered off to the weekly "Caffeine Break" meeting that Craig Jackson organized and have now become something of an institution at the University...  Weird feeling, like I am actually in "middle management" now.  I've been going to these meetings for quite some time now, but I was pretty much just some random IT guy who mostly sat quietly and listened.  Now I'm much more involved in the discussions, and I actually know pretty much everyone there...  And a lot of us have moved up in the ranks as it were.  Not saying there is a direct correlation between attendance and promotion, but it is really interesting to watch.  Have to admit that between that and the peer coaching thing I've gotten myself into a pretty good position for the future there.  Kind of a good thing after the last few years prior to Craig and Bart helping me along into Atlas where I more or less painted myself or allowed myself to be painted into a corner in Math.  Allowed me to change jobs without walking away from what I built over the years.  And now I have actual minions :-)...

Gaming, time for me to get my cardstock drop pods put together since it looks like I'm going to be playing over at Flatcon with Dave in a team tournament...  Fleshtearers for me :-)  We're just here to air assault and kill things.  We hold objectives by being the only things alive at the end of the game :-)....

Labor day gaming and beyond

So, 1850 for tomorrow.... I think I'll bring something completely different...  Same base with:
Eldrad
Wraithguard maxxed for Troops

But then Scorpions maxxed out for a flank run
Harlequins with Seer and Death Jester to march across the table
War Walkers (BL/SL) x 3
Viper (BL/ SC)
Fire Prism
Guardian Bike Squad (SC, Warlock w/ spear)
Wraithlord (ML/SL or BL)


Not sure how it'll do, and the Scorps might be better as Banshees or a min squad of each perhaps...  Dunno, I really like my Scorps, so I tend to bring them a lot more...

Also gearing up to play in a team tournament in mid Oct over in Bloomington with Dave...  I'll probably bring my Fleshtearers...  I'll be the shock troops to throw the wrench into the works for the other side...  Dave can hang back with Razorbacks on objectives while I go forth to cause havoc...  And IIRC there is an Apocalypse unit that allows a DN to assault out of deep strike.  Now, a Death Company DN hitting pretty much exactly where I want it to on turn one to be followed by my Death Company with Chaplain Lemartes...  Maybe a Land Raider to hide them behind?