Mostly X-Wing stuff... And almost time to get the motorcycle out again...

So, first big event for the X-Wing game under the belt…  I think I did fairly well coming in 3-1 with my Dash/Corran Horn list.  Tried to fly too fancy in my last game and I was simply not prepared for the TIE swarm played by someone who knows how to REALLY well.  So, a few things I need to change up for the next one later this Month I think.

Got in a few games last night…  First one was an odd “Scum” list I was going over… 

Star Viper (Xizor, Expert Handling, Virago, Auto Thrusters and Accuracy Corrector)

Z-95 ( N’Dru, Cluster Missiles, Lone Wolf, Hot Shot Blaster)

Y-Wing (Kavil, Ion Turret, Unhinged Astromech, Hull Upgrade)

Admittedly, the Hull Upgrade and Expert Handling was mostly because I could only find the one Hot Shot Blaster…  The EH worked REALLY well though on Xizor though.  I tend to do a fair number of Barrel Rolls in any case and the ability to shunt Target Locks is really nice, and especially nice if facing low skilled Missile boats.  The Star Viper is just fun to fly.  A bit on the fragile end I think though with only one Shield and four Hull.  As it happened, my Defense dice were hot and mine lived while killing off his virtual mirror.  N’Dru was a beast, but faced off against his mirror…  Like I said, my Defense Dice were hot, so I lived through the Cluster Missiles and he did not.  I am rather looking forward to see what a single Z-95 can do to some of the Large based ships like the Decimator.  The essentially 8 Dice attack for that one turn is huge and while it will not likely take down a Large ship, it should take down most Fighters…  The Y was just amusing flying with Green 3 maneuvers and the four Dice attacks from the Ion Cannon…

But that does bring me to what my second game showed.  Faced off against 3 TIEs, 2 Interceptors and one Phantom.  So:

Turr Phennir (VI, Auto Thrusters)

Soontir Fel (AT, PTL)

Whisper (VI, FCS, Stygian, Intel Agent)

And pretty sure there was one more point in there somewhere…  But I flew my Rebel Squadron that I am looking at for the next Store Championships run…  I already have the acrylic Focus markers, so not really all that interested in fielding something that is overpowering…  And I say that like I actually could J…  But with the Auto Thrusters on things like the TIE Interceptor and the A-Wing…  You can get to a point where the 2 Dice attacks essentially have no chance to actually do any damage, and even decent 3 Dice attacks are a very real long shot.  Thinking that these are hard counters to the Swarms hitting the field these days, assuming that you can keep from bumping before thinning the Swarm enough.  And since they have 4-5 Dice Attacks at Range 1, I am not thinking it will be an issue…  In any case I flew:

Ten Numb (B-Wing, Mangler Cannon, VI)

Biggs Darklighter (Shield Upgrade, R2-D2)

Horton Salm (Y-Wing, Ion Turret, R2)

Plan was to keep Biggs near Ten to draw fire, move slow and ping things with Critical Hits that cannot be avoided by any means…  On the unshielded TIES, this is a BIG deal.  But against a lot of the “hard to hit” things that one unavoidable Damage (especially as it is a Critical) is still quite good, so I wanted to give this a run.  Either a mini Swarm with 2 A-Wings and 2 Z-95s, a 3 Ship “Aces” list or paired with one of the YTs…  Was pretty happy with Biggs actually.  The X-Wing itself is fairly “Meh” lacking…  Well, something.  It cannot Boost, Barrel Roll, Evade or do much interesting on its own.  It is not particularly maneuverable nor is it particularly robust or even powerful on Offence…  So, not really sure how much I’ll fly the “poster boy” for the game itself…  I am probably just spoiled with the other ships I actually learned the game on like the B-Wing and E-Wing and seeing the Imperial things that are really just “better” in about every way for about the same point cost…  The Y-Wing was “OK”, but CLEARLY outclassed by the extremely advanced TIE fighters.  They were flying circles around him, and while he lived a while, he was completely ineffective for his 31 points.  Soontir Fel and Turr Phennir were 32 and 28 points respectively and completely outclassed the poor Y-Wing.  Felt like a Sherman up against a Panther really…  So, Ten worked like a charm, though I need to find some better things to outfit him with I think…  I DID actually completely whiff twice, both would have been Kill shots on a TIE Interceptor, so likely the Fire Control System upgrade or perhaps something to get more Green on the dial…

So, long story short:  Happy with Ten Numb, and that will be flown again…  Not sure what with though…  Fortunately, next Championship is in a few weeks, so some time…

40K is restarting at the Gopher I guess…  I wish them well.  Have to say, less interest in playing that game now, but I also know that at SOME point in the future the cycle will turn and I’ll likely go back to playing…  Maybe if the rumored Horus Heresy things actually happens.  I have a bunch of that stuff, and if I’m honest, that era interests me a LOT more than the current 40K setting where it seems that the storyline is essentially “The Empire is screwed, EVERYONE else is just better than the Marines” and the game is just throwing buckets of dice, most of which simply ignore Marine class armor, or glance Vehicles…  J  But I’m just one of those bitter old school gamers I guess, and not one throwing money at GW (Sorry Gopher!), so surprisingly GW did not ask my opinion about the system…

REALLY looking forward to the possibility next week and beyond of actually getting my ancient motorcycle out on the road…  Need to fix the electrical fault on the Silverwing, but I suspect that is just a ground issue, so hopefully simple enough…  And then I’ll get to ride again.  Been a LONG winter, and I want to ride again…

X-Wing... 48 points and?

So, playing in the Store Championship Saturday at the Armored Gopher and I have the first 48 points of my Rebel list fixed...

Corran Horn — E-Wing	35
Push the Limit	3
Fire-Control System	2
R2-D2	4
Engine Upgrade	4
Dash Rendar — YT-2400	36
Lone Wolf	2
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Nien Nunb	1
Engine Upgrade	4
Outrider	5

or:

Corran Horn — E-Wing	35
Push the Limit	3
Fire-Control System	2
R2-D2	4
Engine Upgrade	4
Chewbacca — YT-1300	42
Lone Wolf	2
Nien Nunb	1
Dash Rendar	2
Engine Upgrade	4
Millennium Falcon	1

So, either the YT-2400 with Dash at the helm or something I have not actually played...  Chewbacca in the YT-1300...  And not entirely sure what loadout for the Falcon really.  Dash, Nien Nunb and the Engine Upgrade are pretty much just the "fill it in" portion.  Like lots of Green on the dial, no Obstructed Shots...  But guessing that I could find other ways to spend 7-8 points that might be better...  Maybe.  Have to admit I like flying Dash's ship, and Lone Wolf on it is insanely powerful for 2 points...  Yes, it means you are NOT running a swarm of ships, but not really a problem I am thinking on these bigger, more expensive ships.  Horn's E-Wing is just REALLY powerful.  I would put it certainly as the rebel's most powerful or best Fighter.  Right up there with the Imperial TIE Phantom and its cloaking shenanigans...  Oh, and 4 Dice Attack...  The E-Wing is FAST, with regenerating Shields, extra Actions and Horn's ability to do a second Attack every other Turn?  I have finished off several other Fighters with his "Double Tap" to get in the extra shot...  Then run like Hell the next turn as your guns cool down :-)  So, that 48 point block is fixed...  Need to pick up the Scum set for the Mangler Cannon (well, that ans the really fun Y-Wings and Z-95's...)...  Having the Heaver Laser Cannon is nice, but Outrider is an extra 5 points, and it leaves you VERY vulnerable to anyone who can get inside of your main Cannon's range...  And flying WITH the Cannon fixed into the Front Arc is OK, but pretty darn expensive for a 2 Dice Attack if they can get outside of your main Arc...  3 Dice, flipping a Hit to a Critical is about where I'd want it, and I think it might be worth the 9 points it takes to get the 360 Arc for that...  Guess I'll see what Saturday brings...

30/40K, and Store Championships this week

So, looking like Warhammer 40K will expand to include 30K and the Horus Heresy…  On one hand I am thrilled.  Forgeworld has put out some absolutely AMAZING minis, and to be honest I think their rules are pretty well balanced and every bit as good as the ones put forth by the main company.   Not setting the bar very high I know.  And if they do things like make the Siege Shields into Storm Shields and get the Grav Guns consistent between the systems then it will be a very good thing.  Since I really like the “old” style Armor, having it in plastic should get the price down a bit or at least I would hope…  Heck, Knights, Titans and Superheavies are already in 40K so the old argument of “those things do not belong in 40K” should be dead.  I suppose that the Chaos folks who wanted to play Legion forces might get to as they essentially did not really change much from the end of the Heresy…  Well, the Thousand Sons did, but, when you go with the “Changer of Ways” and his keen sense of irony (For those not familiar, look up what happened to the Legionnaires with the Rubric of Ahriman) you take your chances I guess.

Lots of Ingress being played…  I was quite content to keep my own little “Fortress Tolono”, but a few players on the other team seem to have other plans and have gone out of their way to mess up my little setups.  So, I have gone forth and attacked, moving more to the role of a “line breaker” and destroying a lot of stuff…  Almost level 10 now, certainly would not be had I been left alone…    So, kind of the Shadow philosophy from Babylon 5 with conflict making the next generation stronger in some ways.  I have gotten quite good at tearing down Resistance fields and have actually walked almost 500 km, despite the particularly bad weather.  Almost time to get back to running, I still plan on running in the 5k race at the end of June, so need to get in much better shape by then.

Narrowed down my lists for the X-Wing Store Championships at the Gopher to:

Ten Numb — B-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
Ion Cannon	3
Mercenary Copilot	2
B-Wing/E2	1
Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing	22
Fire-Control System	2
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing	22
Fire-Control System	2
Heavy Laser Cannon	7

Or

Corran Horn — E-Wing	35
Push the Limit	3
Fire-Control System	2
R2-D2	4
Engine Upgrade	4
Dash Rendar — YT-2400	36
Lone Wolf	2
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Navigator	3
Engine Upgrade	4

Not a LOT of difference I guess really…  First gives me 3 B-Wings to stay back as best I can and take long ranged shots.  Ion cannon there to try to get the unblockable hit and mess up the TIE Phantoms and their cloaking annoyance, or mess up other higher PS fighters.  The dual Heavy Laser Cannons are just there to hit things hard at range.  Nothing subtle, hopefully free Target Locks to help get more hits on the big ships.  Second one is more interesting, the E-Wing is VERY hard to kill and has the potential to get in 2 4 dice attacks with Target Locks and it is FAST…  Dash just dances through the asteroids and has a great deal of potential there.  Usually dies as his ship is probably one of the weakest Large ships…  But fast, maneuvers well and with a turret, it almost always HAS a shot.  I still do not like the “donut” with the Outrider making the cannon a turret.  No range 1 shots at all then if you have the Heavy Laser Cannon…  When the “Mangler” Cannon comes out, this will I think change for me.  And word is this week, so MAYBE before Saturday for this Store Championship…  The other store in town I am allowed in has theirs next month, so almost certainly by then…  And the Scum and Villainy faction will have hit in full…  Ordered most of what I intend to buy already from the Gopher…  When the boats unload and the Firesprays (Boba Fett’s ship) hit again, I will be getting one of those…  A lot of things that can be this faction or another…  The Scum Y-wing looks REALLY fun to fly, and I am looking forward to that…  Beyond that?  Eh, not sure I have any real interest in most of the “new” ships…  Kind of hoping FFG keeps going when the new movie(s) hit and there are some new things in the pipeline…  But one never knows when dealing with the Mouse….

Harlequins, FoW and more X-Wing stuff...

So, another codex out for 40k...  Just looked it over and it looks decent...  Harlequins next, and with a lot of their stuff already out in White Dwarf form, not a lot of surprises I think...  Sadly, i have a bunch of the ancient Harlequins from the original RT era ones even still have a full box set unpainted in the original box...  Not really an accomplishment, more a statement on how little I painted over the years I think.  They look good and lacking the "slightly" OP Wave Serpent, should be an interesting army to play. And I miss the ancient times when the Solitaire was the single most feared threat in close combat on the table, even taking down Genestealers on average rolls...

Weirdly, found a few ancient 15mm Tigers in the Basement of Doom...  I remember those being unholy terrors when I started playing Flames of War...  Until my Airborne troopers with their "Everyone has a damn Bazooka" mentality hit, I had no real answer for them...

X-Wing play continues....  Really liking the game so far.  Have to say that I am kind of looking forward to the "Scum and Villainy" expansion.  More Z-95's and Y-Wings I am familiar with...  The other ships, not so much.  Some REALLY good upgrades though.  The Mangler cannon for one.  4 points for a 3 dice attack, switching one hit to a critical.  More importantly for my YT-2400 builds, it is range 1-3 so I can make it a 360 arc and lose the range one blind spot.  The other Scum ships are OK I think as well.  So far seeing a fair amount of variety as far as fleets go.  For Imperial squadrons, the Decimator is really popular.  It is hard to kill quickly, and with the large base and a 360 arc hits pretty hard.  It pairs well with TIE Phantoms and swarms of regular TIEs...  Good, but certainly not unbeatable.  Phantoms with their cloaking tricks are annoying and with a base 4 dice primary attack, I see them as the Klingon B'Rel or Bird of Prey class...  Hit hard and maneuverable, but somewhat fragile.  So, I fight against them the same way playing my Rebels the same way my Federation fleet flies in STAW...  Still having a hard time getting the part that the bulk of the missiles and torpedoes are single shot (discard) upgrades.  That makes less sense to me given the fact most still require a target lock and the discard makes it even more painful.  Have seen and used the card combo of the Advanced Proton Torpedoes, Deadeye and a Recon Specialist to get the two Focus tokens, one to fire the Torpedo and one to convert the up to three blanks that the Torpedo card converts to Focus over to Hits...  So it SHOULD hit for at least three damage, usually 4-5.  But it is a one shot and discard trick.  Good enough to usually kill off a single fighter that you catch at range one...  Oh, that is another thing with the combo, only range one...  But while you can put a hurt on a large ship, not likely to kill it.  SO many things to line up that the combo is just hard to pull off.  I use a B-Wing that allows for Torpedoes to be fired outside of normal arc, but more experienced players know about this, so avoid it pretty easily.  

But Thursday is another X-Wing free play night, have a few things to test before the Armored Gopher's Store Championship on the 28th...  I have it narrowed down to two builds I think that I want to tweak.  The Corran Horn (E-Wing) and Dash Rendar (YT-2400) makes for a pretty powerful duo...  But just two ships, I am concerned about getting overrun by a Swarm...  The other build has just three ships though, and frankly not so sure how that will work.  We'll see I guess :-)...

So, first X-Wing event today...

So, first X-Wing event today...

I was playing:
YT-2400 with Dash, Navigator, Heavy Laser and Engine Upgrade coming to 50 points even...

Have to say that the Navigator was the MVP...  Getting to change the speed up on my chosen maneuver, then ignore the Asteroids and boost or barrel roll out of firing arcs and sometimes even using the Heavy Laser...  Did not actually shoot down all that much, but the speed and agility meant I survived quite well...  And of course, dancing through the asteroids helped keep me alive longer...

So, I have the basis for my Store Championship Squadron...  Thinking this, a B-Wing and...  Either another B-Wing, a Y-Wing, or...  Will have to see, and I have a few weeks to test it.

So, Necrons... Oh, and FoW/X-Wing a bit...

So, Necrons…

               

                Neat overall I think…  My only real gripe is that they actually made Gauss better…  Still Glances on a 6, and now automatically Wounds on a 6 as well.  Not QUITE Rending, but it does seem that the Necrons are really built specifically to take down anything “big” hard and fast.  Rapid firing at say that nice expensive Land Raider from a Squad of basic troops might not erase the Raider, but it has a really good chance of doing 2+ Glances, so it might take 2 rounds of fire or 2 Squads firing at the 250+ point Raider to kill it.  They did kill the silliness of Tesla rolling 6’s to hit on Snap Fire generating the 2 additional hits and they seem like they overall balanced a LOT of the loopholes and stupid tricks that just made playing against a well-built Necron force painful and “less fun” to play against.  Having the cheap spammable flyers go up in point cost a fair chunk (130 from 100 IIRC) is really important, as is limiting the access to them…  Of course, that the Gauss of the basic Troops has gained so very much against the big MC type builds, I am not thinking that is so much of a bad thing for the Necrons…  A lot of the shenanigans with the weird 5^th edition HQ things are apparently gone, and that is a VERY good thing.  Loads of Formations and the like, so guessing there will be new things to break the system, but overall it is looking quite well balanced…  If only they did not so easily kill the nice things I would like to be able to play without feeling like an idiot J…

How well will they balance against the Eldar?  Not a clue really…  I think it would at the very least be a bloody fight from what little I have actually read on this…  The Wave Serpent of the Eldar I think still tilts things slightly in their favor, but the sheer number of Glances that the “deep striking” Troops from their Invasion Beams should make short work of anything that the Necrons can get close to…  So, I think it will come down to the better player fielding the “buckets of dice” approach.  Eldar DO have a huge advantage in mobility I think which will allow them to recover from mistakes and force the issue on the Necrons…

FOW has my 82^nd Airborne lads back to the top of the painting queue…  After this weekend, might even get back to painting again.  Have my Rhulic Dwarves as well…  They are almost base coated and will be finished I think by the next League’s end…  Big mess of bonus points as I have yet to really complete painting ANY of that army.  Close and a lot of it is base coated at least, waiting on details and dipping in the stain J…  NOT actually dipped, but I do use the Minwax to get the really nice effect and it does help provide a nice protective coating…

X-Wing, first actual event coming up Saturday at Winter War, 50 points, team event apparently, so I’ll be flying a YT-2400 with Dash, Navigator, Heavy Laser and Engine Upgrade.  Comes to 50 points exactly, can ignore Asteroids for movement and actions, Navigator allows me to change my speed, and I can then Boost if need be or Barrel Roll…  Both with the Large Ship base make it really maneuverable…  A little light on Damage with the Heavy Laser being locked in front arc, but it DOES have a 360 arc that I can shoot for 3 Dice at range 1…  Then in a few more weeks I have the Store Championships at the Gopher…  Straight 100 points, not 100% sure what I will fly there, but am REALLY liking the YT-2400 , Y-Wing and B-Wing Squadron I have been play testing…  Not a lot of Ships or frankly a huge amount of Damage all at once, but annoyingly survivable…  We will see I guess.  I suspect I will lose badly to the far better builds and players, but it is a fun game…

Game Funk...

Game Funk…    

And not the smelly gamer funk.  Mostly just hitting a wall or darker patch in my gaming.  Plus side, and it is a HUGE one being that I have my X-Wing stuff and that game locally (though ironically not at the Gopher…  We’ll have to change that) is going strong.  Pretty much what is keeping me sane game wise. 

Warmachine is in a Journeyman League now and my chosen army (Rhullic) has so few options in this setting that it simply does not interest me at all.  Yes, my fault for choosing an extremely limited Army like this.  But I wanted a nice small (pun unintended, but I’ll take it) Army to get back into the game and get in some play time.  I felt my Circle had too much potential to stay as broken and silly as I remembered them being.  And I suspect I would have played them hyper aggressively like normal and it would have gone badly for the other newer players facing me as I tend to let myself go and just kill everything in my path…  I have only faced the Circle once since coming back, and it was a much newer player so my Cygnar “shoot early and often” force did well.  I suspect strongly that had a more seasoned player been playing and choosing the army I would have been swept off the table.  Kind of the feeling I get playing that game though, there was a pretty steep learning curve coming from 1^st edition to 2^nd edition, and a lot of what I had in the ancient (for Warmachine’s timeline) times is simply not useful or effective enough against the modern stuff.  So, while I have a HUGE Cygnar force in terms of numbers of figures, not a lot of it would do much on the table I think.  Yes, I can make a LOT of it effective, depending on the matchups, but I think Cygnar is low to middle of the pack in terms of effectiveness.  Decent, but too easy to find hard counters to.  OTOH, it HAS a lot of absolutely hard counters to some of the other forces, so things like my Gun Mages are annoying and potentially amazing especially against things that cannot live without their otherwise strong immunities to things like shooting them with non-magical weapons… 

40K…  Necrons release is…  Well, now I guess.  So far seen pretty much all of the changes, and it does seem to bring them back in line with the current things leaving the Eldar alone as the “oops” Army or “Elephant in the room” as it were WRT the competitive armies.  Wonder how long until they get changed.  Could be a simple FAQ change to the Wave Serpent Shield and I suspect a lot of people will see the Army as being powerful, but not completely unbalanced.  Will that bring me back to playing?  Eh, not any time soon.  Fortunately, my wonderful wife is very good about humoring my tendency to horde so many games/armies and assorted toys, so I will likely HAVE the option to get back to it at some point.

Dug up my FoW stuff…  Lots of lads in various OD Green uniforms…  I painted up my initial US Airborne force in the 1943/44 style, so they are “Mid War”…  I have a Platoon of the old M3 Grants ready to roll out…  And a few M-3 Stuarts to go with my 82^nd force…  One of my Grandfathers was an Armored Cavalry commander during the war, and I know he commanded M-3’s in Africa then later some M-4 Shermans and M-5 Stuarts in Europe, more nostalgia than “effective tanks”.  My Battery of 75mm Pack Howitzers is still pretty nice, though I’ve had them overrun a few times by faster German forces…  My FoW is very much “Airborne” with Mech support….  May flesh it out some to have my 8^th ID/12^th Engineers force which surprisingly changed VERY little from 1944 to 1990 when I was assigned to them.  Changed in the M-3 Halftracks for M-113’s, but…  And we still were issued some of the same damn weapons.  My sidearm was an old M1911A1 manufactured by Colt in 1935, the Squad AT weapon (officially at least, we always “secured” LAWs or AT-4’s) was an ancient 90mm Recoilless Rifle.  The M-3 Grease Gun was still our submachine gun I carried loaded out with tracer rounds to mark for air support…  Oh, and to set bunkers of ammo on fire apparently as “recon by fire” was what we did in Iraq briefly…  Soviet ammo shipped in wooden cases, and tracer rounds…  Well, let’s just say there were a few fires and leave it at that J…  So, FoW is a fun game, but NOT one I think is well suited to Tournaments, and I guess I have not kept up with a lot of the recent releases where the balance issues are apparently quite bad.  works in small, limited groups well enough as a fun game though...

Waiting on D&D and STAW Attack Wings to start back up...  D&D I have a bit more hope in the long term for, and I will be snagging the Silver Dragon with the Paladin rider :-)...  Will look great on a shelf if nothing else...