Replacement cycles... Computers and games :-)

Replacement cycles…  Doing that at work, swapping out old, obsolete machines for either slightly less obsolete machines or new ones…  Ideally new ones, but budgets being what they are of course…  Fun times.  And something of a never ending cycle…  Guessing I have another 10+ years until retirement, so that is good I guess…  Grad School continues apace, classes are different…  Nothing at all like I remember the “slightly higher pressure” classes in Engineering school here at the University of Illinois.  I do think that this will be done a lot quicker than I expected…

Got me thinking about GW and 40K.  Having seen a game company completely implode when Rackham made their version 3.5 rules and tried to break the system enough that the version 4 would be seen as good and a shift from “skirmish” to “massed battles” I have to wonder if there is not what GW is doing on some level…  Rackham had an excellent line of miniatures, some of the best I’ve ever seen (and some of the worst, I did NOT like every army, but tastes are individual of course) and their game itself was fun…  If somewhat complicated at times.  Then some changes came out that were good, the free magic/faith spells for the folks who could use them and suddenly spell casters actually started seeing some play time…  Well for some armies, my Wolfen were still really focused on the “Big Werewolves rushing at you” theory…  Effective J…  But my Kelts…  Yes, the Druids and such were fun, and not even slightly over powered really…  The changes to “Assault Fire” were broken and stupid for my Wolfen especially.  Seeing the lads able to run 35cm (French game company, so metric units), throwing a spear for a free shot before slamming in with a charge…  Getting to redirect their charge in the event they killed their initial target on the point blank throw…  That was not so good J..  But in any case, the game fizzeled HARD when they changed it to a mass combat system.  Then it just quickly disappeared.  Have had that feeling with 40K for a long time now, and I am thinking it is accelerating.  Please do not take this as a wholly negative thought, I have liked and played the game a LONG time, just seeing it change so very much and make the iconic piece in the game relegated to complete irrelevance is somewhat disheartening. 

The pace with which they are releasing Codices is in and of itself something of a problem.  Yes, there was that wish years ago to see more releases and not have something like the 3^rd Ed Wolf codex STILL in use late into the 5^th Edition of the game.  So, got our wish I guess.  Kind of like my wishes when I was back in High School…  Wanted a Mustang, to travel the world, become an Engineer, etc…  Got everything on that list, just nothing like what I thought I was asking for J…  A whole lot of interesting stories I guess, and I’ve been a lot of places and done a lot of things most people only read about…  And per usual, a lot of it was not good…  But back to the Codices…  Eldar got their SECONG hardback book in 2 years.  At $60/book, keeping up with more than a single army has long since become “difficult”.  Especially with the “DLC” model of “Codex Supplements” for more specific things like Marine Chapters and Eldar Craft Worlds…  Those are now officially obsolete and unusable.  Glad I did not buy them, and it makes me wonder what is in it for the FLGS in this environment…  No clue if there is some sort of return policy for dead product, especially with GW not officially announcing ANYTHING until a week or so out and now with what is looking like a 2 year cycle for the major books…  I know I would be of the opinion that I keep only the bare minimum on my shelves, but then my negotiation skill has always been “poor” at best, frankly I would likely have been rid of GW years ago to keep from getting repeatedly burned by that company… 

With the Eldar release last weekend, looking like Knights this weekend?  The “old” Codex from what a year ago with BOTH Knight Titans in it will more than double to something like 5 possible Knights now?  But of course, not an update, a complete new book invalidating the previously purchased one…  GREAT models, I have one that I hope someday to actually get assembled (the legs are done on mine now)…  But this is getting kind of ridiculous…  Marines are rumored for next Month as well.  So, the cycle has begun again, and frankly I can’t see spending that much every month to keep my WAY too many armies current.  My wife is patient with my toys, but there are limits J…

X-Wing is still coming out with some great stuff and the pace is WAY less…  Even STAW is slowing down, hopefully the group continues to regrow…  X-wing is becoming absolutely huge locally, and it is an extremely well balanced game in my opinion…  J  Hopefully I’ll get back to playing it as real life has gotten a tad busy recently

MI, Earthquakes, weather and gaming...

So, off in MI for a road trip with the family…   Got the new truck in time, so the trip up was quite nice.  Missing the motorcycle trip and the weather up here has been perfect for riding…  Ah well J  At least the weather will be back to rain next week…   Did get to be here for the Earthquake, not something hugely common up here…

 Not a lot of gaming the last week really, getting ready for STAW next Monday (the 11^th) at the Gopher.  Hopefully a larger group of folks will come out and play.  The rules are a bit odd for this one, so I have to build a few different Fleets I think.  And I think we’ll need to get in touch with Dave and see if we can kick in to purchase the prize kits at least to run the events in our own group…  I REALLY want to get the USS Hood ship of course (I REALLY like the Excelsior class ships, but I really do not want to have the Store lose money for this…  Comes to that I can just E-Bay for the ships I really want.  Down side, I play Federation, Klingon, Romulan and Dominion so there are a fair number of the ships I would like to pick up.  BIG rule changes last week (http://wizkidsgames.com/blog/2015/04/30/star-trek-attack-wing-announement/) nerfing the Fighter Squadrons and Borg in general.  GREAT for the game, just hoping it is not too little late for the game as a whole.  Got at least one of the old guard to come back and play, and thrilled.  Joe is a LOT of fun to play against and his Dominion are quite a challenge to face. 

Think I need to snag some of the nice Movement Templates…  Thinking that they are close enough between X-Wing and STAW/D&D AW…  And as the only really “competitive” stuff I am doing is X-Wing these days, should make sure they work for that…  Really looking forward to the K-Wing for the Rebels.  The S&V ships do not look all that interesting to me honestly…  The bombs look like they’ll make my Emon pretty devastating.  The extra Ordinance is useless for that ship in particular, but every other ship?  Maybe…  The K-Wing certainly looks like it will work amazingly well…  Get expensive though.  But it will be a drastic shift of the meta I think.  Makes the game pretty darn interesting to me at least…  

Z-95s, Y-Wing and a Viper repaint...

So, going with an almost Soviet paint scheme for my Z-95's and Y-Wing...  The Star Viper I am painting up like a Monarch Butterfly :-)...  I think they look a LOT better than the Black Sun schema that they shipped with, much more my style...

I'll probably end up repainting my Firespray as well at least...  Some of the Rebel stuff will probably get squadron markings at the least...  Not sure if I want to do a lot with my Rebels...

AM looking much forward to Wave 7, the Rebels get a K-Wing Heavy Bomber, and there are more types of bombs coming...  Not sure if I understand the new ation, but I THINK it is essentially "take another move", which will be game changing for the Rebels allowing them to MOVE...  Not hugely impressed with the Scum ships, but the Imperial Bomber looks interesting...  'course I do not play that side, so...

Probably will get some acrylic movement templates for X-Wing and/or the Wizkids AW games...

Oh, and anyone looking for some ancient firearms/ammo or a "parts" bike you can "salvage"with minimum work...  Hit me up...

And the repaints begin... I guess Eldar are next...

Starting to repaint some of my X-Wing minis...  The first is my Star Viper and a pair of Z-95's...  Going for a more WWII feel on the Z-95's, so an OD Green base coat, not sure what next but probably nose a different color, etc...  Thinking they'll look like old P-47's or 51's...  Nose will go red and I'll likely go with the "Flying Tiger" shark mouth for them...

This is NOT mine, but what I'm working toward... Initial ship on the left of course...

Got the Star Viper base coated, more or less, and it does look a LOT better than that bad photo of mine would seem...  I've only flown it a few times, it is interesting, but not even a little OP I think.  Turrets hate them with the Autothrusters and agility, but they do not have a lot of HP nor do they do all that much damage...  About on par with an X-Wing really...  A bit more survivable and more in line with a correct points cost I think...  Plus they are interesting to fly...  The S-Loop is its only Red maneuver and takes some getting used to, but can easily get you places you need to be to line up a shot or avoid incoming fire...  A bit on the expensive side though really for competitive play.  I would be surprised to see many out on the tables even locally, though I suspect in some of my builds I will fly them...  Well, the one I have :-)...

Really liking the Y-Wings, Firesprays and B-wings I have been flying recently...  Not sure what I'll bring to my next events, but they are a while off I think...  Aggressor loaded out with a pair of Y-Wing or a Y-Wing and 2 Z-95's seems like a good build for me.  Or stick with Firesprays, maybe Boba Fett's...  :-)  Dunno, but looking forward to next event(s).

STAW is coming back a bit locally, that is great!  I won one of the Romulan D-Dedrix/Borg ships ("Avatar of Tomed"), and looking very much forward to flying that against the Dominion next Month.  Able to regenerate when it cloaks...  Pretty darn good.  Still a fun game locally, but unfortunately the glaring design flaws still exist outside of our "house rules" environment...  We play mostly Faction or at least Ship pure, so the "Borg All Stars" lists are just not seen here.  Not a lot that can be done against those things really.  Looking over the guy who won the latest big STAW event (Worlds?) list...  Big surprise, a Borg ship with CPT Picard (at a bloody discount, not even paying the cross faction penalty...) supported by an Admiral and Fighters...  So, the collection of the most broken and under costed things wins again.  Meh...  I can see why the game is dying all over the place if those builds are allowed to linger.  Contrast with X-Wing where the annoyingly OP "Phantom" builds just got neutered or at least "adjusted" a bit.  Nothing in X-Wing is completely over the top dominant in the way the things in STAW are.  Just doesn't happen, and when it starts to go that way, i gets adjusted.  Wishing Wizkids would get their act together on STAW.  Oddly, D&D Attack Wing (DnDAW) IS really well balanced and a lot of fun to play...  I am currently running a pair of Good Dragons with Dragon Riders as my force...  Not hugely effective against everything, but nothing that I cannot at least compete against.

On to Eldar hitting this weekend...  Some folks have the book now so "rumors" are not really rumors as such...  Well, crap.  My hope that they would be reined in like every other force thus far seems to be in vain.  Do they lose things?  Yes, the Wave Serpent loses the Shield shot every damn turn they get at the moment...  Assault, 2d6 shots, ONE USE...  So, the days of them driving up and using the WS to shoot armies off the table are gone at least.  But they gained a LOT more.  Jet Bikes now can mount Scatter Lasers in place of the Shuriken Catapult.  ALL OF THEM!!!!  So, a unit of up to 10 of the bastards brings out 40 Str 6 shots at 48" range on a platform that has a jink, 3+ Armor save and can move shoot move?  Well, fuck.  Oh, they are Troops too?  So, GW has decided that this game too must die.  Kind of annoying looking over at my Wood Elves army, knowing that I can re-shelf them without bothering to strip and repaint them.  Maybe Mantic's "Kings of War" game will take off locally..  I happen to have "a few" Fantasy type armies I could play...

Meh, X-wing is going REALLY strong locally, and glad a few others are ramping up a bit...

X-Wing builds evolving...

So, Emon was fun and I like the idea…  Just not sure the Firespray has enough to actually either a) do enough damage to justify the point cost (45-46 points) or b) can survive well enough to actually keep my in the running with “Margin of Victory” becoming a big thing now…  Wound up doing fairly well over the weekend at the “Top Guns” event with the build of Emon in his Firespray and a pair of Hired Guns in Y-Wings (Warthogs with Engine Upgrades).  Wound up 2-1 but with the Firespray dying in every game, my MoV was not so great, putting me to the middle.  Flew well against Alan’s Imperial list, and Emon’s Firespray REALLY does a number against the TIE Interceptor.  Double Stressed Soonter Fel usually dies the next turn, so the Push The Limit (PTL) card that he loves so much is a weak spot with Tactician on the field.  The Firespray usually does no damage with the 3 Dice attack, but the Stress still hits…  And those Y-Wings hit HARD when they get in close.  Game 2 was against a pair of YT-1300’s…  Chewbacca in the Falcon and Lando in another.  I flew pretty poorly against this.  I split up, meeting in the middle while the YT’s simply flew around the edge of the board knowing they had 360° arc, could cover each other and have a ridiculous number of Shields and Hull to punch through.  I should have simply lined up, chosen one and run right at it, incoming fire be damned…  I’d take some damage to be sure, but one YT to deal with is a LOT easier…  Game three was against another Imperial, close game.  Faced a Tie Defender, Decimator and a TIE Advanced I think…  Know it came down to the Decimator with its huge Hull against my last Y-Wing with 2 Hull left…  Got in behind as it flew into the Asteroids and got the kill before it could free itself…  Great game, came down to the last few Hull on each of our last ships… 

Which does point out that the Emon build does REALLY well against “Aces” builds with the few high quality small ships which are otherwise  difficult to deal with…  He simply does not survive well though.  The Firespray is not quite maneuverable or survivable enough to go toe to toe with the other big ships.  Lacking any EPT, I cannot easily modify the movement with PTL or Expert Handling.  Nor does it really put out THAT much damage with only the basic 3 Dice Attack…  Decent, but not great Arcs.  STAW and the Turrets here spoiled me for this…  The Excelsior with essentially a 270° Arc?  Yes, please…  Or Dash with a Mangler?  But an unmodified attack like this is just not enough to threaten either of the big threats…  Unlikely to hit the agile Auto Thruster equipped things nor will it do enough to the really big ships…  Assuming it even hits the Falcon when it is flown with things like C3-P0, Lando, Evade tokens everywhere, etc…  The Y’s are nice, but can be avoided and even set up like this are still flying tanks, and they turn like them…  So, thinking of switching for a bit to an Aggressor…

Syndicate Thug — Y-Wing	18
Autoblaster Turret	2
Unhinged Astromech	1
Engine Upgrade	4
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
Syndicate Thug — Y-Wing	18
Autoblaster Turret	2
Unhinged Astromech	1
Engine Upgrade	4
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
IG-88C — Aggressor	36
Expert Handling	2
Advanced Sensors	3
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Autothrusters	2

If I am reading it right the timing for Expert Handling and the Advanced Sensors works out such that I can take the Barrel Roll, get the Stress token, then do a Green maneuver (which is almost the whole dial really), and clear the Stress…  Or of course a Boost, free Evade, then even something like an S-Turn to bring the HLC to bear…  With the Autothrusters it should be REALLY survivable against things like the Turrets and even Swarms if I can keep my distance…  So, either the pair of Y-Wings or?  Something else for 50 points…

Flying casual and just generally thinking about gaming "stuff"

So, looking like I’ll go to the “Fly Casual” league event at Titan this Sunday…  Looking at flying this Squadron:

Emon Azzameen — Firespray-31	36
Proximity Mines	3
Tactician	2
Seismic Charges	2
Proximity Mines	3
Andrasta	0
Hired Gun — Y-Wing	20
Autoblaster Turret	2
Unhinged Astromech	1
Engine Upgrade	4
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
Hired Gun — Y-Wing	20
Autoblaster Turret	2
Unhinged Astromech	1
Engine Upgrade	4
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0

Pretty simple, the “Warthog” Y-Wings fly using their Green 3’s and a Boost action to get as close as they can, hoping for Range 1.  Range 1 they have the 3 Dice Primary Weapon attack and the 2 Dice Auto Blaster…  Now, the AB cannot be dodged by anything, so this is a VERY nice one to track down some of the difficult to hit TIEs and the like…  Emon bombs things and Stress tokens all around…  Fun list, but I suspect it will not be one of the “top tier” lists…  But it will surprise a lot of folks who ignore the slow, poorly armed Y-Wings…

Other gaming…  Well, playing D&D Attack Wing and STAW it looks like…  Liking the Dragons, and they fixed most all of the issues I had with STAW, but too late I fear to save the game locally…  Shame, it is a fun one with reasonable players…   X-Wing has a large group playing locally, hopefully more of the Gopher folks will get (back) into the game… 

40K actually looks to be making a small comeback with leagues and the like at the Gopher…  Still can’t say I have any particular interest though.  Sorry, for the cost of the latest Codex for one army and the DLC/Supplemental Codices I have a pretty solid X-Wing force already.  The pace of releases is SLOW for X-Wing by comparison as well.  Good in some ways, but it does lead to the possibility of stagnation I guess.  With a new third Faction, there seems to be a LOT of new life in the game and of course there are those movies coming up…  But back to 40K…  New armies that have not really existed before are hitting the shelves.  Ad Mech (Adepticus Mechanicus) is the latest…  Looks like it has potential and with the obvious tie in to the Forgeworld Horus Heresy stuff that is EXTREMELY popular…  Not my cup of team, mind, but nice models I guess.  Shame, there were a few now former locals who used to REALLY want to play Ad Mech, but they left the area and/or the game.  I am still finding more stuff in the basement and I am not thrilled with how much 40K stuff I have to be honest…  Heck, between that and the firearms I’d like to get rid of, I could easily afford a nice new(er) bike…  Well once I sell the Magna and then the Silverwing I guess…  Eh, LONG term plans I guess.  Will have to look into an online “garage sale” to sell off things, but as I am not in a hurry, not really looking to just dump them…  Well, except for the Magna…  That I want gone ASAP, but need to get the title straightened out still…

AAR for the Titan Games Store Championship (X-Wing)

So, AAR for the Store Championship at Titan Games…

I ran :

Emon Azzameen — Firespray-31	36
Seismic Charges	2
Tactician	2
Proximity Mines	3
Proximity Mines	3
Andrasta	0
Kavil — Y-Wing	24
Ion Cannon Turret	5
Unhinged Astromech	1
N'Dru Suhlak — Z-95 Headhunter	17
Lone Wolf	2
Cluster Missiles	4
Munitions Failsafe	1

Record wise?  Yeah, not so good…  But got in 5 great games, and the first big loss was one I might well have had a good chance at winning.  Played Tyler, an excellent player who won several SCs and he fielded a decked out Soonter Fel and 5 TIE fighters.  Killed off the Interceptor, but then promptly messed up and flew my Firespray INTO his TIE swarm rather than away as I thought I was doing…  Doh.  Went down fighting and got MOST of his stuff before dying, but that kind of set the tone for the day.  Don’t get me wrong, had a great time, played against a lot of friendly and excellent players, so this was NOT like my experience playing MtG or even 40K in tournaments.  I understand that there were some issues with people measuring movement with their hands, etc. at some of the top tables, but being down in the middle I did not see that of course.  All around a great tournament from my perspective but per usual, YMMV and I am sure other perspectives felt differently about it.

Now, I define things a bit differently I guess than a lot of other folks, so I should probably go over that a bit.  Swarm or “Swarmish” is what I refer to as a build that has 5+ ships in it.  Now, to get 5 or more ships in at 100 points of course you are talking TIE Fighters, Z-95’s, M-3’s and maybe Y-Wings I guess for the most part.  So, a bunch of cheap, low quality ships to fit into the philosophy of “Quantity has a Quality all its own”.  In general I do not buy into this, being brought up a product of the American military I tend to go the other way and like to have smaller, better forces.  Not perhaps the true top of the line, but that is not out of the question by any means of course. 

So in any case I saw a LOT of Swarmish builds there.  Typically either a big ship like a YT or Firespray and a bunch of Z-95’s, or an Ace and friends…  There was one lad who brought a dual TIE Phantom list with the named Pilots to get in one more run before “nerfing” with the recently released FAQ.  Good player, but honestly I am thrilled that FFG made that change to those things.  Stark contrast to GW and the Wave Serpent, but I digress J…  In any case, I saw only a single Decimator and I think only 2 YT-2400’s.  A few Aggressors, several other Firespray builds (they were quite popular) but the top tables were dominated by the YT-1300’s.  At least 2 guys up there had dual YT-1300’s fully decked out “Fat Han” style.  So, things easily almost guaranteeing 3 Evades/shot and loads of Hull/Shields with a good Turret.  Pretty sure I would not have done so well against that sort of build.  Almost need something to completely shut down their actions via Stress, blocking or the like…  But seems to be the current build to beat in the “larger than local” meta as it were.  Amusing I guess as no one local plays that sort of ship that I had seen, certainly NOT a pair of them.  To be fair, I DID consider seriously bringing the Falcon with Chewie along with Dash, so close but…  Lacking a few of the things that make “Fat Han” what it is, I think it would have been good, but not nearly so good as those builds.

Emon Azzameen — Firespray-31	36
Seismic Charges	2
Tactician	2
Seismic Charges	2
Proximity Mines	3
Andrasta	0
IG-88B — Aggressor	36
Expert Handling	2
Fire-Control System	2
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Autoblaster	5
Inertial Dampeners	1
Autothrusters	2

This is what I am looking at as my “current” build I guess.  That or 3 B-Wings, 2 of them with HLC/Fire Control and the third with Ten Numb, Mangler Cannon and FC.  Lots of heavy accurate fire, and should be able to cover each other as they slowly move across the board to shoot up the enemy…