X-Wing event and STAW the next day... Oh, On Vacation now...

So, X-Wing event coming up

Kath Scarlet (Scum) — Firespray-31	38
Lone Wolf	2
Tactician	2
Inertial Dampeners	1
Engine Upgrade	4
Ship Total: 47
IG-88C — Aggressor	36
Push the Limit	3
Sensor Jammer	4
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Inertial Dampeners	1
Autothrusters	2
Ship Total: 53
So, the plan is to have the Firespray on one flank, and the Aggressor on the other staying back for long ranged firepower. The two will meet in the middle somewhere more or less with the Aggressor being annoyingly fast I think. Kath in the Firespray hoping to lure people into her rear arc and getting 4-5 dice attacks with the Tactician and Lone Wolf bonuses… Going into the STAW event Monday, I will play Dominion I think… Have the Fighters, the Keldon class ship(s) and/or the Galor class ones. The prize ship is another Galor class, but a REALLY good one at least for the way I play that is. So, bringing my closer to “A” game with Joe and I both gunning for the Cardassian ship. We’ll see how it works out, his Dominion fleet is pretty rough to face, he favors the BB class ships, so nothing subtle, but effective. Actually on vacation now… Took almost a whole week off, something unheard of for me. Gone to the Universal Studios resort in Orlando. It is quite amazing. If you are a fan of the Harry Potter stuff like my wife and daughters (Yes, me too), then this all is a lot of fun. The package deal we got included the “Fast Pass” which is a “bypass main line” card… Not sure if it would be worth it for full price, but it was included and WELL worth it for us. Getting to just walk up to the Hulk roller coaster and be put at the front of the line made it a LOT nicer. Did not apply to say, the HP castle ride, that one everyone had to wait in line for, but we did get early admission to the parks and so we went first thing and only had a 20 minute wait or so… Expensive overall, but since it is a once in a LONG while at least thing… And the girls loved it so J…

Gaming while ill... X-Wing and STAW

So…  Playing Strategy games while ill and on Sudafed is a fail.  Got out to the Gopher to play in their X-Wing day event, decided to try out a ship I’d never flown and…  Well, apparently I chose wisely NOT riding the Silverwing in.  I got hit hard by whatever hit my amazing wife earlier…  Wound up having fun, but playing like crap.  First game I parked my big ship on an asteroid and wound up staying there for 3 turns…  Needless to say, went poorly with my Heavy Laser Cannon  out of action for so long.  The Y-Wings I flew were quite good, but rather like flying the old Vipers up against the new Cylon fighters (Yes, BSG on BBC America last night)…  Possible to do damage, but you are clearly outclassed by everything else out there…  The Aggressor was survivable.  And if I didn’t make stupid mistakes and literally fly off the board in my next two games I would have at least done well…  The Y’s did a fair amount of damage though the Range 1 limit of the Auto Blaster turret meant they have no choice but be VERY aggressive and fly right at whatever they are going after.  With the 3 Maneuvers being Green, I can make some good progress especially with an additional 1 Bank from the Engine Upgrade…  Surprisingly, I only put on of these on an Asteroid, and I got them into Range 1 of things pretty well so they were decently effective…  Not nearly top tier I think.  Neat, and fun but not something to take to a serious event.  I suspect in June when I play in the Titan event that I will be flying my more familiar Firespray if I stick with S&V, or go back to some of the more competitive Rebel builds… 

3 B-Wings make for a pretty decent force…

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
Ten Numb — B-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
Fire-Control System	2
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Ship Total: 38

Have another STAW event coming up, and unfortunately, the prize ship is a REALLY good Dominion ship…  So, Joe and I will both be gunning for it.  Getting bigger crowds in so will have to bring my “A” game I guess…  Have a LOT of ships fortunately, so fleet building should be interesting…  Federation or Dominion I think.  Played Klingons and Romulans most recently.  Will see if the Fed Fighters come in to the Gopher, else the Dominion it will be.  I think the fighter Squadron, a Keldon and a Galor make for the basis.  Joe tends toward the Battleships (BB).  So, my ships will be more maneuverable but his hit like…  Well, Battleships.  And can take a hit like one as well.  My ships will move well and hit hard, just not quite as hard nor can I survive the big hits as well.  The Fighters though…  Those are the wild card that I think can tip it my way.  We’ll see, Joe know hit fleet well and it will be tough…  And of course there are new players showing up which is great…  In general J…  We’ll see, already have the USS Hood, so the Fed builds might be a thing with stuff no one else local has yet…

Gen Con plans, GI reflections and Motorcycle fun...

So, apparently I was late signing up for the Gen Con X-wing stuff, I thought they were doing Thursday AND Friday qualifiers for a Saturday final, so was going to get in on Friday…  Nope, Thursday qualifiers and with us travelling on Thursday not going to try to get on the wait list.  Signed up for an early morning tournament last year and travelling with the family is…  Well, a LOT different than by myself or with a few other Ex-GI buddies able to realistically get up and on the road at “oh dark”.  But going there with the family is a LOT more fun in so many other ways, so NOT a bad thing in any way…  Just have to recognize the limits beforehand and avoid the stress of trying to travel quickly and keep a schedule with a bunch of people who have NO interest in being ON a schedule J…  So, guessing I’ll be playing STAW…  I suppose my Dwarves could come out and play for Warmachine, but thinking I’d get stomped pretty hard there playing a “thematic” force like Dwarves rather than a “We’re just here to kill shit” force…

Got me thinking a bit…  Guessing a lot of people think I’m a bit strange with the way I interact with others.  I do not in general make friends easily or get too close to  people. Over the years, starting mostly around the time I joined the Army, I wound up losing a lot of my friends.  We did not lose anyone on either of my “combat deployments”, but not long after that we started.  Honestly, given what we did then and after I am more than a little surprised ANY of us survived.  In any case, kind of a defense mechanism I guess, keeping people at a bit of a distance because they were likely to die in a bit anyway, so no real point getting to know them.  Am told it comes across as arrogance at times.  And that was pretty much where I was when I got out, so not a real stretch J…  There was also the whole CID infiltrating our units when I was in Germany that tended to breed a real distrust between the old timers and the new guys.  Was NOT effective finding drugs or whatever they were looking for, but it was VERY effective at destroying unit morale in any unit getting replacements.  When a guy shows up with pressed and starched uniforms, highly polished boots, combat patches and claims to have been an Engineer or Grunt for years…  Without ever getting dirty?  No.  Little things that just stick out to someone who has been doing this for a while…  Was another reason we really did not need to NOT get close to anyone else.  “I’ve got all the friends I need” J…  Might have been something I’d heard working with folks on the other side of the war against crime… 

Oh, and this happened last week:

Glad I was heading home at an odd time, wearing the helmet/leather jacket/gloves and have my reflexes still…  Caught the piece as it broke free in the cross wind.  35 year old Plexiglas and a strong wind…  Well, the Wind won looks like J…  Took the rest of the shield off and looking for a replacement now…  Just does not feel right riding without the big shield to hide behind, so I guess I've gotten soft in my old age J…

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...