Ah, post Mynock Open X-Wing...

 Got to watch a fair bit of the “Mynock Open” held out in LA over the weekend.  Some excellent games streamed on the Gold Squadron Twitch channel (https://www.twitch.tv/goldsquadronpodcast).  Have to say that I was surprised to find that while there were approximately as many Rebel players as Scum & Villainy (S&V) that there was only a single Rebel player to make the cut to day two.  I did not think that it would be quite that badly lopsided.  The breakdown between S&V and Imperials was actually 8 each.  Odd cut system, but that was the way that the rules were applied out there.  Hard to explain, but it looked like a really good way to do a really large event (something like 160 players IIRC).  But S&V and Imps are clearly well ahead of the Rebels at the moment.  Not surprising, they both have ships that are really quite good and frankly costed far too low combined with good synergies that allow the combos to work.  Rebels have a few really good ships, but no real synergy across them all.  A single Leebo to represent the Rebel YT-2400’s and a single Rebel Han Solo meant that there were almost no Rebel Large Based ships there…  I do suspect that Dash kitted out will be a terror on the field…  Just not entirely sure that the 2 Ship builds are viable against so many ships on the field these days.  I will likely give that a try after this weekend with the first local (Champaign/Urbana) v2 events hitting.  This weekend however I will be flying more or less what I have been flying this whole edition:

FelWhisperSai2 (193)

Soontir Fel — TIE Interceptor	52
Lone Wolf	4
Ship Total: 56
“Whisper” — TIE/ph Phantom	52
Juke	4
Collision Detector	5
Darth Vader	14
Ship Total: 75
Lieutenant Sai — Lambda-class T-4a Shuttle	47
Director Krennic	5
Shield Upgrade	4
ST-321	6
Ship Total: 62

 7 points left to play with, so either a Shield for Whisper or say, Minister Tua for the Shuttle to grab Reinforce tokens as the Shuttle dies more slowly.  Suspect the Shield on Whisper is the way I’ll go as I REALLY like my Aces…  Saw a fair number of the “Cloak & Choke Whisper” on the streams, in fact so many that I suspect it has become the default build for the ship…  Soonter Fel I saw with Juke a fair bit…  Not bad, I do prefer Lone Wolf myself as I want the insurance against the “oh crap” dice roll since I otherwise really lack things like a TL or the like to roll my way out of a bad roll.  And since he can now just evaporate on a single flubbed roll…  Well, to be fair I was able to lose mine in a single shot in v1, but that was an extreme outlier where now?  Not really unlikely if someone say, lines up a Proton Torpedo with decent modification on the roll…  So, he runs scared the whole time he is on the table for me.  USUALLY survives, but there is always that chance that I guess wrong or something to that effect…

Or they have Tug Boats…  Those things are just bloody terrifying these days.  Jakku Gunrunner is 28 points and really does not NEED anything else…  I1 to allow for blocking easily enough, at that cost it makes sense to run a LEAST a pair of them since they can do weird things like slingshot themselves with the Action Tractor to the other Tug to get in a Boost/Barrel Roll followed by the second one activating in a now advanced position to roll in and hit the Enemy ship with its Tractor…  Bullseye gets you a second Tractor token allowing you to move a Medium base…  THAT should terrify things like Redline and Boba Fett as they suddenly are out of position or on a bloody rock…  Saw a LOT of these over the weekend on stream, for very good reason.  Might buy a second one, but I suspect this is one of the very first things to get nerfed and hit the points elevator for the “up, up, up” treatment…  Without a real defense against this tactic/effect, it is just entirely too good against the rest of the field I think.  ALMOST a relic of v1 I think as I actually used this to horrifying effect back then with one event requiring that I fly the Gunrunner.  Was NOT a penalty for me as my other 2 ships were Guri and Fenn Rau loaded for bear.  Did the Fencik/Plank maneuver where the Gunrunner rolled in, blocked and/or tractored the target (usually both) and the other two ships rolled in with both having 5 Dice Attacks and good modifications…  Nothing survived that treatment.  Same thing now it seems.  -1 Agility is good, and the real potential to simply move a Ship in an unexpected way?  WAY too good for a single action on a cheap ship.  And as I am not flying it this time around (in fact lending my only Tug to a buddy, so I KNOW there will be some out there), need to come up with defenses against this.  Really aren’t many…  My Shuttle will likely become a big blocker/barricade to just keep the Tugs away from my valuable Aces…  Run fast and stay at R3 to wear them down…  The Tugs ARE slow and pretty predictable on the field, so in theory the Imperial TIE Interceptor and Phantom SHOULD be able to run circles around them…  Issue of course is that there will not be only one, and of course since it will likely be part of a Swarm, avoiding the Tug will likely land me in Arc of other ships…  And blocked Aces are dead aces…

Looking ahead, I’ll likely give something like this a try as I think it goes fairly well against the “standard Meta” that I am seeing at the bigger events at least.

New Squadron (200)

Dash Rendar — YT-2400 Light Freighter	100
Trick Shot	1
Veteran Turret Gunner	8
Hull Upgrade	5
Outrider	14
Rigged Cargo Chute	4
Ship Total: 132
Wedge Antilles — T-65 X-Wing	52
Trick Shot	1
Proton Torpedoes	9
R2 Astromech	6
Servomotor S-foils	0
Ship Total: 68

Mind, it IS a 2 Ship list.  And the low Ship count combined with the now absolutely terrifying Damage Deck (well, the Criticals at least) I suspect are discouraging most players from even attempting to bring these ships…  But on paper at least, Dash can throw out 2 x 5 (!!!) Dice Attacks each turn against ships that do not gain additional Agility for being behind cover.  Not EASY to set up, but it certainly should be possible as he completely ignores terrain for movement and I AM bringing even more terrain to hide behind.  Debris of course for me as I do NOT want to land on the rock without being able to shoot very often…  Removing Red/Orange tokens for moving across Terrain is also going to be something I think…  All theoretical of course as I JUST broke out the cardboard for Dash today…  Does at the least sound like fun as I still have a special liking of the old YT-2400…  Will at the least be a rude surprise I suspect for a few folks when they DO see it…

Too much time on my hands to think about X-Wing 2.0

 Still running 3x/week and running around a LOT at work this week as we had our Exchange server migration yesterday...  LOTS of work, most of it fairly mindless, giving me time to put some of my thoughts into order...

Dice stacking in v1 vs v2:  This was probably the biggest problem that the game itself had in the first edition.  Not nearly the problem it was in the current edition, but it is very early.  I do not THINK they will be painted into the corner like they were in first, but being cynical…  Well, at least only surprises are good ones I am told.  But when there were ships that had a 1 Agility that could 100% of the time dodge 3 Hits and have better than a 75% shot at just outright dodging a 4 Hit Attack?  Yeah, something had to change in a big way.  In second edition there ARE some things that can get decent stacks set up, but they are thankfully quite rare and REALLY expensive overall.  TIE Defenders and Phantoms come to mind.   Both have an almost artificial way to get an Evade token, allowing them to simply take the Focus Action to have the fully stacked Defense.  On the Defender with 3 Agility/Hull/Shield platform it means that even should you fail out one roll, it might well NOT mean that the ship just died.  The Phantom?  Well, 2 Agility and Shields backed by 3 Hull…  Not getting shot is the best for that ship I am finding.  Gone are the days that I could fly Whisper right at someone knowing that I’d have 4 Agility, Evade and Focus tokens and likely the Emperor’s “adjustment” of dice should I really need it.  But those ships, while GOOD are not simply dominating the events we are seeing now.  Both struggle against massed firepower, be it Ordnance via TIE Bombers or just plain guns from more ships on the tables these days.  4 TIE Strikers backed by a Shuttle or an Ace is a solid build.  And frankly terrifying to a lot of Aces without the passive Dice modification in this edition of the game.  Have not really seen many Large Ships…  The Imperial Shuttle (I am flying one finally, need to get mine painted to match the rest of my stuff), yes…  But the Rebel Falcon or Dash’s YT-2400?  Not really seeing them.  Not REALLY sure why honestly.  I suspect they are actually fairly good…  Just that the new Damage Deck’s Criticals are just terrifying and the cascade effect on those ships is FAR worse now.  Of course nerfing the major offenders including the Jumpmaster 5000 (ALL of them) helped a lot.  All around Turrets are gone, everyone is not like the Lancer Class from the first edition.  MUCH better rules for turrets I think.  But lacking the insane Defense stacking are they playable at all?  Guessing I will get to flying the 2400 at least.  It WAS the first ship my wife bought for me in the game, and I always liked flying it.  Even if it was alternately completely outclassed and completely overpowered…  Then back to simply outclassed, for the most part…

Action efficiency:  THIS was pretty much the thing that HAD to go.  Gone are the bulk of the passive modifications like Expertise.  Not completely gone of course, one of the lists I am flying right now:

FelWhisperSai2 (199)

Soontir Fel — TIE Interceptor	52
Lone Wolf	4
Ship Total: 56
“Whisper” — TIE Phantom	52
Juke	4
Collision Detector	5
Darth Vader	14
Ship Total: 75
Lieutenant Sai — Lambda-Class Shuttle	47
Fire-Control System	3
0-0-0	3
Director Krennic	5
Shield Upgrade	4
ST-321	6
Ship Total: 68

This sets up what is probably the best action efficiency I have found so far in the game.  The Shuttle moves, Coordinates say a Focus to another ship.  This gives the Shuttle a Focus as well.  Then the Shuttle gets a Lock (without having to be in Range of the Target) again for free.  The TL gives bonuses to the ship I have made the “Optimized Prototype”, allowing me to strip shields or flip Damage Cards without having to actually hit the target…  Whisper of course gets the Evade from De-Cloak, gains an Evade if she Hits the target, likely has Focus from the Shuttle, Vader has the Force point that might be used to strip tokens or just push Damage.  Then she has Juke to flip an Evade to a Focus.  And as Vader has likely already stripped the Focus token…  And if she has not used all of her Evades, she gets to Re-Cloak at the end of the Turn to do it all again.  Fel?  Still the Arc Dodging PTL (light) Ace…  He can get the Focus free if he has ANY enemy in his Bullseye Arc, and that is surprisingly common…  Well, in the HUGE sample size I have myself (4 actual games of v2).  Still pretty darn good.  Hard to block a lot, and the Shuttle itself is probably up there with “Most Improved” ship in this edition.  Jam, Reinforce, Coordinate actions?  On the big Hull…  Should note I am actually gaming the system a bit by adding the Shield upgrade to kick the Shuttle up to 11 total Health.  Have to get 6 Damage to get the half points on the ship.  And half points on EVERYTHING is actually how I am seeing a lot of games being resolved these days.  Mind, Agility 1, so not like LT Sai is dodging all that much, but to be honest if they concentrate THAT much on the Shuttle my Aces should tear them apart.

What looks like it is going to the top so far:  While some are (I suspect) incorrectly saying that the “Meta is solved”…  I think that there ARE some things that are rising to the top for now at least.  And it has become evident that SOME things are perhaps under costed…  In my own lists, Juke is just stapled to the TIE Phantoms and Defenders.  For 4 points it is just too good NOT to take.  And any time you have to have some really compelling reason NOT to take an upgrade, it points to an issue I think.  Things like Supernatural Reflexes, Trajectory Simulator and a few of the ships themselves are I suspect due to hit the point cost elevator a the first “revision”.  And that there WILL be regular revisions of the game itself does make me hopeful at least that there will be a lot more longevity in this edition and there are not long periods of certain things absolutely dominating the competitive Meta…  Yes, casual play in local stores is not really affected, but that only works so long as ALL of the players abide by the self-imposed restrictions.  Once one or more bring the “netlists” that define the top tier of the competitive Meta, the system breaks completely.  And a lot of the “casual” players stop coming out to play which does have the effect of killing the local scene…  I suppose I put myself in more of the “Competitive” camp as I do enjoy the local Store Champion type events…  But I do also like the local scene.  With the FFG official alternate formats coming up perhaps there will be a bit of both in the future…

Random Motorcycle/Tariff thoughts and X-Wing v2 building...

So, go to thinking a bit about Tariffs recently as apparently we are in another cycle of such things now.  As I specialized in the “Industrial Engineering” side of Mechanical Engineering when I went to school in the ancient times this was something that came up as we were just getting out of the 80’s and into the 90’s at the time.  Now, looking at the situation in as unbiased a fashion as possible there are a few factors that you must account for.  Specifically, the United States has “Anti-Trust” laws that are lacking in many (most/all IIRC) of our competitors.  So, for instance we have company “X” that produces say, motorcycles.  They are unable to share ownership of say, Steel Mills, Coal Mines, etc. with those companies in any significant way.  Not so for say a Japanese company or Keiretsu.  That is essentially a group of companies that share a common ownership and purpose.  This allows the overall Keiretsu to achieve a profit MUCH easier as they have no need to achieve profitability at any specific level (thinking of manufacturing process as the various levels that these companies exist at).  So, competitive advantage taken to extremes.  Now, I used motorcycles as an example because I have only ever owned Honda motorcycles.  So, these tariffs would be why my Silverwing had a 497cc engine and my Goldwing technically has an 1196cc engine.  My Goldwing is a 1984, so they also got around restrictions by assembling the bike here in the United States, technically making it an American manufactured motorcycle for the purposes of Tariffs…  Now, where this example falls apart is that while TECHNICALLY there were American manufacturers (Harley Davidson being the largest) at that time, they were manufacturing absolutely terrible bikes, so the protection for American jobs was good and all, but they were producing horrible bikes, so probably should have failed sooner than they did…

Ah, but back to X-Wing…  Mostly just theory crafting at the moment as I am just not getting out to play all that often.  The girl’s big Show Choir fundraiser event was this last weekend and there was simply no time for anything else and frankly I am still exhausted from that.  Good cause I suppose, and the new Choir Director is FAR more involved with the kids and there is actual excitement and people coming back to the program after the last few years just bleeding people off…  But silly real life interfering with the whole gaming thing for me J… 

Rebels:  A few lists I am looking at, Luke Skywalker in his X-Wing loaded out with Proton Torpedoes and the “But, I’m a Jedi and the Rules Do NOT Apply” card (Supernatural Reflexes) means he CAN line up on say, Whisper and just erase her with his Torpedo shot.  She has at most 2 Agility, he is likely to get 4 Hits/Crits so the math is pretty bad for the Phantom here.  And the Phantom is fragile.  Back Skywalker with Sabine in her Attack Shuttle and the pocket “Advanced Sensors” for loads of extra actions and Nora in the Y-Wing to just be a Tank…  Solid list, but pretty unexciting and nothing there which really has good answers to things like the stupid Trajectory Simulator Bombs, massed Torpedoes, etc…  So, solid and PROBABLY will do well, but looking like there are simply some things that are going to be hard counters for it.  Frankly not a lot standing out for me in the Rebel faction at the moment.  NOT to say they are bad, just that nothing that suits my play style at the moment…

S&V:  Fett is STRONG in the current edition.  Probably too strong frankly.  But will I feel bad flying that ship for at least the first few events?  No.  I flew the Firesprays for a LONG barren stretch in v1, so now that the worm has turned, so be it.  Emon is frankly the one I am looking more forward to flying and I suspect that my dual Firespray list will appear again with Kath being replaced.  Emon was one I tried REALLY hard to make work in v1, but the chassis was just THAT bad.  Now, he is looking quite solid with the potential infinite Proton Bombs getting chucked with the 1 or 3 Templates…  Fun, but probably not overly competitive.  But fits my style, so…  Other than that?  The Mandalorian Fangs are solid, just like the TIE Interceptor, so they’ll hit the table for me.  And as I HAVE 3 now, I can go swarm(ish).  The Star Viper is awesome and loads of fun.  Have a swarm of them, so they are more that WILL hit the table for me…  But all in all, I think S&V is more fun than competitive.  I DO think they have a fighting chance to win anything that is not artificially limited (like Corresant), but the Imperials are just a bit stronger overall I think.

Imperials:  So, what I HAVE flown the most so far.  The TIE Interceptors are amazing.  Cheap, fragile and you live and die by your Agility Dice, but fun to fly.  The Phantoms are likewise strong and I do suspect a BIT too strong.  Coming in ~ the same point cost as an X-Wing, they are just better on the table in my experience and so I suspect they’ll be adjusted upwards in cost.  But they are FUN to fly.  Not the overpowered sledgehammer they were in v1, but flying with finesse, skill and caution they hit hard and live long enough to get the job done.  Fragile as Hell though, so if they DO get caught, they will not likely survive.  Otherwise?  I’ve been flying the continuation of my v1 list with the Reaper with MAJ Vermeil with the Phantom and Interceptor.  Solid, fun list.  Other things I have flown or looked at seriously are the Defenders and the Punisher.  Have flown the Defenders, and they are a blast.  EXPENSIVE as Hell, but worth every point.  Stupidly resilient and just fun to fly.  The Punisher is one I got to see in action on streams.  The Trajectory Simulator and Redline’s ability to get fully modified Proton Torpedoes is just WAY too good, so another on the points elevator I suspect…  I HAVE one of those ships, I tried to get it to work in v1 to no avail, but now?  Probably just too good and not really my play style overall…

"Reclassification" and X-Wing 2.0 thoughts...

Ah, continuing on the job search…  By now I suspect that through the various interviews over the course of the year I have met EVERY IT Director on Campus.  So, I suppose my name is getting out there and I AM getting interviews…  Which is great, just need to progress beyond that of course into the “offer” stage.  Selling my skill set and what I can bring to the new job.  Have the “merit badges” of the MS Degree, various technical certifications and the like…  Oh, and 25 or so years of verifiable experience in the IT industry ranging from “Programmer” to “Hardware Guy” to “Network” and “Management”…  So, looks good on paper.  Sitting in on the briefings regarding the change from Academic Professional to Civil Service has been… Interesting.  Frankly at my level, the only real concern I have is that my last title change was delayed several years (and THAT is the reason I am seeking employment elsewhere), so I’ll be on the lower side of seniority for the title I hold.  NOT a lot of others holding this title, so not really overly concerned about it honestly, but it IS a concern as seniority is extremely important on the CS side of the world.  Getting Reclassified actually gets me an additional 4 days of Vacation that I honestly can’t use in my current job, so nothing really lost there for me.  So, interesting times ahead it seems.  We are told over and over again that there is “no intention to come in and do a mass reclassification”, but as they did exactly that in Chicago to “poor” effect, there is no real reason to trust the State of Illinois in this.  Having learned long ago never to trust this State (ref: IL Nat Guard time J) I have less confidence they will not just “make it happen”.  Will absolutely suck for newer folks as Aps enjoy a lot better benefit package WRT sick and leave time at least, but for those of us who have been here a bit it will be a wash or actually slightly better in the case of us old timers who have been here 14+ years.

Thane Kyrell and others flipping Damage cards:  I suspect this will be the death of Large Based Ships in the game, or at least have a serious damping effect upon them.  They also look good as “finishers” for Aces with the ability to just get that one Damage through, then with flipping effects applying Criticals over and over until it removes the ship…  Assuming of course it is a Direct Hit, Hull Breach or the like that can do this.  Odds are pretty good, and as there are NO good Criticals in the v2 Deck and some that cause a cascade effect that will just destroy the Ship.  So, I have my “Rebel” Squadron more or less picked.

Imperial Squadron, I am flying mostly the same stuff I flew at the end of v1…  TIE Phantoms are REALLY good now.  The TIE Interceptor is risky, but if you are comfortable knowing that at any time you might just die….  Well, they are fast and powerful.  DO have the possibility that they just die to a single attack, so you have to dodge Arcs quite well.  The Reaper and the Punisher are both Medium Base ships now and they seem like the “anchor” ships for my “Ace(ish)” builds.  I fly the Reaper with Director Krennic like I have in the past and while it is NOT as stupidly broken as it was in v1, it is actually sneaky good I think.  Spending a Dice Result to flip a card here is as good I think as it is for the above listed Ships.  Adding Target Lock to the Reaper is actually surprisingly good…  And I fly with Vader crew on Whisper for added ways to do Damage or remove Tokens without having to resort to actually Attacking and you know pushing through the Damage in the traditional manner…  Vader forces them to CHOOSE to either lose the Green Token or take a Damage.  Mind, if they have no Tokens, they have already made that choice as in this edition 0 is NOT an option.  So, maybe one Damage gets pushed or they lose the Focus that they need to avoid the Juke on Whisper to cancel out an Evade result…  Either way is great for me.  Then I can cancel out a Result (Focus or Hit/Crit) to flip a Card before Damage is applied…  Might be no big deal or they might not have Damage Cards already, but if they DO…  Direct hit or Hull Breaches will just hurt.  A lot.  Yes, random draw and situational, but it works surprisingly well at taking down things like TIE Defenders or other Ace types with low Hull.  And for Large Bases?  They just melt under this.  And Col Vermiel on the Reaper for the follow up Attack?  Just brutal.  The Punisher serves a different role as a Bomb projector and Torpedo Boat…  But actually quite good in this Edition…  But as it happens I HAVE one from First Edition that I had mostly base coated in my Imperial Blue color scheme before figuring out that there was simply NO way to make the ship work under the old rules…  It really was just THAT bad…  But that has changed.  A LOT. 

I suspect that the Phantom and Punisher are both up for point increases come January which we are told will be the first major adjustment…  Force powers are pretty good as well, so suspect some of them might go up a bit…  But overall the game is in a MUCH better place and with the first few major events in the books it does seem that there is a fair number of good builds out there with nothing really too badly OP…

X-Wing 2.0, first game in and first impressions...

X-Wing 2.0

Well, got in my first “official” game of X-Wing 2.0 now…  I played my Echo (TIE Phantom)/Soonter Fel (TIE Interceptor)/Brath (TIE Defender) against Bralen (B-Wing)/Ten Numb (B-Wing) and Gavin Darklighter (E-Wing).  It was a LOT of fun.  Since I have been playing “Ace” lists for quite a long time now, this list really felt familiar in many ways, but just solid really.  Fel was Arc dodging like he always has, and he was quite solid.  I should mention he certainly felt a LOT more fragile and I was quite aware of it.  He is just one Crit cascade away from dying, and without the token staking, Autothrusters and Palpatine crutches.  I WAS able to get Bullseye Arc more often than not (at least when I was lining up for a shot), and I could just say “I’m out” when I saw that the situation called for it.  And facing HLC/Crack Shot/built in dice mods I did NOT want to end up in the B-Wing’s Arc so doing the Klingon Saber Dance to stay alive and bleed them out.  Dodged Arcs mean that I am not getting shot, and I do not have to worry about the “oops, I died” effect.  So, I think the Interceptor is solid and Fel especially.  No modifications really, I had Outmaneuver on Fel knowing full well that IF I were to shoot, in almost every case I was going to be out of Arc.  It worked quite well. 

The Defender?  It was every bit as solid as I expected it would be.  I never did use the Pilot Ability, but the ship itself with ALL of the actions, great shields and 3 Agility?  Worth every point I spent.  Frankly he should have died, my Dice were hot and his were cold for most of the critical points of the game, but even had he died, he did a LOT of damage and even then he got the Defender down to one Hull.  The Criticals are BRUTAL.  But I also like the fact that the random element on turning them face down has gone away, basically spend an action and flip the card rather than the action + dice roll for the 50/50 shot to maybe turn it down.  He ate a Critical (Weapons Failure) and was able to K-Turn, turn it down to get in the good (but unmodified) shot into the E-Wing…  Well, Juke still allowed a modification so even that was not so bad…  I suspect I’ll be moving back to the Countess with her ability to do the crazy K-turns even though they are no longer Green.  That ability is just SO good, and frankly I flew so much with it in v 1 that I got pretty good at that, so…

The rock star of the list though was Echo in the Phantom.  I’ll start off by saying I think that ship needs to go up in points at the earliest opportunity.  They basically cost what the X-Wings do now, and are just SO much better, at least in the hands of someone who knows what to do with them.  Disclaimer, I flew a LOT of the TIE Phantoms in v 1.0 and actually learned the game flying against them in the darkest times J…  So, I have a fair idea how they work and what you need to do with them.  Echo with the 2 Bank de-cloak is just stupidly maneuverable, and even if you DO get the block on her move, she still has her Evade so she can re-cloak at the end of the turn.  DID happen once as I suspect I got too predictable with the de-cloak, 1 turn to line up shots with Juke.  But even then, it just meant that the next Turn, I de-cloaked behind the ship and he never got another shot as I just chased him down and killed him.  As it happens I picked up a second Phantom in a bulk trade a while back and it never saw the table in v 1 because there was really only the one that was viable, but I suspect 2 are going to be quite good…  At least until they get their point cost adjusted up.  Will see I suppose if my experience with this ship is more an aberration.  But I strongly suspect that this will be some adjustments made to many ships including this one… 

X-Wing 2.0 is live and minor other stuff...

X-Wing:

Well, technically had the very last v1 event, but as it was just the two of us there to play I played my X-Wings and Arc against his “Death Rey” build with the intention of making sure he got his Regional Bye…  SO many little things in there I am thrilled to see just go away with the changing of the edition.  And that was not even one of the more broken builds honestly…  But in any case I picked up my Core Set and the Upgrade Kits.  Starting to unpack them, there are a LOT of things in those kits.  FFG has an official Squadron Builder, and as the bugs get fixed it is looking better.  YASB is still a bit better I think with the dials showing in the builder, but a minor quibble… 

I know several of the podcasts have declared the Rebels DoA, but honestly I think they’ll do fine.  Nora in her new Y-Wing is awesome, X-Wings are solid ships for the first time I’ve seen them be so…  Yes, the uber-Turrets are just gone (mostly), but flying the way I enjoy it seems to be the way of things there now.  I am actually quite comfortable with risks and variance (“Sometimes your stuff just dies” and “Green Dice WILL betray you”).  Gone are the card combos that could just do things without actually resorting to dice rolling, and gone are the token stacking that was so prevalent at the end of v1…  When a 1 Agility ship like say, the Falcon could easily dodge a 3 Hit Attack (100% of the time) and was not really a long shot to simply didge a 4 Hit Attack…  There was a problem.  Now, there are only a few things that can ADD a result (Nora being one of the very few), usually it is CHANGE a result and you cannot dodge more Hits than you have Agility anymore.  I am looking forward to flying Star Vipers, TIE Phantoms and yes, even X-Wings now that I CAN do both reposition actions on a basic X-Wing.  Phantoms, Interceptors, Fangs and Vipers are all going to be slippery and for me at least a blast to fly…  For shorter events J…  I might get a chance to put a few of them on the table tomorrow as Titan (Champaign) is doing their release events on Tuesday nights it seems for the “Casual Night”…  Dunno, have a random post work meeting, but will see…

Word out there in the wild is that there are a LOT of people picking up v2 and coming back or just starting now…  Hope so.  I have seen far too many games just die out while doing an edition change, especially after things got so bad that the edition change was absolutely needed. 

Back to getting serious about the diet thing…  Going to give Advocare another shot and see.  It worked well enough last time, just was REALLY rough on my system and per usual, once I stopped paying attention and logging all of the food, etc. the losses were reversed.  Mostly, I am still quite a bit lighter than my heaviest…  Just wanting to be a good 30-40 pounds lighter to be actually “in shape” again.  Running and working out continuing, but seem to have hit a plateau there.  No longer losing weight on my own, not really getting much stronger or faster by any means.  So, started the “cleanse” phase today and it sucks every bit as much as I remember it, but of course real weight loss is always a caloric deficit, and paying attention to what I eat and drink should keep me in that range.  Will see I suppose.

Bike and truck are running fine I suppose.  Need to fix my daughter’s exhaust and my windshield before winter…

Last Jedi silliness and the last 1.0 X-Wing events...

So, the Last Jedi…  Have to admit it was my least favorite Star Wars film.  Caveat, I have not seen the Solo film yet, but from what I have heard it was actually in the “not bad” range, so I suspect rather strongly that TLJ will remain my least favorite SW film.  I know that the Mynocks spent an hour or so arguing here that it was objectively the best SW film, and that is fine J.  Best or worst, I did not like it at all.  THAT is how I am judging the films…  Seemed like they went way out of their way to give a giant middle finger to most of the older SW fans, and the specific problems I had were:

1.       Poe not knowing the new Admiral’s plan.  Yes, Leia demoted him from Commander to Captain.  Got it.  Of course, a real military does not really work that way, but whatever, I get this is just a fantasy J.  At that point the whole Resistance was down to a single ship, the Flagship that had the entirety (well, except for Leia herself) of its bridge crew killed.  THAT he was an Officer would have made him a Senior Officer.  And so NONE of the Officers who were involved in the aborted Mutiny had a clue what the Rear Admiral’s plan was…  Not bloody likely.  Hell, the Flight Deck enlisted crew all knew what it was.  They were the ones loading up the Transports with fuel and Cloaking Devices.  And Rose knew it well enough to give that information to the extremely unreliable DJ, including the specifics of the Cloaking Devices frequencies, etc…  So, I am amused that the Rear ADM is viewed by some as some sort of “equality” here representing under-represented females, but to me she was just a bad character.  And that whole situation was just a giant steaming plot hole that just seemed to be very lazy writing…  But just my opinion of course…

2.      Rey…  Okay, I actually like the character.  Excellent actress who works hard to pull off the young Jedi, and I like that.  This seems to be one of the things that the Director decided to just go 180 degrees from what was being built up in the previous movie and just throw it all away.  Rey has no back story now apparently, she’s just the random lucky one who got picked by the Force.  Not that her parents were characters in previous stories and there was some sort of continuity there.  Nope.  Just some random no one who magically was granted these amazing powers and for no apparent reason Anakin/Luke’s Light Saber called to her specifically and that whole flashback scene in the cantina had no meaning whatever.  I also thought she could have spent a LOT more time training with Luke.  Which brings me to

3.      Time compression…  Everything happening in SUCH a short time frame?  Why?  Everything essentially happening while the First Order were busy running the Resistance remnants down.  Fenn and Rose pop out, have an adventure/side quest and then make it back in time to witness the conclusion of the chase scene?  Made everything just seem rushed.  And just sort of thrown together at the last moment on the fly…  Kind of links to the Jedi training between Rey and Luke for me, but there is not really a sense of how long that actually took…  The length of time Finn was in a coma, but that is not known.  Probably just me, but I wanted more there, but I could see why this was compressed.  Just wish they gave some sense of time passing and that it was not like 3 days of “seminar” Jedi training to advance her to Jedi Knight at least.

4.      Most of the space battles…  So, bring in a DN class ship to hit the planet…  Fine.  But no fighter screen?  At all?  Having seen the TIE fighters scramble on other occasions, I have a hard time believing that they would not have scrambled on arrival…  Or maybe during the stupid prank call scene?  Not like the FO was trying to conserve fuel or ammo, so…  I guess trading the DN for ALL of the Resistance Bombers was OK for Snoke?

What did I like?  Well, in my opinion, Luke did the most Jedi thing ever when he faced down the First Order on his own, ultimately using the force in a completely nonviolent manner to defend the people he loved and sacrificing himself in the process.  Right up there with Kanan Jarus for me, but then I REALLY liked “Rebels”.  And Kanan was not nearly so powerful I think.  Still that was a great scene for me.  I also liked the Duel scene where Rey and Kylo fought the Praetorian Guards…  Nice, well done fight scene.  The Jedi training was pretty good, just seemed rushed/compressed. And the whole “you’re nobody” thing that I dislike…  Eh, just my opinions per usual of course.

So, have an X-Wing event this weekend at Mattoon…  Will bring 3 lists, 2 I actually want to fly and one just to give the lads there a chance to get in some reps against a more top tier list if they really want to.  Since the ACTUAL Store Championship is after the official release date for v2, I am frankly concerned that the attendance will be quite low…  All of them local have suffered and this one being after the actual date for the new edition?  Anyway, we will see I suppose.

WedgeWesNorra (100)

Wedge Antilles — X-Wing	29
Lone Wolf	2
Renegade Refit	-2
Flight-Assist Astromech	1
Servomotor S-Foils	0
Integrated Astromech	0
Ship Total: 29
Wes Janson — X-Wing	29
Predator	3
Renegade Refit	-2
Flight-Assist Astromech	1
Servomotor S-Foils	0
Integrated Astromech	0
Ship Total: 30
Norra Wexley — ARC-170	29
Push the Limit	3
Seismic Torpedo	2
Saw Gerrera	1
R2-D2	4
Vectored Thrusters	2
Alliance Overhaul	0
Ship Total: 41

Possible to swap Nien Numb out for Saw to get more Greens on Nora’s ARC dial, and not really sold on Predator for Wes…  Might go for the free VI or Crack Shot.  Still, make the swan song of X-Wing 1.0 an event with actual X-Wings?  And looking over the v2 stuff for the X-Wings, they do come out pretty well… 

Otherwise, Fett and either Guri or Fenn for the S&V Aces…  Well, they WILL be the S&V Aces in v2.  Fun builds, semi competitive I suppose as they have the answers to a fair number of the “meta” lists.  I was frankly shocked to have my Countess Ryad be an Ace in my Titan SC build.  SO many things PS 5 and lower, mostly lower frankly.  Was weird.  Third option as I said will just be the Titan SC build list…  It is a strong list, but I do not feel like it is actually oppressive like say, the Ghost/Fenn or Harpoon Alpha lists are.  Requires actual skill to fly it, and it is certainly beatable.  2 hard to hit ships, one of which is extremely fragile backed by a light Shuttle.  If I mess up or they bring the right things?  Well, it will be a VERY short game I suspect. 

But on to v2.0…  I have to say I am actually quite excited to start playing the new edition.  It looks pretty darn solid, only a (very) few things out of balance at the moment.  And with the announcement of the Republic coming out?  Um, yes.  I am REALLY looking forward to flying those ships…