Life update and even some gaming stuff (Legion and X-Wing)

So….  Between getting more serious about running and actually taking the diet thing serious (my wife started WW and I joined her there) I am now officially lighter than I was when I entered the Army back in 1990…  I am wearing a sweatshirt that my Aunt got me when I was back in High School (so late 80’s) when she was rather hoping I would go to USC…  I went to the University of Illinois for Engineering instead.  Well, for a bit J  Before joining the Army on the “Stripes” plan of course.  Things there seem like they are going well.  Losing a few pounds every week and my run times are getting better every week as well.  NOT nearly what they were at my prime playing Army of course, but the 15-minute miles have become 12-minute miles and I run effectively 3 5K’s every week.  Not really lifting much, mostly doing body weight workouts as my “prison workouts” I can do at my Office.  So, I just keep moving I suppose and we’ll see how this work out as time goes on…

Job search is continuing.  Amusingly I have 2 interviews this week…  One local but not at the University and the other in Texas (via video chat, not flying out there)…  We will see I suppose?  Both sound interesting and would be a major change for me, but of course I have to actually get the real offers before J….

Gaming wise?  Got in a Legion event this weekend and my Clones won out…  They are surprisingly solid troops.  Obi-Wan is a GREAT support leader.  NOT as good offensively as Luke or Grievous, but better by far for the Army he is leading.  The lads are primed now, and I am going to head out to the Gopher to pick up some of the Contrast paints to give them a shot I think… 

X-Wing?  I think I’ll throw this on the table:

Mace Luminara Wolfe Matc… (200)

"Matchstick" — BTL-B Y-Wing	43
Ion Cannon Turret	5
R4 Astromech	2
Ship Total: 50
Half Points: 25 Threshold: 4
Mace Windu — Delta-7 Aethersprite	45
R4 Astromech	2
Calibrated Laser Targeting	3
Ship Total: 50
Half Points: 25 Threshold: 2
Luminara Unduli — Delta-7 Aethersprite	43
C1-10P	7
Ship Total: 50
Half Points: 25 Threshold: 2
“Wolffe” — ARC-170 Starfighter	50
Ship Total: 50
Half Points: 25 Threshold: 5

Something to keep the power creep out of it and make for a more friendly game I think…  Though if I play it well, I suspect this will be competitive.  This and my standard Dual Firespray lists will be my staples I think…

More X-Wing... Just stalling for time I suppose?

So, going forward I suppose I have a few options in my travel kit… 

The Firesprays are amusing, but I suspect strongly that at the very least there will be some “adjustments” made on Boba Fett’s ship as he is actually a bit too good at the moment.  Krassis?  Eh.  Amusing, but at the end of the day an I3 Firespray, so nothing that should cause TOO much concern.  Well, for most people.  The low I swarm type build actually does fear this ship quite a bit.  Aces?  Well, iff I get lucky on the Snap Shot that could be an issue for them, but in general it is nothing to be overly concerned about.  So, this is an absolutely solid build and likely the one I would fly were I to be entering a serious competition today.

The Jedi are another I enjoy…  Obi-Wan loaded out with the Droid to adjust his dial, Sense and CLT is almost certainly going up, up, up in Jan…  Simply WAY too good for the points now.  Yes, it is an I5 that relies on the 3 Agility to survive in the very fragile frame.  3 Force means I will likely have at least SOME modification for my Defense and it is probably the best dial in the game with the Fine Tuned Controls ability to double reposition without Stress.  Anakin is there because he is an I6.  His Pilot Ability is so very situational that I seldom actually use it honestly.  But at I6 with the double reposition I can line up the CLT shot or just not get shot with frightening regularity.  Goes back to my days when I was a more serious Martial Arts student (mostly Aikido), turns out that it hurts a LOT less when you do not get hit as often…  So, I got better at the blocks, evasions and break falls…  REALLY good at the falls because being a bigger guy I was asked to help demonstrate things and work with the folks going for their Blacks a lot that they might perfect their techniques against a competent and larger opponent.  That helped me a LOT turns out as time went on.  And a good philosophy in general, work with and compete against the best.  Learn from every exchange and you WILL get better a lot quicker for it.  Now with the Republic list, I have to come up with a third Ship…  I’ve tried the Y-Wing a bit, Broadsides is good, but does not fit with my more aggressive style with which I fly the Aethersprites…  Same for the ARCs frankly.  Solid ships and quite good, but just not really my play style.  Ric in the N-1 fits well enough, and if I have Anakin loaded out with the CLT I can load the N-1 out with things that include Juke and FCS to make it a solid Offensive threat.  Takes some time to set up, and he is ALWAYS my flanker.  Force the opponent to choose between chasing the N-1 or the Aethersprites.   Either can just cut and run better than most ships in the game, and in the meantime the other one just hammers their flank…  “Klingon Saber Dance” with the long ranged engagement, I have decent odds to do a little Damage while avoiding taking any (ideally, “much” is far more accurate of course) Damage in the exchange.  Down side of this one being that games often run to time and the sheer number of repositions and the like are just brain melting for a long event…  Solid though and a blast to fly…

Other than that?  I’ve been running Toreni Kulda with Snap Shot on the Kimogila and Guri, usually paired with Fett…  Solid, and decent I suppose.  Just have REALLY bad matchups against actual Ace lists.  They DO kill most Swarm builds, so the Rock/Paper/Scissors effect is there.  Just have to dodge those matchups I suppose to do well in an event?  J  Sounds like a winning strategy…  My Dash + 1 builds are all “meh” as well.  Best one I have found is ironically the Dash/Roark combo…  The Hawk giving Dash the I7 shots is of course a gimmick, but it is throwing a LOT of Dice, so…  But of course, 2 mid-range I ships that are just not all that hard to hunt down in the long run…

Frankly, seeing a lot of malaise in the scene now…  Seems like a long pause between content being added, and with the major Events now past most are just waiting on the points adjustment (presumably) coming in January…

Other than that?  I have my Clones assembled for the Legion event coming Saturday at Titan…  Will NOT be fully painted, but they will be on the table.  Neat?  Seem solid and more my speed as far as troopers go, I was really never comfortable with the “IG” like Rebel builds with the waves of unarmored “meh” troopers on the table.  The Republic is just in a bad position having only the Basic Clone Troopers and a single Vehicle to accompany Obi-Wan as their only Commander.  Good base, but more options will make it FAR more interesting I suspect.

X-Wing, what to fly next?

So, what to fly now in X-Wing?  My driving goal was to get my Dice and to have paid the “Iron Price” for them (yes, GoT reference)…  Got that and more.  I wound up winning the Prize Templates as well.  So, “neat” and I think I have officially lost my drive to “try hard” and prove that I am actually fairly good at the game.  But this does leave me in a rather odd position as I really have no idea what to fly from this point on…  The Dual Firesprays are fun and quite effective against a lot of things, but lack the ability to deal easily with Aces.  Can I?  Sure, if I play it well and (ideally) the opponent makes a few mistakes.  But against a top tier player on their game it is not a good matchup for me.  

Been playing around with a few other Scum builds and even a Super Dash list…  Pairing him with Wedge makes it interesting, but at the end of the day it is still just a 2 Ship list and not a particularly good one.  Sure, Dash and Wedge both can hit like trucks and Dash with the Focus and Bistan can get 2 Shots/Turn (albeit at different Targets) each of which is essentially a Proton Torpedo…  Still, a good opponent or just a Beef list will cause issues.

On the Scum side I tried a list with CPT Nym and Torini Kulda…  Amusing, but putting too many points in Nym means I have a 3 Ship list that is “meh” for the most part.  I suspect that Kulda is solid in a stripped down role (Snap Shot is nice here), and Nym for the Bomb chucking…

Nym Kulda and (200)

Torani Kulda — M12-L Kimogila Fighter	48
Snap Shot	8
Homing Missiles	5
R2 Astromech	3
Ship Total: 64
Half Points: 32 Threshold: 5
Captain Nym — Scurrg H-6 Bomber	48
Ion Cannon Turret	5
Veteran Turret Gunner	8
Proximity Mines	6
Proton Bombs	5
Havoc	4
Trajectory Simulator	10
R2 Astromech	3
Ship Total: 89
Half Points: 45 Threshold: 5
Crymorah Goon — BTL-A4 Y-Wing	31
Ion Cannon Turret	5
Veteran Turret Gunner	8
Seismic Charges	3
Ship Total: 47
Half Points: 24 Threshold: 4

WAY too much on the Skurrg there.  Amusing to fly, but…  Mostly I wanted to see if there was something to the Trajectory Simulator on that ship.  It is solid, but for a Critical Hit here or there?  Simply too expensive.  Mind, devastating against say, an unshielded Swarm build, but most other things simply ignore it while they kill him.

Still have my Jedi of course.  They are solid and fun.  I have a few ideas with Imperial things as well as we saw the TIE Advanced prototype and the Inquisitors start to really shine…  Imps can use the Force quite well, and it is really good it turns out…  Who knew?

X-Wing, on to something different...

Looking at playing something completely different going forward…  The Dual Firespray list is actually quite good, but…  I do tend to get bored and want to fly different things.  And as there are currently no “highly competitive” events in the local area, time to get back to flying “weird things” again.  As Dash’s YT-2400 was the first ship that my wonderful wife bought for me to get me started in the game, it has always had a special meaning for me…  Yes, it is massively expensive (points wise), but it hits like a bloody truck, and I can kit it out to fire twice every turn…  So:

Dash Wedge 1 (199)

Dash Rendar — YT-2400 Light Freighter	98
Expert Handling	6
Bistan	14
Perceptive Copilot	8
Outrider	14
Ship Total: 140
Half Points: 70 Threshold: 5
Wedge Antilles — T-65 X-Wing	55
R2 Astromech	4
Servomotor S-Foils	0
Ship Total: 59
Half Points: 30 Threshold: 3

Nothing really special and as I have the one ship clocking in at 140 points that does severely limit what I can pair with him as the tournament rules specify 2-8 ships…  So, Wedge it is for me.  I tried Jake in his little A-Wing, but…  Was difficult to keep him close to Dash to give the bonus Focus Action, he just does not hit hard and one “oops” Agility roll and that is it for him…  With Wedge at least I have a solid X-Wing chassis and with his I6/Pilot Ability I have the ability to hit really hard as well, potentially I-killing something and at least keeping things like other “Aces” honest.  Wedge is not himself what I would consider an “Ace” as he lacks the ability to double reposition, but I6 is VERY powerful.  Besides I have the nice acrylic indicator as well as neat Alt Art cards for him that I’ve never used… 

I’ll probably keep the Jedi and maybe the Firesprays in the travel kit giving me 3 totally different lists to have options wherever I do go…

Legion tomorrow and playing my Rebels again…  “Kill Points” mission, so short and small games it seems…  I’ll see if they have the Clone Wars Starter I ordered in and if so, I’ll have clones and Obi-Wan to assemble and field…  Anyone looking for some older (mostly) 40K things as I should probably dump some of those to make room in the Basement of Doom™…

Tournament Results for the Titan event 20 October, no commentary

So, just a quick post for the event we had on Sunday (20 October) to have it in a “nice” format for folks to review if they’d like…

Tony:

(39) Chertek [Nantex-class Starfighter]
(10) Ensnare
Points: 49

(44) General Grievous [Belbullab-22 Starfighter]
(4) Impervium Plating
(6) Outmaneuver
(6) Soulless One
Points: 60

(30) DBS-404 [Hyena-class Droid Bomber]
(1) Landing Struts
(6) Afterburners
(6) Adv. Proton Torpedoes
Points: 43

(38) Petranaki Arena Ace [Nantex-class Starfighter]
(10) Ensnare
Points: 48

Total points: 200

Chris:

              Anakin, 7B

              Obi-Wan, 7B

              Plo Koon, 7B

              196

Paul:

Boba Krassis (200)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Lone Wolf	5
Maul	12
Proximity Mines	6
Stealth Device	6
Slave I	2
Ship Total: 116
Half Points: 58 Threshold: 5
Krassis Trelix — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	68
Snap Shot	8
Ion Cannon	5
IG-88D	3
Ship Total: 84
Half Points: 42 Threshold: 5

Patrick:

[b]BTL-B Y-wing - Shadow Squadron Veteran - 48[/b]
Shadow Squadron Veteran - [i][/i] (35)
Dorsal Turret (3)
R4 Astromech (2)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)

[b]BTL-B Y-wing - Shadow Squadron Veteran - 48[/b]
Shadow Squadron Veteran - [i][/i] (35)
Dorsal Turret (3)
R4 Astromech (2)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)

[b]ARC-170 Starfighter - •“Sinker” - 54[/b]
•“Sinker” - [i]Wolfpack Veteran[/i] (54)

[b]BTL-B Y-wing - Shadow Squadron Veteran - 48[/b]
Shadow Squadron Veteran - [i][/i] (35)
Dorsal Turret (3)
R4 Astromech (2)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)

[b]Total: 198/200
[/b]
[url="https://squadbuilder.fantasyflightgames.com/.../c07ed652..."]View in the X-Wing Squad Builder[/url]

Brody ran:

Obi-Wan Kenobi (47)
Sense (5)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)

Ship total: 77 Half Points: 39 Threshold: 3

Plo Koon (44)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)

Ship total: 69 Half Points: 35 Threshold: 3

Ric Olié (42)
R2 Astromech (4)

Ship total: 46 Half Points: 23 Threshold: 3

Total: 192

Round 1

1: Chris Wilson VS Chad Billman - Match Results: Chad Billman is the winner 119 to 132

2: Tony Hillen VS Brody Walworth - Match Results: Tony Hillen is the winner 200 to 109

3: Paul Chappell VS Patrick Shaw - Match Results: Paul Chappell is the winner 200 to 58

Round 2

1: Chad Billman VS Tony Hillen - Match Results: Chad Billman is the winner 200 to 145

2: Paul Chappell VS Brody Walworth - Match Results: Brody Walworth is the winner 35 to 84

3: Patrick Shaw VS Chris Wilson - Match Results: Patrick Shaw is the winner 200 to 72

Round 3

1: Chad Billman VS Brody Walworth - Match Results: Brody Walworth is the winner 0 to 200

2: Tony Hillen VS Patrick Shaw - Match Results: Patrick Shaw is the winner 123 to 200

3: Paul Chappell VS Chris Wilson - Match Results: Paul Chappell is the winner 200 to 142

Rankings

Rank	Name	Faction	Score	MoV	SoS
1	Brody Walworth		2	758	0.56
2	Paul Chappell	SCUM	2	751	0.44
3	Patrick Shaw		2	663	0.33
4	Chad Billman		2	468	0.33
5	Tony Hillen		1	559	0.67
6	Chris Wilson		0	401	0.67

So, a quick and fairly casual event to get things started back up, hopefully this is the beginning of an upward trend to get folks back out playing more regularly :-)

Springfield Finals and this weekend's X-Wing event...

So, played in the Hyperspace in Springfield…  Day one was in the previous post and so I made the cut for Day 2…  Got paired up against an excellent player out of the Chicago area, he did the video editing for Gold Squadron’s YouTube streams, so he recognized my name J…  He had Fenn, Fett and Sevor in his list.  Fairly even match, but I played more aggressively and was able to dodge the TIE’s Arc and drop a Proximity Mine on it to kill him the following turn before he could Activate.  His other ships took a bit longer, but IIRC the Snap Shot was brutal again and I found myself wishing I had the Ion Cannon in place of the Auto-Blaster here…  With Krassis and his ability to re-roll and fire out of both Arcs it is the better choice overall I think.  I wound up getting the win decisively, though I think he halved Krassis…  I think, nothing was posted and I was mostly just shocked to be there and making it to top 8…  So, won the Range Ruler and Dice for making Day 2 and Top 4 secured the Templates…  Neat, but I do prefer my Curled Paw ones honestly…  Green and with the Jedi symbol on it, so definitely mine…

Top 4 game was against Patrick out of Peoria (I think?  We play a LOT in these semi local events, fun opponent and great player)…  He had Vader and 3 Inquisitors with Foresight….  ROUGH list.  Sadly, Krassis died to a critical cascade with Hull Breach and direct hits piling in a LOT of damage.  I was counting on even if it went badly I would have had him one more round to finish off Vader and likely another Inquisitor…  Even with that, I ALMOST caught him, it came down to the Range 3 shot into Vader who was without mods to get him to half and me the win…  No J… The 3 Agility did not betray him or they betrayed me, depending on your perspective I suppose…

So, on to the event this weekend…  Extended so I will change my list a little:

Boba Krassis (200)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Lone Wolf	5
Maul	12
Proximity Mines	6
Stealth Device	6
Slave I	2
Ship Total: 116
Half Points: 58 Threshold: 5
Krassis Trelix — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	68
Snap Shot	8
Ion Cannon	5
IG-88D	3
Ship Total: 84
Half Points: 42 Threshold: 5

No major changes, Ion in place of the Auto Blaster and IG-88D as the Crew there for the double Calculate action.  Snap is solid here…  Only minor debate is swapping the Stealth Device off of Boba to put Proximity Mines on Krassis perhaps…  Maybe, but when my luck holds with the Stealth, that ship is just immune to Damage for far longer than most people are prepared for…  Still, a fun list and nothing that should cause people to rage quit I hope… 

The Nantex OTOH….  Watching the Worlds streaming and seeing a LOT of them.  And a LOT of CIS swarms.  Both absolutely solid things and for the MOST part my Firesprays do well against them.  Just outright ignoring the Tractor silliness…

Springfield, Day 1

Spoiler, I made the cut...  No streams, but the event is up on the Tabletop.to... 

I ran:

Boba Krassis 2 (199)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Lone Wolf	5
Jamming Beam	0
Maul	12
Proximity Mines	6
Stealth Device	6
Slave I	2
Ship Total: 116
Half Points: 58 Threshold: 5
Krassis Trelix — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	68
Snap Shot	8
Autoblasters	2
Qi’ra	2
Seismic Charges	3
Ship Total: 83
Half Points: 42 Threshold: 5

Turns out that the Swarms and Aces REALLY do not like seeing this list…  Also turns out that the Jedi are really a hard counter to this list J…  At least the way I played it…  Since I am almost certain to run into Jedi Sunday in the cut, I will have to adjust how I set up and play the game…  In any case, I finally won Regionals Dice J… 

Game one was against Republic Beef, Mark Tippet ran 3 ARCs and 2 Y-Wings...  It did not go well for the Republic.  Bombs and Snap Shot were rough and Boba was amazing...  Did lose shields on him, but cleared the Beef...  Eventually.  It was a great game to start the event against a great player to play against and us old folks have to stick together :-)...

Game 2 was against a Vader/Steele/TIE Reaper list...  Turns out, Aces HATE Snap Shot and Bombs...  Vader took 2 from Snap and then a Hit/Crit from a Proximity Mine...  Died the next turn...  Steele was the same thing, more or less...  4 Dice shot from the Auto Blaster finished him off...  The Reaper died early because it was the easier target...

3-4 were against Jedi lists...  :-)  And that was where I stumbled and JUST barely made the cut...