So, Jan 9 is the date FFG has announced for the next points
update… Less than a month out now, so
time perhaps to schedule an event over at Titan. Since the announcement that everything except
the System Open events are going to be Extended format, it does make list
building a bit easier… Been flying my
dual Firespray list almost exclusively.
And while it hits 200 even I do have the 6 point buffer there with the Stealth
Device on Fett’s ship that could just as easily just go away… Mind, it is nice to have, but certainly not
needed. I suspect that this list will
make it through the update more or less intact.
NOT so for my Jedi lists. I
suspect that the CIS and Jedi will be seeing some major shifts in their points,
almost all going up, up, up…
Locally, seeing a lot of malaise as most of us are waiting
on the next round of points with the game being mostly “solved”? Not sure that is the right word honestly. There are a fair number of good lists, and
this is where it differs greatly from the first edition state of the game. Usually in v1 there was a “solved” state with
the one to three really good lists dominating competitive play and then the
rest of the lists languishing in the salt mines… Now, there are good lists in just about every
Faction. And with the seven Factions out
there it does make it at least interesting.
I do say “just about” as First Order is limited with only the bare
handful of Ships at all and therefore only a few viable options. Still, the Faction specific prizes at the
larger events has encouraged diversity in the list building to the point of
keeping things really well balanced. I
would argue that at this point CIS with the Droid Swarm led by a Nantex class
ship is at least a little bit ahead of MOST of the other Faction’s best
lists. Does have a few bad matchups and
you DO need to play it quite well, almost perfectly, but… So, waiting on the Jan 9 update a lot of us
are…
Other than that? My
iritis was confirmed in my right eye, making painting impossible… Going back to the Doctor Thursday for the
next checkup. It is feeling a LOT
better, but with the medication (Atropine specifically) keeping my eye dilated
and therefore impossible to focus for detail work my Clones have languished
with just the primer/base coat on them…
Sat I have the next event and they’ll be hitting the field for me… Still not sure if it will be Obi-Wan and 2
Squads or CPT Rex and 3 Squads… With the
delays in the new product hitting I have extremely limited options for the
Republic so…
Speaking of the Delays…
They have cancelled a few repackaged expansions. Citing the general availability of the Ships,
it made little sense to release the updated package. Well and good I suppose. And for reasons unknown several other things
have been pushed back to January or later…
I guess there is still a chance that a “secret” wave could be released
to coincide with the new Star Wars movie hitting in 10 days, but at this point
is is seeming less likely. Guess we’ll
see? The points update is holding things
back more right now, but more toys is always better…
The Mandalorian has been airing on the Disney+ streaming
service… So far I have really liked it
and it is doing a LOT of work for Disney to bring back many fans who were
driven away with the Last Jedi… Mind,
some of us old timers see the almost direct “influence” of things like “The
Seven Samurai” or the old Westerns, but that is fine… Nothing that hadn’t been firmly established
in Star Wars honestly… And the people
they have brought in to play the parts have all been quite good so far. Werner Herzog as an Imperial Officer and the
actress playing Cara Dune being some of the better ones I think. Cara especially as they have her playing a
Rebel Commando/Drop Trooper. She is
CLEARLY quite well trained as a close combat specialist and those action
sequences just flowed well. As opposed
to the first season of Iron Fist where Danny Rand was clearly uncomfortable
performing the martial arts and general close combat sequences required for the
role… And I suppose with my own
background in things “similar” to what the Drop Troopers would have done, I was
glad they got someone absolutely amazing for that role. Will see how things play out with the
remainder of the Season I suppose and since they are filming Season 2 now
pretty much a guarantee that there will be another…
Job search stalling I suppose… Last real interview was with a University in
Texas… I thought the interview overall
went well, but a number of the questions in the second round with the IT group
raised a few flags for me… WAY too
technical questions leading me to believe that what they were really looking
for was a Team Lead who would also be doing Management duties in addition to
the normal Infrastructure work. Not
really at all what the advertisement would have led one to believe and frankly
it leads to the dual problem I see with the further into “Management” I go, the
less I deal with the day to day “IT work” coupled with the (in my experience)
general lack of management potential for most folks who are really good at the
back end (Infrastructure) skills. MOST of
the folks I have encountered over my 25+ years in the industry who are REALLY
highly technical are also REALLY not “people people”. Yes, I did a fair bit of Infrastructure work
in the past, but generally speaking I was also the one sent out to meetings and
to deal with those pesky humans to allow the others the ability to avoid such
unpleasant contact… So, long way of
saying I was completely unsurprised to get the word from them that they failed
out the Search without hiring anyone. Of
course it IS possible to find a great Infrastructure genius who is also a great
Manager and loves to deal with meetings and people in general… I have just never encountered such a person,
so suspect they would be quite rare and therefore commanding extremely high
salaries… Of course, just guessing on my
part and certainly NOT desperate at this point for a new job so I can afford to
be relaxed and choose carefully… And
there is the fact that I really have no idea why the search was failed out. This is just my own experience having served
on a LOT of committees and of course by now having interviewed at a LOT of
places…
