Store Championship AAR and more coming up so new versions I suppose...

So, made it to Titan (Springfield) and played in the Store Championship…  J  Spoiler I suppose, I went 0-4…  Had a blast playing, and made silly, high risk moves with Boba and Fenn.  And I was punished accordingly.  I cannot REALLY complain that my dice were terrible.  Well, they were, but I should never have put myself in those positions counting on average to above average rolls.  Mind, had I gotten the high rolls I wanted (but did NOT deserve of course) I would have probably gone 3-1 or better J… Embrace the variance and await the inevitable betrayal of your Agility Dice.  I found that betrayal like voting in Chicago.  Early and often.  Well, to be fair to my dice it was NOT just the Agility Dice that failed me.  Rolling Fenn into Range 1 with a Focus to roll 4 blanks and a Focus result is not the expected result.  Well, I came to expect it by the end of the day of course, but an AVERAGE roll would be far better of course and one could reasonably expect to cripple almost any enemy ship between the 2 heavy hitters both targeting it at Range 1 with rerolls and mods…  When that fails and you then roll equally poorly on your Agility?  Well, it tends to be a fairly short game at least?  Still, I played against excellent opponents and I had a great time laughing at the absurdity of it all at least.  I’d like to think my opponents also had a good time as I had a few newer players in the mix there and I REALLY want to be sure that the X-Wing scene continues to grow and new folks come in and have fun in our events.  Sadly Laetin in his M-3 was my best ship for the day...  But at the end of the day he is really just a TIE Fighter (with a neat ability and a potentially bigger gun)...  Fun to fly though, and something to keep in mind...

So, going forward?  Well, I still have two lists…  One is the more “try hard” list (Dual Firesprays) and the other is copying Kristofer’s list from Sweden (actually I think he played it in the English System Open, but…)…  So the Dual Firesprays:

Boba Frost HS (199)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Fearless	3
Maul	12
Proton Bombs	5
Contraband Cybernetics	2
Slave I	1
Ship Total: 108
Half Points: 54 Threshold: 5
Koshka Frost — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	70
0-0-0	5
Proton Bombs	5
Rigged Cargo Chute	4
Delayed Fuses	1
Andrasta	3
Seismic Charges	3
Ship Total: 91
Half Points: 46 Threshold: 5

Nothing too extreme.  I think this is almost the same as the one that actually won the English SO (Timo Raabe’s?  From Deutschland IIRC)…  I make a few changes of course, probably not to the betterment of the list, but I REALLY like being able to drop a Bomb every turn from Ms. Frost’s ship.  And I do not particularly care about the bid.  I cannot reasonably compete with the stupid high bid possible with a Boba/Fenn list or the like and frankly I say a LOT of things that both of my Ships were simply higher I than in any case, so no bid required?  Rather have the fullest compliment of Toys.  And the Fuses on the Bombs give me a fair bit of flexibility to… Discourage pursuit when we get into the scrum.  Boba is a beast and while I would LIKE to put another Hull on him, points being too tight I think…  Will test it further I suspect and see.

Republic HS 1 (194)

Obi-Wan Kenobi — Delta-7 Aethersprite	48
Calibrated Laser Targeting	4
Ship Total: 52
Half Points: 26 Threshold: 2
Ahsoka Tano — Delta-7 Aethersprite	44
Calibrated Laser Targeting	2
Ship Total: 46
Half Points: 23 Threshold: 2
Plo Koon — Delta-7 Aethersprite	44
Calibrated Laser Targeting	4
Ship Total: 48
Half Points: 24 Threshold: 2
Ric Olié — Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter	42
Outmaneuver	6
Ship Total: 48
Half Points: 24 Threshold: 3

And back to the Republic and the Jedi…  This one is fun to fly.  Ric with Outmaneuver is one thing I was running with my 3 Ship build for a bit as Juke went up in price to test a replacement.  Now with Hyperspace lacking Juke altogether, the Outmaneuver will do…  Solid if I fly it right.  Go faster, flank and they are rolling -1 Agility and I roll one more Attack…  Seems solid.  Not 100% of course, but the threat alone will make many hesitate.  And trying to chase down Ric when I just rabbit?  Good luck.  Other than that I have 3 solid Jedi with CLT.  REALLY want R5’s for Regeneration, but too expensive they are…  I DO have another list I was testing with R5’s on my main Jedi and a basic Jedi for the fourth ship…  Fun, but Ric is just a solid ship and pushing Damage is too important.  Not to mention another I5 giving me 3 5’s and a 3 who is really quite solid…  And a major bonus, my favorite Star Wars character (Ahsoka Tano).  This one will definitely be in my kit, and I will want to get in some testing before the Red Raccoon event in a few weeks… 

Otherwise?  Looking very much like we are going to go with the Champaign Titan Store Championship on 4 April…  Will be posting more when I get final confirmation from the Store…

X-Wing Prep and stuff... Last chance I suppose...

Coming up on the Titan (Springfield, IL) Store Championship (https://www.facebook.com/events/2554682551247111/) and I’m still stuck deciding between 2 lists… 

Boba Frost HS (199)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Fearless	3
Maul	12
Proton Bombs	5
Contraband Cybernetics	2
Slave I	1
Ship Total: 108
Half Points: 54 Threshold: 5
Koshka Frost — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	70
0-0-0	5
Proton Bombs	5
Rigged Cargo Chute	4
Delayed Fuses	1
Andrasta	3
Seismic Charges	3
Ship Total: 91
Half Points: 46 Threshold: 5

Or:

Boba Fenn Laetin 1 (199)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Maul	12
Slave I	1
Ship Total: 98
Half Points: 49 Threshold: 5
Fenn Rau — Fang Fighter	68
Ship Total: 68
Half Points: 34 Threshold: 2
Laetin A’shera — M3-A Interceptor	30
Autoblasters	3
Ship Total: 33
Half Points: 17 Threshold: 2

The first is the more “safe” version.  Dual Firesprays that I have been flying now for years…  Not Koshka Frost mind, but Boba Fett remains a solid choice.  Frost is pretty solid and I have her ship built out as a Bomber to maximize the effectiveness of the ship.  She does have a decent Pilot ability especially with the sheer number of linked actions that produce Stress…  And 0-0-0 combined with the Cargo to throw additional Stress helps a lot…  Boba in this build is just there as a hammer.  I tried Outmaneuver but Fearless is just better overall in this application.  A solid build and as I said I have flown Firesprays a LOT over the years….

Second is “Ace Light”….  Boba and Fenn.  Fenn being naked, Boba almost…  Just the 2 upgrades that are stapled to him (Maul, Slave 1) on that ship.  2 solid choices.  Yes, I wish I had a bit more to add in there, but adding in a third ship?  Yes, Laetin is basically a TIE…  Really.  The dial is very close, I have a Shield I suppose and the Targeting Computer?  The Autoblaster is sneaky awesome though…  If the opponent ignores Laetin, then he flanks and then has the chance to hammer an Ace with unblockable Criticals…  I3 is middling good, not quite a Blocker except against Aces.  I find it more of an Ace with the sheer number of Generic Ships out and about these days…  Fenn is awesome.  Until his Agility Dice betray him, and he is always just one roll from dying.  Concordia Faceoff is stupid good though, so if I can stay Range 1 I ALWAYS have an Evade on 4 Dice.  Still, he usually dies.  Boba is solid though and usually lives…

Played last night and might get in one more game before Sunday…  Last night Laetin lived through 2 Aces shooting him at Range 1 to shoot back and push through 3 Crits when Von Reg blanked out on his Agility…  Neat, but the odds were he dies before shooting and then it is Boba vs 2…  But being a TIE, sometimes they just dodge everything… 

Legion event Saturday, I’ll play 1 maybe 2 games as I have been committed to helping on the Unity Music Boosters fund raiser later that day…  Not a problem, the Show Choir is great and still have one daughter in it J…

X-Wing and Legion event prep...

After getting in a few practice games with the lists I have for the Store Championships I have to say that they are…  Interesting.  Learning the ins and outs of the lists.  For instance, Fenn Rau is still an absolute demon when he gets rolling…  But he is always just one bad Agility roll from dying.  More or less the same for Laetin…  Sort of.  Laetin is annoyingly difficult to remove from the table while his Greens hold, but like Fenn he is almost always a single roll from dying.  Well, to be fair both USUALLY take 2 solid hits to be removed, but one is enough to put them out of the fight.  Fast enough to break and run…  Usually.  Sometimes it is a Swarm or the other player guesses correctly where I am trying to run them and…  Well J… Boba is solid, and CAN take a few hits, no matter what is hitting him.  And with the 2 x 90⁰ Arcs I find I am seldom completely without a shot unless I am dodging really hard.  So, seems like a “fun” list and might actually do well.

Other one I have is the Dual Firesprays…  Emon is surprisingly good as a bomber with the Andrasta title.  Boba is…  Well, Boba.  Yes, probably my favorite ship to fly in both editions.  This one is different than the previous edition but I think actually far better.  The ship became a pretty decent knife fighter and suits my play style well.  And in my test games there are a LOT of things that SUPER do not want to see a bomber throwing Proton Bombs…  Fangs and TIEs being two, but fragile Ace types in general…  And without “Lone Wolf” I have no need to keep Boba separated and they can support each other quite well.  Not sure which one I will actually fly when the event hits in a few weeks…

Finding that I REALLY like the Hyperspace restrictions overall.  Yes, I lost “my” Ace in Anakin Skywalker (in his Aethersprite), but I also do not have to deal with a lot of the silly combos that can arise when there are no restrictions.  Just one of them being the delta between my 3 ship list’s Extended and Hyperspace form.  Extended I have “Marksmanship” on Laetin which allows you to just convert a Hit to a Critical if you are shooting in the Bullseye Arc.  Combines with the Autoblaster REALLY well because I am already rolling an additional Dice if I have Bullseye.  And if I am not in their forward firing arc, they cannot didge the Criticals.  Really amusing against the A-Wings…  Well, the Resistance A’s, I suppose technically the Rebels do also have them, just that the Rebel ones are ludicrously bad when you compare them to the Resistance ones.  Kind of a shame as they were sort of iconic “Rebel” ships.  Just not worth fielding except perhaps for the 2 named ones that have niche applications…  But in any case the Resistance A-Wing technically has NO forward firing Arc, so the Autoblaster is always pushing Criticals without the possibility of the Agility to save them.  Mind, the other side of that lack of a Firing Arc being that the Fang loses its “Concordia Faceoff” ability.  Fenn still rolls the additional Dice, but the free convert one to an Evade is quite nice…  But overall, the curated content in Hyperspace is making the game quite interesting for me at least.

Legion I have the new Clone attachments assembled and primed.  So I can field them at least without feeling TOO bad…  They’ll at least be the standard white armor the lads all wear.  As I am reading the cards and building my forces I am leaning heavily toward CPT Rex and 3 Squads of the lads supported by the BARC.  Gives me 2 rocket launchers and 2 other heavy weapon options to throw out fire.  The Clones with their “Fire Support” and token sharing abilities are actually surprisingly strong.  If and only if I can keep them close enough to support each other.  The Attachments are looking good as additional options, we’ll see how they fare on the table I suppose.  I STRONGLY suspect until the Tank hits they are simply outclassed at the 800 point level, but I am only playing 500 point events at this point now, so…

X-Wing prep for Store Champs...

So, Titan in Springfield has announced their X-Wing Store Championship on the 23^rd of February and I have bought my ticket…  Just need to get in some actual games with the lists I am looking at flying in the Hyperspace format.  So looking at either:

Boba Fenn Laetin 1 (199)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Maul	12
Slave I	1
Ship Total: 98
Half Points: 49 Threshold: 5
Fenn Rau — Fang Fighter	68
Ship Total: 68
Half Points: 34 Threshold: 2
Laetin A’shera — M3-A Interceptor	30
Autoblasters	3
Ship Total: 33
Half Points: 17 Threshold: 2

Or:

Boba Emon HS 2 (200)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Fearless	3
Maul	12
Ion Bombs	6
Contraband Cybernetics	2
Slave I	1
Ship Total: 109
Half Points: 55 Threshold: 5
Emon Azzameen — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	71
Informant	5
Proton Bombs	5
Rigged Cargo Chute	4
Andrasta	3
Seismic Charges	3
Ship Total: 91
Half Points: 46 Threshold: 5

The first is “Ace-ish” with Fenn and Boba being as close as I can come to actual Aces and Laetin being just an annoyingly difficult to pin down ship…  That COULD throw out a 4 Dice Attack that can have un-blockable Crits if I get the Uber-shot off and am not in their Forward Arc.  So, an “ignore at your own peril” option that I really like.  And of course the M3’s being one of those “Almost There” ships that just skirted the edge of usefulness for a long time.  Basically a TIE Fighter with a Shield, so there WILL be times it just blanks out and dies.  Or it might just never die due to the extremes of variance…

The second is the latest variant of the Dual Firespray list…  Boba lost a few things in the jump to Hyperspace and while Krassis is actually cheaper…  Emon gives me Bombs that I can chuck out with 1’s or 3’s and the Reload action to make them a “forever” option…  Well, “forever, or until I die” J…  Informant is one I have not used, PROBABLY not useful, but it is a weird option that might just be the thing to use when the long knives come out and we get up close and personal. 

Boba is solid in either option and I suspect strongly he will be the cornerstone to any successful S&V list.  From a Star Wars lore geek perspective I like both lists as I am using exclusively Mandalorian designs.  “Neat” but certainly not something to build a successful list on I suspect. 

I’ll have to check to see how many of the Mandalorian helmet tokens I have as I could use them for Shields on my first list at least.  Little things to keep myself amused while I play…  No real illusions of doing hugely well as Springfield has a fair number of really good players who can make the trip over to…  I’d like to say I am one of them, but honestly, big fish in a small pond would be a better way to describe it for me.  I am good, but nowhere near the skill level that I have seen with a number of the other players out here.  But getting to play is going to be nice J

Legion is moving along…  Picked up the basic troop expansions for the Republic and Rebellion so I have a few more options for my lads…  Need to get some clarification on a few rules and adjust my builds I suspect.  Having better AT options for the lads is huge with that being the bane of my Clones at least…  Ironically, my T-47 Speeder for the Rebels is a good AT option and playing the BARC Speeder has given me the experience I suspect to use it correctly…  Locally at least.  Looking at the LVO results it was VERY much looking like a solved Meta, at least pre- the newest releases.  Lots of the same things in the top cut and NO Republic/CIS up there at all.  With the release of the other Infantry options and actual Tanks for both should open things up quite a bit.  Or at least that is my hope…  I suspect I’ll get stomped if I take my Republic force to a real event, but at least I suspect I’ll do well enough that they know there was a fight…  Looking very much forward to more options.  Will see I suppose.

212

212

So made it down to 212 pounds so far on the diet of doom…  I haven’t been down to this weight in a very long time and am easily fitting into clothes I’ve not fit into for decades.  Cleaned out my closet last weekend and dug out a bunch of things I had buried in the back of the closet in the “maybe someday” pile.  Actually having to rotate out things I was wearing for the last several years as I cannot actually wear them anymore without looking silly…  Boxers for instance J  Need to be sure they are caught under the now tightened belt lest they fall victim to gravity…  But is nice wearing things I wore working at Illinois Power or Ciber up in Chicago and finding them actually loose these days.  WW seems to be working quite well for me, had one “real meal “yesterday with the non-diet approved burger and it was quite nice…  While eating it.  After, not so much as I am clearly no longer used to eating that sort of food.  The running and workouts are going well for me, finally fully recovered from my illness and back to my now normal times on the runs.  Planking, body weight workouts and the like for the other 2-3 days filling in.  Probably best to start switching over to actual weights at some point as my cardio workouts are going well.  Endurance and strength back at levels I’ve not seen since my Army days, so just waiting on my Iritis to finally clear off (Doctor says it is ALMOST there) so I can get back to wearing my contacts…  I had forgotten how annoying glasses were, especially during the winter.  And without sunglasses I count on wearing a hat to keep the sun out of my eyes…  Ah well J

Gaming wise, waiting on the new FFG stuff to hit tomorrow we are told… My X-Wing card packs and Republic (Clone) reinforcements.  Slowly getting those lads painted up, or at least the few I have.  500 point games are fine for now, but until I have a Tank I suspect the 800 point level is simply not going to be a thing for me.  General Kenobi and 2-3 Squads or CPT Rex and 3-4 Squads being the best choices.  I have the BARC speeder and it does…  Well it does.  Some games it is amazing and it kills many things.  I typically send it off as a guided missile to be my Jaeger (hunter) and deal with Sniper teams or flanking Scouts that my Clones would otherwise have difficulty dealing with.  Were I playing more competitively I suspect that skipping it and having more Clones would be a better choice.  And with the lads, it is somewhat counter intuitive to have them bunched up…  When I was in, it was drilled in to keep spread out to minimize the damage from Artillery or things like Grenades or the like…  To b fair I suppose the armor I wore was nowhere near what the Clones are wearing and as of now there is simply nothing “Artillery-Like” in the game to pose a realistic threat to forming up in a flying wedge and moving toward the Enemy…  With their ability to share Tokens and easily get the Surge Tokens (“Focus” equivalent from X-Wing) to be used either offensively or defensively to enhance their battlefield effectiveness…  Between this and the far better basic weapon they have a huge advantage over their eventual replacements in the basic Storm Troopers.  It reflects the Republic’s emphasis on better training and far better equipment over that of the Empire with the more…  Well, more is better with no regard to quality…  “Quantity has a Quality all its own” I suppose.  This translates across most of the games FFG does with the Imperial things being the ones with the overwhelming numbers on their side and the Rebel/Republic having the FAR better but usually hopelessly outnumber Units…  And I usually fall pretty well into one of those sides with my personality and preferred play style, so that works out well for me.

Other game stuff, Bolt Action is still here, test minis for the British Airborne (though I suppose they use the word “Airbourne” J) camouflage smocks…  Still not really getting that, but getting FAR closer with some of the GW “Contrast” paints. At this point though I have only a handful of the lads even assembled so a ways off from actually getting in games…  One Armored Car though so the lads will have minimal Armor support when they do hit the table…

BattleTech….  Well, in cleaning some of the Basement of Doom™ I DID come across a large number of the ancient miniatures I had from the ancient times.  Some of them at least are just “point of pride” ones as we played the far more hard corps where if you lost the Mech on the field, you lost the miniature.  Could ransom it back or the like, but we were very much keeping with the “history” of the in game universe….  So, the ONLY reason I had some of those minis would have been captures that were never repatriated.  Like my eventual command Mech, the Banshee-3S.  The original Banshee was just bad.  Dropping the smaller engine in place dropped the maximum speed from 4/6 to 3/5 but freed up a LOT of space and weight for an actual Assault Mech’s weapon load out.  Went from a bad joke to an Assault class Mech that I would argue was actually better than any other out there including the (at the time) king of the hill in the Atlas.  So, it took some time, but I had mine go into the shop as it were and came out as a real Assault class Mech to lead out my Mercs.  I’ve stripped the lot and am repainting in the colors of the Skye Rangers.  So, dark red/crimson body and black on the arms.  Looking pretty good so far, at least a unified pattern to make them all look like part of the same force.  And keeping with my tradition of finding a strange, usually Scottish, sub faction to put my forces into J…  Waiting on the Kickstarter to have the new things including the redesigned Clan Mechs which for me will go either Clan Wolf or Clan Wolf in Exile… Keeping with the theme, and the WiE forces are allied to the Skye forces, so planning ahead I am to keep ALL of my stuff in a nice, neat package…

Jan, after the point changes in X-Wing and "life stuff"

Well, been in “Diet Mode” for a while now…  Seems like it is working quite well this time.  My wife and I switched over to the “WW” (“Formerly ‘Weight Watchers’”) a few months ago now.  The system has been working amazingly well for me as I went from having plateaued at ~250 pounds to now hovering in the 220 range.  Previously I was working out very regularly and through the Fitbit app tracking my steps and caloric consumption.  Turns out that was not what I really needed.  For instance on days when I say, forgot to pack a lunch I’d just wander over to grab a few slices of pizza and think nothing of it really.  Tracking the calories of that led me to believe I was well within my set goals and running a caloric deficit.  Probably was, but not as much of one as I had thought.  Now, on the WW system I have 33 points for my day.  And a single slice of NY style pizza is 17.  And now, not having that for a “quick and easy lunch” I seem to be losing weight quickly.  Since I weighted 238 on entry to the Army, I have long since passed that mark.  Mind, not really a good goal, I was FAR from in shape when I joined.  For my first deployment I probably started at ~180 or so.  I went from 238 to 168 when I was in Basic.  NOT a recommended way to lose weight as that was during an abbreviated OSUT (One Station Unit Training) that got cut to just the vital things as Iraq invaded Kuwait just before I reported.  Was supposed to be 16 weeks with a break in the middle, weekends off, etc…  But got cut to just 9 weeks of fairly intense training.  In any case, I was in the best shape of my life when I reported to Ranger School weighing 205.  Not sure if it is realistic to shoot for that as a goal, but it is certainly within reach now.  Some of the side effects of the weight loss being that I am now back to wearing jeans the size I wore in high school…  Have shelved the much larger ones for now as they are just ludicrously baggy on me.  Odd things like the “normal” boxers I wore being far too large and so those have rotated out as well.  Wearing things that looked like sausage casings on me a few months ago and they are loose to the point of being baggy.  Neat I guess and a lot of the clothing I wore while working in Chicago not long after my time in the Army/Guard is fitting well enough.  Amusing I suppose that the stuff I carted around for decades on the off chance that “maybe I’ll wear it again” is now on the hanger in my closet. 

Running is a big part of my workout routine.  I am NOT a particularly good runner, which would be my brother the marathon runner (he actually competes in the real ones like Chicago, Boston, London, etc…).  I run because it is a good way to build my endurance and actually lose the weight.  Not because I am fast or enjoy it, it just works.  Not exactly going blazingly fast, I’m in the 12 minute mile range, so a slow jog…  But of course I was never all that fast, I ran 8 minute miles at my best.  Of course I could run 20 of them without ill effect, and nowhere near that now am I J…  Still using body weight exercises and resistance bands to keep the “prison workout” going for the other 2-3 days/week so I stick to the 5-6 days/week getting in an actual workout.  Going fairly well, but seems to be approaching a plateau and I will have to adjust fairly soon I suspect.  But in the meantime, I am moving better than I have in decades, my endurance is quite high as is my strength and most of the health related issues I was starting to have are cleared up.

X-Wing dropped their points adjustment and a few rules changes/clarifications.  Overall I am quite thrilled with this all.  The biggest change they have made at this time is that Hyperspace (HS) is now a heavily curated format with every Faction going down to a handful of Ship types being legal.  4 for newer ones and 5 for the older ones.  And even if the Ship is HS legal there is NO guarantee that any individual Pilot or Upgrade will be.  For instance Wedge Antiles in his X-Wing was dropped from HS while most of the rest are legal.  Neat I suppose and it should have the effect of preventing stagnation where the obvious best lists become the norm and pretty much all one would see on the table.  Now I am building weird new lists with things like the M-3 Interceptor since it has dropped in points enough to actually be useful.  I am hoping I suppose as I have yet to actually fly one in a game of 2^nd edition X-Wing at this point.  My dual Firespray lists have all gone down in points fairly drastically.  The lists overall, Boba Fett is almost unchanged…  His titles all dropped a bit so the way I fly him he HAS decreased in point cost overall…  So, interesting times overall.  My old standard Republic lists are as I said previously no longer HS legal, and having watched the YouTube record of my game that Gold Squadron streamed from Gen Con (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezh61SB5aEw&feature=youtu.be).  The game changed a bit since then and I suspect the list I flew would not do so well.  But in any case these are things I can fly fairly well.  Trying to get more events scheduled at Titan in Champaign “soon” but of course with the Semester beginning next week it is a difficult time to get away from work for many of us working at the University at least…

Legion I am actually getting back to painting, experimenting with some of the GW “contrast” paints.  The Martian Camo patter I am doing the bulk of my Rebels in looks pretty good with GW’s Fleshtearer Red as a base, and with the bonus of that being one of the ancient 40K armies I still have in the Basement of Doom™…  The Clones are where I am focusing mostly at this point, and they are base coated at least and starting to get some details on at this point.  Playing at a fairly severe disadvantage I think with the Republic army for now with the Imperials I suspect being the major powerhouse force and the CIS Droids looking pretty good overall, at least from a power ranking perspective.  Neither army interests me particularly, though I suspect I could do well with either.  Same for the Rebels at this point for me, they have the “feel” of 40K Imperial Guard or whatever they are called these days…  I have not touched that system since the change to 6^th edition and they are on 8^th going on 9^th I hear… 

Spending time in the basement, I have dug up some of my ancient Flames of War minis while searching for other stuff…  I remember how insanely OP my US Airborne force seemed on the table back in first edition with that system…  I was pretty much only building things for Units I actually served with, so 82^nd it was.  The Artillery rules were just silly good for Americans IIRC…  I remember being able to take down the (at the time) king of the hill armies that were almost exclusively German Tiger based forces with my tine group of 82^nd troops and Artillery…  Probably why I stopped playing as much, the winning strategies were just not overly interesting to me.  Set up, know that your troopers via their rules were not going to break and run from the mere presence of a Tiger and let the Artillery just pound them out of existence.  I think I have the more recent rule books and will have to look into that game again at some point…  “Tanks” got me back buying a few actual 15mm armored vehicles and so I have US, Brit and even a small German force…  I REALLY like the German Puma, that fits my play style fairly well and it is actually fairly good…  Dies when caught, but…

For 28mm I have my British Airborne that I have started assembling finally.  And with the new paints making camouflage patterns like their WWII smocks fairly easy, I might even get them painted up sooner rather than later…  Will see how things go I suppose…  Dug up my ancient Battletech things as there is a group here looking to revive that and I snagged some on the Kickstarter...

As far as “going”, still kind of in job hunt mode, got a few more interviews but with so many of them recently at least obviously being “Team Lead” positions rather than actual “Management” positions I am less interested.  I have seen and been the “Team Lead” several times in the past and as it always deteriorates to doing multiple people’s jobs for the one person’s salary not something I am overly interested in doing again.  On the other hand the transition from IT worker to IT manager seems to be a fairly rare one, at least rarely successful one.  I see a lot of organizations here who have promoted the good IT person to put them in charge and usually it does not work out so well as the skill sets are very different and that one is good at one does not necessarily follow that one would be good at the other.  In any case, busy, have a steady job and so not desperate.  Makes the interview process a LOT more relaxed for me at least.  That and the sheer number of interviews I have had over the last year or two, by now it is all a known thing and I am perhaps a bit too relaxed about it.  Maybe, I think that the level of confidence I have is a good thing, I HAVE seen just about everything at this point in my own little world, and overall I think have been fairly successful dealing with it.  No rush, as it is said “The Dude Abides”…  When it is time to go, I’ll go…  

January 2020 points changes and a bit more I suppose...

So, the X-Wing points have dropped and overall I am fairly happy with the changes.  Ironically the list I flew against Tony just before the Stream actually dropped by 5 points in total (Boba/Emon) with the Firespray’s Title cards dropping as well as Emon himself.  Neat?  The essentially unlimited Bombs I can drop with that list will be something REALLY good against a number of lists, and Fett himself is still really solid.  The Nantex scourge is tempered a bit as the passing off the Tractor token now costs more, as do a number of what were overly efficient things in their Swarm builds.  My Republic builds are mostly OK with only Obi-Wan really going up in points, but the R-2 Astromechs all went up so things will be a bit tighter if I were flying the 7B with Regen…  I wasn’t, so…  The CLT builds are more interesting for me at least and that was where I went for the most part…

That DOES bring me to the one thing I am not thrilled about.  Hyperspace is now radically different than it was.  On the one hand, I am glad it changed…  But especially the smaller Factions are just gutted when they lose half of their effective components.  Good thing I suppose HS is a format that will be very limited in terms of actual events.  Though, saying that the first round of Store Championships are supposed to be HS, not sure if I am interested in playing that at this point honestly.  Eh, will see I suppose how things actually work out.  Just not really overly interested at this point in seeing if I can build something with scraps and make it work well enough…  Especially knowing damn well that it will NOT be the best build possible.

Not much fully known, but FFG just had a fairly massive round of layoffs so not entirely sure how this will affect OP and of course the games I actually DO play…  Hopefully things will continue as they have and X-Wing/Legion at least do seem to be fairly popular…  Of course, that doesn’t mean anything if the cash is not flowing well for the company, and of course being FAR on the outside I have no real clue what the real situation is up there.  In any case I do hope things work out for those laid off…  Have gone through a bit of that in the ancient times, and frankly that is one of the major reasons I wound up working here at the University…  Not like we’re going to be bought and have the new company bring in its own IT staff…  THAT happened to me when I worked at Illinois Power…  Mind, this was the mid to late 90’s, so IT work was REALLY easy to find and the folks I knew there all either retired or simply moved on to other companies.  I went to Chicago and worked up there for over a year before burning out hard on that.  I worked my “real” job and did independent side work, but enough that I was actually working 2 full time jobs.  Made a LOT of money, but…  As I said, I am hoping things work out for the folks being laid off up there.

Job search?  Eh, still half-heartedly applying here and there.  Had an excellent interview with a local company, but that was a few weeks ago and having heard nothing I am taking it as a “no” I suppose.  NOT annoyed, it was a great interview and frankly the first time that my VERY heavy tech background (the “I do the stuff”) was not seen as a negative or viewed with suspicion…  Management and “line” IT workers do not usually share much in terms of personalities or skill sets it seems…  And while I made the transition, I know not many have or could.  Though having said that, I am finding that my “I do things” skills are mostly atrophied at this point with my MCSE dating back to the NT 4.0 days and almost all of my Infrastructure work being 10+ years ago now.  So, yes I HAVE done these things but it would likely take me a bit of time to actually relearn how to do them again…  And in any case, more or less committed to staying here at UIUC until I can really “retire” at 55…  No hurry, no worries I suppose, and getting some really good practice in these interviews.