Cleaning up... Staw, WarmaHordes and the Basement of Doom (tm)

So, looking around…  Seems that the STAW group is dying off locally.  Darn shame, the game is overall quite good.  Yes, there are some stupidly overpowered units (ships and cards) and some combos that just break the game in silly ways…  The “Collective” OP events were certainly not helpful as they were clearly NOT play tested in anything like a realistic fashion.  But at a local level at least I think we’ve gotten around a lot of this by tending to play in a more “faction pure” fashion (not EVERY ship needs to be Captained by Jean Luc Picard).  The most recent one we played out last night.  No one actually beat the scenario.  The sheer stupidity of a 12 dice attack with re-rolls meant that the only ship to actually survive was one with a broken and silly combo on it (Weyoun/Varel to “discard Varel to cancel an attack, but Weyoun can disable to prevent the discard, re-enable and repeat as necessary”).  They still failed to actually kill the bloody Borg.  Last Month’s was actually a decent one, if a bit uninspiring…  Do as much damage with your Fleet before time runs out or you all die.  Not a whole lot of incentive to mess with each other, and the games were actually kind of interesting seeing just how much damage your Fleet COULD throw out if you build with only that in mind.  Yes J  I did a LOT better on that one…  But back on target, hoping to get in touch with some of the folks who have quit the game for various reasons and see if a few others might be interested in playing…  Scheduling is of course an issue as this is really a small (and currently dying) fringe game J…  But it really does not take up all that much space in the grand scheme…  So, I guess I start posting on the Facebook groups to see if interest and players cannot be drummed up…

Getting a lot more into Warmachine, and I have to say it is a much more interesting game for me at the moment than 40K.  Perhaps it is the perspective of taking several years off and coming back, but I honestly think that the system is far more balanced and the company producing it is FAR more responsive to issues of unbalance or questions/FAQ’s.  For the most part the local group is very low key and quite relaxed…  Always a few power gamers in just about every competitive group of course, and this is no exception.  But overall, WAY more fun, even when being smacked off the table by say, a Skorne build that was built for maximum efficiency…  Dusted off my Cygnar, but to be honest I am FAR more interested in the Rhulic (Dwarven) forces.  Traded them off when last I left the game…  Ironically for 40K stuff and Confrontation IIRC….  So now trading Confrontation stuff and Magic cards for the rebuilding efforts.  Surprisingly already a good part of the way there now.  Several “new” things since last I had this army, but overall a fairly small force, being Dwarves and all J…   Probably have to proxy some of the things like the Ogrun Assault Corps before dropping the $70 on what looks like it could very well be a mediocre unit at best for instance.  The Hammerhold Forge Guard (think plate armored Dwarves with two handed hammers), and will probably be on my “eventually” purchase list unless I can arrange a favorable trade, and the Colossal looks “neat”…  Saying that though, I am quite hesitant to drop that kind of money on a big “centerpiece” unit if it is not going to get played a whole lot.  I HAVE several of those already for 40K with the Imperial Knight being the only one that I suspect will ever really be one to see a LOT of play time.  The Spartan and Warhound class Titan are both VERY niche pieces that look nice, but really how often would I use them?  Yeah, almost never.  So, should anyone make a serious offer on the Spartan at least I would be VERY tempted to sell/trade it off since it is currently completely bare resin and unassembled.  Brun and Lug are headed my way thanks to some Confrontation Kelts, and I think that I have the basics for a pretty decent force after everything gets here…  Well, a fun force at least as I suspect that I will have some trouble dealing with some of the stuff out there.  But per my usual style, at the very least they’ll know they were in a fight as the Dwarves tend to die hard…

Basement cleaning continues, albeit slowly…  Still finding strange and sometimes interesting things down there.  Trying to get things organized and actually throw out some of the old and useless things these days.  Someday I actually hope to finish at least a big part of the basement as the workout room is pretty much just framed in, and laying down some sort of carpet type flooring and insulating/putting up a celling.  Been a LONG time since I worked in the “construction” area, and frankly I was never particularly good at it…  Built cabinets for a while and then houses between College and finding a real job thanks to one of my house mates (Steve) being a Foreman at a local construction company…  Pay was not great, work conditions were also “not great”, but WAY better (in both areas) than my time in the Army with the added bonus of fewer people actively trying to kill you.  But it kept me paying rent and you know, eating when times were pretty tough.  Took me some time to get some things figured out and frankly decompress into a VERY different reality being a civilian after…  Not really something I talk about, but it was such a stark and massive difference that I had a pretty hard time adjusting back to life here in Champaign/Urbana…  Probably took a LOT longer than it should have because I made a number of really poor choices, but made for some interesting stories I think J…  Just really needed a kick to get myself out of Joe’s (local bar where I worked), and back to “real life”.  J  And now things are so very different….  Amazing wife, kids and am moving into IT Management with a career that has lasted for 15 years here at the University alone…  Never would have thought it possible back then… :-)  All in all, things are going quite well...

STAW OP 3 tomorrow... And Warmachine being painted

So, going up against the Borg again for OP3...  Solid second place in this one, and I'm not really sure how well this scenario will play out.  Kind of depends on how competitive it becomes.  Cube CAN have a single attack of 12 dice against a single ship, re-rolling misses...  So, expect 9 hits/turn easily enough on the odd turns when my opponent controls the Cube.  Need something that might survive or at least outlast for the win. So, here's what I was thinking of running:

Fed Borg OP3 2

Resource: Flagship Independent (Romulan) (10)

USS Voyager (30)
Jean-Luc Picard (6)
Flagship (0)
Cheat Death (5)
Cheat Death (5)
Adm. James T. Kirk (5)
Montgomery Scott (5)
Hikaru Sulu (3)
Elizabeth Shelby (2)
Tom Paris (4)
Transphasic Torpedoes (10)
Multi-Adaptive Shields (5)
Ship SP: 80

Total Build SP: 90

Generated by STAW Builder
http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

Gives me 8 Defense Dice with re-rolls and at least 1 Battle Stations conversion, and of course with free BS...  Should get a decent number of hits when I attack, and I attack at Captain Skill 11 ("Ours Goes to 11")...  Faction (Federation) Pure and might be fun.  Not sure i will hold against a well built Borg but we'll see...

Slowly rebuilding my Rhulic Dwarves for Warmachine...  Some trades in the works and I;m almost half way back to what I had before stupidly trading them off.  Not a lot of casters, and being limited to the Dwarves and Ogres not a LOT of stuff altogether, but more than I can buy at once of course.  Now to get them painted up...

Motorcycles...  The Silverwing is working, Magna...  Well, not.  Anyone out there familiar with title issues in Illinois?  So, need to get that straight before I can sell it off of course....  Then probably look to sell the Silverwing and buy a Goldwing...  Probably in the 81-83 Range because I do not want to deal with a Stator issue on the 84-87 ones...  The look nice, but I really like the look of the 81-83's as well because they are really just the 4 cylinder version of the Silverwing that I otherwise like...  Just need the highway pegs and the bigger engine I think for more general riding.

So, the Wheel Turns Again :-)

So, cleaning the basement and doing a bit of painting…  Kind of sad in some ways cleaning up and packing away a bunch of things.  My Praetorian IG are all back in their ancient Chessex containers, and my Eldar are back in the GW cases…  Sadly, the Eldar no longer fit in the case, so perhaps a glass cased shelf?  Dunno.  Pretty sure it will be a while before I play 40K again so it may be a “deep storage” for them.  My Marines of various types are assembling in theory…  Cleared off a bunch of room on my painting table, just kind of depressing looking at all that “stuff” I am just packing away.  Not JUST 40K, I have a FoW force that I was painting up at various times…  Some of my old Divisions (8ID, 3AD and 82^nd Airborne), so was mostly nostalgia but it is a pretty solid game system…  Just not one I think translates well to “the tournament scene”…  And not a lot of local players/time for me to actually play so…

Resin Forge World Spartan that is not even a little assembled.  Not really sure, I may wind up selling It off, or putting my Wolves together as a 30K Legion.  Works pretty well as I had converted both of my ancient MKI Land Raiders to what was called the “Spartan” class back in the 90’s, so now they fit in as the “new” early series Land Raiders that the Legions can get.  Gives me 2 “Protos” class Land Raiders, the Spartan and then 2 of the “New” MKIII Land Raiders (Crusader and normal).  Wound up trading for a bunch of Terminator suits and picked up some of the Siege Breacher Troops, so I HAVE a bunch of 30K specific things…  Just not sure if anyone is actually playing the 30K stuff anymore, I assume that it would be “legal” for 40K play locally at least as it is actually FAR more balanced than 40K is at this point.  Kind of sad saying that out loud, the previously “silly and OP” branch is now the one doing the far better job balancing stuff…  And with GW going to what I consider a “subscription” model for their main game, I really do not relish the prospect of keeping up, and well…  I’m not.  So, have to make the choice of keeping what I have or getting rid of some/all of it.  Something to think about as I suspect dumping the lots would not get me much in return, and the wheel always seems to turn…  Guessing that someday I’ll be back playing 40K.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmOmAuhAQbE

Yeah, kind of silly, but the Mighty Mighty Bosstones are my favorite band, and so...

Speaking of trading, looking at trading off some of my old Confrontation minis for Privateer Press Rhulic Mercenaries (Dwarves mostly, some Ogres).  Feeling especially silly as I traded OFF my Rhulic army for 40K and probably Confrontation stuff years ago.  But I wound up with a LOT of the stuff as people locally left the game and I was the last gamer to move out of a shared house or two…  But starting from nothing again, and having an excellent trade reputation is isn’t too hard I think…  Will have to ping Dave to see if there is interest in some of the more interesting cards I found in random decks from the old “Joe’s Brewery MTG days”…  I had no idea how many more I would find packed away in boxes in the Basement of Doom ™…  But, guessing that I could get a decent restart that way if the Bartertown route fails…  Or if I just decide to get a bigger army (which is FAR more likely)…  Mercs are not really considered an OP army, but I’ve always had fun playing them, and seldom felt totally outclassed hitting the field with the Rhulic lads…  Toward the end of 1^st edition Warmachine, yes…  Things got pretty silly there with some outright stupid combos that killed any interest I had in playing the game, and I guess that is why it has taken me SO long to go back…  Well, that and the group we played with evaporated at that time as a LOT of us were just sick of it.  So, I moved back to 40K…  And the wheel turns again J…  Getting out once/week is pretty much the upper limit with real life and the family having priority of course J….

Journeyman League at the Gopher! Oh, and STAW in a few weeks...

So, made it through the first week of the league...  I played a modified or alternate version of the box set...

Lt Caine
Defender
Ironclad

So far was "Eh" at best...  Such a small force, with huge and glaring weaknesses.  Main one is of course a complete lack of HtH ability.  Anything that can get to me will simply crush poor LT Caine.  No gunfighter on this one, so he is just SOL should pretty much ANYTHING engage him.  So he got crushed by Joe's Gorten and Tim's Skorne monster.  Got lucky and was able to snipe Tom's caster, but I think another turn he would have been in charge range.

Next week we go to 15 points with the above models mandatory...  Since that comes to 10 points, I am pretty much stuck.  Almost all of my "Units" start at 6 points.  I'd not use the Ironclad if I had a choice I think...  So I guess I bring a few Solos like a Gun Mage CPT Adept and Journeyman perhaps?  Maybe the mechanic to repair stuff...

Big STAW event coming up, so getting ready...  Since I will not play Borg, I will I think bring a Federation ship to try to kill the Borg.  The Voyager is the only one at this point I think that can.  This is pretty well maxed out, and it is actually a higher CPT Skill than the 10 of the Borg...

Fed Borg OP3 2

Resource: Flagship Independent (Romulan) (10)

USS Voyager (30)
Jean-Luc Picard (6)
Flagship (0)
Cheat Death (5)
Cheat Death (5)
Adm. James T. Kirk (5)
Montgomery Scott (5)
Hikaru Sulu (3)
Elizabeth Shelby (2)
Tom Paris (4)
Transphasic Torpedoes (10)
Multi-Adaptive Shields (5)
Ship SP: 80

Total Build SP: 90

Generated by STAW Builder
http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

Every other turn I control the Cube, so I know it will NOT attack me (unless there are no ships in range but my own) and I can use Scott for an offensive punch (+2 Attack sice), and Sulu on the turns I need to defend.  On Defence, I have 8 dice with re-rolls and the free BS... Should net me a decent number of evades.  And then I have the 2 Cheat Death cards to play to buy an extra 3-4 turns.  Scott can repair shields to get the Multi-Adaptive Shields back online.  Only one shot with the Torpedoes, likely for the 12 dice, so I'll have to make that count against the 25 Hull cube that gets stronger as it takes Damage...  Still not sure this is a winnable scenario but this looks like the best chance I have.,  

The Basement of Doom! Need to clear off my painting table...

So, need to get the basement cleaned up…  Too much random crap there, and with the new couches of doom upstairs J…  At some point I need to rearrange my “hobby” desk and perhaps be able to see what all I actually have ON it.  So far I know I have:

• ·         Imperial Knight to assemble/paint…  I have the lower half assembled, more or less and the base coat of paint in place…  Going to finish it in the colors of House Chappell (Crimson/Gold with the Lions and Roses on the shield)…  So, fairly basic and it should look pretty good with my existing Imperial armies of various types…
• ·         Wolves…  A LONG time ago I started the stripping/repainting project for them.  Got a ways in and then…  Well, lost interest I guess.  Going with the 30K Legion scheme, so a much darker grey with crimson trim.  Not the silly baby blue with bright yellow/red/white.  Much more “we’re here to kill things and move on” than “we’re in town for Carnivalle and we got bored”…  Terminators and Siege Breachers as well…  Terminators at least are good, but the Siege Breachers are…  Well, not.  Amusing playing them with a Spartan to transport the 20 man squad and attached ICs, but effective?  Not even a little.  Still a LOT of models, and no real motivation to play the game or keep painting them for the moment…
• ·         Grey Knights…  Almost the same thing.  But as I always played ACTUAL Knights, I really did not lose any options with the new book.  Just not a lot of motivation to finally finish the force.  So, back to the shelves for them.
• ·         Crimson Fists…  Another one that is “Meh”…  Got a good sized force painted up and ready for Tournament play if need be.  Not bad, but…
• ·         Eldar…  Eh, I got almost all the way through painting/repainting them before the new book hit.  I was really excited to have them come out of the “penalty box” with their very limited codex and…  Well, it was far more powerful than anything before or since.  Have to admit on my initial reading of the book, the Wave Serpents were the thing that struck me as the long term over powered thing.  They did not magically become fliers like the Necron transport tanks, but I’m pretty good at math and I saw the immediate potential of the “shield” shooting every turn.  6-11 high Str and TL shots/turn makes a lot of things simply disappear.  Without the WS?  Good book, I was happy that most of it meant I could field most of my stuff without feeling like I was just giving away points and fighting with one hand tied behind my back.  Scorpions are “eh”, but at least usable I guess.  The Banshees though did actually get worse.  Shame, I had a full unit of them painted and ready…  In the ancient times they were unholy terrors, but now?  Better to fight short on points than give away the kill points I think.  So, not ALL of the book was OP madness, but…  But caffeine hitting and back on subject… I have a BUNCH of them in various stages of painting on the table, guess they get shelved as well…  Still have too many that I never did get around to assembling or painting over the years like Vipers, etc…
• ·         Warmachine and Hordes stuff…  So, a game I am actually playing at the moment.  Woo Hoo!  Not many new models for me, but a few…  Stripped and getting ready to repaint my second unit of Gun Mages.  Sword Knights as well…  Just in time for a Journeyman League.  Not thrilled about having to use the “Battle Box” as I think I successfully avoided fielding that caster for all my time as a Pressganger…  We’ll see I guess.  Longer term, I have to dig up my Circle models.  THOSE I have a bunch of and no clue the condition as they are scattered about the Basement of Doom ™…  Despite not playing the game I DID pick up a few of the “neat” models over the years, so have things like a Warpwolf Stalker to paint up…  Giant Werewolf with a big sword?  No kilt, but still…
• ·         Confrontation “stuff”…  Celts, Wolves and the Paladins of my Lions armies…  Guess they get a shelf or two.  Really no hope that game will ever return at this point.  Shame, I rather liked the skirmish rules at least for v3…  v3.5 was easily broken, but still fun.  V4 was another game altogether and just not very good at all…  Just my opinion (well, mine and all of the people locally playing), but then of course Rackham went under so…  Amazing models though, and happy to have so many on my shelves.
• ·         STAW/X-Wing…  Planning on repainting at least some of the minis for those games.  Nothing too drastic I think, and since I have only a few X-Wing ones…  But getting a wash/ink on the Star Trek ones will make them look a lot better, at least the base set ones and a lot of the early things.  Looking at the K’Tinga from the new blind buy booster vs. the early D7/K’tinga model and seeing the vast improvement in the models makes me think that in the longer run, they are getting a lot better and might actually stay around for a longer time than expected.  The Romulans and Klingons though I think could do with some paint to make them look more like I think they should, or at least different than everyone else’s J…  Old time SFB player myself, so once upon a time saw the much older models on the table for that… 

So, coming up for playing? 

40K tournament is in limbo and I doubt very much I’ll bother with it.  Yes, I could field one of my several (too many) armies and likely have a decent shot at winning…  But, my heart just isn’t in it.  Eldar are just too far out of line with the rest of the armies in terms of power, and locally there were 4-5 of us who played Eldar over the years, so guessing they’ll be the eventual winner here.  Not saying that the local (excellent) Necron/Chaos player could NOT win, his force is pretty darn good as well.  Just that there is so little variety if you actually want to win as opposed to “let’s just get in a game”.  With money on the table, it’s a much more serious game, so the “fun” forces might have fun, but are unlikely to win if even one player shows up with the very efficient and overpowering forces…

STAW event(s)…  Looking at one Wednesday and another one at the end of the Month.  Going up against the Borg.  At least a worthy challenge J…  Not winnable, at least the Wolf 459 one.  Just trying to do damage delaying and dying.  Not entirely sure the OP3 event IS winnable the way we play locally.  We tend much more toward the “Faction Pure” end of things.  The rules for the Borg in the scenario will be a challenge at best.  We’ll see I guess.  Not seeing any good ways to deal with the Borg AND the other player’s fleet.  So, I’ll just ignore the other player and do what I can against the Borg.  Even so, Federation might survive long enough, Dominion and Klingon might do enough damage, but with the cube going up to 10 Defense dice just before dying not sure I CAN do 25 damage quickly and reliably enough.  Will need to be lucky to get the points I guess.  That AND hope that Lon (current League leader) gets unlucky I guess to allow me to grab the prize ship for the Month (USS Stargazer).  Not a hugely powerful ship by any means, actually in the NCL class I’d guess from SFB, but a familiar ship and looks neat.  Unfortunately, until FAQ’d, there is one card that is not limited and probably can be used in stupid combos so will b hard to trade for if not won…

Warmachine…  Mentioned the Journeyman league, so that starts in 2 weeks.  Probably Cygnar again for me as my Circle stuff is scattered in the wilderness…  Think it will be somewhat OP in the longer run though.  Now that I understand the new edition better I think that I can see a lot of the Circle strengths and strategies that a lot of other armies will simply not have an answer for…  But seems a much more “friendly” group overall, I do not want to do what I did last time and enter the league sweeping all of the categories and risk driving away players…  J  Was something of an “oops” for me as I got carried away with building overly powerful forces and winning big against the local crowd.  Toned it down a lot, except for my occasional “making a point” builds to deal with similar situations.  Frankly, those were never really fun games I suspect for either of us, but needed I think.  So, looking like WM/H is going strong locally for the time being…  Maybe it will last long enough for 40K to sort itself out while we take a break from it…  But in any case, it is quite enjoyable in a very "non serious" way to get away from the silliness of IT management...

Another big 40K tournament, WM league in a few and more random STAW stuff... or "Oh, Eldar again" :-)

So, another of the big tournaments over the long weekend…  And to no one’s shock and surprise, it was an Eldar Wave Serpent spam list that was the overall winner.  Top 16 included a few Chaos Demons, Necrons, CSM and even a single Wolves player!  But 6 of the top 10 were Eldar.  Some with the DE allied force of the Baron for his 2++ save in a Seer council…  Several Imperial Knights allied forces in there, no real surprise, the Knights are really quite good and as the largest thing realistically playable (IIRC also largest LEGALLY playable).  The single Tau build was unsurprising, not sure what Aaron from Indy brought with his Necrons, but he is an excellent player so good to see him do well there…  Given the missions and the terrain it came down to the most efficient armies I think, and not sure there are any that combine the mobility, survivability and sheer firepower of a well-built Eldar force.  Demons are good, but just too random I think to count on in a long run.  Necrons and Tau both have potential (at least until the Crons get their hardback and likely some nerfs), but just not quite at the level of the Eldar…  Mind, this is all just my opinion of course…  But I’m a fairly decent player and pretty good at math and tactics, etc., so I think it is an informed opinion at the least…  Right now, and for the foreseeable future, the Eldar are back as the kings of the game…

Guessing this is why I am fairly “meh” on playing the game at this point.  If I want to win, I have to either bring the Eldar spam or have a REALLY good way of dealing with it.  Frankly there are not many good ways to do so.  Drop pods filled with Melta gunners backed by say, my Knight and the Storm Raven?  Maybe, probably the best shot I would have at it.  For right now, the BA still have the ability to Assault out of reserves with their Vanguard Vets so they might be an answer in part…  But a lot of that relies on random luck.  Jink saves being 3+ mean that I actually have to get lucky to destroy a Wave Serpent with a small number of shots.  And if their dice are hot, it just doesn’t matter how much I shoot at them.  Yes, they now have a slight disadvantage of having to snap fire, but with all their main weaponry being Twin Linked and high RoF, not I think so much of a disadvantage.  And of course each of them getting 4 shots (TL) at Str 6 followed likely by the d6+1 Str 7 shots (also TL iff at least one 6 was rolled by the up to 8 dice on the first shooting attack) their odds are quite good to get in a few hits.  Can also move of course, etc…  So, dropping DNs near them is a one shot thing as they can simply shoot it off the table trivially.  The Eldar Knight is also REALLY good, and with the ability to have a Wraith Lord as their Warlord?  Eh, gets silly there, but frankly not all that bad…  Guessing I could make a Warlord from a Marine based book like the CSM or regular Marine book that was more difficult to actually deal with, so no real complaint there, just silly to have the ability to make a MC your Warlord…  Poorly designed if no other force has this option…  Well, other than the Tyranids of course J…  But they are designed that way…  In any case, caffeine hitting and back on topic…  Frankly having to get VERY lucky to even take down their Transports by throwing a big chunk of my force at them seems a losing strategy on the longer term.  Individual games?  Sure, luck being what it is, that’s where the Marines can win a few here and there I think, just that over the long term the odds are NOT in their favor.  Needing AT weaponry with the “Ignores Cover” rule means I have few options.  And that is just to deal with the 130-140 point Transport/Tank.  The crunchy insides I can deal with, eventually…  They have the best basic weapons, and entire units of Melta gunners, so given that they will likely shoot first, will almost always pay for themselves shooting things off the table.  Their AA fire being pretty much just their tanks shooting ala “Hammer’s Slammers” means that most fliers WILL get shot out of the sky, unless you can saturate their defenses like the Necrons I think can with extremely cheap fliers…

Wolves and GK hit last Month, no real surprises and really nothing new in either book…  Yes, Klaus got his sled (Thinking that Grimmar is now Santa Klaus from the Dresden Files books, so Unseelie Court Sidhe…), but the GK?  Really they just lost options…  Yes, some were broken and stupid like the “Ours go to 11” upgrade to all of their ballistic weapons…  Glad I didn’t make all of the Rifleman (AA) DNs that I could have.  Not a bad option, just that DNs overall are just not that good these days.  Saying that though, they were pretty decent books and army lists.  Take out the Eldar and perhaps the silliness of Invisible Chaos things, etc. (Yes, there are more things…) and you have a fairly well balanced game.  Beer and pretzels, yes…  Not really tweaked for a hyper competitive game, but it would at least be fun.  As it stands?  Not really.  Just seeing Cavalry, Chariots and Monstrous Creatures being the viable options makes me miss the days when you could actually play actual Troops in a damn Sci Fi and have a chance to do something other than just die.  Really, Cav and Chariots in a Sci Fi game is probably the thing that annoys me the most…

So, a Journeyman League coming up in a few weeks at the Gopher…  Have the new (to me at least) Paladin of Morrow Warcaster, my Paladins actually did fairly well on the field (“Precursor Knights”), and seeing a lot of Undead and the like, guessing they’ll be fine as a “castle” for my forces to set up around.  Need to remember to keep the Gun Mages a bit back so that the Knights who cannot be targeted by spells do not eat spray spells targeting the guys behind their shield wall…  No clue as to the rules for the League, but assuming it is something starting small and escalating…  I have several unpainted/to be repainted units so the “hobby” aspect is not a problem to get in there I think.  So, have a pretty good handle on the basics of the game now, just a lot changed and VERY different than 40K J…

STAW saw me get another strong second place finish…  So, still close enough to Lon to challenge for the Stargazer at least J…  Not sure about this Month’s scenario though.  It looks like it will be difficult at best if you get paired with someone not big on cooperating…  Frankly, not even sure then…  The Borg are VERY strong, and getting harder to damage as the game goes on…  Something to think about, the build for this one.  Leaning toward Federation for the general strong ships to survive, but Dominion or Klingon for the ability to throw out a LOT of damage…  Dominion looks pretty good here I think.  But I actually brought this to OP2:

Fed Borg OP2 build

Fed Borg OP2 build

Cardassian Keldon Class (24)

Sar (1)

Ship SP: 25

U.S.S Excelsior (26)

Mr. Spock (4)

Dmitri Valtane (3)

Photon Torpedoes (5)

Ship SP: 38

U.S.S Sutherland (26)

Clark Terrell (1)

Ship SP: 27

I.K.S. B'Moth (24)

Kunivas (2)

Tritium Intermix (4)

Ship SP: 30

Total Build SP: 120

Generated by STAW Builder

http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

First game was my only loss…  Did 109 points of damage to the cube before time, and had the sole surviving ship (USS Excelsior), but because of 2 critical errors on my part, I lost to Lon who did 113 points to the Cube…  The Keldon class was the MVP, but I flew it out of arc one turn, and the B’Moth I completely forgot about the ability to repair as well as the free extra damage from discarding the Crew card…  So, I could easily have surpassed the total, but…  After that, it was fairly simple, my build is designed to be aggressive, but at a critical point, they step back, throwing the other player’s aggressive ships to the Borg as they are now the closest ones…  At least one other player lost to me because he did not think that I could fire on turn one, but a 4 straight gets you in range (the Cube token is larger than last Months) from the middle of the DZ, the Keldon’s trick from the flank was also a BIG surprise to everyone.  So, just loads of dice rolling and very quickly for me as it was simple once it hit the table.  Mr. Spock on the Excelsior was REALLY good as well, glad he survived every game J…

Warmachine MK II lessons learned, 40K locally and the Borg this weekend...

So, the lessons I learned in Warmachine so far… 

1.       Learn your spell lists…  Seems obvious, but it has been a LONG time since last I played.  And frankly I am using casters I was never really familiar with in the first place.  One new one, Constance Blaize.  She is the leader of my Paladins (Morrowan).  Last night I completely forgot her “Flashing Blade” spell which allows her to spend 1 Focus to attack EVERYTHING in her Melee range.  She has Reach, so a 2” zone out, combined with Flank if she is near another (non Warcaster) Morrowan granting her +2 to hit and an additional Damage Dice…  Making this absolutely brutal, and as I had her between two War Jacks that were themselves engaged, this should have been an easy “And it’s destroyed” thing with a few focus…  Reacting to being swarmed by Undead Pirates, the Paladins…  Well, OK, SHE spent a focus and cleared EVERYTHING within her 2” range allowing her to move freely and get into position to call “checkmate” on the Cryx caster…  What I have played so far, I have fallen back to what worked in MK I, and in CPT Haley’s case…  Well, it does NOT work these days…

2.       Warmachine and Hordes are different…  Again, obvious, but the “fun, let’s try this unit” theory of list building does NOT work against a well-tuned uber Hordes list.  I suspect that despite the rebalancing of things that came with MK II, Hordes is still the “better” system.  Saying that, while breaking out the Werewolves and the like for my Circle forces IS tempting, I think I need to re-learn Warmachine first.  Since I was there at the beginning of Hordes, I am fairly familiar with what worked back then, and having faced a few armies (Skorne especially seems popular, shame Tim is off in his submarine, his was always quite fun to play against…).  Too many things that work well against Jacks still and not at all against Beasts.  And with the fact that Beasts are 100% until the die (almost), and the ease with which they can be repaired at will?  In any case, I am learning what works against them…  VERY different list than WM.  But my Gun Mages amusingly are really quite good against either…

3.       Synergy is key…  Should go without saying, but of course it is far more so than in 40K.  For instance, I used the Sentinel Light Warjack with CPT Kraye as “light cav”, and it was “eh” at best…  Now, had it Jack Marshalled by my Gun Mages last night…  Getting to use the ammo like the Mages for the 14” machine gun attack, or the thunder strike I guess, but really I think it is pretty much the 14” range.  Turns a “Meh” unit into something to be feared…  And Shield Guard to keep the LT safe from random sniper shots if needed…  But more likely the Caster or CPT Strangeways who is there to repair and give out extra Focus…

4.       Bring something to be your heavy hitter…  Ranged combat is neat and all, but in the end it WILL come down to being able to hit or be hit in HtH.  Was sorely lacking in some of my earlier lists…  I do wonder what some of the other casters I’ve not yet unearthed will do for me…  Haven’t broken out my actual HtH heavies yet either…

So far I am enjoying this game FAR more than what 40K has become locally even…  I know 5^th was “highly competitive” elsewhere, but overall not as much locally…  Fliers WERE a problem with some armies magically getting cheap and REALLY good fliers (Necrons and to an extent the IG) while other armies had NO access to them…  6^th  was a big change, and it ushered in the age of the Eldar and Monstrous Creatures…  7^th seems so very much like version 6.5 for me.  Not a lot changed in the game itself.  Let me clarify, yes, a lot actually changed with Psychics getting their own phase, etc., but from a player’s perspective?  Not really.  What HAS changed is the insane speed with which GW is releasing this edition’s updated books for the various armies.  While on one hand that is great, it is simply too expensive.  And breaking things into multiple (expensive) books?  I guess that is the “smart” thing to do from a business perspective.  I do know it has cost them a fair number of sales locally at least, so I guess time will tell whether this is a viable or good strategy.  The Wolves book and the old Grey Knights ones are the ones I see having been split into 3 book each…  The Wolves is just insulting to me, but that is just my opinion of course.  Giving PART of the army list in one book, then modifications to it in a second with the painting guide going to a third book?  Overloading on recycled fluff and pictures as filler for a bigger page count…  The GK at least split logically with Assassins never really belonging in the GK book in any case and the Inquisition being split previously…  To me this made sense, but I’m an old time GK player who actually played them as “Grey Knights” and not as “Inquisition All Stars” playing under the GK banner… 

Sucks to see the game wither like this locally, but to be honest I just can’t seem to keep any particular interest in the current game.  It does seem like the mini players locally have moved (back in many cases) to WM/Hordes…  Mind, I haven’t gone on Monday for a while to see, but I know Dave had mentioned that attendance was lackluster at best for a while…  Guessing I was not the only one to adapt the “let’s wait a bit…  or longer” attitude…  Dunno, gets old quickly seeing the same things win every time, so even the challenge of building something to compete simply is not there…

STAW event Sunday at the Gopher…  Really looking forward to that.  The Ch’Tang I won in that raffle is not here yet, so it may well be my Federation Fleet going up against the Borg.  Have only the one Keldon class and it has been sold out locally for a bit J…  So, the Dominion builds I looked at are also looking more difficult.  May have a bit of a mix with the Keldon and whatever else I throw in there, we’ll see.  Looks like one I’ll need to be sure to not only win each match, but score 20 more hits against the Cube in each to have any chance of catching Lon who is sitting in first locally…  I’m #2, but no sure how far back.  OP3 is next Month for the finale…  I suspect it will be far more difficult to catch up then, and while missing out on the Vulcan prize ship was not good with some REALLY nice cards, I suspect I can trade for it if I decide to go with a Vulcan fleet…  and several of the good cards are already coming out as retail  in the next wave’s expansion set.  The Raven itself is of no interest to me, but some of the cards are…  Mostly looking for the Stargazer myself.  Another Federation ship, and a decent one at that…  The Grand Prize ship?  Not really interested, but…  Some of the variants are good…  Just not sure I can get to first place for the ship J…  Frankly, far more interested in getting the blind buy ships for the Federation, Klingons and Dominion…  Each of them have things or ARE things I’d play, so…