X-Wing at Mattoon this weekend...

Anyway, back to X-Wing it seems.  Played “Tanks” this weekend.  Beer & Pretzels WWII tank combat.  Fairly simple game, but fun.  The German Puma was actually pretty darn solid for me.  I was surprised, but then I did a fair bit of the whole Armored Cav thing in the old days, so am fairly familiar with how that works.  So perhaps a few more to hit the tables for me.  and motivating me to get my American M-3's built...  

Looking like I’m playing either my BAY list or a Rey/(Y-Wing or B-Wing) list in Mattoon.  Not so much that I am going easy, but I think I need to practice with these things:

ReySalm2 (99)

Rey — YT-1300	45
Expertise	4
Finn	5
Kanan Jarrus	3
Engine Upgrade	4
Millennium Falcon (TFA)	1
Ship Total: 62
Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
Extra Munitions	2
"Chopper" (Astromech)	1
Thermal Detonators	3
Guidance Chips	0
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
Ship Total: 37

Now this one is amusing…  Horton on the Y-Wing can chuck a BUNCH of the upgrades through Chopper to regenerate Shields.  The wording on the Extra Munitions card adds an EM token to every bomb, missile and torpedo upgrade.  Combine that with the fact that the EM card and Bomb Loadout both would then technically gain tokens that could be discarded to add Shields.  So, more shields than I should ever be able to regenerate during a normal game at least.  Rey's ship I have 2 basic builds...  Kanan or C3-P0 and the new vs. the old title.  C3-P0/old title is a tanky build that can realistically just completely evade a HLC or Harpoon Missile.  The Kanan/TFA title is maneuverable and I think more fun...  So, likely what I'll play here.

Other potential build is the BAY build:

BAY (100)

Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
"Chopper" (Astromech)	1
Guidance Chips	0
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
Ship Total: 32
Jake Farrell — A-Wing	24
Push the Limit	3
Chardaan Refit	-2
Veteran Instincts	1
Autothrusters	2
A-Wing Test Pilot	0
Ship Total: 28
Ten Numb — B-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
Collision Detector	0
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Operations Specialist	3
B-Wing/E2	1
Ship Total: 40

This one is a LOT more fun...  The A-Wing is slippery, but still just a 2 Dice Attack.  Ten Numb is amusing and Horton is pretty solid...  Just dies against a higher end "Meta" list, but fun to fly and another contender for the Titan event with the wave restrictions...  This or the Star Viper list with three of the bastards...

Next X-Wing list testing and "stuff"

So, on to a more “friendly” build for Mattoon and next Month at Titan I think…  J  Seems like I go through cycles of playing silly “because I feel like it” lists that have no real chance of taking an event then come back to the hard corp power list to remind myself that I am actually pretty good at the game...  In any case the “Firestorm” list has been called a “meme” list…  Amusing, but I can throw out a LOT of damage against someone not prepared for it…  So, one I will look at flying again in the Store Championship season.

On to the next list:

BAY (100)

Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
"Chopper" (Astromech)	1
Guidance Chips	0
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
Ship Total: 32
Jake Farrell — A-Wing	24
Push the Limit	3
Chardaan Refit	-2
Veteran Instincts	1
Autothrusters	2
A-Wing Test Pilot	0
Ship Total: 28
Ten Numb — B-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Operations Specialist	3
B-Wing/E2	1
Ship Total: 40

So “BAY”, at least in the firing order, so might be what I call it.  Ten Numb was actually pretty solid, especially against the stupid high Defenses I am seeing these days…  4 Agility, Palp and an Evade Token?  Whatever, take a Critical.  Jake is slippery and with the possibility of setting up for Arc Dodging and such when he gets assigned a Focus…  Just have to NOT be Stressed when it happens I guess.  But still, move fast, dodge Arcs and try to throw in a Damage or two on the way…  Horton is…  Different.  Set up to Joust the first run through.  Ideally, Range 2-3 so I get Rerolls.  Then as I take Damage, I can shed upgrades to get Shields back.  The BTL-A4 upgrade locking my Turret to the Front Arc being likely the first to go so I can move him to a TLT carrier mid to late game.  But the Y-Wing can actually throw out a bit of Damage in the BTL configuration…  So, I dare them to shoot me and let me release the TLT.  Still, it is just a Y-Wing at the end of the day, and so another Agility 1 ship that has a “less than good” dial.

But the list is looking like fun.  The Firesprays I flew last SC season were fun too, but woefully underpowered.  Same thing here I suspect, but not gunning for the top spot anymore, proved my point last time…

X-Wing podcasts this week are pretty much all "battle reports" for the Regionals, etc. they are playing in.  So, pretty boring frankly as I have seen a number of the games on streams and I frankly have little interest in hearing about a play by play of the event.  Disappointed that there were people giving the Krayts a hard time about their "Player 4" cast.  I thought it was excellent work, a lot of higher level game theory and math going into it and kept my interest all the way through, and I go back to reference it still...  Guess I just do not understand some people, and that is fine.

Work is a lot of Security changes coming...  Getting good at presenting the case, but really sort of getting tired of having to repeat the answers to "Why can't I just keep doing things the way I am used to?"...  A lot of the Faculty are brilliant...  In their fields.  But experience dealing with teenage children has come in quite nicely, as has my extreme patience and ability to (appear) remain completely calm no matter what is going on around me is serving me quite well.  Still in the active job search mode, met with a "Recruiter" for a bit and I guess we'll see what comes of that.  In the old days, we called them Headhunters and they got me a number of good jobs.  I am of course going to be a LOT more selective these days, and would prefer to remain at the University, but am not seeing anything opening nor am I hearing anything on the ones I have applied for.  Good and bad, per usual...  No "Thanks for playing" mail, but nothing at all after a few Months...  So, work on my Resume and practice interviewing again.  We'll see I suppose.

Was going to take tomorrow (Friday) off, but am required to come in…  Guess early next week I stay home to deal with some home repair issues and just “not be in the office” for a bit.  Want to work on my motorcycle, the garage lights and the basement drainage issues…  So, will be busy at least, and the bike being the only thing I WANT to be working on of course, but needs being what they are…

X-Wing, Titan League 1, 2018 AAR

So, AAR for the Titan League event…  I did “poorly” the last time I showed up, so I started at the bottom tables… 

Played my Dash/Poe list against Stuart’s 2 TIE Defender and TIE Striker list…  Was a pretty good game, but even the TIE Defender melts against the 4 Dice Attacks…  Helped that he rolled 0 Evades on the 2 Attacks that melted him, but…  Took a bit more to deal with the other ships, but a 100-26 win since he was able to strip the Shields off of the YT-2400…

Game 2 was against Allan’s RAC (with the Emperor)/Whisper list…  My Firestorm Special is pretty much a hard counter to the Ace builds though…  Lined up against the Decimator and did the “Pile Damage in for the Win” move…  Had to bank, so not able to just bomb him, but the Harpoon Missile for 4 stripped the shields for Ten Numb to throw in a hit and a Crit…  The Weapons Malfunction Crit made the return fire less effective.  Whisper had to bug out, or she would have just died…  By the next turn I dropped a bomb where the Decimator would most likely go, but held it in place because Allan did something unexpected and went the other direction…  Failed to clear the Crit, and forgot that Nym had TLTs…  So he conceded.  Ten Numb shot Whisper for the unavoidable Critical and 2 more into the Decimator from the TLT showed pretty well that the game would be over in another turn or two in any case with the hard counter doing what hard counters do…  I assumed he had Kylo Ren on the Decimator, THAT would have made this a MUCH harder fight, but since we were both PS 10 and I had Imitative I would shoot first…  Would have been the same result in this case since he would not have stopped me from firing my Missile and then just being able to bomb him out of the game…

Game 3 was against Tim’s Imp Ace list…  Inquisitor, Quickdraw and the Palp Shuttle… Played against Tony’s build during practice last week, so knew pretty well how to deal with it and it was another 70/30 split I think…  Killed Quickdraw, leaving a Shield on the ship with the thrown Proton Bomb hitting for 2 Hull and then the Harpooned Condition doing a Face Down card when it went off…  His revenge shot sucked, removed all of Nym’s shields between the two shots, but it did what needed to be done…  Ten Numb was in trouble and lost shields quickly to the Inquisitor…  With Palpatine backing the Inquisitor, it is almost impossible to NORMALLY punch a Damage through, but Ten Numb was doing his thing…  And the Protons had about a 40% chance to just kill the ship…  So he had to be VERY careful approaching.   Holding a Proton bomb to block an approach meant that the Shuttle ate that and died soon after as I was able to dodge arcs and just throw damage onto that ship at will...  The TIE Adv Prototype was a LOT harder to catch, but after the Shuttle was gone, without Palpatine to give Evades...  He had to be careful of the TLT on CPT Nym...  So, while he was avoiding Ten Numb and keeping inside of the Range 1 bubble on Nym, he failed to account for the Thermal Detonators I could drop...  Double Stressed Inquisitor is a LOT easier to catch for the last Damage...

Kind of the secret I think to the list, so many “No Fly” zones and tricks that I can put in there to deal with pretty much anything on the other side of the table…  So, successful list.  And now on to something else I think…  Might bring this back out during SC season as this is exactly suited to my play style… 

So, Store Credit and a neat card or two...  More interested in the Alt Art stuff, and getting an Alt Art Guri was neat...  Will probably see the table in Mattoon and maybe next Month at Titan...

X-Wing, Hanger Bay at Titan this weekend...

Well, got in some practice games with the “Firestorm Special”:

Firestorm Special (99)

Ten Numb — B-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
Trajectory Simulator	1
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Extra Munitions	2
Sabine Wren	2
Proton Bombs	5
B-Wing/E2	1
Ship Total: 47
Captain Nym (Rebel) — Scurrg H-6 Bomber	30
Veteran Instincts	1
Twin Laser Turret	6
Extra Munitions	2
Harpoon Missiles	4
Thermal Detonators	3
Proton Bombs	5
Trajectory Simulator	1
"Genius"	0
Long-Range Scanners	0
Havoc	0
Ship Total: 52

Mkay, this build is brutal…  I honestly did not expect it to be as good as it is.  I think it is almost a hard counter to an Ace build, specifically an Imperial Ace build…  The Proton Bombs doing the Critical under the Shields (if any) means that the 2 Hull ships like the Inquisitor or Whisper have about a 40% chance to just die in the Movement phase.  And Nym especially has SO many options for his bombs… 5 forward, 1 out the back or 1 out the back AFTER you move…  Note, you WILL be hit (most likely) by the bomb you drop after movement, but that is something I am willing to do.  Or I can hold a Bomb in place…  This area denial is pretty key.  Assuming you CAN hit with the Harpoon, Ten Numb with his un-blockable Critical to set the Harpooned Condition off…  Seems like a decent way to deal with lower Agility things, but it also does a number on the Aces…  Assuming of course the initial Harpoon actually hits.  Pro tip, the Inquisitor backed by the Emperor CAN just completely dodge a 4 Hit Missile pretty regularly, so likely NOT the one you want to target if you HAVE a choice…  I think anything else might well just be in trouble.  Quickdraw melted nicely and quickly, I suspect Vader and Poe would go even quicker…  

Still, a 2 ship list with both of them being 1 Agility…  Is a race to do Damage, and a list like Tyler Tippett’s RACLo list would likely be…  Difficult.  Still, guessing it will be a race with the sheer amount of damage I can throw out quickly…  Maybe.  He can simply Blind one of my ships (Nym likely) then not worry about the Harpoon…  But fortunately, no one locally flies that build…  Let me rephrase, no one locally flies it nearly so well as he does.

Other build?  Dash/Poe or the Control Brobots I think…  The IG-88’s are just annoying as Hell and while tough to fly…  They have some interesting matchups and since I CAN Token Stack on the 3 Agility Autothruster ship…  They are surprisingly tough to hit…

Long weekend...

So, got word that 2 people I knew in the ancient times passed over the last few days…  One was a guy I haven’t seen since we graduated High School together.  He had a party after, we had a few beers and chatted briefly, but never did see him again after that as I came down here to school then was off playing Army.  Never went back to Plainfield after that.  But he was a good guy. 

The other was someone I met while I was off playing Army.  He was from a country in Africa that no longer exists.  He taught me a fair bit about how to do things in the Field as a Light Infantryman/(insert term here)…  He was Rhodesian SAS and was probably one of the most dangerous individuals I have ever met.  To this day, I carry my rifle the same way he taught me to…  Looks kind of odd, but slung with the barrel down.  Slide your right hand along the stock and bring the weapon up and into action.  Hell of a lot faster than most people actually realize it is even possible.  That and he showed me a LOT about field craft.  Yes, I was a Boy Scout and camped a lot as a kid, but I was still a city kid.  Even today I can easily navigate anywhere in the world and probably survive.  There were some REALLY nasty tricks he showed me and I got to hear a lot of stories.  Not mine to tell, so they die with him, but with that perspective I know that even the shitshow my second tour turned into…  Frankly it was not all that bad.  This one always reminded me of him:

Playing a “Hanger Bay” event next weekend, so need to get some more practice games in…  Played one and promptly flew my Super Dash right off the bloody board.  Need to actually get used to that again and NOT fly close to the edge.  “Wookie Mistake” is ready to go, have a few proxy cards printed up to fill it out, nothing really major, just not wanting to buy another U-wing for a third Expertise or another Rebel Shuttle for another Courier Droid…

Other than that, building 15mm tanks…  StuGs and PZKfW IV and VI’s…  Last one is of course the Tiger.  Dunkel Gelb base coat on and getting ready to get the camo paint on them…  Interesting painting them up, taking a break from the American tanks I am building, and since I have a Btty of M-7 Priests ready to build…  Loads of Shermans, a few M-3 Stuarts to be Cav Scouts for me… 

X-Wing for the next event, Motorcycles and more :-)

So, looking like there will be an event 4 Mar at Titan Games in Champaign…  It is a modified “Hanger Bay” event where you make 2 lists, choose one for Round 1, then you MUST choose the second one for Round 2.  Round 3 is back to you get to choose which one to fly…  Oh, and NO duplication between the lists at all…  Looking over what I might face, the only list I am REALLY overly concerned about the “Raptor Attack” (named by the Mynocks in their Podcast) which is the Ghost and Fenn Rau in his shuttle.  At this point, I have no really good answer for it.  I have a few lists that would do well enough against it, but they’ll pretty much just die to ANY other “meta” list.  Plus side, locally there the meta is just weird and I MIGHT be OK…  So, looking at flying:

DashPoe1 (100)

Dash Rendar — YT-2400	36
Push the Limit	3
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Kanan Jarrus	3
Engine Upgrade	4
Outrider	5
Ship Total: 58
Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing	31
Lone Wolf	2
R2-D2	4
Advanced Optics	2
Autothrusters	2
Black One	1
Ship Total: 42

List 2 might be:

Wookies everywhere 3 (100)

Lowhhrick — Auzituck Gunship	28
Expertise	4
Tactician	2
Rey	2
Ship Total: 36
Wookiee Liberator — Auzituck Gunship	26
Expertise	4
Tactician	2
Courier Droid	0
Ship Total: 32
Wookiee Liberator — Auzituck Gunship	26
Expertise	4
Tactician	2
Courier Droid	0
Ship Total: 32

Or perhaps:

Unsaved Squadron (100)

Nu Squadron Pilot — Alpha-class Star Wing	18
Harpoon Missiles	4
Long-Range Scanners	0
Os-1 Arsenal Loadout	2
Ship Total: 24
"Countdown" — TIE Striker	20
Lightweight Frame	2
Adaptive Ailerons	0
Ship Total: 22
"Omega Leader" — TIE/fo Fighter	21
A Score to Settle	0
Ship Total: 21
"Quickdraw" — TIE/sf Fighter	29
Adaptability	0
Fire-Control System	2
Lightweight Frame	2
Special Ops Training	0
Ship Total: 33

Or even:

Unsaved Squadron (97)

Fenn Rau — Protectorate Starfighter	28
Push the Limit	3
Autothrusters	2
Concord Dawn Protector	1
Ship Total: 34
Thweek — StarViper	28
Advanced Sensors	3
Autothrusters	2
StarViper Mk. II	-3
Virago	1
Ship Total: 31
Guri — StarViper	30
Push the Limit	3
Autothrusters	2
StarViper Mk. II	-3
Ship Total: 32

The Dash/Poe is different than the “standard” one because I am using EU and PTL on Dash…  The YT-2400 was my first X-Wing ship (that my wife got me J), so I really like it a lot…  With Barrel Roll, Boost and the ability to simply ignore the terrain my mobility is simply unmatched.  I can REALLY get to almost anywhere on the field.  HLC for the heavy punch, and Kanan to allow me to clear a Stress on a White maneuver.  Which gets me every maneuver except the 4 K-Turn.  Since I care not at all about terrain, should never NEED the K-turn, but it is there I guess…  This is probably my answer to the Raptor Attack…  Dash goes out and erases Fenn Rau, does as much Damage as he can to the Ghost before he gets shot out of the sky…  Then without the ability to Boost at PS 11, Poe should be able to get in there and with Lone Wolf/Focus Conversion actually get a fair bit of Damage through to either kill the Ghost or at least get it to half to pull the score over to my side…  Against almost everything else?  Well, I have two pretty good ships and so a chance…  This is the one “Anti Raptor” list that I feel at least has a chance against the rest of the field.

The Wookies are a refinement to my previous one…  Stress and passive Focus Modification…  Lowrick should be able to build up a few Focus to make him a bit harder to kill.  The Couriers are to allow me to place my low PS Ships at PS 8…  Should make for at least an interesting game.  Do NOT bunch the lads up, roll in and sweep past…

The 4 Ship Imperial list is interesting to me…  Nothing REALLY OP there.  Just 4 pretty interesting Ships.  Should be fun to fly…

The S&V Starvipers are interesting to me…  For whatever reason I cannot find my 3^rd Starviper ship.  Have the rest of the pack, so I KNOW I have it around somewhere, else I’d be flying 3 of the darn things…  Fun ships, but they ARE exhausting to fly.  SO many different choices and they are just so slippery.  Ace flying at another level altogether.  Fun, but in an event that might have 5+ games?  Not so sure I would fly them…  Or at least not so well…

Weather is clearing a bit, hoping it stays like this.  Really wanting to get the Goldwing back on the road to be sure that the Sea Foam is actually working and clearing up the Carburetors for me…  REALLY not looking forward to the potential “tear them apart and rebuild them” project if it is more than them just having sat for a long time and getting gunked up.  But that bike rides SO much nicer than the old Silverwing.  The Silverwing was excellent for getting me back on a bike, but I had forgotten how nice the Heavy Cruisers are to actually ride.  With the Goldwing I can actually take longer trips comfortably.  The Magna got me to Michigan, but it was fast…  Not comfortable.  I had to stop every hour or so to stretch out and walk around a bit.  Might have to with the Goldwing, but it has the nice highway pegs and the seat is adjustable for a rider my height.  And with the 6 gallon tank, I anticipate not needing to stop nearly so often.  The Magna had a 3.5 gallon tank IIRC, and it burned through fuel…  Ironically at 5000 RPM on the highway it was actually quite efficient, getting closer to the 50 MPG the Silverwing got at 3000 RPM…  I am unsure what the final efficiency will be for the Goldwing, but I expect it will be in the 40-50 MPG range.  Honda makes excellent bikes as evidenced by the fact that my “new” bike is a mid-80’s bike and it is running pretty well. 

Job wise?  Holding pattern…  Applied for what I felt would be an excellent place for me…  Applied there before but did not have my transcript at the time.  JUST got my MS conferred, but no transcript in time, so did not get an interview last time.  No guarantee I would have gotten past the interview stage, I was not really all that confident or frankly that good at the whole “interview process” at that time.  I think this time around I am in a MUCH better place having actually worked on it and knowing a LOT more about how to do the whole interview thing…  Pro tip, do NOT just answer the questions quickly and factually.  I did that the last time I interviewed on Campus…  Right answers, but I failed on the “tell a story” part where I can demonstrate why my experience prepared me for this job and why I might be the best candidate.  Unfortunately, a few months in and nothing…  Plus side, no “thanks for playing” letter, but no interview either.  Will see, remaining hopeful as like I said, I think I really would be a good fit for that job.