Random Motorcycle/Tariff thoughts and X-Wing v2 building...

So, go to thinking a bit about Tariffs recently as apparently we are in another cycle of such things now.  As I specialized in the “Industrial Engineering” side of Mechanical Engineering when I went to school in the ancient times this was something that came up as we were just getting out of the 80’s and into the 90’s at the time.  Now, looking at the situation in as unbiased a fashion as possible there are a few factors that you must account for.  Specifically, the United States has “Anti-Trust” laws that are lacking in many (most/all IIRC) of our competitors.  So, for instance we have company “X” that produces say, motorcycles.  They are unable to share ownership of say, Steel Mills, Coal Mines, etc. with those companies in any significant way.  Not so for say a Japanese company or Keiretsu.  That is essentially a group of companies that share a common ownership and purpose.  This allows the overall Keiretsu to achieve a profit MUCH easier as they have no need to achieve profitability at any specific level (thinking of manufacturing process as the various levels that these companies exist at).  So, competitive advantage taken to extremes.  Now, I used motorcycles as an example because I have only ever owned Honda motorcycles.  So, these tariffs would be why my Silverwing had a 497cc engine and my Goldwing technically has an 1196cc engine.  My Goldwing is a 1984, so they also got around restrictions by assembling the bike here in the United States, technically making it an American manufactured motorcycle for the purposes of Tariffs…  Now, where this example falls apart is that while TECHNICALLY there were American manufacturers (Harley Davidson being the largest) at that time, they were manufacturing absolutely terrible bikes, so the protection for American jobs was good and all, but they were producing horrible bikes, so probably should have failed sooner than they did…

Ah, but back to X-Wing…  Mostly just theory crafting at the moment as I am just not getting out to play all that often.  The girl’s big Show Choir fundraiser event was this last weekend and there was simply no time for anything else and frankly I am still exhausted from that.  Good cause I suppose, and the new Choir Director is FAR more involved with the kids and there is actual excitement and people coming back to the program after the last few years just bleeding people off…  But silly real life interfering with the whole gaming thing for me J… 

Rebels:  A few lists I am looking at, Luke Skywalker in his X-Wing loaded out with Proton Torpedoes and the “But, I’m a Jedi and the Rules Do NOT Apply” card (Supernatural Reflexes) means he CAN line up on say, Whisper and just erase her with his Torpedo shot.  She has at most 2 Agility, he is likely to get 4 Hits/Crits so the math is pretty bad for the Phantom here.  And the Phantom is fragile.  Back Skywalker with Sabine in her Attack Shuttle and the pocket “Advanced Sensors” for loads of extra actions and Nora in the Y-Wing to just be a Tank…  Solid list, but pretty unexciting and nothing there which really has good answers to things like the stupid Trajectory Simulator Bombs, massed Torpedoes, etc…  So, solid and PROBABLY will do well, but looking like there are simply some things that are going to be hard counters for it.  Frankly not a lot standing out for me in the Rebel faction at the moment.  NOT to say they are bad, just that nothing that suits my play style at the moment…

S&V:  Fett is STRONG in the current edition.  Probably too strong frankly.  But will I feel bad flying that ship for at least the first few events?  No.  I flew the Firesprays for a LONG barren stretch in v1, so now that the worm has turned, so be it.  Emon is frankly the one I am looking more forward to flying and I suspect that my dual Firespray list will appear again with Kath being replaced.  Emon was one I tried REALLY hard to make work in v1, but the chassis was just THAT bad.  Now, he is looking quite solid with the potential infinite Proton Bombs getting chucked with the 1 or 3 Templates…  Fun, but probably not overly competitive.  But fits my style, so…  Other than that?  The Mandalorian Fangs are solid, just like the TIE Interceptor, so they’ll hit the table for me.  And as I HAVE 3 now, I can go swarm(ish).  The Star Viper is awesome and loads of fun.  Have a swarm of them, so they are more that WILL hit the table for me…  But all in all, I think S&V is more fun than competitive.  I DO think they have a fighting chance to win anything that is not artificially limited (like Corresant), but the Imperials are just a bit stronger overall I think.

Imperials:  So, what I HAVE flown the most so far.  The TIE Interceptors are amazing.  Cheap, fragile and you live and die by your Agility Dice, but fun to fly.  The Phantoms are likewise strong and I do suspect a BIT too strong.  Coming in ~ the same point cost as an X-Wing, they are just better on the table in my experience and so I suspect they’ll be adjusted upwards in cost.  But they are FUN to fly.  Not the overpowered sledgehammer they were in v1, but flying with finesse, skill and caution they hit hard and live long enough to get the job done.  Fragile as Hell though, so if they DO get caught, they will not likely survive.  Otherwise?  I’ve been flying the continuation of my v1 list with the Reaper with MAJ Vermeil with the Phantom and Interceptor.  Solid, fun list.  Other things I have flown or looked at seriously are the Defenders and the Punisher.  Have flown the Defenders, and they are a blast.  EXPENSIVE as Hell, but worth every point.  Stupidly resilient and just fun to fly.  The Punisher is one I got to see in action on streams.  The Trajectory Simulator and Redline’s ability to get fully modified Proton Torpedoes is just WAY too good, so another on the points elevator I suspect…  I HAVE one of those ships, I tried to get it to work in v1 to no avail, but now?  Probably just too good and not really my play style overall…

"Reclassification" and X-Wing 2.0 thoughts...

Ah, continuing on the job search…  By now I suspect that through the various interviews over the course of the year I have met EVERY IT Director on Campus.  So, I suppose my name is getting out there and I AM getting interviews…  Which is great, just need to progress beyond that of course into the “offer” stage.  Selling my skill set and what I can bring to the new job.  Have the “merit badges” of the MS Degree, various technical certifications and the like…  Oh, and 25 or so years of verifiable experience in the IT industry ranging from “Programmer” to “Hardware Guy” to “Network” and “Management”…  So, looks good on paper.  Sitting in on the briefings regarding the change from Academic Professional to Civil Service has been… Interesting.  Frankly at my level, the only real concern I have is that my last title change was delayed several years (and THAT is the reason I am seeking employment elsewhere), so I’ll be on the lower side of seniority for the title I hold.  NOT a lot of others holding this title, so not really overly concerned about it honestly, but it IS a concern as seniority is extremely important on the CS side of the world.  Getting Reclassified actually gets me an additional 4 days of Vacation that I honestly can’t use in my current job, so nothing really lost there for me.  So, interesting times ahead it seems.  We are told over and over again that there is “no intention to come in and do a mass reclassification”, but as they did exactly that in Chicago to “poor” effect, there is no real reason to trust the State of Illinois in this.  Having learned long ago never to trust this State (ref: IL Nat Guard time J) I have less confidence they will not just “make it happen”.  Will absolutely suck for newer folks as Aps enjoy a lot better benefit package WRT sick and leave time at least, but for those of us who have been here a bit it will be a wash or actually slightly better in the case of us old timers who have been here 14+ years.

Thane Kyrell and others flipping Damage cards:  I suspect this will be the death of Large Based Ships in the game, or at least have a serious damping effect upon them.  They also look good as “finishers” for Aces with the ability to just get that one Damage through, then with flipping effects applying Criticals over and over until it removes the ship…  Assuming of course it is a Direct Hit, Hull Breach or the like that can do this.  Odds are pretty good, and as there are NO good Criticals in the v2 Deck and some that cause a cascade effect that will just destroy the Ship.  So, I have my “Rebel” Squadron more or less picked.

Imperial Squadron, I am flying mostly the same stuff I flew at the end of v1…  TIE Phantoms are REALLY good now.  The TIE Interceptor is risky, but if you are comfortable knowing that at any time you might just die….  Well, they are fast and powerful.  DO have the possibility that they just die to a single attack, so you have to dodge Arcs quite well.  The Reaper and the Punisher are both Medium Base ships now and they seem like the “anchor” ships for my “Ace(ish)” builds.  I fly the Reaper with Director Krennic like I have in the past and while it is NOT as stupidly broken as it was in v1, it is actually sneaky good I think.  Spending a Dice Result to flip a card here is as good I think as it is for the above listed Ships.  Adding Target Lock to the Reaper is actually surprisingly good…  And I fly with Vader crew on Whisper for added ways to do Damage or remove Tokens without having to resort to actually Attacking and you know pushing through the Damage in the traditional manner…  Vader forces them to CHOOSE to either lose the Green Token or take a Damage.  Mind, if they have no Tokens, they have already made that choice as in this edition 0 is NOT an option.  So, maybe one Damage gets pushed or they lose the Focus that they need to avoid the Juke on Whisper to cancel out an Evade result…  Either way is great for me.  Then I can cancel out a Result (Focus or Hit/Crit) to flip a Card before Damage is applied…  Might be no big deal or they might not have Damage Cards already, but if they DO…  Direct hit or Hull Breaches will just hurt.  A lot.  Yes, random draw and situational, but it works surprisingly well at taking down things like TIE Defenders or other Ace types with low Hull.  And for Large Bases?  They just melt under this.  And Col Vermiel on the Reaper for the follow up Attack?  Just brutal.  The Punisher serves a different role as a Bomb projector and Torpedo Boat…  But actually quite good in this Edition…  But as it happens I HAVE one from First Edition that I had mostly base coated in my Imperial Blue color scheme before figuring out that there was simply NO way to make the ship work under the old rules…  It really was just THAT bad…  But that has changed.  A LOT. 

I suspect that the Phantom and Punisher are both up for point increases come January which we are told will be the first major adjustment…  Force powers are pretty good as well, so suspect some of them might go up a bit…  But overall the game is in a MUCH better place and with the first few major events in the books it does seem that there is a fair number of good builds out there with nothing really too badly OP…

X-Wing 2.0, first game in and first impressions...

X-Wing 2.0

Well, got in my first “official” game of X-Wing 2.0 now…  I played my Echo (TIE Phantom)/Soonter Fel (TIE Interceptor)/Brath (TIE Defender) against Bralen (B-Wing)/Ten Numb (B-Wing) and Gavin Darklighter (E-Wing).  It was a LOT of fun.  Since I have been playing “Ace” lists for quite a long time now, this list really felt familiar in many ways, but just solid really.  Fel was Arc dodging like he always has, and he was quite solid.  I should mention he certainly felt a LOT more fragile and I was quite aware of it.  He is just one Crit cascade away from dying, and without the token staking, Autothrusters and Palpatine crutches.  I WAS able to get Bullseye Arc more often than not (at least when I was lining up for a shot), and I could just say “I’m out” when I saw that the situation called for it.  And facing HLC/Crack Shot/built in dice mods I did NOT want to end up in the B-Wing’s Arc so doing the Klingon Saber Dance to stay alive and bleed them out.  Dodged Arcs mean that I am not getting shot, and I do not have to worry about the “oops, I died” effect.  So, I think the Interceptor is solid and Fel especially.  No modifications really, I had Outmaneuver on Fel knowing full well that IF I were to shoot, in almost every case I was going to be out of Arc.  It worked quite well. 

The Defender?  It was every bit as solid as I expected it would be.  I never did use the Pilot Ability, but the ship itself with ALL of the actions, great shields and 3 Agility?  Worth every point I spent.  Frankly he should have died, my Dice were hot and his were cold for most of the critical points of the game, but even had he died, he did a LOT of damage and even then he got the Defender down to one Hull.  The Criticals are BRUTAL.  But I also like the fact that the random element on turning them face down has gone away, basically spend an action and flip the card rather than the action + dice roll for the 50/50 shot to maybe turn it down.  He ate a Critical (Weapons Failure) and was able to K-Turn, turn it down to get in the good (but unmodified) shot into the E-Wing…  Well, Juke still allowed a modification so even that was not so bad…  I suspect I’ll be moving back to the Countess with her ability to do the crazy K-turns even though they are no longer Green.  That ability is just SO good, and frankly I flew so much with it in v 1 that I got pretty good at that, so…

The rock star of the list though was Echo in the Phantom.  I’ll start off by saying I think that ship needs to go up in points at the earliest opportunity.  They basically cost what the X-Wings do now, and are just SO much better, at least in the hands of someone who knows what to do with them.  Disclaimer, I flew a LOT of the TIE Phantoms in v 1.0 and actually learned the game flying against them in the darkest times J…  So, I have a fair idea how they work and what you need to do with them.  Echo with the 2 Bank de-cloak is just stupidly maneuverable, and even if you DO get the block on her move, she still has her Evade so she can re-cloak at the end of the turn.  DID happen once as I suspect I got too predictable with the de-cloak, 1 turn to line up shots with Juke.  But even then, it just meant that the next Turn, I de-cloaked behind the ship and he never got another shot as I just chased him down and killed him.  As it happens I picked up a second Phantom in a bulk trade a while back and it never saw the table in v 1 because there was really only the one that was viable, but I suspect 2 are going to be quite good…  At least until they get their point cost adjusted up.  Will see I suppose if my experience with this ship is more an aberration.  But I strongly suspect that this will be some adjustments made to many ships including this one… 

X-Wing 2.0 is live and minor other stuff...

X-Wing:

Well, technically had the very last v1 event, but as it was just the two of us there to play I played my X-Wings and Arc against his “Death Rey” build with the intention of making sure he got his Regional Bye…  SO many little things in there I am thrilled to see just go away with the changing of the edition.  And that was not even one of the more broken builds honestly…  But in any case I picked up my Core Set and the Upgrade Kits.  Starting to unpack them, there are a LOT of things in those kits.  FFG has an official Squadron Builder, and as the bugs get fixed it is looking better.  YASB is still a bit better I think with the dials showing in the builder, but a minor quibble… 

I know several of the podcasts have declared the Rebels DoA, but honestly I think they’ll do fine.  Nora in her new Y-Wing is awesome, X-Wings are solid ships for the first time I’ve seen them be so…  Yes, the uber-Turrets are just gone (mostly), but flying the way I enjoy it seems to be the way of things there now.  I am actually quite comfortable with risks and variance (“Sometimes your stuff just dies” and “Green Dice WILL betray you”).  Gone are the card combos that could just do things without actually resorting to dice rolling, and gone are the token stacking that was so prevalent at the end of v1…  When a 1 Agility ship like say, the Falcon could easily dodge a 3 Hit Attack (100% of the time) and was not really a long shot to simply didge a 4 Hit Attack…  There was a problem.  Now, there are only a few things that can ADD a result (Nora being one of the very few), usually it is CHANGE a result and you cannot dodge more Hits than you have Agility anymore.  I am looking forward to flying Star Vipers, TIE Phantoms and yes, even X-Wings now that I CAN do both reposition actions on a basic X-Wing.  Phantoms, Interceptors, Fangs and Vipers are all going to be slippery and for me at least a blast to fly…  For shorter events J…  I might get a chance to put a few of them on the table tomorrow as Titan (Champaign) is doing their release events on Tuesday nights it seems for the “Casual Night”…  Dunno, have a random post work meeting, but will see…

Word out there in the wild is that there are a LOT of people picking up v2 and coming back or just starting now…  Hope so.  I have seen far too many games just die out while doing an edition change, especially after things got so bad that the edition change was absolutely needed. 

Back to getting serious about the diet thing…  Going to give Advocare another shot and see.  It worked well enough last time, just was REALLY rough on my system and per usual, once I stopped paying attention and logging all of the food, etc. the losses were reversed.  Mostly, I am still quite a bit lighter than my heaviest…  Just wanting to be a good 30-40 pounds lighter to be actually “in shape” again.  Running and working out continuing, but seem to have hit a plateau there.  No longer losing weight on my own, not really getting much stronger or faster by any means.  So, started the “cleanse” phase today and it sucks every bit as much as I remember it, but of course real weight loss is always a caloric deficit, and paying attention to what I eat and drink should keep me in that range.  Will see I suppose.

Bike and truck are running fine I suppose.  Need to fix my daughter’s exhaust and my windshield before winter…

Last Jedi silliness and the last 1.0 X-Wing events...

So, the Last Jedi…  Have to admit it was my least favorite Star Wars film.  Caveat, I have not seen the Solo film yet, but from what I have heard it was actually in the “not bad” range, so I suspect rather strongly that TLJ will remain my least favorite SW film.  I know that the Mynocks spent an hour or so arguing here that it was objectively the best SW film, and that is fine J.  Best or worst, I did not like it at all.  THAT is how I am judging the films…  Seemed like they went way out of their way to give a giant middle finger to most of the older SW fans, and the specific problems I had were:

1.       Poe not knowing the new Admiral’s plan.  Yes, Leia demoted him from Commander to Captain.  Got it.  Of course, a real military does not really work that way, but whatever, I get this is just a fantasy J.  At that point the whole Resistance was down to a single ship, the Flagship that had the entirety (well, except for Leia herself) of its bridge crew killed.  THAT he was an Officer would have made him a Senior Officer.  And so NONE of the Officers who were involved in the aborted Mutiny had a clue what the Rear Admiral’s plan was…  Not bloody likely.  Hell, the Flight Deck enlisted crew all knew what it was.  They were the ones loading up the Transports with fuel and Cloaking Devices.  And Rose knew it well enough to give that information to the extremely unreliable DJ, including the specifics of the Cloaking Devices frequencies, etc…  So, I am amused that the Rear ADM is viewed by some as some sort of “equality” here representing under-represented females, but to me she was just a bad character.  And that whole situation was just a giant steaming plot hole that just seemed to be very lazy writing…  But just my opinion of course…

2.      Rey…  Okay, I actually like the character.  Excellent actress who works hard to pull off the young Jedi, and I like that.  This seems to be one of the things that the Director decided to just go 180 degrees from what was being built up in the previous movie and just throw it all away.  Rey has no back story now apparently, she’s just the random lucky one who got picked by the Force.  Not that her parents were characters in previous stories and there was some sort of continuity there.  Nope.  Just some random no one who magically was granted these amazing powers and for no apparent reason Anakin/Luke’s Light Saber called to her specifically and that whole flashback scene in the cantina had no meaning whatever.  I also thought she could have spent a LOT more time training with Luke.  Which brings me to

3.      Time compression…  Everything happening in SUCH a short time frame?  Why?  Everything essentially happening while the First Order were busy running the Resistance remnants down.  Fenn and Rose pop out, have an adventure/side quest and then make it back in time to witness the conclusion of the chase scene?  Made everything just seem rushed.  And just sort of thrown together at the last moment on the fly…  Kind of links to the Jedi training between Rey and Luke for me, but there is not really a sense of how long that actually took…  The length of time Finn was in a coma, but that is not known.  Probably just me, but I wanted more there, but I could see why this was compressed.  Just wish they gave some sense of time passing and that it was not like 3 days of “seminar” Jedi training to advance her to Jedi Knight at least.

4.      Most of the space battles…  So, bring in a DN class ship to hit the planet…  Fine.  But no fighter screen?  At all?  Having seen the TIE fighters scramble on other occasions, I have a hard time believing that they would not have scrambled on arrival…  Or maybe during the stupid prank call scene?  Not like the FO was trying to conserve fuel or ammo, so…  I guess trading the DN for ALL of the Resistance Bombers was OK for Snoke?

What did I like?  Well, in my opinion, Luke did the most Jedi thing ever when he faced down the First Order on his own, ultimately using the force in a completely nonviolent manner to defend the people he loved and sacrificing himself in the process.  Right up there with Kanan Jarus for me, but then I REALLY liked “Rebels”.  And Kanan was not nearly so powerful I think.  Still that was a great scene for me.  I also liked the Duel scene where Rey and Kylo fought the Praetorian Guards…  Nice, well done fight scene.  The Jedi training was pretty good, just seemed rushed/compressed. And the whole “you’re nobody” thing that I dislike…  Eh, just my opinions per usual of course.

So, have an X-Wing event this weekend at Mattoon…  Will bring 3 lists, 2 I actually want to fly and one just to give the lads there a chance to get in some reps against a more top tier list if they really want to.  Since the ACTUAL Store Championship is after the official release date for v2, I am frankly concerned that the attendance will be quite low…  All of them local have suffered and this one being after the actual date for the new edition?  Anyway, we will see I suppose.

WedgeWesNorra (100)

Wedge Antilles — X-Wing	29
Lone Wolf	2
Renegade Refit	-2
Flight-Assist Astromech	1
Servomotor S-Foils	0
Integrated Astromech	0
Ship Total: 29
Wes Janson — X-Wing	29
Predator	3
Renegade Refit	-2
Flight-Assist Astromech	1
Servomotor S-Foils	0
Integrated Astromech	0
Ship Total: 30
Norra Wexley — ARC-170	29
Push the Limit	3
Seismic Torpedo	2
Saw Gerrera	1
R2-D2	4
Vectored Thrusters	2
Alliance Overhaul	0
Ship Total: 41

Possible to swap Nien Numb out for Saw to get more Greens on Nora’s ARC dial, and not really sold on Predator for Wes…  Might go for the free VI or Crack Shot.  Still, make the swan song of X-Wing 1.0 an event with actual X-Wings?  And looking over the v2 stuff for the X-Wings, they do come out pretty well… 

Otherwise, Fett and either Guri or Fenn for the S&V Aces…  Well, they WILL be the S&V Aces in v2.  Fun builds, semi competitive I suppose as they have the answers to a fair number of the “meta” lists.  I was frankly shocked to have my Countess Ryad be an Ace in my Titan SC build.  SO many things PS 5 and lower, mostly lower frankly.  Was weird.  Third option as I said will just be the Titan SC build list…  It is a strong list, but I do not feel like it is actually oppressive like say, the Ghost/Fenn or Harpoon Alpha lists are.  Requires actual skill to fly it, and it is certainly beatable.  2 hard to hit ships, one of which is extremely fragile backed by a light Shuttle.  If I mess up or they bring the right things?  Well, it will be a VERY short game I suspect. 

But on to v2.0…  I have to say I am actually quite excited to start playing the new edition.  It looks pretty darn solid, only a (very) few things out of balance at the moment.  And with the announcement of the Republic coming out?  Um, yes.  I am REALLY looking forward to flying those ships…

As X-Wing 1.0 dies, the Students return...

Well, looking like up to 2 more events in v1.0 of X-Wing and both at Mattoon (“The War Zone” is the store name).  One is a “practice” event for the Store Championship and the second is the event.  HOPING for a reasonably well attended event, and might wind up opening up to carpooling folks from the Champaign area to help boost the numbers.  No pressure for me at all though as I already won one at my local store.  Cannot have duplicate Bye cards, and even the prize cards are neat, but no need for duplicates.  So, I will be flying something “silly” like:

Fett Guri 2 (97)

Boba Fett (Scum) — Firespray-31	39
Veteran Instincts	1
Ion Cannon	3
Bomblet Generator	3
Dengar	3
Glitterstim	2
Engine Upgrade	4
Andrasta	0
Ship Total: 55
Guri — StarViper	30
Intensity	2
Advanced Proton Torpedoes	6
Fire-Control System	2
Scavenger Crane	2
Autothrusters	2
StarViper Mk. II	-3
Virago	1
Ship Total: 42

Or:

WedgeWesNorra (100)

Wedge Antilles — X-Wing	29
Predator	3
Renegade Refit	-2
Flight-Assist Astromech	1
Servomotor S-Foils	0
Integrated Astromech	0
Ship Total: 30
Wes Janson — X-Wing	29
Lone Wolf	2
Renegade Refit	-2
Flight-Assist Astromech	1
Servomotor S-Foils	0
Integrated Astromech	0
Ship Total: 29
Norra Wexley — ARC-170	29
Push the Limit	3
Seismic Torpedo	2
Saw Gerrera	1
R2-D2	4
Vectored Thrusters	2
Alliance Overhaul	0
Ship Total: 41

The first is one I have flown before and have stolen much from Phil GC (https://suchanxwinghipster.wordpress.com/) …  Guri is just fun to fly and Fett is a tank.  Frankly not worth trying to get in a third ship at this point, so they’re both built up in “Swiss Army Knife” mode with all of the options filled more or less.  Guri with the APT is a sledgehammer.  Have run It locally before and it just tears thing up.  And of course with the Crane I will have the chance to fire it at least one more time.  Best I’ve done so far is 3 times in a game at Titan.  Fett just rolls into the enemy and has infinite bombs to punish pursuit.  The Ion Cannon is surprisingly effective against the low Agility things or just to take a Range 3 pot shot.  Once the target is hit by the Ion, it will only go 1 Forward, leaving it for me to close with my ships, dodge arcs and just hammer it.  Amusing and actually kind of a counter to a number of “meta” lists.  And as I have actually run the Firesprays a fair bit, I am fairly good with that ship.

Second one is just a collection of the new stuff frankly.  2 T-65 X-Wings with good pilots and one of the Aggressive Recon ships (ARC-170).  I hesitate to call the X-Wings “Aces” because despite the high(ish) PS they are still in v1.0 X-Wings and just not all that maneuverable.  But they are “X-Wings” and that is what the bloody game is named for, so fitting that the last run for me in v1.0 be with actual X-Wings.  Nora in her Arc is solid, Regenerating and I will likely swap Saw for Nien Numb to get more Greens on the dial…  Though Saw with the “all Focus go to Criticals” is REALLY powerful.  Might be a thing.

In any case I’ll pack up a selection of duplicates and the like to distribute to the Mattoon folks…  I want them to have a level playing field in the event any of the try hard types show up.  I can safely count myself OUT of the try hard ranks as I already won one…  Heck the list I flew was powerful, but not really all that broken at all by modern standards at least.  Palp in the Reaper, Soonter Fel and Countess Ryad in her TIE Defender.  Probably not what most would have predicted to be walking away with the win.  And this time I did not feel at all dirty flying that list to the top tables as opposed to last year when my Dengar/Nym was just broken and silly, but as I was “trying hard”…

Rough year as the Students are coming back…  Several friends have been in accidents, including one on his motorcycle.  He’s still in the hospital, but prognosis is good and it was a reminder to me why I wear the gear when I ride.  Helmet, jacket, etc…  Probably not the high end armor I will eventually get (I suppose), but the other component is that I am NOT riding in to work while there are so many new folks here who clearly are not familiar with the area or traffic rules/laws.  Kind of why I did not ride to Indianapolis to Gen Con a few weeks back.  SO much construction and even when I was young I avoided riding in/near the big cities (grew up near Chicago, in Joliet)…  Just too many things that could go wrong and if I’m being honest the bike is a 1984 Goldwing…  Solid and PROBABLY would make the run just fine, at the end of the day it is a 34 year old motorcycle and not in “mint” condition.  And that whole ride cautious thing helps keep me accident free…

Job search continues… Have another interview coming up in a different area.  Will be interesting, I had thought this one was already filled, so at the least it will be another practice run for me.  And clearly I need the practice.  Got word back on one that was closed without a hire…  Cannot say I was surprised.  One thing (Grants) was mentioned once in the Description and not at all in the Job Requirements, but fully half of the questions in the interview centered on writing and administering Grants…  So, poorly written PAPE, I hope they are able to get it adjusted for what they think the job will actually entail and re-launch the Search…  I’ll know better than to apply if it correctly reflects what that interview did of course J…  As I have had to shepherd through PAPEs and adjustments to them in the course of creating a promotion “ladder” (policy), I fully understand the frustration and seemingly complete disconnect between the people trying to get the right people hired and HR trying to follow the rules as understood here in Illinois…  Ah well J  The search goes on, and I HAVE a job, so not like I am desperate to get one…

X-Wing 1.0... I'm Free!

I’m Free!

A little bit dramatic I suppose, but down to the last few X-Wing 1.0 events.  And I actually won a Store Championship…  So, in theory I have a bye for a Regional or the like should I go next year.  But that is a ways off…  LONG day, Swiss then the cut.  Played a new guy first…  Not “new”, just new to the area.  He had the FO Upsilon Shuttle, The Inquisitor and (edit, I remembered) Maj Vermiel...  I set up in a fairly standard spread formation, Fel and the Palp Reaper to one side and Ryad in her Defender to the other side.  Ryad was set to joust, but I had no intention of doing that.  Fel burned in and flanked.  He caught the Inquisitor for a Range 3 shot while the Inq had not token stacked.  As it was the only shot for the turn I used Palp to call for a Crit.  I had a Focus, so when the expected 1 hit, 1 Focus and 1 blank came up I could change it to 2 hits and a crit.  Then when he blanked out on Defense and the Crit was a Direct Hit, the game was pretty much decided.  He had Hux on the Upsilon for some tricks, but with my 2 Aces backed by Palp, it was a very quick 100-0 for me.  Game 2 brought me against Allan and his 3 YT-1300’s…  2 of the cheapest ones (PS 1, 6 Hull and 4 Shields, 2 Attack) and one of the Resistance ones (PS 3, 8 Hull and 5 Shields, 3 Attack).  He rushed at me, caught Fel at Range 1 to use his bug zapper on 2 of his ships (Feedback Array, does one Damage to a ship at Range 1, but you get an Ion and a Damage)…  Neat trick, and had he caught me with 3 of them or ever gotten close to Fel again might have worked.  But once again Ryad was a rock star.  Fell died, but he did a LOT of damage before he died.  And he strung them out for the Defender to just pile in Damage…  And with Palp, there were a LOT of Crits.  So second win for me, but certainly not a clean sweep at 100-30.  Third game was the final for the Swiss…  Marty was running a Rebel 4 Ship list with Jes Pava, Ezra (Standard “Stressra”), Lowrick (Rey crew) and CPT Rex.  Solid build and pretty much a hard counter for the Imperial Ace build I was running.  LONG game.  And the first one I’ve ever had come down to a “Final Salvo”.  I suppose that is a spoiler J … But, every ship was on fire by the end and of course nothing died.  I dodged a LOT there, and Palp was key to my survival with the “I declare a Dice Result”, usually being an Evade to keep a ship alive.  So, his 10 Dice Salvo to my 9…  I lost, but that was the best “loss” from a MoV point of view keeping me in second place. 

So, on to the cut…  I played Patrick who I last played over in Bloomington on the live stream.  He was running a pair of Skurrgs with Nym and Sol Sixa kitted out as Heavy Bombers with Harpoons, TLTs, Cluster Mines (and one had the mapper to place 2 sets of Clusters out after setup.  Made for a VERY tight field.  Another long game, but TLTs do not like seeing big token stacks.  Also, frankly got lucky with the Harpoons, he only fired one, and Fel cleanly dodged it…  Well, he HAD help from Palp and the token stack, but…  Wore him down and finished it off near time…  On to the rematch with Marty.  So, the curse of the Swiss is real.  I learned what I needed to do in our first game and since it involved selling out everything to kill Ezra, I hung Fel out as bait.  He died, but not before piling in a bit of Damage on Ezra and leaving him in position to be shot by the other 2 ships in my Squadron.  The Emperor himself wound up getting the kill as Marty’s dice finally cooled off and mine got REALLY hot.  From there it was the PS 5 Countess just dancing around and piling in damage aided by Palp declaring a Crit here and there.  THOSE were what got me the game.  Lowrick got hit with 2 of the Crits preventing any actions other than on Damage cards and a Weapons Failure.  Since I engaged so quickly, his Rey had no Focus banked up and -1 Attack and no mods means that the TIE Defender simply ignores your attacks while hers are killing things.  Palp’s Reaper eventually died as well leaving Jes and Lowrick, but Low was on fire and so the next turn I killed the Wookies.  After that, it was just a T-70 vs a higher PS TIE Defender with a Pilot Ability making her the ultimate Jouster.  Took a few turns, but the game was already decided with the Defender being more expensive.  He HAD to try for the kill, and I was happy to joust with the token stack and shields remaining on the ship.  Oh, and Lone Wolf providing dice re-rolls for me…

So, won an really nice Mat, the Regional Bye, the other color Range Rulers, cards including the “1^st place” Cavern Angel I can use for another few weeks…  Neat J  And now I am free to play my Fett/whatever for the next 2 events to bring my v 1.0 X-Wing journey to an end.  Preordered the conversion kits (yes, all of them) for the first wave and will be getting the larger Damage Deck with the new Core Set.  Sadly, I have no real interest in Wave 2 with the First Order and Resistance just not being all that interesting to me.  On the other hand, Gen Con brought us the announcement that the prequel Factions would be joining X-Wing AND Legion so the Galactic Republic will definitely be on my list.  Jedi fighters and Jedi leading Clone Troopers?  Um, yes.