Mid May in Quarantine...

So, beginning another week in the seemingly endless quarantine J…  We have a large and probably growing number of Cats here, all of whom feel like this is “Every Day is Caturday”.  They are thrilled that their people are here in their home almost all day, every day.  So, they are thrilled by all of this…  Being VERY social little creatures, they have been working on their pack hunting…  Amusing when the 9 here decide they are hunting something…  My wife’s wee dog is “less thrilled” by this behavior as he is smaller than almost all of the cats now and it is frankly kind of terrifying when the lads DO pack hunt something…  But I usually have 2-4 of them down on and around the dining room table where my ad hoc “desk” is set up to work from guarding me as I DO work from home.  Amusing until they decide that it is attention time and Heimdall for instance decides that my beards needs to be groomed like he just did J…  So a pause while typing for a bit.

Gaming wise?  Not a lot going on.  I cleaned out a bit of my basement and rebuilt my painting station there in a different location.  And have been painting a LOT of Legion things…  So I should have two fully painted 800 point armies easily for my factions there.  Rebels of course have FAR more options that I could field as the original faction in the game.  Republic is limited, but I have more than enough to field a decent force there by now.  Only have my Sabre class tank to assemble and paint and I have everything currently produced for the faction…  Waiting on more releases, but of course with the global issues we are all waiting it seems. 

I HAVE TTS and Vassal on my computer but have yet to carve out the time to play a game in either system.  So, actual gaming?  None.  My Hyperspace list is set with the 4 Aethersprites…  Fun at least.  Not sure I’ll ever actually WIN anything with it, but this is a list I will enjoy flying so I am going with this. 

The leaked “upcoming” stuff from Europe indicates that the V-Wing and ETA-2 will be coming at some point…  The ETA-2 should be interesting as the last Jedi starfighter, and an improvement on the already excellent Aethersprite?  Yes, I DO think I will take a few of those.  Actual screen time for these in at least the one movie and of course the “Clone Wars” TV series.  The specs indicate it is closer to the TIE perhaps?  Well-armed, maneuverable and lacking Shields.  Maybe they will not make it as powerful as the Aethersprite, but I suspect it will be an improvement in many ways.  Base 3 Attack, probably 3 Agility would be where I suspect it will start.  3-4 Hull though making it a powerful but fragile platform…  Rewarding Ace play and punishing mistakes.  And as Anakin Skywalker was one of the main Pilots flying these things, there should easily be the I6 there…  So things to look forward to I guess?

Legion?  Not a lot…  Painting and I ordered some acrylic silhouettes for the new LOS rules…  Waiting on the physical release of the new stuff?  So, nothing much on there for me…

Gen Con?  Still officially “on” at this point I suppose…  Kind of annoying that I get the downtown hotel attached to the Con Center the year that it seems somewhat unlikely that there will even be a major convention…  At this point I am not entirely sure that the convention will even be a go at this point…  And with the complete dearth of events this was the one I was REALLY looking forward to…  They have delayed the release of the event catalog and REALLY hedging to get to this one for both X-Wing and Legion…  Guess we’ll see.  I am leaning toward not going though as I suspect my wife will not be interested in going…  So maybe drive over for a day or two?  We’ll see I suppose…

Job front, holding the line here at my current job…  Things are going fairly well as we have done the transition to “online only”…  There are a number of things upcoming and fights I am looking to avoid as directions are coming from our CIO…  Coming from a Military and corporate IT background, it never occurred to me to question them as “them’s the orders”…  Will see how things go I suppose, I am personally OK either way it goes as my own concerns are not those of the folks who are dead set against it…

Still in the running for that position I have interviewed for I suppose?  Waiting on word for that.  If I get an offer, I’ll be figuring out the living situation.  It is a REALLY good position, and Texas appears in a much better position over Illinois going forward…  And that University looks amazing.  So, wait and see…  Travel restrictions prevented an early trip for an in person interview, but I am of course willing to travel either by air or just drive…  J  Yes, THAT motivated for this opportunity.

Running 3x/week still and getting back to “in shape”…  Weight loss is continuing, and starting to work out more while we are in quarantine…  Projects around the house getting done…  Wife and kids are healthy and finishing school for the year so all in all, things are actually going well for us…

Ah, more posting from Quarantine...

So…  Covit-19, huh?  Everything shut down, even I am working from home…  The University has gone to “Online Only” for the remainder of the Semester…  I go in a few times/week, but the rest of the family more or less is here at home.  And with the University going online only for instruction it has been a LOT of work.

So, every event cancelled or “rescheduled”.  Officially their major events are postponed until 29 July…  Coincidently the start date for Gen Con this year.  1 September for Store Events, so the one that would have been last weekend here would be scheduled to “Fall 2020” or so…  We hope.  As of now, there has been no announcement with respect to Gen Con, and honestly that is the first one that I think might actually happen.  Hey, I might well have a fully painted Legion force and of course my wee X-Wing list painted and ready to go…  Well, it is built on the current Hyperspace limitations, but I suspect those will not be changing as there are NO events and therefore no data points for FFG to look at to make realistic changes.

Kind of the big thing I am worried about being the fact that the whole economy being essentially shut down…  I am REALLY hoping that all the businesses survive.  Right now, driving into town to work and for shopping and seeing EVERYTHING closed except the restaurants doing carryout, grocery stores and…  Well, not a lot else.  Sadly, it seems that a lot of the vehicles out on the road are being driven by idiots or people convinced that the normal traffic rules have also been suspended during this pandemic.  I run 3 mornings every week and while I am running an hour or so later than I did when I had to drive in to the Office every day by 8am, the traffic laws being ignored has gotten much worse.  I suppose I just got used to seeing the pickup trucks slowing slightly for stop signs and then just pulling through when I run at oh dark in the morning…  Seeing this behavior a LOT on the road when I wander about these days…  Good thing that I still have my reflexes, had idiots just pull out in front of my, leave their lanes, blow through stop signs, etc…  Fun times.  And not at all like the last actual Apocalyptic road I traveled…  Would have been Kuwait/Iraq…   

:-)  Not many pictures of me (on the M-113)...

So, in comparison, this is really not all that bad…  My unnatural calm has been tested a bit, but J  Still not so bad… 

Interview next week.  This time for a CIO position.  Smaller University, really only about the size of the College I work for at the University of Illinois, but still…  At least getting the opportunity, and I do think I could do this job quite well as it is not really all that much of a step from what I am doing now and have for the last several years…  Will see how it goes as the interview are all “remote” at this point…

Just another post from Quarantine :-)

Mkay, working partially from home and going in to the “office” every couple of days is…  Interesting?  LOTS of e-mail and IM questions, but if I am being honest, they are really at about the volume I would have been getting were I there and wandering the halls of the building as it were…  A LOT of what I wind up doing involves what we refer to as “drive by” work where we have no real record of it, just someone saying “Oh, since I ran into you, this is broken”.  So, with that and moving EVERYTHING to online only…  Well, not seeing a shortage of work and frankly am seeing a lot of the IT folks on Campus getting closer to “burn out”.  I am getting there as well, so fully understand it happening.  With the “we can do more with fewer IT folks” having been the mantra for the last several years and the budget crunch hitting us hard…  Well, I think we are going to get a lot closer to the breaking point for a number of areas within Campus IT.  I guess we will see what, if anything breaks.  I am hoping it all blows over quickly and without any casualties, either ACTUAL ones with people dying from this or career casualties.  But as I know that despite the assurances that “we are hiring” seeing some of my colleagues getting “T contracts” (terminal contract, so 1 year and you’re out…  Weird local thing at the University where I work)…  And of course actually being IN the interview process for a position I have a vested interest in this J…  Will see if it works out I suppose.

Hobby side, I have been getting serious cleaning the Basement of Doom™ and have set up a new, much larger painting station.  Digging up a LOT of ancient things there but concentrating on painting up my Legion things.  Republic (Clones) and Rebels…  Going for a more DAK theme for my Rebel Veterans as opposed to the “Hoth” theme that they are sculpted as more or less…  So, green jackets, “Dunkel Gelb” (dark yellow, more “desert sand”) and likely the DG for their hats/helmets…  Something different at least.  My Clones have only the single Phase II squad to go with the 3-4 Phase I squads…  Only a single BARC and Tank to support.  Wound up with 3 Rebel AT-RTs though, so one might well get re-purposed to GAR…  All are magnetized for easy weapon swaps, and of course I’ll be getting at least one of the new GAR AT-RTs for the model/cards…  At the moment, I suspect I’ll play Rebel at 800 points as I simply have too limited a pool of things for my Republic forces…  And being stubborn I’ll probably play Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso for a list that almost all Infiltrates to really mess with the missions.  Some of the missions I will be able to essentially automatically win…  Others?  Well, a hard loss, but I will be sure to kill a bunch of their stuff on the way down…  Kind of an “Airborne” thing I guess.  HAVE TTS now, but still have not gotten in an actual game…  Time constraints with the work overload being a thing…

X-Wing?  Well…  Same boat.  Considered joining one of the online leagues, but honestly my concern would be the fact that my work load at the moment is volatile and near the maximum…  My Jedi ARE fun to fly, and I have my 4^th Aethersprite ready for a quick coat of paint…  Guess it will be a “when this all clears up” thing.

Other life stuff?  Bike is running well, will probably ride in to the building tomorrow as I am required to do some stuff on site…  The cats and dog are loving us being around all of the time I suppose…

So, Covid-19 freeze out?

So…  Covit-19, huh?  Everything shut down, even I am working from home…  The University has gone to “Online Only” for the remainder of the Semester..

So, that’s how well things are going here J…  Just before the final shutdown I snagged a bunch of Legion things to shore up my Rebel forces.  Specifically Veterans, the Specialist pack, Card Pack and Jyn Erso…  Thinking of painting the Vets up in a DAK form…  Something very different than the Martian Camouflage the Line Troopers are painted up in to tell the difference at a glance.  My Clones are coming along as well.  The 500 point event was cancelled/to be rescheduled of course, so still more time to pick a list…  Both armies are fun, and who knows how much more I’ll have painted up by the time this all blows over…  Pretty sure if we do go to 800 point games I’ll be back at Rebels though.  The Clone Tank is impressive, but…

Also snagged my fourth Jedi Aethersprite for my Republic X-Wing list… 

Republic HS 2 (191)

Obi-Wan Kenobi — Delta-7 Aethersprite	48
R5 Astromech	4
Calibrated Laser Targeting	4
Ship Total: 56
Half Points: 28 Threshold: 2
Ahsoka Tano — Delta-7 Aethersprite	44
Calibrated Laser Targeting	2
Ship Total: 46
Half Points: 23 Threshold: 2
Plo Koon — Delta-7 Aethersprite	44
Calibrated Laser Targeting	4
Ship Total: 48
Half Points: 24 Threshold: 2
Barriss Offee — Delta-7 Aethersprite	38
Calibrated Laser Targeting	3
Ship Total: 41
Half Points: 21 Threshold: 2

So I can fly this at the next Store Championships…  Assuming they hit before the points change again, and I REALLY hope that is the case.  This is not a hugely overpowered list, just four fragile but VERY agile ships that can hit surprisingly hard and survive if your skill at dodging arcs and luck holds for a bit…  Yes, they can just go pop if you fail the didge and then blank out on your Agility roll.  Better to not have a shot yourself than to give your opponent a good shot like that.  The tiebreaker sucks for this list with only 8 Dice in the roll off, so you DO have to actually play the game.  Surprisingly not an issue for me though.  Just one more Ship to paint up as Barriss’ ship has to look different…  I was thinking of maybe making it look like my old 20^th Engineers beret flash from when I was in?  Something different…

Otherwise, just trying not to go crazy with this very different routine.  Running Monday, Wednesday and Friday but without the walking all over Campus I need something else to do.  Elliptical and weights today, and I am guessing that will become a daily thing during this.

First interview done for another place…  Some of the answers I gave might have been riskier, but a direction that I think would prove a time and other resource saver for them if I were to be the one hired and allowed to move in these directions.  With the “budget savings through attrition” that my current Department was doing it was not really a choice, we NEEDED the efficiency, so I have already done these things once.  So, proven success is good, he said hopefully?  Will see I suppose…

All in on the Jedi for the next SC? And a wee bit of other stuff...

Well, testing a few other options for the next X-Wing event.  Red Raccoon in Bloomington, IL is holding their Store Championship next weekend (21^st of March).  Looking like I might be leaning heavily toward the Jedi.  I ran my Obi/Plo/Ahsoka/Ric list last evening and it went…  Poorly.  Big part being the early and harsh betrayal by my Agility dice putting me heavily on my back foot at the first engagement.  Having Obi-Wan get hit for 4, rolling only a Focus on the dice and of course my counter strike hitting for no damage meant bad things.  Mind, I was able to make it a game and go to time.  Could have had the long shot the last turn, but just called it as I already got the information I felt I needed from the game.  Ric with Outmaneuver was…  OK I suppose?  SO predictable, and the Outmaneuver popped up only once during the whole game, and THAT was firing through a Gas Cloud, so no effect.  Convinced me that a 4^th Jedi would be better.  While Ric is fast enough to keep up with the Aethersprite, he lacks the ability to do a double reposition.  And the ship itself is actually very predictable with the need to go 3+ to get the Evade and ideally faster than the enemy to get the extra dice on Offence and Defense.  Not ideal, and I find myself doing a lot of slash and circle which limits the damage output of the Ship.  So, trying Barriss Offee in her Aethersprite.  Her ability is…  Interesting?  If only she had 2+ Force.  She has only the one, so I suppose she is worth the 1 extra point over the generic Jedi for the +1 Initiative and the potential for the Ability.

Republic HS 2 (191)

Obi-Wan Kenobi — Delta-7 Aethersprite	48
R5 Astromech	4
Calibrated Laser Targeting	4
Ship Total: 56
Half Points: 28 Threshold: 2
Ahsoka Tano — Delta-7 Aethersprite	44
Calibrated Laser Targeting	2
Ship Total: 46
Half Points: 23 Threshold: 2
Plo Koon — Delta-7 Aethersprite	44
Calibrated Laser Targeting	4
Ship Total: 48
Half Points: 24 Threshold: 2
Barriss Offee — Delta-7 Aethersprite	38
Calibrated Laser Targeting	3
Ship Total: 41
Half Points: 21 Threshold: 2

So, a big bid…  Relatively.  Not even close to the bid one finds on a Boba/Fenn list, so it is really just there for “some” things I guess?  Might say just got for it and put another R5 on one of the Ships after some testing.  On Obi-Wan, I think it works well enough and it allows me to discard Damage cards including the ones that are persistent like Damaged Engine and the like.  Costs an action to flip and another along with a Charge to discard.  The advantage of the Jedi being that Actions are not at the premium that they are on so many other Ships.  The Mech allows me to be a bit more…  Daring with Obi-Wan than I “should” be…  Always been an issue for me, I do tend to play a lot more aggressively than most.  And the list itself being 4 of the ships that I really enjoy flying…  I can just dial something basic in and figure it out later on the fly…  Missing Anakin of course, but in Hyperspace there is a dearth of I6, so my 5’s seem pretty good…

Otherwise…  Well, just gearing up for the “potential” to move the University to mostly online classes with the Covid-19 hitting.  Does remind me of the ancient curse of “May you live in interesting times”.  These times are becoming too interesting as I get older J… Running, dieting, etc…  So, weight dropping and my fitness level is better than it has been in decades.  Fitting into clothing that I have not worn since High School, at least the sizes J…  I DO have a few things I had back then like a USC sweatshirt one of my Aunts sent me hoping I would go out there…  Alas, UIUC had a much better Engineering school, so there I went…  But 34” waist jeans being what I should be wearing…  Do not HAVE any at the moment, my 36” ones are just huge on me now…  But amusing wearing things several sizes smaller these days and getting the fairly constant commentary that I am shrinking away…  Not “reporting to Ranger School” in shape, but like I said, better than I have been in decades with the running and weight lifting…

X-Wing, setting up for the next Store Championships...

OK, a new list popped up from the old Mynock’s podcast (now called “Fly Better”…  I of course prefer Mynock, but the Mouse does protect his licenses…)…  Poe, a new A-Wing (Zizi?) and Cova in a Transport with Leia to just make things that are not normally possible actually a thing.  Terrifying for my Dual Firespray list with Poe just absolutely curb stomping Boba with the “Oh, I just K-Turned or Talon Rolled, Leia made it a White so I could Target Lock and Focus for the dual modified Proton Torpedo”…  Wow, that was just horrible.  The A-Wing is of course really good, and even Cova is an I4, giving them a 6, a 5 and a 4 putting them on the upper end of the I range…  So…  With a 5 point Bid as well, I was just in a position where I lose, no matter how I played it out.  So, keeping the Dual Firespray in the travel kit, but I suspect strongly that I am flying Jedi again.  Turns out I was always a Jedi player J…  Well, to be fair, kind of true with my v2 Templates being marked Jedi from before the Republic was announced…  But getting in some more time with my beloved Jedi in virtual at least at the moment.  SO much fun just running around the board with the no consequences double repositioning on the bulk of the list…  Oh, the list is:

Republic HS 1 (194)

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

Jedi with NO Regeneration and CLT, Ric with only Outmaneuver.  Simple list, flies pretty well.  Ric runs one flank, the Aethersprites typically stick together and they go hunting.  Leaves the opponent the choice of trying to chase Ric or deal with the Jedi trio who are all getting 2+ Actions/turn and have the potential of doing the “dream shot” of the R1 4 Dice hit with their ship…  Ric is almost always a 3 Dice ship and with Outmaneuver he can push damage pretty reliably.  I think it also matches up fairly well against most things I saw at Springfield as well.  So I might be set for the SC at Red Raccoon over in Bloomington… 

Have the Champaign Store Championship set up as well (https://www.facebook.com/events/505537706824698/)...  As of last week there were 15 of the 24 slots filled, so I suspect we have a full house…  Not playing myself, just being the Judge to allow the others to play.  We will see, I think we’ll have a good event…

Real life?  Injured my knee Monday night, and it is taking a frustratingly ling time to recover…  JUST got back to running a bit today (Friday) with a 3.5K run in place of my normal 5K to test the knee…  Seems OK, just a bit stiff.  Applying for more jobs, some local and semi local…  Some down in AZ/TX.  Eh, will see.  I gotten an amazing amount of experience in the interview process so far, just need a good offer to hit.  But have a job, so no real sense of urgency…

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

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

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

Boba Frost HS (199)

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

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

Republic HS 1 (194)

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

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

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