Rediscovered Country

Hello people,

I tap this via the App whilst sat in a concrete room vaguely full of geeks in Liverpool.

Yes, that's correct I've found myself attending Fantastic Flight Games' UK National Championships!

It's been a more interesting event than you may think as it was this event last year that marked my decent into X-Wing burnout and 6 to 9 months of general X-Wing  discontent. The upside if that was getting into Armada.

For Friday the choice was between Armada and Destiny. I went for Destiny for extra laid back funsies. I really enjoyed Destiny at the European Champs. My 3-7 record quite simply wasn't an issue because I was having a ball all day long. As much as anything it was a decision to play just the one full on event plus extra lols.

With a notionally more focused deck, I went 0-5 plus a bye before dropping the final game. It was a positive decision to avoid any salt issues and to switch decks for some side events.

Yesterday I pheonixed from 0-3 to my standard 3-3 for almost every major X-Wing event I ever played in. The difference from last year was that there were no easy games / match ups, even on table 130, and that I enjoyed myself throughout. Maintaining X-Wing respectability was a bonus ;)

Meanwhile there's been another five of us up here from the club plus dozens of other gaming mates enhancing reaquainiting myself with a swarm of X-Wing. As always it's the community that makes so much of the game, especially now that I've accepted and embraced my more casual gaming status.

State of mind people, it makes a huge difference :)

Points make Prizes?

Hello people,


So no flurry of update posts just yet, apologies, but the pipeline is charging up :) As well as getting back to gaming I've also got back to painting, both on a more casual basis than previously.


With the current re-launch I've decided to ditch the Painting Points. The past tally, on your right, will remain for posterity but is now in stasis. As my hobby shifted there was less to paint, which in turn saw Points drop, which then helped to accelerate the mild malaise.


In the last couple of months I've mainly been painting Armada, which is also generally less technically demanding, but without a particular plan or schedule. In the last week or so I've added a pair of Hammerheads to my Freedom Fighters and a bunch TIEs in response to Admiral Sloane's release and my intention to get her on the table sometime soon.


The foray back into 40K 8th has provided me with a longer term Hobby project, which has always been a major factor for me, but more about that next post :)



A BLANK is built on Hope

Hello people,...person?


It's been a bit busy in the real world the last couple of months and the club has had to close for the summer due to local road-works limiting accessibility. This meant about a month without any games......sad face :(


The last couple of weeks I've been getting myself back out to events and this Bank Holiday Monday was Armada at Marquee Models in Harlow. It was a field of six, five from the club plus another gaming acquaintance so fantastically casual.


With X-Wing I don't fly Terrorist (Rebellion), partly to focus myself and more because I LOVE the Scum. Mmmm......Boba Fett..... With Armada I initially continued the theme, picking up a very good deal on E-Bay for the nucleus of an Imperial fleet. A good mate then donated me his entire, rather dusty, Armada stockpile which gave me three cores plus extras :)


Having learnt the game with the might of the Imperial Navy it was only a matter of time until I made the spin to the other side of the coin......but I don't fly Terrorist...


Then Rogue One happened, which for myself at least has saved Star Wars canon from Disney shmaltz, and another option became apparent. Saw Gerrera and his band of freedom fighters appealed to me hugely and also gave me the scope for a particularly rag tag fleet. I've really enjoyed the painting project and the ability to be less formulaic.


So, knowing that Monday would be super casual I took a small ship Freedom Fighter list as a learning day. I definitely learnt a lot, though relatively painfully, across three games. Game 1 is was happy with, Game 2 went horribly wrong, Game 3 was my habit of pushing past the envelope to establish where the limits are.


I came away with a set of alt art Assault Proton Torpedoes, some acrylic Objective Counters and a better of appreciation of what not to do with a Freedom Fighter fleet, speaking of which;

The LONG walk....

Hello peeps,

Yes it's been a while, almost a year in fact......
I tap away in a slightly guilty manner as the hiatus was long, unannounced and primarily down to burnout on my part. I've primarily used the blog to fuel and track my hobby in a somewhat symbiotic manner. As the Hobby dialled back a bit I found that I had less to say, of value or otherwise, and was becoming rather repetitive. Less fun for everyone involved ;]


The Ugly;
Looking back it came down to a couple of things;
1. X-Wing Burnout: After Nationals last year I ended up badly burnt out and sub-consciously took a big step away into Armada which was new, shiny, fun to discover and also gave me one of my prime hobby motivators; painting.
2. Real Life: a (good) move at work meant my most finite hobby resource, time, became a bit more squeezed. As such the blog slipped down the priorities as well as in relevance. Needing to make the most of my hobby time made it more valuable and as such I needed the blog push less.


The Bad;
During my blogging wilderness I also ended up violating The Order of Three adding Armada and Destiny to the mix. Armada has stuck where Destiny has dropped away.


In honesty I was always wary of Destiny as a CCG and so it has proved, though I've managed to limit the damage and properly consign it as a side game. I've got enough to put a couple of half decent decks together and that's enough for me as a fun, pick-up side game. Nothing more than that.....
Armada meanwhile has established itself as a staple with considerable investment made into a substantial Imperial fleet, with a burgeoning Saw Gerrera Seperatist fleet (I don't fly terrorist) massing near Jedha. I've really enjoyed the learning curve and the more tactical style of play. It's been my preferred game of much of the last 6 to 9 months with a gaming community just as good as X-Wing.


The Good:
In short I've still been playing games on a regular basis as well as painting stuff, on a slightly less regular basis. Having been through the cycle before, though rarely for this long, my X-Wing mojo has pretty much returned. I finally got back to "competitive" X-Wing this Saturday at Warboar, as much as a field of 13 primarily casual players is "competitive". I had fun and went 2-2, which is pretty much where I stepped out.


The remaining headline is that I've recently invested in 40K 8th.........
Yep, I've gone there, but then so have the majority of the club so that's guaranteed games. In honesty


I've always had a squishy spot for Plague Marines and I couldn't resist. It's a long term hobby project and IF it all goes south I know that I can get a good return via E-Bay or the like.
As I said at the start sometime a go I found that I had less to say, of value or otherwise, and was becoming rather repetitive. It feels like I now have the ability to remedy that. Brace yourself for a flurry of update posts but after that I'll be aiming at a post a week as something practically manageable.


Back in the saddle and pretty happy about it :)

Ugly Ducklings?

So, I've actually painted something ;)

Though in honesty these are re-paints of re-paints ad I've been rather unhappy with the original re-paints or more accurately the overdone transfers applied to them.

I'm MUCH happier with these versions. Painting as a pair I've gone for reversed schemes and kept everything much cleaner, the main detail work being the rather heavy weathering......if that makes sense.....

Neither have seen the table-top for quite sometime. I don't have a Palpatine knocking around and am still on too much of an anti-meta kick at the moment to give him a go.

Anyway I'm still claiming the Painting Points, six in total, while I move on to Victory Star Destroyers.

To the MAX!!

So Sunday I headed out to the BABW, Bring Another Brit to Worlds, Netrunner event at Scenario gaming pub in Stoke Newington.



In short there are a network of such events running up and down the country to raise funds to financially assist the eventual winners with costs to attend Netrunner Worlds in Minnesota. This is a fantastic thing that the Netrunner community generates for the Netrunner community, which is to be lauded.


For myself I was there primarily to support that ethos and also play a few games. For that I got an alt art Maxx card which was very pleasing.


Just as well really given that after splitting my first game I tanked like a stone. Unfortunately this was an event where the TO decided to play despite creating a Bye, pet peeve, which I collected in the final round. It was the only thing that kept me from the wooden spoon.....technically.


In honesty I didn't play that well at times though it didn't help that my Corp deck insisted on Agenda flooding me at every opportunity. During what turned out to be my final game I was sat with an entire hand of them at one point.


So once again a few lessons learned, decks tweaked and the determination to play more. I shall also be trying out a Maxx deck :)

The Turning Wheel

So Thursday last week I dropped down to the Post Office early doors to pick up my great big package of Armada.

Whilst I was in town I had a bumble about, picked up a latte and strolled into WHSmith looking for potential new reading material. As is the custom I had a browse through Wargames Illustrated and Miniature Wargames, primarily as a blast from the pass.

Back in the day (10-15 years ago) I was an avid reader always looking for the next period / theatre / scale from skirmish to Grand Armee, literally at the time, in our triumvirate gaming group.

What struck me was how much my hobby has changed since that time. I later realised that it was actually I and my circumstances that had changed and that my hobby had simply morphed in my own image. I'm sure this must be a common misconception? Back then I worked for Gee-Dub and in hindsight more than likely pursued historical gaming as a diversion from the day job, along with alternatives such as Warmachine and Hordes. That is after all the purpose of a hobby?

Moving on, employment and otherwise, in time has seen me gravitate back to my first love of sci-fi / fantasy but without without ever returning to the "scene of the crime". As with so many of us there's a LOT of games that I've played before I arrived at my "Triple Shot" that has worked pretty well for the last little while.

These days I have a couple of golden rules that seem to have pretty much written themselves;

1. Is it Fun? As simple as "do I enjoy playing it", as complex as does it have a depth of mechanic and strategy to keep me engaged and keep me coming back for more.

2. Would I go to a competitive event? By this I don't mean win but hold my own, learn etc in a positive manner. Infinity struggled for me on this front. Once you reduce your gaming circle for safety I think that's writing on the wall time.

3. Hobby, Hobby, Hobby? I'm a hobbyist before being a gamer. Can I customise through modeling, painting etc? Netrunner is an anomaly here outside of deck construction and sleeves but it's huge meta is variation in itself and playing straight out if the pack is a major strength.

It's been an interesting transformation, in hindsight. I was never much of a card gamer. A bit of Magic a long time back and then Warhammer Invasion, which I've still got, as a replacement for Fantasy. Now I can't seem myself ever not playing Netrunner and the new Cthulu Mythos card game from FFG is hugely tempting.

As a result of my gaming shift I have less opportunity for modelling and painting I do spend a lot more time actually playing games. I still find projects for myself but army painting hasn't happened in quite sometime. The introduction of a lot more boardgames has compounded this also. I kind of miss it but not badly.

Anyway I've rambled enough for now ;) Onwards and upwards?