I am LEGION??

For I number a touch more than you thought I did!


So, as is blurrily apparent I built and base coated all of my Legion, barring the AT-ST and T47. It turns out to be a few more figures than I realised when they were all in separate piles around the place.


It's all able to be put on the table now, though as mentioned previously I'll be working my way through the Rebs first. Based White and the Zandri Dust they've all had a light brown wash to bring out the detail, pre-brush.


This has highlighted the fact that due to the softer state of the Pl-esin that I believe that they're made of the level of detail isn't as sharp or crisp as you'd expect from plastics. Not the end of the world but something to keep in mind for painting. With four squads I'm looking at varying the camo;


Squad Alpha: Mid-desert brown Splinter
Squad Beta: Mid-desert Pea Dot
Squad Charlie: Khaki and Dark Grey (Rogue One)
Squad Delta: Mid-desert Tiger Stripes


Vader is Vader. With two Lukes it'll be Tatooine Tan and Jedi Black. I already favour the dark side :)


Compared to Rebel pre-shade I've gone for zenithal sprays of Black. The Fang (Blue-Grey) and White for the troopers. Possible a touch more grey-white than I originally envisioned but nothing I'm unhappy with.


I've told myself that it's troopers to the front of the painting queue with walkers as a bit of a break in between squads. This is why the T47 isn't prepped for paint yet. That and it currently seems difficult to get your points back from it


Still not had many games but I'm away for most of June so I'll wait until I get back to start putting in the reps. That will also allow for Leia and, hopefully, the Commandos to hit the shelves and hopefully even up the Wave 1 Meta a touch. That's not a complaint, more fact of life. Legion is a good game with plenty of depth that rewards intelligent play. I'm definitely in for the long haul.


I definitely need to apply some discipline on this one. Though I've already given in and ordered a Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor from Shapeways to stand in for Leia and Luke......


Rule of cool ;)

We are LEGION!

Evening!

So, no I didn't forget and no, I didn't quite achieve my very modest goals....

As I'm sure you can work out the Rebs are built, based and base-coated while the bucket-heads have a little way to go. In fairness it's just mould lines across the tops of the helmets and a pair of speeder bikes to go.

As previously mentioned the Rebs are going to be Rogue One inspired. Gadzooks Gaming provided a nice set of alternative, alien, heads and with some boiling water I've even managed dome minor tweeks.

The AT-RTs have had some stowage added and are likely to be rocking a distressed paint job. The squads will be similarly battle-stained and I'll try to alter the pallette / cam scheme across the four squads. Peadot springs to mind and I can myself drawing from various WWII schemes. The AT-RTs will likely be wearing some form of dapple scheme. I'm looking forward to cracking on with them :)

Otherwise the hot topic of token / dice storage is sorted. The main thing I need to do is line up some games. I'm definitely keen to run Reb for a while even though they're clearly weaker out of the box AND second in line for reinforcements. As much as the T47 is seriously cool it doesn't yet cut in on the tabletop.

But hey, Rebellions are built on hope ;)

May the Sith

Hello people,

So, not back to work until Tuesday so still a day to go with Legion ;)

Today myself, Ian and Charlie had a day out playing 5 rounds at Warboar in an ETC (European Team Championship) Qualifier / Charity event. In truth numbers were a bit thin at 21 and I'm not sure too many were there for the ETC. All the chatter was, understandably, Simeon Dellapina taking Worlds and X-Wing 2.0.

I ran a variant Nym-Gar list for 5 very tough, very fun games. First it was quad TLT followed by the dreaded Nym-Randa. Both were wins, primarily through identifying the wrong approach and then not taking it! For the first time in quite a while I felt like I was clicking back into the groove. I was reading the table-state well and working out decent engagement plans for whatever was across the table from me.

My final 3 games were Lohwrick/Fenn/Randa (Joel North), Palp Aces (Sim Pone) and Kylo Aces (Martyn Chivers). From a 21 man field I don't think it could have got much tougher and I managed to compete strongly in all three!

The list for the day was as follows;
Dengar: Predator / Boba Fett / Counter Measures / Glitterstims / Punishing One
Nym: Vet Instincts / Harpoon Missiles / TLT / Ion Bomb / Extra Munitions / Guidance Chips /
          Havoc / Trajectory Simulator / Genius

Theory craft says that Nym hammers your shields off with Harpoons for Dengar to follow up and hopefully Boba blows off your most useful upgrade. At times it did exactly that. Other times Predator couldn't produce a reliable damage output and Glitter doesn't help dice without pictures! Part of that comes down to barrel rolling with Dengar a fair bit and not having a green manoeuvre planned to cope with his Glitter addiction I.E. fly a better.
Against Joel and Sim I got one hand on the win just to see it slip away on luke-warm red dice. All three games went to time and I thoughly enjoyed every minute, even running over two debries fields for 3 damage! Finishing up 2-3 it didn't feel that way. I know there's room to fly a bit better and I need to remember Boba crew a bit more often ;)

Driving home via Nandos I was waxing lyrical about feeling comfortable back at the top tables with a Tier 1.5 list that I enjoy, know how to fly and can actually compete with. Don't get me wrong I'm still a Dirty Casual, just with an extra edge if grit.

Happy days :)

Trading Up

Hola!

So, I'm currently in the middle of two weeks off work. Previously I've set some some hobby goals during these periods. Last week was far more fluid but achieved the following;

1. I've finished up the Plague Marines and sold off 40K.
2. I've watched the first season of Lost in Space, which is pretty damned good!
3. I spent Sunday playing 5 games of casually competitive X-Wing.

With 1 I sold EVERYTHING (rulebook, codecies, squishy dice) to a lovely chap working as a second hand seller. It was the whole 40K bundle, a pile of Dreadball and an unused niche WWII board/war-game.

I got £300 and a day out with a good gaming mate. Driving home I would have been happier with a bit more than that but discussing it as adults I came round to the WeBuyAnyCar.com reality. I.E. the guy is running a business and he's doing all the hard graft and dealing with the agg that I'm not, so fair deal.

So here's what the bulk of my £300 looks like, otherwise known as the bulk of my hobby for the foreseeable :) As with X-Wing I've been looking to fly some more Meta Armada lists and the Liberty will let me do that for Rebs.

Legion meanwhile fills a specific modelling / panting hobby hole. I don't NEED Legion in my gaming roster but it's a big side of the Hobby for me and it's another good strong game. For variation I'm likely to focus on the Rebs first, looking to go Rogue One (sabbatoeurs / assassins) with the feel of the force. I've got a few sprues of Warlord Royal Marines knocking about for some extra packs and stowage, plus a bunch of berets! I've also picked some alternative alien heads from Gadzooks Gaming. A set of mix and match camo pain't schemes will seal the deal. Looking forward to this one :)

With 3 I've moved from Thweek-Gar and been playing about with a Nym / Dengar list which really seems to work rather well. Sunday was six of us playing some competitive lists with two of our number off to Worlds.  Nym-Gar gave an unexpectedly strong account of itself, even beating Rebel OP3 flown by James Finlayson who's been terrorising Regionals all over the country with it. As such it's going to the ETC Qualifier at Warboar Games on Sunday.

It will also be my first official outing as a "Dirty Casual", a tittle that I feel I can justify with Scum Nym as opposed to Rebel Nym ;)

Meanwhile the target before I go back to work is to get the Legion stuff built and base-coated. Hope springs eternal :)

#MetaMatters

Hola!

Not a new conversation I appreciate but, hopefully, a different point of, personal, view.

For any gaming system there is always going to be a prevailing Meta. The state of that Meta often seems largely out of the hands of those playing within it. Outside of the regular Meta debate it's always going to have an effect on the players within it.

It's accepted by most that Tier 1 X-Wing is currently about Ordnance, particularly Harpoons and Bomblets,  Rebel Jank and Palp Aces. There's probably about a half dozen top end build templates out there. Compared to previous eras that's pretty good.

For many the issue lies in the FACT that the gap between Tier 1 and everything else is currently more of a chasm. Stray away from Tier 1 and rather than the fight being uphill it's now a cliff. Factor in a much larger competitive playing base, within which there are a lot of players putting in a lot of reps, there seems to be little space left for the dirty casual flying a "fun" list.

For many gaming buddies this has become a negative play issue and a move away from the competitive X-Wing scene. That's a fair choice. Up until recently I had drifted away myself. In hindsight that was also for a number of real world issues. I was clearly in a place where I, subconsciously, wasn't prepared / able to make the necessary commitment to keep up.

Initially drawn to the ranks of the saline doom-sayers I decided to step back in to the game to form an informed decision. The short version of the results are as follows;
- X-Wing is still fun.
- I am now a fully committed Dirty Casual rather than the competitive player I once was.
- I can accept flying more Meta lists but draw a personal line at those I feel are a Negative Play Experience.

Having attended a couple of events recently I've confirmed that that I'm not alone in that approach. In fairness I never thought I was and my club-mate Ian is in that same place with me, which has been hugely appreciated.

Last Sunday I played five rounds at iBuy in a Quarter 1 GNK. I ran Dengar / Thweek that Ian and I found online and having been raving about ever since. I went 2-3 with two auto-losses, a close loss which was an excellent game, a decent win which was another excellent game and a walkover win which barely broke a sweat. I placed 21 of 28 which was outside of the alt arts. I had a decent day. Flying Thweek better would have helped but that's down to me and not the Meta. With all thing a few more reps wouldn't hurt.

I've accepted that that's how X-Wing is for me know. I'll fly what I'm prepared to fly as well as I can and take it from there. As a result I'm less likely to be rocking up to big weekend events but we'll see what happens ;)

Fly Dirty (Casual)

Tumbleweed??

Hello people??

Yes, another unintentional hiatus....I pretty much ran out of anything to say that I felt had any relevance. Also, the foray back into 40K didn't really work out, which was genuinely disappointing.


In short I do now feel like I have potentially relevant things to say.....lucky you!


In fairness I'm not expecting any rapturous applause, or any applause at all. The blog has always been symbiotic with my personal "Hobby Mojo" and has waxed and waned on that basis. Currently I'm on an up and wanting to maintain the climb and thus posting again. Yes, it's all about MEEEE!! :)


Status Drift:


Following a bit of a hobby meander I've got a purpose back and made some decisions;


1. 40K hasn't worked out. I'm finishing up the paint and selling up.
2. Netrunner is now a dormant game for me. Not selling up though.
3. I'm back in the saddle with X-Wing and Armada. They will be my main focus for the foreseeable.
4. Legion is the new cool kid on the block. I've played a couple of games and will finance investment from 40K.


As such I'm returning to the Rule of Three whilst getting the necessary brush-time with Legion. Accepting this has been a reasonable step and also allows some regular guilt free X-Box time. It feels rather cyclical and ALMOST like growing up??


Weekly posts is the plan. Brace yourself (Optional) ;)

Inexorable Advance

Rejoice once, Rejoice twice, Rejoice THRICE!!!

Nurgle be praised I have finally finished up some Death Gaurd, specifically the Malignant Plaguecaster and the two Hellbrutes :)

As previously mentioned it took a while to work out what I was doing with the paint / wash balance so reverted to my tried and tested method of finishing up the bases to give context. It worked a charm!

So that leaves;

1 x Lord

1 x Noxious Blight bringer

21 x Plague Marines (3 7 man squads of course!)

1 x Rhino

2 x Blight Drone

 

As such I of course spent some payday moola sorting out a winged Daemon Prince which after an afternoon's construction is just requiring final detailing and a suitably bubonic base. I've had my eye on the Maggoth Lord kit for a while, was a dream to work with and has supplied a wealth of spare parts for further character conversions. An E-Bay Plague Drone provided the wings which, by fortune, suit him particularly well. The level of detail is fantastic to the point where I'll struggle to add too much more. The 40K twist will likely be subtle and mainly from the base.

So that'll be plenty for now. Typhus and some Mantic Zombies will drag themselves onto the Christmas list but need to be earnt first.

Happy days ;)