Playing the System

Hello people,

It's all been a bit overly X-Wing recently with an escalation league at the club and a third Regional and the Yavin Open up at Games Expo in Birmingham next weekend. Add in a bit of life and anything else has taken a definite back seat.

As such I went looking for some Netrunner yesterday to get me back into the game properly. As is so often the case there were clashing Spring Kit events at Dark Sphere and Lost Ark. In honesty Dark Sphere was always gong to be the bigger more competitive field but I just needed some games and I always enjoy Lost Ark. A slightly improved chance of coming hone with some alt art was also a factor ;) It also turned out that I had rail replacement on my line. Hindsight justification ;)

Rocking up it turned out I was half of the field for the day. Not an issue say I, more than happy to sit and play some games for the day. Unfortunately my opponent wasn't so keen. He was playing Teir 1 decks and didn't have too much issue seeing me off. After that he was more bothered about his swag and didn't fancy sticking around. To me that's all sorts of wrong in all sorts of way, at best pretty disrespectful to all involved,especially Lost Ark.

Picking up a couple of datapacks I chipped off with an alt art Leela and Political Operative. I don't buy alt art but I hardly feel like I "won" these. Sorting out various piles if cards I'm going to put together a Gang Sign / Leela deck I've seen about to kick myself back into action.

Positivity from negativity.....

That's the Kicker!

Hello people,

As I've banged on about previously I try and strictly limit my Hobby these days in the names of efficiency and effectiveness, which at times seems to be contrary to the point but does actually reap positive effects the vast majority of the time.

Fairly obviously this hasn't always been the case and despite various purges of recent years I still, as we all do, own a pile of games and figures that might have hit the table once or twice before being relegated to the eponymous Lead Mountain (of Shame).

KickStarter has been a regular temptation for many. Having dallied I have successfully weaned myself away from this Pagan of False Promise preferring instead to hold to the Old World notion of paying and actual shop for actual product. Heresy I know!

One of my previous "investments" was Heroquest 25 run by GameZone, originally on KickStarter only to move to a similar Spanish platform after various IP issues. I followed and laid out just over £100 for the full monty. 16 months later I've just received another e-mail from the Spanish platform,  who have been excellent, as a result of a vote regarding how to take the woefully delayed project forward. In short GameZone are going to asked to submit to a full audit of the project as they haven't been overly forthcoming recently.

Like Monday's cat I, and many other backers, have been "Hanging on in there" with few options to do anything else. Imagine then my multiply mixed feelings when GW announced the re-release / reimagining of Hero Quest........



Yes there is a strong element of sour grapes here. As I've previously blogged I've moved away from GW as much, if not more, than they've moved away from me. I feel that they deserve praise for making the kind of seismic changes that they have, whether you agree with then or not. The recent move to nostalgic big box releases is sensible business, especially as entry level product.

That in itself is rather besides the point. I backed Game zone as an alternative to GW and as a hark back to my "golden age" of gaming. Hindsight is a wonderful thing :)

So, another lesson or two driven home which is just as well with Blood Bowl and Adeptus Titanicus on the horizon. I never had Titanicus as a kid so surely that one's allowed ;)

Hmm, back to X-Wing :)

Veteran Instincts

Hello people,

I went up to Lost Arc in Stevenage yesterday for the first time in a while for an X-Wing Spring Kit. There was another Spring Kit at Warboar with a bigger, more challenging field but I knew Lost Arc would be more relaxed with plenty of guys I'd enjoy playing so bit of a no brainer and I like supporting Lost Arc.

Four games across the day proved to be just what I needed. As a bonus I got to give Oicunn / Soontir a bit more table time and even managed to go 3-1 to claim 4th and a touch of swag.

In all honesty my first two games weren't overly challenging with my first opponent playing in his first tournament with a less than optimal list. On top of that his green dice were fairly awful. In that kind of situation I feel that there's an obligation on the more experienced player to help thier opponent get the maximum from thier game. We've all been there and I think it's a strength of the community that so many give back. My opponent asked how many games I'd played, it must be in the mid hundreds at least, which gave a bit of perspective.

Games 3 and 4 were against good guys I've played a few times. Game 3 I was in control until a set of blank greens for Soontir settled the matter. Game 4 he got pretty much whatever he needed to give me the game after riding my luck at touch or two.

As an apparent Veteran player I've decided to focus my attention on Oicunn / Soontir and Vader Black Crack until after the Expo weekend. It just makes sense to get the most out of the event. After that it's Dengar, Dengar and a touch more Dengar ;)

I've also decide to go back and repaint my Imperials. The Tau transfers just annoy me now and having painted a few red / bone schemes rather than bone / red I think I can do a much better job.

Plenty to work on :)

Trials and Tribulations

Hello people,

I've got rather out of the habit here. I shall make amends, to myself at the very least. You have been warned :)

Yesterday was the X-Wing Regional up at Milton Keynes run by the eve excellent Gaurdians of Tyr. As previously mentioned this one, somehow, kind of crept on me. As such, and with the Jumpmaster meta in full flow, I reverted to Vader Black Crack as a list that I've done well with before. Yesterday was not such a day.

I took a couple of big wins only to drop off a cliff for three games. I made a couple of mistakes, as you often do, to get punished by the dice, as you often do, but some days it just isn't going to happen for you. Yesterday was that day. Game 5 was particularly frustrating, phrase of the day, against Miranda, Stresshog, TLT. I totally out flew my opponent only for the dice to say otherwise. It happens and dealing with it is part of competitive play. First world problems.

Thankfully I took my final game for yet another 3-3 and 65th place in a field if 104. As fate would have it I'd been joking all week about aiming for 65th as that's where the Hera alt art participation cards ran out and the extra prizes kicked in,...including 4 alt art Vaders ;) I left very, very pleased only to find a parking ticket on the car :(

As you often do I've worked through what I could have done differently. With so many moving parts, meta, match ups, dice etc there's only so much you can do. What you can control is your list, including obstacles, and how you fly it. With Vader Black Crack dropping Howlrunner or Engine for an Ion Pulse Missile. Options to work on.

With two more Regionals and a couple of Store events on the cards there's plenty of opportunity. However if I want to pick up my play I really need to return to a couple of lists full time.

Meanwhile I've finished up the repaints of my Gozanti and TIE Fos to score 12 Painting Points for April. Something else I've kind of got out of the habit of. No transfers this time, going for a cleaner look. I had a brief scare with varnish propellant but all good in the end.

Vader would be pleased (behind the mask)  ;)