Menage et Trois?

Hello people,

So, completing the set Nigel dropped by last night for a game of Infinity, to kickstart us both back into the game. He'd recently picked up the Onyx Contact Force set and I just wanted to get back to it with some table time.

As such I went with a tried and tested Corrigedor force against the rather elite force of recently constructed Morats and drones including a new fangled EVO Repeater Hacker drone.  Turns out I have access to them to.

Playing Supplies Nigel won WIP and decided to go second leaving me to claim the high side of the table. Forcing him to set up first worked well initially as I gunned down his Q-Drone and grabbed a supply crate with a Tomcat who legged it back to my line.

After that the Morat super jumping link team of ultimate doom preceded to tear chunks out of me at an alarming rate wiping out the link team of Aguaciles, including Leutenant, and the Reaktion Zond on Turn 1.

Loss of Leutenant kind of nullified my Turn 2. I braced myself for a continued Morat onslaught at which point the Intruder Sniper went all a bit Rambo popping rounds into ape-faces and drones at will, eventually outgunned by a combi-rifle. At that point the Fraccta dropped in and executed my beloved Lunokhod and the Tomcat.

Turn 3 swung back my way as the Engineer lucked out to ventilate the Fraccta and reclaimed the care package while Doc got Rambo back up and the Moran made a charge for a second set of supplies, only to fail his WIP at the last.

Nigel ground his teeth slightly and went all out for Rambo who simply wouldn't have it. Making a suicide super jump for a potentially game saving supply box Rambo finally succumbed........only for Nigel to realise his remain Specialist was too far away to do the job!

Just the game I needed. Good fun, tight result and not having slipped down the learning curve all that far. Tonight I dug the Shasvassti back out into the painting queue and finished off the Jumpmasters and G1-A to make room.

As I've been saying, Mojo fully restored :)

Filthy, Filthy

Hello people,

So once again real life has got in the way but last weekend that was all brushed aside as I spent both day playing Netrunner,aka Filthy Cards,  and thoroughly enjoying myself whilst I did it :)

Saturday was Dark Sphere's Regional with a trip up to Northampton on Sunday to catch up with Gaurdians of Tyr's 2016 Grand Tournament.

In total I played 10 games across the two days, didn't win too many, came away with an impressive haul of swag, including a wooden spoon, and as with Birmingham a reinvigorated Mojo. All good :)

To be honest that was pretty much my goal for the weekend as I'd realised that by not playing much recently I had slipped down the learning curve somewhat. Netrunner's curve is pretty steep so it was more a case of how far.

As such I took older decks, which have done decently for me previously. Other than a mild issue with Influence, oops, the only issue was going to me. I made a lot of mistakes over the weekend, I got swept repeatedly, three in a row at Northampton, but relearnt a lot from it.

I've been keeping up online and with something of a Eureka moment can see the benefit of more varied Runner decks, mine being more mono-themed and as such having less choices to make.

I also recently came across an interesting article about running Jank on Netrunners.co.uk which resonated pretty strongly with me and seems like a good, fun way to delve into the wider card pool.

First off , put into practice the relearnt lessons of how to play a bit better which means rocking up for Secret Weapon in Stratford on a Wednesday night on a more regular basis.

Oh, and stop running 4th click so much ;)

Never being Boring

Hello people,

So, after the qualified triumph of Yavin / Expo as a bit of variety I've been dabbling elsewhere, which is allowed under my self imposed gaming restrictions as I haven't spent any money. Nor will I.....honest :)

Nigel recently picked up Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower and has played a couple of games down at the club. I jumped in for a game last week and it short was really impressed. There are plenty of reviews out there, here's Beasts of War two pence, so the main contribution that I have to make is that it FEELS right. Simple mechanics, depth to tactics plus a need for co-operative play versus the random event studded scenarios.

Production quality is as high as you would expect and the figures are gorgeous, the otherwise overpowered grim-dark fitting very nicely, though I still can't get on with the Celestians. As much as anything the game actually fits with, what I remember as, it's original ethos. It's not often that this gets said but WELL DONE GW. Ahem,....

All of this is just as well as GameZone's HeroQuest 25 version is apparently still under production as well as 18 months overdue. What seems to be lacking is any form of recognition of that issue. Gears will grind slowly I'm sure...... (grumble)

Speaking of slow grinding gears, it's almost like it's deliberate, Rich ran me through TANKS, Battlefront's new game commanding a tank platoon. It looks like a kind of Flames of War lite but it's actually a boardgame, just on a 3x3 tabletop.

Nothing wrong with that but maybe you should make that plain. Rich referred to it as WWII X-Wing which isn't too far off as you have a 100 point platoon of variously pointed tanks that you can equip with Ace abilities and various other crew, equipment and ammunition. Movement is template based, combat decided by attack an defense dice with critical damage causing extra effects. Topping everything off is a numerically rated initiative system.

So WWII X-Wing. It's good fun, once again simple mechanics allowing depth of tactics. As much as there's the room to be gamey genuine tank platoon tactics still have thier place.

Both good games in thier own rights, there's plenty of them out there. Meanwhile I'm slowly getting back to some casual flying,Dengar to the max! Elsewhere it's an entire weekend of Netrunner on the cards, ahem, with Dark Sphere's Regional Saturday and Gaurdians of Tyr Sunday. It's been a while since I've played regularly so I've got a bit of learning curve to re-climb.

Happy Days :)

Battered, Bruised, Triumphant!

Morning people,

Far too late a finish yesterday to post. Apologies as I know you were all waiting with great expectation ;)

Long story short I went 3-3 which is better than I expected but slightly dissapointing as I slipped from 3-1 with bad match ups in the final two rounds. No spangly shield tokens to take home with me but plenty of Mojo which was always biggest thing.

I've obviously been trying a bit too hard recently. In 11 competitive games I only had one difficult opponent and I still won so yah boo. Elsewhere I played and beat various Jumpmaster lists more times than I lost to them. Throughout I back relaxed into my natural game again and flew far better for it.

Overwise it was another excellent X-Wing event, the biggest in the world so far and a genuine privelige to be a part of.

Naturally we talked a lot of shop during the event. With the obvious explosion of X-Wing there's a much bigger field of good players out there. Events are bigger, longer and far more competitive. Lady Luck's fickle fortune feels magnified alk the way through from maych up to how the dice fall. This is quite obviously a good thing for the game but the competitive scene has definitely morphed in a different beast, far more muscular and attritional rhan it has ever been.

For myself I've had a great weekend gaming but I'm shattered. No Hanger Bay for me, I won't be able to do it justice and I don't want to kill my buzz.

I'm off to the Expo itself to remind myself again why I love being a geek ;)

Expect the Unexpected

So, despite my apocalyptic predictions I actually had a pretty good day.

Opening game of the day was triple Jumpmasters. Not so good. Settling down I got stuck in, leading with Oicunn. Despite forgetting Issard and my Ion Bomb I traded Oicunn for two of the Jumps and played the patient game to grind out the win. First time against Jumps. Big grin :)

Second game was triple Jumps again, the result not quite so good. Third was 8 Zs, the fourth Imp Aces against an excellent player and a good buddy. I was competitive throughout to go 2-2, the Aces game being one of the best I've played for a while.

Back in the groove with Mojo fully restored I went in to the fifth contemplating dropping to regroup for tomorrow's main event. The accompanying mental lift cost the game but provides a final lesson for the day.

Walked away with a Hera card and fully recharged X-Wing battery.

Tomorrow's going to be a good day, whatever the result ;)

Sunny side up?

So, yesterday's trip up was delayed a touch but no-one died so all good.

The hotel is fine, I consumed a particularly good double burger and most importantly we picked up all of our event tickets and found the gaming hall. This year it's been upgraded from sweaty marquee to actual bricks and mortar with air conditioning which is a big deal. Definitely still shorts at the ready.

The biggest concern remaining is how robust event logistics will be. It's not a lack of trust in the organisers, more that we've been round the block a fair few times ourselves. 450 odd gamers tomorrow will be interesting.

Major bonus so far has been the programme which has been put together with a decent number of proper articles as well as all the usual info.

Having discussed my recent gaming woes at length on the trip up it has become clear that I simply need to get my mojo back a touch so that's the main objective for the weekend. I'd also like to get a decent look round the main event 45 as that didn't happen last year at all. I'm fairly sure ove got some free time Sunday morning ;)

Anyway, breakfast!

Hope vs Expectation

Hello people.

So its the eve of Birmingham eve i.e. a third Regional followed by the Yavin Open most likely followed by an afternoon of Hanger Bay.

Currently I'm most looking forward Hanger Bay. Primarily this is because I've realised that Oicunn / Soontir is a mis-step away from the meta and though it can probably hold its own against Imperial Aces I'm seriously up against it anytime I encounter Jumpmasters. In fact anything I've been flying recently probably fits that bracket.

I can't deny that I have a feeling of impending DOOM. It's been a bit like that recently so my strategy is to drop any expectations what so ever and just concentrate on flying as well as I can.

Once the weekend is over I'm going to detox by playing the Scum lists that I've been meaning to for a while now and not worrying about anything else.

Slooping back to Hanger Bay one of my lists will be just that: Dengar / Boba Boat / Feedback Z. The boats are just about finished up, really really pleased with them :), with  Zuckuss not too far behind. Hopefully they're going to be the highlight of my weekend. That's the expectation.

Soontir and Oicunn have also received fresh paint to match Vader and the Fo TIEs. Hopefully I can do them some justice.

I'll have a go at posting every night but it'll be rough and ready via phone app.

Strap in people, it's going to be a bumpy ride ;)