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 ;)

It's a hard life ;)

Hello people,

So basically I spent the whole weekend gaming and I'm knackered. Definitely looking for a soft day in the office but ill be smiling so not a problem.

Saturday myself and Rich headed down to Tonbridge Wells for the Totally Crit 3rd ITS tournament. I was in a state of mild trepidation as I'd still call myself a novice player and this was an official ranked event. As was always likely to be the case there was no need as the Totally Crit guys, check out their podcast / Facebook etc, run a laid back and welcoming event. Also I've done more than enough events in my time ;)

As previously mentioned my expectations were set at "learning experience" so I was as suprised as anyone when I actually won my first game. Luck was involved, with a string of impervious armour rolls, but I also felt that I played pretty well. Already more than happy with the day I lost the second fairly hard with several rushes of blood to the head. Point noted. 

Heading into the final game I beasted my perfectly amiable opponent off the table only to fail to pay due attention to the scenario. Scoring points for dominating horizontal zones across the table I pushed into a safe position in his deployment zone....only to find out they didn't score and as such lost the game where I should have won all ends up ;)

A great day out and, despite coming one off the bottom, one that will definitely be repeated soon. I'm really pleased that I finally hit the Infinity tourney scene as I'm sure it will only improve my game and as such my enjoyment of it.

So, back on more familiar territory myself, Mr C and Nigel headed down to Dark Sphere yesterday for a bit more X-Wing tourney action.

Due to inbound transport issues we were soon into the action. Running my Stress Kath list again I went 3-2 to place a respectable 11th. The two games I lost were also the best of the day against skilled, clean playing opponents with whom I also had a good laugh. Two of the game I won involved a certain amount of gameplay with more than a suggestion of slow play. 

So another good day out and some good experience flying my list against a few more archetypes. As with the whole weekend I generally know where I went wrong. This is never the end of the world for me. I'm not hugely competitive but I like to know that I've played as well as I can. Doing well in a tournament setting is almost a by-product of that. It's always easier to enjoy winning but the manner matters to me and many others. An easy win isn't necessarily an enjoyable win, for me at least.

As my previous post mentioned I've got pretty good at X-Wing. I'm not nearly so good at Infinity, yet at least ;) , but that doesn't mean I enjoy playing any less. In honesty between X-Wing and Infinity I'm pretty well set for quite sometime.

Happy Days :)  (whatever end of the rankings I'm at)

Boba rides again!

Hello people,

First a caveat, this is NOT a Charlie Large Spuds I'm so great post.....honest :)

Dropping down to Dark Sphere Thursday night I rocked up with my Boba Smurf list determined to put into practice my recent epiphanies about deployment and opening moves. I've realised that I generally set up facing forward and fly off in that direction with a plan but less idea of execution.

I drew John as an opponent. John's a great guy and a very good player. He's been terrorising people with his HLC  IG / Quad Z95 list for a while now and placed top 4 at last weeks MK Regional. In honesty I was just looking to give a decent game and try out a few ideas around deployment, opening moves as well as bait and switch.

As it happens I somehow flew probably the best game I ever have with this list and took the win 100-36 :)

As a  flanker list my opponent has rarely given me that lank with any ease. As such it was time to start creating one. Deploying my Z swarm on the far right John followed conventional practice to follow suit on the diagonal and had his IG lurking nearby. I knew that he was likely to burn a few turns with the IG to force the engagement with his Zs so that the IG was free to swoop about sniping from range with the HLC.

As such I had Boba adjacent to the Zs angled toward the board edge so that Turn 1 the Zs pulled hard left along my horizontal board edge while Boba ran up the vertical.....thus creating my flank!

After that it was some pretty hard flying as I attemptted to engage the IG as soon as possible. A couple of turns in Boba's boosts had him a bit farther ahead than I would have liked and leaving the supporting Zs behind. Luck played an early hand as Jon rolled his Zs in after Boba as I deliberately bumped the IG with him to deny him the shot.

Trapped between Boba and his Smurfs Jon's Zs were soon falling though I was very aware that I wasn't focusing in on IG and I aware of his late game strength. Boba getting some decent rolls helped out greatly and by mid-game I was feeling far more comforatable as I'm pretty happy with my dogfighting abilities. Being far more positive with Boba was reaping rewards and moving last I was often able to dodge IGs arc.

Late game it a was Boba and two Zs versus IG and I gladly paid a sacrificial Z to run away and regroup. Re-engaging with the Z, no 13, running as a blocker I had the upper hand and eventually got on to IGs tail at which point it was waiting for the dice to come up.......which they did.

In honesty I flew much better because I realised what I needed to do and actually did it. Luck still played a big part, with a few crucial turns where the game swung both ways, though you've got to give Her Ladyship the chance to smile on you :)

A big game for me but mainly because I didn't just learn, I applied the learning :)

Small Margins

Hello people.

Not been saying too much recently but that's because there hasn't been too much to say except more of the same, which isn't really my style.

This week has featured a bit more To the Strongest on Tuesday down at Enfield Gamers. This time I cracked out my 10mm Ancient Britons and ran them at Shaun's Imperial Romans.

Correcting a few things we'd been getting wrong with attached Generals we also forgot Strategm Cards. The latter wasn't a big thing, the first more so.

As you would expect my unwashed mass was rather unwieldy and ill disciplined. They were however rather more durable than Julius' lads. Marching up the field the lines joined and started the rather inevitable grind. On taking a hit a unit becomes Disordered and hits in combat on an 8 rather than a 6, which is huge. As such Rally as a priority became an obvious first Activation. Along with the vaguries of opposed card draws seemed to mean that not a lot happened too quickly.

Though Shaun went about winning the Cav battle I had enveloped his line and he had very little prospect of inflicting the 3 hits to destroy my lads. It kind of became a case of waiting for me to get the 2 hits I needed so that I could start to roll his line. Catching onto the mechanism it seemed to become much more about stats than tactics to find the bonus modifiers to get the killing blows in. 

We may well have got bits wrong and there's still plenty of obvious potential there. We're hoping to get the author down fairly soon who can undoubtedly show us a thing or two.

Meanwhile last night at Dark Sphere Project Lambda finally took flight with two games against a pair of Agressors.

I went with;
Omicron - Fire Control System - HLC - Anti Pursuit Lasers
Omicron - Fire Control System - Mangler - Vader - Anti Pursuit Lasers
Soontir Fel - Royal Gaurd - Stealth - Auto-thrusters

First game the IGs flew straight at me and failed to roll any even half decent Evade dice and which point I gobbled them up. Second game was a bit of a reverse as I had to chase with poor red dice and some lucky long-range fire on Fel.

However, the list and tactics are valid, both just needing some modification. I have a number of options available and will persist.

Meanwhile Jon dropped off my Pulp City KS stuff, more than I remember pledging for, no argument there. Lovely cast figures they give me something else to work which is very welcome.

First up, Bolt Action pin and smoke markers. I hadn't forgotten ; )

A New Hope?

Hello people,

Another pretty standard week in Oddleg land with a good few games of X-Wing at Enfield Gamers on Tuesday and Dark Sphere on Thursday.

Yesterday was a trip up to Lost Ark for Dave T's latest Attack Wing event. Three good, hard and fairly fought, games with my Klingons which went a long way to restoring my faith in how good the game CAN be.

I also picked up my pre-ordered Scum & Villainy "investment". Basically it's two of everything to go with the pair of Firesprays and Hawks thst I've already painted up.

Having spent a strangely enjoyable afternoon unboxing everything the plan is to release a few bits to the tabletop as I complete a few other projects that have been gathering dust for a while. I've got plenty to play with and it will make me take the time to give new lists a decent play-test. 

In honesty I've been in a bit of a gaming rut recently, as has been Enfield Gamers.

As such we've updated things a bit and moved away from the club website and forums onto the club facebook page. We're also going to be concentrating on X-Wing, Bolt Action and To The Strongest for the next few months. The X-Wing league will be Scum themed culminating in a Tourney at the end of April with full  FFG prize support.

So Tuesday Club Night myself and Shaun will be running through To The Strongest and before I get my first lump of Scum I need to sort out the 40 sets of shoulder patch transfers for the Commandos thst have been sat around for too long. Then they need to find a table! 

Plans.....contact with the enemy. We'll see :)

Fly Dodgy

Hello people,

Just one night's gaming this week, last night down at Dark Sphere running a bunch of TIE Interceptors all with Stealth Device.

More specifically a loaded Soontir Fel (Push the Limit, Royal TIE, Targeting Computer, Stealth Device) with Alphas. 

In short across two games it didn't really work, though that was for multiple reasons;
- my Evade dice generally betrayed me
- I didn't fly very well
- the Alphas weren't a swarm but weren't effective individually
- I didn't fly very well, especially Soontir

I still feel that the theory in there is sound,  the list needs honing with more of a purpose and I need to learn to fly Interceptors.....gradually :)

Meanwhile it's Lost Ark's Store Championship tomorrow. 

I'll be running something far more familiar to me!

Playing Away

Hello people,

Another X-Wing fuelled week keeping the world sane as Project Dunkirk continues.

Tuesday at Enfield Gamers I ran another TIE Bomber list. Having realised that Howlrunner is run best as a buff it occurred that Capt Jonus is the same but just for secondary weapons. As such I ran the following;

TIE Bomber - Capt Jonus - Swarm Tactics
TIE Bomber - Major Rhymer - PTL - Advanced Proton Torps - Cluster Missiles
TIE Defender - Delta - Heavy Laser Cannon

Playing Dave twice I soon realised how deadly  Rhymer can be though he didn't need Jonus. First game Dave ran Leebo with twin Hawks and got blown away. Second time out was Chiraneau / Mini Swarm and far closer. Jonus went early doors and I didn't fly the Defender too well to give the game away. 

I came away with some interesting ideas for twin Defenders (HLC or Mangler Cannon) or a maxed Rhymer as Decimator support. Quite possibly swarm fodder though.

 Thursday night I dropped in on Dark Sphere's games night. Working by London Bridge it was 30 minutes door to door and there were a few guys that I'd met and played last Saturday. Getting in a couple of games with another chubby swarm this time it was Howly, 4 Academys and a pair of Interceptors. 

On the night I went or a pair of PS4 Sabers but I'm likely to drop them to PS1 Alphas to have them run with either Stealth Device or Hull Upgrade. I can see the strengths and weaknesses either way, same with Howlrunner, Stealth relies on dice Hull doesn't. I'll just have to fly it a few more times and see.

First up was yet another Whisper list with Kath and a Doom Shuttle. Doom Shuttle died, can't ignore it, beore I chased Whisper round the table. I played her a lot better, working out de-cloak points and denying them whenever possible. Unortunately I couldn't make it stick and Kath hunted me down.



Second game was against Oicunn and a mini swarm. I tried coming around the edges but turned in too early and then the dice went against me....Game Over!

In all a good night. Amusingly even the guys at work who know about Toys realised it was the wrong night and asked me if I was out cheating on Tuesday! Have to admit it was interesting on a couple of levels as when I was back with GW I couldn't understand why a lot of older guys would play in the shop but then Dark Sphere's a very different crowd. Besides a regular Thursay night game means that I may even dig Dreadball Extreme out of the box!

While I was there I picked up a second Firespray, having spent some time working out a couple valid Scum Boba & Kath lists. This one will be a full Boba repaint. Gotta scratch the itch :)

Dunkirk Spirit

Hello people,

Project Dunkirk, aka the miracle of the small ships, set out on a major offensive yesterday as myself and Mr C attended Dark Sphere's Store Championship. The day consisted of 6 rounds amongst a field of 44 players.

I was trepiditiously running Vulture Squadron (Catch the Pigeon);
TIE ighter - Howlrunner - Stealth Device
TIE ighter - Academy x3
TIE Bomber - Scimitar x 2 - Flechette Missiles - Proximity Mine

In summary I came 13th with two wins, two modified wins (draws) and two losses. I also had to fly against a total of 6 TIE Phantoms, a fleet of three in the first round and Whisper in the first 4 rounds. As a result I realised that I'm not very good at taking on Phantoms. Other than Round 1 I pretty much tried to ignore them. I appreciate the theory of trying to deny their de-cloak points but that means splitting the swarm......which was an idea I didn't fancy!

Overall I'm well pleased with my performance. The Bombers went OK but I definitely could have, and hopefully will, do better with them. The Proximity Mines were good fun and the flechettes have plenty on anti Phantom potential. The list did well against big ships, though there were far less in attendance than I expected. I also got a few compliments for flying Bombers at all and my paint scheme so all good.

As an aside I learnt a bit more tourney technique. My first opponent stalled the game by disappearing to the loo eating up 8 minutes and denying me a likely full win. I lost focus quite badly or Round 3 just after lunch and allowed myself to be pushed along at a higher pace than I was happy with in Round 4. Otherwise 6 rounds with just 25 minutes for lunch was hard work but still enjoyable even though I was suffering with a bit of lurgy.

Traditionally I finished the last few brushstrokes on the Bombers just 12 hours before rocking up for the tourney. As well as the Bomber Jon donated me his spare TIEs that I've put into Elite schemes. Something a little darker for Howlrunner, as I rarely leave the hanger without a Stealth Device, and a more aggressive red for Mauler / Backstabber. I have to admit that I wasn't so sure about marking out Howlrunner but anyone worth their salt can work that one out or themselves.

Meanwhile Mr C placed 1st after Round 6, and very well done to him. Unfortunately that was at 8pm and then there were three knockout rounds...... we had to leave. The 11am start time slipped to 11:45 and it got worse from there. How people are expected to play nine consecutive rounds, which ended after midnight is entirely alien to me.

So all in all a decent day out, greater motivation or Project Dunkirk, a few more contacts made and another 6 Painting Points. Looking forward to the next one :)