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.

Event Horizon # 1

Hello people,

I've got a week off work which is traditionally a time when I set a project and inflict it upon you as a form of personal motivation. This week is no different in respect that there's a project, it is different in respect of the goals and back story to it.

A couple of weekends ago I, and many others, went up to Birmingham NIA for FFG's Nationals competitions. That was X-Wing for me and might also have been Netrunner if it hadn't been on the same day. In short the weekend was rather an anti climax for me in some ways, far better in others, which in turn sets the background to this week off. It's also finalised a number of hobby decisions that were pretty much making themselves along the way.

I did actually attempt to blog from Birmingham but Blogger App wasn't playing ball. It turned out that the event wasn't what I'd hoped it might be, for a number of reasons, and also inspired me to blog / report predominantly in pictures rather than words;

The slightly esoteric point here was that despite dissapoint on the tables it became far more about making the most of the weekend. For a couple of hours on Saturday I became rather grumpy for a number of reasons but sorted myself out before ruining my, or anyone else's weekend.

More about that later, I have redemptive stuff to go and do ;)

Competition Time?

Hello people,

Once again it's been a bit quiet on the gaming front. A bit of life getting in the way,as it does, but also a natural lull as I've taken a bit of a natural break from competitive gaming. It's been somewhat necessary, with my Bolt Action Commandos recycled to a new home while I've been at it.

X-Wing has been my pick up game of choice with a touch of Netrunner as and when. Weekend events have neither been a want or need recently though I now feel happy to venture back out onto the circuit.

With Netrunner I need to go back to basics AGAIN whilst with X-Wing I've "allowed" Nationals to sneak up on me in the same way as Yavin. It's been that kind of year and will probably stay the same way.

I'm once again going to use a major National event to re-launch my gaming, rather than the other way around. As for lists it'll either be Imperial triple aces "Disco Inferno" aka the sensible choice, or Scum double Scout / Zuckuss "Feel the Zuck" which I've flown twice......but rather fancy.

On that note I have got all of the above painted up. Vader was done sometime ago but the rest are recent. I've gone for an alternative metallic scheme for Inqy and something a bit in between for Vessery. Zuckuss and the Scouts have been a labour of love for a while. Well pleased :)

Moving neatly on that's a dozen Painting Points that I need to claim. Mojo has stayed intact, it just needs a bit of a kickstart. Roll on Nats!!

Undiscovered Country

Hello people,

Yet another LIFE inspired hiatus but I am actually playing games. Last week saw a swarm of X-Wing match ups with a smattering of Netrunner culminating in a whole weekend of "I am your Father!" at Warboar and Lost Ark.

Warboar were running an inverted Hanger Bay format, take two lists each with opponents choosing for each other, and Lost Arc limiting the field to Imperial vs Rebel.

For Warboar I selected my slightly disfunctional Dengar / Plasma Boat / Feedback Z because I wanted some table time with it and Vader / Inquisitor / Vessery because of theme, Imperial Veterans and the fact that I've never flown triple aces, or the Inquisitor.

Disco Inferno (100)
Darth Vader: Veteran Instincts - TIE x1 - Advanced Targeting Computer - Engine
Col Vessery: Veteran Instincts - TIE x7
Inquisitor: Push the Limit - TIE v1 - Autothrusters

Hopefully it's fairly obvious that Vessery works off of his compadres Target Locks whilst barrelling around at high speed for near constant Focus / Evade. In fact it's three green dice and bucket loads of dice modification all over the shop.

Saturday all five of my opponents chose to fly against Disco Inferno which surprised as I felt it was by far the stronger list. A PS10 Dengar was quoted as bring scary but maybe it was just U Boat bias.

Long story short I went 4-1 only losing a very tight game to Chirneau / Whisper. I was kind of in shock as I'd always felt that triple aces simply wasn't my thing. Apparently not, I even beat dual IGs three times, and it was a lot of fun while I was at it.

As such, also with a late finish and a cancelled train home, I ran exactly the same list for a very similar result of 3-1. In honesty three of those games were extremely close with me winning two of them on the last roll of the dice. 

Lots of fun and a new archetype to add to the potential rosters. Inqy and Vessery have also found thier way to the head of the repaint queue. 

Disco Inferno will boogie again :)

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 ;)

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)  ;)

Byes Don't Count

Hello people,

Now I'm not religious, stay with me, more vaguely spiritual in a karmic sort of way. The reason mention this is because it's a fitting segway from my last post about being up in the nosebleeds.

Yesterday a bunch if us headed down to Warboar / Paradice for what was my fourth and final X-Wing Store Champs. Determined to fly casual I took a Bossk Boba list;

Bossk: Predator, Mangler Cannon, Tactician, Outlaw Tech, Engine Upgrade
Boba: Vet Instincts, Autoblaster, Engine Upgrade, Inertial Dampners

That Boba build I've flown a lot and has done well for me, Bossk is very new. In short I flew like a bit of a muppet for the first two games and then dice finished me off. Round 3 I collected the bye,.....which was somewhat chastening.

It did however give me the chance to think about what I was doing wrong and watch another Boba / Slaver game. In short I needed to be more aggressive setting up the joust with Boba and snipe with Bossk....so I did.

Round 4 I lost again but very closely. Round 5 I finally pulled a tight win, 100-75, against a great guy who had played a total of 9 games before ours. Round 6 was 100-75 again against an opponent as experienced as myself.

So technically I went 3-3 again, though this time at the bottom of the MoV tree rather than at the top, but as far as I'm concerned Byes Don't Count ;) The irony, however,was not lost on me. On the journey home, with obligatory post event analysis, it was actually quite funny.

I don't fly two ship builds and it's something I wanted to work on. I learnt a lot in that respect and also about this build. Bossk is a beast late game but Boba is just unlikely to ever get there. It needs work. On both counts it's working happy to put in.

The main point however, again, is expectation related. Some days it won't go your way for a lot of reasons. The key is how you deal with it.

It's only a game......right? ;)

Welcome to Nosebleed City

Hello people,

Last weekend was another double event with Gaurdians of Tyr's X-Wing Store Champs on the Saturday and a Netrunner Winter Kit at Dark Sphere on the Sunday. The week off immediately afterwards is not entirely unconnected :)

Saturday I ran Vader Crack Swarm and felt the "click" that I'd been waiting for to really connect with it. I started on the top tables and stayed thier all day.

My brain finally meshed with the list as I realised the need to control the first engagement and fly the necessary approach to get it. In short after four rounds I was 3-1 up with very strong MoV, the loss genuinely due to horrific green dice.

As such expectation of making the top 8 cut reared it's unwelcome head with 2 rounds to go. I didn't feel pressure but suddenly it was a possibility.

Game 5 was against an Imperial Aces / Palp list that went on to final victory, the top 8 was stuffed full of them. A mis-set dial on approach knocked me off plan and I failed to recover sufficiently. Still a fairly close loss.

Going into the final game I knew I had to get a big win to progress. I also knew it would be the same for my opponent. Thankfully I was paired up with a good guy I've played a few times before so I knew it would be a decent game whatever the result. In the end a minor mistake on approach allowed dice to decide things against me. No complaints.

My opponent went through in 8th while I suddenly ended up 3-3. It really does get that tight up at the nosebleeds and it's a reminder that at that level the hours spent honing your list and play can make all the difference to tip things in your favour, assuming that's your thing...

Sunday I headed down to Dark Sphere for a Netrunner Winter Kit. I was surprised that there were only 12 of us until I was reminded that Leisure Games had run thier Store Champs on Sat. Oh and it was Mother's Day!

As such there weren't too many of the top end faces about but I pulled one of them in the first round. We'd played the Saturday before and split, both winning as Corp, and it was the same story again. He ran Jinteki Replicating Perfection and it's a match up I struggle with. A bit more learning required.

Moving on I got the rub of the playmat a few times and somehow won both ways rounds 2 and 3 to find myself on 10 Prestige. That was already my best result ever but suddenly I was in a final round shootout.

This turned some heads and once again invited expectation, mainly that I was going to get utterly hosed, but the potential was there and dealing with that is important. I've since found out that my opponent, who smashed me at our first event, is ranked 5th in the UK which I'm glad I didn't know at the time. That didn't stop him getting the lowdown on my decks from my first opponent who looked rather flustered went I overheard him doing so.

They didn't need to worry as his Noise / Virus deck steamed into my slow start and never took its boot from my neck. Against his Near Earth Hub / Astro deck I did at least play enough of a game to make him sweat, I rather enjoyed that ;), until he took the game to go undefeated for the day.

He was running two very strong decks and obviously had plenty of experience with them. We kind of chatted about the strength of NEH and how to counter. "I don't really know" was his main response. A couple of days later I realised that the mill effect of a Noise / Viral deck would cause it trouble....

In the end I finished 3rd and won myself an Anarch deckbox, which was hugely pleasing and something that will hold a special significance to me as a symbol of how far I've come on in the game, in the manner that I wanted to. 

For me, that's what it's all about. The vitory pizza was particularly tasty :)

The Week Off - Update 1

Hello people,

Wednesday afternoon and all is going surprisingly well. Never as productive as I'd prefer to be but pretty good all the same.

The warehouse went together easier than I initially thought it might. There were internal walls and stairs that I left but have kept had of them as an option. A couple of coats of hairspray sealant did the job nicely. Sprayed black, brown and then dusted grey has given a decently grubby look. Basic details are blocked in so I'll print some Infinity posters for detail before weathering. A job more than half done.

Meanwhile the Hound's Tooth and Natasha Pup are similarly block painted awaiting wash and highlight. The layout of the scheme formed itself fairly organically though the variation in the panels is a technique I saw a month or so ago and really liked. Another job more than half done.

So far,so good :)

The Week Off - Prelude

Hello people,

So, another week off, another "realistic" project list. The last one worked out pretty well so hopefully that's repeatable. It's bits and pieces this time round but each with its own purpose and payoff.

So from top left;

YV-66: I've got the re-paint scheme sorted in my head for the Hound's Tooth / Natasha Pup. I'm playing down at Warboar on Saturday and I want to get it on the table for some fly casual action.

Nomads: Just the Inventnors, plus Pandas, and the Intruder Sniper to complete the set. Big woop!

Apartment: It's steampunk, designed for Wolsung, but I'm more than happy that it'll fit in with my industrial set in a Blade Runner kind of way. I'll be going for a semi derelict look with some Sci Fi graphitti to finish the job. I'm playing Tuesday night so it's the priority one piece.

Shasvassti Gwailos: These ARE recent purchases but targeted. With a far better a appreciation of the game I've worked out a list I want to put in some games with. This is just a build, base and spray job. I've got a specific plan for the paint job that will need to be done as a job lot.

So that's it. As before I'm aiming to be good to go by midday.

Best laid plans ;)

Hope and Faith

Hello People,


There's been a bit of gnashing and wailing at a number of X-Wing top tables recently due to a perceived narrowing of competitive build options. This has been off the back of the recent prominence of Rebel Regen lists that hit you up with  multiple Stress and then simply refuse to die whilst Poe / TLT pick you to pieces.


Imperial Interceptor lists have struggled with TLT, especially quads which have hammered them. TIE swarms have trouble getting arcs and putting out enough damage. Scum seem to have fallen from the top tables entirely since the demise of dual IG-2000s, which may not be the worst thing going.


As such I, and many others in my various play groups, have been at something of a loss as what to fly. For myself I don't fly Rebel and I don't really want to go back to lists that I've flown a lot before, Scum Boba Swarm and Soontir Swarm, despite their relative strength in the current meta. I've flown a few experimental lists over the last couple of months but none of them have grabbed me particularly without having a glaring flaw in their build.


So it was some trepidation that I approached a pair of Store Championships this weekend with two list in mind Scum Boba / TLT and Vader Black-Crack Swarm.


Strolling into Lost Ark on Saturday and was intending to fly Boba but after chatting to a few of the regular crowd I switched over to "Black, Sack and Crack" at the last moment;


Vader - Veteran Instincts - TIE X1 - Advanced Targeting Computer - Engine Upgrade
Howlrunner - Crack Shot
3 x Black Squadron - Crack Shot


Across 4 games I went 2-2 with two big wins, a very close loss and a proper spanking after flying like a div. Sunday it was Dark Sphere for a further 5 games going 3-2 with a big win, two modified wins and two very close losses.


Overall I was very pleased. Not so much with the results but that I'd found a new list different enough from what I've previously flown but with the legs to do better. The PS4 Black Squadrons need a bit more thought as to how they engage and more importantly deal with the disengage the turn after.


Vader is definitely NOT Soontir but just as rewarding in his own way with greater versatility unconstrained by Push The Limit Stress.


In analysis I could have been more aggressive all round. Four of my losses were by less than one of the Blacks and with less conservative flying were there for the taking. The couple of games when I trusted to the list went better than when I didn't.


Something to work on for the foreseeable and a couple of alternate art C3-POs for my efforts. Boba will still get a look in but I think I've found my top table list for a good while yet.


I attended with HOPE and found my FAITH :)

Expect the Unexpected

Hello people,

So last weekend was the first couple of events of the New Gaming Year with X-Wing down at Warboar followed by Netrunner at Dark Sphere.

Saturday I was running a Scum Kath, twin TLT Y-Wing list that I'd been wanting to try out for a while. Going 3-2 I pulled 9th of 35 which is my benchmark these days. Of my losses one was stolen from me at the last while I flew particularly poorly for the other.

Sunday I had far lower expectations amongst a field of 90 for 6 rounds of Netrunner. My nominal target was 4 wins, from a possible 12, at which point the 1 I came away with was far less disappointing than you might have thought.

After any event it's always post analysis on the way home and last weekend it was no different. What was a tangent was a discussion about expectation.

As I've previously mentioned, without trying to boast, I've played an awful lot of X-Wing with a lot of very good players which has in turn helped me to become a very good player. I expect to be able to take an untested list to any event and win the majority of my games.

The point discussed was does a higher level of expectation negatively impact your enjoyment of a day's gaming? If you don't live up to your own expectations then there is that possibility. Is that also the slippery slope into the Win At All Costs brigade?

As I've blogged before I'm very anti WAAC but at the same time I want to be competitive and play competitive games. As bad as it might be to say I don't enjoy easy wins as much as hard fought wins. These days with X-Wing there are plenty of lists I won't run because I feel that I won't be competitive. I'm often looking for something a bit left field that can still hold its own and with decent flying capitalise on its left field nature to do better than maybe it should. That's my thing!

Thinking it through I also think that expectation comes from an informed point of view. With Netrunner I've still got an awful lot to learn about pretty much everything. My gameplay is coming on nicely but my knowledge of the meta and how certain decks, cards, archetypes etc interact needs a lot of polishing. As my level of knowledge / experience is  relatively low does it follow that my expectations follow suit?

Wandering home on Saturday I was looking at little tweaks in tactics rather than list. Wandering home on Sunday I was looking at a lot more. I was looking at where and why my decks had struggled. My NBN didn't win because I never had the kill option and couldn't keep Runners out for long enough. Kitt struggled once multiple ICE went up on R&D and scoring servers. As a result I'm looking to run some different archetypes and really looking forward to doing so.

At the end of the weekend I'm really enjoying being at different ends of the spectrum for each game and isn't that what really matters? ;)

The Sprit of the Season

Yesterday myself and Nigel squeezed in a final day out flying casual down inWoking.

I pulled another respectable 3 and 2 with a vaguely experimental triple Black Sun Ace toting Crack Shot with TLT / Bossk Palob. It was fun to fly but really needed to win the opening engagement. Dropping Palob, who was generally priority target, would give me a pair of feedback Zs to run as blockers but no Palob. First world problems ;(

The event itself was very welcoming and we'll run with tea, coffee, pastries and faction themed cake available :) Prize support was impressive with complementary Xmas target locks from Cog O Two and a couple of prize kits from I Buy Wargames.

During the lunchbreak we dropped into I Buy, mainly as I needed to restock some paints at which point I my my regular impulse purchases of a few more Army Painter brushes and also a copy of Tabletop Gaming.

I can't lie I've wanted, yearned for even, a good toys magazine for many years and endured many substitutes and false false dawns. Even with the rose tints on I can see the difficulties to produce a viable publication in the virtual age but that doesn't stop other hobbies.

First impressions are very good. It's a high quality weighty perfect bind production with a modern, professional look throughout. I'd compare it, favourably, to Edge in that it's clearly aimed for the grown up geek. All the expected bases are covered, though a quick flick reveals the content of this particular issue to be more Fantasy and Sci Fi than Historical.

It's rather inspired me to read every last word and do a proper review, rare indeed! Meanwhile if you see it about I'd suggest it's well worth a fiver to have a look yourself, I'm already tempted to subscribe!

Happy days ;)

Seeing RED

Hello people. Yes, getting back into the habit now.

Yesterday was another trip up to Milton Keynes for the final round of Gaurdians of Tyr's X-Wing 2015 calendar.

I took the Khiraz / Scyk list again, primarily as further playtesting, and was once again pleasently surprised to go 3-2 for tenth place :) I've now firmly established that formation flying and firepower is the way to go. Using a slow roll up one board edge I look to disrupt my opponent's formation and try and force the engagement on my terms. Patience is key and when did look to force things, to establish what the list can't do, recovery was difficult. Lesson learned!

One of these was the first game, which was always going to be a vicious joust as my opponent also had three PS2 Khiraz. I deviated from the target priority I knew I should have chosen and paid dearly for it. One way dice didn't help but they had just been varnished the night before.

Prize support was excellent as always but I'm particularly pleased with my little Death Star tin that from now on will contain my Stress and Crit tokens :)

On that note I've also finished up a TIE Advanced and a pair of Punishers. Fora bit of variety I've gone for a reversed scheme that will also feature for my TIE FOs, especially as I now own a full dozen of the little buggers.

All together that's another 12 Painting Points. I noticed the other day that I'm on for a very lean year in that regard. I think that's more because of my shift in gaming over the last year, not only towards X-Wing and now Netrunner but also because I spend more time playing. I felt kind of sad but Infinity is going to be my main painting outlet and has only really been around since the summer. I want to clock up some more points but it's time, I need to make better use of it ;)

For a further seemless segway I fully intentionally picked up a can of white spray yesterday. You can see it on the right next to my impulse purchases 😲

The store, Wargames Workshop has added a merchandise and comics section which were far too good to pass up. I could have been far far worse but resisted the Boba Fett shoulder bag and the more obvious Star Wars bobble heads.

I'd been tempted to pick up an Imperial Assault bantha rider for some time and I'm a long time Battlestar freak from my very early years. With this kind of stuff I often prefer the more niche stuff that you have to know about to understand. Slight geek snobbery I admit.

I'm also a part time comics geek. I've had a 2000AD subscription for many years now a days have a few trade paperback lines that I pick up regularly. I'm a big fan of the British scene so the pre Watchman mini series was always going to be leaving the store with me. Another blog topic is forming from the mists.........

And there we are all caught up! It's another busy geek week on the cards, plenty of Netrunner, but I'm setting an Infinity painting target of the Doctor and Engineer.

Little steps!

Crossing the Streams

Hello people,

Just a quick one. After a long week at work I made the ,as minute decision to head up to Lost Ark today with Alex for some casual Pew Pew action. A dozen of us turned out for four rounds. Other than one TLT spam and a Hilbots everyone was playing nicely and I took the opportunity to run something a bit different in 3 Khiraz, 2 Mangler Skyc aka 20 Second Squadron.

I've run it a couple of times and wanted to try the tactic of hugging a board edge to draw in my opponent before turning in on them to choose engagement. I also wanted to keep them all together as much as possible to maximise firepower and use their 5 K-Turns.

In short it, and I, performed better than I expected taking four strong wins to place second. The loss was against Super Poe Swarm which went undefeated when my otherwise hot dice went cold and I made the mistake of chasing Poe. Otherwise I flew well, especially against the TLT spam which was rather pleasing.

For my prize I chose a Netrunner Data Pack, The Universe of Tomorrow, as I'm pretty happy with the list. The Khiraz, not sure of the plural, have been undercoated and promoted to the head of the painting queue.

Result 😊

Permission to Land

Hello people,

Shock, horror yet more X-Wing on Sunday  but this time with something of a twist.

Event supremos Gaurdians of Tyr ran the inaugural UK Team Championship. Enfield Gamers entered a team amongst a field of thirty two teams.

The format was as follows;
- each team consists of three players each flying one of Rebel, Imperial and Scum
- each team submits lists prior to the event, pre published
- each list is upto 100 points forming a team total points cost
- each round is drawn team vs team via standard Swiss rules
- individual match ups are picked by team initiative i.e. the team with initiative picks first match up
- best of two wins the round with MoV scored as standard across the whole team.

The event sold out incredibly quickly with team tactics from builds, initiative bids and match ups being hotly debated. Some teams went to great lengths with spreadsheets of preferred match-ups and full on strategy sessions.

Not so Enfield Gamers Splinter Squadron. As experienced tournament players we were aware of the meta lists and looked to cover the options with flexible lists we each new well. For us that was Scum TLTs, Soontir swarm and BBXX with T-70s.

I was a bit bothered that the event was going to be hyper competitive but the team element had quite the opposite effect with a very chilled, fly casual feel about the day. The Gaurdians of Tyr boys also did an excellent job of running such a large event and expect to double the field next year.

Another concern was that my dice had been so hot Thursday night that they had almost set the table alight. As such I had the commen superstition that my dice would argue with me on Sunday......and so it proved! Personally I had four of my five games decided within 10 points for two wins, a draw and two losses. I'm happy that I flew well but my evade dice especially were poor all day. More to the point I had five good games.

Thankfully my team mates did better for Enfield Gamers' Splinter Squadron to place 4th of 32, just 20 MoV from 3rd. A good day out by anyone's measure. Another concern had been my recent feelings of burnout. It's been a commen conversation between a few of us recently. As such Soontir's Interceptor will be parked in the hanger for a refurb while I Fly Casual for a while.....

M-Athlete

Hello people.

 

Fair warning this is a musings type post. Might be best to source a beverage :)

 

Last Saturday I attended yet another X-Wing event. This one was an inter-club challenge representing the 186. It was a good day out up at Wargames Workshop in Milton Keynes. Including five 75 minute games, travel and breaks it was a 14 hour day. By game 5 I was flagging, same as everyone else, and was triumphantly exhausted during prize giving. No complaints though, quite the opposite :)

 

As a regular tourney player it's something that I'm used to and have learned a few survival techniques. I'm also very familiar with the inside of a gym and run a couple of 10Ks a week. The parallels are all there to be drawn.

 

For a tourney I'll make sure I get in a decent breakfast, often scrambled egg and bacon on toast. I've learned to snack small between games, peanut butter roll or fruit, and try to drink a bottle of water per game, especially as rooms full of gamers warm up rather quickly. I limit my lunch as I used to play poorly first game back otherwise, Circadian rhythem has an effect apparently. So hydration and regular snacking (non sugar to avoid rush and crash), the parralels begin to form.

 

Then, as I was contemplating this post I found this article on the Beeb about the physical effect of sustained mental effort. The article specifically looks at bridge, poker and chess but the same principles applying to any competitive gaming. The important word there is competive because primarily we all play games for fun and escapsim from real life. Competitive gaming offers a different edge to things, something I've rambled on about before an exacts a different toll.

 

With physical training repitition is key to build skill, endurance and stamina. Mental training, in the form of competitive gaming, follows the same mantra. I was interested in the article's claims that chess grand masters can burn 5000+ calories. The stereotypical gamer is either in need of feeding up or a pathalogical salad dodger, though I don't think the stereotype holds these days.

 

Another parrallel is the need for rest days / periods. With a decent number of events and competitions recently I'm beginning to feel the burn. As a release Thursday nights at Dark Sphere I've been playing much more casually. In a couple of weeks there's the Gaurdians of Tyr Team Touranament and I know a lot of people have been getting in plenty of table time for it. It's going to be an excellent day out but afterward I'm going to notch things back a touch. Tomorrow its Warboar in Bromley which many of us are using as an extended practice day.

 

With competitive X-Wing, there's more than one kind of STRESS but at the end of the day its all about the Pew-Pew ;)

Reasons to be Cheerful, 1, 2, 3!

Hello people,

One of the reasons we all engage in our hobby, and many others besides, is to find some escapism from the occasional harshness of real life. I often find that when life bites a bit harder than usual I often splurge on my various interests.

As such, behold!

I rarely get out of my pit early on a weekend but yesterday the lure of a Hound's Tooth and buddies did the job. Three Khiraz join the party along with two monstrous TIE Punishers to join Thrawn's Splinter Squadron. As such I spent an enjoyable morning popping card tokens and reshuffling my card folder (GEEK!!) whilst comtemplating the Slaver repaint.  Now that will be a labour of, geeky, love!

The Infinity pile has already been discussed. The second week of September has been booked as leave and I'm looking at a couple of ITS tourneys at Wayland in October. Always useful to have an aiming point!

So that just leaves Netrunner. I have a starter set and that's it so far. I can myself making a big investment over time and to help myself out I'm going to go all Tale of the Net with a series of posts charting my introduction. True Tale of style I'm going to set myself a monthly budget of £30 and do my utmost to stick to it. As much as anything it should be a nice change of pace from X-Wing and Infinity posts ;)
Meanwhile here's a Netrunner site I found that will form my lunchtime reading for a while.

Happy days ;)

Scandi-licious part 3

Hello people,

Not a lot of chance to post yesterday as it was a very long intense day.

First off Nigel took the Armada title to become Nordic, and as such European, Champion!

For myself I ended up going 5-1 to claim 10th in the Swiss and my first top 16 cut which is immensely pleasing. Unfortunately my dice let me down in the first round this morning but I was a good close, fun game.....even against Dual IG.

International Prize Sniping was however achieved with some funky Crit tokens, especially appropriate as Boba took five in the final game ;)

Over the weekend my dice were decidedly rpoey but I flew pretty well and lucked out a couple of times with two very close match wins. The loss was unfortunate as the guy slow played me from turn 1 as an obvious tactic. It was the worst game of X-Wing I've ever played but thankfully it didn't effect the trip particularly.

That being said there were issues with the trip as a whole. Event logistics creaked, accommodation was an issue which stretched the budget past expectation.

On the upside were 6 good games, 3 of which were excellent. Top 16 is an achievement that I'm very proud of and one that spurs me on further. The 186 were excellent company an the majority of the very european field were excellent to chat to. Lots of quality banter!

The icing on the cake was the superb burger place that provided lunch three days in the row :)

Despite the feeling that the trip could have been more than it was we'd definitely do it again, just better planned. A case of being somewhat wiser from the experience.....overall a highly enjoyable one :)

Thank you Copenhagen!