tracker7 | Entries tagged with x-wing

The second season of Star Trek: Picard was pretty good Trek. Better than the first, I think. Time-travel stories are risky by nature, and this one has some hefty changes in the future history. Being Trek, of course, canon is flexible, and there's always the out of creating an alternate timeline.

Strange New Worlds got off to a good start. The first two episodes were rock-solid Trek. I love the cast, especially Jess Bush's Christine Chapel. Anson Mount is a really good Christopher Pike.

The drawback to watching these shows on my TV is the Paramount+ app. On the PS4, at least, the app is hot garbage. It doesn't save logins, so I launch the app, sign into my account on the laptop, enter a code, and then I can watch something. But, the HUD stays on-screen at all times, and the audio and video lose sync far too often. So, I just watch on my iPad instead, and that'll do until I drop the subscription in a few weeks in favor of AppleTV, probably.

I'm thinking about selling off my X-Wing collection. I don't think I'll play the game again, not with any regularity, at least. I may go that route with Armada, too - I think I have two expansions sealed in box that have been sitting next to my desk for over a year.

Continuing my read of The Expanse - about 3/4 of the way through the seventh book. It continues to be darned enjoyable.

Some very good X-Wing Friday evening, an Epic match against Zane. He won the scenario, but my force darn near wiped his out in the process. My B-Wings did their job of wearing down the opposing Raider enough that my CR90 was able to destroy the Imperial corvette in the next-to-last round.

Slept in Saturday, finished reading The Drowned World. Got up early Sunday and headed to Liberty. Watched football with Dad, called it a night around 9. Woke up around 4AM Monday to get ready for one more trip to Logan County.

And off we went, leaving around 5:15AM. Dad, The Niece, and the Doberman as comfortable as they could make themselves - and asleep; me in the driver's seat. The big ol' Yukon is comfortable and will eat up the miles. I connected my phone and queued up a couple episodes of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff for at least the first part of the drive. As chance would have it, one segment was on the Blair Mountain War - in Logan and Mingo Counties.

We left too early, and even with a stop for breakfast along the way, we got to the attorney's office about an hour early. The buyer got there, he and Dad signed the papers, and we got the agreed-upon price. We hadn't planned to do this, but The Niece and I got Dad to make one last drive by the lot and my aunt's old homeplace.

Old WV10 is one of the main roads through Logan County, and the road was carved, barely two lanes wide, into the sides of the Guyandotte River valley. Unsafe, at best, but it was what the state could afford to build at the time. Several years ago, it was replaced by a new WV10, four lanes, a lot of bridges, and well-designed interchanges with the old roads; old WV10 is now Hanging Rock Road, and that's a darned appropriate name.

The few miles we traveled along Hanging Rock helped my feeling that we're in a slow collapse. There were at least four places where the roadbed had just fallen away under one lane, and temporary signs instructing travelers in that lane to yield to oncoming traffic had the look of becoming permanent.

I came back to Louisville on Tuesday. I was so very tired of that drive, tired of skirting Danville and Springfield, of driving through Perryville and Bardstown and Mount Washington. Gods, it was good to pull into the driveway.

So, that part is done. Logan County is just a place on a map with some fading memories now. If I go there again, it'll be for a funeral.

Got in some regular X-Wing time Friday night, and this coming week should be a return of Epic play. The ol’ CR90 has been in storage for too long, and I have a hankering to try the multi-faction option.

Drove to Liberty yesterday (Saturday) morning. Checked in with a mechanic, spent some time with Dad, went to dinner with some friends from high school. We worked around the house today, watched football, talked quite a bit.

SpaceX's second Crew Dragon launch is pushed back to Friday morning, a little before 6AM. That's about the time I wake up, so I'll probably watch the rocket go up.

Friday's going to be a day. One of our Fort Knox guys (Michael Predny, future-Andy) is transferring to Aberdeen next month, so we're having a big Armada match as part of a send-off. Two teams, 1000 points per team, with a custom objective - the Rebel general and his command are attempting to escape to a new base, and the Empire is here to keep that from happening. My partner and I are fielding six Victory Star Destroyers between us, and I'm getting my Onager onto the table for the first time. That weird beast is going to, hopefully, use its ridiculous weapons range to herd the Rebels into the Victories' guns and missiles. This will probably
go four or five hours, and my brain will start leaking out of my ears by the time we're done. And it will be a blast.

My favorite X-Wing podcast is hanging it up. The Shuttle Tydirium made its last flight this week, after five years and 132 episodes. They've promoted my favorite style of play - casual, narrative games that don't adhere to the "standard" 400/6 setup. I got to play in one of their events at GenCon 2019, had an incredible time and came home with a terrific stack of loot. The only other X-Wing podcast I still listen to is Gold Squadron, and I've skipped over a lot of their episodes lately.

The Dodgers are the best team in the Majors, 18 games into the season. They're sitting at 14-4, off tonight, playing the surprisingly good Padres tomorrow night.

Friday's planned 2v2 X-Wing match became a 2v2v1 1500-point duke-a-roo when Pastor Scott made an appearance. I think we last saw him in the Before Time, and it was a great pleasant surprise to see him. Trash was talked, lots and lots of dice-rolling, and a good evening of play. And my team won, so, even better.

After my sixth Thunder Over Louisville, I'm just about over Thunder. The Derby Festival was determined to have some kind of event this year, and instead of one huge riverfront event with 600,000 people, there were to be five smaller airshows and fireworks displays visible from most of the city, and these locations were to be kept secret until just before the events. Didn't happen that way, of course. Some clever person looked into the city's fireworks permits and found the planned sites. So, two shows were cancelled because of concerns of large gatherings. One remaining show was at Bowman Field, pretty much in my backyard, so for a couple of hours Saturday night, my neighborhood and its small streets were packed with people, including one twit and her spawn who decided to park in my driveway. I showed my ass, I guess, but they moved.

The cop who killed George Floyd was found guilty on all three charges this afternoon - second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. I expected the manslaughter charge to stick, if anything, but the prosecution made a heck of a case. Barring a heck of an appeal, a murderer is going away for a long time.

As expected, the minor flooding has arrived. The Ohio is noticeably high, and parts of River Road are closed and under water. I think the most recent forecast called for a crest on Monday afternoon, so we can count on River Road reopening around Wednesday.

I'm about to lose another cousin - the third of six brothers. 40 years of unrelenting alcoholism and a couple decades of various antipsychotics have caught up with him. This morning, his hospice nurse told the family that his lungs were filling with fluid, and he could be gone in a day or two. Mom's in no shape to travel to the impending funeral - she fell getting out of the shower a couple of days ago - and to my surprise, she understands and acknowledges that.

Got in a couple X-Wing matches last night. Lost a close standard game, and won an Epic game through the U-Wing's maneuvering.

Coronavirus COVID-19 is spreading. About 67K cases and 1500 fatalities worldwide, depending on your source. Public health agencies - including China's - are doing the right things: aggressive triaging, quarantining, pushing out as much information as possible. There are a couple of cruise ships quarantined at sea over this, and from what I'm hearing, the passengers and crew are taking it in stride. Communities are forming around social media platforms, mainly WhatsApp, and we aren't seeing the kind of freakouts that I'd almost expect to see. China has seen this before with SARS, so, while a respiratory epidemic isn't something you want to grow accustomed to dealing with, having this kind of knowledge and preparation in place is never a bad thing.

It's all darned interesting.

The Niece and I got together Thursday and saw Knives Out. For some reason, I had gotten into my head that this was a comedy, and I was wrong, but who cares because it's one of the best movies I've seen in quite a while. A stellar cast giving superb performances and working with a great story and director - this is the good stuff.

Had a heck of a good night playing X-Wing Friday. Got in a team Epic match, and it was a proper Empire versus Rebellion throwdown. I fielded a Gozanti as our capital ship, and the opponents had a CR90, and we both had the obligatory mix of fighters. Without really meaning to, I built my Gozanti to be a brutal close-range combatant, and it combined with a couple of TIE Bombers and a Star Wing to make short work of a couple of bold Y-Wings. My teammate's gaggle of TIEs got the best of the other Rebel escorts - though not without losses - and we were able to focus everything we had left on the CR90. It's a tough ship, but three rounds of fire from all quarters did it in.

Looking at dropping one of the streaming subscriptions, probably Disney+. I'm hitting the same state I was in when I dropped cable way back when - I'm just not watching enough to justify the expense. Netflix and Amazon Prime have more than enough for me, and I got a year of Apple TV+ with my new iPad, and I'm just not watching very much on the Mouse now that The Mandalorian is over for a while.

I've found myself in the role of ... oh what the heck, flight instructor on Friday nights. I'm spending a good fraction of my time at the store showing new folks how to play X-Wing, and while it's a little thing, it's been good for me. There's a group of young kids who started off watching games when they weren't playing Magic, and last night, after some back-and-forth on the club's FB page, showed a transgender couple some finer points of the game.

Last night would have been D&D night, but for real life getting in the way. I'm not exactly disappointed, but at the same time, it would have been good to have gotten the PCs into the Feywild.

Our local nerd con is coming to an end - this will be the last ConGlomeration. I'm surprised, and definitely disappointed. I understand it - the existing committee has been doing this for 20 years, after taking on the task of succeeding Rivercon. ConGlom had some ups and downs, and I had a real problem with the con's gaming director once upon a time (before we became good friends), but it was almost always a fun time. I'm going to miss it, and while the much bigger GalaxyCon is going to keep on going for as long as the money is there, it's ... just not the same thing.

The wreck was finally removed Friday afternoon. Took some social engineering, but I'm unable to care.

New refrigerator is shiny and larger and quieter than its predecessor. Glass and/or plastic shelves instead of wire racks, and little drawers here and there. Should be more energy efficient, too.

The X-Wing league championship was Friday I placed second out of a six-player free-for-all. Could have placed higher, or more importantly, prevented the eventual winner from coming out on top. A few weeks of casual (well, even-more-casual) play, including at least one Epic night, until the next season's format is announced.

The Mandalorian continues to deliver. Solid Star Wars action and storytelling. This week's episode dropped a couple days early because of The Rise of Skywalker's release, which was okay, but it means waiting two extra days for the season finale - relatively speaking, I mean. I've let myself get spoiled on Rise, and my already low expectations have dropped.

Bevin finally conceded the election, after other big names in the Republican party advised him to do so. He now says he's looking forward to returning to the private sector.

Got in an Epic X-Wing match Friday night. Got beat, learned plenty, had a good time. We had some spectators during the game, a couple of elementary-age kids who found our mix of tiny and sizable plastic spaceships much more interesting than their Magic decks.

NMRA Division 8 train show on Saturday. A couple of decent portable layouts, and a hall full of dealers. I picked up three cars from my wish list, saw a couple of friends, went home. Operating session in Jeffersonville tomorrow night.

In spite of myself, I've been watching and listening to the presidential impeachment hearings. It hasn't been especially theatrical, and my stance hasn't been changed at all. I'm learning, though, that Devin Nunes is an utter nincompoop. Moo.

Came back to Louisville a few hours earlier than had planned to Thursday morning. The Niece was moving into her new apartment and she and Mom&Dad asked me to help with some of the heavier lifting, and I can't resist any of them. Didn't take long, and I got home in time to get a nap in before a short evening shift. Towards the end of the shift, supervisor called to see if I could work a day shift instead of my scheduled evening shift on Friday, and of course I could because that cleared things for gaming Friday evening.

Got in a couple of X-Wing matches. First Order squadron got whupped by Ken's Rebels, and my Rebels did pretty well against a Republic squadron. Took the Rebels (Wedge, Thane, and Dutch) to a tournament on Saturday, and that went poorly. 1-2 on the day, but a fun time - I think the chosen format kept the more competitive and less-fun types from showing up. Went home with a stack of promo cards, and that's really all I wanted out of the day, besides a fun time with good folks.

I'm just about finished playing through the First Order. There are some good pilots in the faction, but I think it's the weakest of the seven. No bombers, and the TIE/FO is just expensive enough that fielding a TIE/LN-type swarm isn't viable. LNs benefit by having Howlrunner providing rerolls; there's no equivalent for the First Order, and rolling just two attack dice, those FOs need every advantage they can get. SFs and VNs can dish out more damage - natively on the VN and ordnance on both - but they're correspondingly more expensive. The big Upsilon shuttle is a darn good combatant when it's flown right, and it's got plenty of room for crew.

Had the rare Friday night off last week, so we got in an Age of Rebellion session. Two of my regulars were out, but some potential new players joined us for a full table. Following the Battle of Hoth, I started running a published adventure, Onslaught at Arda 1. The first chapter - and the night's session - ended with ... an Imperial assault on and the evacuation of a Rebel base. It went well enough, and we had a pretty good time. Don't know when we'll get back to it, of course, because this goddamn job.

Saturday was a big X-Wing event, a Hyperspace Trial. I volunteered to help as a runner and judge, and it was a heck of a long day. We went into this with some trepidation - the host store has historically been almost hostile towards miniatures games, and doesn't carry X-Wing products. Saturday was also International Tabletop Day, and the regular board game group was displaced for the day. Registration started at 10AM, with a 64-player cap. I thing 59 people were registered, including one little kid with a first-round bye. Play got underway right at 11AM with one of our locals getting the other first-round bye ... and then some dude showed up with some BS about thinking that things started at noon, which fooled absolutely nobody. The TO allowed him in - which I don't know that I would have done - and our local guy thrashed him good, scoring more points in the match than he would have with the bye. There were a few drops throughout the day - six rounds, before the cut to the top eight. Top eight started around 10PM, and the final match started a few minutes before 1AM. The players opted to settle with a final salvo - one was part of a carpool group from Indianapolis and they all wanted to go the heck home.

The temp job still sucks, and it's going to suck a whole heck of a lot for the next week or so. Third shift at a stressful post, so no social life for a while. I'm trying to adjust my sleep schedule to prepare for this fuckery, and I'm going to get some more resumes out and try to get out of this mess and back into a grown-up job. This is doing a number on my mental health again, and I have to do what I can to keep things from beating me down.

I'm going back to GenCon for the full weekend for the first time since 2014. I'm not running Crafty's show this time around, and I don't miss the juggling. As of tonight, I'm working the morning shift all four days - I'd prefer to close things down on Sunday, and will probably wind up doing that anyway. Didn't make up any kind of wish list for event tickets, but got tickets for two of Shuttle Tydirium's narrative campaign events, and that's enough scheduled gaming for me. Generics and Games on Demand or pickup games in the exhibit hall.

The Crew Dragon launch and ISS docking went off without a hitch. The capsule will stay docked until Friday morning, then return to Earth, splashing down off the Florida east coast. Exciting times for space enthusiasm.

Went 1-3 playing X-Wing on Sunday, then headed to Lexington to see Camille&Clayton. Always good to see them and with their impending move out of state, the visit was a little bit bittersweet. This was probably the last time I'll be in the house on Twain Ridge, and that knowledge led me to think about another way in which the world moves on.

Places - especially ones where people live - change. Dad finally sold Mamaw & Papaw's home last year. It's staying in the extended family, and that's a plus, but I never want to go there again. I saw the inside a few times when it was being rented; I didn't really want to, but there were things that required it. I want to remember it as it was, in 2008 and early 2009. When it was still Mamaw's, still the place I went to for advice or company or to mow the yard or take care of Mamaw when she needed it. That's how I want it to be forever, and if I never go back inside, then it will always be so.

Went down to see the family on Wednesday (26th). Had to run an errand out towards Hurstbourne, so decided to take the I-64 route home, instead of US150/127. Good reminder of why I don't take I-64 more often. The Interstate portion isn't bad, really; it's less than 40 miles, but the stretch of KY151 and US127 down to Danville is just a chore.

Anyway, it was a good visit. Christmas dinner leftovers, good talks and some work around the house. Mom got me a set of six Star Wars coffee mugs, which are still boxed up, but will likely see a lot of hot chocolate on nights to come. Drove back Thursday afternoon, racing a thunderstorm - the storm won. Gorgeous and menacing squall line passed overhead when I was rolling up on the I-265 interchange, and rain started coming down in sheets. High winds along most of the route, and the Mariner got bounced around a little bit, even.

Flew in a X-Wing tournament yesterday. Mid-pack placing, going 2-2 on the day and winning a casual game after competition wrapped up. Playing five matches and driving back from Frankfort wore me out, and I was in bed at 10PM. I'm not back up to speed this morning, and had to back out of a game this afternoon.

Ran a 7th Sea 2E session Friday night, practice for the sessions I'm scheduled to run at a local con next month. Players had a good time, and I think I have a good-enough handle on the rules.

Went 2-2 in the X-Wing tournament. Three good games; edge case dice results lost the first game, I outflew and outfought my opponents in the second and third, and I made the mistake of going head-on into a six-ship TIE Fighter swarm in the fourth. Placed in the top half, ahead of some of the X-Bros that showed up, had a good day. Tiring, though. I got home around 6:30 and was in bed three hours later.

It's 6:45PM, and thanks to Daylight Saving Time ending last night, it's been dark outside for about an hour now. It's a melancholy time, quiet and still. I welcome the longer nights, now that baseball has ended for the year.

If you have a couple million bucks sitting around doing nothing, you can bid on a whole college campus. St. Catharine shut down a couple of years ago after a drop in student enrollment led to big cuts in financial aid availability for the school. I drive past the campus on most trips to or from my parents' home.

A few months ago, there was a plan in place for purchase of the campus, but I guess that fell through. They potential purchaser was, I think a for-profit college, and they're under real scrutiny lately. I'd like to see the state's community and technical college system snap it up, or maybe a couple of the public universities pool resources. It's in a good location, and its classroom building is less than 15 years old. Good place for a nursing or allied health program to set up - the new classroom building was actually designed for it.

The next-to-last Thursday night X-Wing league session was tonight. I had a heck of a good showing in my first game and managed not to bring shame upon my ancestors in the second, and, hey, I won the night's raffle! Picked up a Fang Fighter for my small Scum & Villainy collection, further validating my decision to pick up a S&V conversion kit a few weeks ago. I've had a good time with this league, and haven't missed playing in the Friday night counterpart. I'm debating going to a tournament on Saturday; its format allows me to run my current pretty capable triple X-Wing squadron.

Came home from playing with little plastic spaceships and tuned in to some seriously terrible football. The 49ers tore the Raiders to ribbons, 34-3. Oakland looked utterly inept, their head coach and defensive coordinator had words right there on the sideline, and the 49ers just did as they pleased. The Raiders used to be my team - there are Los Angeles Raiders items in my possession even now - and I had hopes that with the death of Al Davis (no relation) and the rehiring of Jon Gruden as head coach that the team would get back to being watchable, but it looks like that is not going to happen. They're winning the race for April, I guess, but that's cold comfort.

Also playing really bad football, the UofL Cardinals. Rumblings of replacing the coach, of course. Probably (hopefully) won't happen.

I think my trusty ol' iMac has given up the ghost. I bought it refurbished in 2008, so I can't complain about the longevity, but it still stings. Its eventual replacement will probably be a refurbed unit, too. It seems a good investment.

Following the escalation matches a couple of weeks ago, I got in a couple of full-strength X-Wing Second Edition matches Friday night. I love the game again - maneuvering and placement over card combos and token stacking. The game's title ship is a premier dogfighter again, and the TIE Interceptor is its opposite number again.

It's September. Already, three MLB teams have been eliminated from playoff contention, and the minor leagues are into their championship runs. Not the Bats, though, finishing with a losing record for the nth year in a row. The Dodgers are currently tied with Arizona for first place in the NL West, and as I write this, they're down 2-1 in the 9th against the Diamondbacks.

Sometimes, there's a good idea that turns out to be a real mess in execution. Players are really getting into Epic X-Wing, and for this month's matches, I suggested adding an objective to the games. One of the regulars said he had an idea, so, hey, less skullwork for me. It sounded like a heck of a good idea. Two rounds, with two tables going during the first round, with those matches influencing the second round's scoring and force compositions. It was set up as a Rebels-Imperials contest. The S&V partisans could join in matches that were already underway, with certain conditions and their own objectives.

It was a mess.

The first-round tables both saw convoys under attack, with objectives for both sides. These went well enough - until the S&V forces started jumping in. The games became very chaotic, dragging on - and the Epic format is time-consuming enough - and you could see frustration coming on.

Rounds two got underway after about three hours. Three players each for the Rebel and Imperial sides, plus, at one point, five S&V players. Seven huge ships, and ... I lost count of small and large ships. It took about two turns for things to start breaking down. Around midnight, my teammates and one of the Rebel players and I decided that we were going to go for a couple more rounds, and then call it a game, win or lose. It had become a slog by then, and fatigue and hunger and frustration was getting the best of us.

Maybe as some fallout from the long night at the tables, I was not well yesterday. Barely got out of bed, sleeping most of the day away. Feeling better this morning - already shaved and showered and all that, more than I managed yesterday - but I'm still not back at full strength. Whatever I picked up from Dad over Thanksgiving weekend is a persistent critter.

The new ships hit store shelves today, and now it can be told - it felt good to see my name in the credits of a gaming product again. Playtesting, this time.

The oddly-named (but this is Star Wars, remember) Sheathipede shuttle is an interesting little ship. It's not as combat-focused as its predecessor, set up as more of a support ship. All of the pilots are aces, including what I think is the game's first PS1 ace. When docked with the Ghost and given the Phantom 2 title, the shuttle can give friendlies a free action at the beginning of combat.

Players have been clamoring for the Star Wing gunboat for some time. It's taken from the excellent TIE Fighter PC sim from ... two decades back. It's purely an assault ship, tough and configurable as a missile/torpedo carrier or a cannon carrier. As an ordnance carrier, it introduces the new reload action, giving it effectively unlimited munitions. It's a whole other kind of small-based Imperial ship.

Kylo Ren's TIE Silencer is another first - first small-base ship to be sold in a box, rather than a blister. The model is good-sized, at least twice the size of an Interceptor. It bumps up Ren's pilot skill from his appearance as an Upsilon shuttle pilot; his ability remains the same. Unlike the Star Wing, and some other recent Imperial fighters, the Silencer can't mount any additional weapons.

Tomorrow night is Luke R's two-part Epic scenario. I've got two excellent teammates for the Imperial side, and I'm looking forward to getting the Raider and its escort out. It's going to be a long night on Baxter Avenue.

Saturday night is the big-ass Christmas party at the LeNoues'. Always a good time, but it's draining, and I haven't yet gotten home from one of these before 2AM, and it's always been going strong when I leave.

I don't know how much longer I can keep following football, either NCAA or NFL. Monday night, during the Bengals-Steelers game, a Steeler player, Ryan Shazier, went down with a bad injury. For the record, I really really dislike the Steeler organization. I don't have anything good to say about them. But Shazier's injury... he set up for a block, but for whatever reason lowered his head right before impact, and he went down. If you want to see it, footage is all over the place. Shazier landed face-down, turning himself over with his arms. No movement (and we later learned, no feeling) in his legs. He's seen flexing his hands, maybe trying to make sure he has feeling and/or control there. He was carted off the field, then taken to a hospital. We're hearing things like "spinal contusion," and the concern is less "will he play again next season" than "will he walk again." It's become hard for me to watch people injure themselves for my entertainment. Hell, I quit watching Cops because it became clips of human misery put on TV for entertainment. And Christ, let's not get into the mess of the college game.

Roadside Picnic

Bright Ideas, Dark Futures

Did You Hear What They Said

For Want of a Nail

Solar Power

Razor

Lava's a Many-Splendored Thing

The Frequency of Fear

Can't Hardly Wait

Water Rat

Tesla Girls

Rain

Patrilinear

Heaven

Continental Drift

Live Transmission

The Unforgettable Fire

Sowing the Seeds of Love

Cat People

Kiss me on the Bus

Flock of Bluebirds

Calymba Caly

Profile

June 2025

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags