Hello few readers!
It has been quite sometime since
I posted on here, so I'll give a brief over view before I move onto
what's important in life: Cigars and Miniature games!
I am now a poolee in the
Marine Corps DEP Program, and my ship date is in July. My MOS is Reserve HIMAR Operator; I get to launch artillery missiles! RAH! I've been
making great progress, no doubt in part to better workout methods, a
better diet, and having picked up some supplements that boost my
energy, burn fat, and suppress my appetite. I've lost a good bit of
weight, and I feel great! I also got a pre-workout that allows me to
go harder in the gym, and that's helped tremendously. Last
Wednesday, I was given the opportunity to meet Drill Instructors.
Okay, it was mandatory I attend the Family Night event, and that was
pretty fun. The DI is an intense person, and I felt like the only
person there who understood it was all a massive intense game of
Simon Says. Something the kids didn't pick up on though, was that
they where looking for confidence. The DI does care if you screw up
in your response, but the DI also looks for confidence and
bearing in one's failure. As my fellow poolees where called out to
ask questions, they all chocked on their words, where slow to
respond, and truthfully...scarred. When I was called out, even
though I made a mistake, my experience over these 17-19 year olds
allowed me to not suffer as greatly, and I noticed the dialogue
between myself and the DI's was different in that light. I know boot
camp is gonna suck, but I feel good about myself being able to handle
the mental aspect of it, something many of these kids lack...like how
I'm lacking in the physical aspect.
I'm now a student at UAH. I take American Government, Ethics, World History II, and Historical Methods. I've
learned a lot, especially about how to think and write like a
historian. This will be critical in my later studies. It also helps
that I maintain an excellent relationship with my instructors.
Reading Enchiridion and The
Prince has further helped
prepare me mentally for the Marines, and my Historical Methods class
has taught me how to ask the hard questions. American Government is self-explanatory: it's American Government.
I'm an employee of one of the FLGSs and I love it. I'm also about to start on at a Major Home Improvement Store, and that makes me happy too, because, well, terrain boards and paint and other things come from there.
So now that the life update is out of the way, let's talk about cigars. KFC is on the mind today.
A good buddy first told me about Drew Estate's latest smoke, the KFC, or Kentucky Fire Cured. The Cigar Room just got some in and I had no choice but to come out and smoke one.
Upon sitting down with a cup of coffee and unwrapping it, I note that it smells like English pipe tobacco, particularly "Nightcap" and "Fox and the Hound". I used a V cut and a cedar strip to light it....
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| It's beautiful! |
Upon lighting it, I felt like I was transported to the backwoods of Eva, Alabama or the mountains of Tennessee. I will admit I have no idea on tasting notes or pairings, but I feel like this cigar is dying to be paired with some now legal moonshine. The draw is a little tough, so I'm glad my wisdom teeth holes are healed up and I used a V cut.
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| Look at that...It looks really well rolled. |
It's a pretty good smoke. Very much like English Pipe, but in a cigar form. 10/10 it gets the Scott Seal of Approval!
Also, on the note of cigars. In my last post, I mentioned I was smoking the Gurkha Pure Evil. While it was a wonderful smoke and my first big gauge cigar, the morning after my sinuses where so clogged I thought I was going to be sick. Luckily, I have a caring girlfriend who came and rubbed Vapo Rub on my chest, WHILE singing "Soft Kitty" to me. I may not get a lot of hobby stuff done with school and a girlfriend...but I think I'm quite well off in that regard!
So on gaming. Well, I gave up on the idea of a Six Day War list. The reason is largely due to lack of interest in anything but the WW2 game, but also because everyone wants to play Israel. Normally I compromise and get my main force and the other armies, but I was not willing to budge. I couldn't even get my anti-Semite to sign on to play the Egyptians with their T-34/54/55/-2 hordes. And that's that other thing. I tried to build a Israeli Tank Company. I read Battlefront's product slingling articles and looked at forum lists. In order to get a good number of tanks, so that I have a good number of platoons on the board, and in reserve, I could not run exclusive M-51 tanks. I had to run more M-50 tanks, which I was fine with. I figured that the volume of fire and re-rolls the Israeli player gets would counter the low anti-tank of the CN-50-75 guns. And I decided that even though I could buy Centurions right away and scratch the 105 guns, I would go with two M-48/Magach tanks. I rounded the list out with a pimped out Mechanized Infantry Platoon, complete with full LMG and Blindicide teams. I also made an escalated list with air support.
When I made the Egyptian counter list, I cried. I had a full on T-34/85 horde, with a full platoon of T-55 (T-55 is what you get when you buy stabilizers and infrared scopes), with a full artillery battalion, with full AA support, and a recon platoon with PT-76 tanks. The PT-76 can penetrate the side armor of my Shermans. Let that sink in. While you chew on my T-34s and -55s, I will flank you with PT-76s and kill you, THEN drop my infantry teams.
I'll stick with slowly building my Late War Light Tank Company, which received a pack of E8 Shermans for Christmas. I'll use them for support alongside my Jacksons.
As far as my main game, Mechwarrior, we have been having lots of fun with it! I recently posted images on the Catalyst forum for the first time of some of my older work, which you can see here, to sort of test the water. Not gonna lie, some of the work I see on here, while pushing me to paint better, is a little intimidating.
I purchased two of the excellent Elfbait Black Lanners and two of the excellent-er MWO Stalkers from Haplo. I actually had my buddy order them for me,so mine got here on time...sorry y'all! The Stalker is an IS mech that holds a special place in my heart, and I hope to really make these mechs rock. I doubt I'll get to them before I leave, because I've now got over thirty of the various N-Scale Battletech mecha that have been produced over the years, but it's all good. I'm in no rush. Besides, I've decided to outsource two of my projects, simply because I haven't the time or capability to make them look how I want. If you have Facebook, you can see examples of my Mechwarrior projects here, here, and in my other albums!
On the actual gaming front, Clan Mutant Sea Bass has been engaged heavily in an Invasion of the Lyran Commonwealth to put Omega Galaxy's commander, Matthew Hasek-Steiner on the throne. We have played a lot of games, and I can honestly say it's been my best gaming ever. One thing we have done that makes this a campaign and truly unique, is that we keep track of what units die and how many times, and in the next campaign game, you are either limited in that unit's use or it is restricted to you. For example, I play three Veteran Nova Cats, one with Jamie Wolf, the other two with Aggressive Stance; all three have Hyperlaser. In the first round, I lost the one with Jamie Wolf and a Hyperlaser blew up. In the second round, I lost an Aggressive Stance Nova Cat and no Hyperlaser. I only played two rounds. At the end of the day, Jamie Wolf is no longer able to be used by me, and I'm now restricted to one Veteran Nova Cat. I can still use Aggressive Stance because it is "P" rated, not "L" or "GS", and gear is assumed to be stockpiled on the dropships. In the last game I played in (couldn't make it this month due to work), we invaded and conquered Coventry. Because the rules where stacked against the Sea Bass player, I adapted by taking only Nova Cat Thors and Phoenix Hawks...and won. Galaxy Commander Scott Roose of Zeta Galaxy is now known as the Conqueror of the Indomitable Coventry. Here's a photo gallery of the game and a BatRep. I have won all of my matches, except one, which still saw me lose nothing, giving me the overall wining-est score.
Our next Campaign game is going to be massive: Tharkad. I plan to set up the board like the Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries level, to include a city, walls, elevated palace, airstrip, mech depot...there will be pics of the preparations, set up, and game play. Due to Mechwarrior's problem of breaking down on a larger points scale, I think I'm going to run a Battletech or Alpha Strike game, in N-Scale, when I come home finally.
Finally, Dystopian Wars and Firestorm Armada, beginning with Firestorm.
My brother had wanted to get into FSA around the time I got into DW. I had planned to go gung-ho into FSA, but I wasn't able to. He only ever got the 1.0 rulebook, a Dindrenzi Dreadnought and a Heavy Cruiser. I have downloaded the 1.1 book, a second hand original release Directorate starter box, and all the fleet lists that have become available, and I really like the rules so far. I've not gotten a game in, and I know that' the best way to learn. But what I really like is the ship building aspect. It's not too generic or abstract like A Sky Full of Ships, but not nearly as complicated as Aerotech or even Battlespace. And here's my point: I'm going to find a way to build the Battletech Warships, Dropships, and Jumpships, and use these rules to allow for space battles to take place in my Mechwarrior game. Eventually, I'd like to scratchbuild/design and maybe even print through Shapeways some FSA-scale units! I did some math, and found the Terran and Dindrenzi Battleships are roughly the same size as a Texas or McKenna Class BB, so I really think it could work, but for now I'll use cutouts or FSA stand-in vessels. I still have my copy of Battleship Galaxies (pity they haven't expanded on that), and the Wretch BB looks a lot like a Blacklion...but I digress. This whole scheme is not very high on my priorities.
Dystopian Wars, on the other hand, has gotten a lot of new things. I swore I wouldn't buy any new pieces untill the 2.0 book drops, but I gave in. For my Federated fleet, I bought a blister of A-17s, Springfield Escorts, Augusta Frigates, Princeton Gunships, a full hull and waterlined Washington Land Ship, an Independence Battleship, two Saratoga Carriers (I got for a steal!) and the Arial Support Box. Inadvertently, I gave myself the tools to build a viable air core force, and solidified my naval core.
My French got some lovin too: a blister of Lyons, a Magenta Mk. II (for a house-ruled Magenta Mk. II squadron), a Charlemagne Dreadnought, two Currone Carriers, a Vauban (for a ridiculously low price), and the Attack Flotilla. I neglected to pick up some Chevaliers and the Toulons, but I'll get them later. My French now have the box set and extra Voltaire flyers, so I expect them to really shine now against the Britannia and FSA players.
I also picked up a new fleet. I cannot say what they are, but it is a high priority to get them painted up and I will be full magnetizing them to take advantage of their multitudinous options and sheer "You're a dick for bring these out" factor. Are they Ottomans? Are they EIMC? Is it the damn Black Wolf fleet? Guys I have no idea WHAT they could be; just check back sometime.
Well, that's all for now I suppose. I leave you all with this question to debate amongst yourselves (and it applies to my research paper):
If we can consider the US occupation of the Philippines successful, then what lessons did we learn from it if we consider it a success?
Until next time, SEYLA and RAH!
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