My plan for the bank holiday weekend was to avoid all Siren calls of pleasure and concentrate on the task of painting the outside woodwork on my house. But first I just had to pop into town on Saturday morning and pay some bills etc. And why not phone Nick and meet him for a coffee while I'm at it?

Mistake.

Over coffee Nick talked me into a Thirty Years War session on Sunday. Sunday afternoon came round and we started the Intervention Scenario, with me as the Protestants. I quickly lost Gustavus in battle and my powerful Swedish army got worn down and defeated by attrition from alternate attacks by the Bavarian and Imperial armies. We enjoyed that so much we immediately swapped sides and started again, when I did exactly the same to Nick that he had just done to me. There must be a way for the Protestants to win this one - we just haven't figured it out yet.

Then it was over to Nick's place for dinner with Anne and their friends Jay and John. Everyone was keen to play Lord of the Rings, which was great fun, even though we all got killed in Shelob's Lair, so we played it again, getting a little further but still perishing. And the evening was rounded off with a game of Chrononauts which didn't go down as well - it was the wee hours by then, and I think we were all tired.

Who needs games conventions when you can get totally gamed out in Salisbury?