I'm still playing Final Fantasy X, but I've reached a point where I need some help to get past the next challenge (for those in the know, I've just retreated from Mt Gagazet back down to the Calm Lands, where I am trying to level up my party enough to defeat Seymour...again!) Most FFX walkthrough sites are blocked by the proxy/firewall at work, but Bella magazine isn't blocked - and they have this great Final Fantasy X Walkthrough - by Lisa! So thanks to a women's magazine I can plan my next moves from the office when I should really be working.......

Reminder to self - consider booking up for Crucible: Creating Church on the Margins:

Christians in Britain (and across western culture) are facing profound challenges and fresh opportunities. The long era of Christendom is coming to an end. We now live in a plural society, with multiple religious options alongside secular assumptions, in which Christianity has largely lost its position of dominance and privilege. Although we seem to be declining in numbers and influence, this new environment offers many new possibilities – if we have the courage and imagination to grasp them.

Crucible is a new training programme for Christians with courage and imagination.

Last week in Austria was great fun. I actually think I am getting better at skiing. The conditions were quite difficult - icy in the morning, slushy after lunch - but I only fell over three times, a record for me. And I was taking the black runs with no problems at all. Most days I got up early and skipped breakfast so as to make the most of the morning - if I have to choose I prefer skiing on ice to slush. On two days I also made the 2-hour journey up to the Hintertux Glacier. At 3250m it was much colder up there and the snow in much better condition, so those were awesome days for both scenery and skiing. It was an Oak Hall trip so I was with a large group of Christians - which I realize might sound pretty dreadful to some of my readers - but for me it was a great friendly atmosphere and I made several new friends. I took Zendo along with me but only managed to lure people into a game once. Anyway the holiday was so busy that gaming was pretty low on my priority list, for once.

This is where I shall be from Saturday, skiing in the Ziller valley in Austria. If there is any snow left of course - the last fall was the week before last. It doesn't look too bad on the webcam but a big dump of fresh snow would be lovely. Here's hoping for cold weather and lots of precipitation. I want Spring to be postponed for at least a week, if that's OK with everyone......

Apologies, I am mucking about with comments on this blog, and it's not going very well so far. I want to move over to Blogger comments, but leave the legacy comments (Enetation) still available for you to read, while subtly discouraging you from adding any more legacy comments. So the link to the new (Blogger) comments is at the right hand side at the bottom of each post. My idea is that there will be a little reminder in the middle where there are legacy comments available, something like a '*' or '(2)'. But Enetation doesn't seem to want to play ball at the moment, so it's all a bit of a mess for now. So just remember, the new comments system - the one I want you to use from now on - is on the right. OK?

Greg Costikyan has a touching obituary for Redmond Simonsen:

Before I go into the personal bit, I'll explain why you should know Redmond's name, even though you probably don't: Redmond coined the term game designer. Before he did, we had no good term; game inventor, game author... but he put his finger on what we do. Redmond established the look for the graphics of the board wargame. Redmond wasn't the first to design a fantasy/science fiction boardgame, but he almost single-handedly established it as a successful genre... And Redmond was a kick-ass game designer in his own right. Go find a copy of StarForce: Alpha Centauri, or Sorceror.

The Elements of Drawing is a searchable and browsable online version of the teaching collection and catalogues assembled by John Ruskin for his Oxford drawing schools.

Ruskin assembled this collection - including many Turners and many of his own drawings - as a resource for his drawing classes. Now this amazing resource is available online! (There seems to be a problem viewing expanded versions of the pictures, but hopefully this is a temporary glitch.)

Radio Free Nepal - anonymous blogging and photos from Nepal where the king has suspended democratic government indefinitely. This picture shows 83-year-old Nepali Congress leader Bal Bahadur Rai being taken away by police during the protest rally in Kathmandu on Monday.

At last I'm starting to feel normal again after the weekend - all my paragliding muscles had got very lazy since last October, so when I finally got the chance to fly again on Sunday it left me feeling very sore indeed. Fantastic day though - in spite of the on/off wind conditions I got 5 flights before the end of the day, but of course, because I don't know how to soar and top-land yet, that meant 4 exhausting walks back up the hill lugging the harness and glider! And they made us practice our parachute landing falls all over again, which was a bruising experience in its own right.

With all the excitement of restarting my paragliding training, there has still been space for some gaming. I played 1825 with Phil on Saturday, and we enjoyed it very much. It goes well as a 2-player game, and the kinder, gentler stock-market makes for a less confrontational game than 1830 et al. Phil beat me by a good margin.

I also met up with Les on Monday for an evening of Blue Moon in the pub. This game is intriguing with real depth of play that I am only just starting to get into - plenty of appetite for replaying this one.

I've just come back from a very enjoyable weekend away with my friends on the Workshop Team. We stayed at Jordans Youth Hostel which is one of those simple shacks in the woods that the YHA loves to buy. It was all very cosy and well heated, with radiators in the bedrooms and shower block, and a nice wood-stove to sit around in the lounge. We went for a long walk on Saturday in the Chiltern Hundreds (whatever they might be) and visited the Friends Meeting House next door on Sunday morning. This is a beautiful, historic building linked with William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. Entering the austere, panelled meeting room was like stepping into a time machine. Sitting quiet and still for an hour was a huge challenge for me, difficult and demanding but also peaceful and reassuring, and I have tremendous respect for these people for whom this is a weekly spiritual discipline year in year out, for a lifetime.

I took a collection of accessible games with me, and was pleasantly surprised by the uptake. Debs and Viv learned Lost Cities, Zendo went down well with Trish, Matt, Viv and Debs, and we had an epic game of Lord of the Rings on Saturday night, with me overseeing proceedings and about 8 people actually playing (Merry was inhabited by a weird triple personality comprising Sue, Trish and Linda). This is a great game for non-gamers and always succeeds in drawing people into the drama of the story. The last hour was a really intense struggle to get across Mordor with everyone concentrating hard and discussing every single card play! Sadly they succumbed at space 56 but it was a great effort.

I have uploaded a few photos of the weekend here.

This is sweet - Phil is asking me for help with a console game. After years of being held in contempt by the boys for my feeble abilities at games such as Quake, Gran Turismo, WipeOut etc. Phil is stuck in Final Fantasy X, unable to beat a boss that I vanquished about 50 hours ago, and he wants me to talk him through it. Respect my Leet Skillz!

Andrew Sullivan: Society is dead, we have retreated into the iWorld:
Even without the white wires you can tell who they are. They walk down the street in their own MP3 cocoon, bumping into others, deaf to small social cues, shutting out anyone not in their bubble.

Every now and again some start unconsciously emitting strange tuneless squawks, like a badly tuned radio, and their fingers snap or their arms twitch to some strange soundless rhythm. When others say “Excuse me” there’s no response. “Hi”, ditto. It’s strange to be among so many people and hear so little. Except that each one is hearing so much.

I've been meeting up with my new gaming buddy Les in local pubs to play two-player eurogames. It's a very pleasant way to spend a weekday evening, and when your gaming activity attracts the curious attention of the attractive blonde barmaid, well that's doubly pleasant.

Games we have given an outing so far:

San Juan - clever adaptation of Puerto Rico, not just the theme but many of the mechanics too. Plays well with two. I'm not a huge PR fan so this would not be near the top of my list, but it's enjoyable enough. I won with the help of the chapel - just keep burying someone every turn!

Scarab Lords - great pub game, lots of cursing. I think we are pretty evenly matched.

Minotaur Lords - sequel to Scarab Lords with upgraded production values but a serious balance problem. The blue deck seems to be unbeatable. An unusual slip from Reiner.

Hera and Zeus - this has been sitting on my shelf for years so it was great to play it at last. I really enjoy this one, it has a lot of interesting tactical possibilities. One each so far.

Blue Moon - this is great stuff, a really top-class game. Beautifully produced and fascinating Magic-style combat. Les has a playtesting credit in the rules so unsurprisingly he outclassed me. Played three times last night and I lost them all.

There's a price to be paid for being a wargames geek. Oh yes. For example, when I was a kid I was modifying a plastic French Napoleonic soldier with my craft knife when the knife slipped and nearly sliced the top of my left thumb off. Blood everywhere, lots of it, recriminations from frightened parents, and a hasty trip to casualty. 35-plus years later the scar still opens up and bleeds a little in cold weather, just to remind me. Ouch, it's hurting right now as I type......

I don't really need to blog about the weekend as Phil has covered it all already. He's recorded all the salient points - lots of relaxed time with Phil, lots of good food and wine, the pub quiz with some new friends from church, and of course the sound whipping I received at Europe Engulfed (the 1942 one-mapper). I do love this game, but gosh it's hard on the Germans in Russia. I made several boo-boos, and you really can't afford to make any slips at all - the pressure of the Russian replacement rate builds up so quickly. And I would love to see someone who really knows what he is doing play this game - I'm sure there are some vital tricks and tactics which I just have no clue about yet, that could make the challenge more possible for the Germans. (I have worked out a 1941 one-map scenario, just for the purposes of practising Barbarossa, which Dave is helping me playtest and which I will post shortly.) Final point from Phil's post - do I really have a ridiculous number of hobbies?? Answers in the comments please....

T H E ::: B U R N I N G ::: B L U E

This new wargame from our very own Lee Brimmicombe-Wood looks complex - it is a follow-up to his Vietnam air game Downtown (GMT) - but the theme is such a big hook. Severely tempted to pre-order it even though I would probably only get as far as punching the counters and gazing at the map.

Two Battle of Britain veterans, John Greenwood of 253 Squadron (Hurricanes) and John Freeborn DFC of 74 Squadron (Spitfires) have been helping the designer in his research for the game. Lee Brimmicombe-Wood is enormously grateful for their kind assistance, recalling events from 64 years ago and clearing up many matters of detail.

There are some amazing interviews with these veterans on the website. Not the usual stuff, Lee is focussing on technical issues such as HF vs VHF reception, command and control, interception rates, visibility etc. It's amazing how much these guys remember after 64 years!

I'm auctioning off some more games over the next few weeks. First up on eBay are a mint shrink-wrapped copy of Thirty Years War (this is a duplicate copy I was shipped in error by GMT - there's no way I would get rid of my first copy of this game) and a slightly less pristine copy of Western Front Tank Leader. Bidding for Thirty Years War is going well, but Western Front Tank Leader (a game which is abundant and a bit dated) is stuck on a quid at the moment. Why not make it two quid? - still a bargain!

I quite enjoy the process of selling on eBay - presenting the game nicely and selecting some good marketing text makes a big difference to the end price.

What a cool idea, I want to join in!

moleskinerie: The Wandering Moleskine Project:

We are happy to announce the launching of the 'Wandering Moleskine Project' @ Moleskinerie. Several notebooks will be sent on their way from various points around the world, and scans of pages will be posted as they are filled.

-Participants are entitled to use one page of each notebook and to send it on to the next recipient within one week of receiving it.

-The notebooks are to be mailed/passed along to the next person on the list.

-You are pretty much free to write/draw whatever you desire, provided your entry does not deface or alter the notebook or others' entries.

-Participants are requested to scan their entry and to send it to Moleskinerie when mailing it to the next recipient.

Well I got to play Flandern 1302 - the game I picked up on my recent trip to Germany - a lot quicker than I anticipated. With boardgame newbies as well. Kez and Joe, my two ex-nephews, were over last weekend to visit Phil. You can read a graphic report of their epic Saturday-night bender in Guildford over on Phil's weblog - and another on Kez's weblog. I can't believe I was seriously considering going along with them at one point - I'm sooo glad I chickened out at the last minute! I would still have the hangover now. Sunday morning in the flat was very quiet as you can imagine, but I had been fiddling with Flandern 1302 on the coffee table all weekend trying to learn the rules, and after lunch they were all keen to have a go. Everyone seemed to enjoy the game a lot. The way the game works is fairly simple to explain and understand, it only takes an hour or so to complete, and the subtleties of the tactical possibilities gradually dawned on us as the game went on. What helps a lot for newbies is the pacing of the game, which starts slow and gentle with players choosing between possible tile lays on various fairly empty cities. Eventually the first city is completed and ready to score, and from that point onwards there is a gathering sense of urgency as the cities get scored more frequently, you are starting to run out of tiles, and everything becomes urgent all at once. Phil won easily on 46 and I trailed badly, finishing on 19. I like this game a lot, and can't quite understand its low rating on BGG. Perhaps this is a result of its low profile as it has not been published in English. However all the components are language-free and there is a reasonable translation of the rules available on BGG. It is beautifully produced and it doesn't cost a lot (22 Euros). Highly recommended.

I played a Hammer of the Scots rematch with Neil last Wednesday. This time we chose the Bruce scenario and I took the Scots, who start the game heavily outnumbered but with the King already crowned and on the board. This scenario has a very different feel to the Braveheart one - without Edward I's overwintering ability the English effectively have to start again every year, marching a fresh levy back up into Scotland to have another go at penetrating the bottleneck into the highlands. I managed to keep Bruce and Galloway alive for several years and with the help of the Norse the Lowlands were kept in ferment for much of the game. Meanwhile of course I was using the King to clean up the Highlands. There were several big battles with stunning reversals of fortune, but Neil was never really able to halt the slow ratcheting progression of nobles declaring for Scotland. I think I was luckier than Neil with dice and cards, and drawing the Norse early helped a lot too. We got it all finished in 4 hours. First time in a long while that I have won a game of Hammer, and first time ever as the Scots.