Life without revision

Finished my last exam yesterday. Gosh it's been a long haul. I feel a bit bewildered and at a loose end - not sure how to get through a day without revising any more. Maybe I'll just do an hour or two today, just in case......

I've got the day off today - lab project starts tomorrow. So today is a pottering day. I think I'll be spending at least part of it soloing through an ASL Starter Kit scenario. Maybe I should get out in the sunshine at some point as well (sunshine? I vaguely remember that.)

Irresponsibly, I spent some potential revision time on Sunday creating my first ever geeklist. I'm so proud - 16 thumbs!

Getting my mind off brains....

A man can't be always revising for his neuroscience exams, so this week I have managed to fit in soloing an entire game of Clash of Giants II in between all the anxiety, depression, psychosis and amnesia. I played the Ypres scenario and had a fantastic time. The Germans managed to take Ypres but at the cost of seeing their left wing collapse and the French swarm back into Lille. This game was such fun solo I can't imagine how great it must be face-to-face! With a simple rule-set it very precisely captures the feel of WW1 mobile warfare - the constant worries about keeping in contact with friendly units on your left and right, the difficulties of co-ordinating large-scale movements, the slight superiority of defence over attack and the tendency for things to bog down. I like the combat system and the way that troop quality is separated out from raw manpower. And the chit-pull mechanic generates friction and anxiety aplenty.

In my opinion this is an absolutely classic operational-level wargame. I enjoy strategic wargames (like Paths of Glory or Europe Engulfed), and I've had mixed experiences with tactical wargames (ASLSK cool, GBOH not so cool). But for me this sort of thing is the apex of cardboard and paper wargaming: the traditional hex-and-counter operational wargame.

Euphrat & Tigris: always something new

I've been playing it for a decade but this game still holds surprises. I challenged Phil to a quick two-player match after lunch today in his trendy Shoreditch flat. Never seen a game go like this before. Every monument was on the board well before the end, and we made a serious dent in the cube supply. Final score 30:13 to me. I've never scored anything remotely this high in E&T before. How can such simple rules produce so much variety?

Two done, two to go

This morning's exam must have degraded all the structural proteins (like GFAP, actin, tubulin etc) in my brain. It feels like there's just mush in there this afternoon.

Spreading the word

Sue's family have been visiting this week (with strict instructions to keep out of my way during the day when I am revising). We played Through the Desert on Monday evening and Ticket to Ride Marklin last night. Leaving out the passenger rules speeded up setup and made a nice playable game that the less enthusiastic gamers (sister-in-law Maggie and niece-in-law Sarah who always wants to know "is it like Risk?") still enjoyed. Everyone was playing very nicely until nephew-in-law Tom suddenly figured out how to be nasty, and spent the rest of the game gleefully blocking his mother's routes. Sarah, who had spent most of the game stressing about completing her long route, won by a nice margin.

So Ticket to Ride lived up to its reputation as an ideal gateway game (ie a great game for people who don't like games).

Judgement Day

I've been revising since mid-January. That's two and a half months. I think that's the longest I've ever revised for anything, including my finals at Oxford. At last, it's nearly over. I had a relaxing day with Sue yesterday, pottering around Highgate, reading the papers and cooking a nice meal back home. Today it's one last look through my mindmaps for module 1 (yes, I have made a mindmap for *every* lecture in the course)then an early night and the first exam tomorrow.....

That was easy.....

Shiny new template only took about 20 minutes to get up and running. And the new customization features are a whole lot easier than fiddling with the template code. However, I see my little avatar on the right has confused things. And I would really like to be able to pull over my bloglines list and my google bookmarks without having to use code. One day soon perhaps.....

Hooked on victory?

I got a big jolt of dopamine - and whatever other euphoric chemicals my brain rewards me with - when I won the readers' game of Euphrat & Tigris the other week. And when I lost the next one by a similarly impressive margin I received an equivalent dose of dysphoria. (See how I'm thinking neuroscience these days? That's what 2 months of solid revision has done to me.) I can't deny that the big win (13/5/4/4!) was an especially memorable and pleasurable gaming experience, whereas the loss left me slightly grumpy and less motivated to play again. So I was wondering how important winning is to my enjoyment of the hobby. If I never win another game, will I continue gaming? I like to think that I'm a fair-minded opponent who gets most of his enjoyment from the playing not the winning - but how long would I last without an occasional dose of victory to keep me interested? We've all met people who take this too far - gamers for whom winning seems to be their only motivation for playing, and who are prepared to be very unpleasant opponents in order to get what they crave - but I'm not sure that I'm high-minded enough to do without the occasional win myself.

I won! I'm starting to like this game.....

I'm starting to come to terms with Combat Commander:Europe. It helps that I've finally - third try - managed to beat Marty. It was quite a satisfying win as well - it didn't feel too random or gamey. My main line of attack was held up by wire for several turns. By the time I finally cleared it (OK that bit was random) I had saved up a pretty deadly hand of fire combos, and caught his defenders in a deadly storm of FT and HMG attacks. They crumbled and fled.

So I'm starting to figure out which levers to press to make things go my way. Never give up the initiative card - if you do you'll never get that crushing attack result you're after. Never forget it's a card game - the state of your hand is just as important as the position of your troops on the map.

Nevertheless, it still feels lacking in authenticity compared with Up Front! or ASLSK. I don't think it will ever draw me into the same visceral experience that its towering forbears can do.

Anyone for another readers' game?

Anyone for Euphrat & Tigris on the BGG server? It's called Insula with password "nimrods".

Camden Lock Market went up in smoke last night. It's a shame, I liked the shabby hippyness of the place. Ans it's especially a shame as there was a little game shop - Village Games - which most likely burnt down with all the other little businesses there. They sold fancy Go sets and tarot cards and dice and stuff, but they also had quite a few Eurogames stacked on top of cupboards and on the floor. The whole shop was tiny, about the size of a pantry. I hope they were insured...

An open letter

My darling Sue,

You have probably noticed that there have been rather a lot of parcel deliveries to our home recently. There were two just before Christmas (Conquest of Paradise and Runebound), and another two just after (Clash of Giants II and Reef Encounter), and then a specially large one from the States last week (Commands and Colors:Ancients expansions 2 and 3). I would hate you to think that I have got some sort of compulsive game-buying disorder, so I just want to explain what's going on so that you can understand it's not like that at all.

The easy ones first: Runebound and Reef Encounter were BoardGameGeek trades - I swapped games I don't want (Hansa, Caesar & Cleopatra, and Tempus) for games I do want from some friendly geeks on BGG. It didn't cost me any money (except the postage, quite hefty in the case of Tempus) so I got all the fun of the new-game-in-the-post experience without the expense.

Next let me explain to you about the P500 items: Conquest of Paradise and the Commands and Colors:Ancients expansions. I preordered these from GMT ages ago - back in the summer when I had a well-paid job - so it's almost like getting a free gift in the post - from my old prosperous self. I don't think you can blame me for that - can you?

So that only leaves one: Clash of Giants II. This was in GMT's Christmas sale for their loyal P500 customers. 50% off any two games. I was very restrained - I only bought one, so in fact this was an example, not of extravagence, as might first be assumed, but of careful budgeting and prudence.

So there you are. I hope that's all cleared up in your mind now, and you understand why all those parcels were necessary.

Your loving husband,
Peter

Blue Moon heaven

This is a fantastic boon for me - Reiner Knizia's Blue Moon is one of my top ten games of all time, but I only know one other person (my good friend Les) who likes to play it. But now, there is a wonderful computer program that I can practice against. It's a free download!

And it beats me every time......

Bring it on

I didn't do very well in our Christmas challenge - 3rd out of 4, only managing to beat Phil, who had never played Euphrat & Tigris before. But never say die, I've opened another readers' game for you over at BoardGameGeek. It's called Nucleus Accumbens, password "nimrods".

Don't miss Phil's retelling of Frankenstein for modern audiences.

Thanks a lot Steve

Yesterday iTunes suddenly decided, for some reason, that it had no tunes in its library. Thankfully they were all still there (all 3800 of them) on disk, so all I had to do was point iTunes at the folder. Then there was the scary business of reloading them onto my iPod, which it no longer recognized of course. But the annoying thing is that all my playlists have disappeared, and all my ratings too. So I can no longer listen to my "Friday" playlist or my "5-star rated" playlist. Grr.....

Gaming token

My car got towed this morning. Initially I thought it had been stolen, but after a few calls I tracked it down to our friends at the Harringay council vehicle pound. Apparently I had been parked in front of a "dropped kerb" whatever that is. Aargh! £250 gone, what a waste! And how depressing.

But I am married to a wonderful woman. After I had recovered my car and was brooding in my study, Sue brought up a cup of tea, some chocolate, and this voucher, entitling me to a game of Conquest of Paradise (recently arrived in the post) with my wife. Excellent, my mood is lifting already.

Thing is though, a lot of wargamers would love to have a voucher like this. So I'm seriously thinking about eBaying it. It might even cover the fine......

Man flu

Some people (especially women) speak of "man flu" in a derogatory tone of voice. However, I can report that Sue and I have conclusively demonstrated the existence of this mysterious illness. We were both infected simultaneously last weekend with the same strain of virus, and started developing symptoms at the same time on Monday morning. However, my illness has clearly developed in a much more serious manner than Sue's, as measured objectively by the following signs:
- Groaning
- Blowing nose
- Grumbling
- Sneezing
- Self-medicating
- Coughing
- Lying in bed
- Wishing self dead
- Feeling too tired to do household chores
So there it is. You heard it here first - "man flu" is real.

The Christmas Challenge

Anyone for a readers-only game of Euphrat & Tigris over on BoardGameGeek? It's called Globus Pallidus and the password is "nimrods".

Excited!

I'm excited about wargaming at the moment. I'm excited because:

1) I'm meeting Marty tomorrow to play Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage. I used to play this a lot back in the 90's, it will be great to play this classic again. Marty has the new Valley Games edition with the controversial Mike Doyle artwork - it will be interesting to see how useable the new edition is.

2) I'm meeting Phil (my son) on Sunday to play lots of Up Front! And you just can't beat a good game of Up Front!

3) I've just ordered Clash of Giants II in GMT's winter sale. 50% off - that's exciting!

4) Somebody contacted me out of the blue on BGG and offered me a trade. So I swapped 2 games I didn't really want (Hansa and Caesar & Cleopatra) for one game that I pick up and look at every time I go in a game shop but put it down with a sigh because of the price label (Runebound). I'm very excited about Runebound - especially as I can play it solo. And I'm very attracted by the idea of the expansion decks. Term finishes tomorrow so I hope I'll get a couple of hours to try this one out shortly.