And now WebTrends have pulled their free stats service. They announced this with an email that told me how important their customers are to them. Yeah right. Yes I know I wasn't paying for this service, but this is my lonely grouchy week while I get used to Phil's departure - so I'm entitled to grumble. I suppose I will have to sign up for BlogSpot Plus now. At least now I can edit my template easily without worrying about screwing up the WebTrends JavaScript. Time to clear out my links list perhaps.....

Well I didn't win or even get shortlisted. <sourgrapes>And I'm not at all convinced by the merits of the winner.</sourgrapes> But take a look for yourselves:

And the winner is... a duck. A Scary Duck to be precise: Alistair Coleman's witty, irreverent blog has beaten 300 rivals to take the title of Best British Blog 2002 and claim the prize of £1,000.

As a final night out together, Phil and I went to see The Taming of the Shrew at Salisbury Playhouse on Saturday night. It was a wonderful production, and when Kate made her last speech, you could have heard a pin drop:

Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks, and true obedience-
Too little payment for so great a debt.

It sounded just so outrageously un-PC, and yet so heart-tuggingly beautiful. There were a few nervous giggles, as if people were expecting the thought police to burst in at any moment. "Is this legal? Surely you're not allowed to say such things these days? But it is Shakespeare, I suppose that makes it alright."

On Sunday I packed Phil's belongings into the car and drove him down to Exeter University. After the initial shock of student lodgings (I remember that feeling well) he seems to be settling in very well and throwning himself wholeheartedly into the social whirl of Freshers Week. I'm jealous.

And bereft. After 22 years of more of less continuous hands-on parenting, that part of my life is over. OK I am still Gavin's and Phil's Dad, but no longer sharing a family home with them, cursing their mess, providing a taxi service, taking messages from girlfriends, clearing up the kitchen after them.....

Hmm, now I think about it, getting rid of all that doesn't sound so bad after all!

NTL Broadband gets a thumbs up from the BBC! BBC NEWS | Technology | Paying the price for cheap broadband:

I pay £25 a month for my ntl cable modem connection and it is worth it, partly because I can sit there streaming music - in my case Radio 3 - all day while downloading massive files and chatting to my friends.

Selling broadband and then saying but you cannot use it all the time and you cannot do stuff that actually uses the bandwidth is like selling a swimming pool but refusing to fill it with water because it might leak.

Whatever next? - someone is talking sense in the Guardian! Martin Woollacott: Muslim societies must change:

There is a recurring delusion that most problems in the world could be solved quite easily if the west would look beyond its narrow interests, try harder, and make up for the mistakes and crimes of the past. That western countries should indeed try harder, and would make a large difference if they did, is indisputable. Yet to see the exclusive key to a better future in changes in western policies is to ignore the irreducible responsibility of the non-western majority of mankind. If you are a westerner, it is cultural imperialism to suggest that all the critical moral and political decisions are in the hands of the west. But when, for example, Muslims argue the same way, they collude in turning themselves into moral passengers.

Beware - a simple card-game could change your life. Andrew Looney's essay Playing Hearts with Pyramids demonstrates how.

I love Hearts. It's my favorite game for standard playing cards, if not my favorite game of all time (not counting my own). I have played Hearts incessantly throughout my life, and I still can't get enough of it. It was Hearts that inspired the Icehouse set, which in turn launched my professional game design career. I love Hearts.

Ted Raicer has just posted a 1942 scenario for Barbarossa to Berlin. There is also a new version of the living rules available which incorporates all the errata - just after I've laboriously copied them into the previous ruleset. And GMT have buried this excellent Expanded Turn Track deep in their site where no-one will ever find it.

I've got this game set up on the table at home now and am driving into Russia in odd moments between meals, coursework, dusting etc. Really impressed so far - this is a worthy successor to Paths of Glory. Maybe this will be my one true game?

Interview with Chris Seay author of "The Gospel According to Tony Soprano" (via Relapsed Catholic):

We see Tony Soprano as he really is. He's a sick man, and yet he's a beautiful man. There are all of these things present with him. And I think most characters that we get in popular film and television are not very real to life. Most of the ones that we have emerging from Scripture are very real when you read them in Scripture, but we have distorted them. We've tried to make them into morality heroes, which they are not. These were really broken men and women. They were very messed up, very sinful. The beauty of the story is that God continues to meet them there.

18AL and 18GA Game Kits are now available again. I played 18GA at ManorCon a few years ago - it was very appealing because it has the authentic 1830 flavour but takes much less time to play. I declined the chance to buy 18GA at the time so may well take this opportunity to set that right.

I've just discovered this marvellous Titan fansite by Chee-Wai Kan. It's got everything - strategy articles, variants, downloads, software, new battleboards and creatures etc etc etc. A treasure trove. I sometimes envy people who can do this - focus on one game enough to really get deeply into it, exploring the design, mastering the strategies, playing around with variants. Some days I think it would be nice to sell off my collection - all except the one true game that I would devote the rest of my hobby life to. But which one? Which games in my collection are complex and rich enough to reward deep study. ( A few spring immediately to mind - Advanced Civilization, Up Front!, Paths of Glory) And how would I know there wasn't something even more worthy about to be published soon? Oh well, I know that I'll never do it. I guess I'm doomed to endlessly repeat my cycle of collecting, punching, reading the rules and shelving more games......

Don't really know how I did this but on Wednesday night we played Web of Power again, and I repeated last week's feat of winning the first game and tying the next with John. Unfortunately everyone is now determined to "get Pete" next time we play....

A few comments about the presentation of Barbarossa to Berlin (haven't had a chance to actually play it yet - but very much looking forward to that!)

Graphics discontinuity. The box and card-backs (WW2, military stencil font, serifs, pastel colours) have a very different look to the map and cards (WWII, italics, no serifs, bold colours).

Signs of a last minute rush, eg the rule about the Mediterranean dead-pile was clearly added after map and counters were finalized.

Bit dismayed by length of the errata.

Missing German corps counter - does this often present a problem during play?

German parachute army - why is it the same colour as the Free French?

"Repl" markers actually labelled "Reinf", also in the rulebook. Could be confusing for first-timers who haven't cut their teeth on PoG.

Errata to a card - another sign of hurried production? Will this card be reprinted at some point?

I also posted this on ConsimWorld today. Hopefully it will be taken as constructive criticism (I have the highest respect for GMT and Ted's work in particular). But I suspect I will be hung out to dry for it!

Have you had a go at this yet? New Scientist tells me I will die in 2034 aged 76. But having sex every day will buy me an extra two years.Yikes! Better arrange that ASAP!

One of my favourite games of all time is the hallucinogenic 1970s weirdness known as Titan. Now reborn as a Java program Colossus.

Colossus is a Java clone of Avalon Hill's Titan(tm) boardgame. Right now it allows hotseat play, play versus a working but not very strong AI, and (new) TCP/IP network play. We're mostly working on improving network play and variants right now. Improving the AI will follow.

Margaret Atwood writes with great insight about Ursula LeGuin and her latest collection of stories - "The Birthday of the World":

The last story, "Paradises Lost," continues the note of renewal. Many generations have been born and have died on board a long-distance space ship. During the voyage a new religion has sprung up, whose adherents believe they are actually, now, in Heaven. (If so, Heaven is just as boring as some have always feared.) Then the ship reaches the destination proposed for it centuries earlier, and its inhabitants must decide whether to remain in "Heaven" or to descend to a "dirtball" whose flora, fauna, and microbes are completely alien to them. The most enjoyable part of this story, for me, was the release from claustrophobia: try as I might, I couldn't imagine why anyone would prefer the ship.

Le Guin is on the side of the dirtball, too; and, by extension, of our very own dirtball. Whatever else she may do— wherever her curious intelligence may take her, whatever twists and knots of motive and plot and genitalia she may invent—she never loses touch with her reverence for the immense what is. All her stories are, as she has said, metaphors for the one human story; all her fantastic planets are this one, however disguised. "Paradises Lost" shows us our own natural world as a freshly discovered Paradise Regained, a realm of wonder; and in this, Le Guin is a quintessentially American writer, of the sort for whom the quest for the Peaceable Kingdom is ongoing. Perhaps, as Jesus hinted, the kingdom of God is within; or perhaps, as William Blake glossed, it is within a wild flower, seen aright.

I was recently bowled over by Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale", and of course LeGuin's work has been a treasured part of my mental furniture for most of my life. (via Nick Denton)

A very thorough and very positive review of The Napoleonic Wars has been published at The Wargamer. Quite a coup for GMT and the design team.

The redesigned Relative Range site is superb, with all sorts of game support material, including a free-for-download version of Ancients, and lots of stuff about Down in Flames and Up Front!. They will also sell you a 96-page digest of Up Front! articles and scenarios.

Talking of winning, we played a nice little game Euro called Web of Power at John's place last night. Very interesting but short enough to play it through twice with time to spare. It's loosely set in the world of medieval monasteries and involves competing for various kinds of networks and territories. Sort of El Grande meets Railway Rivals. I won the first time and tied with John second time. There's a clever little rule about scoring for territories that means it can be a lot better in cost/benefit terms to come second in several territories rather than first in a few. I think I twigged this before the others which gave me a head start in the first game.

Tomorrow I go to Bristol to start work on the Workshop course run by the Anvil Trust. This will take 12 weekends spread over the coming year, as well as time spent on reading and assignments at other times. It covers applied theology, apologetics, ethics, church history as well as other stuff. I'm excited but also quite apprehensive of the commitment in time, energy and extra travelling. I feel that this will be an important step for me - my Christian life has been coasting in neutral for a few years, and I want to use this opportunity to go back to the basics of my faith and have a long hard think - is this really true? do I still believe this? am I living up to it? where do I belong in the spectrum of church practice? how will this play out in the rest of my life?

Might mean less time for gaming, sadly. So if I don't turn up for, or invite people round for so many sessions over the coming year, this is the reason. It's not that I'm sulking because you never let me win........

This is a glorious day! Another volume of Uncle stories has been published by Red Fox. And if you don't know what I'm talking about here's a page at Infinity Plus that's sure to suck you into the cult: It's time to rip the lid off a secret cult lurking undetected in the sf/fantasy community ... a cult so obscure that most of its members don't know that it exists. These people are the fans of Uncle. I discovered this sinister cabal at a post-convention restaurant meal where half the writers round the table suddenly started talking excitedly about the Uncle novels. Neil Gaiman was so boggled to find his enthusiasm shared that he momentarily forgot to look cool.

Sorry (but not very sorry) if you think I'm banging on too much about the war against terrorism today, but this little article at Blogs4God is important. Terrorists, or Suicide Cult? (via Relapsed Catholic)

I truly think if we only approach the likes of the Taliban or Al Queda as terrorists, then we run the risk of merely addressing the effect without cutting out the cancerous cause - in this case, an evil, abusive suicide cult who hate their own lives as much as they hate ours.

Ha'aretz (via Americans for a Third Way):

For the first time since the outbreak of the intifada two years ago, the official journal of the Palestinian Authority last week published severe criticism of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leadership, and the Palestinian public as a whole - for rejecting the proposals that were put forward by former U.S. President Bill Clinton at Camp David in July 2000.

Christopher Hitchens' article A View from the Patriotic Left lays out the issues with plain-speaking intellectual clarity. The whole article is a must-read, not least for his radical questioning of our whole current structure of alliances in the Middle East. (via Nick Denton)

So, as civilians in this war, and therefore as primary front-line targets, we do not need to submit to any culture of trust or loyalty or deference. We have a right to know who is in charge and what policies are being debated and what measures taken. We do not have to agree with the choice of any old ally in this struggle, and we dare not assume that any step taken in the name of the "national security" mantra is automatically OK.

Let me give some illustrations of what I mean: First, I'll take the international front. The most annoying thing, in arguing with peaceniks last fall, was confronting their refusal to see that a wholly new situation had arisen. They would insist on translating the fresh, challenging information back into the familiar language they already knew, of Vietnam or Nicaragua or the West Bank. Well, the same was true of the president's "axis of evil" speech, which attempted to fit the new reality into the reassuring old list of "rogue states" or official enemies. In particular, it seemed insane to include Iran in the "most-wanted" category.

This site is a nice introduction to The UK Amateur Postal Games Hobby. This was how it all started for me - back in the early 90's, buying a copy of Diplomacy from a local toy shop, and finding a flyer inside for the postal hobby. It's been downhill all the way since then....

I just heard (on ConsimWorld) the awful news about the forthcoming "Master and Commander" movie with Russell Crowe playing Jack Aubrey - he's supposed to be a beefy Englishman for goodness' sake! But while investigating I found this superb gallery of Marine Art by Geoff Hunt, which is some compensation I suppose.

This morning's Independent has an excellent rant from Yasmin Alibhai-Brown who lashes out in all directions - including her co-religionists. But why don't we hear more Muslim voices saying this sort of thing?

I have had it with apologists who think that Muslims, whatever they do, only do these foul things because they are upset, humiliated, angry, despised and maltreated. There is no excuse big enough to explain the actions of cold-eyed slaughterers who descend on helpless Christians in Muslim states; the men who cut the throat of Daniel Pearl, the young Jewish American journalist; the grisly crowds in Nigeria who want to stone to death a young mother; the gang rape of children which is ordered as "punishment" by Muslim tribal leaders in Pakistan; the people who danced in the streets to see exploded bits of Americans and others.

I cannot stomach Muslim leaders and writers who jump up when there are signs of injustice against us (discrimination against Muslims is a serious problem, no doubt about that) but who never speak out to denounce outright the various discriminations which ruin the lives of non-Muslims, gays, and women in Islamic countries or in communities here.

The Americans have been playing Barbarossa to Berlin for weeks now, but my copy finally arrived today. I thought I would share with you the experience of opening the box. This is the central moment of a nimrod's existence, the supreme ritual. You are privileged to witness it through the magic of blogging: Hmm. Box is a little smaller and lighter than I expected.... It's shipped from UDG in Germany, not direct from GMT. Not sure if I like that..... Let's get my penknife out. Carefully does it.... Not very well packaged. But miraculously the game seems undamaged..... Yuk. The box illustration is bitty. Very bitty! What were they thinking..... The back is nice. Maybe I should open the shrinkwrap. Better wait till lunch-time. I'm so excited.... No, I can't do it. Breaking into the shrinkwrap is just too personal, too private. I can't possibly share this online.

The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another.

Samuel Johnson

There, that was in my notebook. But that's as far as it goes....

Caterina has produced this list of online sketchbooks. My favourite is John Keegan's.

I keep a sketchbook/notebook myself (a nice Moleskine one), where I jot down quotes, observations, angst, Ceroc moves, holiday journals, and drawings. But I don't think I would ever consider putting it online for the world to nose through!

I heard this today attributed to Roger Scruton:

When someone tells you there is no such thing as truth, he is asking you not to believe him. So don't!

The normally deeply annoying Deborah Orr is today deeply satisfying as she lays into the farcical panic measures that have followed the tragedy at Soham:

What all of the fear about paedophiles, and the demands for registers, checks and warnings supposes, is that we can always be made safe from danger. The CRBs elaborate system can only ever warn about peodophiles who have already struck, and the same goes for Sarah's Law. But what those who place their trust in such systems really want is something more foolproof - a cast iron promise that our society is risk-free.

That cannot ever be achieved. But already extraordinary liberties are being taken by a government that actually seems to want to deliver this dream.

Nick Denton has provided this wonderful gallery of imagined cityscapes taken from sci-fi films from Metropolis to Minority Report. Dream.

Maybe I need a break from all this serious simulation stuff - Napoleonic Wars, Paths of Glory etc - maybe it's time for Marvel HeroClix!

This looks really cool actually. I want SpiderMan, obviously, having just seen the film. I like the idea of miniatures with little dials in the base to record hit points, damage etc. Much better than the usual pile of tiddlywinks.

I've just returned home from a few days walking in the Brecon Beacons. This morning I climbed a lovely mountain without encountering (or even seeing in the distannce) one single other walker. As it was a cloudless Sunday morning in the middle of summer I find this remarkable! Try finding an empty mountain in the Lakes today.

It says something (possibly quite sad) about me that I am blogging before I have even unpacked my bags.

While I was out there I did a little research on the Welsh language. Here's what I learned:

That it is it? = Is there anything else I can get you sir?

Have you payed? = Excuse me. Can I see your ticket please? Thanks.

Teas or coffees is it? = Would you like a cup of tea or coffee?

That's it then isn't he? = I agree with what you just said.

It's 2 pound = That will be 2 pounds please. Thanks.

(On a road sign) M4 Newport = M4 Newport Bristol & London

Chris Dickson posted some nice things about nimrods in Spielfrieks - which accounts for my recent surge in visitors. Thanks Chris!

Terminal City Gamers have a very nicely put together website which is basically in weblog format, only they don't seem to be aware of it!

I'm suddenly getting lots of hits this week, about three times my normal number of visitors. I've no idea who you all are or why you're visiting - I must have got a mention somewhere I guess - but welcome! Hope you'll find something of interest and pop back from time to time.

I've got the week off. Not planning to spend much time in front of the computer - I've got exciting things to do! Like painting the house, filling in my tax return, camping in Wales etc.....

But I should tell you about the Napoleonic Wars session we had on Monday. Dave (typecast as the aggressive Corsican), Simon as Russia (supposed to be a quiet sector while he learned the ropes), Nick (the patriot) as Britain, and me holding the line as Austria. The first game finished after one turn with a French victory. We had lunch then set it up again. This time it went for nearly three turns before we had to break up for the evening. There were a couple of highlights - the epic march of Austria's John who took Marseilles, torching the French fleet, then spent impulse after impulse evading a ring of vengeful French armies, crossing the Alps no less than 3 times before his fate caught up with him. And the surpise march of the Turks across the Apennines to Naples - whose garrison was so startled that it immediately took flight, even though it outnumbered its attackers! As Nick had left Simon spent the last part of the game handling the Russians, Austrians, Prussians and Turks (so much for a quiet sector) and was in a commanding position by the time we quit.

What a great game this is! Full of incident and twists of fortune. Not a simple game to master, but well worth the effort.

Looney Labs are finally shipping their new game Nanofictionary:

Where are we?
Who is there?
What's going on?
And how is it all going to end?

These are the crucial questions each player answers, choosing from the cards they're dealt to tell a very short story. Players combine and recombine Settings, Characters, Problems and Resolutions to create the best story they can, while other players mix things up with wacky Action cards. Everyone votes for their favorites, including onlookers, and the winner is the player who's story garners the most points!

Some imagination required.

This looks really intriguing to me. The storytelling aspect might not appeal to some of the hard-core wargamers around here. But after all, what is RPG but telling an elaborate story?

Nappy FAQ ~ at last! The answers to every dumb question that you ever thought of asking about The Napoleonic Wars and an awful lot that you never thought of too. Clears up everything I was confused about. Plus loads of strategy tips, comments on the cards etc. A bit overwhelming - best don't attempt to read unless you've played the game a couple of times.

Lots of good advice at www.safedriving4life.co.uk including this:

Remember the two essential rules of motorway driving: maintain a safe following distance (two seconds between you and the vehicle in front is the minimum safety gap) and exercise good lane discipline. Traffic on motorways usually travels faster than on other roads, so you have less time to react. Look much further ahead than usual and use your mirrors early and regularly.

David Warren continues his persuasive apologia for the War on Terrorism:

It strikes me that out of real intellectual humility, Mr. Bush has "drifted" into the boldest, most counter-intuitive of all the possible courses of action: a project to re-align the United States explicitly with every opposition force that can be found within the Middle East, no matter how small, that aspires to democratic constitutional reform; and to gradually manoeuvring the full power of the U.S. behind them. In other words, truly digging to the root cause of terrorism: which is the intellectual and material enslavement of the Arab and Persian masses.

I wonder why Ceroc is always on a week-night?

It was great fun last night, dance-floor very crowded, very very warm (high fluid loss), and lots of invitations to dance given and received. And the moves we learned in the intermediate class were fairly challenging. And it was all on top of a pretty busy day in the office. But I wouldn't have missed it.

I just feel shattered today.

I need a day off to recuperate.

The Froy Marriage Test: Taken from How To Avoid Matrimony by Herald Froy (1957)

This online quiz for bachelors is of course unacceptably rude to the fairer sex, but very funny nevertheless. (via Nick Denton)

To my shame I'm only just becoming aware (thanks to blogs4god) of the growing wave of persecution being suffered by Christians in Indonesia at the hands of the Laskar Jihad.

Christianity Today Magazine - Christian Villages Burn Again in Central Indonesia:

"The sound of automatic weapons was coming from every direction mixed with the hysterical voices of mothers calling for their children, and shrieks of fear from the children," said the Rev. Vence Waani, pastor of the Sepe Pentecostal Church. "The flames were engulfing the houses. It was a scene of horror."

Waani, his wife, and child were forced to flee the burning village as attackers fired volleys of bullets behind them. They did not see their newly-rebuilt church burnt down.

By 8:30p.m., the village of Sepe was gutted. The Sepe Pentecostal Church and the Eklesia Protestant Church were destroyed.

Another WilliamCon report, this time from the man himself:

A new war cry has been added to the Nimrods vocabulary. On Sunday 6 nimrods came down to Gosport to play games and watch the Red Arrows fly by the Tall Ships. Everyone arrived at about 10:30 we tried to decide which games we could play with 7 people. However once everyone saw Escape From Atlantis we decided to split into teams and play that instead. We laid the board out and Dave started to make alliances with Robin (so that he would later have some to break) and John started analysing the probabilities of making it to the coral reefs. I was forced to point out that this was a game made by Waddingtons for Ages 8 and up and "This is a Waddingtons game!" was shouted out a few times in the game, notably when people mistook it for diplomacy or dithered on a move. Maybe it was a mistake to let wargamers loose on such a game but we all really enjoyed it and would play it again. (Robin won by acting innocent while John and Simon made too many enemies, Steve and myself were beset by Octopi and Dave and Peter came a close second through good use of boats.)

After the game we made our way to the sea and watched a stunning display by the Red Arrows and had a very nice lunch in a pub next to the ferry. After lunch we saw the last of the tall ships leave (under engine power, not sail sadly) and returned to my house for some ice cream and more games.

In the afternoon we played Formule De and raced around Laansvort with Steve cruising in to a comfortable first place and John coming from the back of the race to take a surprise second place. (Apparently something to do with following his Granny’s advice about starting off cautiously and then going for it.) I came in third and everyone else finished too apart from Robin who gave up a promising position to play in the sand on the last corner. In our second game Steve again crossed the line turns ahead of a much closer race in the bunch for second place. I came in second with Dave (in a redesigned car) a very close third. The rest of the bunch arrived the following turn apart from Robin who slowed down to saunter in at a much more leisurely pace.

The day wound up with a couple of quick games of Jenga and Camel Back before everyone went home.

WilliamCon was excellent. William's new home, despite being in Gosport, is very pleasant with a quiet relaxing atmosphere. There were seven of us attending on Sunday morning - myself, John, Robin, Dave, Steve, Simon and our host. We started with a game of Escape from Atlantis which was great fun. I loved the disappearing plastic island and all the sea monsters, sharks, giant octopuses etc. And the game lends itself to the nasty spiteful dealings that appeal to our group so much! Robin won, I think, but most of our little men got eaten or drownded.

We wandered out into the sunshine to watch a spectacular display from the Red Arrows. Then lunch in a pub - unfortunately by the time we left the pub all but one of the tall ships had set sail. Oh well! Back to William's for two games of Formula De, both of which were won very convincingly by Steve, who is clearly World Champion material.

A really enjoyable day out. Thanks William.

Ted Raicer, the designer, has posted a new Scenario for Barbarossa to Berlin. Here it is:

A short "Blitzkrieg" Scenario for BtB:

This scenario ends at the instant the Total War cards are dealt into the game (so no need to actually deal them in), unless of course the Axis win an Automatic Victory before that. (An Allied Automatic Victory in this period is hardly possible.)

At the end of the scenario the Axis player wins if he has 17+ VPs. 16 or less and the Allies win. The Axis player will have to be aggressive to win this scenario, more aggressive than might be wise in the campaign game (but then he doesn't have to suffer the effects of overreaching since it only covers the period of the Axis High Tide). If desired for balance, I suggest bidding VPs to play the Allied side, said VPs not to count for Automatic Victory.

And Ted reports on a game in progress starting with this post.

Just keeping myself happy with this stuff until the game itself arrives.

Is there anything that you can't find on the web these days? Some Narnian book covers by Pauline Baynes. I loved these illustrations as a child and I love them still. I was looking for inspiration for a children's talk that I have to do in church next week. Now I've found the pictures, let's think up some spurious reason for using them.......

Gizmodo : The Gadgets Weblog

Gizmodo is a weblog dedicated to everything related to gadgets, gizmos, and cutting-edge consumer electronics. It's edited by Pete Rojas, a journalist who writes about technology for Wired, Salon, Red Herring, and the Guardian, and backed by Nick Denton.

....and it's a serious attempt to make blogging pay.

Phil got his A-level results today.

What Phil needed: ABB
What Phil got: ABB

Fantastic. So he's all set to go off to Exeter Uni, his first choice. Nice warm feelings.

William sent me directions for getting to his house in Portsmouth. Here's an excerpt:

If you drive past a submarine or a church ring me, you're lost.

Ran through a turn of The Napoleonic Wars with Dave last night. Even though it was just a learning game, we had great fun with this. I assembled a big Austro-Russian Army Group to challenge Napoleon's march on Vienna, only to have the whole lot sent home to the Regroup Box (Napoleon as well) by a Shortage of Fodder. Laboriously reassembled the Army Group only to have it stopped dead in its tracks by an attack of Dysentery! A highlight for me was sending the British into Bordeaux on a reckless cutting-out expedition. I destroyed the French squadron at anchor, but lost 3 British squadrons in the process - and Jack Aubrey always made it seem so easy! What a great game! More complex than the 4-rating on the box suggests. Can't wait to try it out multiplayer.

Mark Steyn makes the case for the invasion in The Spectator:

When Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, warns the BBC that a US invasion of Iraq would ‘threaten the whole stability of the Middle East’, he’s missing the point: that’s the reason it’s such a great idea. Suppose we buy in to Moussa’s pitch and place stability above all other considerations. We get another 25 years of the Ayatollahs, another 35 years of the PLO and Hamas, another 40 years of the Baathists in Syria and Iraq, another 80 years of Saudi Wahabbism. What kind of Middle East are we likely to have at the end of all that? The region’s in the state it’s in because, uniquely in the non-democratic world, it’s too stable. It’s the stability of the cesspit.

James must be getting tired of ASL. He has recommended Mark H. Walker's Lock & Load which is a projected ASL-alike for middle-aged guys: a 10-page rule book for busy family men, big counters with big numbers for tired old eyes. Looks appealing. Only trouble is it seems that it will be a DTP effort, so these shaky old hands would have to do lots of pasting and cutting out.

David Aaronovitch says we have not met the conditions for starting a war against Saddam in which we are certain to kill civilians.

Saddam is not Hitler; he is not Nasser; he is Saddam and that is bad enough. His Tikrit gangstocracy is among the nastiest regimes in the world; he has invaded two nations, enslaved his own people, built and used biological and chemical weapons and tried to build nuclear ones; and there is nothing in his record to suggest that he is amenable to diplomacy. This is the man who refused to budge from Kuwait between August 1990 and January 1991 when the air war began, and then refused to budge when the ground campaign started. When retreating, he set fire to the oil fields. We could probably do the Iraqi people no greater favour than removing Saddam and giving them a chance to build again.

But we can't. And we can't because the church people are right. Wars are very particular things and civilised nations can't just have them when they feel like it or when they feel they have run out of options. Wars have to be justified, overwhelmingly, by a conviction that the alternative to war is actually worse. And that conviction must be widely held, as it was after 11 September in the case of Afghanistan.

I think David is right. And for me just as serious an objection is that the Iraq project is a distraction from the real task of fighting al Qaeda and the sponsors of Islamic terrorism. It betrays a dangerous lack of focus on the real dangers that face us. The priorities in the war on terrorism should be applying pressure to Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran and the Palestinians, not settling an old grudge from the years before Sept 11.

Will you deed your computer over to Microsoft or wean yourself from your Microsoft dependence? (via Scripting News)

This is fantastic for a games fiddler like me: Plastics for Games Ltd. They have all sorts of dice, counters, different shaped game pieces, and even sand-timers (which would very useful for our group in Salisbury). I fancy getting their sample box - one of everything for £30. The challenge - design a game that uses everything in the box!

Not much gaming action recently. I've been slowly punching out The Napoleonic Wars and reading the rules. I'm very very impressed by this game, the rules look very tightly written, lots of good ideas for game mechanics, looking forward to setting it up and playing through the example of play. But I'd better shut up about this as William has been complaining that I have become a mouthpiece for GMT games.

Game session planned at John's place tonight. Hopefully we'll play Puerto Rico again. Hopefully we'll play a bit faster than last time.

Steven den Beste is spot on in this analysis of why we were attacked. It was nothing to do with American foreign policy - it was American ideas.

We have no problem living side by side with them, but to Islamic extremists we are a stark danger – and we would remain a stark danger even if we militarily disengaged from the world, stopped supporting Israel, and made all the other concessions that some suggest we should. Because it isn't the Third Armored division which they fear; it's television and radio and fashion and the Internet. It's bikinis and Saturday night dates; it's rock-and-roll. It's comfortable clothing. It's Saturday in the park, and hanging out at the mall after school. And it's our women, our damnably independent women, who not only demand equality with men but have proved that they deserve it by performing just as well as men. They fear our women, because they fear their own women.

In actuality, they attacked us out of self defense, as they viewed it. They were attempting to defend their faith against the heretical influence of our culture, and the slow but sure way that it is destroying what they see as the true practice of Islam. And as long as we believe in things like freedom of expression, and freedom of behavior, then to a greater or lesser extent we will continue to eat away at the roots of Islamic culture simply by existing.

GMT are running an August sale - worth a look if you are willing to order from the US. I've had very good experience so far with GMT shipping across the Atlantic.

So, for example, you could order Napoleonic Wars for $55, and choose a Paths of Glory for only $25 ($50 retail). Or you could get Ivanhoe or Flagship or any other $25 or less retail game for FREE along with the Nappy Wars Order.

blogs4God is marvellous as a listing of Christian blogs, and of course it is itself a blog too. Moreover, it lists nimrods as a techlog and awards us a little green "COOL"!

Gosh, I'm in their Hits Top 10 list as well. nimrods - the 7th most popular Christian weblog on the planet! Musht be shome mishtake, surely......

Played Puerto Rico at John's place last night. Also present were Dave, Robin and Steve - good turnout. It took us over 2 hours to get about half-way through the game before Robin and I left, pleading work the next day. I know we were learning the game as we went along but, good grief, this was slow play guys! I guess I was spoiled at ManorCon by a weekend gaming with people who liked to crack on. Anyway, I propose new legislation to ban the following behaviours:

Gazing into middle distance while the others wait for you to think. Finally jerking awake and saying "Is it my turn?"

Requesting explanation of a rule that has just been explained.

Requesting explanation of a rule that is clearly summarized right in front of you on the game board.

Trying really hard to win even though this is "just a learning game".

Giving a lengthy explanation of a rule that everyone already understands.

Refusing to start a game until every rule and the implications of every rule have been exhaustively spelled out for you.

Attempting to calculate ahead like a chess computer even when the game is clearly not susceptible to that kind of analysis.

Offering unsolicited tactical advice to someone who has finally made his mind up - throwing him into fresh confusion.

Gazing into middle distance while someone else has his turn. Finally jerking awake and demanding a detailed explanation of what just happened while you were dozing.

Dozing between turns rather than planning your next move.

Taking the whole business too damn seriously!

Maybe I need a break from this whole boardgaming business.......

Feeling a bit sick about this - Empires In Arms going on eBay has reached £51 already and 4 days still to go. I recently got rid of my copy for £10 at Salute. Sigh........

Nepal at Night. Wonderfully evocative images, taken a while ago - the curfew would make it difficult these days. (via plep)

A few months ago I promised to let you know how I got on with GMT's P500 scheme. This is a system they devised to mitigate the risk of producing a new game by collecting preorders which provide the cashflow they need to produce the game. It also provides a way for the punters to "vote" for the titles they want to see produced.

On 27 Febuary this year I use GMT's online order form to preorder The Napoleonic Wars and Barbarossa to Berlin. On 28 February I was charged $38 for The Napoleonic Wars plus $8 for surface shipping. (On 8 April another $35 plus $8 was charged for Barbarossa to Berlin, but that's another story that hasn't concluded yet.) A few weeks ago The Napoleonic Wars started shipping and my copy arrived, well packaged and in perfect condition, on 25th July. So they had my money for 5 months before I actually received the game, but it only cost me £34 including postage (compared with £43 from The Games Store for example) and I had the satisfaction of helping GMT produce this fine wargame.

I'm very happy with P500 so far, so much so that today I preordered two more hopefuls - Europe Engulfed and Blue vs Gray. And before anyone says anything, this obviously didn't break my game-buying moratorium as these were preorders stupid!

David Warren on the Catholic kids waiting to see the Pope in Toronto:

The young today are, to a remarkable degree, looking beyond their parents for guidance, for their "role models" -- looking beyond that failed and lost generation of which I am a member. Reaching past their parents to what remains of their grandparents, and to the other old, to get some hint about how to live. They don't want to be "ironical", they don't want to take the easy way out, they don't want something for nothing; they yearn to become fully real.

Today's soundtrack

Stereophonics: Mr Writer
Doves: Words
A 16th century Galliard I heard on the radio this morning

I asked Phil about Doves the other day (trying to earn cred points). Phil: I know they're good. But I don't like them.

I have to face facts now. It's out of control.....

Rommel in the Desert arrived this morning. In my defence I could say that I paid for this weeks ago, it was an eBay bargain, it would have been silly not to get it. But that doesn't alter the facts - 4 new games in one week.

A self-imposed games-buying moratorium of several months is the only answer.

BBC NEWS | Talking Point | What is the best view in Britain? Salisbury Cathedral, as seen from the watermeadows, is the loveliest view in Britain according to a vote in Country Life magazine.

It's also five minutes walk from my front door!

Bit embarrassing yesterday. Got home with my new copy of The Napoleonic Wars under my arm (it arrived at my work address) to find that Puerto Rico had also arrived, and of course there's my brand new Euphrat & Tigris on the coffee table as well. And Phil and Simon sitting there being sarcastic about my games-buying habit. But this is just a temporary blip, honest! The Napoleonic Wars looks splendid, by the way. Lovely map counters and cards. And the Battle Book is magnificent, stuffed with scenarios, strategy articles, designer notes and an example of play, beautifully produced. Reminds me of the level of support documentation that came in-the-box with Advanced Civilization. I'm very excited about this one....

Guardian Unlimited is launching the first competition to find the best British weblog. The winner will receive a cash prize of £1,000 and five runners-up will receive £100 each.

Hmm, how will I spend all that money?

Chris Farrell's Homepage is well worth a look especially if you have a broadband connection - lots of nice photos of wargames in progress.

Last weekend's visit to Manorcon was very enjoyable as usual. But you might wonder why when you see my results:

Clash of Giants: 2nd of 2
Puerto Rico: 5th of 5
Settlers: 4th of 4
Civilization: 3rd of 5
Elfenroads: 4th of 4
Empires of Ancient World: 3rd of 4
Chrononauts: not 1st of 3

Dave spent a lot of the weekend playing Paths of Glory (and losing). The only one from Salisbury who showed any sign at all of gaming ability was William who won a game of Settlers.

Game of the convention this year was definitely Puerto Rico, a wonderful, absorbing business game which can be played in under 2 hours. I bought a copy, along with a shrink-wrapped Euphrat & Tigris in the second-hand games sale. I didn't take any to sell this year so pressure on my storage space continues to build up.

Also I took along some little business-card sized ads for nimrods, and William took it into his head to start fly-posting copies of this website all over the Convention. So if you're visiting this site for the first-time after picking up a card at ManorCon, here's a warm welcome - hope you'll visit again.

It was just like the old days - on Tuesday we had an evening games session at John's place. We played El Grande which I find very puzzling for some reason (no suggestions what the reason is please). First time I played it I didn't even realize I was losing. This time I understood enough to know I was losing. Maybe next time I will understand why I am losing?

This is a wonderful, detailed article about the connections between Star Wars and Wagner's Ring, two of my favourite artworks:

There is one central premise, however, that unites the two works: The interest in myths. Wagner's Ring was certainly an attempt to reinterpret, re–present, and even to analyse several of the Teutonic, northern European myths, as well as a tremendously successful attempt to create a new myth for the modern man. Star Wars may lack the analytic approach of Wagner, but it shares the goal of representation and creation of a new, accessible, mythical world. The enormous success and the huge cult following is proof enough that the film series to a large degree has succeeded in this. More than 20 years after the initial release of Episode IV, the Star Wars series is a daily, living presence in the minds of thousands of people; it has indeed become a modern myth.

Blogjam's random kitten generator will melt the hardest heart.....

15 ways to refute materialistic bigotry: A point by point response to Scientific American - read it now, before Scientific American's lawyers get this article removed! (via Relapsed Catholic)

A useful review of Guerilla, which I am thinking of taking up to ManorCon, if I can find time to read the rules again. In classic Avalon Hill fashion, it's a simple, fun game with complex rules that are no fun at all!

Ten Reasons to dislike Thirty Years War from Bruno Piqueur, of the Red Barons club in Ghent. Lots of other interesting stuff on this website too.

Woohoo! Only four days until ManorCon, my annual pilgrimage up to Edgbaston to play boardgames with about 300 sweaty nimrods at Lake Hall. ManorCon is run by the postal Diplomacy hobby (what's left of it) but lots of people, me included, tend to avoid the harrowing experience of face-to-face Diplomacy and go for more relaxing alternatives, like a 10-hour Advanced Civilization session (I'm looking forward to my annual fix!) William and Dave are coming along too, ready to overspend in the bring-and-buy.

Which games shall I take along (to play not sell)? Not too many I think - don't want to spend the whole weekend explaining rules to people. But I will probably take:

Titan
1876
Guerilla
Empires of the Ancient World
Rise of the Luftwaffe/Eighth Air Force
Battle Cry

Hmm, that's too many already. Have to thin this list out a bit.

Top 30 UK Blogs. Or something. Lists the most popular British weblogs, but does not include blogspot sites (like mine). Doubt I'd make the list even if it did....

The usual griping on ConSimWorld about who is still waiting to get his copy of "The Napoleonic Wars" from GMT, produced the following post from the designer Mark McLaughlin:

Gene's shipping method is very fair. Gene is a real Christian and a man of God. So he takes all the order slips, throws them into the air, and let's God sort out the shipping order.

Why bother with all that tedious painting? Cardboard Heroes:

An often-requested reprint is our Cardboard Heroes line . . . beautifully drawn full-color stand-up figures. Much cheaper than miniatures, and more convenient too!

More to the point, a useful place to buy those little plastic stands there aren't enough of in The Napoleonic Wars apparently.

Have a look round Bruno's Titan Home Page too.

Really excellent strategy tips for Titan from David desJardins. I'm amazed he was actually willing to give all this away! One of those articles that makes you itch to play the game again. Also makes me glad that Dave (my usual Titan opponent) hasn't got Internet access.

William pointed me to Fiendish Games who are a sort of British Cheapass Games. Breaking Away is their most famous title, but the one I like the look of is Office Politics.

Gavin's graduation ceremony at Bristol University yesterday was very impressive, and Gavin looked rather splendid in his gown and red hood (except for his 'I'm an idiot' hairdo which will live on in memory and his graduation photos). Shame about the rain. A bonus highlight of the day was buying lots of cheap CD's from FOPP and Replay on Park Road. I went on a nostalgia splurge with Led Zeppelin, Bowie, Roxy Music, Hendrix and Motown stuff, as well as Kula Shaker and Mark Knopfler. All for about £35. Would have cost twice that on Amazon.

christian counterculture: nice web design, not sure about the premise. You can go too far with antithesis (ie saying the opposite).

NickCon OK, it wasn't a convention really - it was just me visiting Nick in Portsmouth for an intensive Thirty Years War session. We also went to Southsea Models and had an enjoyable time browsing through their gloriously chaotic stock of second-hand and new games. I bought a handful of teeny dice (for marking hits in Titan) and a Magic the Gathering starter set (I know, I know - shoot me now). I've always been very fastidious about looking after my games, and have often criticised Nick for his cavalier attitude to his. Imagine how mortified I was when I spilled a glass of wine (white thankfully) over his brand-new copy of Thirty Years War! It made one end of the map go all crinkly, and soaked into a few counters too. I was mortified, but Nick was very gracious. I am contacting GMT to see if I can get hold of a replacement map - let's see if their famous customer-service can come up trumps. We were playing the campaign game, which was very tense and enjoyable, and ended with a Protestant (Nick) victory by a single point. We finished the evening with a few rounds of Magic, which was surprisingly enjoyable. I don't know why I'm surprised really, the game is so popular, there must be something good about it. After a good night's sleep and breakfast we had another crack at Thirty Years War - this time the short Intervention Scenario, which was won by the Catholics (me) this time. Many thanks to Nick for a fun weekend (and sorry again about the map - I'll never criticize your gamecare habits again!)

Intifada fatigue hits Palestinians:

In their silent cities – with the exception of Jericho, all Palestinian urban areas in the West Bank are under Israeli-imposed curfew – Palestinians are criticizing Arafat and the bombers in ways they would not have done just three months ago.

"I feel a bitter sadness to be separated from [Issa], my youngest brother, who was the hope of this house" says Khalid Budair, sitting on a tattered couch on the porch of the family's home in Bethlehem. "We all thought Issa would be the one to pursue higher education. And instead he straps bombs around himself."

In another Bethlehem home, Amer Daraghmeh, whose brother Mohammed carried out a suicide bombing outside a Jerusalem synagogue in March that killed 11 Israelis, scorns the militants who trained Mohammed. "May God forgive them," he says.

I sometimes feel like Strider in my job. Down there in the sunlit Shire are all the hobbits, beavering away in their cosy little projects, happily unaware of the Wild World outside. And I'm the lonely Ranger, roaming the cold hills, battling with the dark monsters - service packs, name resolution problems, security issues, network protocols, database performance, replication, space problems etc etc. And little thanks we get from the halflings for our lonely vigil.

I was feeling grumpy about it but actually, that's quite cool!

Alexander Fritz runs a bilingual blog that talks about chess - that's a boardgame right? - and music and has the google-friendly name sex and sunshine.

Robert Fisk talking sense for once:

Deprived of political freedom, isolated from the world of ideas, repressing their women, and with science and development stunted, the Arab world will find it difficult to fault the conclusions of a UN report which all too accurately sums up the barren, ossified life of so many Arab countries. (via Americans for a Third Way)

So here it is at last - nimrods has a tribute site: nimrods jnr. At least I think it's meant as a tribute....

To be totally honest, I am just doing this to show my idiot father that he is not the only person in the world with too much time on his hands. I also possess enough grey matter to write a couple of garbage sentences capable of entertaining a simple mind.

The Guardian has a great list of weblogs including a good number of British bloggers. I'll be working through this for days.

Gavin's in America today - the glorious Fourth of July - the jammy so-and-so! Hope he's got the sense not to mouth any of his arch-monarchistic sentiments for the day.

About 6 weeks ago I won an auction on eBay for a shrinkwrapped copy of Clash of Giants. It finally arrived yesterday! I was buying from a guy in the States, and opted for surface shipping to save money. OK it was quite a long wait, but I got this excellent game in mint condition for £21, which would have cost me about £41 from a dealer in the UK. So go on, give eBay a try, there are some bargains out there!

The designers of Europe Engulfed are very enthusiastic about promoting their game. Jesse Evans even went to the lengths of emailing an obscure blogger in Salisbury:

As co-designer of Europe Engulfed (with Rick Young) I'd like to thank you for posting info about the game on your website.

You sounded as if you were on the fence regarding ordering EE so I thought I'd give you a little push!

First off there is always room for another ETO game and Europe Engulfed is completely unique. It uses blocks for a fog of war effect but takes little else from the Columbia style system, in fact, design was started back in 1990 while Rick and I were waiting for Columbia to release Eastfront.

Our top goals in designing the game were:

1) It must be a serious simulation of the ETO.
2) It must be playable in a day.
3) It must be fun and present the players with the same challenges faces by the actual leaders.

We feel we have achieved those goals - even though a 10-14 hour day is a little long, we usually finish the game on the lower end of that scale. Setup is quick (15 minutes) with free deployment and the entire game moves along at a quick pace. Politics, strategic warfare, and naval warfare are covered with unique subsystems that allow the players to have full control but take up as little time as possible so you can focus on the ground conflict.

I've attached a pdf of the draft rulebook so you can get a detailed feel for how the game works.

Also GMT has added a example of play to their P500 page covering the opening turn as Germany invades Poland.

Finally there is a rather lengthy discussion board (over 1000 posts) on Comsimworld - under Boardgaming/Era: World War II (Individual Game) / Europe Engulfed - that includes some after action reports.