The best things in life....

I'm very excited about PocketCiv. One of my all-time favourite games is Civilization, but finding opponents and time to play is very uncommon these days. Trumpeted Civ-lite games have failed to satisfy, but this one is different. It's solo for one thing, so the opponent problem vanishes, and it's not actually that light either. The clever trick is that this can be played on pencil and paper - all you need is the deck of event cards and the rules. This means that this can be played in odd moments on the train or at home, and thinking about your little paper civilization and its problems rapidly becomes a small obsession. My first attempt got wiped out in Era 1 by a sequence of earthquakes, sandstorms and volcanoes. Undeterred I drew a nice coloured map of Egypt and set off again - the gods were kinder this time and I have just finished Era 2 with 4 cities. Harder times ahead I expect though! This is great stuff - if it wasn't free I would call it my best purchase for some while.

Fun in Crondall

Les invited me back to leafy Surrey on Wednesday evening for a game session. Dave and Steve also came over from Salisbury. This was my chance to finally play Nexus Ops with someone - and it did not disappoint! What a fun game - all the best bits of Axis and Allies type games, but packed into a punchy 90 minute burst of violent action! I explained carefully at the start that turtling tactics will lose you the game in this one - but Steve turtled anyway, and duly lost. Dave went for killing as many of your enemy as possible, and Les's gentle nature meant he got off to a slow start. I lost a lot of ground and was always short of money as a result, but by keeping my focus firmly on VPs I was able to win anyway. Peter(10), Dave(6), Les(5), Steve(2).

Next we were looking for a filler to take us to midnight and chose San Juan. I always enjoy this clever little game but am not very good at it. An early chapel build does not constitute a "strategy"! Dave(42), Steve(36), Peter(33), Les(29).

At last! Another readers' game

I've been playing quite a bit of Tigris & Euphrates by email over at TNE.meyerbros.org .

Time to test myself against the general populace - I've created a readers' game called "Better than Titan" with password "nimrods". See you in Mesopotamia!

The end of purchasing?

Would I buy a Titan reprint? I was very lucky to pick up my copy a decade ago at the Manorcon bring-and-buy, for about £12 - a once in a lifetime bargain!If a reprint had significantly nicer graphics and presentation, and if they hadn't altered the rules or foisted plastic bits on the game, then yes, I would seriously consider it. After all, I have two copies of Civilization - another favourite - plus Advanced Civ.

I cycled to Bloomsbury today - to continue my bum-hardening program - and visited "Playin Games" while I was there. That was the little incentive I gave myself for all that exercise. I had three purchases in mind, one must-buy: ASL Starter Kit #3, and two might-buys: Mare Nostrum and Phoenicia. None were in stock, with a 1 month wait predicted for the ASLSK3. I consoled myself by purchasing some Chessex glass beads. I also had a browse, and again I had an experience which is becoming usual in game shops - while browsing through shelves of stuff that left me cold, I occasionally would see a game that I fancy buying - then realize that I already own it! A sign that my game collection is pretty well finished these days?

Next up - a visit to Les back near my ex-home in Farnham, where I am hoping to play Nexus Ops for the first time "in anger".....

Like, wow!

Valley Games are planning to reprint Titan and Republic of Rome, among other things.

Gaming bits

I've been playing Titan against the amazing Colossus program. Titan is one of the all-time greatest wargames, but surprisingly few of my gamer friends see this as clearly as I do. So Colossus fills a real need for me.

I've also been playing a lot of turn-based Tigris & Euphrates at TNE.meyerbros.org against some Mennonite friends. Although it's work in progress and the graphics are a bit clunky, this is a solid implementation of the game. I won my first game, I lost a few, but this time I'm doing better, and feeling hopeful of another win.

Simon came over yesterday, and we played Yinsh a couple of times. I lost both games. The same thing always happens - I get so wrapped up in my own plans that I don't see the killer play coming. I need to play more defensively.

Will cycle for games

Yesterday, as part of my acclimatization process (learning to love Tottenham), I cycled to Leisure Games in Finchley, 5.5 miles away. (This was also part of my training program, preparing for cycling to the Institute of Psychiatry in South London every day (10.5 miles) when I become an indigent MSc student in September.) The ride there seemed mostly uphill - Alexandra Park, then Muswell Hill, so when I arrived I was so hot and bothered that I forgot one of the two main purposes of my trip - to ask about local game groups. I remembered the other one - to buy ASL Starter Kit #3 - but that was out of stock. I consoled myself by buying some dice bags and a Treehouse tube to replace the one I gave to Sue's nephew Tom in Cardiff. The ride back was much easier - largely downhill, with fantastic views from Muswell Hill.

Leisure Games - given its amazing selection online - seemed strangely small and scruffy. Games jammed overtightly into the shelves or stacked willy-nilly. The back half of the store given over to desks for the online operation. But very friendly service, and it's amazing what they have there if you look - I spotted a copy of IceTowers, the out-of-print boxed set with the purple and clear pyramids. Tempting, but rather superfluous given that I have Zendo and Playing with Pyramids.

Tomorrow, maybe I head south and start reconnoitring the route to the Institute. Who knows, I may even get as far as Playin Games in Bloomsbury.....

Rewriting history

We were in Cardiff last week staying with Sue's brother and family, and I had a great time on Friday visiting Nick and playing him at Thirty Years War. One of my very favourite card-driven wargames this is, I love the epic scope and the historical flavour. We played with the 2-star Wallenstein and tournament victory optionals. I won as the Protestants with 1 VP at the end of turn 14. Nick sent Wallenstein to his death on turn 1 subduing the Hungarians. Nick's high-point was using the Cardinal Infante to chase Gustavus back to Pomerania and kill him there. However I bounced back with Torstennson and in the last couple of turns we watched the spectacle of the Swedes capturing Vienna and Munich. 8 hours in all, and a fantastic wargaming experience. Thanks Nick!

Quick turnaround

Just back from a 72 mile pilgrimage - London to Canterbury - raising money for work with homeless in London. Off again in a couple of hours to visit new in-laws in Cardiff for the rest of the week. Quickly washing clothes, repacking bags, and catching up with online games in the meantime......

Chris Farrell is posting about Monopoly - and he's taking the game seriously:

We've been playing Monopoly a bit recently, and enjoying it. We've settled on the 4 player configuration, playing to the second bankruptcy, and then counting assets ..... This configuration works well, and I honestly have enjoyed it more than many new eurogames.

Ticking them off

Here's an excerpt from my task list for this month:

Task 1: Get married
Status: done
Comments: this went amazingly well, considering how many things could have gone wrong that didn't - Sue turned up, the weather was good (very important as we used a marquee), the food was great (thanks to hard work by many of the guests), and no-one got food poisoned! Even my speech went OK, and my best man Phil (my younger son) didn't dish too much dirt. At least he didn't tell the story about when .........

Task 2: Play games at wedding
Status: done
Comments: Vic Thiessen kindly organised an (optional) game session after tea. He set up and explained 2 games (Trans-Europa and Trans-America) to a small crowd of guests. These games went down very well with the non-gamers. In spite of it being my special day, I still lost.

Task 3: Go on honeymoon
Status: done
Comments: we had a lovely time in the Castleton area of Derbyshire. Beautiful self-catering accommodation at Shatton Hall Farm. We played the classic honeymoon game Lost Cities a few times- not sure why this is recommended for honeymoons as it's actually quite a nasty game when you get into it - as Sue clearly has: she showed me no mercy.

Task 4: Move to Tottenham
Status: done
Comments: thanks to marvellous help from friends (Simon, Fiona, Cathy) and family (Phil) my stuff was moved to my new home in Tottenham in a big van over last weekend. It was a big job, and left us sitting in a chaos of boxes and disassembled furniture on Sunday night. But that has (nearly) all been sorted out now - order is restored and, most importantly, my game collection is now happily established in its new quarters in my "den" upstairs.

Task 5: Find a local game group
Status: still outstanding
Comments: I'm wondering whether to try out the Swiggers in central London on Wednesday(?) evenings. But there must be a more local group in North London, but not sure how to find them. And icing on the cake would be a local and genial wargames opponent....

Task 6: Sell off some wargaming geare I never use
Status: still outstanding
Comments: in the quest for space in our shared home, I need to get rid some painted figures (an English Civil War army), some white metal (Teutonic Knights, Napoleonic ships, cowboys etc) and some home-made scenery. Perhaps I will take them to Salute (is that soon?) for the bring-and-buy?

Task 7: Go paragliding again before I get rusty
Status: still outstanding
Comments: Green Dragons and Butser Hill are both a fair old drive away now, though I would like to go to one of Andy's after-work winching sessions at Green Dragons soon. The local club is at Dunstable Downs - must investigate.

Homage to Surrey

One more day to go, then it's goodbye to Surrey and off to North London to marry Sue and live in "the smoke" for the forseeable future.

When I moved to Farnham, it felt like a big wrench saying goodbye to my little terraced house in Salisbury. I felt especially sad to be leaving behind long tramps through the Wiltshire countryside, long gaming sessions with my Salisbury group, and a long history with my local church. I didn't really see how Surrey could match this.

Three years later I can say that Farnham was a very pleasant surprise. A bit of exploration revealed lots of wonderful countryside on the doorstep - heathland walks nearby, hills and hangars in East Hampshire, and walking back to Farnham along the North Downs Way after a bus-ride to Guildford.

Then I was very fortunate to be introduced by Dave Farquhar to a great local gaming group - I've had so many fun sessions with Les, Keith and Trevor over the last 3 years. Thanks guys!

And my decision to worship at my local parish church turned out very well. Anglicanism was very new to me after decades of non-conformist churchmanship, but I found that I relished the liturgy and music at St Thomas, and made some good friends in my new church community.

So it's another wrench saying goodbye to all this, and I'm wondering how Wood Green can ever match it. But who knows? I may be in for another nice surprise.

Stag Party heaven

Last weekend was my stag party, organised by my son Phil who is also my best man. I didn't have the usual routine of paintball, go-karting, tequila slammers, strippers and waking up next morning chained to a lamppost in Glasgow. No, my stag party was.... a weekend of boardgaming! Phil specified retro games were to be played (because I'm an old classic presumably) although we didn't stick strictly to that rule as you can see below. My gaming friends Dave, John, Steve, Les and Simon turned up at Saturday lunchtime, as well as my son Gavin. Phil produced an amazing joint of roast rib of beef with all the trimmings, followed by an erotic apple pie (possibly a world first) to compensate for the lack of strippers. Here's a summary of which games were played and how I rated each experience (out of 5 stars):

Merchant of Venus
Experience rating: *****
Winner: Phil
I finished: 5/5
It's been too long - many years - since I last played this. I loved this game. Interestingly, so did Phil, who wasn't so keen when as a child he used to be pressganged into games with me. Sadly we had to stop after two hours so that Phil could make a start on cooking dinner.

Homeworlds (2 games)
Experience rating: ***
Winner: Phil, Phil
I finished: 2/2, 2/2
Played this for the first time ever. I lost the first game almost immediately by vacating my homeworld! Next play went better but I was overwhelmed by Phil's cunning aggressive play. Interesting game this, I love the theme and the luckfree tactics are interesting. I want to play it a few more times to clarify my opinion.

IceTowers (6 games altogether)
Experience rating: ****
Winner: Phil, me , Gavin, Gavin, Me, Steve
I finished: 2/3, 1/3 , 2/3, 3/3, 1/4, 3/4
Various people played this at different points over the weekend. It was very popular - easy to teach, quick to play, interesting tactics. Embarrassingly, I forgot a small but important rule - that you are not allowed to mine from a tower that you already control. Steve spotted my omission on the very last game of the weekend, so we were playing it wrong all weekend! Oh dear!

Shogun
Experience rating: **
Winner: Who knows?
I finished: probably 5/5
The dark side of retro gaming. Lots and lots of fiddly bits, fiddly rules, trash-talk and whining, and long, long, looong. We stopped at midnight and carried on next morning. Finally canned it after 4 or 5 hours total of play - no end in sight for at least another 2 hours. Not for me.

Railway Rivals
Experience rating: n/a
Winner: Steve
I finished: (I didn't play in this one. Steve beat Dave's and Les's scores combined!)

Blue Moon
Experience rating: *****
Winner: Les
I finished: 2/2
When everyone had left Les and I indulged in a quick game of Blue Moon. This time Les's Mimix ground down my Aqua. This game is just superb, every time I play I appreciate it more.

Thursday game session

Last night's game session was at Janet's, so at her request we were looking for games at the friendlier end of the complexity spectrum.

First up was Les's Fearsome Floors, which turned out to be a bit of a brain-bender. It seemed to bring out the analysis-paralytic in all of us. Though the theme is fun, the actual game-play seemed rather dry and hard-work to me. Having finally played it, I'm pleased I traded my copy last year. Les won easily. Perhaps the fact that I did terribly didn't help me feel well-disposed to the game?

Next I introduced IceTowers. I've never played it before, but it was simplicity itself to explain. Everyone got into the game with gusto. The only problem was some clutzy tower-spilling incidents with 6-players all reaching at once to make an urgent move - it sometimes resembled Twister more than anything! Good fun, and Janet proved to be the clear champion after 3 rounds.

Finally we played Diamant, a fun little game which I enjoyed (and won - that always helps!)

Now We Are Six

Another year, another blog birthday! Six years on, this has become a habit. Some months I'm more enthused than others, but it's hard now to imagine life without this little public outlet. I enjoy talking about myself (who doesn't?), and it's always great to get some feedback in the comments section. It shows there are real readers out there (not just stats). I get a buzz every time a comment is posted - keep them coming! And I will try to write something worth commenting on. Is that a deal?

Lent is well and truly over. Easter has been celebrated, and I consider myself free to buy games, books, CD's, DVD's - all those toys - again.

It was a good exercise - good for me to focus on the games already on my shelves and enjoy those without spending all my hobby time researching what to buy next. And it was good preparation for this autumn when I plan to leave my well-paid job at IBM and become a Masters student at London University. A year without game purchases can now be anticipated without too much anxiety.

Meanwhile, the fast has been broken with a purchase I have been holding off for a long time - poker chips! Finally decided that I really have to have these for 1825, Merchants of Venus, Acquire etc etc. I never thought I would be patronizing a site called gamble.co.uk (I hate gambling) but they were very helpful, sent me sample chips of two kinds - pricey NexGen chips and the cheaper 11.5 chips that have gold numbers hot-stamped on each side - and when these got lost in the post they promptly sent another sample. The cheaper chips (£1.50 for 25) looked fine to me, and the hot-stamped denomination is important to me, so I went for those, along with a bargain genuine alligator skin (simulated) case. Very pleased with them - can't wait to try a money game now!!

Mid-air with a model glider

I had a frightening experience today at Butser Hill. About 4 in the afternoon I was soaring the north face of the hill, having a great flight in light but thermic conditions, getting high, about 130ft above takeoff. I was the only paraglider in the air - there was one other pilot on the ground packing his wing away. But there were 4 or 5 model gliders flying the same ridge.

Suddenly - a model glider swooped out of nowhere and smacked into the top of my canopy, then tumbled off the trailing edge groundwards. "Shit!" I shouted, heart pounding, but was surprised to find I wasn't spinning or dropping. Looking up I examined the canopy and lines carefully - no damage! So I continued flying for another couple of beats, but I was rattled and had lost my rhythm, and did a clumsy slope landing a couple of minutes after the incident. (I probably should have landed straight away - wasn't thinking straight.)

I packed up slowly and walked back up the hill. I approached the model flyers (politely!) but apparently the guy who flew his model into me had already left. I was feeling angry at this point - at least he could have had the courtesy to stay around to speak to me!

Driving home, and thinking about it this evening, I have started to feel scared by the thought of what might have happened. 150ft above ground - hardly enough space to deploy a reserve. I always told myself that if I experienced a serious incident while paragliding I would quit the sport. Is this that incident?

I have filled out an incident report and will send it to BHPA tomorrow.

I feel like there was nothing I could have done to avoid this collision (a paraglider moves too slow to avoid a fast little model!) except maybe never fly at sites where models are flown. But that excludes nearly every site in S. England! Not sure what to do with this experience......

Nuptial games

My wedding to Sue is rapidly approaching. Rather than paying out thousands of pounds to caterers etc we are going for a more DIY approach, which has its stresses let me tell you - as we tactfully approach lots of friends with requests to bring a pudding, reorganise tables, or reheat curries for us. Oh well. At least everyone will feel involved. FULLY involved!

I can confirm that there WILL be a games session at this wedding. My lovely wife-to-be suggested this! It will happen in the interlude between eating the cake and the evening entertainments. About an hour and a half is scheduled for this (or other chillout activities, such as a walk in the woods), which allows time for a quick game of Ticket to Ride or Settlers - ideal relaxation after the stress of the speeches! Any other suggestions anyone for a good wedding-day game?

Three personal firsts

1) First time ever in a political demo: yesterday evening I joined Sue in Parliament Square for the CND rally against the Trident replacement. Worryingly, I also bought a brown corduroy jacket from Oxfam the other day. Am I turning into a leftie?

2) First time this season in the air: I just got back from a glorious afternoon paragliding at Butser Hill. I can still fly! It wasn't just a crazy dream.

3) First time for 30 years I've been offered a place at university: today I was notified that my application to do a Masters in Neuroscience at Kings was successful. Scary stuff - now the ball is firmly in my court.

I had another great pub session last night with Les in The Plume of Feathers. We managed to bag two tables which gave us plenty of room to set up Blue Moon City. First time we've played it 2-player: it worked really well, a very tense race which was neck-and-neck all the way to the finish. I got my final offering in just a turn ahead of Les, it couldn't have been any closer. We also had time for two rounds of Roma - I won both of these as well! Poor Les, he was very gracious about it.

Our previous pub session - a couple of weeks ago in The Fox - saw us playing Carcassone the City. By a strange coincidence the couple at the next table were huge Carcassone fans! Not boardgames generally, just Carcassone, so it was one-in-a-million that we happened to be playing Carcassone and not some other game that evening. Needless to say we have arranged to meet them soon for another Carcassone session, also hoping to draw them into the wider world of Eurogames......