Pot24pouri

It's been a double whammy of boardgame events. First up was the White Swan where games played  were Coup, Survive: Escape from Atlantis!, Cards against Humanity, Avalon and Citadels. I liked Coup which I'd never played before, but really don't like Cards Against Humanity and Avalon doesn't do much for me either. The trouble with Avalon or Resistance is that one has to care about the success or failure of the mission to make it enjoyable and frankly I can never be arsed. We played Survive with the expansion involving giant squid and dolphins and it was complete carnage.

Atlantic Star as played by me

Last night was the Leeds Meeples where I played Kaigan, Love Letter and Atlantic Star. I was rather taken with Kaigan which, while in theory is about the mapping of the Japanese coast, but in reality is simply a very clever tactical card laying game coupled with an area control element. Two of us completely misunderstood the playing of the cards phase until after we had done it for the first time out of five, but I still finished a reasonable second. Atlantic Star is supposed to be about shipping companies, but is actually a rather elaborate version of Rummy. It was still a good game though and I'd play it again, hoping very much to do better.

The Guardian, always first with the news, yesterday carried the story of the MP Giles Mompesson who was fined, expelled from parliament and told to parade up the Strand "with his face in a horse's anus" for extortionately abusing his royal monopoly for the licensing of inns and manufacture of gold thread in 1621. We could do with a bit more of that sort of thing; it would sort the bankers out for sure.

And, just to dispel any suggestion of political bias in my choice of newspapers, I offer from the Telegraph a picture of a puppy that looks like Hitler; which obviously needs no further justification for being included here.